The splattered blood blooming across his chest vanished in an instant, his body restoring itself as if nothing had happened.
Mirai's gaze toward Mahoraga grew increasingly bright.
This was an ultimate tool with an incredibly high potential ceiling.
No—
a divine tool.
In the manga, the Mahoraga summoned by Ryomen Sukuna had been eliminated rather quickly by Satoru Gojo.
But the real reason was simple: Mahoraga hadn't had enough time to grow, nor enough battles to experience.
Even so, that incomplete Mahoraga still caused tremendous trouble for Gojo during the fight.
Its adaptability was unrivaled—true.
But its capacity for growth was equally terrifying.
Given enough time, in theory, Mahoraga would become the strongest combat force in the world.
Thinking this, Mirai twisted his body again, narrowly dodging a sword thrust aimed straight at him.
A faint smile still lingered at the corner of his lips. But facing Mahoraga—whose adaptation had already broken through his intangibility—his expression carried a trace of caution.
Inside the cramped pit, Mirai narrowly avoided the blades that slashed down again and again.
While weaving and dodging, his hands rapidly formed hand seals.
"Snap!"
A tongue shot out from the shadows like a whipping lash.
The crack of a sonic boom echoed as it tightly bound Mahoraga in place.
The shikigami Toad.
Its body hid within the shadows, using only its tongue to restrain Mahoraga's movement.
"Zzzzt!"
A flash of lightning lit up the narrow pit.
With thunder crackling around its wings, the shikigami Nue burst out from the shadows.
By adjusting the cursed energy output, Nue's size was just small enough to spread its wings inside the pit.
The moment Mahoraga was restrained, Mirai lightly tapped the ground and stepped onto Nue's back, soaring upward into the sky.
Since Mahoraga had not yet been tamed, it did not occupy one of the summoner's slots. Thus, Mirai could still summon two shikigami at once.
"Boom!!"
The instant Mirai flew out of the pit, the Toad's long tongue was violently torn apart by Mahoraga's powerful body.
Another explosive roar echoed.
Staring fixedly at the target in the sky, Mahoraga crouched slightly to gather strength.
The moment it leapt, the pit collapsed even further—stones and debris spraying everywhere.
Like a cannonball fired from a barrel, Mahoraga shot upward with terrifying speed, rapidly closing the distance to Nue.
The muscles in its right arm bulged as the Sword of Extermination prepared to strike.
Mirai looked down from above, a faint smile appearing on his lips.
"Whoosh!"
At the instant Mahoraga raised its hand, Nue's body suddenly exploded apart like splattered ink.
And replacing its position was—
The fully unleashed shikigami Max Elephant.
With cursed energy output pushed to the limit, its body towered as high as a five-story building, its weight reaching a terrifying thousand tons.
Mahoraga's vision suddenly went dark.
With no time to change direction midair, the crushing mass slammed directly into its body.
Mahoraga, over five meters tall, looked like an infant compared to the enormous backside of Max Elephant.
"BOOM!!!"
The impact shook the earth like an earthquake. The debris and dust thrown into the air rose dozens of meters high.
Watching from five hundred meters away, Naobito Zenin felt his eyelids twitch along with the trembling ground, his heart pounding uncontrollably.
With the changes unfolding in the battle, the anticipation in his chest grew stronger.
Meanwhile, the Zenin sorcerers helping evacuate the clan members trembled with fear even from over a kilometer away.
Success or failure.
Their thoughts wavered between the two.
If the ritual succeeded, the Zenin Clan they served would undoubtedly enter a new golden age.
But the ruler would be a tyrant whose word was absolute. Their lives might flicker out at any moment depending on his mood.
If it failed, their lives would be safer—
but without Future…
without a Ten Shadows user…
the Zenin Clan's decline would only be a matter of time.
Before anyone could think further, a thunderous roar like a collapsing mountain echoed through the night sky.
Max Elephant's massive body was wedged perfectly into the mouth of the pit, deepening and widening the surrounding cracks.
With a thought from Mirai, Max Elephant dissolved back into shadows.
At the edge of the pit, only Mahoraga's upper half remained.
Its lower body had fallen into the abyss along with the collapsing stones.
"As expected… relying solely on the Ten Shadows isn't enough to tame this monster."
As Mirai's quiet words fell, the magic wheel above Mahoraga's head began to turn.
Its lower body rapidly regenerated.
In the blink of an eye, Mahoraga had fully recovered.
Without hesitation, it slashed downward.
The already scarred land gained another thin gash stretching dozens of meters.
Its attack speed and cutting power were noticeably stronger than when it had first been summoned.
Dancing on the edge of a blade, Mirai repeatedly brushed past lethal strikes while calculating Mahoraga's growth data.
Mahoraga was fast—
but under the gaze of Mirai's crimson eyes, every attack trajectory was perfectly clear.
Suddenly leaping to evade another fatal strike, Mirai flashed behind Mahoraga and delivered a powerful whip-kick to its waist.
He had never relied solely on strengthening techniques or cursed energy manipulation.
His physical combat training had never stopped either.
The heavy blow caused Mahoraga's thick block-like muscles to visibly cave inward.
"Boom!!"
Mahoraga smashed through several buildings before being buried under rubble.
"Clang."
The crisp sound of the wheel turning rang out.
When Mahoraga burst out from the debris, it stood again in perfect condition.
"BOOM!"
Mahoraga dove forward, surging air currents rolling outward.
The strongest shikigami—now evolved again—radiated a pressure comparable to a Special Grade.
"Rabbit Escape."
At the moment Mahoraga closed in, its vision was suddenly flooded with countless white rabbits.
Like a surging tide, thousands upon thousands of rabbits swarmed over its body, biting fearlessly.
Not only its vision—
even Mahoraga's perception of the caster's cursed energy became briefly distorted.
In that moment of confusion, the rabbits surrounding it suddenly exploded and retreated into shadows.
The instant Mahoraga's senses cleared—
it saw the caster standing less than a meter in front of it.
Just as it raised its blade—
Mahoraga suddenly stumbled and collapsed to the ground.
Without a sound, a burst of strange cursed energy erupted.
Mahoraga's left leg vanished.
The wheel above its head turned again as the limb rapidly regenerated, as though it would rise and strike in the next second.
But Mirai looked down at it coldly.
As their gazes met again and again, a towering surge of cursed energy erupted and faded.
Thigh.
Arm.
Abdomen.
Chest.
Head.
Mahoraga's massive body was gradually swallowed by space.
During the entire process, the speed of its regeneration—and the rotation of the wheel—could not keep up with the rate at which its body disappeared.
"Clang… clang…"
As the magic wheel disk fell to the ground, Mirai clearly sensed that within the shadow at his feet—
a terrifying existence now waited for his command.
"—HAHAHAHA!"
The evolution of the Outer Path Demonic Statue, the birth of the white cursed spirit, and now the taming of the strongest shikigami.
Having taken another step toward ultimate power, Mirai laughed wildly and freely.
Under the moonlight, amidst the ruins, the laughing boy—
sent chills down the spines of the sorcerers watching from a kilometer away.
Well.
No more hesitation.
The battle was over.
The tyrant had won.
Standing atop a building, Naobito stared into the distance at Mirai, his fists clenched tightly, his expression trembling with excitement.
The ritual had succeeded.
A ceremony that no one in history had ever completed—
had been broken by Mirai at this very moment.
The undisputed strongest clan head.