The once-silent night sky was now completely consumed by a sea of fire and the pungent scent of blood.
Tokyo Jujutsu High, the fortress that carried the memories and convictions of countless sorcerers, had been nearly leveled to the ground during this apocalyptic Night Parade of a Hundred Demons.
And in the very center of the battlefield...
Panting heavily, Yuta Okkotsu knelt amidst the ruins, his special katana thrust deep into the ground to support his trembling body.
"Cough... cough..."
Blood continuously spilled from the corner of his mouth, dripping onto the earth that had been scorched black by the intense heat.
That Pseudo-Crimson Flash, which had stunned the entire field, possessed terrifying power, but it had also drained nearly all of his cursed energy. Even his muscle fibers were suffering from widespread tearing.
Yet, he still did not fall.
He glared fixedly at Suguru Geto, who stood in the air like a demon god, and the heavily damaged yet still terrifying Tamamo-no-Mae Incarnate.
"It's... not over yet..."
Yuta struggled to lift his head, his gaze passing beyond Geto to look at the blood-soaked, unconscious forms of Maki, Toge, and Panda in the distance.
'I can't fall here...'
'If even I lose, everyone will truly die...'
A resolve more absolute than ever before erupted from Yuta's bloodshot eyes.
He violently yanked his katana from the ground and stood up on shaky legs.
"Rika."
Yuta's voice was soft, yet it carried a calm that made the soul shiver.
"Roar..."
Hearing his call, the massive, mountain-like Special Grade Vengeful Cursed Spirit Rika Orimoto hovering behind him let out a deeply sorrowful low growl.
Her ghostly eyes, usually filled with slaughter and madness, now revealed a rare, human-like grief.
She could sense what Yuta was about to do next.
"Rika, thank you for always protecting me."
Yuta reached out his blood-stained right hand and gently stroked Rika's massive, bone-spiked arm. A gentle smile, one filled with the will to die, touched his lips.
"But this time, it's my turn to protect everyone."
"So..."
Yuta took a deep breath and suddenly turned, raising his katana high.
"Lend me all of your power!"
"I'll give you my future, my body, my soul..."
"I'll give you everything I am!"
"Buzz—!!!"
Following Yuta's sacrificial vow, a high-pitched drone erupted over the school, so intense it sounded as if space itself was screaming in agony.
That was...
The ultimate Binding Vow, completely removing all limits on a Special Grade Vengeful Cursed Spirit!
"Boom—!"
Rika let out a heart-wrenching, violent shriek as her massive body instantly transformed into a blinding, pure white light.
There was no trace of suffocating negative emotion in this light; it was a pure, almost holy and terrifying cursed energy!
This power surged with violent intensity, gathering frantically into Yuta's slender frame!
"This is..."
Standing in mid-air, Suguru Geto watched the pure white light below that looked like a descending deity, his pupils shrinking violently.
A complex, inexplicable emotion flickered across his face, which was previously twisted into a fanatical grin.
Within that blinding light...
He seemed to see his former self.
He saw the boy in white who once fought to protect the weak, who stood by his 'righteousness' regardless of the cost or the scars he earned.
"Truly..."
Geto lowered his head slightly, masking the fleeting nostalgia and pain in his eyes.
But when he looked up again, his face held nothing but the extreme madness and resolve of the Most Evil Curse User.
"Hahahaha!!!"
Geto burst into a piercing, almost hysterical laughter.
"Using self-sacrifice as a Binding Vow to forcibly remove the limits of a Special Grade spirit?"
"Yuta Okkotsu!"
"You liar, playing with a woman's heart!"
Geto flung his arms wide, and the space behind him was instantly swallowed by an endless darkness.
"That pathetic love of yours is utterly worthless before my Great Cause!"
"In that case, let me use this technique to provide the final funeral for your miserable pure love!"
Faced with Geto's nearly insane mockery, Yuta, shrouded in a white light so bright he seemed ready to vanish, felt no anger.
He simply looked at Geto, his eyes filled with unprecedented determination.
"How rude."
Yuta slowly pointed his katana at Geto, his voice resonant as if declaring his resolve to the entire world.
"We're all about pure love!"
"Boom!!!"
As Yuta spoke, the white light condensed from Rika's entire power instantly transformed into a terrifying beam. Over ten meters in diameter, it looked like a pillar of light that could pierce the heavens.
It roared toward Geto in the sky!
"Pure love?"
Geto watched the beam capable of annihilating everything, the sneer on his lips growing more frenzied.
"Then I am the Great Cause!!!"
"Buzz—!"
Accompanied by Geto's throat-tearing roar, a massive black hole that seemed to swallow all light emerged from the darkness behind him.
"Cursed Spirit Manipulation: Maximum..."
"Uzumaki!"
In that instant, Geto did not hesitate to use the over four thousand Special Grade and Grade 1 cursed spirits he had swallowed and collected over ten years of suffering and disgust.
Using extremely violent means, he forcibly compressed and fused them together!
"Rumble—!"
The black hole instantly turned into a massive black sphere of cursed energy, its density so high it was hair-raising, radiating the ultimate scent of destruction.
"Die!!!"
Geto swung his hand down.
The Uzumaki of the Great Cause, containing the full power of over four thousand cursed spirits, brought with it a terror that could destroy all of Tokyo. It smashed down to meet the pure white beam!
Pure Love Beam!
VS
Great Cause Uzumaki!
Two forces at the peak of the jujutsu world, representing two diametrically opposed convictions, reached their most tragic and shocking fated collision!
"Boom—!!!!!"
At the moment of impact, the world seemed to lose all sound.
Then, a terrifyingly intense light, visible from hundreds of miles away, instantly swallowed the entirety of Tokyo Jujutsu High.
A visible shockwave spread like a tsunami, instantly stripping the ground and leveling every building, tree, and surface within hundreds of meters!
Violent currents of energy tore through the air.
And in the center of that blinding light...
Geto watched the pure white beam. Even against the compressed explosion of four thousand spirits, it did not retreat; it even showed signs of overwhelming his own attack.
In his eyes, which had been filled with madness, a hidden sense of relief suddenly flashed.
'So... this is your answer...'
'Yuta Okkotsu.'
'Well done.'
At the final moment before the two forces decided the victor, Geto's wrist—without him even consciously realizing it—shifted by zero-point-one centimeters.
"Boom!!!"
With a world-shaking explosion, the massive Great Cause Uzumaki followed a strange trajectory, grazing past Yuta's body and slamming into the empty ground behind him!
Meanwhile, the Pure Love Beam containing Rika's full power struck Geto directly without any obstruction!
"Bang!"
The blinding light gradually faded.
Dust filled the air, falling slowly like a curtain of rain.
At the edge of a massive crater that looked as if it had been struck by a meteorite...
Yuta Okkotsu knelt on the ground, gasping for air. His special katana was completely shattered, and his entire body was so exhausted he didn't even have the strength to lift a finger.
Dozens of meters away in the ruins...
Suguru Geto lay silently in a pool of blood.
His signature gojo-kesa had been completely incinerated, and his right arm had been blown clean off by the terrifying beam. Crimson blood stained the scorched earth around him.
But he wasn't dead.
He simply looked up helplessly at the clearing smoke over the school, a tired yet relieved smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
"Finally..."
"It's over."
At the top of a distant clock tower...
Yoru, who had been keeping his Transparent World active, watched the tragic conclusion below. He silently let go of the handle of the broken Shiranui at his waist.
'This guy... at the last moment, he really did shift the core of Uzumaki.'
'He'd rather take a fatal hit himself than take that kid's life.'
Yoru took a deep breath, a complex sigh flashing through his eyes.
"What a fool."
This fated duel for the future of the jujutsu world—a clash between pure love and the great cause—had finally reached a tragic yet perfect conclusion.
The winner had been decided.
However...
Just when everyone thought this insane Night Parade of a Hundred Demons had truly come to an end...
In the deep shadows behind Suguru Geto...
A dark figure, cold as a viper and radiating the scent of a thousand years of rot, silently and slowly emerged.
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