King Versus Conquerer

The collision was cataclysmic.

Fist met forearm with a shockwave that pulverized the ground beneath them, sending cracks radiating outward through the purple stone like lightning across the alien sky.

For a fraction of a second, they remained locked in that position - Nolan's fist against Megumi's blocking arm - both slightly surprised at the other's power.

Then physics reasserted itself, and the surrounding air rushed back to fill the vacuum created by their impact, generating a thunderclap that shattered what few intact windows remained in the vicinity.

"Impressive," Nolan acknowledged, genuine surprise flickering across his features. "Few beings can withstand a direct strike from me."

Megumi didn't waste breath on a response. Instead, he channeled cursed energy into his legs and pushed off, creating distance between them. Against a Viltrumite, close combat without proper preparation was suicide.

Nolan's smile widened, predatory and eager. "Running already?"

"Tactical repositioning," Megumi corrected, his voice calm despite the throbbing in his arm where he'd blocked Nolan's strike. Even with cursed energy reinforcement, the impact had nearly shattered his bones.

Nolan launched himself forward with blinding speed, closing the distance faster than any normal human could perceive.

But Megumi wasn't normal. With cursed energy enhancing his reflexes, he could track the Viltrumite's movement - not perfectly, but enough to react.

"Dismantle!"

The cutting technique sliced through the air where Nolan had been a millisecond earlier. The Viltrumite appeared behind him, his speed overwhelming even Megumi's enhanced perception.

"Too slow," Nolan said, driving his fist toward Megumi's back.

At the last possible instant, Megumi merged himself with a shadow, using a technique he'd refined from the Ten Shadows. Nolan's fist passed through empty darkness as Megumi reappeared ten meters away.

"Interesting trick," Nolan observed, already moving again. "But you can't dodge forever."

He was right. In terms of raw speed, the Viltrumite held an overwhelming advantage.

Each exchange would bring Megumi closer to exhaustion while Nolan remained fresh. He needed to change the parameters of the fight.

As Nolan charged again, Megumi slammed his palm to the ground.

"Come forth, Nue!"

Shadow pooled beneath his hand, then erupted upward, forming into a massive bird-like creature with a monkey's face and a snake's tail. The shikigami materialized just as Nolan reached them, forcing the Viltrumite to veer off course to avoid collision.

"What manner of creature is that?" Nolan demanded, hovering above them, his expression a mixture of disgust and fascination.

Instead of answering, Megumi commanded Nue to attack. The shikigami released a deafening shriek as electricity crackled across its feathers, then discharged in a massive bolt aimed directly at the floating Viltrumite.

Nolan dodged with casual ease, but his eyes widened slightly as the lightning scorched the air where he'd been hovering. "Elemental manipulation as well? Your abilities are more diverse than I realized."

Megumi didn't waste time on conversation. While Nue continued to discharge electricity, keeping Nolan at a distance, he prepared his next move. The cursed energy within him surged as he extended both hands toward the shikigami.

In a move that would have shocked any jujutsu sorcerer, Megumi grasped the lightning itself, cursed energy allowing him to physically manipulate the electrical discharge.

The sensation was excruciating - even with his enhanced durability, handling raw lightning sent waves of agony through his nervous system - but the tactical advantage was worth the pain.

"What are you-" Nolan began, then fell silent as Megumi hurled the concentrated lightning bolt directly at him.

This time, the Viltrumite couldn't dodge completely. The edge of the electrical discharge caught his left side, scorching his costume and eliciting a grunt of pain - the first sign that Nolan could be hurt.

"That," Nolan said, his voice hardening, "actually stung."

He accelerated downward with devastating force, aiming to eliminate the shikigami first. Nue attempted to dodge, but Viltrumite speed was too great.

Nolan's fist connected with the creature's center mass, the impact so powerful it would've killed the Shikigami were it not for Sukuna at the last moment dispersing it, sending it back to shadow.

Megumi had anticipated this, however. The moment Nolan committed to attacking Nue, he executed his real strategy.

"Dismantle"

The conceptual cutting technique manifested as invisible lines of force extending outward from Megumi in all directions. 

Even Nolan, with his superhuman speed, couldn't avoid something that existed everywhere simultaneously within the technique's range.

The Viltrumite's expression shifted from confidence to shock as dozens of cuts appeared across his body - none deep enough to be fatal to his Viltrumite physiology, but enough to draw blood and, more importantly, to demonstrate that he wasn't invulnerable.

"Impossible," Nolan snarled, blood trickling from a particularly nasty cut across his cheek. "No human technique should be able to penetrate Viltrumite skin."

"I told you," Megumi replied, his voice steady, "there are forces beyond the physical."

Nolan's eyes narrowed, reassessing the threat before him. Then, with a roar of fury, he charged directly at Megumi, moving so fast he became a blur even to enhanced perception.

The impact was devastating. Despite Megumi's attempt to block with cursed energy reinforcement, Nolan's fist connected with his chest with enough force to shatter ribs and rupture internal organs.

The blow sent him flying backward, crashing through several alien structures before coming to rest in a crater of his own making nearly a hundred meters away.

Pain exploded through Megumi's consciousness - the kind of pain that would have killed an ordinary human instantly. Blood filled his mouth as he struggled to breathe through punctured lungs.

But even as his vision darkened at the edges, he was already implementing his contingency. Cursed energy flowed through his broken body in a different pattern - not the destructive force he'd been wielding, but something constructive, healing.

"Reversed Cursed Technique."

The effect was immediate. Shattered bones began to knit, ruptured organs sealed themselves, damaged tissue regenerated. Within seconds, injuries that would have been fatal were reduced to mere discomfort.

Nolan landed beside the crater, looking down at Megumi with a mixture of surprise and grudging respect as the young man rose to his feet, blood still staining his clothes but his body whole again.

"Regeneration," Nolan observed. "That explains your confidence. But it won't save you. Every technique has its limits, and I can hit you faster than you can heal."

"Perhaps," Megumi acknowledged, wiping blood from his mouth. "But can you hit what you can't touch?"

He slammed both palms to the ground, and darkness erupted around him.

"Ten Shadows Technique: Divine Dogs!"

The canine shikigami materialized from the shadows, larger and more substantial than when he'd summoned them earlier against the Flaxans. They circled him protectively, their spectral forms rippling with cursed energy.

Nolan scoffed. "More shadow beasts? They couldn't touch me before, and they won't now."

"They're not meant to touch you," Megumi replied. "They're a distraction."

As the Divine Dogs lunged at Nolan, forcing him to dodge and weave, Megumi prepared for his most dangerous gambit. The cursed energy within him gathered, concentrated, focused on a single purpose.

"Ten Shadows Technique: Eighth Form-"

The ritual circle appeared beneath his feet, glowing with eldritch power. The summoning of this particular shikigami was different from the others - more formal, more dangerous, bound by ancient rules that even Sukuna had respected.

Nolan, sensing the shift in energy, dispatched the Divine Dogs with two precise strikes and turned his attention back to Megumi. "Whatever you're attempting, it won't be fast enough."

He launched himself forward, but just before he could reach Megumi, the ritual completed.

"-Come forth, Divine General Mahoraga!"

The summoning circle erupted with blinding light, and from within emerged a massive figure - humanoid but clearly not human, enormous, with a large wheel balanced above its head. 

Nolan pulled up short, momentarily startled by the appearance of this new entity. "What manner of creature is this?"

Megumi didn't answer. Instead, he leaped backward, putting distance between himself and both Mahoraga and Nolan - before either attacked him.

His hand extended, cursed energy gathering at his fingertips in a way he hadn't displayed before.

"Sacred Flame."

A mighty fire formed within his palm that he immediately shaped into a single arrow. An arrow made of not ordinary fire, but something more fundamental, more conceptual.

It burned with an intensity that made even the air around it seem to warp and distort.

Its light illuminated Megumi's face, his red eyes, gleaming with excitement.

Nolan's eyes narrowed. "Another elemental attack? You should know by now that I can dodge-"

Sukuna without a word hurled the Sacred Flame - not at Nolan, who was next to Mahoraga, but at Mahoraga.

Nolan easily flew away, a smirk forming on his lips. "You missed."

But Megumi was already smiling, a cold, knowing expression that would have been familiar to anyone who had faced Sukuna at the height of his power.

"I never aimed for you."

The Sacred Flame struck Mahoraga directly in the center of its wheel. For a moment, nothing happened - then the flame expanded explosively, engulfing the Divine General in a conflagration of supernatural fire.

The world seemed to warp, the air crackling with heat and energy. Time itself seemed to slow, the moment stretching into an eternity as the Sacred Flame consumed the Divine General. All was silent.

Then, the sound came.

A low, guttural scream.

The scream of one considered a god dying.

And then - the explosion.

The explosion was cataclysmic, dwarfing anything Megumi had unleashed thus far.

The force of it ripped through the ruined Flaxan city, vaporizing buildings, melting metal, and scouring the very stone from the ground.

The shockwave that radiated outward was enough to knock even Nolan off balance, sending him tumbling backward through the air.

When the light faded and the smoke cleared, Mahoraga was gone.

Vaporized. Nothing but scattered ashes in the wind. The wheel on its head tumbled to the ground, clattering against the purple stone before dissolving into shadow.

A hush fell over the battlefield, broken only by the crackling of residual flames and the distant wails of the few surviving Flaxans.

Nolan righted himself in the air, his costume torn and singed, his face etched with a mixture of shock and disbelief. He stared at the spot where Mahoraga had stood, his mind struggling to comprehend what he had just witnessed.

"What did you just do?" Nolan demanded, his voice carrying a note of genuine concern for the first time. His instincts were screaming at him, warning him that something is seriously wrong.

Sukuna landed gracefully some distance away, his expression triumphant despite the exhaustion evident in his posture.

He had pushed himself to his limits, channeling every ounce of cursed energy he possessed into that single, devastating attack.

"I completed the ritual," he explained, as the wheel clattered to the ground and disappeared into shadow. "Mahoraga is the Divine General, the strongest of the Ten Shadows shikigami. To control it, one must first destroy it."

Nolan stared at him, a storm brewing in his eyes. "Destroy it? You destroyed a spiritual familiar of that magnitude just to... control its power?"

"To tame it," Megumi corrected. "To make it subservient to my will. Only by destroying it can I truly command it, and the only way to destroy it as such is with the Sacred Flame."

A calculating look crossed Nolan's face. "I am not yet completely understanding, but I am impressed. Seriously though, what are you implying? That its power is now yours to use?"

Megumi smirked "In a way. Now that the ritual is complete..."

He raised both his hands in an open manner as his shadows shifted.

"Ten Shadows Technique: Eighth Form - Divine General Mahoraga!"

The summoning was different this time - faster, more controlled

The shadow behind him rose and then manifested Mahoraga, now fully under Sukuna's command.

The wheel on its head rotated slowly, and its posture was alert, ready for battle. But there was something new as well - a faint red aura surrounding its form, a hint of the cursed energy that now bound it to Megumi's will.

Making it far more powerful than before.

Nolan's eyes widened slightly, understanding dawning. "I see now. So this is what you meant when you said you tamed it. A spirit that can die and be resurrected... Incredible."

"Indeed," Megumi confirmed, a hint of the old Sukuna's arrogance entering his voice. "The Divine General Mahoraga - a shikigami no one has successfully tamed. Until now. Until my existence."

He stepped forward, Mahoraga moving in perfect synchronization with him. 

"So, Nolan Grayson," Megumi said, his voice carrying the weight of decades of battle experience, "are you ready for round two?"

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(Author note: Hello everyone! I hope you all liked the chapter!

Mahoraga has been tamed! And before anyone says anything, this indeed is logical, because Sukuna killed him with a flame arrow in canon too - you could say his domain strengthened his flame arrow, but Mahoraga also became stronger during battle so it evens out.

So yeah, I hope to see you all later,

Bye!)