"I yield! I, Hajime Kashimo, yield to you completely and wholeheartedly!"
Hearty, unrestrained laughter echoed over the ruins of Tokyo Tower for a long time.
This ancient, strongest God of Thunder from four hundred years ago was now kneeling on one knee upon the scorched earth.
He paid no heed to the ghastly wounds across his body left by the lightning backlash, nor did he care about the weakness following his brush with death.
Hajime Kashimo lifted his head, an unprecedented, almost pilgrim-like fanatical light burning in those pure eyes of lightning.
He stared fixedly at Yoru before him, his voice trembling faintly with extreme excitement.
"I have lived for four hundred years, and the sole purpose of my incarnation and rebirth was to find that legendary monster, Ryomen Sukuna, to witness what the so-called strongest truly looks like."
"But now, I no longer need to seek him out."
Hajime Kashimo pressed his right hand firmly against his chest, his tone immensely solemn and devout.
"Because the truly strongest stands right before me!"
"Yoru!"
He shouted the name aloud, as if engraving it deeply into his very soul.
"Please allow me to follow you!"
"I have no need for illusory points, nor do I care about the final outcome of this bullshit Culling Game."
"My only wish is to stand behind you and witness with my own eyes the moment you sever Sukuna's head with that blade!"
Watching the kneeling Hajime Kashimo, an imperceptible trace of amusement flickered in Yoru's deep red eyes.
He had seen through the essence of this battle fanatic long ago.
For a powerhouse like Hajime Kashimo, who lived solely in pursuit of martial perfection, any scheme or enticement of profit was pale and powerless.
Only absolute power capable of utterly crushing all his pride could make him willingly lower that haughty head.
"Witness me challenge Sukuna?"
Yoru slowly turned around and cast his gaze toward the mist-shrouded distance beyond the barrier.
"That day won't be long in coming."
Tilting his head slightly, he gave Hajime Kashimo a slight nod.
"Since you managed to keep your life, use it to witness the birth of a new world."
"Rise, Hajime Kashimo. From this day forward, you are one of my blades."
Hearing Yoru's consent, an explosion of ecstatic light burst forth in Hajime Kashimo's eyes.
He rose to his feet. Though his body remained somewhat weak, the aura befitting the ancient, strongest God of Thunder underwent a subtle metamorphosis unnoticed.
"Understood, My Lord!"
With Hajime Kashimo's formal submission,
the two most terrifying and troublesome ancient Special Grade reincarnated sorcerers in all of Tokyo Colony No. 1—Sword Saint Musashi Miyamoto and God of Thunder Hajime Kashimo—had now fully fallen under Yoru's command!
Add to that Hiromi Higuruma, who had been won over earlier,
and this deadly barrier, originally intended by Kenjaku to be a meat grinder for consuming the lives of players in droves, had its internal balance of power completely reshuffled by Yoru's strength alone!
"Next, it's time to handle real business."
Wasting no more time, Yoru raised his head and looked at the soaring Tokyo Tower before him.
Within the vision of his Transparent World,
thick bands of dark red cursed energy light, pulsating like blood vessels, continuously extended from deep underground to connect with the void above the barrier.
This was the central hub maintaining the operation of the entire Tokyo Colony No. 1!
"My Lord, do you need my assistance?"
Hajime Kashimo walked to Yoru's side and squeezed his fists eagerly, faint blue electric arcs dancing across his fingertips.
"The cursed energy defense of this core is exceptionally sturdy. Although I can no longer use Mythical Beast Amber right now, using ordinary lightning to tear an opening for you won't be an issue."
"No need."
Yoru shook his head faintly.
He slowly rested his hand on Shiranui's hilt.
"Against an inanimate object like this, a single strike is more than enough."
Buzz!
As Yoru's words fell, a terrifying deep red brilliance instantly surged forth from the scabbard!
Bright Red Nichirin Sword! Fully unleashed!
Yoru drew his sword with motion so fast it defied sight.
Hajime Kashimo barely caught a glimpse of glaring red light before extreme heat capable of incinerating him in an instant roared right past his body!
Slash!
A crimson crescent-shaped blade wave over a hundred meters long, carrying an overbearing pressure meant to sever all Karma, cleaved fiercely toward the subterranean depths beneath Tokyo Tower!
There was no deafening explosion, nor any world-shaking shockwave.
Before the slash of the Bright Red Nichirin Sword, the protective barrier of the core—sturdy enough that even a Special Grade Cursed Spirit could not shake it in the slightest—was effortlessly cleaved in two, like a sheer sheet of window paper!
Sizzle!
The moment the central hub was severed, the dark red cursed energy light bands connected to the sky flickered violently like light tubes stripped of power, before completely going out.
Immediately afterward,
across all of Tokyo Colony No. 1, every surviving player, civilian, and the ancient sorcerers being recruited by Yuji and the others witnessed a spectacle they would never forget for the rest of their lives!
In the sky, the dark red barrier curtain representing death and despair that had shrouded them through countless days and nights
began to develop a dense web of cracks, like a massive pane of shattered glass!
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Crisp fracturing sounds rang out in every corner of the barrier.
Finally, accompanied by a tremendous sigh that seemed to emerge from the void itself,
the indestructible barrier wall collapsed with a crash, dissolving into a sky full of glittering light and dispersing completely into the air!
"The barrier... the barrier vanished?!"
"We're... we're free?!"
Amid the ruins of Shinjuku, countless survivors stared blankly at the azure expanse revealed once more in the sky, their eyes filled with incredulous ecstasy.
They wept tears of joy, and some even fell to their knees, madly kissing the earth that had regained its freedom.
Meanwhile, Yuji Itadori and Hiromi Higuruma, who were recruiting the ancient sorcerers, exchanged glances, both seeing deep shock and awe in the other's eyes.
"Senior Yoru... really did it."
Yuji Itadori clenched his fists, trembling all over with excitement.
"He didn't just break the rules—he overturned the entire board!"
Hiromi Higuruma pushed up his glasses, his gaze turning toward Tokyo Tower.
"The collapse of Tokyo Colony No. 1 is only the beginning."
"Next, the mastermind lurking behind the scenes probably won't be able to sit still."
Just as the entirety of Tokyo Colony No. 1 plunged into jubilant celebration over their reclaimed freedom,
within a concealed subterranean space hundreds of kilometers away,
a man clad in pitch-black robes, with an eerie stitched scar across his forehead, sat cross-legged upon a throne piled high with the corpses of countless cursed spirits.
Kenjaku.
The thousand-year mastermind who had orchestrated the Culling Game sat with his eyes closed, seemingly sensing something.
Suddenly,
his body stiffened abruptly. The eyes that were always filled with mockery and scheming snapped open, a rare wave of fury and disbelief flickering within their depths!
"How is this possible...?"
Kenjaku stood up abruptly, his movement so violent that a trace of dark crimson faintly seeped from the stitched scar on his forehead.
"The core of Tokyo Colony No. 1... was forcibly destroyed?!"
"That's completely impossible! The core of the barrier is hidden deep underground and protected by intricate rules. Even a Special Grade Sorcerer couldn't destroy it without triggering a backlash from the rules!"
Kenjaku's expression darkened to the absolute extreme as his mind frantically deduced every possibility.
Soon, a figure that filled him with dread surfaced in his mind.
The black-haired youth who had severed his arm with a single blade strike during the Shibuya Incident, forcibly interfered with the timeline, and nearly caused his thousand-year plan to fall short!
"Yoru..."
Kenjaku ground out the name through gritted teeth, his voice steeped in murderous intent.
"You anomaly who shouldn't even exist in this world—it really was you!"
"Not only did you ignore the rules of the Culling Game, you've even begun forcibly dismantling the barriers..."
"You have become the largest, and only, variable in my entire Merger plan!"
Kenjaku drew a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the rage in his chest as his gaze turned icy.
He knew that if he allowed Yoru to continue wrecking things like this, the Culling Game he had painstakingly arranged would soon collapse entirely.
When that happened, his plan to assimilate Master Tengen would become an outright joke.
"It seems I can no longer let you run wild."
A cruel arc tugged at the corner of Kenjaku's mouth. He slowly raised his right hand, forming an eerie hand seal in the air.
"Since you enjoy destroying barriers so much, I'll present you with a grand gift."
"Come forth."
"Go and thoroughly erase that anomaly named Yoru!"
Following Kenjaku's summons,
the spine-chilling sound of dragging chains suddenly drifted from the darkness behind him.
Exuding terrifying fluctuations of cursed energy, a shadowy figure so colossal it nearly burst the underground chamber stepped slowly out from the gloom.
It was an ultimate killing weapon cobbled together from the remains of countless powerful ancient reincarnated sorcerers, secretly bred by Kenjaku over a thousand years.
It possessed no reason, no pain, not even a soul—its sole purpose for existing was to execute Kenjaku's kill orders.
With every step the monster took, the ground of the entire Tokyo Colony No. 1 seemed to shudder faintly.