The ground split as Mahoraga's blade cleaved downward, severing the subway floor clean through. Steel and concrete screamed in unison, and in the next instant the underground collapsed entirely.
Mahito vaulted backward, his form unraveling into liquid flesh before stitching itself together again as he landed on what had once been a stairwell. His eyes darted upward as moonlight poured in through the gaping wound Mahoraga had carved.
"Well then…" he muttered, his voice softer than usual, lacking its singsong cadence. "Shall we take this outside?"
Mahoraga answered by tearing through the wreckage, forcing its colossal frame upward. With a single step it shattered the last remnants of the ceiling and emerged into the open.
Mahito followed, climbing the wall like a spider before springing out into the ruined street above.
For a brief moment, the cityscape lay eerily untouched. This district, spared the carnage of Jogo's flames and Sukuna's wrath, still bore the look of a living place. Cars lined the streets, windows intact, buildings rising tall and silent against the gray sky.
That illusion of safety lasted less than a heartbeat.
Mahoraga rose from the crater like a god of retribution, dragging the rails of the subway behind it. Rubble and rebar tumbled from its shoulders as its wheel spun once, echoing like the toll of a funeral bell.
The solid steel beams turned into whips as Mahroaga started swinging them, mimicking Mahito's movements.
Buildings were torn apart in an instant, sent flying as the steel snapped and cut through everything nearby.
Mahito grinned faintly, but there was little playfulness in it now. His focus narrowed, every nerve sharpened.
The rails could never hope to harm him. But Mahoraga was still testing things out.
The Sword of Extermination gleamed faintly with residual light as the shikigami raised it.
'That blade… one mistake, and I end up like Dagon.'
The thought didn't spark fear, it brought clarity.
Mahoraga moved, its form faster than just about every enemy Mahito had faced... Everyone but Sukuna and Toji, of course.
The blade descended, splitting a line of parked cars in two. Explosions bloomed along the street as gasoline ignited, fire washing over Mahito's figure before he slipped aside, molten flesh bending unnaturally as he threaded through the flames.
Mahoraga was already there, following with a backhand swing that tore through an office building. Steel girders snapped like twigs, and the structure toppled sideways, showering the street in dust and debris.
Mahito ducked beneath the falling rubble, reshaping his arms into elongated whips that cracked against the shikigami's torso, buying himself a breath of space.
The wheel spun. Adaptation. Always adaptation.
'It's probably more and more used to my whip now.'
A kick followed. Mahoraga's leg moved with brutal speed, colliding with Mahito's chest before he could reform fully.
The impact rattled him, deeper than flesh, deeper than bone. His soul shivered at the strike, a ripple of true damage flaring through his body.
Mahito staggered back, clutching his chest with one hand. For the first time in this battle, his smile faltered entirely.
"…Tch." His tone hardened, flat. "He's already adapted to be able to injure me, huh?"
The realisation didn't slow him. If anything, it quickened his pace.
Mahoraga came again, relentless. Its punches hammered through the street, each strike a localised earthquake. Cars flipped end over end, storefronts crumbled, and asphalt peeled apart like paper.
Mahito avoided the Sword every time, body contorting unnaturally, slipping past edges of light by a hair's breadth. But the kicks, the punches, those he couldn't always evade. Each glancing blow gnawed at his soul, nibbling away piece by piece.
He regenerated, but slower now. The pain lingered.
Still, his focus sharpened. 'Don't play. Don't chatter. Black Flash… that's the only path forward.'
Mahoraga seized a car in its hand, spinning and hurling it like a child discarding a toy. The vehicle hurtled toward Mahito, exploding into fire as it struck the ground. Out of the blaze stepped the shikigami itself, sword raised, wheel screaming.
Mahito darted low, his body flattening into a sheet of flesh that slid beneath the strike. He rose with a knee to Mahoraga's jaw, his leg hardened into steel, and the shikigami barely flinched.
The wheel had spun one too many times.
Mahito's attacks were becoming less effective with every passing second.
'No more games. Focus.'
The shikigami drove him back through the streets, every clash tearing the district further apart.
An entire high-rise collapsed under one of its swings, sending a tidal wave of glass shards and concrete fragments cascading down.
Mahito wove through them effortlessly, his body splitting and reforming, but he wasn't smiling anymore.
His eyes were locked, unblinking, on his own hands.
'Cursed energy, soul, body. Synchronize.'
Mahoraga lunged. Its fist drove Mahito through the side of a department store, sending him crashing through multiple floors before smashing him into the street below.
For a moment, he didn't rise. Dust and smoke obscured the ruins, silence broken only by the groaning of crumbling steel beams.
Mahoraga advanced, its blade dragging sparks along the ground.
Then, from the rubble, Mahito staggered upright. His body was bent, fractured, steaming from the strain of constant regeneration. Purple blood spilt down his chin.
And still his eyes burned with intent.
"…Closer," he muttered, voice raw. "I need to get even closer."
He flexed his right hand, cursed energy dancing erratically across it, the distortion not yet blooming. His body trembled with anticipation.
Mahoraga did not pause. It charged again, every step a detonation, every strike an ending.
Mahito dodged the blade by the width of a hair, then the next, then the next, until finally he stepped into the strike instead of away.
His hand drew back, soul and cursed energy aligning in perfect harmony for a single instant.
Now.
'Black Flash.'
The distortion exploded across the battlefield, reality itself bending around the blow. Mahoraga reeled back as Mahito's fist drove into its chest, the impact reverberating like a thunderclap through the city.
Cracks spiderwebbed through the shikigami's frame, its wheel spinning violently as if rejecting the strike. The air warped, a void-like bloom expanding from the point of impact.
Mahito's laughter returned. But it was different now, stripped of mockery, carrying the raw edge of triumph.
"Finally…" he breathed. His grin dripped blood. "Finally, I touched it again."
Mahoraga staggered, recovering, its blade lifting once more.
Mahito didn't wait. His hands pressed together, cursed energy flooding outward, overwhelming and sharp.
"Domain Expansion-"
The world buckled.
"Cursed Genesis!"
There was no longer a barrier.