The sky over the Kyoto Colony hung oppressively low, weighed down by roiling dark clouds of cursed energy.
Though Yoru had just struck down Yotohime's Maximum technique like lightning and forcibly reforged Maki's weapon,
the towering burst of flames and violent surge of cursed energy had completely given away their position.
Rumble—!
The ground began to shudder violently without warning.
From every corner of the ruins, figures reeking of rot and fury converged frantically toward their location, like a frenzy of sharks drawn by the scent of blood.
These were ancient sorcerers—vessels of incarnation lured by Kenjaku's colony-linking rule—eager to hunt Yoru down for points or simply craving slaughter!
A rough glance revealed dozens of them, with no shortage of terrifying combatants whose power bordered on special grade.
"Looks like we're surrounded, boss."
Kinji Hakari cracked his neck, his bones popping like cracking beans, a feverish thirst for battle blazing in his eyes.
"Good timing, too. I haven't had enough fun with my jackpot yet!"
Hajime Kashimo quietly clenched his fists as fine arcs of lightning skittered wildly across his skin, ready at any moment to erupt into a cataclysmic tempest.
Yet, just as the two prepared to clear the field,
a pale, scar-laced arm suddenly stepped out to bar their way.
It was Maki Zenin.
Gripping the newly reforged, dark-red blade named Shura, she strode slowly to the very front of the group.
"Yoru."
Maki did not look back, but her voice was eerily calm—so tranquil it sent a chill down the spine.
"In that fight just now, I may have awakened the complete form of my Heavenly Restriction and tapped into the 'no-thought' state you described."
"Still, I feel like I'm missing one final step."
Maki lowered her head slightly, gazing at the blade that felt intrinsically bound to her own bloodline.
"Just a little more to truly push this body's potential to its absolute limit."
Watching her resolute silhouette, a spark of admiration flashed in Yoru's deep-red eyes.
He understood what she meant.
For a monster of pure physical prowess shaped by Heavenly Restriction, training in isolation was meaningless.
Only in the crucible of life-and-death slaughter, baptised in blood and agony, could she emerge from her cocoon and complete that final evolution.
"Go ahead."
Yoru slowly eased his hand off Shiranui.
"Since you've taken hold of Shura, let the blood of these ancient monstrosities hone its edge."
"Hold nothing back. Do not hesitate."
"Cut down everything that stands before you."
Hearing his approval, Maki's lips curved into a ferocious grin.
"Suit yourself! That's just what I wanted!"
Boom—!
The instant the words left her mouth, the concrete beneath her feet exploded, gouging out a crater several meters wide!
Her figure transformed into a streak of dark-red lightning, charging headlong into the surging tide of ancient sorcerers rather than giving an inch!
"Reckless monkey! Die!"
A hulking ancient sorcerer leading the charge bellowed, condensing a massive battleaxe of cursed energy to bring down a mountain-cleaving strike directly toward her skull.
Confronting this devastating blow,
Maki did not so much as bat an eyelash.
"Too slow."
Slash!
A dark-red flash of steel streaked through the air.
The hulking brute froze mid-motion.
In the very next second,
his supposedly indestructible axe of cursed energy—along with his towering, fortress-like physique—was cleaved smoothly in two right down the middle!
Blood erupted in a violent spray, only to be swallowed midair by the eerie gravitational pull of Shura's blade.
Having drunk its fill of blood, Shura gleamed with an even more bewitching dark-red luminescence along its blade, driving Maki's presence steadily higher in tandem!
"What... what kind of monster is that?!"
At this sight, the ancient sorcerers rushing behind him gasped in collective terror.
Instantly killing a grade 1 sorcerer in a single strike?!
And that sword... could drink blood?!
"Don't panic! She's just a monkey with no cursed energy! Attack together!"
Someone shouted from within the crowd, prompting dozens of ancient sorcerers to unleash their cursed techniques simultaneously.
Flames, frost, wind blades, poisonous miasma...
A dazzling deluge of lethal techniques rained down upon Maki like a catastrophic flood!
"Maki!"
Watching from behind, Noritoshi Kamo could not help but cry out in alarm.
Faced with indiscriminate bombardment of this scale, even a special grade sorcerer would be obliterated without a Domain to protect them!
Yet, staring down the cataclysmic barrage of techniques,
Maki gently closed her eyes.
"No-thought."
In that instant, the world fell into absolute silence once more.
Every trajectory, the currents of cursed energy, and even the subtle shifts in air temperature coalesced in her mind into a flawless three-dimensional model.
"Total Concentration..."
Maki's chest expanded forcefully. Though she lacked cursed energy and could not employ genuine breathing styles like Yoru,
she harnessed the abnormal physiology of her Heavenly Restriction to forcibly replicate the explosive resonance of muscle and blood native to the 'Total Concentration' state!
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Maki's silhouette flickered like a phantom through the dense crossfire of cursed techniques.
Every movement was measured down to the millimeter, stripped of the slightest excess.
Lethal strikes grazed the hem of her clothes time and time again, yet failed to graze a single hair on her head.
"Shura Slash!"
Maki snapped her eyes open as her blade transformed into a whirlwind of death, ripping mercilessly into the ranks of the ancient sorcerers.
Splurt! Splurt! Splurt!
Blood erupted like fountains across the ruins.
There were no clashes of cursed energy—only the rawest, most brutal physical butchery!
Against the reforged Shura, the physical endurance and cursed energy barriers these ancient sorcerers prided themselves on were shredded as effortlessly as paper.
As the slaughter pressed on and Shura gorged on more blood, Maki's stamina showed no sign of flagging; instead, she grew increasingly ferocious, like a perpetual motion machine!
"Monster... she's a monster!"
"Run! We can't fight this!"
In less than three short minutes,
fewer than ten of the dozens of swaggering ancient sorcerers remained alive, decimated by Maki alone!
The survivors broke down entirely, shrieking in terror as they turned to flee this living purgatory with everything they had.
However,
before the Sorcerer Killer, flight was nothing more than wishful thinking.
"Not one gets away."
Maki's frigid voice echoed behind them like the death knell of a reaper.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Several dark-red flashes cleaved the air.
Clutching their spurting throats, the last few fleeing sorcerers collapsed in pools of blood, steeped in despair.
When the final enemy dropped,
the entire street settled back into dead silence.
Amid the carpet of corpses and severed limbs,
Maki stood quietly in place, holding the still-dripping Shura.
Under the dual effects of Heavenly Restriction and the cursed blade's nourishment, her wounds had healed completely.
Bathed in the crimson sheen of her blade, the formidable definition of her musculature radiated a primal, violent perfection.
"Phew..."
Exhaling a warm breath laced with the metallic tang of blood, Maki turned to look at Yoru.
Her eyes were wiped clean of her earlier confusion and conflict, leaving behind only absolute confidence—a clarity that felt capable of sundering anything in existence.
"I did it."
Looking upon the girl who appeared to have risen reborn from the flames, a gratified smile finally touched Yoru's lips.
"Well done."
"From this moment on, you are truly worthy of the title 'Sorcerer Killer.'"
With Maki's complete breakthrough,
the strength of this vanguard led by Yoru had swelled to an extent terrifying enough to make the entire jujutsu world tremble.
And now,
it was time to shatter the core of this colony and toll the death knell for Kenjaku's game of slaughter.