The shadow titan that was once Kurosu let out a sound that wasn't a scream—it was the collective groan of a thousand years of forgotten grudges. The ink-like darkness expanded, swallowing the remains of the torii gates and the shattered village square. The air pressure dropped so sharply that my ears popped, and the crimson fog was sucked into the mass of swirling shadows.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: FINAL GAMBIT ACTIVE]
[TIME REMAINING: 45 SECONDS]
[SKILL EVOLUTION DETECTED: GRAVITY WELL → EVENT HORIZON]
"Look at him," Valthazar's voice was a low, vibrating hum in my skull. "A beggar trying to wear a shroud of darkness and call it a cloak of royalty. End this farce, Ren. Show him the difference between a shadow and the void that creates it."
I didn't answer. I didn't have the breath for it. Every cell in my body felt like it was being pulled apart and stitched back together by violet threads of cursed energy. I moved.
[PHANTOM STEP - LV 3]
I flickered. To Nobara, watching from the rubble, I must have looked like a glitch in reality. I appeared ten feet in the air, directly in front of the titan's "face"—a swirling vortex of milky white eyes. Kurosu's shadow-arms, thick as tree trunks, slammed together to crush me.
Zip.
I was gone before the shadows touched. I appeared behind his neck. Then beneath his feet. I was a ghost in the machine of his destruction. My [Shadow-Wrap Gloves] were disintegrating, the leather charring as they channeled an output they were never meant to handle.
"You... brat!" Kurosu's voice boomed from the chest of the titan. "You're just a vessel! A cage! Why do you fight for a world that wants you dead?"
I landed on the ground, my knees cracking as the force of the landing sent a shockwave through the stone. I looked at Nobara. She was pale, her hand clutching her side, but her eyes were locked on mine. They weren't filled with the fear I'd seen in Harajuku. They were filled with expectation.
She expected me to win.
"Because I'm not a cage," I whispered, my voice echoing with a strange, hollow power. "I'm the one holding the key."
I planted my feet and thrust both hands forward, palms open toward the towering mass of shadows.
[MAX OUTPUT: EVENT HORIZON]
I didn't create a well this time. I created a hole in the world.
A sphere of absolute, pitch-black silence manifested at the center of Kurosu's mass. It wasn't violet; it was a color that didn't exist in nature—a void so hungry that even the light from the moon seemed to bend toward it.
The titan froze. The roaring shadows went silent. For a heartbeat, the entire village of Oubari was held in a state of perfect, terrifying stasis.
Then, the collapse began.
The shadows weren't just being pulled; they were being erased. Kurosu's screams were cut short as the [Event Horizon] consumed the dark energy, compressing the titan's thirty-foot form into a space no larger than a marble. The stone beneath my feet groaned as the gravity stripped the top layer of the earth, swirling it into the vortex.
"REN! STOP! YOU'RE GOING TO PULL THE WHOLE MOUNTAIN DOWN!" Nobara screamed, her voice barely reaching me through the gravitational roar.
My vision was blurring. My nose began to bleed—thick, dark droplets that were instantly sucked toward the void.
[WARNING: SYSTEM OVERHEAT]
[SYNC RATE FLUCTUATING: 13.0%... 14.1%... 13.5%]
'Just... a little... more...'
With a final, agonizing surge of will, I clenched my fists. The sphere imploded with a sound like a thunderclap trapped in a glass bottle.
BOOM.
A shockwave of pure force flattened the remaining houses in the square. The crimson fog was blown away, revealing the cold, clear stars of the Nagano sky. When the dust settled, there was nothing left. No titan. No shadow-vines. No Kurosu. Only a deep, perfectly circular crater in the center of the village.
I stood at the edge of the pit, my arms hanging uselessly at my sides. My gloves were gone, replaced by blackened skin and the faint smell of ozone.
[QUEST COMPLETED — THE TRIAL OF THE ALTAR]
[REWARD ACQUIRED: 1,000 OP]
[SKILL UNLOCKED: EVENT HORIZON]
[BONUS CONFIRMED: ZENIN ASSET TERMINATED]
The [Final Gambit] ended, and the exhaustion hit me like a physical blow. My vision tilted, and the stars began to spin. I felt myself falling—not into a void, but onto the cold, hard earth.
I didn't hit the ground.
A pair of strong, familiar arms caught me. I smelled the scent of expensive sweets and something clean, like the air after a storm.
"Not bad, Ren-kun," Gojo Satoru's voice was light, but for the first time, there was a genuine edge of pride in it. "A bit messy on the finish, but I'd give that a solid 9.5 for style."
"Gojo..." I wheezed, my eyes fluttering shut. "You... you were late."
"Actually, I've been here for five minutes," Gojo chuckled, adjusting his blindfold as he looked at the destruction. "I wanted to see if you'd listen to the demon or the girl. Spoilers: You picked the right one."
The Revelation
I woke up an hour later. I was wrapped in a thick blanket, sitting against the wheel of a black SUV parked at the base of the mountain. My body felt like it had been tenderized with a hammer, but the "static" in my head—Valthazar's presence—was quiet, as if the demon was taking a nap.
Nobara was sitting next to me, her head resting on her knees. Her arm was bandaged, and she looked exhausted, but she was alive. When she saw me stir, she didn't say anything at first. She just handed me a warm bottle of tea.
"You're an idiot," she said softly.
"I know," I replied, taking a sip. The warmth felt like a miracle.
"But," she added, her voice dropping, "you're an idiot who kept his promise. You didn't let him out."
Gojo leaned against the hood of the car, looking up at the moon. The playful energy was gone, replaced by the sharp, cold aura of the strongest sorcerer alive.
"So," I asked, my voice raspy. "Who really sent us there? You said the Zenin, but..."
"The Zenin provided the excuse," Gojo said, his eyes (hidden behind the blindfold) turning toward the dark peaks. "But the mission coordinates came from the Higher-ups' inner circle. They didn't just want you dead, Ren. They wanted to see if Valthazar's 'Event Horizon' was as destructive as the records said."
My heart sank. "Records? You mean this has happened before?"
Gojo nodded. "Valthazar wasn't just a King; he was a catastrophe. A thousand years ago, he used that same technique to erase a city that refused to bow. The Higher-ups aren't just scared of you. They're obsessed with you. They want to see if they can turn you into the ultimate deterrent—a living bomb."
Nobara stood up, her fists clenched. "So we're just lab rats to them? They sent us into a ritual site to see if Ren would blow up?"
"Essentially," Gojo said, pushing off the car. "But they made one mistake. They underestimated you, Nobara. They didn't think a 'common' sorceress could reach into the soul of a King and pull out a human. That [Resonance] of yours... it changed the math."
He turned back to me, his grin returning, but it didn't reach his eyes.
"The Zenin family is going to be very quiet for a few weeks while they lick their wounds. But Volume 1 of your life at Jujutsu High is officially over, Ren. You've got a target on your back now that's bigger than the mountain."
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
[VOLUME 1 COMPLETE: THE OBSESSION AWAKENS]
[TOTAL OP EARNED: 1,850]
[NEW TITLE: THE VOID-WALKER]
"So what now?" I asked, looking at Nobara.
She looked back at me, a defiant, beautiful smirk playing on her lips. She reached out and grabbed my hand—not to stop a demon, but just to hold it. Her skin was warm, and for the first time since this nightmare started, I felt like I was exactly where I was supposed to be.
"Now," she said, "we go back to Tokyo. And you're buying me those crepes. The expensive ones. No more interruptions."
I laughed, the sound hurting my chest, but I didn't care. "Deal."
As the SUV pulled away from the cursed village of Oubari, I looked in the rearview mirror. For a split second, I saw Valthazar sitting in the back seat, his golden eyes watching us with a strange, calculating respect.
"Enjoy your peace while it lasts, Void-Walker," he whispered. "The Zenin were just the scouts. The real monsters are finally noticing you."
I squeezed Nobara's hand, and the system screen faded into the darkness.