The night Megumi died still replayed in Toji Fushiguro's mind.
The road.
The screams.
The four sorcerers.
He had killed them… or so he thought.
But one of them had survived.
Days later, in an abandoned shrine deep in the forest, that same sorcerer stood waiting. His arm was missing. His body was covered in scars.
Hatred burned in his eyes.
"You took everything from me…" he whispered.
But his hatred was nothing compared to Toji's.
Toji stepped into the shrine silently.
"I remember you," Toji said calmly. "You were the one who used the barrier."
The sorcerer's lips twisted. "This time… you won't break it."
Cursed energy exploded outward.
"Domain Expansion!"
The world changed instantly.
The shrine vanished.
They stood inside a dark red battlefield covered in floating talismans and rotating blades of cursed energy.
"Inside my domain," the sorcerer laughed, "every slash will hit you. You can't escape."
Blades shot toward Toji from every direction.
For a normal sorcerer—
It would be guaranteed death.
But Toji wasn't normal.
He didn't panic.
He didn't rush.
He observed.
The domain locked onto cursed energy.
It calculated trajectories.
It ensured guaranteed hits.
Toji had none.
Zero.
For a split second, the slashes hesitated.
That was enough.
Toji dashed forward, weaving between the delayed attacks. His movements were sharp, inhuman—like a wild beast reading the wind.
The sorcerer's eyes widened. "Impossible! Domains guarantee—"
Toji reached him in one breath.
Steel flashed.
A clean horizontal cut.
The sorcerer froze.
The domain cracked like broken glass.
Toji grabbed the sorcerer by the collar before the world collapsed.
"You relied too much on cursed energy," Toji said coldly.
One final slash.
The domain shattered completely.
The forest returned.
Silence filled the air again.
Toji wiped the blood off his blade.
"Domains don't work on someone who doesn't exist to them."
He walked away without looking back.
Behind him, the last of the four sorcerers fell.
And somewhere in the distance, powerful sorcerers began to understand something terrifying—
Even a Domain Expansion…
Could be cut down.