Intense joy made his Cursed Energy flow more smoothly; once again, he felt as though he could unleash a Black Flash at any moment. He swung his blade again while suspended in mid-air! Under the pull of immense mass, countless winds were drawn into the path of his strike. Gojo Satoru's eyes widened as he watched the blade. By now, Gojo had already lost his left hand; he clenched his right fist and, while floating, brought it to his waist, beginning the starting motion of a long-fist punch.
In the next instant, both moved simultaneously.
Clap.
A soft sound.
—Uncanny Valley!
The two swapped positions again. The Crimson Lotus Demon God repeated his old trick, naturally transitioning from a forward swing to a backward slash. At this moment, the tip of kirigiri's blade was once again about to reach Gojo Satoru, but this time Gojo was prepared. Without hesitation, he turned and struck kirigiri's blade fiercely with his right fist.
But before that:
Clap.
Another soft sound.
Uncanny Valley!
—Continuous swapping!
"Satoru, can you react to this?!" Mahito roared inwardly.
"Of course I can!" Gojo Satoru roared back in his mind as if their hearts were one.
Gojo Satoru felt as if his Six Eyes were burning hot. His attention was fully concentrated, his Cursed Energy perception tightly locked onto the Crimson Lotus Demon God. It was as if the gale and dust of the entire world had become a black twilight, with only the Crimson Lotus Demon God standing out so clearly, as if all the lights in the world were focused solely on him.
Come on, how many times will you swap space? I'll accompany you to the very end!
The Crimson Lotus Demon God swung his blade wildly. Every storm he kicked up caused massive tremors whenever it struck the valley. Dust almost covered the entire world, and the sound of air explosions never ceased. Even though the Crimson Lotus Demon God, clad in Tosei Gusoku, had no inherent aerial combat ability, he relied on various Cursed Techniques to maintain his assault in mid-air.
Gojo Satoru's defense was watertight, yet with every successful block, a part of his body inevitably vanished. First his left hand, then his left forearm; next, he gave up his foot and then his calf.
But he felt not a single shred of fear. On the contrary, he felt as if his entire being was ablaze. In this crisis where he was at an absolute disadvantage and could die at any moment, his body had become thoroughly fired up.
He even felt a sense of supreme bliss. Being able to fight Mahito to such an extent felt as if the entire world was their battlefield. Natural disasters followed wherever they went. At this moment, destroying the world was no exaggeration but a power truly held in their hands. They didn't even need to do anything special; if they simply expanded the battlefield to the entire world, then the world would surely be destroyed without exception.
But they would never do so, not because they pitied the world's civilization, but because they had gone completely mad with battle!
Backing down? Expanding the maneuvering range? Probing each other before trying again? What were those things?!
It had to be like this, right here, killing the opponent with everything they had!
Aaaaaah!
The two collided like savage beasts!
By now, Gojo Satoru had lost his entire left arm and right leg. The attack power of Star Rage was outrageously high; even though Gojo had already reached the point of optimizing his Binding Vows to the maximum extent, he still lost two limbs within these short thirty seconds.
Yet he was still laughing—laughing exaggeratedly.
Suddenly, his right hand formed a Flower-Pinching Gesture, pointing directly at the Crimson Lotus Demon God.
Had his Cursed Technique Burnout been repaired? In such an intense battle, it only took less than half a minute? This thought flashed through Mahito's mind. That's right, this guy had done something similar in the final battle of the original work; he could use Reverse Cursed Technique to heal Cursed Technique Burnout!
But the difference was that he and Ryomen Sukuna hadn't fought with such madness; even in their final battle, they were full of calculations and strategies. But the current battle between him and Mahito was like beasts tearing at each other.
Undoubtedly, within these short thirty seconds, Gojo Satoru had evolved twice: once with the mid-air double jump, and once by still operating his Reverse Cursed Technique to repair his Cursed Technique Burnout even while caught in the instincts of two beasts tearing at each other.
Should he use Uncanny Valley or Instant Movement to dodge? This thought flashed through Mahito's mind as well. Then, he raised kirigiri high, assuming a Tōchiku stance.
Forget dodging! Slash him and his Cursed Technique together!
Gojo Satoru wasn't surprised at all. Their mental states were now almost identical; both had gone completely mad. He had indeed recovered from Cursed Technique Burnout just as Mahito expected, and the most logical thing to do now was to use his Limitless to move far away and regroup.
But he had no such thought in his heart.
—Forget regrouping! Right here, right now, I'll blast Mahito to pieces!
Gojo Satoru channeled a continuous stream of positive energy into his technique. The originally infinitely shrinking Limitless displayed the opposite characteristic.
"Reversed Cursed Technique Application," Gojo roared, "—Red!"
Not a Hollow Technique?
Mahito had no time to think further as he slashed down in the Tōchiku style.
—Star! Rage!
The mass of a comet was entirely bestowed upon this body; at this moment, the Crimson Lotus Demon God had transformed into a Humanoid Comet. Halley's Comet has a mass of 300 billion tons; at such a mass, even a light graze against Earth's atmosphere would directly devastate the planet's climate. At that time, many people fearfully believed that this alone would be enough to bring about the apocalypse.
No one had ever considered what would happen if a 300-billion-ton comet actually struck the Earth, but now, Gojo Satoru was likely to experience that level of despair all by himself.
This was the true Star Rage!
Gojo Satoru and Mahito roared simultaneously, their voices, amplified by Cursed Energy, shaking the heavens. A crimson pillar of light erupted fiercely from Gojo's flicking finger, while at the same time, Mahito swung down Star Rage.
kirigiri's ability triggered automatically:
Cutting Line!
Star Rage combined with the Line—this combination was invincible. The crimson pillar of light was not a pure physical phenomenon, yet kirigiri's Cutting Line was still neatly carved into it. Under the power of Star Rage, kirigiri slashed down violently.
Screech—
A sound like the atmosphere tearing rang out from the collision between kirigiri and the crimson pillar of light. The Crimson Lotus Demon God remained unshaken and continued to slash downward. As expected, the crimson pillar of light flew off to both sides, revealing Gojo Satoru, who was... grinning?!
Boom—!
The crimson pillar of light exploded directly.
Gojo Satoru's Reversed Cursed Technique Application: Red. This is spatial expansion based on the opposite of Limitless's spatial compression; the effect it displays is an infinite repulsive force spreading out boundlessly.
Both his Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue and his Hollow Technique have very stable characteristics, meaning Gojo can maximize his control over their power and direction when using those two moves. But Reversed Cursed Technique Application: Red is different—it is unstable!
The Red released through Reversed Cursed Technique Application represents a Supernova explosion. This is not a stable technique, because a Supernova explosion itself is the spectacular performance of a star's death. All matter and energy composing the star lose all restraint at the moment of death, spreading everything about itself endlessly in all directions.
A dead star exploding in the Universe—that is a Supernova.
The Red released by infusing positive energy from Reverse Cursed Technique into the Innate Technique triggers a phenomenon that is exactly the swan song of a dying star in the cosmos. The complete name for this move should be:
Reversed Cursed Technique Application: Red: Supernova!
This was why he used Reversed Cursed Technique Application instead of Hollow Technique; he had calculated one step further than Mahito!
kirigiri's Cutting Line could cut through stable Cursed Technique Lapses and Hollow Techniques, but when cutting Reversed Cursed Technique Application: Red, an explosion was inevitable. This explosion was not a traditional chemical explosion, but rather countless repulsive forces pushing away all matter, eventually forming a void. Even if kirigiri could cut through that void, the resulting repulsive force would still shatter the user of kirigiri.
This was Gojo Satoru's way of dealing with kirigiri—
—I might not be able to deal with the invincible god-slayer sword, but do you think I can't deal with you?!
The crimson radiance erupted violently. Just as Gojo Satoru expected, kirigiri easily sliced through the endlessly expanding spatial force, but even though kirigiri did indeed cut it, the energy and matter fleeing frantically to both sides still slammed into the Crimson Lotus Demon God. The infinite spatial expansion force, like a true Supernova, sought to crush and kill the Crimson Lotus Demon God.
...It didn't!
—Reverse Cursed Technique, Soul Creation, Jiro Awasaka.
—Technique Release.
—Strength Reversal!
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