"What kind of hardness is this?"
Every strike, powerful enough to shatter steel plates, was blocked by an invisible wall. The sound of violent metal impacts rang out one after another, and the darkness was filled with sparks from the fierce friction of metal.
The man with the scar on his lip had emerald eyes filled with a mix of bloodlust and reckless gloom. His chiseled muscles, full of power, were perfectly displayed by his tight black shirt.
"Choosing a small job to get the feel back before taking on a big one was the right call."
He glanced at his wrist holding the blade, which was trembling slightly from the high-intensity recoil, and a bloodthirsty smile appeared on his lips.
"Otherwise, I wouldn't have known I'd gotten this rusty."
Anyone meeting those wild eyes would subconsciously look away. He looked less like a human and more like a fierce, arrogant lone wolf that never ran with a pack.
Yomi Isayama, having regained her ability to think calmly, finally noticed the anomaly. Although this middle-aged man was standing right in front of her, he had no presence at all, like a transparent person.
This led her to a possibility.
Her ability hadn't failed; this person simply couldn't be detected.
The principle of sensory perception is Cursed Energy. Even the most ordinary human has faint Cursed Energy, so it always works.
But when she saw the man vomit a Cursed Spirit ball from his mouth—which rapidly expanded upon contact with the air into an ugly spirit with a long caterpillar body and a baby's head that slowly wrapped around him—Yomi, like Kenmei, remembered this notorious figure who had once caused a bloodbath in the Jujutsu world.
"Be careful! That's the Sorcerer Killer!" she warned Kenmei.
"Toji Zenin!"
"Oh~ Someone still remembers me?"
The man Yomi called Toji Zenin pulled a blade out of the caterpillar spirit's mouth.
"I married into my wife's family. The name's Fushiguro now."
"The Zenin family? Even dogs wouldn't stay there."
He switched to a light weapon and threw it directly at Yomi Isayama.
But before the weapon could touch Yomi, Kenmei immobilized it in mid-air.
BOOM!
Unexpectedly, the Cursed Tool exploded the next second. Fierce flames engulfed Kenmei and Yomi.
When the smoke cleared, they were unharmed.
Kenmei's clenched hand had compressed the explosion of the Grade 3 Cursed Tool into a fireball containing both psychic and cursed energy, crushed by the dominant force of his telekinesis.
"I know. This old guy is so famous even an outsider like me has heard of him."
Toji Fushiguro, the possessor of Heavenly Restriction. With his tyrannical strength, he had crushed the entire Jujutsu world, killing over a dozen Grade 1 Sorcerers.
Like the Kamo family (Kenmei's former surname), the Zenin family was one of the three great Sorcerer families in Japan. Ironically, Kenmei and Toji shared a commonality.
Both were expelled from their respective families for lacking talent as Sorcerers.
Kenmei was certain he had no history with such a dangerous individual. The target was entirely Yomi Isayama.
"So, the famous 'Heavenly Tyrant,' care to explain why you attacked my sister?"
The fireball, now turned pale purple, danced like a will-o'-the-wisp in Kenmei's palm. Before he finished speaking, he smashed the fireball toward Toji.
Facing the surging fireball, Toji's expression didn't change. With extreme speed, he pulled a double-headed short blade from the ugly spirit's mouth.
He didn't dodge or evade, meeting it head-on. Upon contact, the brilliant blade light easily sliced the destructive fireball in two.
"Who knows?"
Without turning to look at the spectacular explosion behind him, Toji stood with his hair blowing in the wind, his emerald eyes revealing undisguised fighting spirit.
"Beat me, and I'll tell you."
Toji scratched his hair, looking a bit disgusted. He rested the back of the blade against his neck and patted it, sounding utterly helpless.
"And don't call me that. The nickname from my younger days sounds embarrassing now."
Facing an existence feared by every Sorcerer in the Jujutsu world...
"We've been fighting for a while now. You don't actually think you have the upper hand, do you?"
Kenmei spoke calmly, as if stating a fact.
"You're going to die, old man."
Expressionless, Kenmei erected a psychic shield in front of himself and Yomi, blocking the oncoming gale.
Toji's tricks might be very effective against Sorcerers. Even the strongest few at the top could easily slip up and lose against him.
But Kenmei was not a Sorcerer.
Heavenly Restriction gave Toji the ultimate physical strength, the ceiling of taijutsu in the Jujutsu world.
But if you can't break the defense, it's all useless.
Kenmei's psychic shield completely countered Toji's fighting style. The near-instantaneous shield could block the Sorcerer Killer's torrential attacks.
Theoretically, as long as Kenmei's Mana didn't run out, he could activate this spell anytime, anywhere.
The strength of the shield was adjustable, consuming anywhere from 10 to 200 Mana (the more Mana consumed, the stronger the shield).
Its shape, size, and thickness were all controlled by him, and it could be generated instantly anywhere within three meters.
Moreover, Kenmei's shield was made of psychic energy, not Cursed Energy.
The weapon Toji was holding—the short sword with a jitte-shaped blade—was the Special Grade Cursed Tool: Inverted Spear of Heaven.
To Kenmei, it was practically no different from a kitchen knife.
Everything has a natural enemy.
The world produced one Heavenly Tyrant who made Sorcerers tremble in fear. But wasn't Kenmei also the only one of his kind?
"Face reality, old man."
In Kenmei's hand appeared an ancient, curved long sword, its surface covered in unknown runes glowing faintly. This sickle-sword was named the Prospero Blade.
It was the sidearm of the Scarab Occult Terminators. Like the Terminator armor, each one was a precious relic of the Thousand Sons Legion, symbolizing their supreme status on Prospero.
"You sure talk big, kid!"
Toji grinned instead of getting angry. Tensing his muscles, he charged straight at Kenmei.
Striking first, he twisted his body in mid-air to increase the power from his waist, thrusting the Special Grade Cursed Tool straight at Kenmei's skull.