"Rumble—!!!"
As Kenjaku's ordinary face twisted and swelled, his already hunched body exploded in an instant!
Thousands of cursed spirits, emitting an ancient and decaying aura, surged out in every direction like a bursting black flood.
They screeched shrilly, opening their blood-red maws filled with fangs, attempting to tear apart every living thing in their path.
This was no ordinary army of cursed spirits.
These were the countless remnants of evil spirits and curses Kenjaku had accumulated over a millennium by constantly switching bodies and plundering techniques.
They possessed no reason, only a pure desire for destruction. If they were allowed to charge into downtown Tokyo, the consequences would be unthinkable.
"Trying to use such underhanded tricks to create chaos and escape?"
Satoru Gojo watched the tide of black spirits that blotted out the sky, a contemptuous smirk playing on his lips.
He slowly pulled down his black blindfold, and those deep Six Eyes—the Eyes of the Blue Sky—erupted with a terrifying blue light in the night.
"Too naive, Brain."
Satoru Gojo raised his right hand, pressing his index and middle fingers together as a terrifying repelling force instantly compressed and condensed at his fingertip.
"Cursed Technique Reversal: Red!"
"Boom!!!"
A sphere of energy radiating a blinding red light, appearing capable of pushing away all matter, shot toward the swarm of cursed spirits like a miniature sun!
Wherever it passed, space distorted violently and fierce winds howled.
Those ancient cursed spirits clawing at the perimeter didn't even have time to scream before they were crushed into black dust by the absolute repulsive force!
Meanwhile...
Despite losing his right arm and being pale as death, Suguru Geto did not retreat an inch.
His narrow, fox-like eyes flickered with a cold light as his remaining left hand steadily formed a hand sign.
"Since you've released this disgusting trash, you might as well become my nourishment."
"Cursed Spirit Manipulation—"
"Devour!"
Following Suguru Geto's low voice...
A strange black vortex filled with endless suction manifested in front of him.
The surviving spirits, scattered and fleeing from Satoru Gojo's Red, were drawn in like they had encountered a massive magnet.
Pulled by the terrifying suction, they surged uncontrollably into the vortex before Geto, ultimately turning into black Cursed Spirit Orbs that he unceremoniously swallowed!
Satoru Gojo's Red cleared the field, while Suguru Geto's Devour finished the job.
These two former best friends, after a decade apart...
At this moment, they once again displayed a perfect, flawless, and invincible chemistry!
While the two of them worked together to suppress the tide of spirits...
Yoru.
The youth in the black trench coat, holding the broken Shiranui, didn't spare a single glance at the swarming spirits.
His deep red eyes had now completely transformed into a blinding crimson-gold, like the sun!
"Transparent World, full output."
Yoru spoke in a low voice.
In an instant, the chaotic battlefield, the flying spirits, and even the dust and scent of blood in the air...
In his eyes, everything became transparent and ethereal.
He saw the vast sea of cursed energy churning within Satoru Gojo's body.
He saw the energy inside Suguru Geto, which had become cluttered from devouring spirits yet was being forcibly balanced.
Most importantly...
He saw the hideous brain hidden behind the cover of countless spirits, attempting to sneak away through the chaos!
That was Kenjaku's true core!
"Found you."
A cold, murderous intent curled Yoru's lips.
However, just as he was about to swing his blade at the brain...
"Jiejiejiejie..."
A cold, crazed, and triumphant laugh suddenly echoed from the brain.
"Did you really think I'd be killed that easily?!"
A complex miniature array radiating a blinding red light suddenly surfaced on Kenjaku's hideous, fanged brain.
"It's all thanks to the ten years I've spent secretly observing your weaknesses."
"Especially you, Suguru Geto!"
"Did you really think you had completely exhausted Rika Orimoto's power just now?!"
"Buzz—!!"
Along with Kenjaku's roar...
In the distance, the massive husk of Rika Orimoto, which had been fading due to Yuta Okkotsu's exhaustion...
Under the pull of this array, it suddenly erupted with an extremely unstable wave of cursed energy so terrifying that the surrounding space began to tremble violently!
"This is bad!"
Satoru Gojo's expression changed drastically.
He knew that frequency all too well!
It was the terrifying precursor to a Special Grade Vengeful Cursed Spirit's remaining energy being compressed to the limit and detonating before disappearing completely!
Once this surge of cursed energy, comparable to a nuclear explosion, detonated at this range...
Not just the three of them, but the entire Jujutsu High and everything within a ten-mile radius would be instantly leveled!
"Hahahaha! Let's die together!"
Kenjaku's hideous brain bounced frantically in mid-air, attempting to use the momentum of the impending explosion to activate a hidden spatial technique to flee the battlefield.
Life and death hung by a thread!
In this desperate situation that would make anyone give up...
Yoru didn't back down an inch.
He took a deep breath, and a crazed fighting spirit capable of incinerating everything erupted from his crimson-gold eyes!
"Bang!"
The charred ground beneath Yoru's feet collapsed instantly as he charged toward Rika's exploding husk like a red shooting star!
"System!"
Yoru roared like a beast in his heart.
"Give me... the breakthrough!!!"
[SYSTEM: HOST FACING LIFE-AND-DEATH CRISIS, EXTREME WILL TO PROTECT RESONATING WITH FIGHTING SPIRIT!]
[SYNCHRONIZATION RATE BREAKTHROUGH: 50%!]
[UNLOCKED: BRIGHT RED NICHIRIN SWORD!]
"Boom!!!"
As the system's cold, mechanical voice exploded in his mind...
On the left side of Yoru's forehead, the deep red Slayer Mark, swaying like a flame, burned to its limit!
His heart rate instantly climbed to over two hundred beats per minute, his body temperature soared to thirty-nine degrees, and the blood in his veins surged like boiling lava!
"Buzz—!"
The moment both his hands tightly gripped the handle of the broken Shiranui...
An extreme heat, capable of instantly vaporizing steel, surged from his hands into the damaged blade like a volcanic eruption!
At this moment, a miracle occurred!
The black blade, which had lost a portion of its length...
Under the power of this extreme heat and the 50% synchronization rate, it was instantly dyed a blinding crimson like glowing iron!
Then...
The crimson light rapidly extended and reshaped itself in mid-air!
In less than a second...
That broken fragment was forcibly restored to its original, slender, and sharp form within the extreme heat!
That was a peerless divine weapon seemingly forged from pure solar fire!
The Bright Red Nichirin Sword was relit!
"Sun Breathing, Eleventh Form..."
Yoru gripped the complete Bright Red Nichirin Sword, which radiated an all-consuming heat, his spirit reaching an unprecedented peak.
"Dragon Sun Halo Head Dance!!!"
"Roar—!!!"
Accompanied by a deafening dragon's roar...
A massive fire dragon forged from dark red flames roared forth from the blade!
Yoru's figure turned into a bolt of red lightning that the naked eye couldn't track, weaving and slashing frantically around Rika's impending explosion at an incredible speed!
Fast!
It was fast to the absolute limit!
This was no longer mere swordsmanship; it was a feat of artistry bordering on a miracle!
Under the sheer frequency of these rapid-fire slashes...
"Sizzle—!!"
With a bizarre sound of space tearing...
The violent cursed energy that was about to explode was actually severed, suppressed, and even vaporized the moment it touched the extreme heat of the Bright Red Nichirin Sword!
And what made Kenjaku even more despairing...
Amidst Yoru's high-frequency slashes, arcs of black lightning that distorted space were mixed in!
"Crimson Flash!"
This was the physical version of Black Flash Yoru had forced out through sheer speed and power!
The crimson slashes and the black spatial distortions wove a dense, inescapable net in the air, pinning the source of the explosion firmly in place!
"This is impossible!!!"
Kenjaku's hideous brain screamed in disbelief at the sight.
He couldn't understand how a human could use a broken sword and pure physical strength to suppress the self-detonation of a Special Grade Vengeful Cursed Spirit!
"Nothing is impossible."
In the moment of Kenjaku's shock, Yoru's voice, cold as a reaper's, whispered from behind him.
"Your time is up."
Kenjaku's scalp prickled.
He spun around, only to see a pair of burning crimson-gold eyes.
And a deep red blade, carrying the power to destroy heaven and earth, swinging toward him!
"Don't you dare!"
At this final moment of life and death, the thousand-year-old fox finally showed his hair-raising survival instinct.
"Buzz—!"
A technique filled with strange spatial fluctuations activated around the brain.
He was actually trying to forcibly transfer his soul into a mangled cursed spirit corpse in the distance!
As long as his soul escaped, as long as he had a single breath left...
He could switch bodies again and make a comeback!
"Thinking of running?"
A mocking sneer touched Yoru's lips.
In the face of the full-power Transparent World, any of Kenjaku's minor movements were as laughable as running naked in the sunlight.
"I told you."
"This strike won't just sever your body."
"It will sever your karma!"
"Swish—!!!"
Yoru's blade didn't strike the brain directly as Kenjaku predicted.
Instead, at a bizarre angle that defied physical common sense, it made a sharp turn in mid-air!
The deep red blade, carrying the spatial-distorting Crimson Flash, slashed right through the invisible but lethal thread of karma between Kenjaku's brain and the soul he was trying to transfer!
"AAAAAAAAAA—!!!"
A soul-shattering scream, so shrill it made even Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto's scalps tingle, echoed through the night sky!
"Squelch!"
It was the sound of something incredibly important being completely severed.
Although Kenjaku's brain managed to barely escape into a pitch-black spatial rift using that strange technique at the last second...
The price was catastrophic!
His soul had suffered an absolutely irreversible and terrifying wound from that single strike of the Bright Red Nichirin Sword!
Before the spatial rift closed...
A bloody arm, still clutching a Special Grade Cursed Tool radiating an eerie aura, was cleanly severed by Yoru's blade after losing its soul connection and crashed heavily into the charred ruins.
"Whew..."
Yoru held his striking pose, gasping for breath.
In his hand, the Bright Red Nichirin Sword let out a final cry after losing the support of the 50% synchronization rate.
The relit blade shattered instantly, reverting to a piece of scrap metal—broken and covered in countless tiny cracks.
The deep red mark on his forehead also began to fade.
"He still got away..."
Yoru looked at the severed arm on the ground, his brow furrowing slightly.
This thousand-year-old fox's survival methods far exceeded his expectations.
"Still, after taking a direct hit to the soul from a Bright Red Nichirin Sword, even if he isn't dead, he's definitely lost a layer of skin."
Satoru Gojo walked over and kicked the severed arm, a serious look flashing in his eyes.
"Yoru, that guy might have escaped."
"But did you notice? When he fled..."
Suguru Geto also limped over, his narrow eyes shimmering with a dangerous light.
"He took a portion of Rika's cursed energy husk with him."
Hearing this, Yoru's pupils constricted.
Rika's cursed energy husk?!
What other crazy trump cards was that old fox hiding?
Would that stolen power become the most fatal foreshadowing for his future plan?