Along with a deafening, earth-shattering roar.
An ancient commercial building in downtown Kyoto, over a dozen stories high, was snapped in half by some terrifying force in an instant!
Fragments of reinforced concrete poured down like a torrential rain.
Crashing onto the blood-stained streets, they kicked up nauseating splashes of bloody mud.
"H-Help... help me..."
"Kyoto's defense line... is about to collapse!"
A blood-soaked Kyoto School second-year student sat paralyzed in the ruins, watching the tide of cursed spirits surge forward.
The standard-issue cursed tool in his hand slipped powerlessly to the ground.
Compared to the Shinjuku main battlefield where the 'Strongest of the Modern Era' Satoru Gojo stood guard, the situation here in Kyoto was a one-sided massacre!
Those rotten oranges in the higher-ups, in order to exhaust Suguru Geto's forces as much as possible.
They had not only sent a large number of low-level sorcerers to Kyoto but had even forcibly conscripted civilians who had just awakened cursed energy and knew nothing of jujutsu.
The result was predictable.
Led by five or six Grade 1 cursed spirits and even a Special Grade Imaginary Vengeful Spirit.
At the first moment of contact, Kyoto's defense line was torn apart like paper!
Those low-level sorcerers treated as cannon fodder didn't even have time to scream before they were shredded by the violent curses, turning into a mist of blood.
"Heh heh heh!"
A Special Grade Imaginary Vengeful Spirit, over twenty meters tall and covered in countless human arms, let out a hair-raising, eerie laugh.
Its massive frame was like an out-of-control heavy tank, crashing through the ruins straight toward the despondent Kyoto School student!
Just as that student thought they were certainly dead.
"Hey, you ugly monster over there."
An extremely coarse voice, carrying a wild and unbridled aura, suddenly came from above the Special Grade cursed spirit.
"Your taste is truly disgusting."
"Boom—!"
Accompanied by a terrifying sound of air being torn apart, like a meteorite crashing to earth!
A hulking figure, shirtless with muscles coiled like granite, descended with an overwhelming, violent aura.
He landed heavily right on the head of that Special Grade Imaginary Vengeful Spirit!
"Crack!"
Accompanied by the crisp sound of bone splintering.
The massive, hard head of that rampaging Special Grade Imaginary Vengeful Spirit was actually caved in by that single stomp!
"Roar!!!"
The Special Grade Imaginary Vengeful Spirit let out a howl of pain, its countless human arms flailing wildly in an attempt to shred the man on its head.
However.
The man had no intention of dodging.
"Boogie Woogie? I don't need such fancy tricks."
"Against trash like you, I only need..."
Aoi Todo.
This absolute ace of the Kyoto School's third-year, known throughout the Kyoto jujutsu world as the 'Unbridled Beast,' was currently grinning with a wild, bloodthirsty smile.
"Extreme physical impact!"
"Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!"
Without even using his innate technique, Aoi Todo swung his iron fists, which were the size of clay pots, and launched a storm of close-quarters combat against the Special Grade curse beneath him!
Every punch thrown carried a terrifying power that broke the sound barrier!
Every kick delivered left a deep, bloody hole in the massive body of the Special Grade Imaginary Vengeful Spirit!
Before Aoi Todo's terrifying physical combat, which was like that of a human tyrannosaur, the prideful defense and regeneration of that Special Grade curse were nothing but a joke!
"Exhilarating! This is so exhilarating!"
Aoi Todo laughed wildly as he unleashed his frenzied assault.
"Curses, techniques, vows... before absolute physical strength, they are all crap!"
This freak of the Kyoto School's third year currently had the unbridled figure of his mentor—Special Grade Sorcerer Yuki Tsukumo—floating in his mind.
"Hey, small fry, what kind of existence are your souls seeking?!"
Aoi Todo's eyes shone. He didn't feel fear toward the cursed spirits like ordinary sorcerers; instead, he viewed this tragic Night Parade of a Hundred Demons as a carnival personal to him.
He had heard various rumors of the miracles performed by that 'Instructor Yoru' within Jujutsu High, but he had never seen them with his own eyes.
In his view, in this world, aside from Yuki Tsukumo and that legendary white-haired strongest, the only thing worthy of his attention was his own never-extinguished, fanatical heart!
Right now, his physical strength had reached an incredibly terrifying threshold.
Even when facing so-called Grade 1 or even Special Grade cursed spirits, he dared to carve a path of blood using nothing but his two iron fists!
"Boom—!!!"
Along with Aoi Todo's long-charged final uppercut.
That massive Special Grade Imaginary Vengeful Spirit's head was actually blown apart, and its enormous body collapsed, dissipating into the air as countless black particles of light.
"Phew..."
Aoi Todo exhaled a long breath and wiped the curse's blood from his face.
Those wild eyes fixed intently on the still-endless army of cursed spirits ahead.
"Next, who is going to play with me?"
By his strength alone, Aoi Todo had forcibly torn a gap in the collapsing Kyoto defense line!
He had alone, without using a technique, exorcised five Grade 1 cursed spirits and one Special Grade Imaginary Vengeful Spirit in succession!
This terrifying god-of-war-like record instantly ignited the fire of hope in the surviving sorcerers around him.
And on the other side of the battlefield.
There was another figure harvesting the lives of high-level cursed spirits in a completely different but equally shocking manner.
"Ratio Technique: Collapse."
Kento Nanami pushed up his blood-stained goggles, his gaze cold to the extreme.
On the blunt blade wrapped in charms in his hand, a peculiar cursed energy fluctuation was swirling, as if even the surrounding space was slightly distorting.
"Instructor Yoru once said."
"Don't try to force your cursed energy. Instead, let the cursed energy match your breathing and feel that natural rhythm."
Kento Nanami took a deep breath. Involuntarily, his mind drifted back ten years to the depths of the Tombs of the Star Corridor, and that night of the Jujutsu High evening festival.
He remembered the god-like breathing rhythm that the black-haired youth had shown while teaching him physical combat.
"Inhale... exhale..."
Kento Nanami closed his eyes.
In this moment, the deafening sounds of slaughter, the roars of curses, and the screams of ordinary people all seemed to vanish completely from his world.
In his world, only his own steady, powerful heartbeat and the omnipresent flow of cursed energy remained.
"Eyes open."
Nanami snapped his eyes open, and a streak of extreme, heart-palpitating focus flashed through his pupils hidden beneath the goggles.
"Found it."
"That line... that cuts through everything."
"Swish—!"
Kento Nanami's figure instantly became a blurred afterimage.
The blunt blade in his hand carried a resolute momentum as it slashed ruthlessly into a Grade 1 cursed spirit pouncing toward him!
"Boom—!"
At the instant the blade touched the curse's flesh.
An incredibly terrifying bolt of black lightning, as if tearing the very space apart, exploded from the tip of Nanami's blade!
"Black Flash!"
This is the spatial distortion phenomenon that occurs when a sorcerer's cursed energy flashes within 0.000001 seconds of a physical hit while in a state of extreme focus!
Its power is a full 2.5 times that of a normal attack!
However, this was far from over!
"Not over yet."
Kento Nanami did not pause for even a moment.
Having been guided by Yoru, his body, which had perfectly integrated the rhythm of breathing techniques into his Ratio Technique, had become a precision killing machine.
"Second strike!"
"Boom—!!!"
Another dazzling bolt of black lightning tore through the night sky!
A semi-Special Grade cursed spirit attempting a sneak attack from the side was sliced in half by this Black Flash!
"Third strike!"
"Boom—!"
"Fourth strike!"
"Boom—!"
Four consecutive black lightnings, like four divine swords of punishment splitting the darkness, exploded in the night sky of the Kyoto battlefield!
Four high-level cursed spirits were instantly annihilated under Nanami's absolutely calm, art-like killing rhythm!
"Black Flash... four times in a row?!?"
Not far away, a few surviving assistant supervisors from Jujutsu High stared blankly at the man in the suit holding the blunt blade, their breathing coming to a halt.
In a jujutsu world where hitting even a single Black Flash required immense luck.
Kento Nanami had actually used his extreme control over breathing and cursed energy flow to set a terrifying record of 'Four Consecutive Black Flashes' that would shock the entire jujutsu world!
With the unbridled beast Aoi Todo's violent rampage and Kento Nanami's precise, lethal Black Flash clearing, the Kyoto defense line was stabilized!
These two were like iron pillars driven into the Kyoto battlefield, making it impossible for the rampaging army of cursed spirits to advance another step!
However.
Just as the situations in Shinjuku and Kyoto had reached a temporary stalemate due to the outbursts of Satoru Gojo, Aoi Todo, and Kento Nanami.
The true core battlefield.
Tokyo Jujutsu High, the headquarters of the jujutsu world, was now extremely vulnerable in terms of defense.
And it welcomed an uninvited guest capable of making everyone feel despair.
"Screech!"
A massive Special Grade Pelican Cursed Spirit, as large as an island, let out a piercing cry and tore through the barrier over the school.
On the back of this special grade curse, the man wearing a gojo-kesa with a cruel smile on his face slowly descended before the ruins of the first-year classroom.