Kinoshita stood not far away, watching Ryu Ishigori, whose body was recovering at an extreme speed after landing a Black Flash.
“Ha, didn’t expect you to be able to pull off a Black Flash.”
Noticing that the barrier had become sturdy once again, Kinoshita formed the hand sign for Hollow Wicker Basket once more.
“Even so, is it still not enough for you to expand your Domain? ‘Strongest’?”
“Yeah, not enough.”
The moment the words left Kinoshita’s mouth, Ryu, currently in the Zone, instantly hopped backward.
Immediately after, the cobblestone street where he had just been standing was diced into countless cubic-centimeter blocks by a flurry of fine slashes.
Kinoshita raised his head and looked at him.
“Nice dodge. Tell you what, if you can hold out for the next minute without dropping your Domain, I’ll let you see mine.”
“And what if I manage to hit you, or defeat you?”
A faint smile appeared on Kinoshita’s face as he spread his hands.
“If you just manage to land a hit on me, I might consider letting you see it too.”
Commendable courage.
Kinoshita cast an appreciative gaze at Ryu.
“Correspondingly, I’ll use a portion of my abilities.”
“I’d be more than happy to…”
Ever since taming Mahoraga, it had been a long time since Kinoshita last used his Domain.
Around the age of 16, he had comprehended Reverse Cursed Technique and Barrier Techniques.
The “negative times negative equals positive” nature of Reverse Cursed Technique and the three-dimensional geometry of Barrier Techniques posed almost no difficulty for him.
Knowing the underlying principles made mastering them a breeze.
“『Granite Blast』”
Ryu’s figure immediately bounded backward.
Following the incantation, pillars of light shot up from everywhere within Festival of Destruction like fireworks.
They burst into blooming flowers of light in the air, much like a summer festival.
A single pillar of light energy scattered into hundreds of points of light, and within this Domain, every single point of light could transform into an energy cannon.
And within his, there were at least three hundred such points of light.
“Gearing up for a carpet bombing, are we?”
Kinoshita raised his head and undid the hand sign maintaining Hollow Wicker Basket.
“Cursed Technique Reversal: Light”
Kinoshita placed his left hand over the back of his right hand, overlapping his fingers.
Shadows—a phenomenon that occurs when light is cast upon an object.
All he had to do was convert the cursed energy output of the Ten Shadows Technique into its opposing energy.
Thus, just like how Satoru Gojo turned attraction into repulsion, the technique of manipulating shadows became a technique that turned himself into light—literally, turning into light that could not be affected by any physical object.
Of course—as a trade-off, light could not physically harm a target.
This restriction, naturally, only applied to “Kinoshita” himself.
The lethal damage inflicted by the Divine Dogs certainly didn’t count as his own.
The instant Kinoshita’s figure vanished, an overwhelming barrage of light cannons rained down on his previous location.
The saturated, concentrated bombardment leveled the area in an instant.
The moment the carpet bombing ended, Ryu immediately manipulated the remaining light cannons to change direction.
He was a step too late.
Kinoshita’s figure had already appeared behind him, a palm pressed firmly against his back.
“『Dog: Cleave』”
The surging cursed energy morphed into the razor-sharp claws of a Divine Dog.
Even though Ryu subconsciously condensed his cursed energy for defense, dozens of gaping lacerations were instantly ripped across his back.
Blood spurted out.
Biting through the pain, Ryu spun around and struck back.
Another flash of black erupted.
The Black Flash punch crashed directly into Kinoshita’s “light”—
“Hey.”
There was no physical sensation of impact.
The optical illusion of Kinoshita’s body dissipated under the energy of the Black Flash.
Ryu immediately jerked his head up, looking toward the source of the voice.
The moment he looked up, a fist crackling with black lightning smashed directly into his face.
The roof beam Ryu stood on snapped with a deafening crack.
The sheer force dragged his body down, sending him crashing brutally into the building below.
BOOM!
The wooden house was smashed to splinters, but Kinoshita’s assault wasn’t over.
His right leg, wreathed in cursed energy, stomped fiercely onto the ground, the immense force launching Ryu into the air once again.
Amidst the billowing dust, hundreds of Granite Blasts that had been hanging high in the sky plummeted downward, executing a predictive carpet bombing along Kinoshita’s trajectory—
“『Dog: Dismantle』”
Unlike the previous flurry of fine slashes, Kinoshita brought his hands together, doubling the cursed energy poured into the technique.
A single, massive slash swept out, instantly “cleaving” the condensed energy apart.
The entire Domain looked as if it had been cleanly bisected down the middle.
Fortunately, this slash wasn’t aimed at Ryu.
Having evaded the strike, Ryu looked up and once again drew his imaginary bow—
“I’ve been meaning to say this.”
The very instant Ryu assumed the archery stance, Kinoshita’s voice echoed from right behind him.
Following the voice was Kinoshita’s hand, already tightly gripping the back of his head.
“If you keep relying solely on your cursed technique, you’ll never hit me.”
“Yeah, I know.”
A grin spread across Ryu’s face, the grip on his “arrow” not loosening in the slightest.
“Pretty cheap trick. Under my feet is also a cursed energy emission point, right?”
“…”
The grin on Ryu’s face froze after just a few seconds.
He had intentionally hidden the emission point at this exact spot to catch his opponent off guard and land a solid hit.
“I’ll give you a chance. Let go.”
“Ha… alright!”
Ryu immediately released the fingers gripping the “arrow”.
With a muffled rumble, cursed energy instantly surged upward from beneath the ground.
Azure cursed energy formed a storm-like energy field, swallowing the entire patch of ground where the two stood.
However, if one looked from above, they would see a circular plate of black cursed energy resting at the eye of the storm, with both Ryu and Kinoshita standing safely atop it.
The azure cursed energy storm raged for nearly fifteen seconds before finally dispersing.
As the blue energy faded, Ryu was immediately sent flying by a kick from Kinoshita.
His body violently tumbled across sturdy rooftops before finally crashing into the river at the center of the Domain.
Kinoshita’s figure instantly appeared by the riverbank.
But as his body materialized from the dissolving shadows, Ryu had already found his footing.
A tightly clenched fist immediately flew toward Kinoshita.
Kinoshita raised his hand to block, catching the cursed-energy-laden strike in his palm.
He casually lifted Ryu’s fist, a look of mild surprise on his face as he observed the white steam rising from Ryu’s body.
The wounds that should have been on Ryu’s torso had completely vanished without a trace.
Rather than slow natural healing, it looked much more like the work of Reverse Cursed Technique.
Before Ryu could throw his second punch, Kinoshita landed a vicious hook right into his flank.
With his left hand trapped, eating that hook nearly threw Ryu off balance, but he forced himself upright and lashed out with a kick.
Bang!
Bang-bang-bang-bang!!
Ryu’s kick was blocked by Kinoshita raising his own leg.
Azure sparks of cursed energy violently erupted at the point of impact.
Ryu then aimed his pompadour directly at Kinoshita’s chest.
Kinoshita immediately let go of his fist and sidestepped to dodge the point-blank blast, then threw a heavy punch smashing into Ryu.
BOOM!
Ryu crossed his arms, barely managing to block Kinoshita’s cursed-energy-reinforced blow.
His body was blown back dozens of meters before skidding to a halt.
Immediately after, he took a heavy step forward, condensing cursed energy while raising his hand—
Nocking another arrow?
Kinoshita thought to himself as he also lunged forward.
But this time, the cursed energy blast erupted instantaneously.
Kinoshita quickly tilted his head, narrowly dodging the blast.
In the midst of his evasion, Ryu’s figure had already closed in right in front of him.
His hand sign was no longer the archery stance.
Instead, it was—a handgun.
Kinoshita saw Ryu standing right before his eyes.
Furthermore, atop his bizarre pompadour, an orb of azure energy had already condensed.
Then, as Ryu pointed his finger, it fired point-blank.
Fwhip!
The beam pierced cleanly through Kinoshita’s body.
Under Ryu’s astonished gaze, Kinoshita’s form seemed to melt away, sinking directly into the ground.
Then, immediately after.
“Time’s up.”
Time?
What time?
Before Ryu could even process the thought, Kinoshita’s voice echoed from behind him.
“『Domain Expansion』”
Pitch-black shadows surged outward from behind Ryu like a monstrous tidal wave, sweeping him up in darkness and propelling him toward the edges of the barrier.
A berserk, torrential amount of cursed energy poured outward.
In less than half a second, under Ryu’s utterly bewildered gaze, it forcefully shattered the barrier of his domain from the inside out.
“『Dark Tide of the Eight Tranquil Waters』”