Chapter 184 (Patreon)

“Satoru! Suguru! Kill every vessel possessed by the Seven Sins!”

Gojo intercepted Toji Fushiguro’s attack, stopping his weapon against Infinity.

“Tch. You certainly know how to order people around!”

“Satoru, destroy the Sword of Sin inside each vessel. Every shattered sword will force Sukuna’s true body to manifest.”

“I understand.”

Gojo’s expression sharpened.

“I’ll finish them as quickly as possible.”

There was no longer any reason to hold back.

The Six Eyes processed every fluctuation of cursed energy on the battlefield as Gojo drove the Limitless to its maximum output. Empowered by the overlapping blessings Ragnar had granted humanity, his power completely overwhelmed Toji.

“Cursed Technique Reversal: Red!”

Boom!

The blast of repulsive force struck Toji directly and hurled him high into the sky.

Gojo looked up at him.

“I don’t have time to keep playing with you.”

He raised one hand toward the heavens.

Behind Toji, a point of blue light silently appeared.

Toji sensed the distortion and twisted around.

“Damn it.”

Gojo slightly curled his fingers.

“Too late.”

The force of attraction erupted.

Countless fragments of rock were ripped from the earth and drawn into the air. They collided, compressed, and merged until dozens of enormous masses formed around Toji.

“Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue.”

The boulders descended like a meteor shower.

One of them struck Toji and sent him crashing through the others.

Gojo raised his other hand.

“Die.”

An immense concentration of cursed energy appeared above the battlefield.

A crimson-black sphere resembling a newborn star took shape in the sky. Its diameter rapidly expanded until it approached five hundred meters.

“Maximum Output—Red!”

Rumble—!

The supermassive Red descended.

The sky turned crimson.

Toji and the surrounding meteorites vanished within the explosion. The resulting shock wave swept across the landscape, uprooting the black cursed flowers and flattening everything within its path.

“Hah… Hah…”

Gojo lowered his trembling hand.

“That really was everything I had.”

That single use of Red had nearly emptied his cursed-energy reserves.

Within the fading explosion, the Sword of Pride cracked apart and disintegrated into dust.

Thump.

Thump.

“Well done.”

Through Sha Naqba Imuru—the Omniscient Omnipotent Star—Ragnar finally perceived Sukuna’s true body.

Just as he had suspected, the Anti-Savior Beast visible under normal circumstances was merely an enormous shell formed from accumulated curses.

Sukuna’s true body remained concealed within an isolated space.

Only when one of the Crowns of the Beast—the Seven Swords of Sin—was destroyed could his true form be forced into the world.

“Causality?”

Ragnar wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

“You believe such a thing can restrain me?”

Ea revolved in his hand.

“Ea!”

A crimson spatial rupture surged toward Sukuna.

Space shattered wherever it passed.

“Cough… Ragnar Kagenou!”

Sukuna spat blood as the spatial rupture tore into his true body.

“Do not expect a swift death! I will crush every bone in your body before I allow you to die!”

His flesh was torn apart by the layers of fractured space, only to be restored moments later through cursed energy.

“Guh!”

Blood burst from Ragnar’s chest at the same time.

Although Sukuna was being ravaged by Ea’s spatial ruptures, Ragnar’s condition was hardly better.

Every wound inflicted upon Sukuna was reflected through causality.

Ragnar pressed one hand against his chest.

“So every injury is returned to its source.”

His crimson eyes narrowed.

“What a troublesome form of retribution.”

Sukuna laughed through the blood flowing from his mouth.

“What is wrong? Are you afraid of pain now?”

“Mongrel.”

Ragnar tightened his grip around Ea.

“You speak as though pain could stop me.”

Both of them attacked again.

Blood scattered through the shattered sky as the battle became a contest in which every wound was shared.

——————

Elsewhere, Yuta Okkotsu drove Tamamo-no-Mae Incarnate back with a series of strikes from Yamato.

“Judgment Cut End!”

Yuta returned Yamato to its sheath.

A heartbeat later, countless dimensional slashes appeared across Tamamo-no-Mae Incarnate’s body.

The cursed spirit attempted to defend itself with black flames, but the slashes passed directly through them.

Its nine tails were severed at once.

The body of Tamamo-no-Mae Incarnate split apart, and the Sword of Gluttony hidden within it shattered.

Yuta immediately looked toward the other battles.

“Who still needs—Megumi?”

He stopped.

Megumi was fighting Yorozu, but hesitation disrupted every one of his attacks.

Hana Kurusu stood beside him, repeatedly invoking Angel’s Technique Extinguishment to strip away Yorozu’s cursed technique.

However, the Sword of Lust continued channeling Sukuna’s cursed energy into its vessel.

Each time Yorozu’s power was extinguished, it returned moments later.

“It’s no use,” Hana said. “Her cursed energy has recovered again.”

Megumi clenched his fists.

He understood that Sukuna could not be defeated unless the Seven Swords of Sin were destroyed.

But the body standing before him belonged to Tsumiki.

“Megumi!”

Yuta landed beside him.

“What’s preventing you from attacking?”

“Yuta-senpai…”

Megumi’s voice tightened.

“She’s using my sister’s body.”

Yuta did not draw Yamato immediately.

“An incarnated sorcerer?”

“My sister’s soul is still inside,” Megumi explained. “It has only been suppressed. She’s sleeping somewhere beneath Yorozu’s soul.”

Yuta closed his eyes and took a slow breath.

“I understand.”

As his mastery of Yamato deepened, Yuta had begun touching upon the weapon’s true nature.

Its real power was not simply the ability to cut through space.

Yamato embodied 【Separation】.

It could divide space itself, but that principle extended far beyond physical distance. It could separate intertwined existences, divide body from soul, and tear an incarnated sorcerer away from the vessel they had occupied.

Yuta placed one hand on Yamato’s hilt.

“Then I’ll separate her from Tsumiki.”

A line of silver light flashed across the battlefield.

Yorozu froze.

Her soul was torn from Tsumiki’s body without leaving a wound upon the vessel.

“Sister!”

As Tsumiki collapsed, Megumi rushed forward and caught her in his arms.

Yorozu’s disembodied soul hovered behind them, bound to the Sword of Lust.

“That makes two for me,” Yuta said.

He turned and swung Yamato again.

The blade passed through Yorozu’s soul and the Sword of Lust.

Both were severed.

Yorozu’s soul collapsed into particles, while the Sword of Lust shattered into fragments of cursed energy.

Yuta did not stop.

He immediately pursued his third Sword of Sin.

With Geto restraining Yamata no Orochi, Yuta crossed the battlefield and cut through the enormous cursed beast.

The slash did not divide its flesh.

Instead, Yamato separated the human soul buried within it.

Mai Zenin fell from the body of Yamata no Orochi.

The Sword of Sloth was exposed for a single instant.

Yuta’s next slash destroyed it.

The Swords of Gluttony, Lust, and Sloth had fallen.

Together with the Sword of Pride destroyed by Gojo, four Crowns of the Beast had now been shattered.

——————

“Sukuna, it appears our time together has been extended.”

Sukuna’s expression twisted.

“Impossible. How did they become this powerful…?”

Judging by the strength of the vessels selected for the Seven Sins, Sukuna had never considered the possibility that his forces would be defeated so quickly.

“Each shattered Crown of the Beast forces your true body to remain in this world for seven seconds,” Ragnar said.

Golden ripples spread behind him.

“Four crowns have been destroyed. The first seven seconds have already passed.”

His eyes fixed upon Sukuna.

“You have twenty-one seconds remaining.”

A storm of Noble Phantasms shot from the Gate of Babylon.

Sukuna released a vast wall of cursed energy, stopping the weapons before they could reach his body.

His true form had merely been exposed. It had not been rendered powerless.

“What difference does that make?”

Ragnar extended one hand.

“It is more than enough time to kill you.”

A vast array of multicolored magical circles formed before him.

Within their overlapping patterns, the outline of an unfamiliar Noble Phantasm began to emerge.

Blinding light gathered around the weapon.

Sukuna felt death within that radiance.

Even after becoming a Beast, the weapon forming before Ragnar posed a genuine threat to his existence.

“I cannot allow him to complete it…”

Sukuna brought his hands together.

A black cube appeared between his palms.

“Preserve the first cry of every newborn as a lifeless specimen.”

“Grind the boundless dreams of poets into dust.”

Cursed energy poured into the cube.

“Adorn slaughter with the medals of war.”

“Raise walls from the bones of mankind.”

A black tide erupted from Sukuna and swept across the entire world.

No one had time to react.

In a single instant, darkness swallowed the sky, the land, and every living soul upon the planet.

“This flawless crystal coffin is the only resting place worthy of your wretched yet radiant souls.”

Sukuna smiled within the darkness.

“Good night, my beloved…”

The black cube opened its countless eyes.

“Insects.”

“Prison Realm—Human Instrumentality.”

The perspective expanded beyond the atmosphere.

The entire Earth was enveloped by black cursed energy.

Space folded around the planet, compressing its surface, oceans, atmosphere, and every surviving life-form into a palm-sized black cube.

The Prison Realm.

Countless human faces appeared across its surface.

Then the world fell silent.

“Guh…!”

Ragnar dropped to one knee.

“My power… is disappearing.”

The energy within his body was rapidly weakening.

Even his connection to the Holy Grail was being suppressed, its output diminishing at an exponential rate.

Within the darkness of the Prison Realm, however, a single point of white light appeared.

The light expanded.

It tore through the internal boundaries of the Prison Realm, splitting open the darkness Sukuna had created.

Sukuna, who had also been drawn inside the barrier, raised his head.

“What is that?”

His eyes narrowed.

“What could possibly tear through the Prison Realm?”

Rumble—!

The white light descended directly upon Ragnar.

His body was engulfed in its radiance.

“This is…”

Ragnar looked down at his hands.

“My Saint Graph is changing?”

The structure of his existence was being rewritten.

The golden light surrounding him turned pure white as a new designation appeared within his soul.

【Saint Graph Conversion—Saver】

——————

Noble Phantasm: Prison Realm—Human Instrumentality

Rank: EX

Type: Barrier Noble Phantasm

Description:

A world-scale barrier that compresses the Earth into a palm-sized black cube.

The faces of humanity appear across its surface, becoming part of the seal that isolates the planet from all external space.

Within the cube exists an endlessly recurring 【Perfect World】.

There is no pain, aging, or death within that world. However, all individual minds are gradually merged into a single collective unconscious.

Civilization Encapsulation:

Human history is sealed within an 【Eternal Specimen】.

Once civilization has been encapsulated, all forms of progress, evolution, revolution, and transformation become impossible.

Malice Refinement:

The Prison Realm continuously extracts the darkness hidden within the subconscious of every living being.

Those negative impulses are refined into cursed energy and supplied to Sukuna.

Utopian Curse:

Survivors gradually lose their individuality within the 【Perfect World】.

Once their sense of self has disappeared completely, their souls are transformed into curses and incorporated into Sukuna’s Saint Graph.