Yahaech swung his arm through emptiness—mountains and trees emerged back and snow began falling once again.
They stood in the front of that same house.
"It's good that your time inside my domain isn't finished yet."
Yahaech turned toward Hojo who was still trying to do away with his feeling of those weird deaths he had felt inside the Infinite Void.
Though Gojo himself had killed him just once, the information that flooded inside his mind made his very existence die multiple times.
Unfocusing on his meaningless thoughts, Hojo simply nodded in response.
Then, a translucent board materialized in the air, showing total deaths and net percentage increase in strength of Hojo.
His raw energy was more than twenty times now, enough to surpass the king of curses—Ryomen Sukuna himself.
"Though Hojo lost every duel, he was still able to gain tremendous strength from his failures. In the end, this is what matters most."
On Yahaech's will, just as quickly as the board had appeared, it faded into nothingness.
"Now, we should begin the ritual. It might be painful as I'm going to carve the spiritual signature of my eyes on your soul."
Hojo registered Yahaech's words carefully which frightened him a little. Will it be more painful than what he just had experienced in duels? This question arose inside his mind.
Yahaech heard his inner thoughts and replied to his question immediately by transferring his own thoughts to Hojo's brain.
"The pain you felt in your duel will now benefit you."
*****
"Be careful now. I'm starting it now."
In the next moment, long and thick pillars rose from the earth as four vertices of an imaginary square.
The ground trembled as they finally reached their full length of about twenty meters. Traditional Japanese drawings and symbols were etched on these divine pillars.
Yahaech pointed his hand toward Hojo and several heavy chains emerged from pillars on his will, restraining Hojo.
Then—these chains pulled him from all four directions of four pillars, hanging Hojo in mid air.
Violent screams of pain found their way out of his mouth as all his four limbs seemed to get ripped apart from his main body by immense pulling force.
Trying to finish the ritual as soon as possible, Yahaech rose into the air, drifting toward Hojo like gravity itself had stopped pulling him down.
After arriving there, he raised his hand and drove his index fingers into his eyes, imbuing them with a strange and unknown energy.
"AAHHH—"
A long, agonizing scream tore from his throat, his body convulsing violently in response.
For a moment, every sound faded beneath this scream.
Five painful seconds passed when Yahaech retreated his fingers from his eyes, leaving two empty holes there.
Hojo's body or better put soul was glowing with a mix of multiple diverse colours.
At the same moment, Yahaech landed back on the ground and began staring at him silently, clearly waiting for something to happen.
Gojo and others were watching this from a corner, awe flowing in their nerves. Not daring to interrupt anything.
"I hope your soul doesn't reject my essence."
Yahaech mumbled as he continued to gaze at him.
After a minute, the glow enveloping Hojo's body began to fade. As time passed, his eyes slowly reformed within those hollow sockets on his face.
When the glow died out completely, his new eyes were already reformed. They looked extremely beautiful like a little colourful galaxy was fitted inside them.
They shimmered with an iridescent glow. More intense and more colourful than before of course.
Thud!
Out of nowhere, a strange aura pressed on the surroundings, even crushing some fragile things and weak plants.
Everyone, including Gojo and Michizane, aside from Yahaech, felt this sudden weight added to their body, making it hard to breathe.
With every second, the pressure gradually increased.
"His soul is awakened. This is his full strength."
Yahaech declared with a smile on his face, watching Hojo with astonishment.
Hojo's soul was finally awakened now, activating his full strength. His cursed energy had increased tremendously.
Even if ten Sukunas were gathered in one place, Hojo's cursed energy would still surpass all of theirs combined. 10x boost.
But this wasn't the main thing that has changed after awakening. Hojo's infinity was now evolved in ETERNIF.
Eternif is the same defensive technique Yahaech himself uses. Unlike Infinity, which manipulates the space to divide it infinitely between user and object, eternif adds the time manipulation to this.
In Eternif, any object which tries to hit the user, literally stops completely as time itself rejects its motion.
No matter how strong or what the attack is, the flow of time is important to 'do' anything. So, Eternif literally temporarily seizes the fourth dimension of time from spacetime for certain objects.
Altering all four dimensions of spacetime fabric at the same time.
Not even a domain expansion can reject or suppress the effect of Eternif.
After awakening finished, all the chains restraining Hojo were pushed away from his body due to Eternif.
Without them, he didn't fall down, but remained floating in air just like Yahaech could.
His expression was completely empty, with no emotions visible. Like he had lost his humorous mind.
His eyes locked on Yahaech for a few seconds when he raised his hand and swung his arm effortlessly in a crescent arc, opening a rift in the domain.
Swoosh…!
This breach which was opened in the space itself had directly cleaved through Yahaech, Gojo, Michizane and Izumi, slashing through the middle of their torso.
A mouthful of blood burst from their lips, thick and dark. Emotions changed on their face, replaced by sudden shock.
"As expected, he has lost his control."
Yahaech shouted as he moved first toward Hojo, his body healed completely.
He lunged toward Hojo, a crimson spear appearing in his hand. It was engulfed in fierce lightning and fire, radiating with blinding light.
Yahaech launched it at almost impossible speed. It cleaved through the air until it reached Hojo.
"His Eternif will block this spear, it's not enough."
Yahaech had already anticipated that the spear could never touch Hojo, despite its immense power.
So, Yahaech did which was most obvious in this situation.
"DOMAIN EXPANSION: EYES OF TRINITY"