Domain Expansion-Malevolent Shrine!
The Open Domain version!
Unlike the Malevolent Shrine he had used against Kaigaku, back then he had sacrificed much of its power to trap his opponent and ensure a lethal hit.
Now, however, he needed to unleash the most powerful Malevolent Shrine he could use.
Within a two-hundred-meter radius, everything would be reduced to dust and nothingness.
Muzan's eyes widened. Before his eyes, a towering, eerie shrine suddenly appeared on the spacious wooden platform, a hideous statue of Enma spreading its hands.
The sky abruptly turned a cold, bloody red.
A terrifying sense of danger welled up.
This is his bizarre ability, and I've never seen him use it before. I have to dodge!
His leg muscles abruptly swelled and bulged, and his body shot backward toward the other buildings.
But since Lu You had already expanded his domain, its sure-hit effect had long since been applied to Muzan.
Splat!
With a faint sound, Muzan's entire body turned into thousands of scraps of flesh, still suffering slash after slash.
The surrounding buildings were sliced, layer upon layer, into tiny chunks, then reduced to even finer pieces.
Invisible slashes annihilated everything in every direction-pavilions, houses, and floating platforms-as though the world were ending.
A dim, blood-red sky, buildings scattering on the wind.
Debris danced through the air, nearly obscuring all sight.
Lu You maintained Enma's hand seal, coldly watching the cloud of bloody mist frantically reassembling a hundred meters away.
Shattered, then reassembled, then shattered again.
Endless slashes tormented Muzan Kibutsuji. Even the instant he recovered, before he could extend his tube whips to attempt an attack, he was reduced to bloody chunks again.
What the hell is this thing?!
He roared inwardly.
The range was still expanding, already far beyond a two-hundred-meter radius. That radius of two hundred meters referred to the area the sure-hit Cursed Technique could cover.
It did not mean that other places beyond those two hundred meters would not come under attack.
The slashes merely spread chaotically there, unconstrained by the sure-hit rule.
Vast stretches of pavilions were now like images drawn in pencil, easily erased into blank space.
The young Oyakata-sama, Kiriya Ubuyashiki, who was observing the Infinity Castle through the Kasugai Crows' eyes and drawing a map, broke into a cold sweat.
"That area... disappeared..."
A void, like a pool of black ink on white paper.
I can't kill him.
The cursed energy inside Lu You was being consumed at a frantic rate. He was no Sukuna, much less the three-hundred-plus-year-old Yuji Itadori. All his cursed energy came from conversion through his Breathing Style.
His nose constantly drew in and expelled oxygen like a pump, delivering it to every part of his body.
Then the Reverse Cursed Technique engraved along his body's pathways converted it into cursed energy, which Malevolent Shrine swiftly drained away.
Yet even so, Muzan Kibutsuji kept frantically reassembling, rebuilding himself each time he was annihilated.
Such terrifying vitality...
Was this Muzan Kibutsuji without being weakened by the Demon Transformation Medicine, the aging drug, and the anti-division drug?
It was hard to imagine how stunned Yoriichi Tsugikuni, with his ultimate Transparent World, must have been upon seeing Muzan back then.
An immense, seemingly endless vitality, enough to survive hundreds of thousands of years, like some terrifying prehistoric beast.
Powder and dust swirled for kilometers around him. With every breath, Lu You could feel that dust entering his lungs. He slowly released his hand seal.
The slashes stopped instantly. The shrine collapsed with a crack and slowly dissipated. Lu You spread his hands, assuming the posture of drawing a bow.
He activated Malevolent Shrine's third variation.
"Furnace!"
Brilliant flames formed a long bow in his hands, a straight arrow of fire poised to fly. With a soft utterance, it shot forth.
It was not particularly fast, but the instant it touched the powder filling the air, a dazzling radiance lit up nearly half the Infinity Castle!
Swordsmen looked up or down, swallowing as they watched that brilliant, blinding fireball.
BOOM!!!
The earth-shattering blast was enough to rupture eardrums. The greatest sound seemed silent; in that instant, the world seemed utterly still, with only scorching flames blazing across heaven and earth.
What did it mean to burn the heavens and boil the seas? This was it.
Countless wooden buildings sliced into powder supplied an abundance of fuel. In that instantaneous explosive combustion, temperatures could soar beyond a thousand degrees.
Nothing could escape!
Muzan Kibutsuji was no exception.
Within mere seconds, he had turned to charcoal at the center of the explosion-and minute fragments of charcoal at that. Even for him, regenerating this time would probably take quite a while.
The shock wave spread far into the distance, powerful enough to send countless battling demons and swordsmen flying.
Within that void, a mushroom cloud of smoke lingered.
"That was close..."
Appearing instantly on the eaves of a pavilion, Lu You wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
He had nearly blown himself up too. He had not originally intended to use that move.
But the urge had struck, and he had suddenly remembered Sukuna using it in Shibuya. His hands had itched to try it, and he had fired the flaming arrow.
Now look what had happened. Fine wood dust ignited even more easily than the building dust in Shibuya, erupting into violent combustion in an instant.
Had he been a little slower, Lu You might have ended up lying there like a carpet himself. That was why he had broken into a cold sweat.
He would avoid using moves he could not control whenever possible.
Although Lu You still had Blood Manipulation's Domain Expansion to keep himself alive in the explosion...
However, he could not casually expand Blood Manipulation's domain. He had to save it for the most critical moment.
After all, a Cursed Technique capable of expelling Muzan's blood was far too important. As a human, Lu You could not resist the cell-destroying power of his demon blood.
I have to keep one Cursed Technique available at all times. Otherwise, the period of technique burnout after Domain Expansion will be dangerous.
Lu You mulled it over.
The mushroom-shaped fireball blotting out the sky slowly dissipated. At the center of the blast zone, the platform had long since vanished. In that empty area, the buildings were all charred black.
As for where Muzan was now...
He was probably everywhere.
Turned into dust or charred fragments, scattered among the corners of countless ruined walls.
"Sure enough, burning Muzan with fire does more lasting damage. Too bad I don't know Sun Breathing."
Lu You watched quietly, circulating Reverse Cursed Technique to repair his Malevolent Shrine technique.
He knew Muzan was certainly not dead, because that profound hostility and murderous intent still clung to him like a shadow.
Half an hour later.
On an inconspicuous little charred fragment in a corner, the blackened skin slowly peeled away, exposing the flesh beneath. The flesh grew anew, soon writhing into something as thick as an arm.
Whoosh! That short hand actually shot out several tube whips, bursting through the air toward Lu You.
He had to interfere with Lu You, leaving him no time to deal with his recovery.
"Still so lively. So this is the Demon King!" Lu You marveled.
He quickly retreated, avoiding the attack. The bloody whips stopped at nine meters, but in that brief span, Muzan's body had already mostly recovered.
His head grew back.
"You bastard!!!"
Muzan roared. He had had enough.
He no longer wanted to fight this meaningless battle. If that boy wearing earrings arrived, he would probably truly be in danger.
With a thought, he prepared to burst his body apart and escape, just as he had when facing Yoriichi all those years ago.
Huh??
Why can't I split apart?
"Heh. Trying to run? You're too naive, Muzan."
Lu You chuckled.
"Could it be... that blood?!"
The thread of blood that had pierced his body had not merely injected poison into him. There was probably something else as well.
"When you broke down the poison, you completely digested that drug too, didn't you, Muzan?
The battle has only just begun!"
Lu You's gaze turned piercing. Rather than use another Cursed Technique, he drew the Nichirin Blade at his waist, and his terrifying aura surged once more.
Between his brows, a crimson pattern of blossoming flowers appeared as though blazing, powerful currents of air surging with his breaths.
His demon slayer mark had activated!
My passion is burning too!
Before you continue