"If you're not going to attack, I guess I'll have to come to you?"
Hayashizaki smiled as he took a step forward. Sukuna, still ten meters away, immediately became alert.
Hayashizaki then stopped his step, and Sukuna's forehead immediately twitched with veins.
"Are you making fun of me?"
Sukuna's face twisted into a smile.
"I just suddenly thought of an interesting game."
Hayashizaki chuckled. "See? You're getting impatient."
He had just exchanged for ten shadow techniques and hadn't had time to summon the remaining shikigami. He only had the two basic Divine Dog at the moment, so he figured it was a good time to summon all of them.
The summoning process was simple: he just had to defeat the summoned shikigami himself.
"Nue!"
"Great Serpent!"
"Toad..."
Sukuna, standing ten meters away, watched as Hayashizaki summoned one shikigami after another, effortlessly defeating them without paying any attention to him.
Though being so casually dismissed infuriated Sukuna, it also revealed the little brat's technique: "Shikigami made from shadows... just like Fushiguro Megumi's technique."
He bent down, gathered power in his legs, and in a flash, he dashed toward Hayashizaki, moving like a seabird in flight.
"Hey, what are you charging in for?"
Hayashizaki blocked Sukuna's sneak attack, frowning.
"Didn't you know that if an outsider enters the summoning ritual, the ritual fails? We're at the final stage!"
"I can't let you just improve your strength on your own!"
Ryoumen Sukuna grinned as he threw a punch, but after Hayashizaki blocked it, he used Aikido to throw Sukuna up, slamming him hard into the ground, causing cracks to spread across the floor.
"Then you can have fun playing with it by yourself."
The displeasure on Hayashizaki's face disappeared, replaced by a playful smile. He summoned a creature—a huge owl-like shikigami—and used it to lift himself away from the battlefield.
"Hm?"
Ryoumen Sukuna got up and turned around to look.
The summoned shikigami had already broken free from its chains. The white cloths, which had been wrapped around it like a mummy, fell away from its body, revealing its strong figure.
The shikigami was entirely white, with a perfect, sculpted body like a Greek statue. Bandages were wrapped around its forearms, and copper rings adorned its hands and feet. Below its collarbones, iron chain ornaments hung. Its face only showed its mouth, with two pairs of angel-like wings in place of eyes. A thick snake tail extended from the back of its head, and a mysterious wheel-like magical formation hovered above it.
"Eight-Handed Sword, Divergent Sila Divine General—Mahoraga."
Sitting cross-legged on the owl shikigami, Hayashizaki smiled slightly as he observed the situation below.
Bang!
Ryoumen Sukuna was sent flying by a massive punch from Mahoraga, crashing hard into a wall and creating a deep hole in the surface.
"That shikigami... it's not like the others, is it?"
Sukuna muttered as he pulled himself out of the hole, watching Hayashizaki's Mahoraga, who had slightly bent its knees before leaping into the air.
"What's it coming at me for?"
The white figure rapidly enlarged in his vision. Calmly, Hayashizaki jumped off the owl shikigami and shot toward Mahoraga like an arrow.
The girl's figure reached Mahoraga first, landing a punch that sent the creature flying in the air. It came toward her quickly, but she adjusted the trajectory, sending Mahoraga flying toward Ryoumen Sukuna instead.
"Tch, that annoying little brat!"
Sukuna clicked his tongue. As Mahoraga flew toward him, he didn't dodge. Instead, he punched it, stopping the massive force it carried. Then, several slashes followed, blood splattering as he sent it flying into the air once more.
Hayashizaki had already descended, like a meteor, crashing into Mahoraga and forcing it toward Ryoumen Sukuna.
This time, Sukuna didn't try to take the blow head-on. He dodged Mahoraga's falling body.
But it wasn't only Hayashizaki diving from the air.
With a sharp bird cry, the owl shikigami dove down from above Ryoumen Sukuna. Flapping its wings, a purple lightning bolt, symbolizing destruction, enveloped Sukuna, and a faint smell of burning spread.
The strong current paralyzed Sukuna's body, but with the reversal of his technique, his injuries healed quickly, and the numbness disappeared. Without looking up, he swung his blade toward the owl shikigami's location. However, before the attack reached it, Hayashizaki had already deactivated the technique. The owl vanished into the shadows, and Sukuna's slash continued upward, leaving a massive crack in the ceiling.
"You're distracted, aren't you? Think about who your enemy is."
Hayashizaki suddenly passed Ryoumen Sukuna, his fluttering ponytail brushing past Sukuna's face. His long legs cut through the air with a sharp whoosh, like a whip, striking Sukuna's back and sending him flying.
"Haha!"
Mahoraga charged at Hayashizaki like a bulldozer. The figure flying toward it was casually knocked away, and its twisted face made Hayashizaki laugh.
He quickly extended his palm and caught Mahoraga's fist, which was larger than a pot. One fist from Isshiki, the divine general, swung in an arc, and the fist and palm collided repeatedly, creating small air rings that scattered outward.
"Hmm?"
Suddenly sensing danger, Hayashizaki shot his hands out like lightning, grabbing the thick arm of the white shikigami—its arms were twice as thick as his waist—and pulled it toward him, using it as a shield to block an incoming slash.
Blood spurted from Mahoraga's chest, and the marks from the slash appeared on its body. However, the next moment, the slash's damage healed, and the magic circle on Mahoraga's head glowed with white light and slowly spun.
Crack!
"Oh?"
Mahoraga, whose injuries had healed, grabbed Hayashizaki's slender arm and, with the contrast of their massive size, it was as if Mahoraga was holding a chopstick, easily tossing him away.
Hayashizaki flew through the air while Mahoraga leaped high into the air. Its massive form flashed before Hayashizaki, and it clasped both hands together, preparing to strike.
Hayashizaki barely managed to raise his arms to block, absorbing the full force of the blow.
The sound of wind rushing past rang loudly as Hayashizaki plummeted downward. However, a thick, smooth tongue wrapped around his waist mid-air. A giant toad-shaped shikigami appeared from the side of the battlefield, catching its master. Using the momentum, it spun him around and tossed him at an even faster speed before disappearing into the shadows.
Hayashizaki flew toward Ryoumen Sukuna, not giving him any time to react. He crashed into the wall with Sukuna, then reached out and grabbed his head, pulling him from the wall and throwing him at the oncoming Mo Xula.
Sukuna collided head-on with the charging white shikigami. Both were thrown backward, but Sukuna reacted much quicker. He immediately pressed his hand against Mahoraga's chest, releasing several curse-powered slashes that sent it flying.
Such a strange feeling...
He seemed to sense something unusual, furrowing his brows.
Crack!
Mahoraga, rising from the ground, had fully healed from its injuries. The magic circle on its head spun again.
...
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