The instant the Domain swept outward, reality slipped gently away like a sari lifted by an elephant's trunk.
In its place stretched a boundless sea of wisdom, shimmering with golden light.
The air carried the scents of sandalwood, clarified butter, and some kind of paper. From the unreachable distance beyond the Domain's boundaries came the faint strains of a Veena.
The sea's surface was not liquid, but countless tiny, luminous "concept seeds."
Each seed was a "name" yet to be bestowed. They drifted, collided, joined, and separated without end, like primordial thoughts before the birth of the universe.
Countless enormous golden lotuses floated above the sea, each with a miniature phantom of the Elephant God seated upright at its center, eyes closed in contemplation.
At the very center of the Domain stood a mountainously grand seated statue of the Elephant God, carved from a single block of red sandstone, its hands holding different ritual implements.
A closer look revealed that those implements were not physical objects, but Conceptual Mystic Codes condensed from pure cursed energy.
"Ganesh" now stood high atop the seated statue.
Dio and Suguru Geto reacted with extraordinary speed. Almost the instant the Domain swallowed them, the radiance of Barriers burst forth around them both.
Their respective Simple Domains rapidly unfolded like two solitary lamps struggling to hold steady amid a torrent of concepts, temporarily shielding them from the unknown sure-hit effect.
Thanks to the fact that "Concept Bestowal" had no directly destructive effect, their Simple Domains were stripped away and eroded relatively slowly.
Dio made a quick estimate and said gravely, "We can hold out for about a minute!"
Before his words had faded, the "Gnawing Rat Duke" deliberately entered the "Sea of All-Phenomena Wisdom" alongside the rat tide, joining the Elephant God's attack.
"Oh dear. They don't intend to let us take them down one at a time." Suguru Geto surveyed the suddenly intensified assault as he spoke.
Yet-the very next second after he said this to Dio, the wry smile on his face abruptly froze, replaced by utter emptiness and confusion.
Suguru Geto's eyes instantly lost focus. Like a patient suddenly stricken with severe dementia, he stared blankly at Dio right in front of him, as though seeing him for the first time.
"...Who are you? Why...are you holding the 'Soul Liberation Blade'?"
His gaze moved mechanically over the churning Domain and the two Special Grade Cursed Spirits around him, fear joining his confusion.
"Huh-there are two Special Grade Cursed Spirits, too...Wh-when did they get here?!"
"The memory loss kicked in that fast?!" Dio's pupils contracted slightly.
"Because-we are the rats in the corners of cities that no one ever bothers with!
Just as human gangsters and thugs are often compared to rats, some countries, plagued by public safety problems they can never stamp out, even designate 'rat districts' within their cities-slums and lawless zones.
Even as metaphors, they intensify humanity's negative emotions toward the concept of 'rats'!"
The "Gnawing Rat Duke" spoke smugly, its voice like the overlapping shrieks of millions of rats.
Its voice suddenly rose, brimming with the sick excitement of a creature at the bottom of the food chain overthrowing its betters:
"This neglect, this forgetting, this failure to act-all of it inspired me! 'Rat Gnawing and Insect Damage,' which erodes memories-that is my Cursed Technique!"
Revealing its Cursed Technique!
"Rat Gnawing and Insect Damage"-damage from rats biting and insects boring, a general term for objects deteriorating through the activity of living organisms.
The Gnawing Rat Duke's Cursed Technique transformed that conceptual phenomenon into an actual ability. Only the target of the erosion had changed from paper and books to specific knowledge and memories!
This Special Grade Cursed Spirit had actually employed the advanced application of expanding its Cursed Technique's target!
Under its influence, Suguru Geto's short-term memory loss abruptly worsened.
He kept losing his train of thought, unable even to remember why he was here or what he was supposed to do. He stood motionless as rats instantly swarmed over his entire body, tearing into him and sending flesh and blood flying.
"Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant!"
At this moment of extreme peril, Dio suddenly covered his face and burst into laughter, the sound echoing through the glittering Domain.
"You're all putting on such a show-then I'll have to step things up, too-The World!"
The instant his voice fell, time stopped flowing.
All color and sound abruptly drained from the world, leaving an absolutely silent, endlessly stretching expanse of frozen amber.
The golden sea of concepts ceased churning. The biting rat tide froze into a savage, motionless black wave, and even the smug, twisted expression on the "Gnawing Rat Duke's" rat face became fixed like a specimen at the height of its triumph.
The flow of time belonging to Dio alone began counting down the seconds.
He did not hesitate in the slightest, nor waste even an instant considering strategies or striking meaningless poses.
Action and will had already synchronized the moment stopped time began.
He and "The World" were like two steamrollers running side by side, plowing straight across the frozen rat tide and golden sea. In an instant, they reached Suguru Geto, who still wore a bewildered expression as his Simple Domain teetered on the brink of collapse.
Dio grabbed Suguru Geto by the front of his clothes and gave him a hard shake-dozens of rats clinging to him fell away like dust, scattering suspended in the motionless air.
Immediately afterward, "The World" slipped its arms firmly beneath Suguru Geto's back and knees, twisted its torso like a drawn bow, and hurled the amnesiac man toward the membrane at the Domain's boundary with all its strength, as though throwing a shot put!
Suguru Geto's body traced a low, swift arc.
The instant he left the range of Dio's direct interference, his flight froze as well. He hung motionless in midair, another isolated silhouette in this amber world.
Two seconds had passed.
Without sparing the hurled Suguru Geto another glance, Dio erupted with cursed energy beneath his feet. He stamped several rings of air across the motionless golden sea and shot toward "Ganesh" like an arrow loosed from its bow.
"The World" rose in tandem like a loyal shadow warrior, instantly hovering directly above the Elephant God's enormous head.
Above and below, the two simultaneously took their attacking stances.
Three seconds had passed.
"The World's" arms became a blur of afterimages. Its golden fists poured down on the Elephant God's head and back like a furious storm of metal, striking at a rate beyond the limits of sight!
Each punch was not a clash of brute strength, but a precise adjustment of angle and impact point based on tactile feedback.
The force of the blows penetrated layer upon layer, like an invisible giant hammer repeatedly pounding and softening an incredibly hard alloy, searching for the weakest "nodes" in its structure.
Meanwhile, Dio himself darted among Ganesh's six limbs, each as thick as a temple pillar.
The Greatsword in his hand traced arcs of light. Like a master butcher carving an ox, he "peeled" thick slices of curse-wreathed flesh from the Elephant God's limbs.
Strangely, the severed slices did not fall. Stopped time held them in their original positions, preserving the fresh cut surfaces and shapes of the instant they had separated from the body. Layer upon layer, they formed a bizarre, bloody state of "buds waiting to bloom."
Five seconds had passed.
"Ganesh" was too enormous for attacks from below and the sides to cover its entire body, so Dio and "The World" exchanged positions.
"The World" moved below, continuing to batter and pulverize the Elephant God's six limb joints and abdomen with rapid-fire punches.
Dio vaulted onto the Elephant God's broad, hill-like back and ran across it in long strides as though on level ground.
The Greatsword became an interwoven grid of death, repeating the earlier cutting process-great sheets of thick hide and muscle, adorned with religious bands, were precisely "lifted" away, likewise freezing at the instant of separation.
Eight seconds had passed.
In the final second, Dio deliberately doubled back and leaped from the Elephant God's back. He swept through the air past its thick neck, the Greatsword in his hand tracing a semicircle-and that solemn, uncanny head was severed clean at the neck.
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