A tapestry of sanguine ink once more devoured the firmament above Mutsu.
A viscous sea of blood surged up to the ankles; above, the sky was choked by hundreds of thousands of rusted, jagged blades.
The horrific space of despair that had just been shattered by the Black Flash had manifested anew, perfect and unyielding in its recreation.
This was the true essence of a Special Grade cursed spirit—a 'Collective of Vengeful Spirits.'
It meant that even if the leading consciousness—the general of these ten thousand ghosts—was obliterated and its innate technique burnt out, the next spirit in the swarm would immediately seize the mantle. They could expand the exact same Domain, sequence after sequence, in a cycle of endless torment.
"Ha... this is a far more tasteless jest than I anticipated."
Hideto, coughing up a spray of crimson, forced his broken frame to rise.
The visions of Iron Wail, Iron Soul that had just seared his brain left his legs trembling like reeds in a gale.
Yet, despair offered no respite. The thousands of blades suspended in the heavens began their descent once more, screaming toward the crowns of their heads.
"New Shadow Style: Simple Domain!"
Hideto drove his fractured tachi into the earth, howling like a cornered beast.
"Sugawara Secret: Falling Blossom Emotion!"
Utsugi likewise unleashed a violent eruption of blue cursed energy from his entire being.
Kaaaaang—!! Crack! Clang!
The second war of attrition commenced.
However, the stamina and cursed energy they had already squeezed to the dregs—compounded by the psychic fatigue of the death-visions—were causing the foundation of their defense to crumble.
Crrrk.
An ominous snap echoed from Utsugi's fingertips.
Despite using the Six Eyes to minimize the waste of cursed energy and Falling Blossom Emotion to coat the steel, his worn tachi—forged of common iron—had reached its physical limit after thousands of collisions against cursed steel.
Clatter—!
Finally, Utsugi's blade shattered into a thousand shards, scattering into the void.
In that heartbeat where the axis of his defense vanished, dozens of spear tips surged toward his exposed chest.
"Sugawara!!"
Hideto shrieked. A sorcerer stripped of his weapon in this aberrant deluge of iron was nothing more than meat for the slaughter.
Yet, Utsugi, clutching only a jagged hilt, showed not a flicker of panic.
'The shell of the sword was merely a shackle—a constraint upon the output and velocity of my taijutsu.'
Without a trace of lingering attachment, Utsugi cast the broken hilt into the sea of blood.
The lingering trace of the Black Flash that had pierced the Special Grade's domain—the hyper-focused sensation of 'The Zone' where one grasps the very core of cursed energy—still ruled over Utsugi’s brain with a cold, absolute clarity.
His Six Eyes flared with an ethereal azure light.
As a massive axe blade plummeted toward his skull, Utsugi’s fist, wreathed in condensed cursed energy, struck the flat of the steel.
Kwa-aaaaang—!!
It was more than a mere strike. It was an explosive counter-application of Falling Blossom Emotion. The massive iron axe disintegrated upon contact with Utsugi’s bare hand, bursting apart as if struck by a high-yield seal.
Discarding his weapon, Utsugi’s movements became incomparably more explosive and fluid than before.
"Cover me."
Shattering the rain of blades with his bare limbs, Utsugi charged toward the colossal mass of the Special Grade spirit.
His combat was akin to a dark art.
As the Six Eyes analyzed the trajectories of tens of thousands of falling weapons in units of 0.0001 seconds, his transcendentally conditioned body threaded through the gaps like a needle through silk.
He snapped approaching spear shafts with his elbows and parried flying blades with the soles of his feet. His four limbs possessed a destructive potency that surpassed even high-ranking Cursed Tools.
[ Impudent... beasts!! ]
The Special Grade spirit twisted its centipede-like torso, firing the hundreds of blade-legs beneath its belly toward Utsugi in a simultaneous barrage.
But the speed of Utsugi, dwelling within the 'Zone,' far outstripped the reaction time of the calamity.
Utsugi seized one of the gargantuan scythe-legs lunging for him with both hands.
"Hey. I can see everything you're trying to do!"
Cr-crack! Kwa-ang!
Through sheer overwhelming grip and an explosion of cursed energy, Utsugi tore the iron leg clean off and used the momentum to spring into the air.
Spinning mid-flight, he brought his right heel down upon the Special Grade’s crown like a guillotine axe.
TOO-KWA-AAAAAANG——!!!!
Along with a thunderous rupture, a shockwave of cursed energy rippled outward from Utsugi's heel like a spiderweb. It was not a Black Flash, but a supreme blow born of perfect manipulation and absolute physical power.
Hundreds of the Special Grade’s carapace plates buckled simultaneously. The centipede’s body bent into a 'V' and was hammered deep into the bloody mire.
C-c-crack— Shatter!
With the core of the leading vengeful spirits crushed, the second Domain lost its maintenance and fractured into shimmering dust.
The sea of blood and the rain of blades evaporated, revealing once more the desolate ridges of the Mutsu mountains.
"Heh... you madman. You're even more of a monster without a sword."
Hideto wiped blood from his mouth, letting out a hollow laugh.
Yet Utsugi’s expression remained frozen in a mask of lethal cold.
From the mangled heap of flesh embedded in the ridge, that nauseating laughter began to leak out once more.
[ Die... DIE...!! ]
"The third one! Keep pressing!"
Utsugi kicked off the earth the moment he landed, rushing forward like a predator.
As the Special Grade attempted to manifest its third Domain, Utsugi’s fist drove home like a lightning bolt, crushing the swarm's collective head. The Domain Expansion misfired, sending steel and gore flying.
But in less than a second, the spirits at the tail took control and attempted a fourth expansion. Utsugi leapt, grinding the core of the tail into the dirt with his knee.
Smash, shatter, and pulverize.
In his state of 'Zone,' Utsugi was a veritable Asura—his entire body a weapon of mass destruction. He decimated the incoming fragments of the Special Grade with flurry after flurry of kicks and punches, denying them even the breath needed to unfold their territory.
However, as the battle wore on, a fatal flaw began to tighten like a noose around the necks of the two men.
This Special Grade was a swarm—a collective of ten thousand spirits.
Utsugi's taijutsu was god-tier for 'single-target' destruction, and Hideto's Refraction Cursed Technique was specialized for deceiving and carving through a few foes.
Neither possessed a technique for wide-scale annihilation that could turn this entire swarm of grotesque insects into ash at once.
Crush a hundred cores, and a thousand remnants would fuse back together to restore the shell. Snap the neck of the 'General,' and another spirit within the mass would rise to fill the void. No matter how many he slaughtered, unless they were eradicated in one stroke, this battle was a war of attrition that would inevitably end with the exhaustion of human stamina.
"Gasp... gasp... there's... no end to them."
Hideto’s breathing had become as ragged as a broken bellows.
Toggling his Simple Domain on and off, his body—incapable of performing the Reverse Cursed Technique—had long since passed its breaking point.
In that fleeting moment where his concentration faltered.
A curved blade buried in the mud lunged upward like a viper from Hideto's blind spot. It was a vicious fragment that had separated from the main body to act independently.
"...Eh?"
Hideto swung his broken sword to parry, but his muscles responded a fraction of a second too late.
Schlick.
The rusted spear tip grazed Hideto's calf.
In the instant a single drop of blood sprayed.
[ Save me... AAAARGH!! It's burning!! ]
"Gah...!!"
Hideto's eyes rolled back. The vision of Iron Wail, Iron Soul pierced his skull.
He had already endured the 'Memory of Death' through two full domains, stretching his sanity to the limit. This brief touch of the vision was the final blow that shattered the dam of his collapsing reason.
"AAAAAAAGH!"
Dropping his sword, Hideto began to claw at his own face, thrashing in the mud. He was completely defenseless, his will to fight obliterated.
"Get a hold of yourself!!"
Utsugi abandoned the mangled head of the spirit, reaching out in horror.
But that split-second opening was enough. The Special Grade swarm did not miss the gap between the two men.
The shattered lumps of flesh coalesced at a terrifying speed, and the ten thousand spirits erupted into a chilling laughter that signaled their certainty of victory.
[ Rot away... and fall into decay...!! ]
[ Domain Expansion ]
The air on the ridge twisted once more.
The speed at which the fourth Domain completed was far faster and more malicious than those before it.
"No...!"
Utsugi threw himself toward Hideto.
Yet as the Domain was finalized, the rain of iron imbued with the 'Sure-Hit' rule mercilessly impaled the thrashing body of Hideto on the ground.
"PU-HACK!"
Hideto’s body arched like a bow. Spearheads and blades buried themselves in his abdomen, shoulder, and thigh; his blood bloomed across the sea of gore.
Worse than the physical trauma was the influx of the 'Memory of Death' from dozens of simultaneous strikes. Hideto’s eyes lost all focus, turning white. He was in a state of near-instant death, his life flickering.
"You absolute bastards."
Utsugi collapsed over Hideto’s body, shielding him.
"Simple Domain!!"
A miniature Simple Domain, not even a meter in radius, manifested beneath Utsugi, enshrouding them both.
KWA-AAAAANG—!! CLANG! CL-CL-CLANG—!!
The storm of iron pouring from the sky hammered relentlessly against Utsugi’s barrier.
It was hell.
Utsugi felt his brain beginning to boil. His Six Eyes were calculating the Domain’s data without a moment’s rest, while his body was overheating, muscles emitting steam as they performed the semi-automatic counters of the Simple Domain.
Snap. Crack.
Cracks began to spiderweb across Utsugi’s Simple Domain.
"Kh... huff, huff..."
Dark, clotted blood poured from Utsugi's mouth, nose, and eyes, soaking Hideto’s face below him.
'This is the limit. My stamina to protect Hideto while dealing with a Special Grade...'
If Utsugi deactivated the domain and used his taijutsu to shatter the Special Grade’s heart again, he could survive alone. But the moment he withdrew his protection, Hideto would be reduced to minced meat in a fraction of a second.
KWA-ANG! CRACK!
The fractures in the Simple Domain spread uncontrollably. The rain of blades showed no sign of stopping.
The collective spirits shrieked with triumphant joy from the blood-red sky.
At that ultimate moment of desperation, just as Utsugi’s vision began to dim and his functions prepared to cease—
TZE-EEEEEEEENG————!!!!!
Suddenly, a titanic fissure erupted in the sanguine sky of the Special Grade’s formidable Domain.
It was not a strike from within.
A basic truth of jujutsu: 'The barrier of a Domain is impregnable from the inside, but hopelessly vulnerable to physical impact from without.'
Someone, from outside the Domain, was tearing the barrier apart.
"...?"
Utsugi's Six Eyes widened.
A sensation as if his eyes were being flayed. The Six Eyes shrieked a frantic warning. It was not a warning directed at the Special Grade. It was an instinctual tremor—a primal fear—regarding 'that' which was breaking through from the outside.
'What is this Cursed Energy? A density so preposterous it feels like an entire mountain range has been compressed into a single point...!'
A Cursed Energy so heavy and terrifying it stifled the lungs poured through the gap in the barrier.
Shatter—!!
Then, the hellish sky manifested by the ten thousand spirits collapsed like a fragile glass window.
The falling blades froze in mid-air, and even the gargantuan swarm of the Special Grade froze, unable to even scream as it was suppressed by an overwhelming pressure from the intruder.
Beyond the shattered sky, stepping through the clearing mist, a man slowly walked forward.
His hair was disheveled, and his thick cotton garments were weathered and coarse.
Though he bore the appearance of a wandering ronin, the massive tachi at his hip and its weathered scabbard emitted a vortex of black cursed energy that was agonizing to behold.
"...Who are you?"
Utsugi, drenched in blood, murmured in a hoarse voice.
The man did not answer.
With indifferent eyes, he simply scanned the sea of blood and the grotesque cluster of spirits before resting a heavy hand upon the hilt of his sword.
Minamoto no Yorimitsu.
Once hailed as the hero of demon-slaying, he was a legendary warrior exiled by the treachery of the Jujutsu High Command.
Yorimitsu's Innate Technique: 'The Layered Cursed Technique.'
It was a method of permanently preserving cursed energy within a scabbard, allowing the density of that energy to amplify exponentially in proportion to the time it remained dormant.
It was not merely gathering energy. Through a binding vow, Yorimitsu could only release this accumulated energy at the moment of 'Batto'—the drawing of the sword—causing the aged energy to transform into a force with tangible mass.
In the three months Yorimitsu had spent living in seclusion within the Mutsu mountains—
Throughout that long span, a massive quantity of cursed energy had been endlessly compressed and refined within his scabbard, never once having been released.
"I had intended to live in silence, yet the mountain has become far too noisy."
Yorimitsu murmured under his breath as he drew his blade.
[ Layered Cursed Technique • Batto ]
Sss-ring—
The sound of friction as the steel left the scabbard was infinitesimal.
In that moment, all sound in the world was erased.
The massive cursed energy of the Special Grade and the blood-red clouds of the sky froze in an instant.
What erupted from the tip of Yorimitsu’s blade was no simple slash. It was an overwhelming distortion of space, as if tens of thousands of tons of virtual mass were being fired in the form of light.
Space-time itself warped along the trajectory of the draw, dragged in by the high-density energy as it consumed everything in its path.
Light and the shockwave detonated an instant later.
FLASH—!!!
A silent brilliance perfectly swallowed the summit of the Ou Mountains.
The swarm of vengeful spirits was afforded no time to shriek, let alone regenerate. The waterfall of cursed energy accumulated over three months dismantled tens of thousands of ghosts, the steel, and the rotted earth itself at an atomic level. It was the ultimate blow—the one Utsugi and Hideto had so desperately craved—that annihilated everything in a single strike.
............
Time lost its meaning.
When the flash subsided and his vision returned, Utsugi could only stare in disbelief.
The Special Grade cluster had vanished without a trace.
No, it was not just the beast. The entire rocky peak in the direction Yorimitsu had swung his blade had cleanly evaporated, leaving behind nothing but a gargantuan, hollow crater. Not a single grain of dust or fragment of bone remained of the tens of thousands of vengeful spirits. They had been exorcised in their entirety.
It was the absolute, violent pinnacle of martial power.
Silence reigned over the summit.
The man standing alone at the center of the crater, Minamoto no Yorimitsu, sheathed his tachi with a hollow click.
"Hey, you bloody fledglings."
Yorimitsu slowly turned his head, looking down upon the blood-soaked Utsugi and the dying Hideto with a dry, weathered gaze.
"Those eyes. Are you of the Sugawara bloodline?"
At the very end of hell, they had encountered the legend that had cut down an era.
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