Blinding red light slowly faded and with it, the last remain of Dabura.
An immediate relief washed over everyone present and only the sound of them gasping for the air remained in the silence that followed afterwards.
Gojo's body, previously sliced into numerous peices, regenerated itself like the others who were struck by the Dabura's enhanced dismantle, which ultimately proved to be even more deadlier than the world-cutting slash.
The battle finally seemed to approach its end. However, Hojo felt everything but triumph.
The price they paid to defeat a single entity was so immense, that the obliteration of an entire city along with the death of countless citizens and sorcerers couldn't settle it.
One absolute fact, that Hojo realized later on, was that the end of humanity had been inevitable if not for the powers provided by the Yahaech to him in the last moments of his death.
As far as he could see with his naked eyes, there was only the empty space, devoid of sign of life.
Silence streched further as no one spoke and their gazes remained locked on the destruction that will be etched in the both history and future as a permanent wound to the humanity.
*****
Unbeknownst to others, deep down in the depths of crater, a single drop of Dabura's blood which he had left as a safeguard against his death, began to boil and expand.
Cells divided at an impossible rate, and within just a few seconds, that lone drop of blood had multiplied enough to fill an entire bucket.
Then that same blood rose into the air, forming a human figure, from which emerged a human skeleton.
Flesh began growing on the bones and blood disappeared into the nerves, leaving behind a human body that had yet to grow its skin.
In another few seconds, Dabura regenerated his body entirely from a drop of blood, like a demon directly out of the novels.
He gained this broken ability the moment he broke past the limits of Soul-Manipulation, allowing him to regenerate the entire body unless the soul itself was damaged.
He could do the same with something as tiny as a cell of his body. Therefore, a single drop of blood was more than enough for Dabura.
Still, it had a loophole. Everytime, the body regenerates, user sacrifices a significant amount of vitality and the portion of his soul to fulfill the energy required to build a new body out of nothing but a cell.
Thus, it wasn't to be confused with immortality. This technique was much similar to a double-edged sword, having both serious pros and cons.
After regaining his body, Dabura recalled his last moments and what caused his death. His expression distorted in fury but he quickly calmed himself down.
Afterall, to rule over the world, you must rule over yourself first.
"I'll not repeat my mistakes again. Let's end this for always with your lives."
Not taking another potential risk, Dabura decided to put a immediate end to their struggles.
He decided to go all out from the beginning. Extending his hand, he raised it in the direction of Hojo and poured all of his cursed energy into a single attack: World Erasing Slash.
Instantaneously, an ominous aura exploded outward from his body and enveloped his palm, where he was concentrating all of his energy.
Merging the concept behind flames of contradiction with the world-cutting slash, he attempted to make something otherworldly terrifying and absolutely devastating.
At the same time, everyone above in the air, noticed a overwhelming presence in the crater, which sent a shiver running down their spine, causing the hair over their bodies to erect as a warning for them to run for their lives.
Not daring to go close to the presence in the fear that their soul might perish alongside their existence, Izumi, Michizane and Hojo looked at Hojo simultaneously.
Only he could do something about this. And indeed, Hojo was already in the process of inspecting the matter.
He hesitantly gazed deeper into the crater and sensed a familiar aura signature from there.
"But...how? Impossible!!"
What he sensed and saw shocked him to his very core, leaving his mind in turmoil. His deepest and most profound fear, that he was fearing not to become true, proved to be true indeed.
Dabura was alive!! Even after erasing his entire existence from most terrifying techniques like Hollow purple and Technique red, he somehow survived.
Now, the true question was: Is there even a method out there to kill Dabura. From the beginning, he had been very mysterious with multiple trump cards resting inside his mysteries.
Besides, Hojo's existence shuddered violently when he finally focused on the attack Dabura was forming, at the cost of his all energy which might left him utterly vulnerable if his attack failed.
"It's too late now..."
The moment these words left Hojo's mouth, a blinding red light emerged from the darkness of crater, swallowing everything in its reach.
In a millionth part of a second, flames of contradiction, now merged with shrine for wide-range attacks, erased everything from existence that it touched.
Gojo, Izumi, Michizane—their bodies perished like they never existed and their soul contract broke immediately, putting an end to their seemingly temporary immortality.
While for Hojo, it started from his skin, then penetrating the flesh to made its way to his bones, flames devoured him entirely in an instant.
But the annihilation didn't stop there. Unlike Gojo, Izumi and Michizane, Hojo's soul actually resided in the real world, so the flames began ripping his soul apart, leaving him in endless agony.
After awakening, his soul was ridiculously stronger compared to other sorcerers. Despite this fact, flames quickly erased one-fifth of his soul.
Then two-fifth. Three-fifth. Four-fifth.
When the flames were about to consume that tiny remaining part of his soul, somewhere deep inside that part, something awakened and time stopped for that instant.
*****
"You died again, huh?"
Yahaech looked at a small and weak silhouette which seemed to resemble a human. Though, it was now just left with a head which trembling in pain, somehow rolling on the surface of bottomless darkness.
" "
No reply came from the head, which was obvious when looked at the condition of the silhouette, but it didn't stop Yahaech from frowning in suspicion and forcing him to look deeper into the silhouette to find the cause.
Something felt wrong and therefore, his gaze penetrated through the silhoutee.
After a moment of silence, Yahaech spoke, his voice filled of newfound amusement.
"Interesting... These flames—I've to acquire them!"
After a millenium, for the first time, Yahaech found— a desire to get something interesting—awakening inside him.
From countless centuries, he was staying in his own personal world with peace. But even he couldn't stand against the might of time, making him feel boredom every moment he spent inside that detached world.
Now, he had found a source of entertainment, even if for just a small amount of time.
Determined, he stepped forward and lifted the head from the darkness which was everywhere within this void.
Then he consumed this remaining part of the soul, leaving behind nothing for flames of contradiction to eat, and merged it with his own soul.
He was now ready to descend upon the human world that he once left because it offered him nothing but that same boredom.
*****
Almost instantaneously in the real world, the space occupied by Hojo's soul shattered, replaced by another entity.
That entity swung his arm in a horizontal arc and a instantly rift appeared in the space before him, devouring all the red light and flames before closing back at the same pace it had opened.
His gaze, shining with an ethereal brilliance of an entire galaxy, pierced through everything in all direction and reached the corners of this round world before eventually returning and landing on the entity himself.
"Found you."
In that fraction of second, he had looked at the whole earth with nothing but a glanc, locating Dabura who stood in the bottom of the crater.