As the churning mass of flesh and bone finally settled, a suit of armor, ghastly and divine as a demon god's plate, encased Mahito's frame.
In this state, he had traded the fluid, whimsical mutability of his body for the absolute pinnacle of defense and raw power. Though his eyes were concealed behind a crystalline visor, Mahito looked down at his armored gauntlets, flexing his fingers with a mechanical precision.
He felt weightless. Exhilarated.
It was as if his very life-essence had ascended, his cursed energy refining itself into a grade that transcended the boundaries of the supernatural. He stood there, the ultimate apex of biological evolution.
"Ah... this feeling!"
"Itadori! And all of you! I have to thank you. You helped me grasp the final, true form of my soul!"
Mahito's voice resonated through the armor, vibrating with a manic, high-frequency joy. "I am feeling... absolutely high right now!"
"Now, let us celebrate my rebirth with your lives!"
Mahito's silhouette vanished. A heartbeat later, he materialized directly in front of Todo, his fist driving forward like a tectonic shift.
Todo had no time to swap. He crossed his massive arms in a desperate guard, coating his body in a thick layer of cursed energy to buffer the inevitable Idle Transfiguration.
But Mahito was no longer a mere Disaster Curse. He had entered the realm of the Special Grade sorcerers—the true anomalies of the world. Even an elite Grade 1 like Todo was outclassed. The punch shattered Todo's guard and sent him hurtling backward. His flying body collided with Nanami, and the two of them were plowed into the rubble, disappearing under a mountain of concrete.
The scene played out in a blur. Within seconds, the teacher and the upperclassman—the strongest among them—had been decimated.
Megumi Fushiguro felt a numb, paralyzing cold creep from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.
Weakness. Impotence. Grief.
Negative emotions flooded his heart like a dark tide, freezing his muscles. Should he run? Should he fight? His mind was a stagnant pool of grey fog.
Mahito turned his visor toward Nobara. "You were the one who stung me earlier, weren't you?"
With a casual flick of his wrist, several shards of bone fired from his armor like high-velocity rounds.
Nanami, blood streaming from a gash on his forehead, suddenly appeared in front of Nobara. He swung his short sword with a dying man's ferocity, shattering the bone shards mid-air.
"I am the teacher here," Nanami wheezed, his body swaying unsteadily. "I protect the students."
Despite his horrific injuries, the salaryman-sorcerer stood like a broken but unyielding pillar in front of Megumi and Nobara.
Yuji struggled to support the unconscious Todo. They all knew the truth: no matter how hard they fought, they were no match for this "Ultimate Lifeform."
Seeing the futility, Nanami let out a ragged shout: "Run!"
"Split up and run in different directions! Don't look back! If even one of us survives, we haven't lost!"
Nanami's words shook them to the core. They understood. To stay was to die for nothing.
Megumi snapped out of his shock, his hands beginning to form the sign for Nue to carry Nobara away. Yuji and Todo prepared to retreat with the wounded Haibara and Ino.
But then they saw it. Nanami wasn't retreating. He was charging alone toward Mahito.
"If someone doesn't pin this curse down, no one escapes!"
With a resolve born of absolute sacrifice, Nanami threw himself into the maw of death.
"Nanami-san!"
Mahito let out a mocking, distorted laugh. "Who said... any of you were allowed to escape?"
He wove a complex hand seal. Inside his armored maw, dozens of tiny, infantile hands erupted.
"Domain Expansion: Self-Embodiment of Perfection."
Colossal hands unfurled behind Mahito like the petals of a nightmare flower blooming in the dark. The expansion was instantaneous—a world-ending cage manifesting before they could even draw breath.
In the final microsecond, Nanami used the last of his strength to shove Megumi and Nobara, who were closest to the edge, out of the expanding radius.
Megumi and Nobara watched in horror as the black, veined shell of the domain began to seal.
Suddenly, Megumi's teeth slammed together. His own shadow leapt up from the ground like a living thing, propping up the closing barrier.
Snap!
The domain sealed shut. Outside, Nobara stood alone in the silent street, staring at the black void where her friends had been.
Inside the domain, Nanami looked at Megumi with a mixture of fury and despair. "What are you doing?! Why didn't you stay out?!"
"Hahahaha!"
Mahito's laughter cut through the tension. "Itadori! You hate it when I kill people, don't you? So, I've thought of a fun game!"
He pointed his armored finger at Nanami and Todo. "I'm going to torture your friends to death, right here in front of you, piece by agonizing piece!"
"How about it? Are you surprised? Are you happy?"
Yuji roared, lunging forward with a desperate punch, but Mahito's armored boot caught him in the gut, sending him tumbling until his eyes rolled back.
Leaving Yuji for a moment, Mahito closed in on Nanami and Todo. Both sorcerers were maintaining Simple Domains in a crouched, defensive stance. But the Mahito who had mastered the Instant Spirit Body no longer needed his technique to kill.
BANG!!!
Mahito's steel-hard fists hammered into the faces of the two veterans. Nanami's goggles shattered into dust. Todo's locket flew from his neck, snapping open as it hit the floor to reveal the photos of Takada-chan and Yuji.
In Todo's mind, Yuji had long since become one of the two most important people in his life. But now, Yuji could only watch from the ground, his body broken and twitching, unable to move a single finger to save them.
Having beaten Nanami and Todo to the brink of death, Mahito turned his gaze toward Megumi.
With a mere pulse of cursed energy, Megumi was blasted into the interior wall of the domain, coughing up a spray of crimson.
"You... bastard..."
Yuji tried to crawl, but his bones felt like shattered glass.
Mahito looked down at the struggling boy with a look of pure, aesthetic pleasure. "Ah~ you really do look like a maggot right now."
"What? You think that's enough? Now, watch closely as I turn your friends into centipedes!"
Mahito grinned and activated Idle Transfiguration. With the guaranteed-hit factor of the domain, he didn't even need to touch them. He could rewrite their souls from across the room.
But then, the grin frozen on his face.
"What? The guaranteed-hit effect... it's gone?"
He spun around, staring at Megumi Fushiguro.
The boy was staggering to his feet. He wove a hand seal, his face masked in blood, but his lips were pulled back in a manic, liberating sneer.
"If you can't imagine a stronger version of yourself, you'll never actually become stronger."
"Be more greedy, Megumi!"
Satoru Gojo's voice echoed in his mind like a thunderclap. Megumi let go of everything—his hesitation, his safety, his restraint.
Run? Survive? Sacrifice his life for a draw?
No.
He only had one thought now: Victory. Overwhelming, crushing victory. Those who are afraid to even dream of winning are destined to lose.
"Domain Expansion: Chimera Shadow Garden!"
Shadows erupted from the floor like black ink, flooding the space and seizing half of the territory from Mahito's domain.
"Hahahaha!"
Megumi laughed like a man possessed as a tide of shadows swirled around him, the silhouettes of countless shikigami churning in the dark sea.
Mahito's visor rattled. "His first expansion... and it's this powerful? Is this the Ten Shadows?!"
But the terror quickly turned back into a jagged smirk. "You're just a brat! Even if you can open a domain, how long can you possibly hold it?"
"Oh? Why don't you come find out!"
Megumi roared, commanding the shadows to surge forward and swallow the armored curse whole.
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