Rumble...!!!
The ceiling of the underground cavern felt as if it were about to be torn off.
Accompanied by Muta Kokichi's roar, a dazzling light, as bright as the sun, burst from the chest cannon of the steel behemoth known as Ultimate Mechamaru Mode: Absolute.
It was the cursed energy he had traded his life for through a Heavenly Restriction, accumulated in the darkness for seventeen long years.
At this moment, that massive energy transformed into a beam of pure destruction, not only evaporating the underground river but also instantly annihilating every rock, tree, and even the air in its path.
"Great Exorcism Cannon!"
The terrifying recoil forced the massive mecha half a step back.
The beam, like a sword of divine judgment, pierced straight through Mahito's position, carving a massive hole tens of meters in diameter into the distant mountainside.
Smoke filled the air as waves of heat billowed outward.
Inside the cockpit, Muta Kokichi panted heavily, his hands gripping the control levers with a death-like intensity.
Although his body had healed and no longer suffered from the phantom needle-like pain that used to interfere with his movements, releasing such a colossal amount of cursed energy all at once still left him feeling dizzy.
'Did I hit him...?'
He scanned the ruins nervously through the mecha's sensors.
"My, my, how scary."
A frivolous, giggling voice drifted from the scorched earth beside the beam's path without any warning.
Muta Kokichi's pupils constricted.
Mahito stood there completely unharmed—or rather, he appeared to be.
Just a split second before the beam hit, he had split, stretched, and transformed his body like clay into a thin sheet of paper, drifting out of the attack's range on the resulting air currents.
"Is this the power you've been saving up for seventeen years?"
Mahito patted off non-existent dust, his stitched face twisting with a smile. His eyes were filled with the cruel innocence of a child stepping on ants.
"The power isn't bad; it would probably be very effective against mosquitoes. Too bad... you can't hit me."
"Monster..." Muta Kokichi hissed through gritted teeth.
"Don't be in such a hurry. The game is just beginning."
On the distant cliffside, the man in the monk's robes leisurely lowered the Veil in his hand.
"Emerge from darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure."
A black barrier quickly enveloped the entire dam area, completely isolating the earth-shattering battle from the outside world.
Kenjaku stood with his hands tucked into his sleeves, watching the mecha below with great interest.
"Go wild, Mahito. Just don't let this boy die too quickly; I still need to collect some data."
"Got it!"
Mahito grinned. His body suddenly swelled, transforming into a winged mass of flesh that lunged toward Mechamaru at extreme speed.
"Don't underestimate me!!"
Muta Kokichi let out a roar, his fingers dancing across the control panel.
His healthy body granted him unprecedented reaction speed.
The massive mecha was as agile as a human in an exoskeleton at that moment.
The thrusters emitted blue flames as Mechamaru sidestepped to avoid Mahito's charge, while simultaneously opening all the launch ports on its back.
"Homing Missiles!"
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Dozens of tracking light shells, saturated with high concentrations of cursed energy, whistled through the air like a pack of bloodthirsty hawks, locking onto Mahito's trajectory.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The flames of the explosions merged into a single sheet in the air. With no way to dodge, Mahito took the direct hit. His body was blasted into fragments, severed limbs and flesh raining down like water.
'Did I do it?!' Muta Kokichi felt a surge of joy.
But in the next second, that joy turned into cold despair.
The scattered flesh writhed and coalesced strangely in mid-air. In the blink of an eye, Mahito was back to his original state, without so much as a tear in his clothes.
"It's no use, it's no use."
Mahito hovered in the air, making a face at the mecha.
"As long as you can't touch my soul, no matter how many times you destroy my physical body, I won't die."
"This is the absolute barrier between a Special Grade Curse and a human."
...
At the edge of the battlefield, in a blind spot of the Veil.
A black sedan sat quietly in the shadows.
Yoshino Junpei sat in the passenger seat, his hands shaking uncontrollably as he watched the massive mecha being toyed with through the window and the stitched-face curse that had once brought him endless nightmares.
"Boss... aren't we going to help yet?"
Junpei's voice was dry. "Mechamaru's firepower is intense, but he can't harm Mahito's soul. If this continues, he'll be ground down to nothing."
Hayashi En sat in the back seat, holding a portable terminal that was frantically displaying cursed energy data collected from the battlefield.
"Don't be in a rush, Junpei."
En pushed up his glasses, the firelight from the distant explosions reflected in his lenses.
"Muta Kokichi is currently at a disadvantage, but a shred of hope that he can win still lingers in his heart."
En spoke nonchalantly.
"Helping someone in their hour of need is far more valuable than giving them a gift when they already have plenty."
"Help offered when someone is truly desperate is the most valuable."
En closed the terminal, his gaze piercing through the darkness toward the mecha in its frantic struggle.
...
The center of the battlefield.
The battle had reached a fever pitch.
Mechamaru's energy reserves were plummeting.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"
Muta Kokichi's eyes were bloodshot.
He could feel that Mahito wasn't being serious at all; it was like a cat playing with a mouse.
Every attack was evaded, and every hit was healed.
In contrast, Mahito's occasional counterattacks caused damage whenever they even slightly grazed the mecha.
Alarms wailed one after another inside the cockpit.
[WARNING: LEFT ARM ARMOR DAMAGE AT 70%.]
[WARNING: REMAINING CURSED ENERGY BELOW 30%.]
[WARNING: COCKPIT PROTECTIVE BARRIER ABOUT TO RUPTURE.]
"Still haven't given up?"
Mahito seemed to have grown bored. He landed on the mecha's shoulder, his gaze turning dangerous as he looked at the thick armor.
"While I can't easily reshape this big hunk of iron directly, it'll all be over once I kill the pilot inside, right?"
Mahito took a deep breath, slowly forming a hand seal in front of his chest.
A cold, viscous, black cursed energy carrying the absolute laws of death erupted from him as its center.
In that moment, Muta Kokichi felt the breath of death inside the cockpit.
He knew this technique.
He had also prepared for it.
It was the ultimate secret technique of a Special Grade Curse.
"No... I can't let him expand it!"
Muta Kokichi desperately tried to pull out his Simple Domain to counter it, but Mahito's hand seal was too fast—fast enough to make him despair.
Mahito split his mouth into that iconic, malicious grin.
"This is the end, Mechamaru."
"Domain Expansion—"
"Self-Embodiment of Perfection."
Vrr—
The world was instantly plunged into darkness.
Countless giant, pale palms reached out from the void, dragging the towering mecha and the boy inside into an inescapable cage of death.
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