The strongest

The Elephant God moved first.

All four arms rose at once, forming an ancient hand seal-two palms pressed together before his chest, while the other two hands each formed a separate seal.

The next second, Gu Yanzhi felt the ground vanish beneath his feet.

His body floated uncontrollably off the ground. Rubble, shards of glass, and flakes of plaster rose into the air with him.

Itadori and Nanami floated up beside him. Itadori struggled desperately in midair but found nothing to push against, his limbs flailing in the weightlessness; Nanami gripped his cleaver and tried to adjust his posture, but he felt as though he were submerged in deep water, every movement slowed by invisible resistance.

At the same time, a message appeared directly in Mahito's mind-it was Kenjaku's voice.

"Things have already gone beyond our expectations. I had no choice but to reveal my presence. While I have them restrained, we need to retreat. Don't forget that Satoru Gojo is still alive."

Mahito did not respond. He knew things had gotten out of hand, but the transfigured human slipping out of his control unsettled him even more. He had to kill or reclaim this aberration.

On the verge of death just moments earlier, he had grasped the core of cursed energy and grown stronger. He believed he could settle everything before that man arrived.

He believed he could do it.

He lunged toward Gu Yanzhi, leaving an afterimage streaking through the air.

"Domain Expansion-Self-Embodiment of Perfection."

Countless enormous hands emerged from the void around Mahito, palms turned inward and fingers bent, closing toward the center like a cage.

The domain's boundary expanded rapidly, swallowing Gu Yanzhi whole.

At the same time, the floating sensation abruptly vanished from Gu Yanzhi's body-the domain had completely cut off the Elephant God's control over gravity. He fell from midair and slammed onto the hard ground inside the domain.

He felt his six limbs twisting grotesquely-first his right arm snapped backward with a crack, bone piercing through his skin; then his left leg, its knee twisting a hundred and eighty degrees in the wrong direction, followed by another hand and another leg, the sharp cracks of bursting bones coming one after another.

In the end, only his head retained a relatively intact shape.

Silence fell inside the domain.

Mahito walked over, picked up the head, and raised it before his face. Fury filled his expression as he stared into its eyes.

"What the hell are you?"

Gu Yanzhi stared at the face before him. He opened his mouth and spat straight into Mahito's face.

"You really think you can toy with other people, you worthless piece of shit!"

Gu Yanzhi burst out laughing, the sound echoing through the domain's enclosed space.

"You ask what I am-you cursed spirit skulking in the dark, you've got some nerve!"

"Who do you think you are? You think molding humans however you like makes you strong? A special grade cursed spirit? A new humanity? Fuck that! You're nothing but a parasite."

Mahito abruptly clamped a hand over his mouth, squeezing hard enough to nearly crush Gu Yanzhi's jaw.

The fury on his face had twisted into an icy calm.

"I don't have time for your bullshit right now. We'll take our time talking once we're back."

Gu Yanzhi could feel the power of Idle Transfiguration pouring from Mahito's palm again, beginning to eat away at his head.

Half his head began to distort. The tissue beneath his skin writhed and changed shape, and faint cracks came from his skull.

He knew what Mahito intended, and dread abruptly gripped him.

If he was killed, he would return to the System Space and continue his plan. But if he was stored away again-compressed back into that darkness, neither alive nor dead, unable even to trigger the system-it would all be over.

But then came a chance.

Mahito's Idle Transfiguration suddenly stopped.

The domain's boundary split open.

The dark purple barrier peeled away layer by layer. The enormous hands dissolved into smoke one after another, light pierced through the cracks, and the entire domain collapsed.

Gu Yanzhi's head rolled onto the shattered floor tiles. He turned his eyes toward the scene outside-a massive crater at least ten meters across, its concrete bottom pulverized to dust and twisted rebar jutting toward the sky.

Itadori and Nanami stood at the crater's edge, relief written across their faces. But relief was not all that showed-traces of a deeper shock still lingered.

Only half of the Elephant God's body remained.

Half an elephant's head, half a torso, half a strand of prayer beads hanging around the mutilated neck-the other half was gone, the cut so smooth it looked as though some unimaginable power had simply erased it.

The remaining half slowly crumbled. Prayer beads fell to the ground one by one with dull thuds.

Mahito stood amid the remnants of his dissolving domain, his expression utterly changed.

He was afraid.

The Elephant God's destruction meant Kenjaku's cover had failed. The cursed technique burnout following his Domain Expansion left him temporarily unable to use Idle Transfiguration, and Itadori and Nanami were still alive.

Most importantly, he had sensed it.

That man's cursed energy.

The Curtain was dissolving.

The black-gray veil covering the entire campus began to peel away from its highest point, breaking apart piece by piece and vanishing into nothing.

Beams of light poured down from the vault of sky where the Curtain had completely disappeared, one after another, bathing the entire expanse of ruins in holy white light.

Dust swirled within the shafts of light, every tiny mote illuminated in perfect clarity, like flecks of gold suspended in the air.

Gu Yanzhi's head rolled onto the floor tiles at the crater's edge.

He turned his eyes upward, using what little vision he had left. From his angle, he could see only part of the sky-but he saw that man.

A black Jujutsu High uniform fluttered in the light, his white hair turned into a silver waterfall by its glow.

A blindfold covered half his face. On the exposed lower half, there was no anger, no urgency, none of the expressions one would expect in battle.

His lips were pressed together slightly, as though he had just left a boring meeting early-a calm bordering on indifference.

One hand rested in his pocket, the other hung at his side, his posture as casual as if he had come for a stroll.

He walked down from the sky upon the light, "descending" like a god.

White-gold radiance spread behind him like an enormous scroll unfurling.

Those beams pierced the ruins, shining on the shattered tiles at the crater's edge, on Itadori's bloodstained face, on Nanami's tense shoulders, on the Elephant God's crumbling remains, and in Mahito's terrified eyes.

Itadori looked up, his lips moving, unable to speak.

Nanami lowered his cleaver, resting its edge against the tiles, and let out a long breath.

That breath carried more than the tension of the battle. It held a sense of reassurance welling up from deep within his bones, something even a Grade 1 Sorcerer like him rarely experienced.

Satoru Gojo looked down over the entire battlefield.

His gaze swept over the crater, over the Elephant God's remains, over Itadori and Nanami-and finally settled on Mahito.

The corner of his mouth shifted. His voice was quiet, but it echoed across the ruins:

"You were acting pretty cocky just now, weren't you?"