Mahoraga took a step forward and unleashed a deafening war cry!
A visible shockwave of sound erupted from its jaws. Ring after ring of concussive force expanded outward with Mahoraga at the epicenter. The white sand was violently pushed back by the shockwaves, burying Gojo up to his calves. Gojo raised a hand to shield his face as the gale-force winds slammed into him, making his Kesa whip wildly in the air.
A thin trickle of blood leaked from Gojo's ears.
The monstrous lung capacity and staggering volume of the roar had effortlessly ruptured Gojo's eardrums. Right now, Gojo's world was completely silent, his hearing temporarily destroyed by the point-blank sonic assault.
He dug his feet deep into the bedrock beneath the sand, practically anchoring himself by his toes just to keep from being blown backward.
The shockwaves seemed to ripple across the entire world. The white sand was thrown higher and higher into the air. At first, it only reached Gojo's calves, but as Mahoraga's roar dragged on, the sand was whipped higher, and higher, and higher.
Eventually, a massive sandstorm of pure white was born.
Gojo was swallowed by the blinding white storm. His Kesa fluttered violently against the churning sand. No matter how hard he tried to stabilize his stance, he was slowly being pushed back.
*What an unbelievable roar!* Gojo was absolutely certain that this Mahoraga had been enhanced to an unprecedented degree through some kind of Binding Vow. Compared to this monstrosity, Megumi Fushiguro's Mahoraga was like a toddler trying to fight a Kodiak bear.
Gojo suddenly brought the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey] up horizontally in front of him. In the next microsecond, a massive white fist punched straight through the sandstorm and smashed into the staff. Mahoraga emerged from the swirling vortex. It had no eyes, no nose—only that terrifying, grotesque mouth that was currently emitting a bloodcurdling howl.
Then, a sound even more explosive than the roar shattered the air. It was the impact of Mahoraga's hammer blow.
"[Six Perfections' Eastward Journey]!" Gojo roared.
*CLANG!*
The staff unleashed the Purifying Chime. An instant later, Mahoraga's fist collided with the weapon.
It completely shattered the Purifying Chime!
*BOOM—!*
It sounded like a heavy artillery shell detonating! Even though Gojo had perfectly braced himself for the impact, the moment Mahoraga's fist struck his horizontally held staff, he was violently launched. Both of his arms fractured simultaneously. The sheer, overwhelming kinetic force tore his muscles and flesh apart, his skin bursting like shrapnel.
He flew backward for over two hundred meters, slamming directly into the towering edge of the massive crater.
*CRASH!*
The rim of the crater collapsed under the impact, sending white sand exploding in every direction. Gojo was practically embedded into the crater wall. But it wasn't over. Even after hitting the wall, the colossal momentum didn't stop. He continued to plow backward, tearing a deep trench through the crater's edge.
*RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!*
He was dragged backward for over a hundred meters before finally coming to a halt. The sheer concussive force of that single punch caused Gojo to vomit chunks of his own internal organs.
Suddenly, the lethal glint of a blade flashed before Gojo's eyes. He brought the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey] up to block. *CLANG!* The [Futsu-no-Mitama] and the staff collided. The grinding of metal against metal sparked a massive shower of embers, like a blacksmith bringing a heavy hammer down on an anvil.
Ryomen Sukuna was already right in front of him. Gripping the [Futsu-no-Mitama] with all four hands, Sukuna viciously pressed down. The [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey] was slowly forced downward. Sukuna's monstrous physical strength was fully on display; for a terrifying moment, Gojo actually couldn't push back.
"Just to clear up any misunderstandings, I need to remind you right now," Sukuna sneered loudly. "Satoru Gojo... *you* are the challenger here!"
*BOOM!*
Gojo and Sukuna violently launched themselves into the air simultaneously. The [Futsu-no-Mitama] and the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey] clashed repeatedly in mid-air, dragging geysers of white sand up with them. Surrounded by the roar of the sandstorm and the thunderous shockwaves of their blows, they fought like warring gods.
While Gojo was busy parrying Sukuna, a massive white fist suddenly materialized at his flank.
"—!"
*SMASH!*
Gojo plummeted from the sky, crashing brutally into the desert. The catastrophic impact launched a plume of white sand over twenty meters into the air. The sand hung in the sky before slowly raining down, creating a massive, thick curtain of white that looked like a colossal pillar from a distance.
Gojo opened his mouth and vomited more chunks of his organs. His Reverse Cursed Technique was operating at maximum overdrive; in the blink of an eye, he was fully healed. He looked up. His Six Eyes pierced the curtain of sand, spotting Sukuna and Mahoraga plummeting toward him for a merciless follow-up attack.
Gojo sighed and raised a single finger.
—Innate Technique Release:
—Limitless Technique: Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue!
A blinding beam of azure light erupted from the curtain of sand, slamming dead-center into Mahoraga. Mahoraga took no actual damage, but the sheer repulsive force of the impact still sent it flying backward. At that critical moment, Sukuna rapidly formed a hand sign, deploying the ultimate defense.
—Innate Technique Release:
—Mimicry Technique: Limitless!
The azure beam crashed against Sukuna's Limitless, triggering a massive explosion. The deafening blast and the resulting shockwave violently cleared the area, completely obliterating the curtain of sand. Pale blue Cursed Energy rapidly dissipated into the air.
Sukuna let out a barking laugh. "Satoru Gojo! You finally caved and used Cursed Energy!"
Emerging from the settling dust, Gojo still had one finger extended, wisps of azure Cursed Energy smoking from its tip. In the next microsecond, Gojo vanished.
Sukuna maintained the hand sign for the Limitless with two hands, while gripping the [Futsu-no-Mitama] tightly with the other two, blindly slashing diagonally behind him.
The [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey] clashed against the [Futsu-no-Mitama], showering the area in sparks. Suddenly, the staff flared with a brilliant golden light. Gojo's foot sank deep into Sukuna's chest. *BANG!* Sukuna was launched like a cannonball. Mid-flight, he vomited a massive mouthful of blood.
His Limitless had failed at the absolute worst possible moment!
Gojo teleported again, materializing directly in front of the airborne Sukuna. Sukuna's eyes trembled with shock. In a desperate bid for survival, he swung the [Futsu-no-Mitama] at Gojo. But Gojo, moving with the fluid grace of a martial arts grandmaster, slipped past the blade and stepped directly into Sukuna's guard.
Gojo jammed the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey] against the flat of the [Futsu-no-Mitama]'s blade, pinning it. With his free hand, he clenched his fist—
Gojo let out a visceral war cry. The veins on his arm bulged hideously beneath his Kesa. Positive Energy circulated through his body at a terrifying velocity. Power surged from the ground, traveling from the tips of his toes, winding through the kinetic chain of his body, and concentrating entirely into his fist. His bones groaned and micro-fractured under the strain, only to be instantly healed by Positive Energy. His muscles tore and bled, only to be instantly healed. The blood vessels beneath his skin burst, only to be instantly healed. A continuous cycle of catastrophic destruction and instantaneous regeneration, culminating in an apocalyptic payload of kinetic force concentrated in Gojo's fist.
AND! HE! SWUNG!
*BOOM—!*
Gojo's fist slammed into Sukuna's face like a heavy artillery shell. Over 1000% of the human body's absolute limit was unleashed in a single microsecond. At the last possible instant, Sukuna had managed to bring his two free hands up to block his face. The moment the fist connected, both of his arms shattered, and his cheekbone caved in. The unfathomable kinetic force launched him backward, the sheer wind pressure tearing his flesh like razor blades.
Like a falling meteor, he flew for nearly a kilometer before crashing into the desert floor. The deafening impact sent a towering geyser of sand exploding into the sky.
"Congratulations, Sukuna." Gojo smiled fiercely. "You've finally made things somewhat interesting."
It was true that no Cursed Energy could be used within the domain of the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey]'s Purifying Chime. Even Gojo himself was bound by this absolute rule. However, *activating* the Purifying Chime was entirely up to Gojo. In other words, he could easily activate the Chime while attacking to completely nullify his opponent's techniques, and then instantly deactivate it to utilize his own Limitless for defense or teleportation.
He couldn't have done this in the past. But now, possessing [Tool Manipulation], he was mentally linked to the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey]. He could toggle its effects on and off with a single thought. That was exactly how he had managed to use Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue just moments ago. He deactivated the Chime, blasted Mahoraga away with Blue, used Limitless to teleport into Sukuna's guard, and then reactivated the Chime a microsecond before his kick landed.
This fluid, unpredictable switching had completely blindsided Sukuna, resulting in that devastating, near-fatal blow.
Suddenly, the roar of displaced air assaulted Gojo's ears. His Six Eyes slowly tracked the source. Mahoraga was hurtling toward him at top speed, entirely unharmed. This confirmed Gojo's suspicion: Mahoraga had fully adapted to the Limitless. While Blue possessed enough kinetic force to physically knock it away, it couldn't inflict any actual damage. In fact, if Gojo kept using Blue, it wouldn't be long before the repulsive force stopped affecting Mahoraga entirely.
Gojo exhaled slowly. He formed a hand sign with one hand, and pointed the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey] at Mahoraga with the other.
"Nine Ropes." "Polarized Light."
"Crow and Declaration." "Between Front and Back."
Gojo spoke the final incantation with chilling calmness.
"Hollow Technique—"
"—Purple."
A localized spatial distortion materialized at the tip of the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey]. Both Positive and Negative Energy fueled this distortion simultaneously. The Limitless was the ultimate domination of space—a domination so absolute it could manifest phenomena that simply could not exist in the natural world.
At this exact moment, spatial expansion and spatial compression were forcibly applied to the exact same coordinate.
In the next instant, this sphere of impossible, conceptual mass roared forward.
Every grain of white sand in its path was atomized. Everything caught within the distorted space of the Hollow Technique began to blur and fade into non-existence. This was because the object formed by this imaginary concept was actively shredding the eternal laws of physics.
It simultaneously devoured all creation like a black hole, while violently expelling matter like a supernova. It didn't alternate between sucking and blowing in a rhythmic cycle; it performed both actions *simultaneously*, like a reality-breaking gag from a comedy manga.
It was the ultimate destructive application of the Limitless.
It subverted all spatial laws. It shattered all common sense. The resulting bombardment was, undeniably—
—An absolute, guaranteed kill.
It slammed directly into Mahoraga. Mahoraga caught it with both hands. The Divine General, having fully adapted to the Limitless, was actually *pushing back* against the Hollow Technique.
Normally, absolutely everything within Purple's trajectory would be erased from existence. But against a Mahoraga that had fully adapted to the Limitless, aside from the sheer physical kinetic force of the impact, every conceptual, spatial attack generated by the technique was completely ignored.
But the kinetic force alone was enough.
"SA! TO! RU! GO! JO—!" Sukuna roared, teleporting back from a kilometer away.
He swung the [Futsu-no-Mitama] in a brutal arc, violently clashing against the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey]. Sukuna was taller than the nearly two-meter Gojo. Pressing down with the strength of a titan, he forced the [Futsu-no-Mitama] forward. Even though he had just been pulverized by Gojo's punch, his body was completely unharmed. Only trails of white sand cascading from his hair and muscles hinted at the impact.
Gojo's smile widened. "You finally figured out the trick to Positive Energy reinforcement, Sukuna!"
"You absolute bastard, you lied to me! There is no such thing as Positive Energy reinforcement! You're intentionally shattering your body's limiters to access superhuman strength, and using Positive Energy strictly to heal the catastrophic damage!" Sukuna ground his teeth. "And the only reason you can use Positive Energy inside the [Purification] zone is because you stockpiled it inside your own body beforehand! You aren't generating Positive Energy at all; you're just drawing from your reserves the moment you need to heal! It was a cheap sleight of hand, and it blinded me!"
In the original timeline, Gojo had only needed to destroy and heal his brain *once* before Sukuna instantly realized what he was doing and copied the technique. This was because Sukuna possessed absolute, encyclopedic knowledge of Reverse Cursed Technique. He knew exactly how insanely difficult it was to perfectly time the destruction and healing of the brain.
When Hakari and Kashimo fought in the original story, Kashimo nearly killed Hakari while his infinite RCT was active by attempting to blow his head off. Hakari later laughed that he had almost died precisely because of that.
Even Yuta Okkotsu had remarked while spectating that the brain was an incredibly delicate organ, and attempting to repair it with RCT was absolute madness. Even for Satoru Gojo with his Six Eyes, it was an incredibly dangerous gamble.
The only reason it was easier was because you were using your own cells as a 1:1 blueprint.
There was no better medium for replicating one's own brain than the 'domain' of one's own body. Because of this, Sukuna had instantly deduced that Gojo was employing a technique to temporarily stockpile Positive Energy within himself. Using that same logic, Sukuna had replicated Gojo's feat.
But this time was different. Gojo's brain had never been destroyed, and he had been using the wide sleeves of his Kesa to hide the constant, bloody cycle of destruction and healing on his arms. It took Sukuna until this very moment to finally piece together what Gojo was doing.
"I've figured you out, Satoru Gojo." Sukuna bared his teeth in a savage, feral grin. "You won't get another chance... Satoru Gojo, die here!"
Sukuna's mind and body surged with unprecedented euphoria. The sheer, suffocating humiliation of dying nine times, of being toyed with, had brewed a massive, concentrated well of terror within him. He fully embraced that terror. The [Futsu-no-Mitama] in his hands suddenly let out a sharp, resonant hum—a sound both piercing and divine. This was—
"—BLACK... FLASH!"
Sukuna's mind, body, and technique were perfectly synchronized. Drawing upon the terror born from his humiliation, he was finally about to unleash it...
—Or so he thought!
"Purifying Chime!" Gojo barked.
A golden halo instantly expanded, engulfing Sukuna. Point-blank [Purification]! The Cursed Energy Sukuna had just begun to mold vanished into thin air. His heart was still racing with that profound, unified spark; his physical movements were still flawless and perfectly timed. But the terror fueling his strike evaporated instantly, and the black sparks of Cursed Energy crackling around the [Futsu-no-Mitama] were snuffed out completely.
Sukuna's eyes widened in horror.
"Allow me to teach you a basic concept that even a first-year jujutsu student knows!" Gojo laughed uproariously. "A Black Flash is a phenomenon born from the perfect synchronization of Cursed Energy and physical impact! It multiplies the force of a normal strike to the power of 2.5, creating a spatial distortion that guarantees an unblockable hit!"
"But my Purifying Chime... purifies ALL Curses!" Gojo gently stroked the shaft of the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey].
As Sukuna himself had noted, even generating Positive Energy required the secondary refinement and stockpiling of Cursed Energy. A Black Flash *mandated* the simultaneous collision of Cursed Energy and physical force. How could it possibly manifest inside the [Purification] zone?!
Within the domain of the Purifying Chime—Black Flash was completely disabled!
Sukuna's face twisted into an expression of sheer, visceral disgust. But the nightmare wasn't over.
The instant Gojo interrupted Sukuna's Black Flash, he deactivated the [Purification] ability. Gojo's heart was overflowing with the sadistic thrill of toying with the King of Curses. His emotional state peaked, his Cursed Energy Core harmonizing perfectly with his physical movement. In less than 0.2 seconds, he entered 'the zone'.
As he swung the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey], black sparks of Cursed Energy erupted from the weapon.
Sukuna's pupils shrank to pinpricks. "—Satoru Gojo, you motherfucker!"
BLACK—FLASH—!
When his opponent tried to use Black Flash, Gojo effortlessly canceled it. But when *he* wanted to use Black Flash, he turned his ability off at the absolute last microsecond.
This was Satoru Gojo's answer.
A completely unilateral monopoly on Black Flash!
*BAAANG—!!!*
Sukuna was launched like a cannonball, violently skipping across the white desert once more. At that exact moment, Mahoraga violently shattered the Hollow Technique: Purple. But what greeted the Divine General wasn't the open battlefield—it was the incoming projectile known as Ryomen Sukuna.
*CRASH!*
Sukuna slammed into Mahoraga. The two of them tumbled violently across the white desert, plowing a massive trench for over five hundred meters. From the sky, it looked like a thin, stark line drawn across the dunes.
While airborne, Sukuna had rapidly formed hand signs. He was healing himself with RCT while simultaneously directing Mahoraga's movements. The moment they cleared the [Purification] zone, his Cursed Energy roared back to life. He instantly activated Mimicry Technique: Limitless to violently brake their momentum.
In that brief moment, Sukuna finally understood the full, terrifying scope of Gojo's anti-god countermeasures:
A unilateral monopoly on a Cursed Energy-free environment.
A unilateral monopoly on the Limitless.
The absolute nullification of any Domain Expansion.
A contest of raw Positive Energy healing speed.
The ability to interrupt the opponent's Positive Energy usage.
A contest of raw physical stats.
The unilateral ability to abandon that contest of physical stats at will.
And finally—
—A unilateral monopoly on Black Flash!
No, Sukuna suddenly realized something even more terrifying: *Satoru Gojo still hasn't used his Domain Expansion!* There was a very high probability that Gojo's Domain wasn't just standard Infinite Void anymore; he had likely incorporated countermeasures to negate his own Cursed Energy-free environment. No, even if he hadn't... in a Domain clash where one person could expand their Domain and the other couldn't, the advantage was already absolute.
*This bastard... still has cards hidden up his sleeve!*
*THUD!* Sukuna and Mahoraga simultaneously ground to a halt.
They both looked up. Standing right in front of them, having closed the distance without a sound, was Satoru Gojo. He was already forming hand signs with both hands. Even the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey] was resting in the sand beside him.
"Scale of the Dragon," Gojo chanted.
A paralyzing numbness seized Sukuna's scalp. An overwhelming, primal instinct of impending doom shot up his spine, leaving him with the phantom sensation of a freezing wind slicing across his back. He knew exactly what that incantation meant. He was intimately familiar with it.
"MAHORAGA!" Sukuna roared.
Mahoraga let out a bellowing war cry and charged at Gojo.
"Recoil," Gojo continued smoothly.
Sukuna's hands and both of his mouths began chanting the incantation in frantic unison.
"Scale of the Dragon!" his upper mouth roared, while his lower mouth simultaneously screamed, "Recoil!"
Thanks to his 'Perfect Sorcerer's Body', even though he started late, he was already catching up to Gojo's chanting speed.
"Twin Meteors," Gojo said.
"Twin Meteors!" Sukuna's upper mouth yelled.
"—CLEAVE!"
Sukuna's lower mouth spat out the final word just a fraction of a second before Gojo.
[The Slash that Divides the World]!
Sukuna's incantation finished first. The apocalyptic spatial slash materialized in the white desert for the third time. The first two attempts had been instantly nullified by the Purifying Chime. But right now, Gojo was busy chanting his own incantation; he wasn't maintaining the [Purification] zone.
This time, the Space-Cleaving slash would meet absolutely no resistance.
Even if Gojo canceled his incantation now, it was too late. Mahoraga was already right on top of him. Mahoraga was completely immune to the Purifying Chime; it could still exert its full, devastating physical power. If Gojo aborted his chant to deploy the Purifying Chime to block the spatial slash, Mahoraga would simply crush him to death.
—Checkmate!
*I WIN, SATORU GOJO!* Sukuna roared in his mind.
"—Cleave," Gojo sighed softly.
In the next instant, Sukuna's vision tilted violently on its axis.
No, it wasn't just Sukuna. Even Mahoraga—who had already adapted to both the Limitless and slashing attacks—suddenly found its upper body sliding diagonally off its waist.
Two months ago, during his fight with Mahito, Gojo's Six Eyes had undergone an evolution. They could no longer just perceive matter at the atomic level; they could see things that resembled ethereal 'threads'.
Usually, this newly acquired vision was fairly useless. At best, it had allowed Gojo to perceive the bloodline connection between Yuji Itadori and Ryomen Sukuna, which he used to tailor their training.
But three days ago, when Sukuna told Yuji that the secret to killing a god was to sever the cycle of positive and negative energy, it sparked a new idea in Gojo's mind. In fact, in the original timeline, Yuji had done something very similar—he used his own slashing technique to precisely target the boundary between Sukuna and Megumi's souls. Gojo, however, was using his evolved Six Eyes to sever something entirely different.
What was Gojo looking at? He was looking at Ryomen Sukuna's [Binding Vows].
Sukuna's [Eleven Lives] was constructed upon a foundation of incredibly strict, uncompromising [Binding Vows].
And right in front of Gojo's eyes, Sukuna had resurrected nine times.
A Binding Vow *is* Fate.
Gojo hadn't severed the physical space Sukuna occupied. He had cleanly severed the conceptual Binding Vow that permitted Sukuna to resurrect. According to Sukuna's own lecture, the only thing this slash had severed was—
—Fate.
And again, according to Sukuna, Fate *is* the gods.
Therefore, this was, in every literal sense—
—The [God-Slaying Sword].
Sukuna's upper torso slid off and hit the sand. His lower half remained standing. The mouth on his abdomen hung half-open, revealing a perfectly smooth, mirror-like cross-section of his internal organs.
Gojo let out a long breath. He turned his head toward the distant horizon, a soft smile gracing his lips.
"How boring, Sukuna," Gojo exhaled, his smile lingering. "I'll probably forget about you by tomorrow."