At the intersection ruins in the heart of Shibuya, Sukuna's voice, thick with contempt and boredom, drifted through the night wind.
The central battlefield had completely transformed into a living hell.
Buildings within a several-kilometer radius were nearly leveled, littered with burning wreckage and bottomless craters from slashing attacks.
Suguru Geto gasped for air, his signature gojo-kesa long since reduced to tatters.
His proud Night Parade of a Hundred Demons had been nearly halved in just a few minutes of engagement by Sukuna's brute-force slashes.
Not far ahead of him.
*Thud!*
With a dull impact, Toji Fushiguro's body, built like a black iron tower, was slammed in the gut by Sukuna's nonchalant knee strike.
"Pfft—!"
A mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs erupted from Toji Fushiguro's mouth.
He flew backward like a cannonball, tumbling dozens of times across the ground before crashing heavily into the only remaining concrete load-bearing wall.
*Crack...*
The sickening sound of bones snapping was clearly audible in the silent ruins.
Toji Fushiguro struggled to stand, but with three broken ribs and severely damaged organs, his body failed him, and he sank uncontrollably to one knee.
He thrust the Soul Splitter Katana deep into the ground, barely managing to support himself and avoid a total collapse.
Despair.
A suffocating sense of despair hung over everyone's hearts like a shroud.
He was too strong.
This monster occupying Yuji Itadori's body was powerful to an irrational degree!
He hadn't even expanded his domain; relying solely on basic martial arts and the invisible slashes of Dismantle and Cleave, he had cornered these powerhouses at the peak of the jujutsu world.
"You're all just such boring small fry."
Sukuna lazily flicked the blood from his hands, his crimson eyes filled with disappointment.
"I thought that after sleeping for a thousand years in this body, I'd find a few toys to help me work up a sweat."
"In the end, aside from that kid with the broken blade who doesn't even have cursed energy..."
Sukuna's gaze swept over the kneeling Toji Fushiguro before looking at the pale Suguru Geto in the distance, his lips curling into a cruel sneer.
"You so-called modern sorcerers are pathetically weak."
"Don't get ahead of yourself, you old fossil!"
Toji Fushiguro spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva. Rather than fading, the battle intent in his pitch-black eyes burned with an even more frenzied intensity.
Who was he?
He was the Sorcerer Killer who had carved his way through the entire jujutsu world with nothing but his mortal flesh!
"The limit of Heavenly Restriction... hasn't been reached yet!"
Toji Fushiguro let out a roar, enduring the agonizing pain as he wrenched the Soul Splitter Katana from the ground.
*Boom!*
The ground beneath his feet collapsed as he transformed into a bolt of violent black lightning, once again charging recklessly at Sukuna!
"Still haven't given up?"
Sukuna raised an eyebrow, not even bothering to dodge.
Just as Toji Fushiguro's Soul Splitter Katana was about to strike his neck...
"Too slow."
Sukuna's figure suddenly blurred.
In a strange movement that defied physical logic, he slid right past the blade's edge.
Simultaneously, his right hand balled into a fist, packed with enough terrifying cursed energy to shatter mountains, and slammed into Toji Fushiguro's face!
*CRASH!!!*
The impact was heavier than any that had come before.
Toji Fushiguro didn't even have time to scream before he was sent flying back faster than he had charged.
*Rumble!*
He smashed through several layers of thick concrete rubble, eventually buried under a massive pile of debris, completely motionless.
"Toji!"
Suguru Geto, standing in the rear, looked on with eyes wide with fury. His hands quickly formed seals as he tried to summon his remaining Special Grade Imaginary Cursed Spirits to the rescue.
*Slash!*
However, before he could finish the seals, an invisible and terrifying slash tore through the air, forcing him to abandon the technique and roll sideways in a desperate attempt to dodge.
*Ch—!*
Suguru Geto's left arm was grazed by the aftershock of the slash, sending a spray of blood into the air.
"You dare worry about others while facing me?"
Sukuna walked toward the debris where Toji Fushiguro was buried, his grin becoming increasingly sinister.
"Since you're all in such a hurry to die, I'll be merciful and send this cursed-energy-less waste who only knows how to flaunt his strength on his way first."
Hidden behind a cover in the distance, Megumi saw everything clearly.
"Father!"
Seeing the man who had repeatedly charged like a madman at an invincible monster to protect him, now lying lifelessly in the ruins...
A powerful wave of fear and anger unlike anything he had ever felt surged in Megumi Fushiguro's heart.
That was the father he had only just recognized!
That was the silhouette of a father he had secretly yearned for countless times in the depths of his heart for over ten years!
"Let go of me!"
Megumi Fushiguro's eyes were bloodshot. He tried to rush out from behind the cover, but a strong hand clamped down firmly on his shoulder.
"Calm down, Fushiguro!"
It was Kento Nanami, who had just been saved by Yoru and had arrived on the outskirts with Yu Haibara.
Kento Nanami's expression was equally grim, but his remaining reason told him that rushing in now would be nothing but a meaningless death.
"If you go out there now, you won't save him. You'll only be a burden!"
"But..."
Megumi Fushiguro bit his lip so hard that blood trickled down his chin.
During that brief struggle.
Sukuna had already reached the ruins.
He looked down at Toji Fushiguro, buried in the rubble and completely unconscious, without a shred of pity in his eyes.
"What a pathetic sight."
Sukuna slowly raised his right foot as dense black cursed energy swirled wildly around his toes.
If this kick landed, even the Sorcerer Killer's battle-hardened body would be crushed into a pulp.
"Die, insect."
Sukuna's foot descended with a sonic boom that tore through the air!
"Stop—!!!"
At that critical moment.
Megumi Fushiguro suddenly broke free from Kento Nanami's grasp and sprinted recklessly out from the cover.
He knew that if he didn't stop Sukuna here, that man would surely die!
He couldn't just stand by and watch him die.
"Ten Shadows Technique..."
Megumi Fushiguro crossed his hands in front of his chest, forming a complex seal that carried an ancient and desolate aura.
His cursed energy surged like a boiling volcano, causing even the surrounding space to warp violently.
He remembered what Yoru had once told him.
'The true potential of the Ten Shadows Technique goes far beyond this.'
'If you've made your resolve...'
Megumi Fushiguro's eyes turned pitch black as a terrifying aura, enough to make even Special Grade cursed spirits tremble, spread wildly from his shadow!
"With this treasure, I summon..."
"Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General..."
"Mahoraga!!!"