Aleph slept for four hours before he woke up. Without having anything to do, he took out one of the silver cards he hid on the partmeh his bed’s fl.

  The sery ged. He found himself in the midst of a ruined city.

  As usual, Kashimo was sitting on a huge boulder on Shinjuku’s interse.

  “Oh? You became strain. You’re way faster than that kid.”

  The first thing he did was to point out Aleph’s ges. Kashimo’s senses were keen enough to notice the stronger sense of danger Aleph gave off.

  Uhe tter, Kashimo’s sense of danger was developed through innumerable experiences.

  “If you fought him… the King of Curses… you would’ve given him a deadly blow.”

  “You mean, my special Bck Fsh?” Aleph asked.

  Kashimo reted the Shinjuku showdown to the best he could to Aleph—several times, at that.

  He mentioned how the key of the pn wasn’t the all-powerful Satojo, but Yuji Itadori. Sihe King of Curses, Sukuna, was inhabiting someone else’s body in a soul-like form, Aleph’s strikes became deadly enough.

  Add to that his other soul attack, [Kyrie Eleison], it remains unknowher the King of Curses will bring that much trouble pared to before.

  “Less talking. Let’s get moving.” Kashimo decred. “Show me your rength.”

  Aleph did not respond to him. He khe best way to do so was to take this fight seriously.

  Buzz-!

  A sheathed easterh a golden handguard appeared in his grasp. A sense of poeared in his right arm the moment he held it.

  ‘My means of attag in a le… it’s solved now.’

  Aleph alighe sheath on his waist. He could recall the sheath back to his [Seven Swords] as required, thus it wouldn't serve as a hindran battle.

  With his hand still holding the bde’s grip, portions of bck scales started popping out of his previously arm. It only stopped when the front half of his arms were filled with bck scales. A bump appeared on his forehead, which turned out to be a sharp bck horn. The sclera of his eyes turned bck, while his irises turned akin to Mobius’ eyes.

  The scales reached up until his neck. purple lines decorated the rest of his untouched skin.

  It was at this moment did Aleph show his inhuman side.

  His thoughts began to get chaotic. His impulses were greatly stimuted. Though, these random thoughts disappeared as he got ahold of himself.

  Since his ICHOR hasn't fully transformed into Albion's body, he experiehe side effects of being a MANTIS. It was still based on honkai energy before being verted into cursed energy upon use.

  'It's worse. I'll need Aponia's help ter for the uys... especially Hua.' He thought before fog bato the battle.

  Numerous ratio lines appeared all over Kashimo’s body. His eyes danced around until he created a solid pn.

  ‘This is..!’

  Kashimo reacted to his one sed transformation quickly. It was drastically stronger pared to what he expected.

  'The stro..!'

  It was an intuitive feeling, but Aleph gave out danger far surpassing the King of Curses.

  He no longer hesitated as he went straight into his stro form.

  Buzz-!

  Sizzle-!

  His biological body was slowly broken dowrical energy started to surround him, turning Kashimo into a half-physical half-electrical being. It was a full-blown transformation akin to the time he fought Ryōmen Sukuna.

  The moment Kashimo pleted his own transformation, Aleph made a move.

  Bam-!

  Buzz-!

  He turned into a bck blur as he blitzed straight to Kashimo’s front. The tter only had the time to react to his uhed bde.

  Hum-!

  Shatter-!

  The moment Aleph uhed it—a manner akin to Iaido—it gave off a familiar sensation.

  ‘Cleave and Dismantle!’

  Kashimo shifted his ‘body’ a split sed ter. A huge invisible arc blitzed through him and cut his right hand in its ey.

  Shatter-!

  Crumble-!

  The ssh did not stop there. It cut through the solid crete on the ground, only halting wheack pierced through several buildings not far away from them.

  ‘This kid..!’

  His remaini arm was used to send a pilr of supercharged electrical energy to Aleph’s front. This time, Kashimo did not make the same mistake as before. He won't go down until he does his best!

  ‘He’s making a move.’

  Moments prior to Kashimo’s attack, Aleph noticed his impending attaot only was his Deathly Intuition ringing out loud, eve Sage and his owal Sight indicated what it was.

  ‘Ionizing beam…’

  Bam-!

  Psshk-!

  The electrical energy lit in half by Aleph’s bde. heless, it grazed a portion of his shoulders.

  Even though he was using his Territory to prevent any direct damages from the beam…

  ‘Just like the fifth...’

  Aleph’s ‘Territory’ has one use: to prevent any direct alteration on his body.

  It disabled the fifth Herrscher’s abilities to directly turn his body into ice, or vert his cells to their i state. She had to rely on ging the surrounding temperature io damage him. That, or physical attacks made through ice spikes and the likes.

  Simply put, Aleph’s enemies could only ily affect his body. It was extremely simir to Domain Amplification—a move that nullified any opposing cursed teiques.

  Kashimo’s attack struck him directly. Even though Aleph’s territory was active, it wasn’t able to let him leave unscathed from the beam’s direct effects.

  Unlike Kashimo's weaker attacks from his pseudo-state, the ionizing beam was reized by the territory as a direct attack. It went past the level of a 'physical attack' aered the 'phenomena alteration' level. It was the fmes itself instead of the usual residual heat that damaged him, however. It was simir to the fifth Herrscher's cold surroundings affeg him.

  His shoulders emitted smoke. Parts of the bck scales were uprooted. His flesh was burnt bck.

  A tinge of pain appeared. Still, it was too weak to cause him any siderable reas.

  ‘Yamato is different from how I k…’

  Cursed energy flowed from his arm to the sword. His reversed cursed teique kept running in the background to heal his overloading brain. His elemental sight allowed him to finely trol his cursed energy.

  ‘Attack, then heal.’

  After months of sparring, both he and Kashimo held a on sensus. The moment he learns how to use the reversed curse teique—or bee strong enough to fight Kashimo in equal footing—he would forfeit using Senzu Beans. Once he does so, Aleph is sidered to be defeated.

  Several invisible arcs were sent out from Yamato’s edge.

  At the same time, Kashimht arm, which reviously sliced, had returned.

  It wasn’t just Aleph who got to analyze his oppo.

  ‘Suposition..! It’s strohan his!’

  In his final fight, Kashimo sed Sukuna’s body through X-rays. Its position, beyond his external appearances, expined why Sukuna was one of the stro. His body was built for battle.

  Kashimo was seeing this for the sed time—on Aleph, heless.

  Thinking hoh grew stronger until he was able to force Kashimo to use his strorump card, a smile grew on his lips.

  ‘Heh. This is a fun world!’

  Just then, Aleph felt the surrounding gravity grow stronger. His charging speed momentarily slowed down.

  Crack-!

  Shatter-!

  A sed ter, he broke free from its fines. His territory acquired in Kurumi’s world worked.

  However…

  ‘Two vector currents… no, two opposite charges..!’

  A silver metallic ball resent in Kashimo’s hands. The familiar phenomena finally reminded Aleph of ohing:

  ‘Railgun!’

  Finally—

  Zap-!

  Sou-!

  —a silver ball with an unimaginable force flew beyond the speed of sound.