The moment Mahoraga's chaotic body completely broke free from its shackles and set foot in the physical world, Sukuna's crimson eyes showed no trace of fear. Instead, they ignited with a more intense, almost gleeful flame.
He could clearly sense the incredibly terrifying adaptation ability contained within the perfect body of the shikigami before him.
"Interesting..." Sukuna whispered, his voice rolling through Yuji's throat.
He could feel that Mahoraga's aimless "gaze" had already locked onto him.
If it were an ordinary Jujutsu Sorcerer, they would have likely begun to feel afraid long ago.
But Sukuna only let out a cold snort.
"Trying to adapt to my Cursed Technique?" A cruel arc curled at the corner of his lips.
"Unfortunately, I have no interest in giving you time to digest."
"Domain Expansion: Malevolent Shrine."
This time, it was a thorough, close-range, high-intensity, and indiscriminate Domain crushing, performed with the maximum power Sukuna could currently mobilize.
Vwooom—
The physical space seemed like a lake surface into which a giant boulder had been thrown, the scenery distorted and peeled away wildly.
Invisible slashes swallowed Mahoraga along with the "adaptation" aura it emitted, like a tsunami.
This was Sukuna's absolute home field, the ultimate manifestation of his concepts of "cutting" and "dominance."
Here, anything would be sliced until it turned into powder.
Mahoraga's massive body suddenly stiffened the moment the Domain descended.
The wheel rotating counter-clockwise behind it let out a piercing screech, like metal grinding, as it attempted to analyze and adapt to this forcibly overlaid space filled with "Slashes."
The patterns on its body began to flicker, its aimless perception frantically scanning every corner of the Domain, its chaotic core operating at an unprecedented power level.
Adaptation required time.
Even with Mahoraga's "Infinite Adaptation" trait, facing a Domain of Malevolent Shrine's level, it required a brief but vital process of analysis and adjustment. And Sukuna would never give it that time.
Standing before the phantom of the shrine at the center of the Domain, Sukuna controlled Yuji's body and slowly raised both hands.
No specific target, no fancy variations.
Sukuna unleashed the simplest yet most terrifying attack mode within Malevolent Shrine—the indiscriminate, full-coverage, Dismantles, erupting instantly at maximum power and density.
With Sukuna as the center, countless Slashes, invisible to the naked eye but very real, poured out frantically like a supernova explosion toward every direction and angle of the Domain, leaving no blind spots.
Mahoraga's speed of adaptation was far from keeping up with the speed at which the torrent of slashes submerged it.
Crack...
Rip...
Psh...
The tooth-aching sounds of cutting, tearing, and shattering merged into one, as dense as a rainstorm pounding on a tin roof.
Mahoraga's massive frame shuddered violently in the sea of Slashes.
It lasted for less than three seconds.
Boom—
A muffled explosion, far heavier than any previous sound, rang out.
Mahoraga's incredibly tough torso, said to be able to adapt to all laws, finally reached its limit after enduring tens or perhaps hundreds of thousands of slashes, and completely disintegrated from within.
The massive body vanished.
When Sukuna stopped the slashes and slowly lowered his hands, the spot where Mahoraga had originally stood within Malevolent Shrine was already empty.
Only one thing had stubbornly survived the scouring of the Domain's rules and the aftershocks of the slashes, quietly suspended in mid-air, slowly rotating and emitting a faint yet still peculiar eerie light.
—It was that wheel.
It seemed to be the final condensation of all of Mahoraga's adaptation rules and power, the core of the shikigami, and the hardest, most difficult part to completely destroy.
Although its light was dim and several fine cracks had appeared on its surface, it still maintained its complete form and had not vanished along with Mahoraga's body.
Sukuna's domain slowly contracted and dissipated, and the reality of the scene returned.
Controlling Yuji's body, he walked over to the floating wheel, his crimson eyes sizing up this trophy with great interest.
He reached out and easily took the wheel into his palm. The wheel felt cold to the touch, neither metal nor wood. Inside it, there seemed to remain a faint, obscure power trying to analyze his Cursed Energy fluctuations, but under the suppression of Sukuna's absolute power, this bit of resistance was insignificant.
The moment Sukuna's fingers touched the wheel—
[Special rule creation detected... Analyzing...]
[Target confirmed: Ten Shadows Technique - Mahoraga Core Wheel]
[Core rule confirmed: Infinite Adaptation]
[Collection successful]
[Congratulations to the Host for obtaining the trait: Evolutionary Law]
[Effect: Generates resistance and adaptation to the same types of Cursed Energy, Cursed Techniques, and Curse rules that the Host has come into contact with.]
"Adaptation trait..." Sukuna weighed the harvest, feeling reasonably satisfied.
He glanced at Fushiguro, who was slumped on the ground not far away, having fallen unconscious due to the severe backlash from Mahoraga's complete destruction.
"This time, it wasn't a wasted trip." Sukuna muttered to himself.
Then, his consciousness began to withdraw in an orderly fashion from Yuji's body, which was on the verge of collapse.
Yuji's body slumped down, completely losing consciousness.
In the distance, Nobara, Utaha, and the others who had finally broken through the last obstacles and rushed over saw Yuji fallen, Fushiguro's life or death unknown, and the lingering, soul-freezing remnants of the Domain in the air along with the sense of emptiness left by the complete annihilation of some massive existence.