"What a treat!"
But it was not, in fact, a treat, Sukuna almost immediately found out, his grin rapidly fading as one of the metal titans raised and leveled its right arm at him, a castle-sized ball of blue fire gathering at the tip of the massive, tube-shaped weapon it had in place of a hand. And then, it released that ball of blue fire and every instinct in Sukuna's shiny new body screamed at him to run as far away as he could, that there was no surviving the certain death that was coming no matter how much Sorcery he used to augment his natural physical durability. And he was right.
Sukuna crossed a distance of one kilometer in an instant, slipping right underneath and between the titan's legs. As he glanced over his shoulder, the King of Curses could not help but be utterly surprised as an entire city's worth of land, tens of kilometers of open space, simply disappeared in a haze of blue and white flames. No, it didn't disappear. The heat didn't melt anything. No, the heat vaporized just about everything in what seemed like an instant, a level of destruction that he'd never even thought was possible. It was beautiful.
But also incredibly dangerous. No amount of Reverse Cursed Energy is going to heal him if his whole body was vaporized.
And that was only a moment ago, barely half a second. Sukuna knew that a great wave of heat and fire was sure to follow; it was inevitable. And, based entirely on the fact that the initial emission of fire was enough to instantly vaporize such a large swathe of land, there was no way in hell that he'd be able to survive the heatwave that was coming. His eyes frantically darted left, right, up and down, searching. There was only one place to hide in.
Sukuna leapt upwards and found a neat little crevice right behind the metal titan's left knee, spacious enough to fit him entirely, even if he had to break a few bones just to keep himself from getting exposed. There was still an opening, however, which Sukuna then filled with as much Cursed Energy as he could muster, without endangering his reserves, a layer so thick that it could probably block a full-powered Cleave. Sukuna breathed in, stilled himself, and then focused really hard as the heatwave came and swept over the landscape, melting the once-solid ground beneath the metal titan's massive feet, melting everything for hundreds of kilometers, creating a bubbling, crimson-gold sea of liquid fire and molten rock. Everything shook. And even the metal titan seemed as though it was ready to fall down.
His skin hissed and sizzled, patches of it sticking into the metal around him and ripping away from his muscles with even the slightest movement. Sukuna gritted his teeth and applied a sustained burst of Reverse Cursed Energy, healing his wounds constantly. He may have shielded himself from the immediate blast, but the heat was simply so great that even the metal titan was heating up, despite its bulk and its resistance to its own weaponry – after all, why would it wield something that could just as easily destroy it as its enemies?
Then again, Sukuna had faced plenty of enemies who just kind of blew themselves up with their own stupidity; he hoped these machines were, at least, different.
And then, the moment passed and the hissing, burning air dissipated. It was likely still horrendously hot, likely hot enough to boil a man's blood from within him with a quick exposure, but such temperatures weren't beyond his ability to heal and, more importantly, not beyond his augmented durability – though, in truth, Sukuna was pretty certain that his shiny new body could take far more punishment than his last one, but he wasn't quite willing to test that hypothesis against literal mountains of metal that could unleash explosions worth a hundred Flaming Arrows of Amaterasu with almost casual ease. He still wasn't sure how to deal with that, actually, and that was the exciting part, because here was an enemy – no, enemies – that actually stood a great chance at toasting him to death.
His grin returning, Sukuna reached out and placed his palm against the nearest metal surface, sacrificing range for greater attack power and quantity, and, through it, he unleashed the full breadth of Dismantle across the entire metal titan, riddling it with thousands upon thousands upon thousands of slashes every passing second. The titan ceased moving after two seconds, its gigantic form falling apart into what must've been millions of tiny pieces. Sukuna grinned. These things might've been big, but they sacrificed utility and maneuverability for power and, most of the time, at least in his experience, that wasn't a very good trade. In battle, the one with the most options, the most flexibility, often won.
Still, it wasn't alone. There were many other colossal machines lumbering towards him, titans whose every footstep shook the ground beneath them, each one towering over mountains. They were terrible and beautiful to gaze upon, Sukuna mused as he leapt away from the shower of debris. The land around him was a burning, smoldering ruin. And it took a constant and controlled application of Reverse Cursed Energy and Augmentation just to keep himself from burning. The nearest titan was about two kilometers away and closing in fast. This one was much shorter than the one he just killed, lither too. Its form, he noted, seemed to have been designed for speed, flexibility, and maneuverability in mind. And the weapons it bore were clearly melee implements, two massive swords for each hand. Though, over each of its shoulders were massive pad-like structures that held what looked to be hundreds of metal rockets; he'd have to look out for that. Those things were deceptively deadly; without his Reverse Cursed Energy, he would've already died to them a hundred times over.
His eyes narrowed as he landed on a giant boulder that'd been scorched black, but miraculously hadn't melted down into the same smoldering goop as everything else around him. Just breathing in the hot air was enough to scorch his lungs, which he automatically fixed with Reverse Cursed Energy. And, unfortunately, all the mountains that'd once stood and loomed around him had now melted into the same big burning puddle. Honestly, he wasn't sure how this one boulder even managed to survive. One thing Sukuna noted quickly enough, with each breath he took, was that his new body seemed to possess a regenerative ability that was powerful enough to almost render his healing sorcery moot, though it definitely wouldn't be able to survive in this environment without his augmentation. Burning splashes of flashing fire and liquid stone exploded as the lithe metal titan sprinted straight at him at a surprisingly fast pace, despite its size.
Sukuna grinned and held out his hands. "Come on! Show me everything you've got!"
There was something that was steadily awakening within him, a dormant power that seemed to feed on carnage as the main fuel source of its growth. Well, that suited him quite well, Sukuna figured. Now, all he had to do was wait for a few decades before it actually fully-manifested.
Sukuna wasn't entirely certain why he did it, considering that, in the grand scheme of things, it was tactically unwise and was potentially mortally dangerous. But, in that moment, he didn't care. He'd never witnessed such glorious destruction ever before, not even in the largest and deadliest war between Sorcerers; no, nothing he'd ever witnessed before his awakening could even hold a candle to the forces he was now contending with. His blood roared and his heart hammered like drums of war in his chest. And, despite acknowledging the stupidity of it, Sukuna charged forward to meet the metal automaton's charge head-on, like the oh-so honorable warriors of old.
The metal colossus seemed to understand his intent as its gargantuan blades blazed to life with blue flames and jets of fire burst from its back and propelled it forward even faster. Sukuna's grin widened as he augmented his body to levels beyond any he'd reached before and a single step saw him breaking through the sound barrier, leaving behind a trail of thunderous booms and great plumes of fire and dust. And, not even a millisecond later, the King met the Titan. And their collision sent for a tidal wave of lava exploding in every direction, Sukuna's fist breaking and shattering into bits of flesh as it met the metal titan's armored chest, leaving behind a sizable, spiderweb of cracks in its armor, crisscrossing from the meter-deep crater he left behind. Sukuna then sliced off his broken hand and regrew it anew, before climbing up and jumping to the metal titan's head. "You better survive this."
But, before he could slice it to pieces, however, the titan crouched down, while spinning both of its burning blades in a circular motion. Sukuna avoided both blades by shifting his form mid-air from vertical to horizontal, allowing the burning blades to safely pass by under and over him, though the flames would've scorched him to death if it wasn't for the constant use of Reverse Cursed Energy. As they passed, however, Sukuna sliced off both weapons with Dismantle, before cutting down both of the titan's shoulders, its arms falling off its torso and sinking into the boiling sea of molten lava right underneath them. Sukuna then propelled himself forward with an applied burst of Cursed Energy right on the soles of both of his feet, taking inspiration from the same rockets that nearly took his life on several occasions in the last few minutes alone.
And then, finally, he laid both of his hands upon the titanic machine's metal armor, the same spot that'd taken the full strength of his punch. "Eat this!"
Just as he activated Dismantle a thousandfold, however, cutting down the metal titan with hundreds of thousands of slashes that tore apart its internal engines and mechanized organs, the rockets that were mounted upon its shoulders all roared to life and suddenly propelled themselves forward, leaving a trail of smoke and fire right above Sukuna. And there were hundreds of them, the King of Curses quickly noted, eyes widening as the very same rockets then circled back towards him, fanning outwards and covering every conceivable angle of attack. Sukuna's grin did not falter, even in the possibility of meeting his end right then and there. He brought his hands together and formed the necessary seal. "That's what I'm talking about!"
"Domain Expansion: Malevolent Shrine!" For the second time that day, Ryomen Sukuna, the King of Curses, opened his domain, which then rapidly expanded to to consume every single one of the rockets in an aura of darkness. Anything and everything within the domain was then relentlessly cut down by Dismantle, including all the rockets that had been speeding right towards him, many of them exploding prematurely, which resulted in a cascade of explosions, or simply not exploding at all.
This was becoming incredibly dangerous, Sukuna mused as he deactivated his domain; he'd never been pushed this far before. His life had never once been threatened as it was now. And the best and worst part was that he felt himself gradually growing tired; he wasn't quite there yet and Sukuna figured it'd take at least three more days of constant fighting before his reserves of Cursed Energies finally ran out and that was if he fought conservatively. He had to find a way to end the battle quickly or else that black disc thing would simply escalate to a level three response, which – if he had to guess – meant the Iron Soldiers would be attacking alongside the walking mountains of metal that was the Titans.
And there were, at least, a dozen more titans, each with their own unique brand of weaponry and gimmicks, like sorcerers, but scaled up to the size of mountains. If these automatons had been on Earth, they would've been worshiped as deities by humans and curses alike; such was the power they wielded. Ironically, the only reason he was winning against them now was specifically because he was so much smaller than they were. But, if the Iron Soldiers from earlier marched and fought with them, then... he might just find himself in actual trouble.
Absolutely beautiful.
This was... what he imagined heaven would be like if he somehow found his way there, even after all the atrocities he'd done.
And, just in the nick of time, the black disc reappeared right above him. But then, something else took his attention, a sudden flare up of Cursed Energy – a lot of it – from underground. Sukuna knew that feeling. He was familiar with it, even. That sort of flare up only came from the birth of a Curse – a powerful one.
"Oh?" His grin widened as his gaze trailed down for just a moment. Just what the heck was going on down there to birth a Curse? "This is getting better and better."