"Domain Expansion: Coffin of the Iron Mountain!"
Toji immediately drew the Inverted Spear of Heaven, a cold sneer cutting across his scarred face. "Domain Expansion? You should know by now—that trick doesn't work on us!"
Crack—
But before Toji could drive the spear into the forming barrier to shatter it, Jogo did the unthinkable: he deactivated the Domain himself.
It was a tactic he had learned from Satoru Gojo—a 0.2-second Domain Expansion!
Jogo let out a jagged, manic laugh.
"The Heavenly Restriction makes you invisible to a Domain's sure-hit ritual, and that cursed spear of yours can forcibly cancel my technique, plunging me into burnout!" Jogo screamed, his single eye bloodshot with exertion. "Do you think I'm stupid enough to make such an obvious mistake?!"
"In those 0.2 seconds, I only needed the moment of guaranteed hit! In such a short window, you wouldn't have time to move out of the projected path. Even if the Domain can't 'identify' you, I can use my own eyes to lock onto your location!"
"This is my answer to your 'Invisibility'—a manual Sure-Hit! Don't you dare look down on me, you wretched human scum!!!"
Harnessing the violent surge of cursed energy from the Domain's collapse, Jogo unleashed his ultimate killing move.
"Maximum: Meteor!"
A titanic sphere of molten rock materialized in the sky, wreathed in white-hot flames, and slammed down toward Toji and Maki with the weight of a dying star.
In that fraction of a second, Maki felt a powerful shove against her shoulder. Her body was sent hurtling through the air, clear of the meteor's terminal shadow.
Toji, standing alone at the epicenter, drew the Soul Splitter Katana. He planted his feet, muscles bulging until they threatened to tear, and swung upward with every ounce of his monstrous strength.
"Get... UP!!!"
He roared as he struck. The friction between the blade and the falling mountain threw off blinding sparks. The inferno swallowed him whole, turning his clothes to ash and setting his hair ablaze.
BOOM!!!
The impact shook the entire Fuji range. A pillar of fire and volcanic dust reached for the clouds, reducing visibility to zero.
Jogo watched the carnage with a cruel smirk. "No matter how strong the flesh, no one survives a direct hit from that."
"Burn into nothingness, you pathetic worm!"
As the smoke cleared, a massive, smoldering crater was revealed. At its very base stood the ruin of Toji Fushiguro.
He was a nightmare in the flesh. His clothes were gone, the Soul Splitter had snapped in half, and his arms were burned down to blackened, carbonized bone. His face was a mask of third-degree burns, unrecognizable and horrific. Only the faint, rhythmic steam huffing from his nostrils proved that the man was still tethered to life.
"Oh? Still breathing?" Jogo chuckled, though there was a hint of genuine surprise in his voice. "An impressive display of tenacity. But your girl is likely ash by now."
"I'll send you to join her. Consider it a mercy."
Jogo raised his palm, a flicker of flame dancing in the center as he aimed at Toji's head.
Hooooowl—
At the peak of Jogo's arrogance, the roar of a beast erupted from behind him.
Maki Zenin appeared like a ghost, swinging the True Steel Hou in a wide, shimmering arc. Caught off guard once more, Jogo felt the blade bite deep into his chest, nearly cleaving him at the waist.
Knowing he was cornered, Jogo repeated his desperate gamble. He thrust his left hand out, letting the blade sink into his palm to lock it in place, intending to trade his life for hers.
The True Steel Hou bit through the bone, and Jogo's hand clamped down on the steel.
But in the next heartbeat, Maki let go of the hilt.
"What—?"
Jogo's eye widened. In Maki's other hand, a new weapon appeared.
The Inverted Spear of Heaven.
She swung with a vicious, controlled ferocity. At such close range, Jogo had no time to weave a technique. With his left hand occupied by the Hou, he thrust out his right to intercept the spear.
Squelch!
The jagged tip of the spear pierced through his palm. Jogo gritted his teeth against the agony, but he let out a deranged laugh. "Now you're out of tools, brat!"
With both hands impaled by her weapons, Jogo opened his mouth to vomit a torrent of flame directly into her face.
Clink. Clink. Clink.
The sound of a chain?
Jogo looked down. His ankles were wrapped in shimmering steel links. The Cursed Tool Swallower on Maki's back had vomited forth the Chain of a Thousand Miles.
Maki gripped the end of the chain, a cold, lethal smirk on her lips. She twisted her body, yanking the chain with a violent, whip-like motion.
Jogo's balance vanished. He was swung through the air like a spiked flail.
As he was hurled through the sky, a shadow moved to intercept him. Jogo turned his head mid-flight, and his heart nearly stopped.
Toji—his hands useless, his face a ruin—was charging forward with a savage, toothy grin. He held the broken half of the Soul Splitter Katana between his teeth.
With a violent snap of his neck, Toji swung his entire head, driving the jagged shard of the blade straight into Jogo's singular, massive eye.
He didn't stop there. He twisted his neck, grinding the blade deep into the spirit's skull.
Crr-ack!
"AAAAAAAGH—!!!"
Jogo's scream was a cacophony of agony. Maki surged forward, reclaiming the True Steel Hou and the Inverted Spear from his mangled hands. With two blurred strokes, she reduced Jogo's physical form into a dozen dying fragments.
Clang.
The broken blade fell from Toji's mouth. Both he and Maki stood amidst the cooling rock, chests heaving with ragged breaths.
"Talk about... a stubborn bastard," Toji wheezed.
"Hey. You look like hell. You going to be okay?" Maki asked, looking at the charred remains of the man who shared her blood.
Toji's scorched face twisted into a gruesome attempt at a smile. "Takes more than that to kill me. The fights I had with those three monsters back in the day... were much worse than this."
"Good. Otherwise, I wouldn't know how to explain it to Megumi."
Maki let out a breath of relief and moved to support Toji. But as they turned to leave, they both froze.
A portion of Jogo's shattered remains refused to dissipate. Instead, it coalesced into a flickering, spiritual manifestation.
"Humans... damn you humans!"
The spectral Jogo glared at them with a bottomless, hateful spite.
"Even if I fall, I won't let you have the satisfaction! This is the last of my power!"
"We go down together! TO THE DEPTHS!!!"
"Maximum: Meteor!"
A final, massive meteor appeared in the heavens. Toji and Maki braced themselves, expecting a final assault.
But the meteor didn't aim for them. It plummeted straight into the throat of Mount Fuji's crater.
The realization hit them like a physical blow. The spectral Jogo began to laugh, a hollow, echoing sound.
"Killing you two is too small a price! I want millions of you to burn with me!"
"The future on the hundred-year wilderness belongs to the Curses! HAHAHAHA!"
With that final boast, Jogo's spirit dissolved into nothingness.
Simultaneously—Rumble—
The meteor struck the heart of the magma chamber, acting as a final, violent catalyst.
The earth didn't just shake; it groaned as if the world were tearing apart. Magma erupted in a violent surge, and a cloud of ash and sulfur blotted out the stars. An orange-red glow, brighter than any sunrise, consumed the night sky.
Then—
BOOM!!!
Mount Fuji, the world's most iconic and dangerous volcano, dormant for three hundred years, finally woke up in a cataclysmic roar.
"Damn it! This just went from a fight to a national disaster!"
Maki quickly hoisted Toji onto her back and vanished into a blur of motion, sprinting down the mountainside at a speed no human eye could follow.