'So he's going to use a domain…'
A knowing smile appeared on Sukuna's face.
An open domain meant Mukuro could leave freely. But this was a provocation. Sukuna was betting the man wouldn't run. Even if Megumi's domain was perfected, it would mean little to him.
But in the very next second, Sukuna froze.
Because the hand sign Mukuro formed was not Megumi's. It was something completely unfamiliar.
As Cleave was about to strike, Mukuro raised his left hand and clenched it into a fist, leaving only his index finger standing upright. His right hand then closed around that finger, sealing it within his grasp.
It was the Wisdom Fist Mudra.
"Domain Expansion: Path of Infinite Forms."
The moment Mukuro formed the seal and spoke the name of his domain, it unfolded instantly.
Below them, the ground that once belonged to Malevolent Shrine began to split apart. Pillars of fire burst upward one after another, as if they sought to burn the heavens and boil the seas. The earth became scorched wasteland.
The surrounding temperature rose at a terrifying pace. From beneath the ground, skeletal white hands clawed upward, as though desperately trying to escape some dreadful place.
If Sukuna's innate domain was a tragic world built from mountains of corpses and oceans of blood, then the domain Mukuro now layered over it was a true inferno of the human realm.
Open-barrier domains were unimaginably rare, miracles among miracles. And yet, three had appeared in a single day.
'My domain... has been neutralized...'
Sukuna frowned. Though his domain had not been completely overwritten, the opposing domain had undeniably canceled the guaranteed-hit effect of Malevolent Shrine. Worse still, it continued to erode his domain. The total collapse of Malevolent Shrine was now only a matter of time.
"Your innate domain looks more like that of a King of Curses than mine."
Even so, Sukuna showed no panic. He calmly mocked Mukuro while casually dodging Mahoraga's charge, catching its ankle, and hurling it back into the ground.
Now only he and Mukuro remained in the air.
"Who knows."
Mukuro did not deny it.
A flicker of annoyance crossed Sukuna's face, but he had already made up his mind.
The guaranteed-hit effect was gone, yet the domain itself still remained. Sure-hit Cleave could no longer activate, but the slashes of Dismantle had already reduced the surrounding buildings to fragments.
The ingredients were already in the kitchen. The fuel was prepared. And time was nearly gone.
Then so be it.
Light the fire.
Sukuna's body dropped rapidly downward. Once he widened the distance between himself and Mukuro, he raised both hands before him, and flames ignited once more between his palms.
Originally, he had intended to use the domain and the earlier slashes to alter the activation conditions and effects of Divine Flame then invoke "Open" by placing a binding vow on the entirety of Malevolent Shrine. By doing so, he planned to expand the domain's technique itself, widening the attack range of Divine Flame while sealing all of its destructive force inside the domain.
Simply put, he wanted to use Malevolent Shrine as the furnace itself, trapping the full blaze of his power within it.
But now, Malevolent Shrine was already close to being fully consumed. It simply could not support a binding vow of that scale.
So Sukuna changed tactics.
He placed a vow upon himself. For the remainder of this battle, he would no longer be able to use Divine Flame. In exchange, the activation speed of the technique would greatly increase. Against an opponent this powerful, willingly sacrificing one of his trump cards was a valid offering.
Then he added another vow.
Once this strike was released, Malevolent Shrine would collapse completely. In exchange, the range of Divine Flame would spread throughout the remains of his crumbling domain.
Still, this level of expansion was far from what he had originally wanted.
What Sukuna truly wished to expand was the effect of Malevolent Shrine's entire technique.
Using the domain's guaranteed-hit effect as the foundation, he meant to make the power of the flames act directly upon the dust and countless fragments created by his endless slashes, rather than limiting it to the single technique, Divine Flame.
But because the domain was being neutralized and the guaranteed-hit effect had already been lost, a binding vow of that level no longer held enough force behind it. Nor did Sukuna intend to make an even greater sacrifice to compensate for it.
Thus, the expansion was limited only to Divine Flame itself. In other words, he amplified the fire technique's own power rather than releasing it from a single point.
"Open."
This time, Sukuna was not interrupted.
With one palm forward and one behind, he stretched the flames into the shape of an arrow and fired it violently toward Mahoraga.
The technique had already been expanded, so the moment the flaming arrow was released, the fire spread at terrifying speed and exploded across the entire space. Anything at all was reduced to ashes before the flames even touched it.
An ocean of fire carrying cursed energy and unbearable heat surged toward Mahoraga and Mukuro.
Mukuro did not dodge. Instead, in an instant, he dropped beside Mahoraga and lashed out with a kick, sending it flying beyond the domain. After all, if Mahoraga took that hit directly, it might not survive.
As for Mukuro himself, he simply raised one finger.
Without the domain's guaranteed-hit effect, Sukuna's Divine Flame looked as though it devoured the entire domain in an instant. In truth, it was only spreading extremely fast.
"Cold."
Just as the devouring wave of heat was about to crash into him, Mukuro pointed forward with his index finger.
The surrounding temperature plummeted.
Endless frost wrapped in cursed energy appeared from behind him out of thin air, surging in the direction of his finger and colliding head-on with the flames.
Ssshhh!
The clash of ice and fire created a deafening roar, while dense steam instantly swallowed the entire battlefield from sight.
The two men's gazes seemed to meet through everything. Both of them waited for the result of this contest.
A moment later, the fog cleared.
As dictated by the binding vow, Sukuna's Malevolent Shrine had completely collapsed. Now they stood entirely within Mukuro's domain.
But the domain no longer looked the same.
The two of them now seemed to stand inside a palace sculpted entirely from ice and snow. Yet those so-called buildings were all formed from the flames Sukuna had fired with Divine Flame.
The sea of fire that had once been enough to engulf the whole domain had now become nothing more than decoration.
Mukuro slightly raised his chin and looked at Sukuna with the eyes one would reserve for the weak.
"Don't shrink back so quickly. It's my turn now."
**
**
**
Thank you for reading! If you'd like access to extra chapters and want to support my work, you can visit my P@treon:
P@treon/SilverShark769
Vote with Power Stones for Bonus Chapters!
Your support means a lot, thank you!