Mahito's wings were flapping desperately to get away from his opponent, though it was of no avail. In a mere instant, his wings were cut off, causing him to fall onto the road below.
Out of the smoke and rubble rose the king of curses, Ryomen Sukuna.
Mahito turned to him, sharpening his hands into blades.
"I won't give up that easily!"
He then enlarged his fist and attempted to grab at his opponent, though Sukuna vanished from his field of vision. Then, Mahito was in the air.
--<>--
Jogo and Dagon watched in awe as Mahito was suddenly thrown through a building, Sukuna staying close behind.
It reminded Jogo of his dream, only it wasn't him fighting Sukuna. It was his friend.
"Jogo! We've got to get down there, Mahito might get killed!"
"Dagon. Are you forgetting why I propped Mahito up as our leader? He may not be quite as strong as I am yet, but he's got amazing potential. He can't be harmed unless someone can damage his soul, which I doubt Sukuna can do.
If Sukuna can't harm Mahito normally, the only way to defeat Mahito is by making him run out of Cursed energy. And Mahito has a lot of that. Even more than you and me combined, probably. I'll wait until they're in the right position for me to intervene."
"But... Jogo. If Sukuna's vessel can harm Mahito, then shouldn't Sukuna be able to as well?''
Jogo looked down on Shibuya pensively, his single eye narrowing.
--<>--
The situation for Mahito had progressed terribly. Mahito was still attempting to run through Shibuya, but the difference between him and Sukuna was still simply too great.
As another slash cut off his legs, Mahito rapidly regenerated as he ran through an already destroyed building. Then, he turned to Sukuna.
It'd seemed that Mahito and Dagon had reached the same conclusion.
''Hm? Tired of running?" Asked Sukuna.
"Sukuna. If your vessel can harm me, then you can too, right? Then why?! Why don't you finish me?!" Asked Mahito, clearly exasperated.
"I want to see how far I can push myself. I want to see if I can make you run out of cursed energy, then kill you. A simple soul-harming slash would be boring."
"Soul multiplicity! Body Repel!"
Mahito suddenly merged 2 of the many souls he had with him, then increased their cursed energy, causing them to suddenly rapidly increase in size, before throwing them in Sukuna's direction.
A simple slash was enough for Sukuna to fully cut through the merged souls, though by the time he did, Mahito had already formed a clone of himself, and he and his equal clone were already jumping out of opposite-sided windows. There were also around a dozen small transfigured humans there, likely as a distraction. Mahito thought to himself:
'The only way I have a chance is if I get time to find the essence of my soul, and I reshape it! But that'll take too much time!'
Before Mahito could disappear into the streets of Shibuya, he heard the sound of his transfigured humans and his clone being cut apart. Then, Sukuna appeared in front of him.
''I tire of these games, curse. Begone."
Mahito realised that if Sukuna managed to attack him, he'd die.
Mahito's mouth opened, and inside it 4 small hands appeared. He was attempting the 0.2-second doman expansion, the same as Satoru Gojo had earlier.
--<>--
Jogo and Dagon were now completely entranced by what was happening below them.
Suddenly, a red shrine appeared right beside where Mahito and Sukuna were standing. Then, everything around the shrine in a 200-meter radius was suddenly cut to dust, including Mahito. Jogo and Dagon's building was thankfully right outside the radius.
Mahito was constantly applying idle transfiguration to himself in order to maintain his body, but one thing was very clear for Dagon and Jogo.
"If things keep going at this rate, he'll run out of cursed energy!" Said Dagon.
"What even is that red box?!" Asked Jogo, clearly getting angry.
"I... think it's his domain. But I don't understand how it has no barrier. If it doesn't, then how can we destroy it?"
Jogo recomposed himself.
"Destroy a domain, huh? Leave it to me. Make your way down the stairs, because I'm probably going to destroy this whole building."
Dagon just nodded and began running out of the building. Meanwhile, Jogo made 6 ember insects and used them to lift himself up. Then, he raised his hands to the air.
"GREEN DISASTER FLAMES! MAXIMUM: METEOR!"
--<>--
Meanwhile, Sukuna was looking at Mahito's constantly reforming body with amusement.
"You disappointed me. I thought you'd be more entertaining.
Though I have to say, your domain expansion attempt was interesting.
Against almost any sorcerer or curse, you would've managed to activate it. But you're too weak."
Then, Sukuna looked off to the side, eyes widening.
In curiosity, Mahito, while still constantly regenerating, looked too.
There was a curse floating in the air. Above his head, there was a massive green ball of fire floating and increasing in size rapidly.
Sukuna didn't know him, but Mahito did.
"...Jogo?"
Sweat dripped from Jogo's forehead as he finally finished forming the meteor. It was so heavy and large that the sheer gravity began pulling the building Jogo and Dagon were formerly on apart, pieces of it beginning to rotate around the massive ball of fire.
As the meteor made its way down, cars began being pulled toward it. Sukuna rapidly managed to move out of range, and Mahito, in a moment of strength, managed to alter the shape of his legs while regenerating, using the boost in movement speed to do so as well.
Sukuna's domain automatically began cutting the meteor when it reached into range, but Jogo had managed to use his RCT to reinforce the meteor's core with volcanic rock, giving it resistance to the cuts.
Then, a strong explosion, loud as an earthquake, could be felt all around Tokyo, even beyond the Shibuya veil. All windows within a one-kilometre radius around the blast were immediately broken.
Sukuna's shrine had been crushed by Jogo's meteor.
When the smoke cleared, all that there was to be seen was a massive crater, as wide as Sukuna's domain expansion. In the middle, there was the remaining core of the meteor. On top of it stood a curse.
The strongest curse.
"I've fought curses and sorcerers 1000 years ago. No one. Not one singular one of them ever managed to destroy my open domain.
I've also never seen a curse like you use the reverse cursed technique.
Not bad, volcano. Not bad. Things are finally getting interesting here."
A hint of a smile appeared at Sukuna's lips, and Mahito took this opportunity to get back to the crater. Then, he climbed up onto the molten rock Jogo was standing on.
"Jogo!"
Jogo raised his hand and put it between himself and Mahito dismissively.
"Save the thanks for later. There's still a long way to go in defeating the King of Curses."
Mahito ignored Jogo, standing beside him and turning to Sukuna's direction, who was still looking on from the crater's edge.
"I usually recognise curses and humans by their souls, not their bodies. When I saw you up there, I took some time to realise it was you. It was as if you had no soul I could sense. No, that's not quite right. It was as if your soul and body were both united as one. I couldn't tell them apart!"
Mahito then paused, repeating what he said previously.
"Soul and body, soul and body..."
He then laughed.
"Hah! Thank you, Jogo. Thank you for making me realise..."
Mahito put his hands on his face.
"The true essence of my soul!"
Mahito performed a pulling motion, removing his human face, then exploded into a grey form, his body rapidly changing shape until it formed back into a taller, more monstrous, and visually stronger form.
"Instant Spirit Body of Distorted Killing!"
"You remind me of Hanami, Y'know?"
Said Jogo, his voice a bit melancholic.
--<>--
"This may be a bit harder than I thought."
Said Sukuna, cracking his knuckles as a smile formed on his face.