BOOM—!
A deafening explosion erupted in the Shibuya night sky, so violent it felt as though the very heavens shrouded by the Curtain were being torn apart by brute force.
A violent shockwave, carrying countless shards of rubble and glass, swept through the abandoned commercial street like a torrential rainstorm.
Megumi Fushiguro had only just managed to kill the curse user Haruta Shigemo in a desperate, life-or-death struggle, relying on the extreme precision of his Ten Shadows Technique.
At this moment, his school uniform was completely stained a dark red with blood and dust.
With every ragged breath, his lungs felt as if they were swallowing countless jagged blades, sending waves of searing, tearing pain through his chest.
Yet, in his bloodshot eyes, there wasn't a single trace of retreat or cowardice.
'That cursed energy fluctuation just now... and that physical destructive power, so pure it's terrifying...'
Megumi bit his lip until it bled, dragging legs that felt as heavy as lead as he sprinted through the debris-strewn streets.
His intuition told him that something utterly horrific was happening in the direction of that explosion.
"It's the area Senior Ino is responsible for!"
Megumi's mind raced at high speed.
Before Kento Nanami had been pulled into Dagon's domain, Takuma Ino had been the one responsible for clearing out the opportunistic curse users around the Shibuya perimeter.
In Megumi's memory, that Grade 2 sorcerer—who always wore a ski mask and had a somewhat eccentric but reliable personality—was certainly a force to be reckoned with.
Particularly his mysterious technique, Seance Technique: Auspicious Beast Summon; once fully unleashed, ordinary curse users were no match for him.
"Please, hold on... Senior Ino!"
Megumi screamed internally, desperately squeezing out every last drop of his remaining potential to push his speed to the absolute limit.
When he finally crossed a collapsed intersection and reached a relatively open ruined plaza, the sight before him caused his heart to turn to ice.
The sound of violent, pained coughing echoed from a pile of rubble nearby.
Takuma Ino was half-kneeling on the ground, gasping for air in great, ragged gulps.
His black uniform was in tatters, revealing large patches of bruised and bleeding skin.
Despite his state, he still wore his signature ski mask, his hands locked tightly in a ritual seal.
"Dammit... What the hell is this thing?"
Ino's voice trembled uncontrollably—a primal terror that came from a biological instinct when facing a top-tier predator.
Just minutes ago.
He had encountered the curse user Ogami and her grandson, Jiro Awasaka.
Initially, the battle had gone smoothly.
Ino had decisively activated his technique, Seance Technique: Auspicious Beast Summon.
Using 'Kaichi,' whose horn attacks were as sharp as spears and possessed an auto-homing function, he had beaten the brute-force reliant Jiro Awasaka into a steady retreat.
He had even pushed the old woman hiding in the shadows, Ogami—who looked as though she already had one foot in the grave—into a desperate corner.
But at the very moment Ino prepared to deliver the finishing blow.
The old woman suddenly pulled a blood-stained, worn garment from her robes, her mouth letting out a bone-chilling, low-pitched chant.
"Descend... descend..."
Ogami's clouded eyes flashed with a manic light as she suddenly roared.
"ZENIN TOJI!"
As that name fell, the very air in the battlefield seemed to solidify.
Then, the terrifying transformation occurred—one that Takuma Ino would never forget for the rest of his life.
Jiro Awasaka, who had been completely defenseless against his attacks, suddenly began to twist and swell violently!
CRACK! SNAP! POP!
The skin-crawling sound of bones shattering and restructuring echoed clearly through the deathly silent street.
Jiro Awasaka's normal muscles ballooned like an inflating balloon, veins bulging across his body like writhing dragons.
Even more terrifyingly, in just a few seconds, his face transformed into that of a complete stranger—a cold, ruthless man with a small scar on the corner of his lip.
Ogami's Seance Technique was complete.
She hadn't summoned the soul of the deceased, but had perfectly overlaid the physical information of the body known as the 'Sorcerer Killer' onto her grandson's soul!
"This... this is impossible..."
Ino looked at the man slowly opening his eyes, feeling his heart skip a beat.
No cursed energy.
Not a single trace of cursed energy!
Yet, emanating from this man was a violent killing intent more terrifying and pure than any Special Grade Cursed Spirit!
"REIKI!!"
Under the extreme pressure of life and death, Ino did not retreat. He decisively switched the mode of his Seance Technique.
A layer of deep blue water armor, as thick as a tortoise shell, instantly covered his entire body.
This was the mode representing ultimate defense among the Auspicious Beasts, strong enough to withstand a full-strength blow from a Grade 1 Cursed Spirit.
However.
In the eyes of the faux-Seance Toji, this seemingly invincible defense was as laughable as wet tissue paper.
The fake Toji tilted his head slightly, his dark, hollow eyes devoid of any highlights, flashing with a bored coldness.
That gaze seemed to silently convey two words: *Too weak.*
BOOM!!!
The concrete pavement beneath Toji's feet shattered instantly, and he disappeared, leaving not even an afterimage behind!
'So fast!'
Ino's pupils constricted to the size of pinheads.
He couldn't even see the trajectory of the movement; he only felt a violent gale rushing toward him, so strong he couldn't even keep his eyes open.
BANG!
A hand that felt as though it were cast from steel instantly pierced through the 'Reiki' water armor Ino had considered an absolute defense.
"What?!"
Ino's mind went blank.
The water armor capable of blocking lethal strikes hadn't lasted even a single second against this man's hand.
RIP—!
Toji grabbed the ski mask on Ino's face and, with an irresistible, terrifying brute force, ripped it off entirely!
Ino's face, filled with horror and despair, was instantly exposed to the air.
Toji's cold, expressionless face loomed large in Ino's vision.
He didn't speak, but that suffocating, tyrannical aura clearly delivered a death sentence—
*Since you love wearing masks so much, you can stay that way forever.*
BOOM!
Toji's arm exerted sudden force, and his other fist, carrying the terrifying sonic boom of torn air, slammed ruthlessly into Ino's face!
The massive impact was like being hit head-on by a heavy truck.
Ino was sent flying backward like a cannonball, spraying a large cloud of blood into the air.
CRASH! SMASH! THUD!
His body smashed through three thick brick walls in succession before finally collapsing onto a street covered in broken glass.
Blood instantly stained the ground red. Ino's eyes rolled back powerlessly as he completely lost consciousness.
"SENIOR INO!!!"
Megumi, who had just arrived and was hiding in the ruins, could no longer maintain his composure. He let out a roar of absolute fury.
His instinct told him to rush out and help, but as soon as he took a step, his body—stretched beyond its limits—let out a scream of overexertion.
Megumi's legs gave out, and he fell heavily to his knees, forced to watch the scene unfold.
"Oh?"
Hearing Megumi's roar, the fake Toji slowly turned his head.
Those pitch-black eyes, devoid of human emotion, spanned the distance of dozens of meters to lock onto Megumi with unerring accuracy.
A low, blurred grunt escaped his throat, as if he were sizing up another insignificant prey.
Toji stood up slowly, casually shaking the blood off his hand, and began walking step by step toward Megumi.
Megumi stared fixedly at the man, his pupils constricting violently under the extreme pressure.
He had never seen this man before.
But the moment he laid eyes on him, a chill originating from instinct—one might even say from the depths of his very bloodline—instantly swept through his entire body.
Although the two timelines were gradually merging due to Yoru's intervention.
Deep in Megumi's mind, he did not recognize the man before him. He only felt...
A sense of absolute despair, like facing an apex predator.
'This feeling... what exactly is going on?'
Megumi bit his lip hard, trying to suppress the tremors within.
Why would a powerhouse of this level suddenly appear on the streets of Shibuya?
And looking at him, he didn't seem like a sorcerer, nor a simple cursed spirit, but a terrifying monster relying purely on physical strength!
Looking at the kneeling Megumi, the fake Toji's lips suddenly curled into a bizarre, almost manic smile of cruelty.
It was a primal disgust, as if the moment he saw that face, his soulless husk caught the sickening scent of the Zenin family bloodline.
Although Ogami's Seance Technique had only summoned physical information.
Due to the unique and overbearing nature of the Heavenly Restriction, Toji's body had not only perfectly overwritten Jiro Awasaka's soul.
At this moment, it was beginning to inversely erode the original will of the vessel!
Right now, he was neither the submissive Jiro Awasaka.
Nor was he the true Toji Fushiguro who had been saved by Yoru in the past timeline and retained his humanity.
He was a mindless killing machine, possessed only by a pure desire for destruction and an instinctive murderous intent toward anything of 'Zenin blood!'
BOOM!
The ground beneath Toji's feet shattered once more!
His massive frame became a black cannonball, carrying a suffocating, terrifying pressure as he sprinted toward Megumi.
The God of Death had raised his scythe.
Who could possibly stop this completely out-of-control monster in this death trap?