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Chapter 255 - Chapter 255

Toji reached into the gaping maw of the cursed spirit coiled around his neck and slowly pulled out a weapon that radiated lethal purpose: the Chain of a Thousand Miles. The ancient weapon, deceptively slim yet impossibly heavy, dragged behind him with a low metallic hiss that echoed across the battlefield like a death omen. At the far end of the long steel coil gleamed a blade unlike any other—The Inverted Spear of Heaven, the legendary weapon that had once severed the power of the Six Eyes and brought Satoru Gojo to the edge of death.

Toji rolled his shoulder, the blood-drenched shirt tied around his abdomen soaked through entirely. The wound was deep, the pain sharp—but his resolve was colder than steel. He slowly swung the chain in a widening arc around him, its weight whistling through the air in unnatural curves. Sparks exploded against the fractured concrete as it sliced into the ground like a divine guillotine. The motion was hypnotic, deadly—a dance only the strongest could survive.

His eyes never left the dark figure standing opposite him.

Ali stood under the flickering glow of the tomb's lanterns, his expression unreadable beneath the chaos of wind-blown hair and shadow. His cloak—torn, soot-stained, and fluttering like the banner of a fallen empire—billowed behind him like a war god descending upon the world. But what made Toji narrow his gaze wasn't the presence. It was the silence. No pain. No reaction. Not even a flinch from the man who had just lost both arms moments ago.

'He didn't even blink. Does he not feel pain?' Toji thought, his brows furrowing.

Then, before his eyes—something truly terrifying unfolded.

From the stumps on Ali's shoulders, bone began to grow. White, polished, dense like reinforced ivory, each piece stretched outward with perfect anatomical precision. Then came the muscles, sinew, veins pulsing with unnatural power—until, with an audible crack, fingers snapped into place. His arms regenerated—completely.

Toji's jaw tightened. 'This is bad…' he admitted internally, for the first time in the battle genuinely considering the possibility that he might lose.

Ali flexed both hands, his knuckles cracking like thunderclaps. He reached over his shoulder, tore away the remains of his Sith coat, and let it fall to the floor like a shroud discarded by death itself.

Toji's grip on the chain tightened as he watched Ali leap silently onto the rooftops of the ruined wooden structures. Lantern light reflected against Ali's bare upper body, now veined with inky black veins that pulsed with power like molten obsidian beneath his skin.

'If this fight turns into attrition, I lose. His regeneration is ridiculous,' Toji reasoned, his black eyes sharpening to pinpoints of focus. His instincts screamed one truth: 'I need to kill him in one strike.'

Then came the sound.

SWOOOOOSH

WHOOOOSH

CRACK—SPLIT

The Chain of a Thousand Miles exploded into motion.

The air around Toji shattered as the spear at its end tore through the sound barrier. It whipped in a massive, expanding spiral, carving up the earth, the buildings, the very space between them with reckless, apocalyptic fury. Every motion of Toji's wrist turned into a hurricane of destruction, his precision guiding the chaos like a composer of carnage.

Ali didn't flinch.

He began to walk. Calmly. Roof to roof, like a war god descending onto the battlefield.

'He's pulling out the big guns…' Ali observed, eyes tracking the trajectory of the chain with surgical focus. Each swing of the spear was a decapitation waiting to happen. Each pass through the air carried lethal weight. The blade at the end of the chain screamed with killing intent.

'If I step in that ring, I'm gonna lose something. For sure.'

His gaze narrowed.

But there was no fear.

Ali's foot landed on the cracked tiles of a roof. He stared down at Toji, now a spinning tempest of death. His black eyes locked onto the deadly arc of the spear and its movement through the ruins. 'At least I can track it… barely. But the speed… the range…'

He raised his hand and activated the crimson blade once more.

VVVVMMMMMM

The lightsaber roared to life.

Ali's mind dipped into his Spirit Realm—and there it was. His black pond, full. Five points of Spirit. He had yet to use even a drop against Toji. Up until now, it had been pure instinct, raw martial prowess, and violence.

SPLIT

The Inverted Spear of Heaven shattered through a wall in front of him, sending chunks of timber and dust into the sky.

Ali's gaze shifted to the blood running down Toji's side—soaking his makeshift bandage.

'I could win just by waiting,' he thought. 'But where's the fun in that? It's not like he has a chance anyway.'

He stepped off the roof.

And landed.

Toji's expression didn't change. But his heart rate rose. Just slightly.

Ali's boots crunched across the rubble, black veins pulsing under his skin like writhing serpents of power.

'One shot is all I need. One. I'm still faster. I'm still stronger. I can handle him,' Toji reaffirmed, as he snapped his elbow and redirected the chain, tightening the deadly arc.

The spear soared—its velocity incomprehensible—as it sliced toward Ali's skull with the precision of divine judgment.

Ali looked up.

The light gleamed off the Inverted Spear of Heaven. It was close. Too close. Inches from his head.

His lips parted.

"Force Push."

BOOOOOOOOOOOOM

The world ruptured.

The air itself exploded outward in all directions as Ali's Force Push tore through space like a divine battering ram, hurling rubble, splinters, and dust in a massive concussive wave. The broken remains of rooms and beams and tiles erupted like a storm from hell, the sheer power of the push shaking the ground and ripping the silence into pieces.

Toji felt it hit him—an invisible wall of pressure that smashed into his chest with such force that his feet slid across the concrete, his body pushed back like a rag in a hurricane. He narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth, his heels carving grooves into the stone beneath him.

His chain was ripped out of its arc, flung wide and loose into the air. All around him, shrapnel whistled through the sky like flying razors.

'What the hell was that?' Toji wondered, his gaze darting toward Ali.

Meanwhile, Ali stood at the epicentre, his body glowing faintly from the intensity of the energy he had unleashed. His muscles flexed beneath the tight skin of his regenerated arms…

'I still don't have the true power of the Force…' Ali's eyes narrowed with disappointment. 'If I did, his entire body would've been crushed into the wall, scattered into mist…' The Force outside Star Wars was a shadow of what it truly is, but he would achieve those heights again.

Ali didn't wait.

FOOSH

He vanished from sight, a crimson arc of light trailing behind him as the lightsaber hissed through the air.

Toji caught only the blur, his eyes snapping wide as instinct overtook thought. He hurled his chain in a wide circle to intercept anything that approached, the Inverted Spear of Heaven flying behind him with deadly precision. Then he snapped the chain with his elbow, whipping the spear back just in time.

CLANG—ZIP

The spear darted through the air like a scorpion's stinger, aimed directly at the back of Ali's head.

Ali didn't flinch. He leaned, just enough for the blade to kiss the air beside his cheek, slicing strands of his hair in a neat line before continuing past.

Toji caught the spear's hilt without missing a beat and launched himself forward.

Ali's eyes dimmed for a second as he let go—letting go of control—and allowed his Force Sense to wash over him fully. A deeper sense of reality took over, where sound, sight, and logic fell away… and were replaced by intention, instinct, and prediction.

The world slowed.

Every move Toji made—every coil of muscle, every drop of sweat rolling from his chin—became a message, whispered through the Force into Ali's awareness.

STAB—SWIPE—FEINT—LUNGE

Toji's spear danced like a demon's fang, thrusting and slashing at speeds most couldn't even follow. The tip screamed past Ali's throat—missed. It cut through where his knee should've been—missed. Another sudden jab, aiming for his liver—missed by inches.

But Ali wasn't dodging by reaction.

He moved before the attacks landed. Before they even began.

'I feel it speaking to me…' he thought as the Force guided his body in perfect harmony with danger. His spine twisted, limbs bent with fluid motion, and he ducked beneath a vicious uppercut from the spear. He flipped backward, feet brushing a splintered roof, landing with feline grace as the chain snapped out behind him again.

Toji narrowed his eyes, frustration building. The man before him should not be dodging this much.

Toji flipped the spear backward, caught it by the chain mid-length, and began whirling it in a wide arc. Ali dashed in again with his lightsaber, feinting left—then lunging right, the red blade screaming toward Toji's shoulder.

The chain twisted, Toji spun, and again—Ali ducked. One swing aimed at his head, another sweep at his legs—both missed by millimetres. The space between them shrank, the dance tightening into a flurry of high-level martial discipline. Their footwork cracked the stone with every step, the walls beside them peeling from the shockwaves of each missed strike.

Ali jumped into the air, his body twisting as he swung his lightsaber from overhead. Toji stepped aside, narrowly avoiding the arc of red, and retaliated with a high kick that Ali blocked with his forearm—just barely.

They separated again. A second of breathing room.

Ali landed on a slanted rooftop, while Toji twirled the spear in a slow circle beside him, the tip hissing through the wind like a devil's whisper.

'He's faster… but now, I can feel every movement. Every angle. The Force is adapting to him.'

Ali stepped forward again.

Toji launched a surprise overhead strike, then rolled and thrust upward from below—fast, unpredictable.

Ali sidestepped… and for the first time, countered.

His lightsaber surged up from under his arm like a rising serpent, smashing against the side of Toji's weapon.

'Let's see how you react to losing a weapon'

SPARK

A blinding flash burst from the contact point, and Ali's eyes widened.

The spear didn't melt.

'Or not…' he thought, barely given time to react.

Toji's grin returned like a devil's crescent moon as he saw Ali's opening which happened as a cause of his confidence in the lightsaber melting Toji's weapon. He leapt, twisting in midair with the same impossible grace that defied his heavy, muscular frame, and launched a powerful roundhouse kick directly into Ali's ribcage.

Ali raised his other arm to block—

CRACK

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

The impact shook the entire chamber.

Ali was sent hurtling like a missile, his body smashing through the paper-thin walls of room after room, wooden supports collapsing in a domino of destruction. His right arm, the one that took the brunt of the blow, hung mangled and twisted, bone and flesh torn from the force of impact.

The wreckage behind him burned in the aftermath of their exchange just because of the friction Ali's body created through shear speed.

Toji landed with a controlled crouch, the chain coiled around one hand, his torso bleeding—but his eyes triumphant.

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