Years later, Mahoraga's holy and majestic figure reappeared before Eiji.
Its head possessed a strange beauty, its massive five-meter frame exuded explosive power through its muscles, and it radiated an overwhelming, despair-inducing Cursed Energy.
"So this is Mahoraga."
A bead of cold sweat trickled down Toji Fushiguro's forehead.
Toji Fushiguro was not yet at his peak, and due to the taming ritual, he couldn't use his powerful Cursed Tools.
Mahoraga's combat power was immense, surpassing even many Special Grades.
In the original story, although Jogo had earned Sukuna's recognition, Sukuna had easily defeated him.
However, when facing Mahoraga, Sukuna had to put in considerable effort, even fully deploying his Domain Expansion with countless slashes in an attempt to cleave Mahoraga apart.
In the end, Mahoraga had adapted to the slashes, and Sukuna only managed to destroy it with an extremely powerful burst.
Toji suddenly wondered what a fight between Jogo and Mahoraga would look like. He figured Jogo would likely be unaware of Mahoraga's mechanism at first, get chased and beaten due to the stat difference, and then, after figuring it out, be helpless against Mahoraga due to lacking a secondary Cursed Technique.
If, by chance, Jogo touched the Demon-Slaying Sword, he'd probably be done for right away.
Even without the Demon-Slaying Sword's special effectiveness, Mahoraga could likely defeat the Four Calamities head-on.
Toji Fushiguro, on the other hand, had easily defeated the Special Grade Cursed Spirit Dagon with just the Heavenly Restriction.
As a newly hatched cursed embryo, Dagon's strength was significantly inferior to Jogo's. However, Toji Fushiguro at the time only had the Heavenly Restriction and wasn't fighting at full capacity.
Therefore, the peak Toji Fushiguro should be comparable to Jogo and qualified to fight Mahoraga.
But it would only be a fight; after all, no Cursed Tool was known to possess enough firepower to eliminate Mahoraga in one blow.
Toji wondered what effect Amaterasu would have if it struck Mahoraga.
But none of that mattered during the taming ritual.
The taming ritual was judged based on the Cursed Energy system, which only recognized the tamer's own Cursed Energy. Thus, even if Toji Fushiguro defeated Mahoraga using a Cursed Tool, it would be meaningless.
The best way to defeat Mahoraga was with a one-hit kill. While Toji's Cursed Tools were strong, their attack methods were rather straightforward, lacking extremely powerful offensive capabilities.
Such attacks might be adapted by Mahoraga before they could kill it, ultimately leaving Toji Fushiguro helpless and forced to retreat.
Mahoraga, now fully manifested, stared intently at Eiji. It bent its legs and swung its right fist towards Eiji.
Bang.
Toji Fushiguro, standing before Eiji, didn't back down. He met Mahoraga's fist with his own, infused with all his strength.
A visible shockwave spread from where their fists collided.
They separated instantly. Through this initial exchange, Toji Fushiguro arrived at a conclusion that surprised him.
He was outmatched.
This was the first time since becoming the Calamity of Heaven that Toji Fushiguro had encountered an enemy he couldn't gain the upper hand against in a head-on confrontation.
Toji Fushiguro seized the opportunity and swung his blade, severing Mahoraga's palm.
"Tch, this is troublesome."
Looking at Mahoraga's palm, which had already regenerated, and then at his steel blade, which was slightly deformed, Toji Fushiguro felt a sense of trouble.
Mahoraga didn't give Toji Fushiguro time to devise a countermeasure and charged again. Its massive body brought with it immense attacking power. Toji Fushiguro abandoned the head-on fighting style he used when taming other Summoned Spirits and began to kite.
"Rabbit Escape! Toad!"
Hundreds of Rabbit Escapes surged from Eiji's shadow, crashing onto Mahoraga like a tidal wave.
The charges from Rabbit Escape didn't damage Mahoraga but effectively disrupted its perception.
"Hah!"
Having switched weapons, Toji Fushiguro circled behind Mahoraga and slashed down with all his might.
As Mahoraga turned to swing its blade, its arm was entangled by the toad's long tongue.
Toji Fushiguro didn't miss the momentary opening. He used both hands to forcefully sever Mahoraga's right arm, disabling its most threatening weapon, the Demon-Slaying Sword. Following that, a series of powerful slashes rained down on Mahoraga.
Soon, Mahoraga was covered in wounds.
Ding!
Crack!
The wheel atop Mahoraga's head spun, and with a crisp cracking sound, the weapon in Toji Fushiguro's hand snapped.
"Hey, hey, this isn't an attack from the Cursed Energy system, it adapted to this too?"
Toji Fushiguro looked helplessly at his broken weapon.
"Mahoraga has adapted to slashes. All subsequent attacks related to slashing will be greatly weakened or even rendered ineffective."
"Can you control it?"
The toad vanished, replaced by Uroya, who was running into the distance.
"I'll try my best."
Having personally experienced Mahoraga's troublesome nature, Toji Fushiguro's previously arrogant expression disappeared, replaced by unparalleled solemnity.
The figures of both sides flashed rapidly through the jungle, their physical combat alone nearly altering the terrain of the forest.
This made Eiji deeply understand why so many netizens in his past life called Jujutsu Kaisen "Fighting Arts Kaisen," and jokingly referred to the strong characters within as "gorillas."
There are no wrong nicknames, only fitting ones.
Under Eiji's anxious gaze, Uroya finally returned to the battlefield.
"Now's the time!"
Eiji shouted at Toji Fushiguro, and then countless Rabbit Escapes swarmed forward, enveloping Mahoraga into a fluffy ball.
Glancing at Uroya's position, Toji Fushiguro no longer hesitated. He gathered all his strength and used an Iron Mountain Collision to send the much larger Mahoraga flying.
Mahoraga, mid-air, skillfully flipped and landed, immediately preparing to attack.
"Full Elephant!"
Rabbit Escape vanished, replaced by a pink African elephant descending from the sky.
Unable to use his Domain Expansion yet, Eiji couldn't summon Full Elephant from high above while standing on the ground like Megumi Fushiguro in the original story. Thus, he had been using Rabbit Escape to hop between trees, manually airdropping Full Elephant through the shadows of the branches.
Boom.
The weight of several tons slammed into Mahoraga, the immense force causing its movements to pause for a moment.
The Wheel of Dharma spun, and the next instant, Mahoraga was sent flying by Full Elephant.
"Hoo~ Hoo~"
Eiji, his Cursed Energy nearly depleted and relying on the Holy Grail for replenishment, looked at the rapidly approaching Uroya.
This was his last hope to defeat Mahoraga.
After a long acceleration, Uroya's attack power was greatly enhanced. An ordinary Special Grade Cursed Spirit might have been instantly killed by this strike.
This powerful attack came at the cost of immense Cursed Energy. If not for the Holy Grail's replenishment, Eiji's Cursed Energy would have long been depleted.
Under their tense gazes, Uroya pierced Mahoraga's body like a black meteor.
The wound was too small.
Uroya's attack had damaged Mahoraga, but the damage didn't even qualify as a serious injury, let alone a fatal one.
The next moment, to Eiji's unwilling eyes, Mahoraga's body began to rapidly recover.
Still too weak.
Eiji felt a pang of unwillingness.
As mentioned earlier, Mahoraga's strength was likely higher than Special Grade Cursed Spirits like Jogo and Dagon.
This superiority wasn't just about the Demon-Slaying Sword.
After all, the Demon-Slaying Sword's counter to Cursed Spirits was too powerful; if it had hit Jogo, he would have been finished.
Sukuna's slash had directly severed Jogo's body, but Mahoraga, after taking Sukuna's initial probing slash, wasn't completely cut apart.
It had even deflected Sukuna's slash later.
However, when Sukuna got serious and increased the power of his slashes, Mahoraga's body was severed multiple times.
Therefore, without knowing the specific information, Mahoraga's strength was likely superior to Jogo's.
And Eiji currently, at best, was only a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer, still a considerable distance from Special Grade.
Even with all his effort, Eiji couldn't reach Jogo's level, let alone Mahoraga, who might be even stronger than them.
Watching Mahoraga's body nearing complete repair, Eiji gritted his teeth and decided to cancel the subjugation ritual.
At that moment, a figure appeared behind Mahoraga, and a string of red glowing objects were thrown onto it.
Before Eiji could even see what those red glowing objects were, Toji Fushiguro grabbed him and sprinted away.
In less than 10 seconds, the two had put a kilometer between themselves and Mahoraga. Their speed would have made even world champions envious.
RUMBLE!
A massive explosion erupted from where Mahoraga had stood up.
To Eiji's stunned eyes, a huge fireball with a faintly mushroom-shaped black smoke plume shot into the sky.
The force of the explosion could still be felt even from a full kilometer away from the epicenter.
"Se~Seiji, is that... is that...?"
Eiji looked at Toji Fushiguro in disbelief.
"I brought back some explosives from abroad. This thing isn't detected by the Cursed Energy system, so I thought it might be useful."
It was indeed useful. Eiji could feel Mahoraga already beginning its next round of adaptation.
"Tsk, truly troublesome."
Toji Fushiguro clicked his tongue, looking at the tattered figure slowly rising from the flames.
"Let's call it a day for now."
Toji Fushiguro looked down at Eiji.
Eiji nodded.
On one side was himself, whose strongest offensive abilities had proven ineffective.
On the other was Toji Fushiguro, who had fought for half the night, sustained significant injuries, was greatly exhausted, and had even run out of weapons.
Eiji also knew that this taming ritual could only go this far.
Eiji had no complaints about this. Toji Fushiguro had already helped him gauge Mahoraga's strength in this battle, providing valuable experience for his future attempts to tame Mahoraga. Eiji felt that was enough.
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Translation by: randomtranslator.com
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