"Maximum Technique: Silence!"
This was Sukuna's true peak, the ultimate secret of his slashing technique.
At this moment, countless "World-Cutting Slashes" manifested around Sukuna's body. They wove together into a spherical, crystalline grid of death, encasing him like a jagged cage of light. Then, the cage exploded outward, expanding with a relentless force that pulverized everything in its path.
The world fell into a hushed, terrifying stillness.
Sukuna knew that while Souma was in the state of Maximum: Eon, his speed was beyond any perception. Since he couldn't track the movement, he would simply fill every cubic inch of space with a 360-degree, dead-end slaughter.
The spherical grid surged forward, its mesh so fine—less than a single square centimeter—that there was no gap to slip through. Every line was a dimensional edge capable of severing reality.
"Souma Gojo! How will you dodge this?!"
Sukuna's eyes darted frantically, trying to catch even a glimpse of Souma's shadow as he laughed with unrestrained joy. To be pushed to the precipice of death and be reborn, to step into a new, higher plane of existence... this was a sensation Sukuna had never known.
In his eyes, past enemies were never truly "opponents." They were merely "challengers," none of whom possessed the strength to force him into a desperate struggle. But this man—this sorcerer named Souma Gojo—was a "rival" seen once in a thousand years.
Souma had given him a new life, allowing him to taste the bitter dregs of impending death and the honey-sweet nectar of a narrow escape. It was exhilarating. It was perfection.
"Show me your worth! Even this move... you should be able to block it, right?"
"Don't you dare die yet!"
Sukuna's laughter filled the air. Even if he couldn't see Souma, he could feel the pressure of his presence.
Meanwhile, facing the expanding dome of Silence, Souma found himself at a rare loss. The grid was expanding steadily, leaving no room to maneuver. Even within the slowed time of Eon, the "Silence" moved like an inexorable turtle shell with no cracks.
Two seconds left.
Souma watched Sukuna coldly. What now?
Techniques had ranges. Silence couldn't expand forever; Souma could easily teleport a kilometer away to escape the impact. But then what? Once the duration of Eon expired, Sukuna would stand behind an invincible, world-severing shield.
Exhale.
Souma cleared his mind, closing his eyes. He began to sift through every scrap of cursed knowledge etched into his brain. If Sukuna could find a way through death, so could he.
The essence of cursed energy... techniques... space... time...
Slashes that sever the world... existence that severs the world...
The Dustless Land... Maximum Technique...
Like a bolt of lightning, a realization struck. He thought of his Domain. To date, Souma had witnessed many Domain Expansions, but his remained the most peculiar. His Domain held a fundamental advantage over all others.
Erasing the presence of cursed energy... erasing existence...
What if I erase more than just cursed energy? What if I erase 'existence' itself?
One second left.
Souma opened his eyes, his hands forming a specific ritual seal. He was about to verify a theory.
"Domain Expansion: The Dustless Land."
This time, the Domain did not expand to cover dozens of meters. Instead, it was compressed into a sphere with a radius of only two meters—just enough to encapsulate Souma himself.
The final second ticked away.
The time-dilation of Maximum: Eon ended. Souma's internal clock synchronized once more with the flow of the world. In that same instant, the spherical grid of slashes "recovered" its terrifying expansion speed.
In a heartbeat, it crossed the remaining distance and struck the outer shell of the Dustless Land.
Crr-ack.
The Domain's barrier was instantly etched with a thousand grid-like fractures before shattering into shimmering dust.
"Hiding in your shell like a coward?"
Sukuna spotted Souma as the Domain broke. He was slightly surprised. Souma stood there motionless, head bowed, limbs hanging loosely, his expression unreadable.
Though he didn't understand what had happened, Sukuna's face split into a victorious grin. Souma hadn't been able to withstand Silence; the optimal move would have been to flee the range. Now, not only had he stayed, but his technique should be burnt out from the loss of his Domain. Even if he healed his brain with Reverse Cursed Technique, it would be too late.
"Truly delightful, Souma Gojo!" Sukuna's voice was full of genuine admiration. "I don't think I'll ever forget you as long as I live!"
Then—Shing!
The dense net of slashes swept over Souma's position, pulverizing everything in the vicinity into microscopic dust.
But Sukuna's eyes suddenly bulged, his pupils shrinking to needle-points.
"What...?"
Souma slowly raised his head. His azure eyes burned with a piercing light in the dark of the Shinjuku ruins.
Sukuna reacted instantly, firing another World-Cutting Slash. The lethal edge reached Souma in a microsecond, yet Souma didn't move an inch.
Half a meter before it reached him, the slash simply... vanished.
It was as if an invisible hand had taken a divine eraser and rubbed out the very "existence" of the attack.
"What is this?" Sukuna's body began to tremble. The calm, arrogant smile that had defined him for centuries was gone. He didn't understand. He couldn't comprehend what Souma had done.
Souma began to walk toward him, his expression as calm as still water.
"Tch!" Sukuna lashed out.
"Dismantle!"
"Cleave!"
"Naraka: Divine Punishment!"
"Open: Flames of Naraka!"
"Maximum Technique: Silence!"
Sukuna unleashed everything. He held nothing back. One after another, world-ending attacks roared toward Souma, only to vanish into nothingness the moment they entered the space around him.
Eventually, Souma reached Sukuna. They stood just half a meter apart, locked in each other's gaze. Only then did Sukuna see Souma's eyes clearly.
The Six Eyes, once as blue as a summer sky, had deepened into a cosmic abyss, speckled with shimmering lights like an endless galaxy.
"That... what exactly is that?" Sukuna asked, his voice low and strained.
Souma allowed a faint, thin smile to touch his lips.
"The Maximum Technique of a Domain... Maximum: Purge."
"A Maximum Technique of a Domain?"
"You know my Domain can erase the presence of cursed energy. But the core isn't the energy itself—it's the 'existence.' Just now, I erased the 'existence' of the techniques you unleashed. To the world, they simply stopped being."
Souma pointed at Sukuna's cursed tools. "Just like this."
"Maximum: Purge."
In the next breath, Sukuna's hands were empty. Hiten and Kamutoke had vanished from his grip as if they had never been forged.
Sukuna: "..."
After a long silence, he let out a helpless, hollow laugh. "I see. I've lost. With a power like that, you could probably erase my very existence as well, couldn't you?"
Souma shook his head slowly. "I can't erase things that possess a soul. I can only erase 'dead' things—techniques, cursed tools, the inanimate. The soul... it seems to be something special."
Sukuna scratched his head, a wry smile on his face. "Even so... it seems I have no chance of winning, do I?"
Souma nodded with a terrifyingly calm certainty. "None at all. You have lost."