Twisted and Accursed, Chapter 32

The air around Sukuna shimmered, vibrating as if the fabric of existence itself struggled to remain intact. Idly, Sukuna mused at the fact that... it’d been a very long time since he had to make use of this move. But, in this world, the Simurgh was as good a target as any, which was precisely why he had Queen-Administrator summon it to this city. The ground beneath him splintered, forming jagged cracks that radiated outward like an earthquake. Besides, if the winged one died, there were others who could be called on to fight.

Endbringers, he decided, would make for very good entertainment, while waiting for the other pieces to fall into place.

Above, the Simurgh loomed, her alabaster form radiant and serene. Her silver wings spread wide, glinting like shattered glass. Her empty eyes fixed on him, unreadable but wary. She raised her hands, feathers swirling around her like a thousand razors poised to strike. This one was the strongest and smartest of the Endbringers who were currently active; in fact, according to Queen-Administrator, this one was the smartest of them all, built to coordinate the monstrous beings for maximum efficiency.

That was why he wasn’t going to kill it just yet.

Sukuna finished the final sign.

The world held its breath.

A line appeared, impossibly thin and almost impossible to perceive. It stretched from Sukuna’s raised hand and shot forward, faster than thought. Space warped around it. The line wasn’t made of light or fire – it was pure absence, a wound in reality itself. The horizon seemed to split as the line raced upward, faster than the very idea of speed.

The Simurgh moved, her wings snapping forward, feathers creating a barrier of telekinetic force. The world screamed as the slash met her defenses. The barrier buckled. Then, not even a moment later, it shattered.

The line carved through her.

The Simurgh froze mid-air. Her body – so pristine, so untouchable – was bisected. Perfectly. From her right shoulder to her left hip, her form fell apart in two halves, several of her wings similarly cut down behind her, alongside numerous buildings and clouds. The silver glow that surrounded her dimmed, flickering like a dying flame. Her wings faltered, some feathers disintegrating, others falling like ash.

The sky grew still for a moment, heavy with disbelief.

Her two halves drifted apart, held aloft by invisible strings, trembling. A sudden burst of white energy surged from her, desperate and wild. The buildings below cracked and groaned as waves of telekinetic force rippled outward. Dust and debris exploded in all directions, flattening the surrounding ruins.

Sukuna stood firm, grinning. “Surprised?”

The Simurgh’s two halves stopped mid-fall, suspended by her power. Her form twisted unnaturally, strands of silver light weaving between her halves, pulling them back together. Her wings spasmed, their movements erratic. Feathers rained down like shards of glass, cutting through stone and steel.

Her head tilted toward Sukuna. The blankness in her gaze was gone. It was replaced by something sharper - something almost human.

Desperation.

Surprise.

Fear.

She raised her arms, fingers twitching, the motion jerky and strained. The air distorted around her. Gravity twisted. The ground beneath Sukuna buckled, entire chunks of earth rising into the sky. Telekinetic force condensed into a single point above him, a sphere of crushing power that burned bright with silver light. It expanded, swallowing debris, clouds, and even sound.

Sukuna didn’t move. He didn’t need to. This battle was basically already over.

The Simurgh unleashed the attack, the sphere crashing downward like a comet. The earth groaned under its weight. Buildings miles away cracked and collapsed as shockwaves rippled outward.

Sukuna raised his hand. The slash came again, effortless this time. The sphere split apart before it could touch him. The pieces disintegrated into fine dust, scattering harmlessly in the wind.

The Simurgh shrieked, her voice piercing and unnatural. The sound tore through the air, shattering what remained of nearby windows. Her wings spread wide, glowing with an intensity that turned night into day. She raised entire blocks of the city now, the debris orbiting her like a shield. Dozens of skyscrapers twisted and cracked as her power overwhelmed their foundations.

She flung them at Sukuna.

The world itself seemed to groan under the weight of her assault. The debris moved faster than sound, blurring into streaks of steel and concrete aimed to crush, tear, obliterate. Each piece could have leveled entire city blocks.

Sukuna moved forward.

His steps were deliberate, unhurried. The ground splintered beneath him as each stride resonated with power. The debris reached him, and his hand moved – a single gesture, sharp and precise, accompanied by the same incantation.

The world split again.

The rubble fell apart mid-air, sliced into countless fragments so fine they dissolved before reaching the ground. The path to the Simurgh was clear.

Sukuna leaped.

The distance between them disappeared in an instant. He was upon her, his hand raised, crimson energy rippling from his fingers. He slashed downward, the motion clean, efficient. Another cut appeared, and the Simurgh’s form trembled, her body struggling to hold itself together.

She twisted, her wings sweeping toward him, the razor-like edges aiming to cleave him in two. He stepped into her attack, the wings grazing his skin but leaving no mark. He slashed again, carving through one of her wings, severing it at the base. It fell, spinning to the ground in a shower of silver light.

The Simurgh reeled, her movements growing frantic. Her remaining wing flapped, sending shockwaves that pulverized the ground below. Sukuna pressed forward, relentless, slashing again and again. Each strike tore at her form, disrupting her pristine beauty, leaving her fractured and uneven.

And then, something shifted about the Simurgh,

Sukuna smiled.

The world shuddered. And just about every single piece of debris in all of Brockton Bay began to hover off the ground, alongside buildings that’d been torn right off the pavement, and cars – from the smallest to the largest. And then, the Simurgh flung all of it towards Sukuna.

He raised both hands this time, his fingers tracing the air in sharp, deliberate movements, creating a spiderweb of Cleaves to face the storm materials headed his way.

A gigantic cloud of dust plumed skyward from the clash and the whole city shook.

Sukuna landed, standing amidst the rubble, his gaze fixed on the broken figure above him. The Simurgh hovered, her form dim, her light fading.

For the first time, she hesitated.

The Simurgh faltered mid-air, her silvery form dimming as cracks spread across her alabaster body. Her once-graceful wings stuttered, feathers dripping like molten metal, burning as they hit the ground. She drifted backward, struggling to maintain her altitude, her movements jerky and uncoordinated – not because of the superficial damage, no, but because none of what was happening would’ve made sense to the Endbringer. The Simurgh wasn’t even supposed to be here, but Queen-Administrator, in her restored state, had simply overriden the existing authority over the creature and forced it down.

It was confused.

Probably because Queen-Administrator made him a blind spot for Thinkers, forcing the Simurgh to expend so much of its mental processing power just to fight him, which was also probably why this whole battle felt far easier than it should’ve been, honestly. If his shard friend hadn’t rendered him invisible to Thinker Powers, then he would’ve been forced to use the World Cutting Slash immediately – and that wasn’t fun. After all, except for Queen-Administrator herself, who viciously and selfishly hoarded the knowledge, shards were – as of yet – incapable of understanding Jujutsu or even perceiving Cursed Energy.

Sukuna grinned. “That was fun.”

Then, they came.

A storm of parahumans surged forward. Heroes and villains alike poured out of the rubble, their powers blazing against the shattered cityscape. The chaos of their combined assault roared like an oncoming wave. Lights streaked the sky, bursts of energy glowing in every color imaginable. The ground rumbled under the weight of their charge.

Armsmaster led the assault, his halberd crackling with electricity. He fired a grappling line, pulling himself high into the air before swinging his weapon in a wide arc. The blade released a wave of energy that struck the Simurgh’s fractured side. The Endbringer lurched, her remaining wing jerking as if to shield herself.

From the other side, Lung roared, his monstrous form aflame. His claws tore through the air, the heat rippling like a living entity. He leaped, flames bursting around him as he aimed to tear through the Simurgh’s exposed flank. She twisted, her shattered wing striking him mid-leap, but he pushed through, his claws carving deep into her glowing frame.

Sukuna raised a brow, idly wondering how they got that guy to work with them and if Lung held a grudge against Taylor Hebert. He also wondered why he hadn’t been killed off just yet. But, eh, not his problem.

A barrage of projectiles followed, streaking from the ground and the sky. Kid Win’s cannons roared, beams of concentrated energy slicing into her. His shots struck where Lung had ripped through, the impact forcing the Simurgh to jerk sideways. A flash of silver light flared from her, but the parahumans didn’t let up.

Vista warped the space around her, twisting and elongating the streets. Skyscrapers that had crumbled in the earlier chaos were now weapons, their broken frames flung toward the Endbringer like spears. The debris crashed against her body, cracking more of her alabaster form. The sound of breaking stone echoed across the city.

Above, Laserdream unleashed a torrent of blasts, each one carving small craters into the Endbringer’s shimmering body. She dodged as the Simurgh retaliated with a wave of telekinetic force, but the parahumans swarmed in too tightly for her to scatter them all.

It certainly was an odd sight, watching heroes and villains fighting together against a common enemy.

Legend soared overhead, his beams of light cutting cleanly into the Simurgh’s core. Each strike burned away fragments of her body, sending glowing shards spiraling downward. Beside him, Eidolon hovered, summoning waves of gravity that pressed down on the Endbringer. Her body shuddered, her glowing light dimming further under the weight of his power.

The villains pressed harder. Hookwolf charged forward in his metallic form, his spinning blades slicing through the debris shielding her. He left gouges in her surface, his strikes relentless. From a distance, Coil’s mercenaries fired a volley of rockets, the explosions throwing chunks of her frame into the air.

The Simurgh raised her arms, trembling as a surge of silver energy expanded outward. The shockwave sent some of the parahumans sprawling, crashing into rubble, but others pushed through. A whole host of Blaster Powers and all sorts of arcane and esoteric energies were blasted right onto the Simurgh

Above the chaos, Alexandria, accompanied by a whole host of other Parahumans with the same set of powers as she did, hurtled toward the Simurgh like a storm of missiles. They crashed right into her, though several of them were either killed or driven away in the storm of debris. But, Alexandria herself, and a few others, did reach the Simurgh. And, their clash sent shockwaves surging through the open air.

The Endbringer faltered. Her once-majestic form was now battered, broken, and dim. Her movements were sluggish, her strikes wild and unfocused. Yet she still floated, defiant, refusing to fall. And, in fact, fought back just as hard, swinging around entire buildings and even entire streets as though they were weightless.

Sukuna watched from the ground, his crimson eyes gleaming as parahuman after parahuman tore into the creature. He didn’t move. He didn’t interfere. He only observed, his presence a silent threat that hung over the battlefield.

The Simurgh’s light flared one final time, brighter than the sun. The parahumans braced themselves, shielding their eyes from the blinding radiance. The light pulsed, expanding outward before collapsing in on itself. When it faded, the Endbringer was gone, her battered form retreating into the distant sky.

The battlefield grew silent, save for the distant crackle of flames and the groan of collapsing buildings. The parahumans stared at the sky, their breaths heavy, their bodies bruised and bloodied.

But Sukuna remained, his gaze still fixed upward, his smirk unshaken. “That was fun.”

But it was also... lackluster. Nah. Something was missing. He hadn’t even opened his Domain once, though it likely wouldn’t have done much to injure the Endbringer.