"Quick! Everyone, evacuate now!"
Grade 1 sorcerer Atsuya Kusakabe shouted to Panda beside him, sweat pouring down his face as he swung his katana to cut down several curse users attempting a sneak attack.
Panda's massive frame maneuvered nimbly through the debris, but his furry face was currently twisted in a very human expression of terror.
"Hey, old man! What on earth is that thing!?"
Panda pointed toward the sky over the city center, his voice trembling.
Kusakabe jerked his head upward.
Above Shibuya, which should have been shrouded in night, a colossal vortex of flames had appeared!
At the center of that vortex, a giant meteor the size of a skyscraper—its surface flowing with searing lava—was physically manifesting out of the void!
The crushing pressure of total destruction felt suffocating even from several blocks away.
Jogo had burned through all his cursed energy to unleash the ultimate manifestation of the earth's wrath—
[MAXIMUM: METEOR]!
The massive flaming meteor let out a howl as it tore through the atmosphere, descending slowly as if it intended to sink all of Shibuya into the ground!
"Run! Hurry up and run!"
Kusakabe screamed in terror. Cold sweat instantly soaked his back, and he could barely keep his grip on his sword.
"When Special Grade spirits of that level fight, it's like elephants dancing on the heads of ants!"
"Forget the confrontation! If we stay here, even a glancing blow from the aftershocks of that battle will turn us into nothing but ash!"
Kusakabe, Panda, and even the two remaining curse users who had been full of killing intent moments ago no longer had any thoughts of fighting.
Everyone dropped their weapons in a silent, mutual understanding. Without a moment's hesitation, they turned to sprint toward the outskirts of Shibuya.
However.
At the very moment they turned around.
*Whoosh!*
A ghost-like figure appeared on their path of escape without any warning.
There was no sound, and no violent surge of cursed energy.
Yet the moment that figure appeared, a terrifying aura—powerful enough to cause despair and evil enough to seem capable of devouring souls—instantly enveloped the area!
Kusakabe and Panda's pupils instantly shrank to the size of needle points.
Cold sweat poured from their foreheads like a waterfall.
Their bodies froze completely in that instant; they couldn't even move a finger!
It wasn't because the opponent had used some kind of binding technique; it was a primal, biological fear of an absolute superior being!
Standing before them was the man who looked like a demon god himself—
Ryomen Sukuna.
Sukuna stood with his arms crossed, his crimson eyes coldly scanning Kusakabe, Panda, and the surrounding curse users who hadn't managed to flee yet.
With a voice that was cold and majestic, yet carried an air of absolute authority, he slowly issued a command:
"Listen up, all of you."
"From this moment on, everyone in this block with me at the center..."
Sukuna's voice wasn't loud, yet it echoed clearly in the depths of their souls.
"Until I say 'Okay,' no one is allowed to move."
"Not even a single finger."
He tilted his head slightly, the corners of his mouth curling into a cruel arc.
"Anyone who dares move, I'll kill."
Absolute pressure! Absolute dominance!
Enveloped by this palpable killing intent, Kusakabe, Panda, and the two curse users felt as though their hearts were about to stop beating.
Their muscles were tense to the limit, their pupils dilated, and even breathing became incredibly difficult.
Everyone could only stand there frozen, trapped in their fleeing poses, watching as the massive flaming meteor in the sky drew closer and closer to the ground with world-ending force!
One hundred meters... fifty meters... thirty meters!
The blistering heat had already singed their hair, and the shadow of death completely enveloped them.
Sukuna looked up at the meteor about to strike the ground and shook his head slightly, slowly uttering three words in a low, mocking tone:
"Not yet."
"Not yet."
The absolute control in his voice made it seem as though even the Grim Reaper was coordinating with his countdown.
Ten meters... five meters... one meter!
At the final instant before the meteor struck the earth and triggered a catastrophic explosion!
Sukuna lightly clapped his hands and said casually:
"Okay. Scram."
The moment the words left his mouth!
Kusakabe, Panda, and the two curse users practically scrambled on all fours, exploding with power that surpassed their physical limits as they fled in every direction!
The next second!
*BOOM!*
The meteor slammed into the ground!
In the moment of contact, it felt as if time had frozen for a second.
Then, a cataclysmic explosion akin to a nuclear blast erupted in the heart of Shibuya!
The terrifying shockwave swept through the entire block; had they left even a step later, they would have been annihilated instantly!
Blinding white light swallowed everything.
A gargantuan, dark-red mushroom cloud—choked with endless dust and lava—violently surged into the sky over Shibuya!
The shockwave was like a level twelve hurricane, leveling every building, street, and ruin within a several-kilometer radius!
At that moment, the entirety of Shibuya was reduced to a barren wasteland.
Some time later.
When the sky full of dust and searing steam finally began to disperse.
A bottomless crater, hundreds of meters in diameter, appeared where the bustling city center once stood.
"Huff... huff..."
Jogo's battered body lay collapsed at the edge of the crater.
He gasped for breath, his once-roaring flames now as dim as a flickering candle in the wind.
To activate [MAXIMUM: METEOR], he had overdrawn all of his cursed energy and life force.
"Did I... succeed?"
Jogo's dull, single eye stared fixedly into the center of the crater, trying to find that man's corpse among the ruins.
However.
The moment the dust completely vanished.
Jogo's pupil shrank to its limit!
Above the core of the giant meteor's remains.
Sukuna stood there, completely unscathed!
Even his black Jujutsu High uniform didn't have a speck of dust on it, as if the explosion that had just leveled half of Shibuya was nothing more than a light breeze.
*Crackle.*
Sukuna lifted his foot and casually stepped onto the meteor core that was still radiating heat.
Accompanied by a crisp shattering sound.
That core, which concentrated all of Jogo's power, was crushed into powder beneath his foot as easily as a biscuit!
"That move was actually somewhat interesting."
Sukuna brushed the dust from his hands and looked down at the slumped Jogo.
"If it were an ordinary Special Grade, they might have actually been crushed to death by that."
"However..."
The mockery in Sukuna's eyes resurfaced.
"The power was still a bit lacking."
He slowly stepped down from the meteor's remains and approached Jogo step by step.
"Besides, I've been curious about something."
There was an undisguised sense of ridicule in Sukuna's voice.
"Why didn't you use your Domain Expansion earlier?"
"Even when you were pushed to your absolute limit, you didn't dare use your final means of struggle..."
Sukuna stopped in front of Jogo, his crimson eyes seemingly peering into the fear deep within Jogo's soul.
"Is it because you were beaten into submission by Satoru Gojo before?"
Those words were like a sharp, poisoned blade, precisely piercing through the deepest shadow of Jogo's heart!
"I..."
Jogo opened his mouth, only to find that he couldn't make a sound.
He was completely broken.
The flames he took pride in were ignored, his strongest Maximum technique was easily crushed, and even his inner fear was heartlessly stripped bare by the opponent.
Faced with absolute power, all of his pride had become a pathetic joke.
"I'm bored of this."
Sukuna turned his gaze back to the despairing Jogo.
He slowly raised his right hand, his fingers curling slightly.
"Since you enjoy playing with fire so much..."
"I'll send you on your way using the method you're best at."