Suddenly, the countless transfigured humans under Mahito's control charged at Sukuna.
He couldn't use his slashes anymore, but against enemies of such low level, he simply didn't have to.
Sukuna easily danced around his challengers, using simple martial arts to weave and crush the mass of bodies standing before him.
Without any struggle, he managed to cut their numbers in half in less than two minutes.
"73, 74..."
Then, a thought suddenly crossed his mind.
If Mahito isn't fighting him anymore, then... Where did he go?
Uraume might be in trouble.
--<>--
Sukuna rapidly jumped, easily outspeeding any transfigured humans in his way.
He reached a higher vantage point upon a nearby pile of rubble. Looking in the direction of where Uraume was last time he saw them, he found something very amusing.
Mahito had changed his body to closely resemble the king of curses while standing before Uraume. Behind the two of them, the octopus-looking curse was impaled on a large ice stake protruding from the ground.
Uraume looked at the false Sukuna with disdain and said something, which then caused him to return to his original form. They charged at him with anger, ice spikes rising from the ground, but the curse simply changed the shape of his soul around the attacks, perfectly evading them, while Sukuna looked on in amusement.
Then, Sukuna suddenly looked behind him. When he did, he saw a large group of transfigured humans, even larger than the one he had been fighting mere seconds ago.
It appeared Mahito had ordered every single one of his transfigured humans in Shibuta to get to where he currently was, but Sukuna was in their path.
So the king of curses had his work cut out for him.
"75, 76, 78..."
--<>--
Meanwhile, on the ground, Uraume and Mahito's combat had stalemated.
Uraume was unable to reach him, and they gave no openings for Mahito to attack either.
However, Mahito was able to do one thing: bring the fighting farther from Dagon, so Uraume didn't get any Ideas about finishing him off.
Dagon was too strong to outright die due to his wounds, but he was too weak to break free from the ice spike piercing his chest.
Mahito couldn't just leave him like that.
So, after narrowly dodging a cold gust of air thrown by Uraume, Mahito picked up a random piece of rubble and threw it in her general direction.
Using the dust as cover, he quickly ran toward Dagon's ice spike and hit it with his fist, causing it to shatter into tiny pieces.
Dagon looked up at his friend and attempted to say something, but his body was hurt too severely to do so.
"No worries, Dagon. You don't owe me or-"
Mahito spoke proudly, but Dagon didn't seem interested. Instead, with the strength that remained inside his body, Dagon worriedly raised his hand and pointed behind Mahito.
Before he could even react, Mahito's chest was impaled by multiple large ice spikes, tainting them with dark purple blood.
Uraume then appeared behind him.
"So... so that's why your soul seemed so strange. You don't have one soul...
No, you've got two of them... you're... a reincarnated sorcerer, aren't you? That's how you harmed me..."
Said Mahito, his voice drowned by the blood pooling in his mouth.
"Perceptive.... For a curse. Begone now."
Spat Uraume, looking at the two curses condescendingly.
Dagon attempted to scream, but he couldn't. Only a desperate gurgle came out.
The ice spikes grew in size, silencing Mahito.
Dagon then grabbed his Poseidon trident. It had the lower half broken off, and small pieces chipped away, but that didn't matter.
Mahito's body hadn't disappeared, so he wasn't dead... yet. So Dagon clung desperately to the hope that he could save his friend.
He wasn't there for Hanami, he didn't do much to help Jogo, and now Mahito had been forced to fight Uraume because he was too weak to do it himself.
So Dagon chose to be here for Mahito now.
Even if it costs him everything.
--<>--
"309... Or was it 308?"
Sukuna then grabbed two transfigured humans by their terribly disfigured heads and knocked them against each other, breaking their skulls in the process.
"311..."
He then chucked both of them forwards. By this point, Sukuna had formed a massive pile of transfigured human cadavers, which he was planning to have Uraume cook for him after all of this was over.
"312..."
But suddenly, as he was about to pull a transfigured human's brain out through its eyesockets, his little fun was interrupted by a flying nail piercing said brain right in front of his eyes.
Looking onto the top of the hill of bodies, Sukuna saw a teenage girl with low-cut brown hair... one of his vessel's classmates.
And, beside her, there was a tall, serious-looking blonde-haired man holding what seemed like a butcher knife wrapped in bandages. Hanami? Nanami, maybe?
Not realizing who was standing below her, the girl began speaking.
"This place smells like shit... What kind of freak would pile up so many..."
Then, she looked down, and her eyes widened in fear. The serious blonde man put an arm in front of her protectively.
"This is why I told you not to come here, Kugisaki. This place is too dangerous for sorcerers of your level!"
Uttered Nanami, although his voice did not sound quite angry. Instead, it sounded quite worried.
He then turned toward the girl and whispered something in her ear before turning to Sukuna.
"Forget the girl, King of curses! I will be your challenger!"
The girl looked at him with a pained expression, then turned to Sukuna, attempting to feign bravery.
"No, I'll fight alongside him! Give Itadori back, you bastard!"
Sukuna extended his fist to the side while still looking toward the two sorcerers, impaling a transfigured human through one of its many mouths.
Then, he smiled slightly.
But seeing the defiant look on their faces, especially of that weak little girl... Oh, he couldn't help himself!
The king of curses began laughing uncontrollably.
--<>--
Dagon gripped his trident with whatever strength remained inside him and charged toward Uraume recklessly.
When he got close and thrusted it in their direction, Uraume easily sidestepped, dodging it.
Dagon then fell to the floor while his trident bounced off in the other direction.
"Don't you see curse? It seems you are even more of a fool than I believed you to be."
Dagon picked up his trident and charged at Uraume once again.
"Your friend, he isn't dead. Nor is he dying."
That made Dagon pause momentarily, looking at his opponent, a silent question in his eyes.
"That was not his true body, after all."
Right as Uraume said those words, Dagon saw a massive two-winged, four-armed, and six-tentacled curse falling like lightning from the heavens.
It was...
Mahito!