What does it feel like to die?
The answer is nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Jogo felt as though he was drifting in a silent ocean, moving slowly toward the abyssal depths with the currents. Hundreds of thousands of people died in this world every single day. He thought he would simply drift along with the masses, but that wasn't the case. There was no one around him. He was a lonely, solitary boat in a pitch-black sea.
*Ah, so this is death,* Jogo thought.
No, he didn't even have the cognitive capacity to form that thought.
The instant he stepped into death, everything from his life flashed before his eyes. It was as if he had become an enlightened monk who had let go of all worldly tethers, calmly reviewing everything he had ever done. Then, a profound intuition told him that he must step into the deepest recesses of his soul, endure the most agonizing erosion, and be cast back into the mortal realm once more.
This was reincarnation.
Jogo understood it now. This was the greatest injustice in the world. Yes, it wasn't fairness; it was absolute injustice.
Death is the greatest injustice in the world because reincarnation has strict metrics. Normal humans who cannot control cursed energy are simply ground down into completely blank, pulverized dust, cast into the great cycle of cursed energy. As time passes, they are bleached into totally blank souls, becoming the newborns resting in their mothers' wombs. However, a soul with immensely powerful cursed energy can resist this erosion, leaving their own mark behind. Only those who retain their mark can be considered to have undergone true reincarnation.
The fact that one could dictate their post-mortem treatment based on their strength in life... didn't that prove the sheer injustice of death?
Yet, death was also the world's ultimate fairness.
Because death equally devoured all living things, like a divine mother gently whispering in everyone's ear. No matter how god-like a Jujutsu Sorcerer or how pathetic a mortal, all would ultimately step into the spiral of death, held in the embrace of this final mother.
This was death.
Suddenly, Jogo's train of thought snapped back. He felt his hand abruptly being grabbed by someone.
In the pitch-black abyss, a golden pillar of light violently pierced the darkness, completely enveloping Jogo. Jogo's eroded cognitive abilities began recovering drop by drop, like someone slowly waking from a deep slumber. Driven entirely by instinct, Jogo reached his hand toward the origin of the golden light. His physical body had completely vanished, yet under the illumination of the light, he began reassembling like jigsaw puzzle pieces.
Jogo ascended faster and faster, his cognitive abilities restoring with increasing speed, until finally, he saw the source of the golden pillar.
It was an eye. A single, golden pupil!
This pupil peered through the void like a curious child staring through a glass window. It swept its gaze across the entire pitch-black ocean. Droplets of water bobbed up and down, breaking away from the waves. This time, Jogo saw them clearly—they were souls.
Every soul in the world was buried in this dark ocean. Every single droplet was a soul. Just how many souls were drowning in this abyss? How many had been completely bleached clean? How many of these submerged souls had entered the final cycle of reincarnation?
A colossal terror suddenly gripped Jogo's heart. He had thought death was an unjust father, a loving mother. But in this exact moment, he realized death was a ravenous, insatiable leviathan. It had unhinged its bottomless maw, endlessly devouring everything until the end of time.
*Smack.*
A hand truly grabbed hold of him.
Jogo violently dragged himself out of the white sand. He had fully escaped death while lost in his trance. His single eye still carried a blank stare. His hand was being held by a white gauntlet. Jogo slowly trailed his gaze upward, finally seeing the figure clad in the white Dragon God armor.
"It's been a while, Jogo." The Dragon God spoke, its voice carrying the deep, echoing resonance of a cello played in a grand concert hall—divine, solemn, and crushingly heavy. "How was the experience of death?"
"Terrible." Jogo answered while exerting force through his arm, using the Dragon God's leverage to pull himself up from the white dunes.
Although he didn't recognize the Dragon God armor, Cursed Spirits never identified others by appearance. To a Cursed Spirit, cursed energy residuals were far more important. The instant he touched the Dragon God's gauntlet, Jogo instantly knew exactly who was standing before him, completely dropping his guard.
Jogo looked back. There was no dark ocean. There was no golden pillar of light. There was only an endless desert composed entirely of white sand. Countless grains of white sand blanketed the world. At the edge of the horizon, where the white desert met the sky, a line was drawn—where the sea met the sky.
He looked down, feeling a completely new sensation from the sand beneath his feet.
"So that's how it is," Jogo mused thoughtfully. "The death that looked like a leviathan to me... is it just some meaningless, natural landscape in your eyes? This white sand must be the final remnants of bleached souls as you perceive them. You pulled me out from these remnants and granted me new life... So this is resurrection."
The Dragon God expressed mild surprise. "Jogo, your comprehension seems to have skyrocketed?"
"I suppose this is an epiphany brought about by death." Jogo sighed emotionally. "In the face of death, all knowledge and power feel so utterly meaningless. The state I experienced while drifting in death elevated my mind, allowing me to more accurately describe the truths of the world... There truly is a distinct boundary between those who have died and those who have not. I crossed that boundary and entered a new realm."
"You've grown stronger, Jogo," the Dragon God praised.
"I only hope I can catch up to your heels," Jogo said with shame. "I apologize. In the decisive battle against Satoru Gojo, I held you back."
"Gojo is the undisputed Strongest of the modern era. To truly fight him, one cannot have a single flaw. The Fusion Soul Knight that Kenjaku and I designed was able to secure a slight advantage, and it was sufficient as a probe. It was my fault for changing the plan mid-battle, trying to kill him right then and there. That's why you couldn't keep up. It wasn't your fault."
The Dragon God consoled him, "Jogo, there's no point comparing yourself to a generational anomaly like Gojo. All you need to do is stand behind me and block the attacks I neglect when my focus is entirely on him. That is enough."
Jogo felt incredibly frustrated, but he knew Mahito was right.
Prior to this, Jogo couldn't even fathom that someone could be as absurdly strong as Satoru Gojo. Although he had lost nearly all consciousness during the fight—because that was the only way he could act as Mahito's soul-armor and tank Infinite Void—since he was perfectly synchronized with Mahito, he fully understood exactly how terrifying Gojo was.
During that fight, right up until Mahito forcibly unequipped him, he had been an active combatant. He understood perfectly well why Mahito had to discard him during such a high-stakes clash—he was dead weight!
Jogo made up his mind. "Mahito, turn me into a Half-Cursed Spirit."
"If you become a Half-Cursed Spirit, then the [Fusion Soul Knight: Roaring Leyline, Calamity of the Blazing Earth] will truly become history," the Dragon God said. "I can't constantly use the [Soul Creation Dragon Spirit Body] against enemies; it's my absolute trump card. But I could have frequently used the [Roaring Leyline]."
Jogo understood Mahito's meaning. A trump card was something to be saved for the very end. Before that card was played, Jogo could act as an exceptional transitional tool to gather intelligence on the enemy. He wasn't useless; he was highly valuable, a massive asset to Mahito.
In the past, merely hearing Mahito say that would have completely satisfied him. But now, he was different. After experiencing death, his mind had genuinely ascended. The archaic traditions he once stubbornly clung to now seemed incredibly laughable.
And so, he spoke without the slightest hesitation. "Mahito, I know you are trying to console me. Since you already have the vastly superior [Soul Creation Dragon Spirit Body], you say you could use me frequently, but in the end, I am still expendable... I don't want to be like that. I want to genuinely keep pace with you! Since the Fusion Soul Knight is already history, it allows me to make the firm decision to keep moving forward."
Jogo took a deep breath and bowed his head to the Dragon God. "I beg of you, Mahito. Let me become a Half-Cursed Spirit so I can continue following behind you!"
The Dragon God stared silently at Jogo and sighed, "You have truly grown, Jogo."
The old Jogo looked like an elderly man but had an explosively volatile temper. He possessed zero patience to listen to anyone. Even when he was dead wrong, he stubbornly refused to admit it. He constantly wallowed in his own extreme arrogance, believing everyone besides his immediate circle were worthless mongrels not worth mentioning.
Even after getting his teeth violently kicked in over and over, he never once considered changing. He clung purely to the fundamental nature of a Curse, incapable of evolution.
Until now. He had genuinely evolved.
He had truly felt his own utter powerlessness, and had firmly stepped onto the actual path to absolute strength.
"I understand. Once we leave, I will modify you into a Half-Cursed Spirit." The Dragon God said solemnly. "By possessing a physical body of flesh, you will be able to comprehend the true essence of cursed energy. At the same time, you will gain the ability to use Reverse Cursed Technique. Under the neutralization of positive energy, you will genuinely break free from the absolute limitations of being a Curse, and step onto the path of the strongest."
"Yes! I will absolutely follow close behind you, Mahito!" Jogo said joyfully.
Pausing for a moment, Jogo curiously watched the Dragon God staring down at the sand beneath its feet, and asked, "Mahito, are you going to resurrect anyone else? Did something happen to the team that assaulted Tokyo High? Didn't you say Tengen had zero combat ability? Did Kenjaku lie?"
Recalling Kenjaku returning as a pathetic severed head, the Dragon God let out a mocking laugh. "That bastard calculated a thousand variables but missed the final result. He barely managed to escape as a head. But the others are completely fine. During this operation, you were the only casualty."
"Then what are you doing right now?"
"I am not resurrecting anyone from our inner circle," the Dragon God said cryptically. "I'm doing things I never dared to imagine before, but can achieve now... I swear to you, not even Gojo could possibly comprehend just how astronomically his combination of the Six Eyes and Limitless has empowered me. It is horrifying. Even I find my current strength terrifying."
Jogo looked completely bewildered. "Huh?"
"Jogo, you should understand what it feels like to be struck by Infinite Void, right?" the Dragon God asked.
Jogo's face drastically changed. He sighed heavily. "Only by personally experiencing Infinite Void can one realize exactly how horrifying Satoru Gojo is. I felt like I could see absolutely everything. Whether it was the dust floating in the air, the internal structure of that dust, or the microscopic structures within that structure... it was all crystal clear. But I couldn't move an inch. The ferocity of those thoughts had completely jammed every single motor function in my body. I became a human puppet whose only purpose was to think about dust."
The Dragon God nodded. "Exactly. Infinite Void is the ultimate expansion of the Limitless technique. Limitless is the absolute domination of space. Whether it is shrinking or expanding space, Limitless achieves it effortlessly. The structural data you saw inside the dust operates on the same principle. Limitless forced every single piece of universal data, without omitting a single drop, into your brain. You were reduced to a vegetative state, forced to process meaningless structural data."
For any sapient lifeform to function, it must naturally filter out a massive amount of the world's sensory information. For example, humans easily use basic logic to calculate $1 \times 5 = 5$. They rarely calculate it as $1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 5$ because it wastes too much cognitive processing power.
In a way, the efficiency of the brain's abstract thought is vastly superior to processing the raw reality of the world. But the Limitless technique perfectly presents the raw, unfiltered reality of the universe.
Just as Jogo had described: when he saw a mote of dust floating in the air, the exact instant he perceived it, his mind was forced deeper into the atomic structure of the dust, and then deeper into the subatomic structure of that atomic structure, diving infinitely downward without ever reaching an end.
$1 + 1 = 2$.
But $1$ can be infinitely divided into $0.5 + 0.5$.
And $0.5$ can be divided into $0.2 + 0.3$.
And $0.2$ can be divided into $0.1 + 0.1$.
0.1 can be further divided into 0.05 + 0.05.
And so, dividing infinitely—this is the true essence of the Limitless.
Why is it nearly impossible to control the Limitless without the Six Eyes? This is the exact reason. The Six Eyes grants a Jujutsu Sorcerer the ability to manipulate Cursed Energy with absolute, microscopic precision. Only with that can the Limitless be reigned in; otherwise, a normal sorcerer attempting to use it would literally drive themselves insane!
Infinite Void forcefully funnels this endless density of information directly into the target. Forced to process such an apocalyptic sheer volume of data, how could any sentient lifeform in this world possibly withstand it? This is what cemented Infinite Void's reputation as truly invincible.
Everyone knows of Infinite Void, and everyone knows they could never survive it. It is nothing short of a nuclear deterrent against all intelligent life!
The Dragon God spoke with supreme arrogance. "But, a god is different."
Jogo looked bewildered. "A god?"
"Wearing the Dragon God Armor, I have barely brushed the edges of a god's domain." The Dragon God spoke, suppressing his mounting excitement. "A god's information processing capacity is fundamentally different from a human's. A god is not merely a biological lifeform of matter; a god has set foot into the true essence of the world. A god's processing power is the processing power of the world itself! The infinite division of information caused by the Limitless is an overwhelming dimensional strike against any sentient life, but to a god? It is the perfect remedy! Because a god strictly requires the Limitless to satisfy its own perception of the world!"
In the original timeline, Kenjaku once stated his goal to force the hyper-evolution and assimilation of all humanity in Japan with Tengen, who had ascended to a higher state of being, to birth a Great Cursed Spirit.
The focal point wasn't the 'Great Spirit' itself, but rather Tengen, who had "ascended to a higher state of being." That "higher state" meant becoming a "god."
Tengen herself had explained why she refused to ascend to godhood. She stated that if she truly evolved into a higher existence, even she wouldn't know what she might do. A single error in judgment from her, the administrator of Japan's foundational barriers, could instantaneously slaughter every human in the country.
A god possesses the capacity to process Japan's great barrier in its entirety! This was something Tengen, as a human, could never achieve. Even after Kenjaku absorbed her in the original timeline, she still lacked the processing power to maintain the barrier single-handedly. But a fully ascended Tengen—a god—could.
This implied that the baseline ability of a god was near-infinite information processing. In other words, the Limitless!
It wasn't until Mahito truly obtained the Six Eyes and the Limitless that he could confirm this theory: Both the Six Eyes and the Limitless were inevitably fragments discarded by Tengen—they were the genuine fruits of a demigod's status! Even though Satoru Gojo's physical composition remained human, strictly speaking, he wasn't human at all... He was a modern-day Arahitogami, a living god!
And now, possessing both the Six Eyes and the Limitless, the Dragon God could do so much more. Things that were absolutely impossible before were now well within his grasp.
For example:
He could discern the true, minute difference between Kenjaku's and Suguru Geto's Cursed Energy Residuals!
It was repeatedly emphasized in the original story that after Kenjaku possessed Suguru Geto, his Cursed Energy Residuals became identical to Geto's. When Mei Mei saw Kenjaku, logic screamed at her that it couldn't be Geto, yet her internal monologue constantly fought that logic. Judging strictly by her professional expertise as a Jujutsu Sorcerer, the man in front of her was Suguru Geto. Completely authentic.
Even Satoru Gojo couldn't immediately tell the difference at first glance. The only reason Gojo realized Kenjaku wasn't Geto wasn't because he spotted a technical flaw, but entirely because his razor-sharp intuition screamed at him that the entity standing there wasn't his best friend, but something else entirely.
Kenjaku's possession was considered flawlessly absolute within the Jujutsu world. In other words, if Kenjaku died right now, and Mahito used the Cursed Energy Residuals from that corpse to fish a soul out of the torrent of the afterlife, the soul he'd pull out would absolutely be Kenjaku, not Suguru Geto.
No one could separate them—except a god. A god wielding the Limitless!
By deliberately manifesting the [Soul Creation Dragon Spirit Body] right here, and then applying the Six Eyes and the Limitless, Mahito could infinitely divide the Cursed Energy Residuals belonging to Kenjaku and Suguru Geto. By slicing the data down infinitely, even a Cursed Energy signature deemed flawless by the Jujutsu world would eventually reveal a seam.
Grasping that seam, Mahito could resurrect Satoru Gojo's best friend, Suguru Geto!
SWISH—!
The Dragon God leaned down, plunging his gauntlet deep into the white gravel, and yanked upward with immense force. Grasped firmly within the Dragon God's armored hand was the hand of another man.
Suguru Geto's soul was ripped screaming out of the white sand by the Dragon God.
"Kenjaku, you're definitely playing your little tricks, aren't you?" The Dragon God sneered coldly. "Well, that's just perfect... I'm playing mine, too."
"Let the real Suguru Geto deal with you, Kenjaku."