Twenty minutes before Hojo arrived on the battlefield.
"L—leave me…"
A sorcerer was gasping in pain, his body convulsing violently in the air as someone with a third eye on his forehead lifted him up by grabbing his neck.
The grip on his neck continued to tighten until his body dropped on the ground while his head remained in that man's hand.
The last image that sorcerer saw was slaughtered heads and limbs lying on the crimson earth.
After killing the last human sorcerer he found here, Dabura scanned the battlefield one more time to ensure all humans were dead.
When he was about to leave the battlefield, someone suddenly attacked him from behind.
Dabura calmly gripped the fist that aimed at the back of his neck to kill him in one shot.
He showed no effort at all and even the instantaneous movement of his hand would be nothing more than a blur for someone hawk-eyed.
That fist resisted from his grip and struggled to be freed. Dabura crushed it and felt the bones breaking down beneath his fingers.
Then he released that fist.
"Who are you?"
He asked in a cold voice and didn't even bother to turn around to see the face.
A few seconds passed in silence and no reply came from behind. Anyone who was behind him must have been terrified to the degree that even the moans from his pain couldn't be heard.
Getting no reply from behind, Dabura himself turned around to see and found a bulky man with a naked upper body staring at him with eyes full of fear.
Despite the clearly visible large and sturdy muscles and a body builder physique, his body was shaking from the fear.
"Why are you so eager to approach your death?"
Dabura didn't wait for another reply and raised the man's body into the air easily by gripping his neck.
Dodo's pupils shrunk down to a point as he understood what was going to happen with his body.
He was fighting with a Simurian before he found this monster who effortlessly lifted his 200 kg body into the air single-handedly.
The terror of death filled his mind and stole away his sanity at this very important moment of his life where he could taste the flavour of death.
He remained trying to get free from the grip but his combined strength couldn't even budge that hand of Dabura.
Seeing no chance of being saved, he then began pleading and crying out to him.
Everyone cares about their life and no one will want to die like this where your neck was going to be torn from your body.
Just as he felt the grip tightened enough to pull out his soul from his body, a sword slashed down something which fell on the ground with a 'thud'.
Immediately, Dodo felt the oxygen rushing inside his lungs as he breathed as hard as he could.
His feet touched the ground and he sprawled over with no strength left in his body. His vision had already dyed crimson and he was still feeling dizzy.
Regardless of who saved him, he was nothing less than a god for him, at least for now.
On the other side, Dabura had retreated his hand instantly as he felt something tearing through his flesh but before he could move his hand away, it was already cutted whole.
Instead of screaming in pain, Dabura kept his calm and began searching for that very sword and the hand that wielded it.
He needed to take his immediate revenge by cutting that hand.
There was no need to search as that sword was just before his eyes. A tall figure with shiny black hair wielded it.
"You dare—"
Ronnie didn't listen to Dabura and first carried the injured Dodo to a safe place.
Dabura's hand had grown back between this period of time and Ronnie also couldn't help but show a stunned expression, even if it was for a brief second.
"I shall make you regret this. Do you know about my identity?"
Dabura changed his tone of speaking and looked at his hand while moving it to check if it was correctly healed back.
He continued to accelerate the rate of aura leaking from his body and this rate exploded immensely when Dabura used his original technique and attacked Ronnie with piercing light beams.
Pillars of solidified light shot towards him at incomprehensible speed, aiming at almost all of his vital organs.
If it was a normal sorcerer or even a special grade, it would be impossible to block these without using any special technique or exhausting all cursed energy.
But Yahaech, unlike other special grades, was a different kind of existence, who could be compared to past Hojo.
He raised his sword to block those beams and with a minimal but most effective swing of its blade, cleaved through all pillars without sparing a single one.
His terrifying speed which even surpassed Hojo's couldn't be compared to humans.
Of course, he was nothing compared to the current awakened Hojo. But still, it was enough to block these normal techniques of those abnormal creatures like Dabura.
Dabura showed a slightly surprised expression when he saw his technique failing.
Though, this time he focused his attention somewhere else.
His gaze landed on the Dodo who laid down injured at a far distance.
"Wait—no!"
Ronnie reached out to Dodo but it was too late as several pillars of solidified light emerged from the earth and pierced through Dodo's torso.
Then, in the next instant, Dabura released an extraordinary amount of pillars which emerged from his palm and shooted toward Ronnie who was about to leave their fight incomplete.
If not solidified, the speed of those pillars would be equal to light which was enough to circle the earth around seven times in just a single second.
One of the eyes of Ronnie saw the pillars coming into his direction and prompted his body to evade at any cost.
How many times did he swing his sword in that very moment to cut down all the pillars?
Although Ronnie successfully evaded most of the pillars, one of them still managed to cleave through his wrist.
With a bit of pain on his face, he pulled out the small pillar and threw it away.
"I am really impressed that you managed to evade almost all my pillars and are still alive. That's why I'm giving you a chance to retreat and run away from here. Because I don't have much time to spend with you here and my next attack would kill you for certain."
Dabura seemed really amused by the swordsmanship of this human and was even offering him an opportunity to run away.
Because his next attack really might be the last attack of Ronnie's life.
But, just like every protagonist of the story, Ronnie refused the offer and pointed his sword toward Dabura.
Unfortunately, Ronnie wasn't the protagonist of this story and was about to regret his decision.
Because Dabura wasn't joking. His original technique "light" might not be enough to kill him, ignoring the fact that Dabura never used it to its fullest because of less time, but he still had Gojo and Sukuna's techniques in his arsenal.
The second main ability of Dabura "Skill Imitation", which was bestowed to him from another person, allowed him to imitate any skill if he had enough knowledge of its owner.
Therefore, the next and last attack Dabura used on him was World Cutting Slash, which once killed Satoru Gojo himself.
A slash which couldn't be defended and even cut through the space itself.
The moment Dabura shooted it through his hand gesture, space gave up on it, let alone the air.
Everything that came in its way bowed down and accepted their fate, letting them sliced like butter, showing zero resistance.
But something suddenly stood before the slash which refused to be cut down.
"FORBIDDEN SWORD ART: FLAMES OF CONTRADICTION"
Ronnie used his most powerful technique which he had not mastered fully yet. But he had realized the attack before him wasn't something that could be blocked.
The only thing that could deal with it were flames of contradiction.
This was a forbidden technique, which was similar to a domain, though it opened partially in the form of flames around the blade of the sword.
These flames held the power to refuse the presence of an existence, by presenting the contradictions over it.
Anything enveloped in these flames could be erased from existence by temporarily creating a special space around it which contains its own separate rules.
Such rules which didn't allow the existence of a certain thing and until those rules are present, it is impossible for that thing to exist.
That's why these flames which swallowed the world cutting slash, erased this slash's very existence which allowed it to exist.
But a portion of this slash still hit Ronnie on his chest which was a critical hit.
He immediately fell on the ground, his body refusing to move because of the wound on his chest and also the cost he had to pay to use Contradiction Flames.
Dabura stared at Ronnie for a long time as he didn't want to kill him. He then felt many powerful presences coming toward this place and he immediately left.
"Coward—sto—"
Ronnie tried to say what he wanted but even his throat betrayed him at this moment.
He then saw a familiar face with many unfamiliar ones. A smile appeared on his face the moment he saw that man.
"Hojo—"