The last one was a white-haired old man who had lost his right arm—Zenin Naobito!
His experience let him react immediately! The moment Jogo locked onto Nanami, his gaunt body shot toward Jogo at an unbelievable speed, trying to get behind him!
But the instant his feet touched the ground, his pupils shrank to pinpoints!
On either side behind him, two small volcanoes had silently erupted from the ground without warning! Their craters faced him, filled with roiling, viscous lava that radiated an aura of destruction!
"Hah!" Naobito managed only a brief gasp.
Two torrents of lava burst violently from the volcanoes, like furious crimson dragons! They struck his position with perfect precision, leaving no angle untouched!
Rumble—!!!
Terrifying heat and shockwaves swept outward! Naobito's figure was instantly engulfed and swallowed by the crimson-gold torrents of lava. Not even the slightest trace of resistance remained!
Lava rampaged, melting the scorched earth into bubbling, boiling slurry.
Jogo stood where he was, not even glancing at the three places where lava boiled over the land of destruction.
His enormous single eye remained cold and indifferent, as if he had merely crushed three annoying bugs underfoot.
His icy voice rang clearly over the crackling flames and the distant din of disaster:
"The third."
The scorched earth at the edges of the lava craters still sizzled. The air was filled with the pungent smell of scorching heat and the heavy stench of Cursed Residue.
Jogo's enormous eye swept coldly across the three lava-ravaged areas, confirming that the ants had been utterly annihilated.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A malicious, suffocatingly heavy surge of Cursed Energy suddenly spread out like a tsunami!
Jogo's huge eye flew wide open! Deep within his pupil, an emotion that could only be called "terror" flashed by!
"The scent of Sukuna's Finger..." His voice ground like stone, faltering with disbelief.
Without a moment's hesitation, his muscular body turned into a blur and shot toward the source of that terrifying aura! Only warped, superheated air and three deep lava craters remained where he had been.
Jogo's figure had just vanished around the corner.
Right beside the spot where Zenin Naobito had just been swallowed by the lava, the air split open without warning!
A blue rift appeared out of nowhere, familiar blue arcs of electricity dancing along its edges as a deep, starry vortex spun within.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Three figures were violently tossed out and crashed onto the scorching earth, where the lava had stopped flowing.
They were Nanami Kento, Zenin Maki, and Zenin Naobito!
The three landed in a heap, their faces still bearing the shock and bewilderment from the moment before death had struck.
They stared blankly at their hands and feet. Apart from the injuries and exhaustion they had suffered fighting Dagon, there was no sign of the charring or vaporization they had expected. They didn't even have a single burn, let alone a fatal wound!
What was going on?!
A foot wearing a pair of classic red-and-black AJ1 sneakers stepped steadily out of the blue rift and onto the scorched earth.
Then Chen Tian emerged from the starry rift in a single step.
He wore a simple black hooded T-shirt and dark jeans. His white hair stirred slightly in the hot wind, heavy with the presence of curses.
His expression was blank, cold as the steel jungle of Shibuya at night. He glanced casually at the three still sprawled on the ground.
"Are you all right?" His voice was calm, even a little aloof.
Nanami Kento was the first to react. Suppressing his shock and wariness of the unknown, he pushed himself upright and fixed Chen Tian with a sharp gaze. "Who are you, sir?"
Before Chen Tian could answer, Zenin Maki let out a short cry beside him and blurted out, pointing at Chen Tian, "Nanami! You don't know who he is?! He's a hugely popular star lately—Nero!"
Her face was full of shock, but the astonishment in her eyes quickly gave way to the excitement of seeing a top idol and an almost absurd sense of disbelief.
The person who had stepped out of a rift in space and saved their lives was unmistakably Nero, the rising idol who had taken Japan by storm—the one on television and billboards!
Nanami Kento and Zenin Naobito, who was struggling to sit up, both froze. "A celebrity?"
They exchanged a look, each seeing the confusion in the other's eyes and the cracks in their worldview.
Someone who could silently rescue all three of them from the center of a deadly lava eruption caused by a Special Grade Cursed Spirit like Jogo?
The bar for becoming a celebrity had gotten this ridiculous?!
Chen Tian paid no attention to their complicated stares.
He turned his head slightly, gazing toward the ruins in the distance. That was where the terrifying surge of Cursed Energy had just erupted—and the direction Jogo had hurried off toward.
The warped ripples lingering in the air and the mountain-heavy malice of that Cursed Energy made the corner of his mouth curl with excitement.
"Heh... So it's begun."
Make Me Happy
A deafening explosion tore through the night! A skyscraper dozens of stories tall blew apart and collapsed in an instant, as if it were made of paper! Steel and concrete were ripped to pieces by a raging force, flung in every direction along with smoke and flames!
Two dark figures shot out of the blast like cannonballs!
"Ha!" A wildly arrogant laugh burst through the smoke. Ryomen Sukuna, his hair pink, hovered in midair and looked at Jogo's battered figure. "Is that all you've got, cu—urse?!"
Jogo spat blood, his enormous eye bloodshot with fury! He forced himself to steady his body as two wildly spinning lava fireballs appeared in his palms and pointed at Sukuna!
"It's not over—!!!" Jogo roared, ready to unleash his destructive power!
Two black slashes flashed into existence, faster than the eye could follow!
The lava fireballs Jogo had just formed, along with his arms, were severed at the wrists! The cuts were as smooth as mirrors! His severed hands and the fireballs fell helplessly.
"Wha—?!" Jogo's eye froze in shock.
Sukuna's figure had already appeared above him like a ghost, a cruel grin splitting his lips! With both fists clenched, he brought them down hard on Jogo's head, carrying a force that could crush everything!
Thud—!!!?
The dull impact was loud enough to make one's heart burst! Jogo's head visibly caved in and warped! The terrifying force surged through his body, sending him crashing toward the ground like a meteor at even greater speed!
Sukuna was faster! He plunged after him and caught up in an instant! His left hand clamped around Jogo's deformed head like an iron vise!
Rumble!!!?
The two hurtled down like human cannonballs and smashed through the rooftop of the building below!
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!?
A relentless succession of dull, thunderous impacts roared down through the building!
One floor! Two floors! Three...
At a horrifying speed, the two punched through one reinforced-concrete floor after another, leaving enormous holes behind! The entire building shuddered and groaned!
At last, a heavy thud exploded deep in the foundation, sending dust billowing into the air.
The bottom floor of the building, at the center of the collapsed ruins.
Moonlight struggled to filter through the countless holes above, casting a pale glow over a small patch of ground.
Sukuna stood there, proud and upright. He had his hands in his pockets and looked utterly relaxed, as if he had merely taken a stroll.
He raised his chin slightly. The bizarre black Cursed Marks on his face looked all the more sinister in the moonlight. The smaller pair of eyes beneath his main ones gazed coldly down at the prey beneath him, gleaming with something inhuman.
A wicked smile curled his lips, and his icy voice echoed through the ruins:
"The moonlight's getting in..."
"It can't hide your wretched state now."
Before him, most of Jogo's body was buried beneath rubble and twisted rebar. His chest heaved as he wheezed like a broken bellows, and mouthfuls of filthy blood mixed with chunks of his innards kept spilling from his mouth.
At his severed arms, flesh struggled to squirm and regenerate.
Under the cold moonlight, the once-arrogant Special Grade Cursed Spirit was left with nothing but desperate weakness and utter humiliation.
"Am I as strong as how many of Sukuna's fingers?" Jogo sat in a beach chair, looking at Chisaki, who was grinning beside him.
"Let's be optimistic," Uraume said, lowering a finger. "Probably eight or nine fingers."
Terror filled Jogo's huge eye. He remembered his previous conversation with Uraume about their Domain Expansion, and now it seemed absurd.
'Eight or nine fingers? Uraume, were you trying to flatter me?' Jogo wailed inwardly in despair.
"All right, all right. Keep at it." Sukuna crouched beside Jogo and lifted him by the back of his collar with one hand. "You can play as many times as you like before I get bored." Jogo's pupil snapped toward Sukuna.
"Boom!!!" Countless Fire Pillars burst from the building's windows and doors, and even through the gaping hole in its rooftop.
Outside, on the road, Sukuna's figure appeared first, followed close behind by Jogo. Jogo pulled his right hand back into a claw, flames engulfing his palm.
"Maximum: Meteor!" Jogo roared, and an enormous mass of flames exploded into existence.
Not far away, Kusukabe and Panda sensed that terrifying Cursed Energy and were about to flee. Two Curse Users were chasing them.
Suddenly, Sukuna's voice rang out among the four of them. "Nope."
The four instantly broke into a cold sweat under the pressure of Sukuna's terrifying Cursed Energy. In a playful, gentle voice, Sukuna said, "From now on, none of you move without my permission."
Sukuna looked up. An enormous meteor wrapped in crimson flames was hurtling down from the sky.
"Stay put, stay put." Sukuna slowly raised his hands as if preparing to clap. A mocking curve played on his lips, and his scarlet gaze swept over the four pinned in place by his Cursed Energy—Kusukabe, Panda, and the two battered Curse Users. Every pore on their bodies quivered with despair; every stiffened limb silently screamed.
He relished his absolute control, like a child teasing trembling ants in his palm. "You can't run just yet."
His cruel smile grew ever broader. The air between his palms seemed to freeze, building toward the "spectacle" of blood and flesh bursting like fireworks after his clap.
Just as his palms were about to meet—
The world suddenly fell silent!
It was as if something more fundamental had cut through and torn apart the space between heaven and earth!
Countless razor-sharp blue-white flashes engulfed his vision! They were not light, but the will to cut through everything!
Boundless cutting force appeared out of nowhere, filling every inch of space in Sukuna's field of vision!
Slash—!!!
The enormous molten meteor, hurtling down in a furious descent with the power to destroy the world, suddenly stopped in midair amid a storm of blue-white blade flashes.
The next moment, there was no explosion, no roar.
Like a fragile sand sculpture eroding away, or as if pierced by billions of invisible blades at once, the enormous meteor burst apart and disintegrated!
It turned into a vast cloud of fine stone dust, mixed with red-hot particles of lava that had instantly gone dark. The fragments drifted down through the night sky, forming a huge, eerie gray curtain of dust that muddied even the pale moonlight.
The maniacal grin on Sukuna's face froze.
His scarlet pupils contracted to pinpoints, clearly reflecting the dust that had erased the meteor.
It wasn't fear, but rather... the displeasure of having his meal interrupted, along with an even more fervent delight that flared up after he saw who had intruded!
The frozen grin on his face cracked like ice, then twisted and spread into a crazed expression of excitement!
"Heh... Hahahahaha!" Sukuna tilted his head back. A low, uncontrollable laugh rolled from his throat, rising until it became a reckless howl that exploded over the silent ruins.
"Now that's one hell of a guy—!!!"
Through the laughter, his scarlet eyes, brimming with pure malice, pierced the drifting meteor dust and fixed on the sky above.
High in the night sky, dust drifted down like gray snow.
Chen Tian hovered there.
His left hand casually held Jogo by the back of his collar. The arrogant volcano-headed curse now hung like a dead dog, his body battered, his single eye dim, his severed arms dangling limply.
He twitched faintly now and then, proof that he still clung to a breath of life. Filthy cursed blood and ash kept dripping from him.
Chen Tian's right hand rested casually on the hilt of the strangely ancient blade at his waist—the Enma Sword.
The hood of his dark T-shirt fluttered in the high-altitude wind, revealing several strands of white hair falling over his forehead.
He lowered his head slightly and looked down at Sukuna, who was laughing among the ruins.
His gaze was as calm as ice that had remained frozen for time immemorial, without a trace of emotion—only the absolute indifference of someone who looked down on all creation.
Wind swept over the ruins, stirring up the ash.
Before you continue