However. As the golden rule of the universe dictates: whenever someone thinks, "As long as nothing unexpected happens…" an accident is absolutely guaranteed.
Ever since Mahoraga had violently torn its way into reality, Mirai's brain had been working in overdrive, frantically sifting through every piece of jujutsu knowledge he possessed. The Divine General's unprompted manifestation was utterly bizarre. The only logical conclusion Mirai could draw was that Mahoraga had been forcibly drawn out by the birth of Jedora.
The miraculous, heretical fusion born from the combination of the Six Eyes and the Ten Shadows—Jedora. To the Ten Shadows Technique, her existence was likely just as paradigm-shifting as the Limitless was to the Six Eyes!
Of course, this was all just frantic speculation. He could only verify his theories if they managed to survive this apocalyptic disaster.
And currently, survival was looking incredibly bleak.
Out on the cratered battlefield, Jedora was bleeding profusely. Her regenerative capabilities could no longer keep pace with Mahoraga's relentless, devastating bombardment. Without the massive cursed energy reserves of her master to draw from, Jedora was in critical danger!
"It's not looking good, Mirai. Your Shikigami can't hold on much longer!"
As Zenin Naobito stated the grim reality, his heart was pounding with sheer terror and awe. As the former Clan Head, he knew better than anyone the absolute nightmare that was Mahoraga. It was the feral, untamable apex of the Zenin clan—a Shikigami that no Ten Shadows user in history had ever subjugated. It existed strictly as a suicidal, mutually assured destruction maneuver!
History recorded that a previous Head of the Gojo Clan, armed with the invincible combination of the Six Eyes and the Limitless, had been slaughtered by Mahoraga's unparalleled blade. Its power was absolute.
Yet somehow, this six-year-old boy had forged a mysterious, unrecorded Shikigami capable of going toe-to-toe with the Divine General!
Is this kid even human? Naobito thought. If they survived today, there was zero doubt in Naobito's mind that Mirai would become the most terrifying sorcerer in jujutsu history.
"Master, let me step in," Zenin Toji volunteered, cracking his knuckles.
Lying exhausted on the ground, Mirai rubbed his throbbing temples and sighed helplessly. "Mr. Mahoraga is too strong for you to handle alone right now, Toji. Just wait for my cursed energy to regenerate. Once I'm back up, we'll jump him together. That's our best chance of winning."
"Mr. Mahoraga?" Hearing Mirai respectfully address the apocalyptic monster currently trying to annihilate their entire bloodline left Toji utterly speechless.
"Boss... with all due respect, your Shikigami is getting ripped to shreds out there," Toji pointed out flatly.
"Oh, you must be joking. They were evenly matched just a second ago~" Mirai waved a dismissive hand, subconsciously filtering out the warnings. "Besides, what's he going to do? Can Mahoraga adapt to pure, unga-bunga hand-to-hand combat?"
Mirai cracked one eye open, lazily glancing over at the battlefield to see how the 'Tornado Destroying the Parking Lot' was holding up.
"FUCK!!!"
Seeing Miss Jedora drenched in her own blood, desperately struggling to fend off Mahoraga with only two of her nine tails remaining, Mirai shot up from the ground in absolute horror.
My brand-new, ultra-rare Shikigami is getting scrapped before the engine is even broken in! "What the hell are you two standing around for?!" Mirai snapped, turning his panic onto Toji and Naobito. "Get out there and jump him!"
Gritting his teeth against the searing pain in his skull, Mirai forcibly concentrated his completely depleted mental energy.
"LEXUS!!!"
The silver-gray Stand manifested violently. "Hurry up! What are you daydreaming about?! Miss Jedora can't handle this level of spice!" Mirai screamed at his retainers.
Toji: "..." Naobito: "..."
The two men exchanged a silent, deadpan glance, both feeling the onset of a stress-induced myocardial infarction. With heavy sighs, the two strongest physical fighters in the Zenin clan launched themselves into the fray!
Back in the meat grinder.
Mahoraga had just viciously ripped apart Jedora's final two tails! Reaching out with a massive, pale hand, the Divine General aimed straight for Jedora's head, intent on delivering a skull-crushing execution!
Just as the fingers closed—
The translucent, silver-gray figure of Lexus phased directly into the microscopic gap between them. Pivoting flawlessly, Lexus delivered a devastating high kick right under Mahoraga's broad jaw, launching the towering behemoth into the air.
What followed was a barrage of hyper-sonic, painfully simplistic violence.
ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! ORA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA! MUDA!
Because of the absolute rule—Only a Stand User can see a Stand—Lexus was completely invisible to Mahoraga. The Divine General found itself suspended in mid-air, locked in a brutal stalemate against an unseen force, though its absurd durability prevented it from taking significant damage.
After being casually swatted away by Mahoraga three times in a row, Toji and Naobito swallowed their pride and resorted to guerilla warfare, darting in to support Lexus with hit-and-run strikes.
As two of the apex combatants in the jujutsu world, their physical output was monstrous. Unfortunately, mere kinetic force meant absolutely nothing against Mahoraga's ludicrously thick skin and adaptive regeneration.
Jujutsu Kaisen: Sorcery Fight, indeed, Mirai thought bitterly. The game balance was utterly broken.
On the sidelines, Mirai felt as though his brain were being roasted over an open flame. He was squeezing out the very last, microscopic drops of his mental stamina just to keep Lexus anchored in reality.
If this was their only strategy, the fate of all three of them—and the entire Zenin clan—was sealed. Mahoraga would inevitably adapt to the invisible strikes, swing the executioner's blade, and grind everything in its path to dust. Their stubborn resistance was just a slow, agonizing delay of the inevitable.
Knowing this, what was the singular, desperate hope keeping Mirai conscious?
Jedora. If she could just buy enough time to charge a fatal blow—
"Jedora...?"
Mirai finally managed to spare a glance at his masterpiece. Anticipation, anxiety, fear, and sheer desperation boiled over instantly.
Miss Jedora, the Shikigami he had bet everything on... had collapsed.
No! Don't do this to me!
Unable to sustain her physical form due to the catastrophic damage, Jedora disintegrated into a pool of pitch-black shadows, automatically unsummoning to prevent permanent death. The sudden severing of their cursed energy link sent a violent shockwave through Mirai's system. A sickly sweet metallic taste flooded his mouth.
Cough!
His vision instantly went pitch black, and he collapsed onto the dirt.
180 Seconds
The moment Mirai lost consciousness, Lexus vanished from the sky.
Suddenly deprived of their invisible vanguard, Toji and Naobito were left completely exposed. Even pushing themselves to 200% of their physical limits in a life-or-death adrenaline surge, it was completely useless against the Divine General.
In a fraction of a second, Mahoraga's massive hands clamped down. Snatching Toji in its left hand and Naobito in its right, the Shikigami wound up and hurled them over the distant horizon like intercontinental ballistic missiles!
Thud. Thud. Thud. Every footstep sounded like a dropping anvil. Unstoppable, unbothered, Mahoraga silently marched toward Mirai's unconscious body.
Raising its right arm, the Sword of Extermination gleamed with cold, lethal intent, aiming squarely for the six-year-old's neck.
But just then... something impossible happened.
When the razor-sharp edge of the blade was exactly 0.01 centimeters away from severing Mirai's head, Mahoraga froze. Its towering, muscular frame locked rigidly into place, stopping as abruptly as a wound-down clockwork puppet.
It was as if time itself had been paused.
If Mirai had been awake to witness it, he would have realized the absolute, undeniable truth of this anomaly.
From the exact moment the cocoon shattered to the moment the blade stopped... Mahoraga's active manifestation time limit was exactly 180 seconds.
A/N: For this week, every 100 Powerstones will get ya'll an extra chapter! Thank you!