The world screamed as two open barrier domains attempted to force themselves upon reality. Then the sky split in two, one side a bloody crimson that reeked of death and destruction, and the other golden and binding like eternal bonds.
On one side, a bloody shrine made of flesh and bones manifested and opened its mouths as if shrieking as countless slashes manifested in a 200-meter radius; yet on the other side, a peaceful shrine that dripped with clear waters manifested, its form comprised of golden pillars and marble walls and shining faintly with a heavenly light as it bound everything within a 200-meter radius together.
When two domains clashed, the sure-hit effects were both nullified until one domain triumphed over the other. However, without a barrier to speak of for either domain, while there was no sure-hit effect present, the techniques imbued into both domains poured into reality without care. This caused a strange phenomenon as the two domains interacted.
As everything within the domains was simultaneously shredded into atoms and forced back together in equal measure, everything within 200 meters of these two powerful sorcerers began to blur as they vibrated with extreme speed.
"This is unexpected," Sukuna said, dodging a punch as he slammed a fist into the ribs of the Sage, who simply tanked the punch and elbowed Sukuna, cutting open his mouth. Sukuna spit blood and grinned as he grabbed the face of the Sage and drove it into the ground with a bang that caused a 20-meter-wide crater.
"Don't get cocky," the Sage said, using the momentum of his body slamming into the ground headfirst to knee Sukuna in the back of the head, tensing his muscles to then drive Sukuna into the ground, doubling the size of the crater as smoke covered them.
Leaping away as the vibrating ground closed itself around Sukuna, he easily broke free, throwing an unstable tree towards the Sage, who dodged easily and punched at Sukuna's face. Only a palm caught the fist as Sukuna rammed a knee into the mouth on the Sage's stomach.
Boooooommm!
A massive trench was blown into the ground as the Sage was punted at full force. Yet, with his Mend holding him together while boosted within his domain, he wasn't injured for long. He just had to make sure his domain didn't break; otherwise, the burnout that would follow would put him in a risky position.
"Bind..." He released multiple binds as he dashed forward, all the Dismantles that flew in his direction parting as he pulled them out of his path.
The two sorcerers clashed hundreds of times, every clash of their punches, kicks, and techniques destroying the landscape, which reformed behind them at an equal pace.
Sukuna slipped a punch, letting it graze him so he could take advantage, uppercutting the Sage whose head snapped upward as a massive shockwave tore through everything around them. As Sukuna tried to take this chance and reposition, he found his arm grabbed by the Sage, whose head locked back onto him as he wound back his fist.
"Oh shit..."
"Black Flash!" The Sage's fist slammed into Sukuna's head, shaving a section of his jaw off and exposing teeth as Sukuna flew through his Malevolent Shrine, causing it to explode.
However, it wasn't over yet. He'd lasted long enough for the five minutes of the domain to end as both domains closed. For lesser sorcerers, the burnout of their cursed techniques would be longer than this, but after a mere 15 seconds, Sukuna felt a deathly chill as his RCT healed all his wounds, leaving him unscathed. He raised an arm, pulling the air beside it back like he was drawing an arrow, extremely hot flames manifesting, just as 30 meters away the Sage stood doing the same—except his arrow was of crystalline ice.
"Fuga!"
"Cocytus!"
The two arrows, once released, flew forward in an eerie silence, and the moment they met in the middle, they both rapidly expanded. The fire arrow exploded into a massive thermobaric explosion, and the ice arrow burst into a spontaneous glacier that froze all it touched on an atomic level.
When these two extreme temperatures on opposite ends of the spectrum met, they rapidly condensed into solid form before rebounding back into their most raw state in a violent explosion many times larger than either one independently. The destruction dwarfed what their domains covered originally, and neither of them was fast enough to escape the combined devastation of their attacks.
Overhead, a massive swirling storm formed as lightning flashed across the skies as if the heavens were angry. Lying on his back with his body mostly charred or in the late stages of hypothermia, Sukuna slowly stood. His natural healing was already rapid with Heavenly Restriction and the Super Soldier Serum, but when he used RCT on top of it, he felt good as new, albeit a bit drained in the cursed energy department.
He'd landed some 600 meters from where he was when he released the arrow, and he hadn't gotten his reward yet, so the other him was still very much alive.
Grinning with excitement like never before, he vanished in a burst of speed, and it didn't take long to return. As he ran, for that brief moment, he noted how the blast had completely flattened everything in a radius between 1-2 kilometers into a jagged land of flash-frozen glass.
"Despite all my efforts to maintain the beauty of my temple, both it and my land are destroyed in their entirety now..." the Sage said as Sukuna stopped a few feet in front of him.
"What's it matter anyway? Don't act as if you aren't enjoying the fight yourself." Sukuna smirked, and the Sage didn't deny this.
"What I enjoy doesn't matter when lives are at stake, fool."
"Ugh, I forgot about that self-sacrificing nature you seem to have in this alternative history..." Sukuna grimaced before firing a wave of Dismantles at the Sage, who raised an eyebrow, using Bind to rid himself of the slashes only for Sukuna to use a sudden burst of extreme speed.
"I haven't used this technique on you this whole time, right?" Sukuna grabbed the closest arm to himself and, using Cleave, he sliced it into blood mist. The Sage's eyes widened as he kicked Sukuna in the head, sending him far away, before looking at his bleeding stump as he used RCT to heal himself.
'I was curious about the second aspect of his technique, but I should have guessed it was just the opposite of my Mend if the pattern I've noticed is anything to go by. It also adjusted to my technique's boosted durability and cut my arm to shreds regardless,' the Sage analyzed as he and Sukuna prepared to start the second clash of their battle.
"Grand Web," the Sage said, aiming his hand in the direction of Sukuna as a massive golden net of Bind shot out, aiming to bind parts of his body to other parts, therefore crushing him to death.
Using many Dismantles to destroy this net, Sukuna threw a large boulder at the Sage, who got distracted for a split second due to the force behind the throw. As the Sage caught the boulder with another net, he made a longer bind to act as a string and spun around just in time to catch a fist rocketing towards his face, while the boulder slammed into Sukuna's side, knocking him off balance as a heavy punch knocked him away again.
"I really hope you've got more than that up your sleeves," Sukuna grinned, leaping into the sky and raining down thousands of Dismantles from different angles. Below, he saw the Sage swatting and blocking them as he was cut and healed rapidly.
"Shut up..." The Sage wasn't amused as he violently kicked off the ground, grabbing Sukuna's face as slashes continued to slice away at his flesh.
Golden lines covered Sukuna's vision as he was rapidly wrapped in Bind. All of the Sage's cursed energy went into his leg as he tossed the golden ball up and kicked it as sparks of black sprayed across the sky, sending Sukuna into the distance.
"Crush." The Sage clasped his hands together and the golden ball condensed, trying to crush Sukuna into pulp; yet Sukuna's monstrous strength let him resist it as he pushed back from within the ball.
Cracks of golden light seeped from the orb before the Sage clenched his hands harder and the ball exploded with Sukuna at the center.
Needing to confirm what happened, the Sage—who was still high in the sky—locked off the air to launch himself in the direction of his attack. He found Sukuna, whose arms were burnt horribly yet visibly mending.
Suddenly, Sukuna slammed his healed hands into the ground as he spoke.
"Spiderweb." He was using Cleave on the ground as a massive web appeared, spreading to anything in its radius, destroying the Sage's feet. As he was falling from the sudden loss of his feet, a Black Flash slammed into his face, driving him into the ground once more.
"Got you this time!" Sukuna laughed as he quickly formed hand signs.
Yet the benefit of having four arms came into the Sage's favor as his stomach mouth also chanted while his lower arms formed the required hand signs.
"Domain Expansion: Malevolent Shrine!"
"Domain Expansion: Heavenly Shrine!"
Once again, the area was turned into a vibrating mess as the domains fought for dominance in reality.
"You're pretty fast at casting your domain. It was almost too late." Sukuna let the Sage stand as the injuries on the body of the Sage healed once again.
"I'm another you; what did you expect?" the Sage replied as they both came to an understanding.
They could keep going until both their techniques burned out and make it another rush for a Black Flash, or they could stop restraining themselves and go all out to see who dies first.
Simultaneously, they both cancelled their domains as the tension in the air became heavy.
Both Sukunas present formed a face-splitting grin. The Sage raised his upper right arm and grasped the air as a cursed tool was manifested. It was a white jaded vajra that had faint golden markings etched into the small handle, and on his left, an obsidian spear wrapped with golden sutra bandages formed—both undoubtedly special grade cursed objects.
"Before you die, I'll give you the honor of the names of my weapons, so at least you know what killed you in the end."
"My, how kind of you," Sukuna said, only getting a scoff in return.
"This is my Shizutoke; it can drain all inertia and kinetic energy and gives it to me for usage. And my spear is Chian, with total mastery over the very earth around us." The Sage got into a combat stance as his presence was truly overwhelming.
"Then I guess I can finally let loose. What I currently lack in cursed energy can be made up for with my enhanced physical power. I wanted to enjoy the battle with such a powerful opponent, but even I know that with your greater cursed energy, I'd run out of domains long before you do, and it'll be all over then." The muscle on Sukuna's body condensed as the air around him snapped as he tensed, releasing a burst of pressure.
"Let's see who dies first, okay?" Sukuna smiled with a look of euphoria in those crimson eyes