Ryu stood firm, energy swelling around him like a contained storm.
Yuta faced him directly.
No tricks yet.
No rotations.
Just pressure meeting pressure.
The ground between them fractured as both cursed energies surged upward, colliding in the air like two opposing tides.
Ryu's grin was wide now.
"…This is it."
He lifted his hand.
"…My dessert."
A massive beam formed instantly—dense, violent, overwhelming.
Granite Blast.
Takeru raised his own cursed energy to meet it head-on.
He knew he was outmatched in raw output.
But he didn't step aside.
Not yet.
The two beams collided mid-air.
A screaming wall of force holding the battlefield in place.
Ryu laughed through the strain.
"…You're holding it back."
Takeru exhaled.
"…For now."
The pressure increased.
The ground beneath them sank.
Buildings in the distance cracked from sheer output alone.
"…Just this once…"
A pause.
"…Let's use every last drop."
Ryu's eyes widened slightly.
"…Good."
He pushed harder.
The beam intensified.
Takeru initially shifted his stance, preparing to rush in and break the clash.
But something stopped him.
He looked at Ryu.
Really looked.
Not just the cursed energy.
Not just the technique.
The desire.
A fight he had been waiting 400 years for.
Something real.
Something satisfying.
Takeru exhaled once.
Then nodded.
"…Understood."
He stopped trying to end it quickly.
And instead—
charged.
Rika manifested briefly beside him, not fully unleashed this time, but enough to disrupt balance.
A feint.
A pressure shift.
Ryu's focus flickered for a fraction of a second.
That was all it took.
Rika moved in—
and Ryu struck her down with a brutal blast mid-clash.
But the opening had already been created.
Ryu chuckled slightly.
"…Not bad."
Then he looked forward again—
still smiling—
still in the beam clash.
"…Now that… was a flavorful mouthful, Gojo."
Takeru didn't respond.
He had already changed the field.
Sky manipulation—copied, not inherited—folded space subtly behind Ryu's beam trajectory.
Just enough.
Just precise enough.
Ryu didn't notice until it was too late.
His own attack shifted—
redirected—
turned back against him at an impossible angle.
His eyes widened slightly.
"…Hah—"
The counter-impact connected.
Light exploded across the battlefield—
engulfing everything—
drowning out sight and sound.