Chapter 184 - A Formidable Foe — The Demon

"Is that all you've got?"

Naoya Zenin stood in the middle of a heap of bodies sprawled every which way, smoothing the hem of a jacket ruffled by the wind. Green steam drifted up from Naoya's skin. The Fourth Gate of Pain was open, and Naoya hadn't even caught a full breath before the fight was already over.

Severed hands and feet blanketed the ground. The ancient sorcerers still breathing clutched their wounds and writhed in the dirt.

"A bunch of primitives who crawled out of a thousand years ago."

Naoya let out a scornful laugh and kicked a bloodied, broken blade out of the way.

"I thought the Culling Game would at least be entertaining. Turns out it's all trash."

Naoya turned to look at the other two.

"All those moves Master has me drill — using them on these people is a complete waste."

Yuji Itadori released the Gate of Life state and rolled out his aching shoulders.

"Naoya, don't get careless."

Yuji wiped the blood from his face.

"Something feels off."

Megumi Fushiguro said nothing. He stood in the middle of the street, both hands shoved in his pockets. His gaze was locked on the pitch-black alley ahead. Too quiet. All that noise from the outer perimeter, and not a single high-scoring player had shown their face from inside.

The silence pressing down on the air raised every hair on the back of the neck, like invisible hands closing slowly around a throat. The suffocating weight of absolute violence.

"Stop talking."

Megumi let go of his relaxed posture and let both hands fall to his sides.

"Everyone sharpen up. There's something extraordinary deep inside this barrier."

The three of them walked inward, crunching over rubble and broken brick. The further they went, the thicker the blood smell became. Fermented iron, the kind that had been rotting for god knows how long, sharp enough to make the inside of the skull ache. They rounded a corner. All three of them stopped at the same time. Dead bodies. Nothing but dead bodies.

The ground was blanketed with the corpses of ancient sorcerers, each one worse than the last. Some had both arms torn clean out of the sockets. Some had a hole punched through the chest, visible straight through from front to back. Most had been reduced to something so thoroughly shredded it no longer held any recognizable shape. This wasn't a battle. This was a one-sided massacre.

"These were players too."

Megumi glanced down at the half a skull lying near his feet.

"High point totals. From the residual Cursed Energy on the bodies, they were all killed barehanded — by the same person."

His chest tightened. He needed to find a way to get a read on whoever did this. The taijutsu his father had taught him could certainly reduce a person to this state, but the traces of violence left on these corpses were even more savage than his father. The Cursed Energy concentration in the air was so dense it was hard to breathe.

Yuji suddenly clutched his stomach and let out a muffled groan. The mouth on his left cheek split open.

"Heh heh... interesting."

Sukuna's low laugh drifted out, carrying a thread of excitement he made no attempt to hide.

"Shut up!"

Yuji slapped his own face and forced that mouth shut. If it got Sukuna that worked up, whatever was ahead of them was absolutely a monster. Yuji clenched his jaw. The green aura flared up from his feet again. He needed to be at full capacity. Otherwise he might not walk away from today. Megumi formed the dog hand seal. The shadows churned beneath his feet.

Two massive Divine Dogs leapt out of the darkness. Low, rumbling whimpers rose from their throats, every strand of fur standing on end. An animal's instincts were never wrong. The Divine Dogs were afraid.

"Stop being so damn ominous!"

Naoya couldn't take the oppressive atmosphere anymore and threw his head back.

"Get out here! I'll kick you straight into the sewer!"

The words had barely left Naoya's mouth when the light overhead dimmed. A killing intent so dense it felt solid dropped from above. It slammed down into the open ground in front of all three of them. The asphalt caved in on the spot. Chunks of debris flew in every direction like bullets. The dust settled. A towering silhouette slowly straightened up.

Black Cursed Energy coiled around the figure. The upper body was bare. Muscles rose in slabs like boulders. Half the face was hidden behind a cracked bone mask. The exposed eye held not a single trace of warmth. A demon. The word surfaced in all three minds at the same moment. The demon rolled its neck. Bones cracked and popped.

It looked down at the three young people in front of it. The look in that eye was the look of someone watching a few bugs that had wandered into the wrong room.

"Monkeys from the modern age."

The voice was rough and hoarse.

"Too weak."

Naoya wasn't about to swallow that. Getting ground into the dirt by Master back at Tokyo Jujutsu High was one thing, but some leftover relic from a thousand years ago daring to look down on Naoya? That was not something Naoya was going to let slide.

"You're dead!"

The green steam pouring off Naoya's body erupted in a violent burst. The ground beneath Naoya's feet caved into a crater. Projection Sorcery activated — speed maxed out in an instant. 24 frames per second. Naoya looped straight around to the demon's back. Lined up on that spike-studded skull, Naoya drove a brutal high roundhouse kick straight down. The demon didn't even turn its head.

It simply raised its left hand and caught Naoya's ankle with exact precision. Naoya's eyes went wide. Impossible. Without a single scrap of Cursed Energy, it had read a 24-frame trajectory with the naked eye? What kind of monster was this? Before Naoya could react, the demon's arm drove downward with full force.

Like slamming a burlap sack into the ground, it hurled Naoya's entire body into the earth.

BOOM!

The ground smashed into a deep crater. Naoya coughed up a mouthful of blood. The crack of ribs snapping was unmistakably clear.

"Naoya!"

Yuji roared and drove off with both legs. A cannonball out of the barrel.

"Eight Gates — Third Gate: Gate of Life!"

Green aura wrapped his entire body. Yuji poured every trace of Cursed Energy into his right fist. Black lightning crackled across his knuckles. Black Flash! That punch landed square and solid on the demon's chest. Black sparks exploded outward. The shockwave hurled every piece of surrounding debris into the air. The demon's body only swayed.

It looked down and glanced at the faint white mark left on its chest. A cold, contemptuous smirk crossed its face. How was that possible? Yuji's heart dropped. His father had told him: his Black Flash combined with the explosive output of the Eight Gates was enough to punch clean through even a Special Grade Cursed Spirit. Just how far off the chart was this thing's physical defense?

There was no fighting this.

"That tickle?"

The demon swung a kick back without even turning around, landing it square in Yuji's gut. Yuji had no time to even attempt a defense. He was hurled backward like a kite with a snapped string, crashed through two load-bearing walls in succession, and was buried under a mountain of rubble.

"Yuji!"

Megumi's scalp went cold. Too strong. This thing's numbers were completely off the chart. Even if his father were here, he'd probably think twice before taking that kind of physical defense head-on. He needed to pin it down and buy time.

Megumi's hands flew through the seals. "Nue!"

The massive bird plunged down from above, crackling with electricity, both talons driving at the demon's face. At the same moment, the two Divine Dogs on the ground lunged at the demon's lower body from left and right. The demon didn't even look. One casual swat.

Nue, leading the charge, was hit as though by a high-speed train. It didn't even get a scream out, the body detonated into a mist of blood in midair. Then a kick. The Divine Dog on the right had its spine snapped and dissolved into spreading ink. Less than 10 seconds. The combined assault of all three had been completely dismantled.

"That the best you can do?"

The demon walked toward Megumi step by step.

"That shadow technique of yours is solid. Pity the one using it is garbage."

A commotion erupted from inside the rubble. Green steam rose again, more savage and frantic than before. Naoya dragged himself out of the broken bricks, face drenched in blood. Naoya forced Cursed Energy through the fractured ribs to hold them in place. Both eyes were consumed by wild, blood-threaded madness. This old monster was dying today.

"I'm not dead yet!"

Naoya screamed and charged again.

"Gate of Pain — Open!"

The 24-frame barrage began. Naoya became a streak of green afterimage, pouring furious strikes into the demon from every angle. Fists, elbows, knees, every hit cut the air with a sharp crack, hammering down hard on every joint of the demon's body.

THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD.

The dense, rapid percussion of blows blurred into a single continuous sound. The demon seemed faintly unsettled by the dizzying speed. It stood in place without countering, letting Naoya go berserk. 30 seconds. 1 minute. Naoya had wrung every last drop of Cursed Energy and stamina to the absolute limit. Sweat and blood dripped down together.

"Die already!"

Naoya came crashing down with a devastating overhead axe kick onto the top of the demon's skull. Gasping in ragged heaves, Naoya glared at the monster in front of him. As long as something was alive, no living thing could take a sustained barrage that long without iron bones eventually giving way. That had to have done it. The dust settled again.

The demon still stood in the same spot. Other than a few more splits torn open in the rags hanging off its body, its skin wasn't even broken.

"Was that a massage?"

The demon raised its head. A cruel smile split its mouth. Naoya's blood ran cold. The demon raised its right hand, palm facing down. A light press in Naoya's direction. Invisible pressure crashed down from above. It felt like a mountain had been dropped onto both shoulders without warning. Speed fell instantly to a crawl. Naoya fought desperately to lift a leg, and couldn't move a single inch.

Damn it. Move. The demon strolled up in front of Naoya without hurry. It raised its right foot and drove a kick straight into Naoya's gut. Naoya spat out a mouthful of blood laced with fragments of internal organs and was sent flying. Naoya slammed into an abandoned car and went completely still.

"Naoya!"

Yuji had just clawed his way out of the rubble, eyes already red. He suppressed the agony tearing through his gut, opened the Gate of Life again, and charged. The demon didn't even turn its head. Right hand pressed down again. Yuji was pinned to the ground just the same.

He struggled with everything he had. The stone slabs beneath him crumbled under the pressure. Bones groaned under a load they weren't built to bear, but he could not stand. Damn it. His body wasn't listening. The demon stepped onto Yuji's back and ground down. Yuji coughed up a mouthful of blood and nearly blacked out entirely. Only Megumi was left.

Megumi bit through his lip and forced himself cold. He could not retreat. If he retreated, all three of them were dying here today. His father wasn't here. The only one who could save them was himself.

"Domain Expansion."

Black shadows spread out like a tide in every direction, swallowing the surrounding streets whole.

"Chimera Shadow Garden."

Countless massive toads leapt out from the darkness. Their long tongues, stiff as steel cables, coiled tight around the demon's limbs and neck.

"Round Deer!"

The enormous Round Deer appeared behind Megumi. The soft glow of Reverse Cursed Technique lit up. Under that light, the heavily wounded Yuji and Naoya began to heal. Fractured bones knitted back together at rapid speed. Megumi was drenched in sweat. Sustaining the Domain and summoning Round Deer at the same time, his Cursed Energy was burning down at a terrifying rate. He had to hold on.

"Get up! We need to find a way out of here!"

The demon, bound by the toads, didn't struggle. It looked at the black shadows surrounding it and let out a low, quiet laugh.

"A Domain, is it..."

A crack split open across the bone mask. Both hands came together in front of its chest.

"Starfall Abyss."

The black Domain snapped open immediately. It tore Megumi's Chimera Shadow Garden apart into shreds. The surrounding space transformed in an instant. No light. No sound. Nothing but absolute darkness and a gravity that crushed the lungs. Dozens of times stronger than before, at minimum. The toads that had been binding the demon, the moment the Domain came down, were compressed directly into pulp.

Megumi's knees slammed into the ground. Both kneecaps shattered. He lay flat on the ground, unable to move a single finger. Round Deer behind him let out a mournful cry. That massive body was crushed flat and dispersed. Yuji and Naoya, who had just barely clawed back a shred of strength, were pinned back to the ground. Bone-deep despair.

This was an ancient sorcerer from a thousand years ago. A true monster that had crawled out of hell itself. This was the end. The demon walked up to Megumi and planted a foot on his head.

"So this is the Ten Shadows Technique? How disappointing."

Pure boredom in that voice.

"I'll crush your skull first. Then I'll wring those two bugs to death."

The foot began to press down. The sound that came from Megumi's skull, bone grinding against bone, sent a sickening grate through the teeth. Was this it? I'm sorry, Dad. Looks like you won't get to see the day I become strong. Right at that moment. A deafening burst of laughter exploded from inside Yuji's body.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Pure malice. Pure delight. A mouth lined with jagged fangs split open across Yuji's face. Sukuna's voice rose inside Yuji's head.

"Kid. You're already done?"

Yuji clenched his teeth with everything he had. The light in his eyes was going out, bit by bit. No. He couldn't let Sukuna out.

"Want to save them?"

Sukuna's voice was soaked in temptation.

"Look at that idiot with the shadows — his brain is about to get stomped right out of his head."

"Hand over your body."

"I'll kill him for you."