Some time passed.
In the long, grinding stalemate, only Flame Pillar Shinobu made any real headway—using the cucumber vines as her thread, she navigated the Palace's tangled structure and steadily located several hidden safe rooms.
As for Gojo Saki and Ryomen Sukuna, they'd made essentially zero progress. At their pace, pulverizing Wakaba Mutsumi's entire Palace was only a matter of time—yet when it came to the two "cores" of the Palace—the opera house and the cathedral—they couldn't do a thing.
That either meant violence couldn't solve this…
…or it meant they still weren't being violent enough.
Sakiko sat cross-legged in the void, made her decision, and exhaled.
"We can't keep bleeding time like this."
She closed her eyes, bought and activated the group tool Mind Singularity.
Every detail since Gojo Saki entered Mutsumi's Palace surfaced at once. The torrent of information was dissected, reassembled, simulated, brute-forced through possibilities—
An instant later, Sakiko opened her eyes. A flash of frustration crossed her pupils.
Mind Singularity's conclusion was blunt: with Sakiko's current knowledge and conditions, there was no method to forcibly breach the Palace core.
She drew a slow breath and steadied herself, refusing to get stuck in the dead end of "how do we brute-force it."
She bought Mind Singularity again and handed it a simpler, more fundamental question:
"What should I do next?"
The tool responded immediately, delivering three concrete options.
A Palace was the manifestation of its owner's inner world; its core rules were inevitably bound to the deepest layers of the owner's consciousness.
If Sakiko could communicate with Mutsumi—truly understand her pain and obsession—she might find the key to the rules, their hinge point, their weakness.
But reality was cruel.
Mutsumi's consciousness had awakened… and was being suppressed by Mortis. Effective communication was impossible.
Sakiko had come at this from the Palace precisely to bypass Mortis and learn Mutsumi's state through her Shadow.
Option 1 was a road blocked at both ends.
Mind Singularity pointed at Mutsumi's mother.
Children were deeply shaped by their parents—especially when it came to how the mind mapped reality. That imprint often carried a strong "family seal."
If they entered Mori Minami's Palace and investigated, they might uncover the roots that shaped Mutsumi's inner world—or critical information they were missing.
A spark lit in Sakiko's eyes. This was highly plausible: a lateral approach to Mutsumi's rules.
The most extreme option.
Sakiko's first contact with the cognitive realm had been accidental: she'd blundered into her father's Palace. That time, in the hallway of his run-down apartment building, she'd put on the Willpower Glasses—perhaps her will and emotional cognition spiked violently at the right place, and she was dragged straight into the Palace's interior.
Once inside, she'd been bound by its rules; the navigation app couldn't pull her out.
Only after she forced herself beyond the "Loser's Stairway," confronted her father's Shadow, and was expelled… did she return to reality.
And when she came back, she'd reappeared beside her father's physical body.
Mind Singularity seized on that detail.
It suggested a key rule: a strong mapping existed between physical location in reality and the Palace's core position.
So Option 3 was to have Sakiko's real body go to Mutsumi's room in reality—stand beside Mutsumi—and then force-entry via the navigation app.
If the mapping held, she could potentially bypass the outer maze and defenses and appear directly beside Mutsumi's Shadow—an ambush at point-blank range.
But Mind Singularity stamped a warning across it:
Extremely high risk.
Just like when Sakiko faced her father's Shadow and was instantly suppressed by the Four Shackles—where the power gap effectively became a monstrous 256x—Mutsumi's Shadow in her own domain was a complete unknown. What rule-type abilities she possessed was impossible to predict.
Charging into the core without dismantling the outer mechanisms first would mean fighting on the enemy's throne room—likely with no chance of victory.
Worse, once you entered a Palace's interior, the navigation app's "return" function would fail.
And only Sakiko's real body could use the app. A Possibility Double couldn't trigger it, so she couldn't send a double in to eat the trap.
She suspected the reason was simple: the doubles hadn't awakened Personas the way she had, and therefore lacked permission.
Yes, she could—in theory—force-exit by using the group subchat to teleport to Kaguya as a coordinate…
…but her real body would still be exposed to unknown dangers. The risk remained uncontrollable.
If she got instantly sealed or her thinking shut down the moment she entered, the only fallback would be letting her status in the main chat turn red and praying the Group Leader could rescue her.
Rules…
Sakiko sighed silently, a shadow settling between her brows.
The three options Mind Singularity produced were, respectively: one blocked by Mortis; one that opened a whole new battlefield of unknowns; and one that was basically tightrope-walking over a bottomless abyss.
Still—having a direction was better than standing still.
Just as Sakiko was about to choose between Options 2 and 3, Mind Singularity continued outputting and delivered a follow-up suggestion she hadn't expected:
Ask Shinobu and Soyo to use Mind Singularity and analyze as well.
Sakiko froze for a beat, a flicker of disbelief rising.
She was the one who understood the cognitive world most deeply among the three. Shinobu and Soyo had only touched this world today—what could they possibly add when even she was stuck?
But she knew Mind Singularity didn't waste outputs.
In that brief hesitation, it pulled up her own recent experience:
Earlier, it had been Shinobu who suggested using the group livestream function to share senses and intel—massively increasing exploration efficiency.
Back then, part of the reason Sakiko hadn't seen it was because she hadn't used Mind Singularity.
Maybe—just maybe—there really was a critical detail sitting in the others' blind spots.
Sakiko didn't hesitate any longer.
She pulled her attention away from Gojo Saki's ongoing bombardment inside the Palace and, through the chat, told Shinobu and Soyo to temporarily withdraw their focus from their doubles as well.
In the endless black void, the three of them reconverged mentally.
"The situation isn't good," Sakiko said, voice heavy. "The core defense mechanism has surpassed the limits of raw destructive power. It's at the level of rules. I ran Mind Singularity—under our current conditions, there's no direct way to crack Mutsumi's Palace core."
She wasted no time and laid out all three paths and their risks.
"Now I need your help," she finished, looking at them. "Use Mind Singularity too. Think of anything that could break the opera house and cathedral defenses. Any idea. Any possibility."
Shinobu nodded lightly and activated Mind Singularity again. Moments later, she opened her eyes.
Her thinking was sharply utilitarian. She delivered the simplest solution first.
"Sakiko… since our methods are insufficient, should we just call the Group Leader here? His power might be able to break rules."
It was straightforward—and, frankly, the safest. In their current understanding, the Group Leader was the strongest possible backstop.
Sakiko fell silent for a few seconds, weighing it.
Asking for the Group Leader meant giving up the chance to solve this with their own hands—and giving up the growth that came with it.
Her pride resisted becoming someone who could only lean on others.
"No." Sakiko shook her head. "Not yet. We aren't at total collapse. We still have three options. Even if they're risky, we still have room to try."
She drew a breath and stared at the towering Palace again, eyes sharpening.
"Treat calling the Group Leader as our fourth backup option. Before that, let's see how far we can get on our own."
Besides—this wasn't like Shinobu's world. In Sakiko's world, the Group Leader could rewind time as a failsafe if tragedy struck.
The reason Sakiko hadn't asked him to rewind the world back before all this began was precisely because she wanted to take responsibility for what had happened.
Sakiko and Shinobu's gaze shifted together to Soyo.
Soyo inhaled, focused, and awkwardly—still not fully fluent with today's tools—activated Mind Singularity.
For someone who had only just learned the supernatural side of her world existed, even using the group's functions still felt clumsy.
She searched through the knowledge base she'd inherited from Sukuna—techniques, curses, applications of cursed energy—
Then Mind Singularity snagged something under the Ten Shadows Technique.
A shikigami that Sukuna's own evaluation didn't seem to rate very highly.
Soyo's head snapped up. Her eyes lit with sudden, sharp hope.
"Sakiko! I… I think I have a way!"
Both Sakiko and Shinobu looked at her.
"My double has the Ten Shadows Technique. It can summon a shikigami called Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga."
Soyo organized her words, trying to explain clearly.
"It has adaptation. It can analyze and adapt to any attack—and even phenomena or rules that affect it. As long as it has time to take damage and analyze, it can eventually become immune to, or outright break, that phenomenon!"
With Mind Singularity feeding her clarity, her speech became more fluent as she continued.
"I didn't think of it before—one, I only learned about the supernatural today and my head was a mess; two, in my double's memories, Mahoraga's rating in top-tier fights isn't great. It needs startup time and can get instantly killed, and its damage isn't enough for high-end battles. Earlier, what we needed was large-scale destruction. Mahoraga was far less efficient than Sukuna's slashes and fire."
Soyo's voice trembled with excitement.
"But now we're facing an unbreakable rule barrier. That's exactly Mahoraga's domain. I can try letting it adapt to the barrier's rules!"
Sakiko's eyes flared—bright, sudden, fierce.
"Mahoraga…"
She instantly combed through the info tied to Soyo's Sukuna double.
Yes—Mahoraga was considered limited at the top because its adaptation required time… and Gojo could erase it before it finished.
But the same information also stated something crucial:
Mahoraga can adapt to and break Infinity.
That meant Mahoraga truly might adapt to the opera house's and cathedral's rule barrier.
"Perfect, Soyo!" Sakiko couldn't hide the lift in her voice. "Now. Immediately. Have your double try it!"
Soyo nodded hard.
On the cathedral side, Sukuna—still maintaining her domain—paused.
Malevolent Shrine receded like a tide. The skeletal throne vanished. The endless slashes fell silent.
Then Sukuna's shadow boiled like ink.
A colossal presence rose slowly from the abyss of that darkness.
Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga.
It was tall, massive, and pale—radiating an ancient, savage pressure.
It had no eyes; four wing-like structures served as their replacement.
Most striking of all was the rotating wheel hovering above its head.
Under Sukuna's command, Mahoraga ignored the Palace's core rule—the need to move on the BGM's beat—and stepped forward in its own rhythm toward the cathedral.
One step.
A low, unnatural vibration rang out.
The Palace's punishment for off-beat movement triggered instantly.
Space warped. Several sharp, transparent slashes manifested from nowhere and crashed into Mahoraga's pale flesh, carving deep wounds.
Mahoraga's motion stuttered for an instant.
But in the moment it was harmed, the wheel above its head issued a heavy, stuck "click," like a rusted bearing turning under force.
The wheel completed its first rotation.
Mahoraga's wounds sealed instantly.
It laughed—an inhuman, feral sound—and took a second step.
Blue fire erupted around it.
At the same time, bone-deep frost crawled over its joints, the punishment intensifying in frequency.
The Palace wasn't just dealing damage—it was trying to disrupt Mahoraga's ability system, to slow its adaptation, suppress its regeneration.
But the interference couldn't reduce adaptation speed to zero.
Instead, it increased resistance gradually.
And that "gradual" was everything: it gave Mahoraga time.
After the first wheel rotation, Mahoraga gained initial resistance. That initial resistance established an upper limit—no matter how the Palace pressed down, it could never fully stop the adaptation process.
Mahoraga kept walking.
Third step. Fourth step.
The punishment came like a storm—nonstop, ruthless, pounding it at high frequency.
But for Mahoraga, that was the perfect environment: extremely frequent attacks that weren't instantly lethal.
They became an endless supply of adaptation samples.
As it took its fifth step—
Click.
The wheel completed its second rotation.
The slashes, fire, and frost that had hurt it at first now had drastically reduced effect.
Slashes barely broke skin. Frost couldn't spread and shattered on contact. Fire's burn weakened sharply.
The Palace continued trying to slow adaptation, but Mahoraga's progress was already unstoppable.
It didn't speed up.
It didn't need to.
Each step simply became more absolute.
Sixth. Seventh. Eighth—
The once-lethal punishments became mere irritation.
And as the barrage continued—
Click—
The wheel completed its third rotation.
Mahoraga took another step.
This time, the slashes, fire, and frost vanished the moment they touched its surface—like they'd struck an invisible wall of sighs and were erased before they could leave even a faint mark.
Ten-odd steps.
Three wheel turns.
Under a near-mad storm of punishment, Mahoraga used absurd adaptation to grind that "iron law" beneath its feet.
It ignored the BGM.
It ignored the damage.
It ignored the disruption.
A silent white mountain, inexorable, walking straight through the Palace's decree.
Now Mahoraga's towering pale frame stood firmly before the cathedral's great doors.
Slowly, it raised one hand and pressed its palm against the gate.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
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Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 155)
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TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
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I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter230)
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Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 200
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 180
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/5
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 230
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 220
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/30
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 120
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 135
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 110
I Can Copy Unique Skills 100
Summoning an Evil God, but the 70
Supernatural Multiverse 100
My Harem Is Indescribable 90
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 95
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 68
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 105
Still playing traditional Honk 69
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 80
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 70
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 75
Checking In in Demon Slayer 80
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 85
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 70
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 65
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 70
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 70
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 65
Why did they assign me to Uma 65
MYGO Beauties 65
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 55
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 65
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 45
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 45
The Uma Musume Who Became 40
I'm Definitely Not the King of 45
After Maxing Out Every Class 45
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