Blood dripped from Suguru Geto's severed right arm, hitting the blackened ruins with a faint sound.
The most evil curse user, who had incited the catastrophe of the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons, leaned powerlessly against a broken wall, gasping for breath.
He looked at Yuta Okkotsu, who had also collapsed in exhaustion nearby.
For the first time, those narrow eyes lacked the madness of his Great Cause, replaced by an unprecedented sense of calm and relief.
"Finally..."
Suguru Geto looked up at the waning moon, largely obscured by dark clouds.
"It's over."
Ten years of self-torment.
This gamble, where he disguised himself as a demon to draw out the serpent hiding in the shadows.
It had finally come to an end.
However.
Just as Suguru Geto was about to close his eyes and enjoy a moment of peace.
"Step, step, step."
Faint yet chilling footsteps echoed slowly behind him.
Suguru Geto's relaxed nerves instantly tightened to the limit.
"Who's there?!"
He spun around, staring at the shadows in the ruins.
"Truly a magnificent battle, Suguru Geto."
A raspy laugh, sounding like rusted iron plates grinding together, echoed out.
A mundane middle-aged man in a sorcerer's robe stepped from the shadows.
Without the greedy eyes and the centipede-like scar crudely stitching his forehead together, no one would notice this ant in the chaotic battlefield.
"Kenjaku..."
A surge of killing intent flashed in Suguru's eyes but was quickly masked.
He feigned shock and wariness.
"Who are you? Why are you here?"
"Heh, no need for such tension, Suguru Geto."
Kenjaku ignored the question.
His greedy eyes locked onto the massive, dissipating figure near the exhausted Yuta.
Special Grade Vengeful Cursed Spirit — Rika Orimoto.
Although Rika's soul was about to pass on due to Yuta's unraveling of the curse.
In the instant of her dissipation, her massive cursed energy husk remained incredibly dense due to the recent explosion of power.
"This is simply..."
Kenjaku licked his dry lips, his eyes burning with avarice.
"The most perfect gift from the heavens!"
He didn't care if Suguru lived or died.
He had risked appearing, even possessing such a weak vessel.
His sole purpose was to seize Rika's residual cursed energy husk before it vanished.
With this power.
His millennium-long Culling Game plan, and even the creation of that indescribable Ultimate Merged Entity, would have all obstacles cleared!
"What do you think you're doing?"
Suguru forced his broken body to move, but his empty cursed energy reserves made it difficult to even lift a finger.
"What do I think I'm doing?"
Kenjaku's sneer grew more contemptuous.
"Taking my spoils of war, of course."
"Hum—!"
As Kenjaku spoke.
Ancient, decaying black cursed energy surged from his body.
It didn't manifest as a direct attack.
Instead, in a way even the Six Eyes would struggle to detect, it sketched a complex black barrier filled with spatial laws in mid-air!
"Go."
Kenjaku formed a hand seal.
"Swoosh—!"
Over a dozen tentacles made of black cursed energy, covered in sickening barbs, erupted from the barrier.
Like starving vipers.
They ignored the distance in space, carrying a terrifying suction force meant to tear souls, and lunged toward Rika's dissipating husk!
"Don't you dare!"
Suguru's eyes nearly burst from their sockets.
How could he watch his ten-year plan and Yuta's hard-fought pure love be stolen by this thousand-year-old fox?
He bit his tongue, trying to squeeze out a final spark of life to summon even a low-level curse to block Kenjaku.
But Kenjaku's preparations far exceeded Suguru's expectations.
"Don't waste your effort, Suguru Geto."
Kenjaku sneered, and another hidden barrier in the ruins activated.
"Boom!"
A crushing weight of gravity, like an invisible mountain, slammed onto Suguru.
"Pfft!"
Suguru spat out a large mouthful of blood.
His already mangled body was pinned to the blackened ruins, unable to move!
"It's over."
Kenjaku looked at the black tentacles about to pierce Rika's husk, his eyes filled with fanatical obsession.
"Once I have this power, my millennium-long ambition..."
However.
In the absolute instant Kenjaku thought his perfect scheme was complete.
"Clang—!!!"
A sharp, soul-cleaving sword chime suddenly thundered through the silent night sky!
Then.
"Sizzle sizzle—!"
A brilliant, dark red blade light, radiating heat intense enough to annihilate everything, descended from the heavens without warning!
This light was so fast that even a thousand-year-old monster like Kenjaku couldn't see where it came from.
Like a hot knife through butter.
In an instant!
It severed all the black tentacles Kenjaku had sent toward Rika's husk!
"Agh—!"
Amidst a shrill scream, as if the tentacles themselves were crying out.
The severed black cursed energy didn't even leave residual dregs; it was instantly vaporized into nothingness by the terrifying heat!
"What?!"
Kenjaku's pupils shrank, his fanatical joy replaced by a soul-shaking terror.
Who?!
Who could sever his secret spatial technique without him noticing?!
Wasn't Satoru Gojo being held back by Miguel in Shinjuku?!
"Step."
With a light footstep that seemed to land directly on Kenjaku's heart.
A slender figure in a black trench coat, with a chipped katana at his waist, slowly descended from the air.
He landed as light as a weightless feather before the heavily injured Suguru Geto.
The chipped katana, Shiranui, radiated a suffocating heat.
The dark red blade trembled slightly in the night wind, emitting a low, bloodthirsty hum.
"This farce..."
Yoru slowly looked up, his deep, calm red eyes holding a terrifying killing intent that could freeze the world.
He stared fixedly at the terrified, mundane face across from him.
"Have you seen enough?"
"Brain."
Those nonchalant words.
Exploded in Kenjaku's mind like a heavy bomb!
"Yo—Yoru?!"
Kenjaku looked at the black-haired youth who had appeared like a ghost.
His heart, which had been silent for a millennium, was gripped by an invisible hand, and his breath stopped!
How could he be here?!
Hadn't he been banished by the power of the Sands of Time ten years ago?!
Moreover, what horrified Kenjaku most was...
This variable from ten years ago had actually called out his true identity, hidden for a millennium—something even Satoru Gojo didn't know?!
Just how much...
How much information did he possess?!