"Let's go, Queen."
Before leaving, Sukuna deliberately stretched out a hand toward Rika. Since she was a "spirit" attached to Yuta, then naturally she should belong to him now as well.
"You... give Yuta back!"
Rika refused. Her soul rejected the "Yuta" before her, yet at the same time it told her that her Yuta was still there and had not disappeared. But she could not bring herself to attack that face, so all she could do was shout angrily.
"That's right. We won't let you leave."
Todo stood beside Yuji. Both of them had already decided to stop Sukuna no matter what.
(Kashimo was still frozen in ice shouting nonstop and still being ignored by everyone.)
"And me too!"
A voice came from the sky.
It was Megumi with wings spread across his back. After receiving the heavily injured Inumaki and Panda outside the barrier, he chose to join the battlefield as well.
Having been guided by his uncle regarding both his body and cursed technique, Megumi's mastery over the Ten Shadows Technique had improved dramatically.
He no longer needed to summon Nue itself to fly. Just like his uncle, he could now partially manifest and attach wings directly onto his back through technique extension.
And just like now, after entering the barrier he immediately flew into the sky searching for the center of the cursed energy clash. What he did not expect was to arrive in the middle of a situation this disastrous.
Even without seeing everything firsthand, Megumi could easily guess what happened. Yuji had probably been too naive again and got tricked by Sukuna. And Yuta ended up suffering the consequences.
"Fushiguro!"
The arrival of another ally lifted Yuji's spirits again.
"We'll talk later after we get out of here."
"With this treasure, I summon—"
Ignoring Yuji's attempt at greeting him, Megumi had already begun forming hand signs midair.
"One after another..."
Megumi's arrival had been entirely within Sukuna's expectations.
In his current incomplete state, unable to fully use either his own power or Yuta's, Sukuna knew he could not quickly deal with the troublesome monster from the Ten Shadows Technique. And after the battle in Shibuya, there was a high chance that creature had already completely adapted to his slashes just like before.
Most troublesome of all, if Megumi was here, then that annoying man could appear at any moment too.
Sukuna raised his fingers. He intended to shoot Megumi down before Mahoraga could fully manifest.
Clap!
But just as the slash fired, a sharp clap suddenly echoed.
The person in the air switched places with Todo.
"—Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga."
The chant and hand signs were already complete. From the shadows behind Megumi, that familiar terrifying figure stepped out once more. Even the ground beneath it cracked apart from the pressure of its appearance.
Clap!
Another clap rang out, and Todo and Mahoraga switched positions.
The several slashes Sukuna released all landed directly on Mahoraga's body, yet not a single wound appeared.
It had completely adapted to slashing attacks.
"So this is your trump card? It's even scarier than I imagined~"
Todo raised one hand above his eyes to block the sunlight while staring upward in amazement.
He already knew the Ten Shadows Technique contained an absurdly powerful shikigami, but this was his first time seeing it personally. Reputation truly could not compare to reality.
"Enough talking. Heal first."
The wings behind Megumi disappeared. Then he summoned Round Deer, the shikigami capable of using Reverse Cursed Technique, to heal Todo and Yuji's injuries.
Mahoraga alone was enough to hold Sukuna back.
"Tch..."
Meanwhile, Uraume, Sukuna's number one admirer and loyal follower for over a thousand years, could not understand the audacity of these people at all.
Watching Mahoraga descend from the sky toward them, she immediately raised both hands. An overwhelming amount of cursed energy burst from her sleeves.
"Ice Formation Technique: Frost Calm!"
A gigantic glacier erupted upward from the earth and instantly froze the completely defenseless Mahoraga inside.
"Sukuna-sama, forgive my disrespect, but I want to kill them all."
Uraume simply could not tolerate these people still acting so boldly before Sukuna.
"There's no need to waste time. It'll become troublesome if that shameless thing arrives."
Sukuna rejected her proposal immediately.
Uraume had not participated in the Shibuya Incident, so she did not understand Mahoraga's true terror and believed her technique had already defeated it.
But if one looked closely, cracks had already begun slowly spreading from the center of the glacier imprisoning Mahoraga. And the wheel above its head had begun turning slowly.
Just like Sukuna's slashes, Uraume's ice technique was fundamentally a relatively simple cursed technique. It only became terrifying because of the overwhelming strength of its user. As such, Mahoraga would not need long to adapt.
Every second trapped inside the ice allowed it to continuously adapt to Uraume's technique. It probably would not even take a full minute before it shattered free completely.
If this were Sukuna at full power, defeating these three brats within a minute would be effortless.
But unfortunately, that was impossible now.
And Rika still had not obeyed his commands. Even if she did, she would still be useless against Mahoraga.
Despite being called the Queen of Curses, at her core she was still only a vengeful cursed spirit created from Yuta's obsessive love and the accumulation of countless curses. And the Sword of Extermination wielded by Mahoraga happened to be the natural enemy of all cursed spirits.
No matter how many curses existed, a few strikes from that blade would erase them completely.
The current situation was extremely unfavorable for Sukuna's side. And the best option right now was to leave before Mukuro and Satoru arrived.
"As you command, Sukuna-sama."
Uraume abandoned the idea of fighting. Displeased as she felt, Sukuna's orders always came first. That conviction had never changed over the last thousand years.
So the two turned around and prepared to leave.
But at that exact moment, the situation Sukuna least wanted to see finally happened.
"Uncle Mukuro!"
After glancing once toward his still-healing companions, Megumi realized there was no way to stop Sukuna from leaving without Mahoraga, so he could only shout.
The next instant, his head lowered.
A gentle breeze suddenly blew past, causing the hair over his forehead to sway softly as the aura around him began changing.
Nothing about his appearance changed outwardly. Yet even from over ten meters away, Sukuna and Uraume could smell a heavy scent of blood.
It was like someone had just walked through a river made entirely of blood. The thick metallic smell filled the air.
Then, when Megumi slowly raised his head again, that once youthful face now carried absolute dominance.
A crimson number "6" appeared within his right eye.
The strongest of the modern era, Six Paths Mukuro had arrived.
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