"BOOM!"
Blown away by a single punch, Jogo smashed a massive crater into the ruins.
The reinforced concrete groaned and melted under his extreme body temperature.
"Damn it... Damn it all!"
Jogo's mangled body writhed painfully within the debris.
The powerful regenerative abilities of a Special Grade Cursed Spirit began to take effect. Granulation tissue and cursed energy intertwined, mending his shattered head at a visible pace.
Though the newly formed flesh looked hideous, the fire burning in his remaining eye was more manic and unwilling than ever before!
*He refused to accept this!*
*He was the curse of the earth itself, a Special Grade Cursed Spirit born from the fears of countless living beings!*
*How could he not even have the right to make this man move a single step?!*
"I haven't lost yet!"
Jogo let out a long roar toward the sky, slamming his hands onto the scorching ground.
"Domain..."
He had originally intended to deploy his strongest domain, [COFFIN OF THE IRON MOUNTAIN], using its absolute sure-hit effect to force Sukuna to act.
But the moment the thought crossed his mind, a shiver from the depths of his soul forcefully interrupted his casting.
He didn't dare.
The humiliation of having his domain instantly crushed by Satoru Gojo was still fresh in his memory.
And the man before him—the sheer destructive power and overwhelming pressure he radiated—was even more suffocating than Satoru Gojo's!
*If I open my domain in front of Sukuna and it's overwritten by that unknown and terrifying domain, I truly won't have any room left to struggle!*
*I'll just have to suppress him with absolute firepower!*
Jogo snapped his body upright, his hands quickly weaving signs in front of his chest.
The volcano atop his head, now fully repaired, began to writhe violently once more, letting out a terrifying roar like a precursor to an earthquake!
"Melt for me!"
"RUMBLE—!"
Accompanied by Jogo's strained roar, a pillar of ultra-high-temperature fire several times thicker than before erupted directly from the volcano on his head!
The temperature of this fire pillar instantly soared to thousands of degrees, causing the surrounding air to warp violently from the extreme heat!
"Sizzle! Sizzle!"
Everywhere the fire pillar passed, the remaining asphalt, abandoned car shells, and even the explosion-proof glass of nearby buildings began to melt rapidly.
They turned into pools of white-hot molten iron and liquid glass.
In this moment, the entire Shibuya central district truly seemed to have transformed into a mythological purgatory!
Jogo manipulated this world-destroying pillar of fire like a colossal sword of pure light and heat, swinging it violently toward Sukuna.
"Die!"
The pillar of fire swept across the area where Sukuna stood with world-crushing momentum.
"RUMBLE!"
A row of high-rise commercial buildings behind Sukuna didn't even get the chance to explode; they were sliced clean through by the ultra-high-temperature beam!
The massive structures collapsed with the agonizing sound of twisting metal, triggering a sea of fire and thick smoke.
However.
As Jogo stared intently at the path cut through the sea of fire, the madness in his single eye was replaced once again by an emotion called despair.
Amidst the overwhelming waves of fire.
Sukuna remained standing calmly in his original spot, having not moved an inch.
He tilted his head slightly, and the ultra-high-temperature pillar—capable of melting through skyscrapers—flowed right past both sides of his body!
Those violent flames hadn't singed a single hair or even a corner of his clothing!
"Is this your best?"
Standing in the center of the inferno, Sukuna looked at the panting Jogo and sighed with disappointment.
"How dull."
Sukuna's voice wasn't loud, but it clearly pierced through the roar of the flames and reached Jogo's ears.
"You couldn't even make me take a single step."
Those words were like a sharp blade, stabbing deep into Jogo's pride.
"Don't you dare look down on me!!"
Having been so thoroughly dismissed by Sukuna, the humiliation and rage within Jogo reached a breaking point.
He gritted his teeth and changed his hand signs once more.
*If single-target firepower can't hit you...*
The volcano on Jogo's head began to writhe violently again.
But this time, what erupted was not brilliant lava or fire pillars.
"BZZZZZ—!"
Accompanied by a piercing, scalp-numbing sound of dense wings fluttering.
Countless giant mosquito-like insects, their bodies an eerie purple, surged out from the volcano on Jogo's head like a burst dam!
[EMBER INSECTS]!
This was Jogo's most prideful area-of-effect technique!
Every insect carried extreme heat. Not only were they incredibly fast, but the moment they struck a target, they triggered an explosion powerful enough to level a building!
Furthermore, they were small and numerous, allowing for a saturated attack with no blind spots in mid-air!
"Go! Blow him to ashes!"
Jogo roared, commanding the purple cloud of insects to swarm toward Sukuna!
"BZZZ—!"
Tens of thousands of Ember Insects converged into a terrifying purple torrent, obscuring the night sky above Sukuna with scorching heat and deafening buzzes!
The world-ending momentum seemed ready to level all of Shibuya to the ground!
Faced with this sky-blotting swarm that would drive any sorcerer to despair.
On Sukuna's face, which had been filled with mockery, a hint of genuine interest finally appeared for the first time tonight.
"Oh? Now this is a bit more interesting."
Sukuna looked up slightly at the swarming Ember Insects staining the night sky purple.
"This many homing bombs... it's certainly more amusing than that straightforward fire pillar from before."
But he still showed no intention of moving.
Sukuna merely raised his right hand, pressing his index and middle fingers together.
It was as if he were casually gesturing in the empty air.
"However..."
Sukuna's fingertips traced a light path through the air.
"SLASH!"
There was no world-shaking sound, nor any blinding light of cursed energy.
Yet, the instant Sukuna's finger moved.
An invisible, yet impossibly sharp and terrifying force instantly wove into a seamless net of death in mid-air!
[DISMANTLE]!
This was the King of Curses' most basic, yet most lethal slashing technique!
"SPLATTER! SPLATTER! SPLATTER!"
In the next second.
The tens of thousands of purple insects in the sky, just as they were about to dive and detonate, suddenly and without warning were shredded as if by countless invisible blades.
They were torn to pieces instantly!
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
Those shredded insect bodies, having lost their stability, triggered a chain reaction of violent explosions in mid-air!
Brilliant bursts of fire lit up the night sky one after another, like a grand yet incredibly lethal fireworks display.
The resulting shockwave swept over Shibuya, turning the sky into a beautiful but deadly rain of fire.
"How... how is this possible..."
Jogo stared blankly at the falling sparks in the air. His knees buckled involuntarily, and he collapsed once more onto the scorching asphalt.
His prideful ultimate area attack had been neutralized so easily without the opponent even moving!
What's more, he hadn't even been able to see what Sukuna had done!
The gap was too wide.
This chasm-like difference in power filled Jogo with a profound sense of helplessness and despair.
"Is that all you've got??"
Sukuna looked at the kneeling Jogo, the mockery in his eyes gradually being replaced by a cold killing intent.
"If this is all you can do, then that promise I made earlier is void."
Sukuna slowly raised his right hand, pointing his index and middle fingers toward Jogo's head from a distance.
"After all, I have no use for a piece of trash who can't even make me break a sweat."
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