After many years, Mahoraga's sacred and magnificent figure once again appeared before Eichi.
It had a strange beauty to its head, a massive five-meter-tall body, muscles that gave a sense of explosive power, and an overwhelming aura of Cursed Energy that radiated despair.
"Is this Mahoraga?"
A bead of cold sweat trickled down Toji's forehead.
Toji had not yet reached his Peak, and due to the taming ritual, he couldn't use his powerful cursed tools.
Mahoraga's combat strength was immense, even surpassing many Special Grades.
In the original work, Jogo, though acknowledged by Sukuna, one must admit that Sukuna defeated Jogo with ease.
However, when facing Mahoraga, Sukuna spent a considerable amount of effort, even fully expanding his Domain and using countless slashes to try and shatter Mahoraga in one go.
He later found that Mahoraga had already adapted to the slashes, and he ultimately had to use a highly explosive attack to eliminate Mahoraga.
Suddenly, he wondered what it would be like if Jogo and Mahoraga fought, but it was highly probable that Jogo, initially unaware of Mahoraga's mechanics, would be chased and hammered due to the numerical difference, and even after understanding it, he would be helpless against Mahoraga because he lacked a second Technique.
If he were accidentally touched by the Sword of Exorcism in the middle of it, he would probably be instantly gone.
Even without considering the Sword of Exorcism's special attack, Mahoraga could probably take down the Four Calamities in a direct confrontation.
Toji, on the other hand, had easily defeated the Special Grade Cursed Spirit Dagon with just a Playful Cloud.
As a recently hatched Cursed Womb, Dagon's strength was considerably less than Jogo's, but Toji at that time only had a Playful Cloud, and his combat power was not comprehensive.
Therefore, Toji in his prime should be comparable to Jogo and qualified to fight Mahoraga.
But it was only a fight; after all, he hadn't heard of any cursed tools with enough firepower to take down Mahoraga in one hit.
He just didn't know what effect the Inverted Spear of Heaven would have on Mahoraga.
But these were meaningless in the taming ritual.
Because the taming ritual was a judgment based on the Cursed Energy System, and this System only recognized the Cursed Energy of the tamer himself, so even if Toji used a cursed tool to defeat Mahoraga, it would be meaningless.
Because the best way to defeat Mahoraga was with a one-hit kill, and while Toji's cursed tools were strong, their attack methods were relatively simple, lacking extremely powerful offensive Techniques.
Such attacks would likely be adapted to by Mahoraga before it could be killed, ultimately resulting in Toji being helpless and forced to retreat.
The fully manifested Mahoraga stared intently at Eichi, bending its legs and swinging its right fist towards Eichi.
Bang.
Toji, standing in front of Eichi, did not back down, and his right fist, infused with all his strength, slammed into Mahoraga's fist.
A visible shockwave spread from where the two fists met.
The two sides separated immediately, and through this probing attack, Toji came to a surprising conclusion.
It could not be resisted by force.
This was the first time Toji had encountered an enemy he couldn't overpower in a direct confrontation since becoming a Heavenly Restriction.
Toji seized the opportunity, swung his sword, and severed Mahoraga's hand.
"Tsk, this is troublesome."
Looking at Mahoraga's hand, which had already regenerated, and then at his slightly deformed steel sword, Toji felt somewhat troubled.
Mahoraga didn't give Toji time to think of a countermeasure and charged forward again; its massive body also brought powerful offensive capabilities, so Toji abandoned the head-on fighting style he used when taming other shikigami and began to skirmish.
"Rabbit Escape! Toad!"
Hundreds of Rabbit Escape emerged from Eichi's shadow, crashing into Mahoraga like a wave.
The Rabbit Escape's impact did not harm Mahoraga but effectively interfered with Mahoraga's perception.
"Hmph!"
Toji, having switched to two weapons, circled behind Mahoraga and brought them down with all his might.
Mahoraga turned, just about to swing its sword, when its arm was entangled by the Toad's long tongue.
Toji didn't miss Mahoraga's momentary vulnerability, using both hands to forcefully chop off Mahoraga's right arm, disabling the most threatening Sword of Exorcism, and then a series of powerful and heavy slashes continuously landed on Mahoraga's body.
Soon, Mahoraga's body was covered in wounds.
Clang!
Crack!
The wheel on Mahoraga's head spun, and a crisp snapping sound echoed as the weapon in Toji's hand broke.
"Hey, hey, this isn't an attack from the Cursed Energy System, is it? Can it adapt to this too?"
Toji looked helplessly at the broken weapon in his hand.
"Mahoraga has already adapted to slashes; from now on, all attacks related to slashes will be greatly weakened or even nullified."
"Can you control it?"
The Toad's figure disappeared, replaced by the Piercing Ox, which ran into the distance.
"I'll try my best."
Having personally experienced Mahoraga's difficulty, Toji's originally defiant expression vanished, replaced by unparalleled solemnity.
Their figures flickered at high speed through the jungle; mere physical combat almost altered the terrain of this forest.
This made Eichi deeply understand why so many netizens in his previous life called Jujutsu Kaisen "Beat-jitsu Kaisen" and jokingly referred to the strong characters in it as all being gorillas.
Only a wrong name, never a wrong nickname.
Under Eichi's anxious gaze, the Piercing Ox finally returned to the battlefield.
"Now!"
Eichi shouted to Toji, and then countless Rabbit Escape swarmed Mahoraga, forming a fluffy ball around it.
Glancing at the Piercing Ox's position, Toji no longer hesitated, gathering all his strength and using an Iron Mountain Lean to send the much larger Mahoraga flying.
Mid-air, Mahoraga executed a nimble flip, landed, and immediately prepared to attack.
"Max Elephant!"
The Rabbit Escape disappeared, replaced by a pink African elephant descending from the sky.
Eichi, unable to expand his Domain, couldn't summon Max Elephant from high altitude while standing on the ground like Megumi Fushiguro in the original work, so he had been moving through the trees using Rabbit Escape as a foothold, manually air-dropping Max Elephant directly from the shadows in the trees.
Boom.
Several tons of weight slammed heavily onto Mahoraga, and the immense weight caused Mahoraga's movements to pause for a moment.
The wheel spun, and the next moment, Max Elephant was thrown off by Mahoraga.
"Huff ~ huff ~"
Eichi, whose Cursed Energy was almost depleted and was replenishing it with the Holy Grail, looked at the rapidly approaching Piercing Ox.
This was his last hope to defeat Mahoraga.
After a long run and acceleration, the Piercing Ox's attack power was greatly enhanced; a normal Special Grade Cursed Spirit might be instantly killed by this blow.
This powerful attack came with a huge consumption of Cursed Energy; if not for the Holy Grail's replenishment, Eichi's Cursed Energy would have run out long ago.
Under their tense gazes, the Piercing Ox, like a black meteor, pierced through Mahoraga's body.
The wound was too small.
The Piercing Ox's attack caused damage to Mahoraga, but this damage wasn't even considered severe, let alone fatal.
The next moment, under Eichi's unwilling gaze, Mahoraga's body began to recover rapidly.
Still too weak, huh.
Eichi felt unwilling in his heart.
As mentioned earlier, Mahoraga's strength was likely higher than that of Special Grade Cursed Spirits like Jogo and Dagon.
This 'higher' wasn't just referring to the Sword of Exorcism.
After all, the Sword of Exorcism's effectiveness against Cursed Spirits was too powerful; if it struck Jogo, he would probably be instantly gone.
After Sukuna's slash hit Jogo, Jogo's body was directly severed, but Mahoraga, after taking Sukuna's initial probing slash, was not completely severed.
It later even deflected Sukuna's slashes.
However, later when Sukuna became serious and increased the power of his slashes, Mahoraga's body was severed multiple times.
Therefore, without prior information, Mahoraga's strength was likely superior to Jogo's.
And currently, Eichi was at best a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer, still a distance away from Special Grade.
Even with all his might, Eichi couldn't reach Jogo's level, let alone Mahoraga, who might be even stronger than them.
Looking at Mahoraga's body, which was almost fully repaired, Eichi gritted his teeth and decided to cancel the taming ritual.
At this moment, a figure appeared behind Mahoraga, and a series of glowing red objects were thrown onto Mahoraga's body.
Before Eichi could even see what those glowing red objects were, Toji grabbed Eichi and sprinted into the distance.
In less than 10 seconds, the two had moved a kilometer away from Mahoraga; even a world champion would be humbled by this speed.
Boom!
A huge explosion erupted from where Mahoraga had stood.
In Eichi's stunned gaze, a massive fireball, accompanied by a faintly mushroom-shaped black smoke, surged into the sky.
Even a kilometer away from the epicenter, the impact of the explosion could still be felt.
"To... Toji, was that...?"
Eichi looked at Toji in disbelief.
"I got some explosives from Foreign countries before; these things aren't subject to the Cursed Energy System's judgment, so I thought they might be useful."
They were indeed useful; Eichi could feel that Mahoraga had already begun a new round of adaptation.
"Tsk, it really is a pain."
Toji clicked his tongue, looking at the tattered figure slowly rising from the flames.
"Let's stop here for today."
Toji looked down at Eichi.
Eichi nodded.
On one side was himself, whose strongest offensive Techniques had failed to work.
On the other side was Toji, who had fought for half the night, sustained considerable injuries, was severely exhausted, and had used up all his weapons.
Eichi also knew that this taming ritual could only go so far.
Eichi had no complaints about this; this battle had allowed Toji to test Mahoraga's strength for him, providing valuable experience for his future attempts to tame Mahoraga, and Eichi felt that was enough.