Cursed Technique Burnout is an absolute. Every sorcerer who has ever deployed a Domain Expansion will inevitably experience it, because at its core, it is a biological protection mechanism.
Anyone utilizing Domain Expansion pushes their Innate Technique beyond its absolute limit. Since the physiological center of an Innate Technique is located in the brain, overusing it is exactly like an overheated engine requiring time to cool down.
In Gojo Satoru's mind, absolutely no one could ignore Cursed Technique Burnout. Not himself, not anyone he had ever met, and certainly not any Cursed Spirit capable of Domain Expansion.
There were zero exceptions!
And yet, right now, a true exception stood before him. Why?
Because Mahito was the singular entity in this entire world capable of bypassing Cursed Technique Burnout!
Of course, this wasn't a *true* bypass. The efficiency of Idle Transfiguration had indeed plummeted. It was just like in the original timeline when Mahito used his Domain for the first time—he had specifically conserved some energy, but all he could manage was using Idle Transfiguration to engorge his own body and violently explode to escape. He couldn't use the technique to its maximum limit immediately afterward either.
Later on, during his fight with Kokichi Muta, Mahito had deployed his Domain and immediately followed it up by using Idle Transfiguration to morph into a grotesque, slug-like lower body with a humanoid torso to deal the killing blow.
But the moment the original Mahito truly ignored Cursed Technique Burnout was during his final showdown with Yuji Itadori. He unleashed a 0.2-second Domain Expansion, instantly nailed Aoi Todo with a Black Flash, and *then* instantly recovered from his burnout.
How the hell did he do it?
Because Idle Transfiguration's capacity for physical restoration vastly outclassed Reverse Cursed Technique!
If the original, misguided Mahito could pull it off, the current Mahito was on a completely different level! The underlying principle behind his lack of burnout was brutally simple. Just moments ago, he had used Idle Transfiguration to lock the shape of his brain's soul in place, and then *physically crushed his own brain from the inside*.
It only took a few seconds—the exact window of time he spent talking to Gojo—to completely recover from Cursed Technique Burnout! This was the exact method Gojo Satoru used during his decisive battle with Ryomen Sukuna. But where Gojo had to carefully heal himself to prevent permanent brain damage, Mahito could just use Idle Transfiguration to map his own soul and achieve a 100% perfect restoration.
For the current Mahito, Cursed Technique Burnout simply did not exist!
Gojo hadn't even considered this possibility. After all, this was something even *he* couldn't do. He assumed they were entering a phase where both sides lacked their Cursed Techniques, reducing the fight to a pure martial arts brawl augmented by Cursed Energy reinforcement. He thought he only needed to watch out for the blade of Kirigiri.
Who would have guessed he'd be forced to fight the Limitless bare-handed?!
The *Gatotsu* thrust, carrying the overwhelming mass of Star Rage, closed the distance to Gojo Satoru in a fraction of a heartbeat. Gojo could have easily sidestepped with effortless grace and countered the Crimson Lotus Demon God with a brutal hook, but his instincts screamed at him to violently hurl himself out of the way instead.
A microsecond later, the *Gatotsu* slammed into the empty air where Gojo had just been hovering. A deafening, explosive sonic boom erupted out of nowhere, dragging a localized hurricane behind it. The atmospheric shockwaves, propelled by the sheer virtual mass of Star Rage, blasted outward in an apocalyptic radial burst. The sheer kinetic violence forced Kirigiri's tip—without even touching the ground—to carve a massive, hundred-meter-long canyon into the earth below.
Yuki Tsukumo's Star Rage had no upper limit. Before her death, the narrator themselves had stated:
*[I am unaffected by the virtual mass added by Star Rage—]*
*—[As long as it remains within a certain degree of density!]*
The virtual mass granted by Star Rage could actually affect her true physical density! It was the exact same principle as Jogo's fire techniques—if the temperature climbed high enough, the physical thermal radiation would persist even if the Cursed Energy was dispersed.
Yuki Tsukumo couldn't push it further because she was fundamentally human. Her body was impeccably trained, but still bound by the laws of biology. Take away her Cursed Energy reinforcement and Reverse Cursed Technique, and a single bullet could end her life.
But Mahito was different.
By this point, he had thoroughly and completely dissected the absolute physical pinnacles of this world.
Kinji Hakari's infinite Cursed Energy gave him a body capable of perpetually generating Cursed Energy, evolving endlessly alongside it. This meant that even if Mahito drained his reserves identically to Gojo, he could extract a bottomless torrent of fresh Cursed Energy in an instant.
The Sorcerer Killer, Toji Fushiguro, gave him a physical vessel that mocked the very zenith of human performance. Even more terrifying was that Toji had to sacrifice all his Cursed Energy to the heavens to attain it—but Mahito completely bypassed that toll.
Just as Ryomen Sukuna possessed an absurd amount of Cursed Energy while retaining physical specs that eclipsed Heavenly Tyrants like Maki Zen'in, the current Mahito was the exact same. It was safe to say that, excluding Sukuna, he had completely deciphered the strongest physical vessels in the world.
His body—surpassed the absolute limits of this reality!
What Yuki Tsukumo couldn't do, he could. The Star Rage in his hands was the *true* Star Rage!
"Ever been hit by a planet, Satoru?" The Crimson Lotus Demon God casually flicked the blade. *BOOM!* A colossal shockwave nearly drowned out the Demon God's dual-layered, static-laced voice. The deafening roar was accompanied by a catastrophic fissure tearing through everything the blade's path crossed.
Through the billowing dust, Gojo's Six Eyes tracked the result of that casual swing. A fan-shaped chasm originating from Kirigiri's tip stretched for hundreds of meters before violently colliding with the valley walls. The entire rock face shuddered violently as countless boulders and plumes of debris rained down.
Gojo's decision to dodge had been flawlessly correct. In his current burned-out state, even being grazed by the shockwave—let alone taking a direct hit—would have ground him into red paste, like space debris casually pulverized by a falling comet.
Gojo licked his lips. "Yuki's Star Rage. Seeing it in your hands finally makes me understand why she named it that. This is just a fucking human comet!"
Yuki Tsukumo herself never dared to use it like this; if she had, the density would have crushed her first! Just how ridiculously durable was this bastard's body?
*THUD.* The Crimson Lotus Demon God stepped forward.
Gojo braced to evade, but a split-second later, his expression drastically warped. His Six Eyes saw it: while maintaining the output for Star Rage, an immense concentration of Cursed Energy gathered in the Demon God's eyes. A second technique was activating.
—Reverse Cursed Technique: Soul Creation, Ranta Zen'in.
—Technique Release. —Divine Authority!
Right now, Mahito was piloting a perfect vessel of his own design. Previously, using Soul Creation required him to swap between them one at a time. But ever since crafting this body, he possessed the capacity to run them simultaneously—he just hadn't found the right opening.
Yuki Tsukumo never gave him the chance. The second she realized he had the Limitless, she dragged him straight into a Domain Expansion. Inside the Domain, he was locked out of Limitless and forced to burn output on a Simple Domain just to survive.
But now, the true horror of Limitless versatility was baring its fangs.
*CLANG!* Gojo's Cursed Energy instantly flatlined. Divine Authority—a technique triggered purely by Ranta Zen'in's line of sight. Any target locked in its gaze would be completely paralyzed, rendered a sitting duck. The duration depended entirely on the gap in Cursed Energy and physical specs between the user and the target.
Even with a massive gap, it guaranteed at least a fraction of a second of absolute immobility. Which was exactly what happened to Gojo Satoru!
The Falling Blossom Emotion that Gojo had been keeping active finally triggered. The moment Divine Authority landed on him, Falling Blossom Emotion violently shattered the technique. Until this exact moment, even Gojo hadn't realized that a mere *stare* qualified as a Cursed Energy attack. It was his first time feeling the literal "weight" of a gaze.
Ranta Zen'in had never used Divine Authority on him before. If not for Falling Blossom Emotion, Gojo might not have even registered the attack. It was simply too stealthy, too overbearing. Anyone hit by it for the first time would be left completely stunned.
Gojo's reaction speed was peerless, but even in that microsecond of delay, the Crimson Lotus Demon God had already breached his guard.
And swung the blade.
*BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!*
The Demon God only swung Kirigiri once, but the ensuing cacophony was relentless. It sounded like a low-flying bomber opening its payload doors, dropping a continuous barrage of high-explosive ordnance that detonated in a chain reaction of deafening roars.
The entire flower field was blasted into the stratosphere. Millions of petals were instantly soiled by churning earth and mud. The sheer kinetic force triggered secondary and tertiary shockwaves that ruptured the valley, mirroring a magnitude 7.0+ earthquake. A gaping abyss was gouged into the earth, swallowing the massive valley boulders and the remains of the flower field into its lightless depths.
The geographical map of Japan was permanently rewritten.
At the final possible millisecond, Gojo twisted his body to evade the direct hit. Kirigiri practically shaved off a layer of his skin, but even dodging the blade wasn't enough. The collateral shockwave, packing the yield of a catastrophic earthquake, slammed directly into him. His Cursed Energy reinforcement vibrated violently, and the Six Eyes pushed his atomic-level Cursed Energy manipulation to its absolute, red-lining maximum.
Yet the colossal impact still instantly fractured both his arms. Half his body was practically pulverized by the sheer concussive force. He was tossed around in the dust cloud like a scrap of paper caught in an F5 tornado, surrounded by swirling flower petals that were shredded into atoms a second later.
Gojo spat out a mouthful of crushed organ tissue. The concussive wave had practically pureed his insides. Until today, he had no idea Yuki's Star Rage could reach this level of absolute absurdity. Just a week ago, he had fought Yuki and basically kicked her around like a soccer ball!
Yuki had stated it clearly: she had lost to the Lord of Cursed Spirits, yes. But even if she lost her memories of the fight, her instincts told her the Lord of Cursed Spirits had hit his absolute limit too. He only won by surpassing his own limits for a single, final strike. If he hadn't, Yuki Tsukumo would have won.
Listen to that! She made it sound like a dead-even fight where the curse just got lucky. Right now, Gojo desperately wanted to scream at Yuki: *Are you completely blind?!*
A massive, theatrical curtain suddenly manifested right in front of Gojo. The curtain was violently ripped aside, revealing the Crimson Lotus Demon God, who casually tossed the fabric away.
—Reverse Cursed Technique: Soul Creation, Ui Ui.
—Technique Release. —Teleportation!
"Fuck!" Gojo finally snapped, cursing out loud.
He was suspended in mid-air, launched skyward by the shockwaves. He had zero footholds. Stuck in Cursed Technique Burnout, he couldn't use the Limitless to teleport away. Meanwhile, the Demon God didn't even need to aim Kirigiri accurately—just swinging in his general direction would generate a kinetic storm massive enough to kill him.
Yet Gojo Satoru refused to yield!
He focused every drop of his Cursed Energy, enforcing a Binding Vow to sacrifice a portion of his physical body to face-tank the damage! As long as Kirigiri didn't directly cleave him in two, he would endure the comet-level atmospheric crush! Gojo locked in his resolve.
But suspended in the air, the Demon God did the unthinkable. He didn't swing forward. Instead, he contorted his body and swung *backward*.
Gojo's mind raced, instantly deducing the reason. His face drained of color.
—Reverse Cursed Technique: Soul Creation, Aoi Todo. —Technique Release.
—BOOGIE! WOOGIE!
"Here it comes, Satoru!" The Crimson Lotus Demon God roared. "Before your burnout recovers—you will die on the edge of my Kirigiri!"
*CLAP.* A bizarre, sharp sound echoed.
But the Demon God hadn't clapped his hands. The truth was, Boogie Woogie never strictly required hands. After Todo lost his hand, he substituted it with a vibraslap—an instrument capable of striking 50 times a second, allowing him to trigger 50 spatial swaps per second.
Mahito's flesh manipulation far exceeded Todo's. He had transfigured a localized piece of his own flesh into a percussive auditory organ. The moment he molded Todo's pseudo-soul, the organ activated, vibrating precisely to Mahito's will.
Just like right now!
In a flash, the Crimson Lotus Demon God and Gojo Satoru swapped coordinates. Gojo now had his back turned to Mahito, and the tip of Kirigiri was millimeters away from making contact. The Cleaving Line was already projected onto Gojo's flesh.
This wasn't a normal slash. A blade carrying the mass of a literal comet generated atmospheric cyclones just by moving. A grazing blow would trigger a seismic event. If it hit the ground, it would wipe a section off the map.
And now, that blade was kissing Gojo's skin...
Missed!
Suspended in zero gravity with nothing to kick off, Gojo jumped. A burst of Cursed Energy erupted beneath the soles of his feet. The Demon God's pupils contracted violently. This was the exact signature move Ryomen Sukuna had pulled off during the final battle of the original timeline:
Mid-air double jump!
When the spectating sorcerers saw that move, they flat-out admitted they had no idea how Sukuna did it. While double-jumping was standard in video games, in the world of Jujutsu, it was a literal miracle exclusive to the King of Curses.
Gojo had never used it before his death! He always relied on the Limitless to hover and maneuver mid-air. He never needed to double jump, meaning he theoretically never bothered to learn the mechanics behind it.
A realization flashed through the Demon God's mind: *Gojo Satoru is evolving right here, right now, under the threat of absolute death. Right before my eyes!*
*RUMBLE—!*
The Demon God swung for the third time. The kinetic force of this strike was the sum of the previous two. The wind pressure generated by the absurd mass forcibly expelled everything in front of it. Even though Gojo dodged the direct physical slash, the sheer, crushing mass of the displaced atmosphere slammed into him, closer and infinitely more lethal than before.
By all logic, Gojo's legs should have been instantly pulverized by proximity alone. His torso should have snapped under the sheer pressure, and without leverage in the air, he should have been sucked into the vortex.
But none of that happened!
Gojo twisted, stabilizing himself within the roaring hurricane. Reverse Cursed Technique blazed through his veins like wildfire. The colossal virtual mass couldn't shatter his posture, but the Demon God immediately noticed the grim toll Gojo paid to achieve this.
His left hand was entirely obliterated.
He had enacted a Binding Vow, sacrificing his arm to force physical stabilization and mitigate lethal damage! Mahito was instantly reminded of Kinji Hakari. In the manga, Hakari survived an explosion meant to vaporize him by sacrificing an arm via a split-second Vow to forcefully extend his life.
The Crimson Lotus Demon God didn't feel disappointed. On the contrary, pure euphoria flooded his veins.
Sacrificing body parts through Binding Vows just to survive? What did that mean?
It meant Gojo Satoru was genuinely, truly backed into a corner! Even the strongest had hit his absolute limit! He was completely out of cards to play!
Victory was millimeters away!
The intoxicating surge of triumph lubricated his Cursed Energy flow. That familiar, electrifying spark returned—the sensation that a Black Flash could trigger at any microsecond. He swung the blade again in mid-air! The immense mass dragged a vortex of wind into its arc. Gojo's eyes widened, locked onto the descending steel. Missing his left hand, Gojo clenched his right fist, pulling it back to his waist mid-air, falling into the stance of a traditional long punch.
The next instant, both moved simultaneously.
*CLAP.* A crisp snap.
—Boogie Woogie!
They swapped coordinates again. The Demon God repeated his trick, seamlessly transitioning his forward slash into a backward cleave. The tip of Kirigiri bore down on Gojo once more, but this time, Gojo was ready. Without a millisecond of hesitation, he spun around, his right fist lunging out to smash directly into the flat of Kirigiri's blade.
But right before impact:
*CLAP.* The sound echoed again.
—Boogie Woogie!
*Continuous spatial swaps! Satoru, can your brain even process this?!* Mahito roared in his mind.
*Of course I fucking can!* Gojo mentally roared back, as if their souls were directly linked.
Gojo felt his Six Eyes burning with agonizing heat. His focus reached an absolute zenith. In his Cursed Energy perception, he locked onto the Crimson Lotus Demon God. The roaring gales and blinding dust of the world faded into a pitch-black backdrop. Only the Demon God remained terrifyingly clear, as if every spotlight in the universe was focused solely on him.
*Bring it on! How many times are you gonna swap spaces?! I'll match you to the bitter end!*
The Demon God swung wildly. Every time the resulting kinetic storm crashed into the valley, apocalyptic tremors shook the earth. Dust blotted out the sun. The sonic booms layered endlessly. Despite wearing traditional armor with zero aerial capabilities, the Crimson Lotus Demon God dominated the sky, chaining techniques together for a relentless, floating assault.
Gojo defended flawlessly, but every successful block cost him flesh. First his left hand, then his left forearm. Then he sacrificed his foot, then his calf.
Yet there wasn't a shred of fear in his eyes. Instead, he felt his blood boiling hotter than ever before. Trapped in a massive disadvantage, dancing on the razor's edge of death, his body felt impossibly alive.
He felt absolute, transcendental bliss. Pushing Mahito to this extreme—fighting as if heaven and earth were their personal sandbox, bringing natural disasters with every passing second. Destroying the world wasn't hyperbole right now; it was literally in the palms of their hands. They didn't even need to try; if they just expanded their battlefield, the entire globe would undoubtedly be annihilated. No survivors.
But they wouldn't do that. Not because they pitied humanity, but because they were completely, utterly high on the violence!
Retreat? Expand their maneuverable airspace? Probe each other and reset the neutral game? Fuck all that!
*Right here, right now, we use every single drop of our strength to murder each other!* Like two rabid beasts, they violently crashed into one another!
By this point, Gojo had lost his entire left arm and right leg. The sheer destructive output of Star Rage was so offensive that even with Gojo optimizing his Binding Vows to the absolute limit, he had been stripped of two limbs in under thirty seconds.
And yet, he was smiling. A deranged, unhinged grin.
Suddenly, his remaining right hand formed a delicate mudra, pointing directly at the Crimson Lotus Demon God.
*His technique burnout healed?! In the middle of a deathmatch this intense, in less than half a minute?!* The thought flashed through Mahito's brain. *Right, he pulled this off during the final battle in Shinjuku. He can use RCT to reset a burnt-out technique!* But this was different. He and Sukuna hadn't been fighting like rabid dogs; their final clash was steeped in calculation and strategy. This fight between Mahito and Gojo was pure, primal butchery.
Without a doubt, within this half-minute window, Gojo Satoru had evolved twice. First, the mid-air double jump. Second, healing technique burnout via RCT while completely consumed by the feral instincts of a cornered beast.
*Do I dodge with Boogie Woogie or Teleportation?* Another thought crossed Mahito's mind. Then, he raised Kirigiri high above his head, settling into the *Karatake* stance.
*Dodge my ass! I'll cleave him and his technique right down the fucking middle!*
Gojo wasn't surprised in the slightest. Their mental states were completely synchronized now. Both had descended into absolute madness. Gojo had indeed recovered from burnout, just as Mahito suspected. The most logical move right now would be to use Limitless to teleport away and heal.
But that thought never even crossed his mind.
*Retreat my ass! Right here, right now, I'm blowing Mahito to pieces!*
Gojo funneled a tidal wave of Positive Energy directly into his Innate Technique. The infinite convergence of the Limitless violently reversed its properties.
"Cursed Technique Reversal." Gojo roared. "—Red!"
*Not Hollow Purple?* Mahito had no time to process it. The *Karatake* strike descended.
—STAR! RAGE!
The mass of a celestial comet flooded his body. The Crimson Lotus Demon God had mutated into a humanoid meteor. Halley's Comet has a mass of 300 billion tons. At that density, even grazing Earth's atmosphere would permanently shatter the global climate. People used to panic, believing a mere flyby would trigger the apocalypse.
No one wanted to imagine what would happen if a 300-billion-ton comet actually slammed into the planet. But today, Gojo Satoru was about to experience that exact brand of existential despair firsthand.
This was the *true* Star Rage!
Gojo and Mahito bellowed in unison. Their roars, amplified by Cursed Energy, physically tore the clouds apart. A blinding crimson pillar of light erupted violently from Gojo's fingertips at the exact millisecond Mahito brought down Star Rage.
Kirigiri's passive ability triggered. Cleaving Line!
Star Rage combined with the Cleaving Line was absolute invincibility. The crimson light wasn't a purely physical phenomenon, but Kirigiri's Cleaving Line seamlessly projected onto it anyway. Infused with Star Rage, the blade violently carved downward.
*RIIIIP.* A sound like the sky itself tearing open echoed from the collision point between Kirigiri and the crimson pillar. Unflinching, the Demon God pushed the blade deeper. The crimson light predictably split down the middle, parting to reveal Gojo Satoru, who was...
...Smiling radiantly?!
*BOOM—!*
The crimson pillar of light violently detonated.
Gojo's Cursed Technique Reversal: Red was the conceptual opposite of Limitless's spatial compression—it was spatial expansion. The physical manifestation of this was a repulsive force that expanded infinitely.
His Lapse: Blue and Hollow: Purple were incredibly stable constructs, allowing Gojo to precisely control their yield and trajectory. But Reversal: Red was completely different. It was inherently unstable!
When Reversal: Red was completely unleashed, it manifested as a Supernova. A supernova isn't a stable technique—it is the catastrophic death throes of a dying star. In that final fraction of a second, all the matter and energy composing the star breaks free from its gravitational tethers, violently expanding everything outward into the void.
The explosive death of a star in the cosmos. That is a supernova.
By injecting the Innate Technique with an infinitely positive output of Reverse Cursed Technique, the resulting "Red" recreated the absolute climax of a dying star. The true, unabridged name of this move should have been:
*Cursed Technique Reversal: Red - Supernova!*
This was exactly why he chose not to use Hollow Purple. He had read Mahito one move deeper!
Kirigiri's Cleaving Line could perfectly bisect the stable structures of Blue or Purple, but trying to slice through Reversal: Red guaranteed an explosive chain reaction. This wasn't a chemical explosion; it was an infinite repelling force violently displacing all matter, creating an absolute vacuum. Even if Kirigiri could theoretically cut through the concept of 'nothingness,' the resulting concussive force would completely shatter the blade's wielder.
This was Gojo's answer to Kirigiri.
*If I can't counter the blade that severs gods and buddhas, you think I can't just blow YOU up instead?!*
The crimson brilliance erupted violently. Exactly as Gojo calculated, Kirigiri effortlessly cleaved through the infinitely expanding spatial pressure. But even though the blade cut it, the energy and matter violently ricocheting off the sides slammed directly into the Crimson Lotus Demon God. The infinite spatial repulsion, mirroring a literal supernova, pulverized the Demon God, ensuring absolute death.
...Or it would have!
—Reverse Cursed Technique: Soul Creation, Jiro Awasaka.
—Technique Release.
—IN! VERSE!