The guards stationed outside Seth's containment unit never truly stood a chance. They hadn't even processed the sound of buckling steel before the end came.
These cells were marvels of engineering, specifically reinforced to withstand the catastrophic strength of a "green rage monster."
Logic dictated that they should have easily held a solitary human—even one gifted with super-strength. Yet, as the guards' lives flickered out, the same question occupied their final thoughts: How was this happening?
Seth erupted through the reinforced walls, the heavy alloy shredding like wet parchment. He moved as a ghost, executing both guards in a singular, blurred instant.
Standing amidst the dust and debris, he looked down at his hands. Clutched in his grip were sharpened metal poles—makeshift shivs salvaged from his bedframe.
To his left, the clatter of boots echoed down the corridor; a rapid-response team was closing in.
Seth began to walk toward them. He wasn't raging. Instead, he was haunted by the final moments of Sam's life. A wave of rage washed over him—not a fiery, explosive but deep, pressurized cold.
The facility's alarms began to blare, a rhythmic sound that bathed the hallway in oscillating strobes of red.
Seth stepped into a wide clearing, only to find himself staring down the barrels of hundreds of HYDRA operatives. They formed a wall of high-grade riot shields and tl sub machine gun.
"Do not kill him... I still have a use for him," a voice boomed, amplified by the wall-mounted intercoms.
Doctor Werner Reinhardt was not a man to relinquish a prized asset lightly. Upon his command, the guards lowered their firearms, the hum of high-voltage stun batons replacing them.
Seth didn't wait. He began a macabre dance through their ranks. He used the jagged chunks of rubble he'd collected as projectiles, hurling them with such velocity that they became armor-piercing rounds killing the guards on impact.
A lone guard, perhaps braver or more foolish than the rest, lunged forward with a pre-charged baton. He was bisected before his weapon could even discharge.
Seeing that individual combat was futilie , the operatives attempted to swarm him from all sides. It was a tactic they had used during training sessions many times before. They knew he was strong, but they believed numbers could subdue him. They were wrong. The moment they entered Seth's range, they found their throats opened by the steel poles he wielded.
The veterans among the guards noticed the change. In previous bouts, the boy had been a whirlwind of emotion—shouting, crying, fueled by adrenaline. Now, his face was a mask of eerie calm. He moved like a reaper harvesting a field, indifferent to the carnage he left in his wake.
Seth leaped from the clearing, catching the edge of the mezzanine above where more reinforcements were pouring in. One guard, his nerves shattered by the sight of the slaughter below, ignored Reinhardt's orders.
He leveled his rifle and pulled the trigger.
For Seth, time dilated. He watched the copper jacket of the bullet spinning through the air, tracking its trajectory with ease.
He didn't even bother to dodge. He knew instinctively that his skin would hold. The bullet struck his chest and crumpled, falling harmlessly to the floor. The guard's eyes widened in terror as Seth walked past him.
Is he letting me go? the guard wondered. He never got his answer; a split second later, his torso slid cleanly off his waist.
The distant thrum of a helicopter reached Seth's ears. Reinhardt was retreating.
"Warm-up's over," Seth thought. His muscles coiled and snapped like steel cables. He tore through the remaining guards at such speeds that the spray of blood seemed to lag a second behind his movements.
He smashed through the final set of reinforced exterior walls and stepped onto the roof.
Across the tarmac, he saw them: Dr. Reinhardt, clutching a silver briefcase, and his sycophant, Sunil Bakshi. They were scrambling into the waiting craft. Seth locked eyes with the pilot through the cockpit glass.
With a flick of his wrist, he launched his last bedside pole. It whistled through the air, shattered the windshield, and impaled the pilot against his seat.
Bakshi froze, staring at the dead man in the cockpit. Whitehall—ever the stoic—maintained his poker face, though his knuckles were white.
Bakshi, the expert in brainwashing and psychological torment, found himself on the receiving end of that fear.
Seth approached them slowly, his footsteps deliberate. He wanted to savor this moment.
From the safety of the waiting craft, Bakshi shouted, his voice coming in a panicked, rapid-fire stream. "Subject 33, take a deep breath... calm your mind... you know what is best... what is best is to comp—" Bakshi was desperately invoking the trigger words that they had tried installing in Seth's brain multiple times over the years, always without success.
"My name is Seth," he spoke firmly as his hands zeroed in on Bakshi's vocal cords. It wasn't that those words actually triggered a subconscious reaction in him; he simply despised the sound of Bakshi's voice. To Seth, the man sounded like a damn parrot.
The final moments for the leaders of the facility were long and agonizing. Bakshi, a man who had spent his life priding himself on his ability to break the spirits of others, was the very first to break. He dissolved into a mess of sobbing and pleading, begging for the mercy of a quick death. Seth did not grant it.
"Hail Hydra..." Reinhardt wheezed, his voice nothing more than a wet, gurgling rattle. He slumped against the cold, unforgiving concrete, staring down at his own viscera as the light of life finally exited his eyes.
Seth stood amidst the ruins of his tormentors, but then he felt it—a presence. It was similar to those grotesque creature he had stoomed earlier, but it was infinitely stronger. He could tell instinctively.
A Spoonbill Cursed Spirit, resembling the avian curse used by Suguru Geto, descended near the helipad. However, the crushing pressure Seth felt didn't originate from the bird spirit itself, but rather from its passenger.
Mahito materialized from the Spoonbill's back and looked at Seth with a wide, manic smile. "I was right... you really have no cursed energy at all."
Seth did not understand the terminology the patched-face human lookalike was using, but one thing was undeniably clear: that creature was not a human being, and it harbored immense strength.
Mahito's train of thought, on the other hand, was somewhere else. Unlike the sorcerers of the Golden Era or even the average humans of the modern age who possess small traces of cursed energy, a fully awakened Heavenly Restriction—specifically the "Physically Gifted" type—reduces the user's cursed energy to absolutely zero.
Because Seth possessed no cursed energy, he could not be tracked through the residues that normal sorcerers leave behind. Furthermore, he was immune to the "sure-hit" function of Domain Expansions, as the barrier's logic could not recognize him as a valid target.
By trading away every drop of cursed energy, Seth had gained a truly superhuman body: top-tier strength, speed, and durability.
His five senses were enhanced to such an extreme degree that he could perceive cursed spirits, air density, and even minute temperature changes, allowing him to "see" or interact with curses without actually utilizing cursed energy.
Mahito recalled his second Binding Vow, the one that had allowed his technique to reach a global scale.Before his range was still not satisfactory for his ultimate plans, so he had gone against his very nature to expand it. In exchange for never "harming" humans using Idle Transfiguration, his technique's reach became worldwide.
That was the contract he struck with the cursed energy system.
But that same system recognizes a person with an awakened Heavenly Restriction—like Toji Fushiguro or the now-awakened Seth—as inanimate objects rather than human beings.
This meant Mahito's Idle Transfiguration could harm Seth without being in breach of his vows.
Seth braced himself when he felt murderous intent oozing from the cursed spirit, but Mahito didn't move. He didn't need to. In the next moment, white-hot pain shot through Seth's right arm and leg.
"Your body is resisting the change in your soul... how interesting..." Mahito observed. He had intended to completely transfigure the right side of Seth's body, but Seth's body and soul were so intrinsically linked that he managed to survive the initial distortion.
Refusing to give the patched-face monster another chance to attack, Seth closed the distance between them instantly. He had withdrawn a makeshift bedside pole from a pilot's body, intending to impale the cursed spirit. The pole went clean through Mahito's head.
The speed of the boy was indeed impressive, matching Mahito's own movements evenly. If Seth had possessed a Cursed Tool that could directly harm the soul, he might have had a decent chance against the current Mahito, who was now at the strength level of at least fifteen of Sukuna's fingers.
However, Mahito cannot die from conventional physical trauma. His body is not anchored to his physical form, but rather to his soul, which he can freely manipulate using Idle Transfiguration.
As long as his soul remains intact and he has sufficient Cursed Energy, he can instantly reshape his physical body to repair any damage, making him immune to standard blunt force, slashing, or piercing attacks.
Seth, sensing the previous invisible attack coming again, instantly created some distance, though it didn't help. Agony shot throughout his left side this time, forcing him to kneel on one leg.
Mahito cannot use Idle Transfiguration on Seth like a regular human. Because of his Heavenly Restriction, Seth has zero cursed energy and is treated similarly to an inanimate object by cursed techniques, meaning his soul is not accessible in the same way as a normal human's.
However, Mahito had a backdoor to Seth's soul—one that Seth had inadvertently created as an infant while instinctively protecting his baby brother from Idle Transfiguration.
The one-sided link.
That metaphysical connection between Ethan's soul and Seth's was the only reason Mahito could harm him.
"I wonder what face he would make... when I tell him... what I have done to you. Haha," Mahito wondered aloud.
Seth picked up on the words immediately. "What the hell are you on about!?" he sneered. His left leg and arm were severely damaged, much worse than his right side;
Mahito had increased his output to its maximum while unleashing the last attack.
"Oh... you don't remember, do you?" Mahito decided to rile him up further. "You were born a twin... and your sibling... well, let's just say we aren't exactly on good terms."
What!? Twin!? Was the patched-face creature lying? But why would he lie? He has me on the ropes, Seth thought.
"I have a... brother !?" Seth concluded.
Mahito started laughing' maniacally. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA... yes... that's the face!" he shouted as he lunged toward Seth.
Even heavily injured, Seth was able to keep up with Mahito's speed. Suddenly, Seth felt his left leg start to transfigure and bloat. In an act of pure desperation and will, he bisected the limb with his own hands to stop the spread.
Unimaginable pain—worse than any torture he had endured during his time under Dr. Werner—shot through him.
He skidded to the ground, his back slamming against the wall as Mahito approached him.
Is this it?
Is this how my story ends?
Sam... I will see you soon, I guess...
No...
I still have a brother to find... so I will not be dying today...
Seth thought as he forced himself to stand up on a single leg, extending his right arm as he took his martial stance.
Mahito increased his speed, running toward Seth with his fist enveloped in a dense shroud of Cursed Energy. Seth saw him approach and extended his palm to block the incoming punch. Mahito's punch landed... and his Cursed Energy flashed black.
BLACK FLASH!!
Mahito followed up with a brutal series of cursed-energy-reinforced punches and finally a roundhouse kick. The cursed energy flashed black yet again.
BLACK FLASH!!
Seth skidded back against the wall and finally lost consciousness.
Mahito retrieved a cursed object from his pocket and force-fed it to Seth; this object would act as an anchor.
When Mahito first discovered Ethan's twin, he was distraught by his own previous foolishness. He realized he was the reason Ethan Park was as strong as he was today;
He had granted Ethan's soul individuality by accident, which in turn prevented the "twin curse" from hindering his growth.But he also saw the opportunity this presented.
If he could take over Seth's body by cannibalizing his soul through Idle Transfiguration, he could, in theory, use his technique on Ethan as well.
Ethan and Seth share the same soul, no matter how severed the connection seems—a one-way link still exists. His cursed technique only recognized Seth, as Seth acted as a metaphysical shield to protect Ethan.
But if Mahito took over Seth's body and soul and made them his own, his technique would finally reach Ethan Park without being in violation of his second binding vow.
Since he can perform Idle Transfiguration on his own soul, he wouldn't be handicapped by his vows when they eventually fought.
By taking over Seth, he was also effectively bypassing the first binding vow. In exchange for restricting his movements to a specified one-mile radius, the physical restriction on his Cursed Technique was lifted. Through this vow, he could use Idle Transfiguration remotely without physically touching his target but by "hitching a ride" on another soul—he could bypass this vow.
Seth's soul would be that ride.
In the past, such measures were unnecessary for him, as he would lose his invisibility to normal humans.
But taking over a heavenly restricted body in exchange for his invisibility seemed like a fair trade.
As shown by Toji in the Shibuya Incident, Seth's body and soul are so intrinsically linked and free from conventional cursed energy that they could potentially resist possession by normal sorcerers—but Mahito was anything but normal.
He had been accumulating power since the Golden Era. His understanding of the soul was perhaps the greatest in existence, and his technique specialized in its manipulation.
He began the process of taking over Seth's weakened body immediately, his host's memories flashing through his mind like a film strip.
Now, all he needed to do was kill every prisoner in the facility. Seth had planned to free them after dealing with Reinhardt.
Mahito knew he had to kill them using only his physical strength to submerge Seth's soul into darkness permanently.
In Jujutsu Kaisen, Sukuna, when reincarnated in Megumi, had killed Yorozu using the Ten Shadows Technique to deliberately crush Megumi Fushiguro's soul.
By using Megumi's own inherited technique to kill his sister, Tsumiki, Sukuna aimed to deepen Megumi's despair and prevent his soul from resisting.
Mahito didn't know that specific lore, but he understood the principle perfectly.
Just then, an orange, shimmering sling-ring portal opened up behind him. Out stepped The Ancient One, with Tao Mandalas glowing in each hand.
"What have you done?" she asked solemnly as the portal closed behind her.
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