"Impossible!"
Zenin Takeshi scrambled backward, his movements desperate as he narrowly evaded an incoming strike. He looked up, and the sight before him made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.
Toji, Soul Liberation Blade in hand, was descending upon him like a predator. His face was twisted into a feral, bloodthirsty grin—the look of a demon coming to collect a debt.
"Escape Rabbits!"
Takeshi's hands blurred into a seal. Instantly, a swarming tide of rabbits erupted from the shadows, creating a living wall between him and the monster in human skin. Taking advantage of the split-second distraction, Takeshi retreated like a man possessed, frantic to put distance between himself and Toji.
"Nue!"
With a panicked leap, Takeshi landed on the back of the great feathered shikigami, commanding it to take to the skies. He had originally thought Toji Fushiguro, a man with zero cursed energy, would be a soft target—an easy kill that didn't require the tactical advantage of the air.
He had been dead wrong. In a matter of seconds, Toji had already butchered his Divine Dogs and the Great Serpent with single, casual strokes of that blade.
Heavenly Restriction... can it truly reach such heights? Takeshi wondered, his heart hammering against his ribs.
Down below, surrounded by a sea of white fur and twitching ears, Toji Fushiguro suddenly slammed his foot down. The sheer physical force shattered the concrete beneath him, sending a cloud of jagged stone fragments flying into the air.
Toji sheathed the Soul Liberation Blade into the ground, his hands moving with rhythmic, terrifying precision. He began to flick the airborne pebbles with his fingers.
Each stone flew with the velocity of a sniper's bullet.
Thwip! Thwip! Thwip!
The rabbits began to burst like overripe fruit. Toji's movements were a blur of superhuman efficiency; he fired the stones in a 360-degree arc, his fingers acting like a relentless Gatling gun. Within heartbeats, the swarm was wiped out, leaving nothing but dissipating shadows.
"Tch!"
Takeshi snarled in frustration and wove a new seal. "Max Elephant!"
A gargantuan pink elephant materialized in the sky, plummeting toward Toji with the weight of a falling star.
BOOM!!!
The impact felt like a meteor strike. The entire street fractured, the shockwave shattering every window in the surrounding skyscrapers.
But Takeshi's smirk didn't even have time to form.
Toji had already scaled the side of a nearby building. With a powerful kick off the wall, he used the counterforce to launch himself behind the Max Elephant at a speed that bordered on teleportation.
Slash!
The Soul Liberation Blade bit deep into the elephant's flank. Toji gripped the hilt with both hands and sprinted along the creature's back, the blade carving a massive, vertical red line through its form as he ran.
With a heavy thud, the Max Elephant collapsed and dissolved into shadow.
Takeshi's eye twitched. What kind of freak is this? In less than thirty seconds of engagement, he had already lost five of his shikigami.
"Fine. Even so, you're a creature of flesh and blood who cannot fly," Takeshi shouted, his confidence returning as he stayed high above. "As long as I have the sky, I am invincible!"
He slammed his palms together. "Piercing Ox!"
"MOOO!!!"
The ground floor of a nearby shop disintegrated as a massive bull shikigami charged out, hurtling toward Toji. The Piercing Ox possessed the most straightforward physical power of the Ten Shadows—a simple, linear charge. However, its speed and force were rumored to eclipse even Mahoraga's under the right conditions; the longer its path, the more devastating the impact.
In an instant, the Ox was upon him. Toji felt as though he were standing in the path of a high-speed freight train.
With its current momentum, Toji could have dodged if he were willing to risk a glancing blow. Instead, he bared his teeth in a savage grin. He clamped the Soul Liberation Blade between his teeth and reached out with two corded, muscular arms, seizing the bull by its horns.
CRASH!
The earth beneath Toji's feet gave way. The entire street groaned and buckled as if an earthquake had struck, the asphalt rising and falling like the surface of a stormy sea.
The Ox didn't stop. It lowered its head and pushed, its hooves digging deep into the road as it tried to grind Toji into the dirt.
Toji grunted, his muscles bulging and his veins standing out like whipcords. He didn't give an inch. His legs sank into the earth, plowing two long, deep furrows into the street, but his spine remained perfectly straight. It was a contest of pure, unadulterated strength.
Takeshi watched, slack-jawed. To his horror, the Piercing Ox's momentum began to stall.
The charge slowed to a crawl, then stopped entirely. The bull's hooves continued to churn the dirt in a desperate attempt to move forward, but the man stood before it like an immovable mountain.
"Up you go!"
Toji roared. With a heave of his shoulders, he actually lifted the massive bull off the ground and hurled it aside like a sack of grain.
As the Ox vanished into shadows, Zenin Takeshi felt a cold wave of hysteria wash over him. Is this thing even human?
Kenjaku had told him that in this era, Toji Fushiguro was merely a "competent" fighter, and that there were five Special Grade sorcerers who surpassed him.
What kind of monster-infested era have you brought me back to, Kenjaku?!
"If that's how it's going to be..."
Takeshi looked down at Toji, preparing to summon his most powerful combination: Agito, the Merged Beast. Though the Divine Dogs were gone, their power could still be inherited.
But before he could finish the seal, Toji moved.
He pulled the Chain of a Thousand Miles from his spirit-curse's mouth, attaching it to the hilt of the Soul Liberation Blade before driving the sword deep into the ground. Then, he kicked the earth open, reaching down to hoist a massive slab of concrete and rebar into his arms—with the blade still embedded in it.
"Just because you're in the air doesn't mean you're safe!" Toji taunted.
With a violent grunt, he hurled the massive chunk of debris at Nue. The slab soared upward, the chain rattling behind it. Toji grabbed the end of the chain and was yanked into the sky, hitching a ride on his own projectile.
"What?!"
Takeshi panicked, desperately banking Nue to the side to avoid the incoming missile. As the slab whistled past, Toji leapt from the concrete mid-air. He ripped the Soul Liberation Blade free and launched himself like a heat-seeking missile toward the bird.
It was a display of physical prowess that defied every law of physics.
Toji swung the blade in a wide, shimmering arc. Takeshi "bailed out," throwing himself off Nue's back a split second before the blade connected.
Shred!
Nue was sliced clean in two.
Two figures plummeted toward the earth. Takeshi frantically wove a sign. "Toad!"
A man-sized toad manifested mid-air, swallowing Takeshi whole to cushion his fall. The toad hit the pavement and dissolved, allowing a disheveled Takeshi to scramble to his feet.
Toji, meanwhile, slammed his blade into the side of a skyscraper as he fell. Using the friction of the blade against the steel and glass, he ground to a halt, creating a trail of sparks that lit up the dusk before landing lightly on the pavement.
Takeshi looked at the man walking toward him—calm, muscular, and still wearing that predatory smile—and finally understood true terror. The only shikigami he had left that was combat-capable was the Round Deer, and its strength lay in healing, not killing.
Takeshi's entire body began to shake. He bit his lip until it bled, his eyes turning wild. "Damn you! You forced my hand!"
"I'll show you the ultimate shadow!"
Takeshi's hands formed a complex, ancient seal. He looked utterly deranged. "Gojo Tama beat me three hundred years ago... but this is the thing that finally took her to the grave with me!"
"With this treasure, I summon..."
"The Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga!"
Read The Full Story at: Patreon.com/zefyrus