Sukuna's gaze caused Satoru's blood to momentarily stagnate.
This wasn't the excitement or tension one felt when facing a powerful opponent, but a more primitive warning sign stemming from life's deepest instincts.
At this moment, Satoru's blue eyes, hailed as the Six Eyes, were fully revealed, reflecting the figure of the four-armed man standing not far away.
In the past, these eyes could see through all Cursed Energy flows and analyze the composition of any Cursed Technique, granting him absolute confidence and composure. But now, staring at Sukuna, Satoru felt an emotion called "powerlessness" with such clarity for the first time.
He was too strong.
Unreasonably strong, strong beyond comprehension.
The absolute power and speed—casually shattering that Curtain, leisurely dodging the desperate combined attack of the four Armed Cursed Spirits, and erasing them in an instant with a god-speed Black Flash—had completely exceeded Satoru's previous definition of "strength."
This was not a height reachable by humans, nor even a domain a typical Special Grade Cursed Spirit could touch.
I'm going to die.
This thought, like a cold venomous snake, quietly slithered into Satoru's consciousness.
It wasn't pessimism, but a cold judgment based on what the Six Eyes perceived: the desperate gap in basic Cursed Energy quality, physical strength, speed, and even the understanding of rules.
Sukuna hadn't even truly gone all out, he hadn't even begun to warm up.
However...
"Ha..."
An extremely light, almost inaudible laugh escaped Satoru's mouth.
There was no fear in that smile, no retreat. Instead, there was a sense of relief as if the dust had settled, and the purest, most blazing battle intent ignited after being pushed to a dead end.
"The strongest?" Satoru whispered to himself, as if mocking the title he once bore.
"In front of a monster like this, it's worth shit."
He knew that calculation, strategy, and cleverness held little meaning before such an absolute chasm of power. There was only one thing he could do.
"Everything I have..."
"All of it..."
"Without reservation..."
"I'll smash it right into your face!"
BOOM!
The moment the words fell, the Cursed Energy around Satoru erupted like a volcano suppressed for eons.
No longer the controlled release of previous battles, but a complete, reckless, and overloaded output.
Brilliant blue Cursed Energy flames enveloped him, his hair dancing wildly in the surging energy.
Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue!
Cursed Technique Reversal: Red!
He raised both hands simultaneously. In his left palm, Blue, a point of extreme, light-swallowing dark gravitational force, spun and compressed rapidly. In his right palm, Red, a violent cluster of all-repelling crimson energy, swelled and hummed frantically.
But he didn't fire these two opposing forces. Instead, he made a move that could be called insane.
He wrapped the miniature gravitational field of Blue around his left leg and arm, and the repulsive field of Red around his right leg and arm.
Blue provided extreme suction and acceleration, while Red provided violent propulsion and direction changes.
Under the absolute precision of the Six Eyes, the two forces reached a dangerous dynamic balance. They were no longer long-range attacks but had become extreme enhancement devices for his own close-quarters combat.
At the same time, within the Six Eyes, phantoms of stars being born and annihilated seemed to flow rapidly.
Insight, information processing, and Cursed Energy control precision were forced to an unprecedented peak, even exceeding the safety thresholds Satoru had set for himself.
His brain groaned under the overload, but he forced himself to ignore it, pouring all perception and calculation power into one task—capturing, predicting, and keeping up with Sukuna's movements.
"Come on, you old monster!"
Satoru roared as the repulsive force of Red beneath his feet erupted. The ground exploded into a massive crater, and his figure turned into a streak of light trailing blue and crimson flames, actively charging toward Sukuna, who was suspended against the wall.
He moved so fast that he left a series of clear afterimages behind him, far exceeding any movement he had made before.
"Oh?"
A hint of slight surprise flashed in Sukuna's four crimson eyes, appearing somewhat interested in Satoru's new fighting style.
But his movements were not slow at all. Facing the charging Satoru, he didn't even move. He simply raised an arm, fingers held like a blade, and gave a light flick toward Satoru's path.
Dismantle!
Several invisible and formless slashes, imbued with the concept of "severing," instantly crossed space. They appeared on Satoru's trajectory, sealing off all evasion angles, intending to dismember him along with the Cursed Energy on his body.
However, Satoru, having activated the Six Eyes' overclock mode, seemed to have foreknowledge. An instant before the slashes appeared, using the gravitational pull of Blue on his left leg, he slammed into the outer wall of a nearby tilted building, making a sharp turn and narrowly grazing the edges of those slashes.
BOOM!
Behind him, the already precarious buildings were sliced as if by an invisible giant blade. They slowly slid and collapsed, letting out a deafening roar and kicking up clouds of dust.
The aftershocks of the slashes grazed Satoru's back. Even with Infinity, he still felt a bone-chilling cold and the phantom pain of skin being torn.
"Tch, slippery brat."
Sukuna seemed to find it somewhat amusing. He no longer stood still, kicking off the wall as his figure turned into a dark red blur, pursuing Satoru.
Satoru utilized the auxiliary functions of Blue and Red to their absolute limit.
At times, he accelerated in a straight line under the violent propulsion of Red, fast as a lightning bolt.
At other times, he dashed across vertical walls and hanging rebars under the gravitational suction of Blue, as if walking on flat ground.
And at other times, he used the torque generated by instantaneously switching Blue and Red on different parts of his body to perform all sorts of inconceivable mid-air jumps and sudden stops that exceeded human limits.
He no longer relied on the absolute defense of Infinity to tank hits. Instead, he compressed the concept of Infinity to the extreme, concentrating it on the minute surfaces where his limbs would contact Sukuna's attacks to form the strongest shield, while perfectly integrating the attraction of Blue and the repulsion of Red into every block, parry, and counterattack.
Facing Sukuna, trying to rely on the automatic defense of Infinity was undoubtedly seeking death.
Sukuna's attacks were simple, direct, and brutal. Each swing of his arms carried terrifying power. The slashes erupting from his fingertips were even more elusive, cutting through space and constantly plowing through and shredding the surrounding ruins.
He was no longer in a playful mood. Though still composed, the density, speed, and power of Sukuna's attacks were steadily increasing, forcing Satoru's to push his Six Eyes and Cursed Energy output to even higher levels, dancing on the edge of a blade and weaving through the line of death.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang....
The dull thuds of clashing limbs and Cursed Energy were continuous and unrelenting.
Two figures chased and collided at high speeds within the shattered urban forest.
Satoru's clothes were already in tatters, revealing skin that was slightly flushed and steaming from the high load, and blood leaked from the corner of his lips—the result of his internal organs being rattled by the extreme speed and power clashes.
But the light in his eyes grew brighter and sharper.
The pressure of life and death.
It compressed, tempered, and stimulated his spirit, will, and potential to an unprecedented state.
Gradually, Satoru felt something was off. The dizziness, intense pain, and mental distraction that should have appeared due to the overload didn't worsen. Instead...
Was his brain adapting to this ultra-high-intensity operation?
His thoughts were becoming faster and clearer, his control over Blue and Red more refined, and his anticipation of Sukuna's movements seemed to be evolving from "barely capturing" to "faintly sensing"?
Was the potential of the Six Eyes being further unearthed under the pressure of life and death? Or... perhaps the balance mechanism was taking effect?
This world is balanced. When one side becomes stronger, the other follows, rising in a spiral.
Previously, it was Satoru's birth that led to the explosion of Cursed Spirits. If Sukuna didn't exist, perhaps a Cursed Spirit of Satoru's level would have been born.
But now, Sukuna was strong enough to break the balance, so Satoru, the strongest human, was also affected, receiving a boost from the world.
No, there was no time to dwell on that now.
Satoru only knew that his state was soaring, he was surpassing his past limits.