"No choice..."
After a split-second of deliberation, Roy stretched out his hand with clear displeasure, tracing a rune in midair that radiated an aura of divine authority and profound mystery.
BOOOOOOM—!!!
The meteor crashed into the earth.
The moment it struck, it felt like a massive earthquake had erupted. The tremors were so intense they could be felt for kilometers around.
At the epicenter of the impact, the root-formed crater shattered violently, exploding into countless splintered branches that scattered in all directions.
Several nearby buildings cracked and collapsed under the violent shockwaves. A gale of wind, carrying scorching flames, whipped between the structures, forming a heatwave so intense it could evaporate water, turning the surrounding hundred-meter radius into a sea of blistering air.
"Did we succeed?"
Hanami leaped out of the collapsed building, standing on a floating tree sphere, her body slightly leaning forward as she watched the shattered ground below with intense tension.
Although such an attack would be enough to annihilate any sorcerer, she dared not relax even slightly against this opponent. Until she saw his corpse, she wouldn't allow herself the slightest carelessness.
On the other side, Jogo's expression showed a trace of confusion.
He stared at the smoke-covered ground below, his single large eye trembling as if in disbelief.
"The impact felt off. The meteor definitely hit, but the sensation was wrong!"
"No, don't panic! That guy took my strongest attack head-on—there's no way he could still be alive! Even if the impact felt strange, it might just be because Hanami was sealing his escape routes..."
Yes, that was entirely possible.
After all, he'd never fought alongside Hanami before—there had never been an enemy that required it.
They were Special Grade curses, beings at the top of the food chain. There had never been a need to join forces—one of them could slaughter groups of sorcerers alone.
This was his first time cooperating with Hanami in battle against humans, so it was natural for the impact to feel slightly unusual.
With this thought, Jogo's unease gradually subsided.
He turned to look at Hanami beside him.
"No sorcerer, no matter how strong, could survive that attack. Hanami, let's go find Mahito!"
But at that very moment—
Even as he spoke, a horrifying scene unfolded before Jogo.
A figure leaped up from the smoke below, appearing soundlessly behind Hanami.
"Hanami!!"
Jogo's heart leaped into his throat, his voice twisting with fear and rage.
"Of you three, I hate you the most!"
The voice whispered like death itself in Hanami's ear.
Hanami's entire body tensed instantly.
She immediately manipulated the tree sphere beneath her to dart forward.
"Good, escaped his attack ran—"
Schlick!
But unfortunately.
Hanami only thought she'd escaped Roy's attack range.
In the next instant, a brand-new rune blade sliced upward from below, cleaving her from crotch to neck before stopping.
Half a foot more, and it would have split her head clean in two.
Crimson blood sprayed from Hanami's body like rain, splattering downward only to evaporate upon contact with the residual heat on the ground.
"Cough... Hah!"
Hanami coughed up copious amounts of blood, her gaze filled with intense resentment as she turned to look at Roy.
But Roy's upward momentum had reached its limit, and he began falling back down.
Before descending, he swung his blade, sending Hanami's body flying into a nearby collapsed building.
"Harder than I expected!"
Roy took a deep breath, using the Shukuchi's lightness technique to land gracefully, his expression brimming with satisfaction.
"Thought I could split her like a watermelon in one slash, but she's still got half a head left. Same when I punched her earlier—she's noticeably tougher than that volcano head."
Still, at least one was dealt with.
Still, among them, the most adept was the one specializing in control.
As everyone knows, when hunting in the wild, the most annoying opponent isn't the damage dealer but the controller who inflicts all sorts of debilitating status effects.
Roy had been thoroughly disgusted earlier when Hanami blocked his path.
To withstand Jogo's meteor crashing down from the sky, he had no choice but to use the Primordial Runes—something he hadn't touched in a long time. Layering seven or eight barriers, learned by stealing from Cú Chulainn, he barely managed to hold the meteor at bay.
The Primordial Runes were powerful—exceptionally so. When wielded skillfully, they were a supreme magecraft capable of rivaling divine authority.
But this magecraft had one major flaw.
Namely—its absurdly high mana consumption!
Roy, who could effortlessly write hundreds of ordinary runes without breaking a sweat, had just used eight Primordial Runes and instantly burned through half his mana reserves.
Coupled with the constant expenditure of cursed energy during his battle against the three cursed spirits—since physical attacks alone were ineffective and he had to imbue his fists and blade with cursed energy to harm them—his remaining mana had dropped below half, leaving him with just over 30%.
Roy's mana reserves were actually quite substantial.
But that depended on who you compared him to.
Against ordinary magi or Genestellars, his magical energy and prana were overwhelmingly abundant.
But in truth, among homunculi, Roy's mana was merely excellent—not top-tier.
The true pinnacle of homunculi was the magnum opus of the Einzberns—the Lesser Grail, Illyasviel.
Illya's mana reserves dwarfed Roy's.
Yet, compared to legendary Phantasmal Species, even Illya's mana was but a drop in the ocean.
And in the world of Jujutsu Kaisen...
Roy couldn't quite gauge the overall cursed energy levels here yet, but based on his observations during the fight against Mahito, he estimated his total mana was at best comparable to that of special-grade cursed spirits like Mahito, Jogo, and Hanami.
Possibly even slightly inferior.
And that was only against the Mahito from before—now, Mahito's cursed energy had likely skyrocketed, surpassing Roy's by several times.
"Hanami!! Damn you, human—I'll never forgive you!"
Jogo, watching Hanami's body get tossed aside like a rag, was instantly consumed by rage. The volcanoes atop his head and ears erupted with steam so thick it obscured vision.
Without hesitation, he charged at Roy.
At the same time, his hands formed an eerie seal.
"—Domain Expansion: Coffin of the Iron Mountain!"
A hoarse, furious voice rang out.
In an instant, a pitch-black sky unfurled above, as if a coffin lid had been forcibly shut, sealing away the entire world before them.
A dark shroud replaced the night sky overhead.
The shattered streets and buildings around them vanished, replaced by a bizarre landscape of volcanic rock and searing magma—a world of scorching heat and overwhelming danger.
Within this volcanic realm...
Jogo stood at the heart of the crater, his eyes burning with hatred as he glared at Roy, who had been dragged to the edge of his domain.
Domain, that is the ultimate destination of a technique, achieved by pushing one's innate technique to its limits.
By expending an enormous amount of cursed energy, one can construct an innate domain filled with their own cursed technique within a certain range. Within this expanded domain, since the surrounding space becomes an extension of their technique, not only is the power of the technique significantly enhanced, but it also grants the effect of "guaranteed hit"!
However, this was also his final move. His cursed energy had drastically weakened after using his ultimate technique, and now, deploying his domain was a desperate, all-or-nothing gamble!
"Die! A human like you has no place in this world!"
The furious roar had barely faded when eight volcanic craters suddenly erupted on either side of Roy, unleashing flames even more powerful than before, like a chain reaction of undersea volcanic eruptions.
Strangely, not all the craters were aimed at Roy—some were even facing the opposite direction. Yet, the moment the flames erupted, without any visible trajectory change, all eight blazes inexplicably appeared directly on Roy's body.
"This is the guaranteed hit effect of the domain! Since this entire space is an extension of my technique, it's as if your skin is exposed directly to it. You must have used up a lot of cursed energy escaping my ultimate technique earlier. Let's see how you withstand this now!"
An ordinary sorcerer would have turned to ashes the moment they entered this domain.
Even if this guy's body is harder than steel, without cursed energy to reinforce his defenses, there's no way he could survive such an onslaught!
"How many times is this now that you've been certain you'd win?"
From within the engulfing flames, Roy's voice rang out, utterly devoid of urgency.
"I'm genuinely puzzled. What gave you such confidence?"
Jogo's eyes widened in shock.
Through the gaps in the flames, he saw Roy completely unharmed. A thin, glowing white film covered his body—one layer shattered, only for another to instantly take its place, shielding him seamlessly from head to toe. The flames couldn't even touch him.
Each film wasn't particularly strong in defense, but their numbers were staggering. In the brief moment he spoke, seven layers had already flickered into existence.
"Barrier techniques! Covering his body with barriers to negate the guaranteed hit effect! Is this guy also a master of barrier techniques?!"
Jogo instantly understood Roy's method of countering the domain, his single eye glaring at him with hatred.
"Then let's see how much cursed energy you have left to keep those barriers up!"
After all, barriers require cursed energy to activate.
Especially these body-covering barriers—they can only be maintained by personally channeling cursed energy, leaving no room for shortcuts.
"Is this all your domain can do?"
Amid the inferno, Roy smirked, his expression tinged with disdain.
Before setting out, he had prudently tucked dozens of auto-deploying barrier talismans inside his clothes. After all, anything could happen upon arrival, and it was always better to be prepared.
"Enough. I'm bored now."
Roy sighed lightly.
With a single step, his figure vanished from within the flames.
Jogo's eyes bulged, his entire body jolting as a mix of fury and terror surged through him. He frantically turned his head, searching for Roy's figure.
Whoosh!
In the next instant, Roy's figure appeared before him as if teleporting.
Before Jogo could even react, a blade flashed past, severing his head in one clean strike.