The Domain dissipated, the stage in the air collapsed, and Mahiru fell to the ground.
"Cough... cough cough cough!!—"
Mahiru began coughing in great, heaving fits.
Searing pain erupted from her heart and, without the slightest warning, swept through her entire body. "Cough cough cough..." She had overdrawn herself. The reason she hadn't reacted earlier was because she'd landed a Black Flash and been in peak condition. Now that the battle had reached a lull and her nerves had relaxed, the egoless state brought on by the Black Flash faded, and exhaustion, prostration, and wave after wave of misery finally welled up belatedly. This was on the level of Jujutsu Technique and the soul.
It wasn't because she'd opened a Domain—opening a Domain was no real burden to her.
What had truly drained her was that, in order to sustain this Domain, she had employed a colossal amount of Spirit Descent.
Seven thousand Spirit Descents.
Even though expanding the Domain didn't require descending all seven thousand of those souls, even so, seven thousand times was still far too many. Just hearing the number was terrifying.
That many Spirit Descents—the girl truly could hardly bear it.
Mahiru coughed and plopped down hard onto the ground.
She looked toward the deep crater in the distant ground; at the bottom of it lay Kenjaku's corpse, long since charred black and mangled into a bloody pulp.
...Forget it. Better make sure with one more strike.
The girl bared her teeth in a grin, raised her hand, and several rabbit bombs dropped down in response, blasting the corpse savagely once more until it was reduced entirely to powder. Only when she saw that not a single scrap of the body remained did Mahiru let out a breath of relief.
Kenjaku was finally dead.
She had killed Kenjaku with her own hands.
Ever since she'd crossed over into this world, all the way up to this very moment... over all that long stretch of time, the urge to kill this man had surfaced more times than she could count.
Yet now that the moment of killing him with her own hands had actually arrived, it instead gave rise to a sense of unreality that left her somewhat dazed.
"Tch." Mahiru checked over her own condition.
The overdraw injuries her body had sustained from overusing Spirit Descent were indeed no light matter; the moment she circulated Cursed Energy, her whole body screamed in agony, making it truly difficult to keep running her Technique efficiently.
Trying to use Idle Transfiguration to self-repair this kind of overdraw was also difficult. Because once a Technique had been overused, the first thing to be affected was the very efficiency with which she could perform that Technique.
This was a situation Mahiru had never seen happen to anyone. In all likelihood, her seven thousand Spirit Descents this time had set an unprecedented new record.
Boom! In the distance, crimson firelight and azure Cursed Energy light collided violently, with tremendous force.
That was Ishiryuu and Jogo fighting nearby.
The battle on Mahiru's side had been the quickest to end. The others were still fighting.
Although Mahiru hadn't assigned everyone an opponent before the battle, the opponents they'd each found for themselves were all quite reasonable.
Itadori leapt and weaved through the ruins, arriving at Mahiru's side.
"Are you okay?"
Mahiru steadied her ragged breathing and nodded. "I'm fine."
Only then did Itadori relax, and then, almost unconsciously, he looked toward the direction where Kenjaku had fallen.
The boy, too, was somewhat dazed.
An Open Domain, Suguru Geto's body—that was without question a formidable enemy, and yet it had been killed by Mahiru's own hands.
"...You actually managed to kill even someone like that." Itadori murmured.
He was dazed. At some point he couldn't quite pinpoint, Mahiru had left him far behind, and the gap was only growing wider.
"But still..." He quickly tucked away that bit of amazement and furrowed his brow. "Just now, when that guy died, it seemed like... at the very end, he did something."
Yes—it was that strange fluctuation.
"Mm." Mahiru nodded, a grave look flashing across her eyes. Because she, too, had no idea what Kenjaku had done at the end.
Kenjaku was dead. But in the end, Kenjaku was, after all, merely one of the more troublesome enemies in this entire war.
The Culling Game was still ongoing, the many enemies still remained, and what could truly sway the final outcome was still the battle between Satoru Gojo and Sukuna.
If the thing Kenjaku had done right before dying really was aimed at Satoru Gojo—then the situation would still slide toward danger.
So she couldn't relax yet. What came next was the most crucial phase. First, she had to recover quickly. At the very least, recover to a state where she could use her Technique and retain some measure of combat ability.
"...Hm?" The girl seemed to sense something and lifted her head in surprise.
Fighting still raged in every direction, the roar of battle everywhere. But up in the sky, in the direction where Satoru Gojo and Sukuna were clashing, the roar had changed somewhat.
Mahiru gazed off into the distance. To her shock, she saw that one of Satoru Gojo's arms had been almost cleanly severed, blood spurting out.
?!?
He'd severed Satoru Gojo's arm without using Jacob's Ladder?!
"World-Cutting Slash...? No, that's not it... He'd merged Jacob's Ladder and the Malevolent Shrine into one?!"
"...So that's how it is." Above the sea and the sky, Satoru Gojo, too, quickly grasped the principle behind Sukuna's new move.
Sukuna flicked his hand and once again hurled out a golden slash.
This time Satoru Gojo chose to evade urgently, and even as he barely dodged, he began using Reverse Cursed Technique to repair the arm that had been all but severed.
But Sukuna pressed relentlessly; with a wave of his hand, a dozen-odd golden slashes blanketed the sky as they bore down on Satoru Gojo, forcing him to retreat even farther.
These golden slashes were by no means as simple as one plus one equals two.
Before, the pincer attack of [Jacob's Ladder] and [Dismantle] had relied on the former to interfere with Limitless, then let [Dismantle] find a gap in the defense to wound Satoru Gojo's body—there was a sequence between the two, and the damage [Dismantle] dealt to Satoru Gojo was, in the end, quite shallow.
But now it was different. Interfering with the Technique and dealing damage—these two steps had been merged into one. Instantaneous, dangerous; every single slash was far more lethal.
The logic of the battle had changed. Sukuna's slashes came in an unbroken stream, and Satoru Gojo could do nothing but dodge the whole way.
And it was precisely in this moment that Satoru Gojo finally understood completely—why his earlier sneak attack on Kenjaku had failed to kill him in a single stroke.
It must have been that, in that instant, Sukuna had flung out a golden slash, disrupting his [Hollow Purple], and thereby forcibly saved Kenjaku's life.
"Heh," Satoru Gojo chuckled softly as he dodged the sky-blanketing slashes. "The guy who took over Suguru Geto's body—he was your friend, wasn't he? Such a shame... he's already been taken out by Mahiru."
Hearing this, Sukuna also smiled. "Something like that."
He flung out a few more slashes, cutting toward Satoru Gojo.
"But still—dead is dead. It doesn't really matter."
What mattered were other things.
Sukuna split into a grin, his palm slowly clenching tight.
Satoru Gojo sensed movement behind him and whipped his head around, only to find that those golden slashes had already wrapped him up tightly, like a great net. Turning his gaze back, he saw Sukuna draw out a cube-shaped cursed tool from his hand.
Satoru Gojo knew what it was. Mahiru had told him the intel on the Prison Realm.
Weave the slashes into a great net to trap him, then seal him away with the Prison Realm?
In almost an instant, Satoru Gojo saw through Sukuna's scheme. So his figure jerked to a halt, his flight direction flipped, and he charged straight at Sukuna.
He collided with the net of golden slashes.
Countless slashes cut into Satoru Gojo's body without holding back—but there were so many that it actually diluted the power of each one. Several gashes deep enough to expose bone instantly split open across his body, yet not one of them could truly take his life.
Sukuna's eyes widened slightly, somewhat surprised.
And Satoru Gojo had already closed in right before him.
At this moment, in terms of Technique mechanics, Satoru Gojo was completely countered by Sukuna. But in terms of Cursed Energy and raw numbers, he was still stronger than Sukuna.
And so, in a close-quarters hand-to-hand duel, he could hold the absolute upper hand.
In just a split second, the two were within arm's reach; wherever Satoru Gojo teleported through, air-bursts and hurricane winds roared up.
The white-haired man broke into a smile and swung a fist toward Sukuna.
Sukuna knew full well that he was at a disadvantage in hand-to-hand. So he simply gave up trading blows with Satoru Gojo and, with a backhand, flung out tens of thousands of tiny golden slashes, forming a barrier of slashes in front of himself.
Satoru Gojo's fist slammed into this barrier and was instantly reduced to a bloody pulp, the power of the punch abruptly plummeting.
But who could have guessed—Satoru Gojo's aim wasn't an attack at all.
Smiling, he thrust his arm straight through that net of slashes and, in one grab, seized Sukuna's arm.
"Sorry, I may not have explained beforehand, so I've let you misunderstand a little." Satoru Gojo locked eyes with Sukuna, his gaze utterly wild and arrogant. "Here, you're the one who's the challenger!"
Cursed Energy stirred to life across Satoru Gojo's body—he was driving a Technique.
Sukuna made a rapid judgment. Was it [Blue]? Or [Red]?
Sukuna knew Satoru Gojo was mobilizing a Jujutsu Technique, yet he didn't see [Blue] or [Red] forming beside him.
An ominous premonition quietly crept up his heart. Hundreds of slashes flung out in an instant, all cutting into Satoru Gojo's body.
But it was precisely then that Satoru Gojo's Technique finished running its course.
An attractive force, so powerful it was impossible to resist, suddenly enveloped the two of them—him and Sukuna—together.
Only at this moment did Sukuna realize that what Satoru Gojo had employed was [Blue], which represented attraction.
And that [Blue]—at some unknown point—had long since been quietly placed by Satoru Gojo beneath the surface of the sea, deep down on the seabed.
!!!
To try now to use golden slashes to destroy that [Blue] was already too late.
The gravitational pull surged up abruptly, like a teleport. In a single instant, Satoru Gojo and Sukuna were sucked down together to the seabed, and the sensation of cold seawater instantly drowned out every part of Sukuna's perception.
Was Satoru Gojo's purpose in doing this simply to drag him down to the seabed?
Before Sukuna could think much further, Satoru Gojo's second fist had already come slamming in.
This time, Sukuna meant to use the same trick again. But under the dual interference of [Blue]'s gravity and the seawater, the slashes he flung out were, in both number and power, a notch smaller than last time. This let Satoru Gojo's punch land squarely and solidly on Sukuna's body.
In the water, a tremendous sonic boom rippled out.
With that punch landing, Satoru Gojo pressed the advantage and unleashed an unbroken offensive against Sukuna.
To Sukuna's senses, Satoru Gojo grew faster and faster, and broke through his defenses more and more easily. Each time a punch passed through that net of slashes, Satoru Gojo's fist would instantly turn to a bloody pulp, yet the wounds that net could inflict on him grew lighter and lighter...
No. It wasn't that Satoru Gojo had gotten faster.
It was Sukuna who had gotten slower.
It was the seawater—it was the pressure of this seawater, severely dragging down Sukuna's movements, and his Technique.
By all rights, this should have been impossible. In Sukuna's eyes, the two mediums of seawater and air ought to make no difference whatsoever. Mere seawater, wanting to interfere with Sukuna's movements? It sounded like the daydream of a fool.
But the seawater before him now was no ordinary thing.
Sukuna had already perceived it.
Here, Satoru Gojo's [Blue] was running at high power the entire time, pulling in all the seawater of the waters off Tokyo and compressing it inward, causing the water pressure to skyrocket. The seawater now, compressed to the absolute extreme, had become a hard, solidified solid, pressing down on Sukuna's body like a shackle, forcibly restricting his movements.
Between opponents of their level, the scales of victory and defeat often needed only the slightest deviation to be quietly tipped.
And at this moment, under the influence of Satoru Gojo's [Blue], the pressure of the seawater had reached a point that could not be ignored.
And as it happened, Satoru Gojo's Limitless made him immune to every effect of this seawater. Only Sukuna was affected.
And so, in the present moment where the two were forced into a close-quarters hand-to-hand duel, Satoru Gojo would seize the absolute upper hand. Sukuna was tied down tightly in the melee, without even the spare effort to divert his attention and use golden slashes to destroy that [Blue].
If this kept up, Sukuna would grow more and more endangered.
"Heh..." Sent flying once more by one of Satoru Gojo's punches, Sukuna broke into a smile amid the searing pain.
He admitted Satoru Gojo's strategy was quite interesting.
But... these were all just petty little tricks!
Sukuna formed a hand sign with both hands.
"Domain Expansion—Malevolent Shrine!"
Cursed Energy abruptly spread out across the seabed, and a shrine that eroded the world thunderously constructed itself behind the Angel.
Having clearly fallen into a disadvantage, Sukuna expanded his Domain without a shred of hesitation.
The third Open Domain of the night had appeared.
Unlike Kenjaku, Sukuna's Domain stemmed not only from his own superb mastery of barrier techniques but also from his peerless, unrivaled strength. Because of this, Sukuna's Domain was far larger than Kenjaku's.
If Kenjaku's Open Domain was the staining of a single corner of the world, then Sukuna's Open Domain was the occupation of the entire world.
The shrine manifested into the world, and the blood-red coloring of the Domain dyed the entire ocean a glowing dark red.
And in the next second, slashes that could no longer be measured by any constant instantly carpeted the entire sea. Every single droplet of water was cut hundreds, even thousands, of times.
And then—it was ignited.
A streak of gold lit up in Sukuna's hand.
Golden flames bloomed quietly amid the sea and the red.
Sukuna's Malevolent Shrine—its Technique corresponded exactly, one for one, with the process of cooking.
[Dismantle] was the chopping of the ingredients.
And the next step after chopping—was lighting the stove. ——[Furnace: Open].
By detonating the "dust" that, having been ceaselessly cut by the Domain, had become imbued with Cursed Energy, it produced a thermal explosion capable of destroying everything—this was Sukuna's most powerful strike.
And at this moment, upon this [Furnace: Open], there had even emerged the streak of golden light of [Jacob's Ladder]. He had actually already merged the Angel's Technique into it as well.
At the same time, a black barrier surged in from all directions, attempting to wrap Sukuna up entirely.
That was Gojo—he, too, had expanded his own Domain—Unlimited Void.
Several thousand meters beneath the seabed, Sukuna and Satoru Gojo began yet another round of clashing Domains.
And so, everyone saw it.
Whether it was Jogo and Ishiryuu locked in their melee, Mahiru still recovering her condition, or Fushiguro and Miwa far away at the shelter, guarding the ordinary civilians... every last one of them saw it—
In the distance, that ocean beyond Tokyo suddenly swelled and shattered; searing flames lit up the world, a mushroom cloud surged into the sky, and the sound of the explosion shook heaven and earth—like a blazing sun rising up from the surface of the sea.
____
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