"Cut the act."
Hearing Satoru's nonsense, Mukuro suddenly exerted force with both arms and threw Rika back toward Sukuna's side.
"You two really are something..."
His eyes remained fixed on the pair before him. Even with the Queen of Curses by his side, Sukuna no longer felt completely confident.
If only Mukuro were here, then with Rika holding him back, there was still a chance to retreat as long as he avoided getting tangled up with Mahoraga.
After all, from Yuta Okkotsu's memories, he had seen that neither Satoru nor Mukuro had intended to exorcise Rika back then. Neither of them wanted the love between those two young people to end in tragedy.
But now that both of them were here, that possibility no longer existed.
"The King of Curses was actually beaten so badly by Yuji that he had to run away? That's way too funny!"
Satoru showed no restraint as he spread his arms and mocked Sukuna. Then his tone suddenly changed.
"Get the hell out of there!"
The Six Eyes shone brilliantly, almost like fireworks exploding in the night sky. Beneath his smile was a trace of genuine anger.
If Sukuna had simply stayed inside Yuji's body and behaved himself, Satoru could have ignored many of the problems he caused, as there was no reason to deliberately release him just for a fight. The uncertainty and potential destruction were too great.
But now he had crossed the line.
Stealing another one of his students' bodies and taking complete control was something Satoru could never tolerate.
"You can attack if you want. But the first one to die will definitely be Yuta Okkotsu."
As the strongest sorcerer from a thousand years ago, Sukuna was naturally unmoved by a few harsh words. Instead, he saw the situation clearly and knew exactly what benefited him most right now.
As soon as he spoke, Rika reacted. She immediately stepped in front of him and faced the two men head-on as vast cursed energy surged from her body.
"Even you two aren't allowed to bully Yuta!"
Rika remembered Mukuro and Satoru. They were the first people who had helped Yuta accept her and open his heart.
She didn't want to fight them, but the "Yuta" behind her was the person she loved most. No matter what happened, she had to protect him.
The huge eye on her face widened, and an enormous amount of cursed energy seemed ready to gather there at any moment.
"Can you do it?"
Satoru didn't answer Rika. He just glanced at the man beside him.
He knew that the owner of those mismatched eyes possessed abilities that could affect souls to some extent. The compatibility between Yuta's body and Sukuna's soul definitely wasn't as high as Yuji's.
Perhaps they could use this chance to drive Sukuna out once and for all.
"I can't be sure."
Mukuro couldn't guarantee it. Until now, he had never truly fought Sukuna while he was possessing Yuta. He couldn't determine whether the Deva Path would work.
Though if his judgment was correct, it probably wouldn't.
Under normal circumstances, as long as the original soul of the body wasn't completely erased during possession, Mukuro could heavily injure the reincarnated sorcerer and force them out.
The problem was Sukuna.
A monster of his level, even if he couldn't fully display his strength because he hadn't completely mastered the body yet, his soul had still existed for over a thousand years.
And Yuta wasn't the same as Yuji.
Yuji had been deliberately created by Kenjaku. He was the perfect vessel for Sukuna, capable of suppressing Sukuna's soul to the greatest extent while bearing his power without burden.
The control always belonged to Yuji. The two souls were completely separate, and there was nothing surprising about that.
But Yuta was different.
The one holding control right now was Sukuna, and based on the current situation, the boundary between their souls wasn't very clear.
Yuta was still fighting for control of the body, which prevented Sukuna from using his full strength. That also meant Sukuna could switch the soul on the surface to Yuta at any time while hiding himself beneath it.
Unlike when he occupied Yuji's body, he could suppress Yuta's consciousness again whenever he wanted.
In other words, if Sukuna chose to hide himself, it would be unrealistic for Mukuro to directly enter Yuta's body through the Deva Path and fight him internally, because Sukuna could instantly swap Yuta's soul to the forefront whenever necessary.
Once a soul of Sukuna's level controlled a body, the only way to damage that soul again through the Deva Path was to first severely injure the body itself.
Which brought everything right back to the current situation.
Fortunately, there were two of them. Mukuro would handle the soul, and Satoru would handle the body.
Together, they could eliminate Sukuna right here.
"I see. Then let's do it."
Seeing the smile forming on "Megumi's" face, Satoru immediately understood.
This battle could be won.
The aura around both men continued to rise, like two towering mountains pressing down upon Sukuna.
"You two shameless bastards..."
Yet Sukuna suddenly did something neither of them expected.
Just as they were about to attack, he thrust a hand into his own chest and pulled out a still-beating, steaming heart.
"Yuta!"
Blood splattered through the air before Rika's eyes, and anger and panic instantly filled her. Her scream echoed into the heavens as the immense cursed energy erupting from her nearly compressed the surrounding air.
"Don't worry, Queen. As long as I'm here, Yuta Okkotsu won't die."
Sukuna patted her arm and held up the heart as he stepped forward.
"You two should understand this very well. My technique can directly interfere with souls. What do you think would happen if I turned something into a cursed object? What do you think would happen if the Queen of Curses were killed by me?"
This was the hostage in Sukuna's hands.
Repairing damaged souls with Reverse Cursed Technique was extremely difficult. The sorcerer had to be capable of perceiving souls in the first place, and that was only possible if the soul hadn't been completely destroyed.
Just like Yuji before, his finger had already been transformed into a cursed object and consumed. That portion of the soul had been utterly destroyed. Even Reverse Cursed Technique couldn't restore it.
Rika's situation was even worse. Using Yuta's identity, Sukuna could easily trick her into accepting his attacks without any defense.
But Rika had already lost her physical body long ago, so every slash would strike directly at her soul.
If her soul were completely shattered, she might not even have another life waiting for her.
Rika would truly die.
And these were the two problems standing before Mukuro and Satoru.
"Mukuro Fushiguro, I know your illusions are impressive. But a fake heart created through illusion is still fake. Under certain circumstances, there's bound to be a risk of it failing, isn't there?"
Sukuna looked toward him and smiled as he raised the beating heart in his hand.
With a single move, he had placed both of them in a difficult position.
If they ignored Yuta, they could kill Sukuna right here.
But there was no such choice.
"So the mighty King of Curses is nothing more than trash who uses hostages to run away?"
Satoru immediately switched to taunting. His face was full of mockery, and the contempt in his eyes seemed ready to spill over.
"I already told you. After I fully awaken, the first thing I'll do is kill the two of you. Just not yet."
Sukuna paid no attention to the provocation. He casually tossed the heart in his hand before making a proposal.
"You people seem to enjoy holidays, don't you? Then how about this? More than half a month from now, on Christmas, I'll personally pick out a nice grave for both of you. And before then, I won't kill anyone. That's a binding vow."
For perhaps the first time, Sukuna was making an exception.
Of course, whether he killed people or not didn't really matter to him.
The true feast was already right in front of him. He would defeat them at his absolute peak and finally bring an end to the boredom that had lasted for a thousand years.
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