*BANG!*
The [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey] and [Mirokuji Kirigiri] collided for the first time, emitting a world-shaking roar! A weapon capable of meeting Mirokuji Kirigiri head-on had finally appeared in this world. Prior to this, absolutely no entity dared to halt the advance of Kirigiri's blade, not even gods or buddhas.
Gojo had succeeded. The [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey] could truly erase Mirokuji Kirigiri's 'Cleaving Line'!
It made perfect sense. No matter how devastating Kirigiri's Cleaving Line was, at its core, it was still a jujutsu technique fueled by Cursed Energy. The [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey]'s ability was exactly that: the absolute, omnidirectional eradication of all Cursed Energy phenomena. Even if it was a blade capable of severing the divine, it could never cut through the Buddha's Purifying Chime.
The blade that severed gods and buddhas... had been broken!
Normally, Gojo would be roaring with manic, taunting laughter right now. It was his signature style. But he didn't. Because the exact microsecond the staff and the blade collided, the bones in his fingers disintegrated. His muscles tore through his skin, and an agonizing spike of pain detonated in his brain. A fraction of a second prior, the bones in his hand, his wrist, his forearm, his humerus, and even his shoulder blade had shattered simultaneously. The musculature of both arms, including his shoulders, violently detached. Blood and flesh erupted from his skin, spraying past his eyes like shrapnel from a bomb.
His deduction had been flawless: the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey] was indeed a Divine Artifact capable of rivaling, perhaps even surpassing, Mirokuji Kirigiri—
—But his body was not.
*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM—!*
Gojo was launched backward like a heavy artillery shell. His equilibrium was instantly destroyed by the catastrophic kinetic force. The desert sand beneath him parted like the ocean beneath an emergency-landing aircraft. But he didn't carve a smooth, continuous trench; he created a straight line of massive, distinct craters. This was because he was skipping backward at supersonic speeds, repeatedly breaking the sound barrier with his own body. A sickening crunch echoed from his spine as his vertebrae warped and began to collapse under the sheer physical strain. The flesh beneath his Kesa tore open, and his internal organs violently expanded and ruptured like rotten apples.
With a single strike, Satoru Gojo was practically sent to the afterlife.
No, not practically—he had already crossed the threshold. This level of trauma wasn't something a living person could experience; it was the exclusive domain of corpses. You didn't need to be a medical student; any ordinary person looking at Gojo's injuries would definitively declare him dead.
But Satoru Gojo refused to give up. His countermeasures were already kicking in.
While still hurtling backward at supersonic speeds, the regeneration began.
The Positive Energy he had preemptively stockpiled within his organs activated the moment they ruptured. Driven by the multiplied force of negative energy, the Positive Energy worked at a terrifying velocity. His Six Eyes flared with an intensity never before seen. The shattered fragments of his bones forcefully realigned themselves, knitting together at an astonishing speed. His muscles, nerves, blood vessels, and skin entered a state of hyper-regeneration the exact moment they tore apart.
Simultaneous destruction and regeneration. That was Satoru Gojo's answer!
This technique was forged from his past experiences and heavily inspired by Kinji Hakari's infinite Cursed Energy loop. While Gojo's total Cursed Energy reserves were far inferior to the likes of Ryomen Sukuna, Yuta Okkotsu, or Mahito, his Six Eyes granted him absolute, peerless efficiency in extracting and utilizing it.
Unless he was utterly obliterated in a single hit, Satoru Gojo was, at this very moment, completely immortal!
*Bring it on, Mahito!*
*It's... not... over... yet!*
Gojo roared in his mind. While still flying at supersonic speeds, he violently forced his feet down, digging into the sand to forcefully brake his momentum. He needed to re-establish his stance instantly. But the very moment he tried—the lethal glint of a blade flashed across his eyes.
Mirokuji Kirigiri had already closed the distance and was right in front of him.
"—!"
Without even the time to gasp, Gojo demonstrated terrifying physical flexibility. He threw his upper body backward into a near-horizontal bridge. Kirigiri's blade sliced through the air mere millimeters above his nose. The tip of the blade grazed the bangs floating above his forehead, slicing them off perfectly, as if a master barber had just given him a straight fringe.
The Dragon God hadn't used Cursed Energy reinforcement. Relying on raw, unadulterated physical specs, Mahito had caught up to the supersonic Gojo and delivered a lethal slash.
Then, the follow-up.
*BOOM!*
It didn't sound like a sword cutting the air; it sounded like a cruise missile detonating. The entire battlefield seemed to shudder. A thunderous, divine roar slowly rolled across the world as a colossal pillar of sand erupted into the sky right where the blade had fallen. This wasn't some exquisite, peerless sword technique—it was just a casual, raw swing from the Dragon God.
Gojo violently burst out from within the pillar of sand. Tucking his body into a tight ball, he rolled aggressively away from the impact zone, minimizing the sheer kinetic damage through raw momentum.
He snapped his limbs out, springing to his feet from the roll, and viciously swung the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey].
*CLANG!*
Kirigiri's blade clashed against the staff for the second time. The bones in Gojo's hands instantly pulverized again, but the staff managed to deflect the blade's original trajectory. The sword sheared a clean, mirror-smooth slice off Gojo's shoulder.
And then came the explosion!
*CRASH!* Accompanied by a deafening roar, the desert terrain beside Gojo violently detonated under the sheer kinetic impact. A massive shockwave of sand and wind blasted outward from Kirigiri's blade, summoning a localized sandstorm over twenty meters high.
The Dragon God stepped forward, closing the distance to point-blank range, and swung again. This time, a diagonal downward slash—the Kesa-giri!
A thunderous boom echoed across the world once more. Gojo struck the flat of Kirigiri's blade with his staff, forcing the apocalyptic violence to discharge harmlessly past his side. The pressure and gale-force winds generated by the passing blade whipped up a blinding maelstrom. The white sand completely obscured Gojo's vision, but it wasn't just sand—his Six Eyes felt as if they had been splashed with a thick fog. The 'fog' was the physical manifestation of raw, unrestrained, hyper-concentrated violence!
Gojo realized something terrifying. The Dragon God wasn't using the exquisite, transcendent swordplay he had displayed during their last duel. He was relying on pure, unadulterated, absolute violence! This wasn't Mahito's usual style. This was a death trap meticulously designed specifically for Gojo.
The only reason Gojo was surviving this onslaught was because of the Positive Energy he had stockpiled in his organs. And because of the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey], neither the Dragon God nor Gojo could use Cursed Energy. In other words, Gojo's stockpiled Positive Energy *was* his total available 'HP' bar.
—And that Positive Energy could be depleted!
How do you kill an immortal Jujutsu Sorcerer?
The simplest answer is to drain their Cursed Energy. Because no matter how potent the immortality, it is fundamentally sustained by Cursed Energy. Once the fuel runs out, the immortality fails. In the past, this was exactly the tactic others had used against Mahito. Gojo himself had employed this strategy to counter Mahito's soul-based immortality.
And now, the Dragon God had turned the tables, using that exact same strategy against him. Deplete the Positive Energy, and Gojo's immortality would crumble!
The Dragon God absolutely refused to give Gojo an inch of breathing room. That was the fatal mistake Ryomen Sukuna had made. During their fight, Gojo had repeatedly kicked Sukuna away. In those brief moments of separation, Gojo could deactivate the Purifying Chime, extract Cursed Energy, multiply it into Positive Energy, and instantly replenish his stockpile.
The Dragon God wasn't going to make that mistake. He stayed glued to Gojo, unleashing a torrential downpour of apocalyptic attacks, guaranteeing Gojo wouldn't have a single microsecond to create distance and recover.
Gojo had absolutely no time to extract fresh Cursed Energy!
Furthermore, the Dragon God had abandoned complex sword techniques in favor of raw, overwhelming destructive power. He was intentionally forcing Gojo to burn through his Positive Energy reserves at a catastrophic rate, patiently waiting for the inevitable moment to deliver the killing blow.
Ryomen Sukuna hadn't managed to elicit a genuine sense of crisis from Gojo until the very end. But now, death was stalking Gojo with every single step, biting at his heels, forcing its way into his primal instincts.
And Gojo's reaction to this absolute terror was:
—*NOW THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!!*
Kirigiri's blade clashed violently against the shaft of the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey]. A massive tidal wave of displaced air erupted behind Gojo, surging forward and morphing the sandstorm into a literal tsunami of sand that blotted out the sun.
"Haha... HAHAHAHA!" Gojo roared with manic laughter. "I didn't think you'd push me to the brink of death in just one exchange! Mahito, the growth you've achieved in the past two months has completely eclipsed my twenty years of training!"
"Right back at you!" Mahito laughed just as wildly. "Are you prepared to die, Satoru?!"
"Not even close!" Gojo bellowed.
Exerting physical force beyond the body's natural limits resulted in severe crippling injuries. And right now, Gojo was using an endless cycle of self-mutilation and Positive Energy regeneration to combat the Dragon God's incomprehensible physical specs! Even without the mass-manipulation of [Star Rage], the Dragon God's physical movements carried the apocalyptic force of falling meteors. Gojo had already deduced the secret behind it.
Positive and negative energy circulation!
Gojo's Six Eyes perceived the internal energy cycle operating within the Dragon God's armor. The Purifying Chime forbade the existence of Cursed Energy. It even forced a state of absolute mental tranquility, preventing the user from generating the negative emotions required to extract Cursed Energy. This was why Sukuna had been rendered completely powerless, ultimately forced to rely on Mahoraga's adaptation just to turn it into a two-on-one fight.
At its core, even Mahoraga was merely summoned; it couldn't adapt *to* the Chime while inside it.
But the Dragon God possessed an ability similar to Mahoraga. He had actively *adapted* to the Purifying Chime. While he couldn't use Cursed Techniques, he could maintain the internal energy circulation just like Mahoraga. Mahoraga's base physical specs were already absurdly high, making it a formidable threat just by existing. But the Dragon God's physical specs were leagues beyond Mahoraga's. When the Dragon God adapted to the Purifying Chime, the terrifying result was currently unfolding right in front of Gojo's eyes.
The Dragon God wasn't using complex tactics. He was simply weaponizing pure, unadulterated mass and velocity. And that alone was enough. Every single strike he delivered effortlessly triggered explosions exceeding twenty meters in height. With just a slight exertion of force, he could summon towering pillars of white sand over a hundred meters tall.
Gojo was forced to constantly, endlessly pump Reverse Cursed Technique through his entire body just to stay alive. This full-body, continuous application of RCT consumed vastly more energy than localized, targeted healing. The sheer volume of incoming destructive force was draining his reserves at an unfathomable rate.
Exactly as Mahito said: at this rate, Gojo would die.
Gojo knew this with absolute clarity. The microsecond his stockpiled Positive Energy ran dry, he was dead. The outcome of the battle would be decided in that exact instant.
They violently clashed, trading blows with manic intensity. Gojo felt his blood completely ignite. Never before had he felt such absolute, fanatic euphoria, as if he had been swallowed whole by the ultimate abyss. He let out a laugh that sounded more like a feral roar, though the sound was instantly drowned out by the apocalyptic shockwaves of their clash.
The Dragon God was laughing just as wildly. Mahito had completely deciphered Ryomen Sukuna's biology. It was no exaggeration to say that the Dragon God's physical specs had surpassed the realm of imagination. Relying solely on raw bodily mechanics, he could casually level a city. He moved like a comet and struck with the violence of a meteorite.
Yet despite those godlike specs, Satoru Gojo was somehow keeping up!
Moving and striking with 1000 times the limit of the human body—this was the tactic from the manga *Is This a Zombie?*. And Gojo was executing it flawlessly. He moved at supersonic speeds. With every single action, his muscles and bones were pulverized, only to instantly regenerate a microsecond later. His offensive and defensive capabilities were fueled by an endless cycle of self-induced crippling trauma.
Amidst this brutal cycle, the circulation of Positive Energy was enhancing his physical specs at a terrifying rate. He wasn't relying on a pre-existing template like Mahito did; he was actively refining and evolving his own physical limits in the crucible of combat.
He was achieving maximum self-optimization.
Give Kinji Hakari infinite Cursed Energy and immortality, and he plays the role of a meat shield. But give it to Satoru Gojo, wielder of the Six Eyes, and he becomes a literal Superman.
He possessed absolute, microscopic control over every single cell in his body. He could visually track the movement of cellular nuclei. He could perfectly harness the absolute maximum potential of human biology, and then effortlessly shatter it, instantly regenerating from atomic-level damage.
Gojo had never truly stepped into the realm of pure Positive Energy physical reinforcement before. But now, he was being forced to evolve. Before his stockpiled Positive Energy ran dry, he was using his fanatical willpower to forcibly rewrite his own genetics. He was searching for a path to survival through hyper-accelerated evolution.
His physical specs were rapidly approaching the absolute zenith of the Heavenly Tyrant. Right here, right now!
If the Dragon God had relied on the blueprints of Toji Fushiguro, Kinji Hakari, and Ryomen Sukuna, using Idle Transfiguration to mold his body into the absolute pinnacle of existence, then Satoru Gojo was using his indomitable will and the atomic-level spatial domination of the Six Eyes to actively fortify and evolve his own DNA mid-battle.
They were both evolving at an incomprehensible speed!
Mirokuji Kirigiri and the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey] clashed endlessly. Despite being locked in melee combat, the resulting shockwaves resembled a fleet of heavy bombers carpet-bombing the landscape. The continuous, deafening thunder of their collisions was enough to shatter eardrums.
Their movement speed had long since broken the sound barrier. They moved so fast that their combat trajectories appeared as nothing more than a series of lingering phantoms. No human eye could possibly track this fight. They had transcended the realm of common sense and entered the domain of godspeed. Not a single trace of their true forms lingered on a human retina.
If Gojo could sustain this evolution, he might actually achieve true Positive Energy circulation, evolving a brand-new biological organ dedicated entirely to stockpiling Positive Energy, mirroring the organ used for Cursed Energy.
But there were no 'ifs'. Even for Satoru Gojo, his Positive Energy reserves had a hard limit.
The Dragon God's fanaticism reached unprecedented heights. If they weren't inside the [Purification] zone, he would have already unleashed a Black Flash. And the source of this absolute exhilaration was Satoru Gojo's current state.
Gojo's Positive Energy... had finally run out.
The moment for the decisive blow had arrived.
Both Gojo and the Dragon God possessed the Six Eyes. Between them, there were absolutely no secrets regarding Cursed Energy. Whether Gojo's reserves were empty was glaringly obvious to both of them. While Gojo could keep the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey]'s [Purification] active even without Positive Energy, thereby preventing the Dragon God from using techniques, without the physical reinforcement of Positive Energy, a single casual strike from the Dragon God would instantly vaporize him. To survive, Gojo *had* to deactivate the Purifying Chime and utilize his own Cursed Energy.
—*IT'S NOW OR NEVER!*
A silent, conceptual mark materialized on Gojo's body.
Black sparks suddenly ignited across the blade of Mirokuji Kirigiri. The instant the Purifying Chime was deactivated, the Dragon God naturally unleashed a Black Flash. This Black Flash linked with the one already coursing through Kirigiri's blade. Two distinct Black Flashes merged into one.
This was an unprecedented, singular Fusion Black Flash.
This was the peerless, absolute attack: [Shinmyoken: Muku-Kushiki].
The Dragon God swung Mirokuji Kirigiri lightly. Dark radiance drifted from the blade. A ring of black spatial distortion trailed the slash like the exhaust of a rocket, descending like a pitch-black curtain draped over all creation. And within that absolute darkness, the god-slaying sword descended.
This sword transcended time itself. It was as silent as the night sky.
It possessed absolute offensive power, piercing through the very domination of spatial distortion. Ryomen Sukuna required Technique Extension, hand signs, incantations, and perfect synchrony of mind and body to unleash his World-Cleaving slash. But a true grandmaster of the sword required only a single swing.
In this moment, the Dragon God had fulfilled Ashiya Sadatsuna's ultimate dream: using pure swordsmanship to surpass Ryomen Sukuna's ultimate technique.
Gojo suddenly smiled. It wasn't a manic, bloodthirsty grin. It was a serene, enlightened smile, like the Buddha achieving Nirvana beneath the Bodhi tree. Without realizing it, one of his hands had formed a seal.
It was the Buddha's 'Flower-Holding' mudra.
The essence of a Binding Vow was offering an agonizingly steep price to manifest a miracle that was otherwise impossible. And in the entire original narrative of *Jujutsu Kaisen*, there was one person who had offered the most extreme, irreversible price imaginable.
That person's name was Kasumi Miwa. She was undeniably weak. Even though she paid the ultimate price, the resulting attack was effortlessly brushed aside. This proved that no matter how severe the Vow, if the user's base strength was lacking, it was ultimately meaningless.
But what if the person making that exact same Vow... was Satoru Gojo?
What would happen if Satoru Gojo made the exact same Vow as Kasumi Miwa?
At this very moment, Gojo invoked the identical Vow:
—*In exchange for never wielding a blade or slash ever again, I unleash this one, final strike.*
"Cleave," Gojo said softly.
Mirokuji Kirigiri's Cleaving Line was instantly erased. The dark radiance trailing from the Fusion Black Flash was cleanly severed. Kirigiri's true blade let out a sharp, shattering crack. Every sound in the world abruptly vanished. The Dragon God's hand, mid-swing, froze completely.
A single, stark wound silently materialized across the chest of the Dragon God armor. It was a slash mark.
Shinmyoken was undeniably the sword that reached the gods. It was the final technique recorded in the Moon's Scroll. This legendary sword art was genuinely the strongest in the world. No other sword technique could possibly surpass Shinmyoken.
But the 'sword' Satoru Gojo had just swung had completely transcended the absolute limits of this world.
Ryomen Sukuna had once said that the absolute prerequisite to killing a god was severing their 'Fate'. That 'Fate' was the divine mandate bestowed upon them by Heaven. Only when a god and a mortal were forced to stand on the exact same plane of existence could deicide be achieved.
And that was exactly what Gojo had done.
The target of his slash wasn't the Dragon God standing in front of him. It was the Binding Vows etched into the Dragon God's very being.
Just like when Gojo had bisected Ryomen Sukuna, preventing him from resurrecting. Sukuna couldn't revive because the Binding Vow anchoring his [Eleven Lives] had been cleanly severed alongside his physical life. Therefore, even if he possessed remaining 'lives', the mechanism to access them was destroyed. Similarly, no matter how omnipotent the Binding Vows protecting the Dragon God armor were, no matter how many fail-safes Mahito had prepared—they had all been instantly severed.
This was the true, undeniable—
—[God-Slaying Sword].
Gojo's smile widened. He reached out and lightly pushed the Dragon God's chest. "I win, Mahito."
The Dragon God didn't budge.
Gojo's smile instantly stiffened.
In the next microsecond, the Dragon God's arm blurred into motion. Mirokuji Kirigiri's blade lightly grazed Gojo's wrist. The hand gripping the [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey] silently detached and fell, like a withered, yellow leaf dropping from an autumn branch. It happened so naturally, as if it were a fundamental law of the universe.
*Thud.* The [Six Perfections' Eastward Journey] hit the sand.
"What... How is that possible?!" Gojo roared in shock.
—Cursed Technique Reversal: Soul Creation: Jiro Awasaka.
—Innate Technique Release: —Inverse!
The Dragon God threw his head back and laughed uproariously. "Hahaha! Your slash truly does possess the power to sever Binding Vows and execute Fate! If I had been completely unprepared, I absolutely would have been killed. You really did almost kill me, Satoru. Almost!"
The logic was incredibly simple, but few people ever thought about it this way.
A slash capable of severing a conceptual Binding Vow must naturally possess catastrophic offensive power, right? ...Wrong. Ryomen Sukuna's [The Slash that Divides the World] was pure, unadulterated offensive power. Its power was so absolute it stood above the world itself, severing the very fabric of space. It was the pinnacle of raw destruction, and nothing could stand before it.
But the strength of Gojo's slash lay in its *mechanism*—the ability to bypass and sever rules and Vows.
Theoretically, an attack capable of destroying Vows should be inescapable, even for Sukuna's slash. It was highly likely that Sukuna had used a similar conceptual attack to slaughter Enma a thousand years ago.
But Jiro Awasaka's Inverse technique possessed a very specific trait: as long as an attack didn't exceed the technique's absolute upper limit of damage, *any* powerful attack would be completely nullified. It was an absolute defense against physical force.
Even if Gojo's slash could sever a Binding Vow... Inverse wasn't a Binding Vow. Inverse was an Innate Technique physically engraved into the brain. It was a physical reality.
Because it was a technique and not a Vow, the God-Slaying Sword's conceptual rule-breaking effect was useless against it. That left only the raw physical damage of the God-Slaying Sword to be dealt with.
And quite evidently, the raw physical damage of the God-Slaying Sword hadn't surpassed the upper threshold of Inverse.
"Satoru." The Dragon God's voice suddenly softened with genuine melancholy. "It's over."
In the next instant, the Dragon God drove his knee violently into Gojo's abdomen. In the absolute nick of time, Gojo deployed the Limitless. This was a physical strike, not Kirigiri's blade; the Limitless should still work! But the Dragon God's knee was coated in [Domain Amplification]!
*THUD.*
By neutralizing the technique, the knee effortlessly pierced through the Limitless, sinking deep into Gojo's stomach. Gojo's eyes bulged from their sockets. His body absorbed the entirety of the catastrophic impact. His internal organs completely ruptured. The massive internal hemorrhaging caused blood to violently reverse course, surging up his throat. Gojo involuntarily opened his mouth, vomiting a massive spray of blood and pulverized organ fragments.
Then came the punch.
—Cursed Technique Reversal: Soul Creation: Yuki Tsukumo.
—Innate Technique Release: —STAR! RAGE!
The apocalyptic roar of a plummeting meteorite detonated across the battlefield. Three hundred billion tons of virtual mass descended. The sheer, incomprehensible gravity of the attack generated a localized hurricane before the fist even landed. White sand whipped violently into the air. A blinding flash of light exploded, and then, the meteorite struck.
*BOOOOM—!!!*
A hand suddenly shot upward, clenching into a fist. Black sparks crackled violently around it.
BLACK—FLASH—!
Gojo threw a desperate uppercut from below, colliding directly with the 300 billion tons of Star Rage. Their fists didn't even make physical contact. Caught between the incomprehensible pressure, a barrier of hyper-compressed air formed between them. The barrier instantly began to disintegrate. Lightning-like ionization arced outward, but it wasn't the usual blue-purple—it was pitch black, a darkness so profound it devoured all other colors.
It was the visual manifestation of extreme spatial distortion.
Gojo slowly straightened his body. His Kesa had been completely vaporized. But what was exposed underneath wasn't human flesh; it was something that gleamed with a cold, metallic luster.
A layer of pitch-black armor had seamlessly grafted itself onto Gojo's skin. Golden tattoos resembling ancient Sanskrit sutras were etched across the dark metal. The tattered remnants of his Kesa draped over the armor, making him look like a holy monk from an advanced, cybernetic civilization.
In the past, right before Tengen departed, she had asked Gojo: *'Have you figured out the circulation of positive and negative energy yet?'*
Gojo had replied: *'It's rough, but it's at least viable for combat.'*
And now, pushed into absolute despair, Satoru Gojo had finally revealed the culmination of his efforts.
A circulation of positive and negative energy born from imitating Mahito's [Hollow Technique: Soul Creation Dragon Spirit Body]. A mortal vessel forcefully stepping onto the evolutionary ladder of higher-dimensional beings. A genuine stairway to godhood!
Gojo spoke with the solemn, resonant voice of a Buddha:
"Instructor at Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical College. Special Grade Jujutsu Sorcerer."
"[Divine Body: Shakyamuni], Satoru Gojo."
"Mahito-san... Please evaluate my work!"