"Prime?"
Faced with Locke's question, Jogo was momentarily stunned, then quickly reacted.
This guy... he's not even in his prime yet!
"Although I was born a thousand years ago, I was born as a concubine's child in this family. Even though I had cursed techniques, I was sent to be a lowly 'ninja.'"
The enemy suddenly began sharing his childhood with him. Although it was abnormal, Jogo's goal was to buy time, so he didn't intend to stop him.
Locke, who had already written a backstory for himself, finally had the opportunity to begin his performance. His emotions gradually rose—in other words—
He was showing off.
"Of course, they didn't even call us ninjas back then. I forget what it was. It was a very despicable profession. I wasn't allowed to use my own techniques. I was used as a disposable tool for dirty work, so as not to endanger the status of the legitimate sons in the family."
"But I was born with talent. I completed all the missions. The head of the Shadow Flow appreciated me, took me as his disciple, and gave me the opportunity to display my talents."
"Originally, I thought I was just a shadow in the darkness, only responsible for helping my master eliminate obstacles. But he said that even a shadow should have its own will."
"That is, from that day on, I 'awakened.' I understood the meaning of my existence. I no longer only used shadows. I began to tame my shikigami. Soon after, whether it was assassination or eliminating cursed spirits, I not only became a good hand but also the pride of Kagetatsu."
"However, such happy days did not last long. After my family found out, they wanted to kill me to eliminate future trouble. My master came to save me, but in the end, he died of exhaustion, making me, a lowly concubine's child, the new master of the Shadow Flow."
From that day on, I fully understood the true meaning of shadows. As a shadow, I never blindly imitated others or became a vassal beneath their shadows. Instead, I plundered and replaced!
Listening to Locke slowly recount the past, Jogo's anxiety grew. His instincts frantically screamed a warning.
He can't be allowed to continue like this. He must be stopped immediately!
"So you still don't understand? The highest power of the Ten Shadows Technique has never been these shikigami, but the shadow itself—the shadow technique!"
Seeing that Jogo and Hanami could finally no longer hold back, Locke laughed loudly. His voice was wrapped in extreme mockery:
"By the way, what you just said... was that twenty Sukunas?"
At the same time, Locke, who was riding the bird, received a notification.
[@# Application for Upgrade]
[Accept / Decline]
Locke was momentarily stunned, clicked on the system interface to look at his remaining popularity points, and agreed.
[Character Card Upgrading...]
[Megumi Fushiguro Youth (Rabbit) → Megumi Fushiguro Possessed: Ryomen Sukuna (Mahoraga)]
[You may spend Popularity Points to continue upgrading]
[Next Stage]
[Megumi Fushiguro Possessed: Ryomen Sukuna (Four-Armed Manifestation)]
[Amplitude adjustment detected. 60% of this upgrade cost will be refunded]
[Character Card Upgrading...]
[Megumi Fushiguro: Ryomen Sukuna (Mahoraga) → Megumi Fushiguro Possessed: Ryomen Sukuna (Four-Armed Manifestation)]
[Character card has reached the final upgrade stage]
[Upgrade requirements unlocked]
[Requirement 1: Character Breakthrough Phase 3]
[Requirement 2: Trait [Cursed Child Gold]]
[Requirement 3: Complete Trial [Ryomen Sukuna: Inner Demon Manifestation]]
[Next Stage]
[Megumi Fushiguro: Ryomen Sukuna (Full Manifestation, Mahoraga)]
"Heavenly Seal, Shadow Bone, Dharma Realm Dwelling, and Minghe True Pearl!"
"[Extreme Shadow Flow]!"
The moment the incantation was spoken, the two great special-grade cursed spirits noticed that the cursed energy around Locke had drastically changed.
The thick, ink-like shadow beneath his feet boiled and rolled wildly, then tightly wrapped around him in an airtight absolute sphere. Streams of sinister cursed energy burst from the cracks in the sphere, cold and corrupted, wrapped in a thousand years of malice.
Jogo's heart went cold. He immediately mobilized all the cursed energy in his body, charging flames into his palm to fiercely compress them. The scarlet fire condensed into a ball of light between his fingers.
But at the moment the cursed energy accumulated, the aura emanating from the shadow sphere enveloping him, and the cursed energy soaked in curses and resentment, was inexplicably familiar to his heart.
Only when Jogo unleashed the flames, which had been compressed to the extreme, did he remember why he felt familiar.
Yes, this cursed energy was clearly the same as Ryomen Sukuna's fingers.
Wait, could it be!
At this moment, Jogo looked at the pitch-black sphere with disbelief and was shocked to discover that before he and Hanami could even launch their attack, the surface of the sphere was already covered in spiderweb-like cracks.
Crack—
A sharp shattering sound suddenly rose. Simultaneously, as Jogo and Hanami's attacks landed, a voice suddenly rang out from the very center of the collision, echoing across the entire battlefield.
"[Cleave]."
In the next instant, a dense, web-like grid suddenly burst from the core of the battlefield. A cold light tore through the air, spreading across heaven and earth, splitting the attacks of the two great cursed spirits, as well as the surrounding airflow, dust, and mist—along with the ground itself—evenly dispersing inch by inch.
The flames and wooden spikes were forcibly frozen in mid-air. They could not hold for another second, collapsed, and exploded. The fierce fire waves and shattered wooden spikes turned into flying debris across the sky, carried away with a roar.
When the smoke and dust cleared, Locke had already transformed into a four-armed figure and stood before the two.
The image of four arms and four eyes—it was impossible for Jogo not to understand what it symbolized. He stood frozen in a daze, momentarily plunged into despair.
"Plunder... become another person... how is that possible... how could such a technique even exist?"
"But you've already seen it with your own eyes, haven't you?"
Faced with the other party's response, Jogo involuntarily stepped back half a step, realizing it was true.
Although he didn't know what the limitations were, it was clear that this madman had truly turned himself into Ryomen Sukuna. That meant, as many times as he wanted, he could become anyone... including Nishida Kagetatsu.
This sudden change completely shattered the last remnants of self-esteem remaining in Jogo.
He had once considered himself extraordinary, even capable of defeating all sorcerers alone in exchange for a future where cursed spirits could run freely under the sun.
But only at this moment did he suddenly realize that he was just a foolish frog at the bottom of a well, looking up at the sky—sad and pathetic.
Cursed spirits were, by nature, just human playthings.
Locke, controlling a four-armed body for the first time, gradually grew accustomed to it. He raised his eyes to look at Jogo, and the corners of his lips curled into a smile:
"Two hands, two talents, two mouths. No wonder he's called the King of Curses. These advantages are terrifying to onmyoji. But unfortunately, they are a burden to us ninja."
Before the words fell, without waiting for the two great cursed spirits to react, he had already formed the Heavenly Seal hand sign. The corners of his lips smirked into an arrogant and ruthless arc as he whispered:
"Let me see if this is how you play..."
"[Domain Expansion: Malevolent Shrine]."
In the next moment, a shrine compressed from the skeleton of a giant beast suddenly appeared in the world. Piles of bones scattered like a tidal wave, instantly enveloping the world within a five-hundred-meter radius, trapping everything within its domain.
"Damn it!"
Jogo reacted instantly, nearly expanding his own domain, but was interrupted by the endless [Cleave] and [Dismantle]. Slash marks, thin as a web, instantly crawled across his entire body. Deep purple cursed blood frantically seeped from thousands of cracks.
Before Jogo and Hanami could react, Locke, manifested as Sukuna, raised his hands high and shouted enthusiastically:
"And I... let's dance together!"
At this moment, in the sky above Kyoto Jujutsu High School, a crow controlled by a technique hovered high in the air and lingered for a long time.
Hundreds of meters away, inside a car, the first-grade sorcerer Mei Mei used the crow's vision to obtain a panoramic view of the fierce battle that had just occurred.
After a long time, she recovered from the intense shock and quietly sighed:
"Kagetatsu Nishida... Nara Locke... they are truly a bunch of... complete monsters."
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