Chapter 12 - Malevolence Unsealed

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

[Narration]

{Chat}

…

Mahoraga's fist began shaking as it was being pushed back. The shikigami began to put more force into it.

"Wait your turn." A deep, malevolent voice spoke from under Mahoraga's fist.

Suddenly, Mahoraga's hand was cut. It didn't stop there, as a large gash appeared on his chest, sending him sliding backward.

Souei's body began standing up from the rubble it was smashed into. However, he was different.

Four red eyes were on his face, along with black tattoos that ran down his entire body. This was Sukuna!

Sukuna immediately ripped off the shirt covering his new body. His fingers began twitching in impatience.

"There aren't many women and children still alive in this generation. Tch." Sukuna frowned as he spoke, but suddenly an impossibly evil expression appeared on his face. "I'll just make a breeding farm for these maggots! I'll have an infinite number of bodies and have them live in the filth they already love! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

Before Sukuna could say more, he noticed something in the corner of his eye. The dead body of the Fushiguro brat.

Quickly, Sukuna turned around and jumped backward.

*BANG*

Mahoraga's fist barely missed and embedded itself into the ground he was just standing on.

The shikigami stared at Sukuna. Only for Sukuna to kneel next to the dead body of Sceptix Fushiguro and place it in his inventory.

"Who said you had the right to look at me?" Sukuna said as he waved two fingers to the side.

A massive gash landed on Mahoraga's face and was about to-

*CLICK*

The wheel on Mahoraga's head had spun and made a deep clicking sound. All the damage Sukuna had previously done to the shikigami was gone.

"Ho? That was quick." Sukuna said with a smile as Mahoraga began walking toward him.

Sukuna suddenly bolted forward! Mahoraga threw a hard punch with his right arm, only for Sukuna to jump over the punch and kick him hard in the head!

Mahoraga's head reeled back as his arm came forward to grab Sukuna by the torso.

As Sukuna was grabbed, a smile appeared on his face. Mahoraga's arm was immediately cut into thick slices. The fingers holding onto Sukuna were also cut off, allowing the hand that was holding him to fall off.

"Dismantle!" Sukuna's arm flew off to the side as he spoke.

Mahoraga was immediately hit with another dismantling slash that shook his body as it landed across his chest.

*CLICK*

Mahoraga's body immediately regenerated, and his fist burst forward at a speed previously not possible.

Sukuna held his arms up in an X position across his chest. As Mahoraga's fist hit him, Sukuna's eyes widened.

'Cursed energy? Already?' Sukuna thought as he was launched backward by the shikigami.

Mahoraga chased after him even before his body could hit the ground.

Both Sukuna and Mahoraga quickly broke through the exit of the cave and were now on a metal catwalk being held up by cables attached to the ceiling.

Sukuna jumped onto the railing as Mahorag's fist came after him. His fingers extended outward, and his hand shook up and down two times.

Mahoraga's body shook as he dismantled his leg and chest. With one leg now gone, Mahoraga grabbed Sukuna and threw him down the railing pathway.

*CRASH*

Sukuna's body broke through the doorway and landed in a room with multiple other doors.

*CRASH*

Mahoraga's body instantly broke through the hole in the wall and made it bigger than it was previously.

Before Mahoraga could get up, Sukuna threw a punch to his face!

The shikigami was unprepared and got hit hard by the sucker punch! Mahoraga brought both hands up to block his face.

Moving around Mahoraga, Sukuna threw multiple punches and kicks at the shikigami's massive hands.

Only to grab his left hand, use it as an inanimate object by sliding over it, and open Mahoraga's massive hands.

The second Mahoraga's guard was open, Sukuna gave the creature a dropkick!

*BOOM*

The outside of the shrine exploded as Mahoraga's massive body was kicked through it.

"The moonlight sure is bright tonight," Sukuna said as he walked out of the shrine, and the moonlight touched his skin.

Mahoraga, who was launched away, immediately stood up with his one leg and began charging Sukuna.

Sukuna waved his hand again! A slash suddenly cut off Mahoraga's right hand.

*CLICK*

Sukuna immediately threw another slash out as the shikigami healed, only for it to... block?

Sukuna's eyes widened as the dismantle made contact with Mahoraga's blocking arms.

Sukuna's smile widened as he charged Mahoraga. The shikigami pulled its fist back.

Throwing out the punch, Sukuna immediately caught it. The ground cracked and rippled as the wind pressure flew outward from their colliding hands.

Mahoraga's fist was caught by Sukuna, which resulted in the shikigami hitting Sukuna with a barrage of punches.

Every time Mahoraga threw out a punch, it was caught by Sukuna.

Sukuna suddenly raised his left arm and waved his fingers, only for the shikigami to freeze its tracks and try to hold up a guard.

And for a second... nothing happened. 

Sukuna's body suddenly changed direction as an insane smile grew on his face. He waved his arm and turned with his entire body.

The ground was ripped apart, along with Mahoraga being blasted backward.

*CLICK*

Sukuna ran after Mahoraga. Jumping in the air, he threw a massive kick, which cut the creature in half before it could react.

Mahoraga used both its arms to launch itself into the air, only for everything below its head to be cut off.

Still, the head of the shikigami flew toward Sukuna.

*CLICK*

Sukuna's eyes widened as the massive body of Mahoraga reformed in front of him. Quickly, a barrage of attacks was exchanged mid-air, with Sukuna only being able to dodge due to Mahoraga acting as a platform.

Mahoraga suddenly broke Sukuna's guard. Grabbing him, Mahoraga threw him into the ground hard.

In mid-air, Sukuna flipped, and his feet landed on the ground. The ground cracked under the weight of Sukuna but immediately folded as Mahoraga landed right behind Sukuna.

Sukuna jumped forward, dodging the punch Mahoraga sent to the back of his head, before doing a front flip into a jump. Spinning fast in mid-air, Sukuna's arms lashed outward.

*SHING*

A massive slash tore through Mahoraga and everything behind him. The shrine was cut in half completely.

Everything past that would have been destroyed if not for the fact they were high up on a hill.

Mahoraga's torso came off again, but unlike last time, the shikigami used the slash to boost his upper body forward.

Mahoraga pulled back his fist, only for his entire left arm to be sliced into pieces.

*CLICK*

The shikigami reformed as Sukuna looked at it with an absolutely menacing smile.

*Shink* *Shink* *Shink* *Shink* *Shink* *Shink* *Shink* *Shink* *Shink* *Shink* *Shink* *Shink* *Shink* *Shink* *Shink* *Shink* *Shink* *Shink*

Mahoraga's body didn't even get to react as the shikigami burst into a gory mess of blood.

*CLICK*

The wheel instantly turned again, and Mahoraga was back. Lashing out with a punch, the shikigami was even faster than before!

Sukuna's eyes widened as he held up his guard, only to get violently slammed off the tall hill by the creature's fist.

'Two groups, one to the left and one to the right.' Sukuna thought as he flew backward through the air at high speeds. 'They're leaking cursed energy like tsunamis and don't even know it!'

Sukuna barreled through tree after tree before landing on the ground and stopping his momentum.

"I think I had enough fun ripping the stuffing out of this toy. Human beings break way more satisfyingly with their pitiful screams and whines." Sukuna held a frown on his face as he spoke.

*CRASH*

Mahoraga broke through multiple trees in order to get to Sukuna. The shikigami held its hand out toward Sukuna in an attempt to grab him.

Mahoraga's hand was only a few feet away from Sukuna's body.

"Fuga (█Open)."

Time seemed to slow as Sukuna's hand made contact with Mahoraga's palm.

An invisible force made contact with Mahoraga's palm.

*BANG*

Mahoraga was sent flying backward along with everything else in a fifty-meter radius. The ground tore itself up into the air, along with the trees.

[Azaogdesz Sukuna has many powers; however, due to his strength, he rarely uses them, if ever.]

Nothing was left but a deep cavern as everything flew backward. Sukuna, however, ran forward even faster than he had before with another demented expression of happiness.

Sukuna's fist made contact with Mahoraga's falling body. Instantly, the shikigami exploded into a pile of flesh and destroyed ligaments.

*CLICK*

Right as the wheel turned, Sukuna's hands seemed to grab the air and twist it. Mahoraga's body began twisting as if it were a rope being wrapped around a stick.

[But when faced with an opponent who adapts to his power set, he'd inevitably go all out!]

Quickly, flesh and guts broke off the creature as it was pulled apart in half.

*CLICK*

Sukuna gave no time for the shikigami to reorient itself as his fist made light contact with the creature's chest.

It caused a ripple effect across Mahoraga's entire body. Mahoraga's body abruptly exploded into nothing but blood.

[Currently, the God of Curses is using a power that gives him thousands of unseen hands that allow him to grab onto anything he can imagine.]

*CLICK*

The creature reformed, but this time it began trying to punch the air as fast as it could, with Sukuna just floating in the air and pointing down at it.

One of Sukuna's hands closed fast, and his hand seemed to clench as hard as it could. Mahoraga's body was instantly crushed by an unseen force.

[Concepts, reality, atoms, and more. Truly a technique above the divine. A power trained every second until he realized he was too strong.]

*CLICK*

Mahoraga's wheel spun again; however, this time the creature couldn't move. It pulled and struggled against the unseen hands, yet couldn't break free.

Sukuna slowly floated down and walked towards Mahoraga. Standing only two meters away from the Shikigami, Sukuna nodded.

"Struggle, struggler. Every second you don't give up is a second you could win. I wish to break you again someday. Until then, stand proud, for you are strong." Sukuna spoke as his hands slowly came together.

Mahoraga's hands and feet were suddenly separated from his body, and he was hung up as if he were some sort of cross a few feet off the ground.

Sukuna's index and pinky fingers bent inward as both his palms met while his middle and ring fingers pushed against each other upward.

His thumbs were held side by side in front of his touching index fingers.

"Domain expansion..."

Sukuna held his hands in front of his face as Mahoraga hung in the air in front of him, unable to move.

"Malevolent Shrine."

Mahoraga was dragged backward through the air at high speeds while still being held by unseen hands.

A mouth with white teeth came up from the ground and clamped its jaws around Sukuna. It quickly retreated underneath the earth as it ate the God of Curses.

The mouth quickly burst through the ground as if it were a liquid, with a black substance leaking off of it as it did.

Mahoraga stopped moving back as the mouth turned to face his direction and opened to reveal Sukuna standing within it.

A shrine appeared and had four mouths on each of its four sides. The ceiling had small, curved bones on it, resembling tusks and horns.

The color of the ceiling was a deep dark blue, while the main body of the shrine was a deep blood red.

Ox skulls formed all around the foot of the shrine. Some even hung from the corners of the ceiling of the shrine.

Mahoraga was let go by the unseen hands and instantly tried to rush Sukuna.

*BOOM*

The shikigami was instantly vaporized. The ground ripped itself into the air, only to be cut and blown away.

Trees that were all around had instantly been ripped from the ground, thrown into the air, and then cut into nothingness.

Grass, animals, curses, trees, rocks, water, and more. Nothing was safe or sacred, as everything within a kilometer radius was blasted into nothingness.

Hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands of slashes happen every second.

*CLICK*

Mahoraga was still alive. Sukuna found it commendable. The shikigami truly held the capacity to be the strongest.

Mahoraga began walking over to Sukuna as its body was pelted with slashes while simultaneously regenerating fast enough to keep it alive.

"Fuga (█Open)."

Fire was generated in the hands of Sukuna as he spoke those words again.

Sukuna slowly held his hands apart as his palms turned orange-hot. The ground that had been tossed into the air turned orange in color and began melting.

The ground Mahoraga had been walking on turned to melted mush as the shikigami resorted to crawling once it failed to get a foothold.

Sukuna pulled on the fire and began stretching it until it formed a bow. Inside the bow was a massive, lance-like fire arrow.

Sukuna let go of the bow, allowing the arrow to fly forward.

Everything the arrow flew past turned to melted mush, or quite literally, evaporated.

*BOOM*

The arrow hit Mahoraga and exploded. Creating a cylinder-like explosion that pushed outward as it rose into the sky.

By the time everything was cleared, there was a massive crater in the ground, as if an asteroid had hit it.

It was fifteen meters deep at the point of impact and, at its farthest, only a few inches.

"Tch." Sukuna sucked his teeth with his hands in his pockets.

Mahoraga's wheel was at his feet and quickly turned to black mush before he could pick it up.

He looked behind him. Sloth and his group were too far away to chase now, while Gojo's group was still close enough to catch.

Sukuna was about to walk toward the group when he felt something behind him.

Kneeling behind him was a person. Sukuna's eyes widened as he recognized the person.

"Welcome back, Sukuna."

A smile was quickly brought to Sukuna's face.

"Is that you? Shizu!"

The long white hair of the woman in front of him couldn't be anyone else's.

"Is Project Chaos God still in effect?" Sukuna replaced all the happiness on his face with seriousness as he spoke.

"Yes, it is." Shizu gave him a concise answer.

"What are you even called these days? This world has changed since I was last awake."

"The curses of this world and the few remaining humans call me Dragon Queen Apallon."

"The group you brought here to speed up your plans has already betrayed each other without me having to do much of anything.

No pulling on the heartstrings, no talking; they just did. The closest one to finding anything out was the one who calls himself Sloth, and even then he let it go almost instantly.

The group is at a level where they'd kill each other on sight for no reason. It's hilarious." Shizu almost laughed but held herself back as she recounted her experience to Sukuna.

"It seems I have picked them well," Sukuna smirked.

"Out of all of them, Yuji Ghost is the most dangerous." Shizu stood up and walked to the side of Sukuna. "Due to their appearance, the world had to give them something to represent their characters. Yuji has gotten something he shouldn't have." 

"Yes, I felt it immediately when he held my finger." Sukuna frowned softly. "The demon-dragon brat has gotten a mix of our cursed techniques. A mix of both of us, if you will.

The world sure is greedy when trying to make sure its chosen one survives. Even going as far as giving me a child with a body snatcher."

Shizu's eyebrows raised at that comment.

"I'll let you know I've been stuck in this body for hundreds of years!" Shizu shook Sukuna back and forth as fast as she could. "Do you think I like myself like this?!"

"No, I don't think you do." Sukuna took a quick glance at Shizu's expression. "I know you do."

Shizu, who looked satisfied, quickly turned back to look at Sukuna with rage and embarrassment.