Chapter 146 — Night Guy Emerges, Heralding Death?
"Fifth Step!!"
The final strike of Evening Elephant—aimed directly at the only part of Sukuna left intact: his head.
The previous four blows had already pulverized the rest of his gigantic body.
Facing the last air cannon—its power compounded by the force of the prior four—
Sukuna's twisted expression contorted even further.
"HAHAHAHAHA!
DO IT—KILL ME!!"
Massive torrents of cursed energy wrapped around his skull like iron chains.
His mouth taunted death, but the sky above told another story—
the sea of cursed clouds descended all at once, layering into a dense fortress to defend his head.
---
BOOOOOOM!!!
Compressed space tore straight through the stacked layers of cursed defenses.
The blast smashed into Sukuna's enormous head like a supersonic jet ramming into flesh—
His entire face imploded inward.
Blood and pulped tissue sprayed.
His eyes burst like overfilled balloons.
His skull warped grotesquely.
And yet—
Every ounce of cursed energy he possessed flooded into the head, absorbing most of the impact.
At the same time—
what little remained of his massive body, though torn apart by the shockwave,
began regenerating instantly under the weight of his limitless cursed power.
---
"...hahahahahaha…"
"Is that your limit?
What a shame—
you still couldn't kill me!"
The final step of Evening Elephant ended.
For a moment, everyone saw the inside of Sukuna's skull—
his brain matter exposed.
But even that wasn't enough.
Sukuna was simply too broken as a concept.
Infinite cursed energy.
Limitless regeneration.
He was beyond even a supercharged Mahoraga—
something that had no right to exist.
Zen'in Shinsuke landed heavily on the ground.
His breath was uneven, shallow.
He could feel the fractures running through the bones of both arms.
Ironically, this was the worst injury he'd ever suffered—
and he'd inflicted it on himself.
"You've lost."
In moments, Sukuna's body had already regenerated most of itself.
Six newly restored arms wove into a complex seal.
A suffocating pressure of cursed energy engulfed everything within a kilometer.
Even Gojo and the others were forcibly dragged into its range.
Realizing what was happening, Shinsuke didn't hesitate.
He slammed both hands into the ground—
Blood-red steam erupted from his body like a volcanic explosion.
He was ready to decide the ending here, even if it meant dying.
"Condense."
His entire frame shuddered.
Vast torrents of life force compressed into tangible matter—
and his body, unable to withstand the overwhelming power, split open with cracks glowing like molten magma.
"Domain Expansion —
Malevolent Shrine!!"
A kilometer around them turned crimson.
A massive shrine of bone manifested behind Sukuna, dwarfing the ruined city.
Sukuna smiled faintly, almost gently.
"My domain is complete.
All that remains is futility.
Allow me to send you on your final journey."
Countless slashes—each spanning a kilometer—began to flicker like stars, heralding the final outcome of the battle.
Sukuna couldn't imagine any scenario in which he lost.
This domain wasn't merely expanded in range—
every single slash within it possessed the power to disintegrate space itself.
Within such a domain, nothing living should be able to survive.
---
"Sukuna, didn't I tell you before the fight even started?"
Shinsuke grinned faintly.
"This was always going to be a group beatdown."
A holy light erupted in the scarlet apocalypse—
a single divine pillar resisting Sukuna's domain.
"Jacob's Ladder!"
Angel descended at the final moment, unleashing her technique in an attempt to overwrite Sukuna's domain entirely.
But—
Her power wasn't enough.
"A crawling insect."
Sukuna didn't even look directly at the descending divinity.
"Did you truly believe you could threaten me the way you once did?"
He treated her technique as if it were a joke—
a mantis trying to stop a chariot.
"Don't villains usually die because they talk too much?"
A voice brushed past Sukuna's ear.
He turned—
And at that instant, a dagger wrapped in a shimmering rainbow aura pierced straight through space
and stabbed directly into his skull.
Sukuna's pupils shrank.
His domain sputtered—
then shattered explosively.
In the distance, Toji stood with steam rising violently off his body.
Four Gates, enhanced further by Heavenly Restriction—
he had thrown the Inverted Spear of Heaven with a velocity rivaling cutting-edge military weaponry.
The anti-technique dagger pierced Sukuna's brain, interrupting his technique for one critical moment.
"Sukuna—
take this kick like a good dog!!"
On the opposite side—
Shinsuke had already summoned an ocean of blood-red energy, condensing it into a colossal dragon of pure force, easily a hundred meters tall.
"ROOOOOAR—!!"
The roar of the dragon shook the battlefield.
Trailing behind it like a comet, Shinsuke launched himself and unleashed a kick that warped the space behind him.
Sukuna's expression finally shifted—
this dragon was larger than his own monstrous body.
All six arms crossed before him, layered with titanic cursed energy.
But the moment the dragon closed in—
Space froze.
His body froze.
He couldn't move.
With no option except to stack layer after layer of defensive barriers—
"Come, then!!!"
This would decide it.
Far away, the onlookers clenched their fists.
"Please… win, Sensei…"
Maki whispered, eyes unblinking.
Even Toji tightened his grip.
"Whether or not he can put the entire sorcerer world beneath his heel… depends on that kick."
"NIGHT GUY!!!"
With a thunderous roar, decades of cultivated power exploded in a single kick.
BOOOOM!!!
Sukuna's layered barriers shattered instantly.
The kick connected cleanly—
a force beyond description detonating within his body.
Cracks tore the air apart—
sharp, jagged seams spreading in all directions.
"CRRRRAAAACK…"
The surrounding space fractured—
"SHATTER!!"
Like broken glass, the sky split open,
and with a final, earth-shaking dragon's roar—
Sukuna was kicked straight into the rift in space.
Two silhouettes vanished within the tearing void.
Everyone swallowed.
What else could they do?
That kick didn't just break the land—
it broke the very fabric of reality.
Back at ground zero—
blackened earth, scorched beyond recognition.
Not a single trace of the city remained.
Before them stood a crack in space hundreds of meters tall—
too terrifying for anyone to step near.
"So… who won?"
No one could answer,
but one thing was clear:
The crisis had ended.
"Sensei… can he come back?"
Maki's voice trembled.
No one knew what lay beyond that spatial tear—
another world?
The void of the universe?
Or simply annihilation?
As the rift slowly began to close, panic seized Angel's face.
She reached out and thrust her arm inside.
"I'm going in to get him!"
Gojo stepped forward to stop her—
with Limitless, he was the logical choice—
but before he could speak—
A charred body tumbled out of the closing rift.
Completely blackened.
Flesh cracked open like molten rock.
Only faint red glimmers pulsed inside the fractures.
"It's Master Zen'in!!"
Before anyone else moved, Angel rushed forward and caught him.
Shoko dropped to her knees beside him.
"Lay him down."
Angel gently lowered Shinsuke to the ground, panic swirling in her eyes.
Shoko extended her hands—
Reversed Cursed Technique surged—
and immediately failed.
Her eyes widened.
"…His heart has already stopped."
Silence washed over the battlefield.
One by one, the sorcerers' expressions darkened.
The man who surpassed the strongest…
The man who kicked a god into another dimension…
The man who stood alone in the face of extinction…
Zen'in Shinsuke—
was dead.
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