Chapter 153: Extreme Sparring! Awakened Satoru Gojo vs. Exhausted Yami
"Satoru! Have you lost your mind?"
At the edge of the ruins, Suguru Geto had somehow forced himself upright.
One hand pressed tightly against the deep wound across his abdomen. His face was pale as paper, and blood kept seeping between his fingers, but his narrow eyes burned with anger.
"Yami just saved us! What the hell are you doing?"
Geto's roar echoed through the ruined Tomb of the Star Corridor, trying to reach the best friend who had fallen into madness.
But Satoru Gojo no longer heard him.
Or rather, every sound outside himself had become meaningless noise.
At this moment, Gojo was completely immersed in the feverish joy of his own awakening. In his eyes, only one person mattered.
The prey standing in front of him.
The opponent who could help him test the power surging through his body.
"Ha… hahaha!"
Gojo let out a chilling laugh.
His Six Eyes stared fixedly at Yami, who was down on one knee among the rubble.
"Are you angry?"
His smile widened.
"Then use the power you used to beat Toji. Fight back."
Gojo tilted his head.
"Or did you already lose the strength to stand?"
He raised his right hand again.
His index and middle fingers pressed together.
Hum.
An even more terrifying mass of dark red Cursed Energy compressed at his fingertips.
It collapsed inward like a miniature black hole. The space around it groaned under the pressure, and even the light seemed to bend toward that dense red core.
"Cursed Technique Reversal: Red."
Boom!
A beam of repulsive force more than five meters wide erupted toward Yami with destructive force.
It was too fast.
So fast that the eye could barely register its path.
If Yami had been in his peak condition, he would have had ways to dodge it. He might even have been able to cut through it by force.
But not now.
He had crossed an enormous distance at maximum speed, fought Toji Fushiguro in a battle that pushed him beyond his limits, and forcibly activated the Demon Slayer Mark and Transparent World far past what his body could safely withstand.
His stamina was already overdrawn.
His legs felt like they had been filled with lead. His lungs burned. Every breath carried the taste of blood.
I can't dodge it.
That thought flashed through Yami's mind.
In the next instant, he poured every remaining trace of strength into Shiranui.
"Total Concentration."
"Water Breathing, Eleventh Form."
"Dead Calm."
The field of absolute stillness unfolded around him.
Rumble!
The violent red beam slammed into Yami's defense.
Water Breathing's ultimate defense, which could erase motion and neutralize attacks, met the repulsive force of the awakened Limitless.
It held for less than half a second.
Then it shattered like glass.
"Pfft!"
Yami spat blood.
His body was swept away by the terrifying shockwave, thrown backward as if struck head on by a speeding train.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
He smashed through three thick stone pillars in succession before crashing heavily into the hard wall at the deepest part of the chamber.
A massive crater formed around him.
Dust rose.
Rubble scattered.
"Yami!"
Riko Amanai screamed and tried to rush forward, but Geto grabbed her tightly.
"Don't go, Riko!"
Geto gritted his teeth, eyes red with rage and helplessness.
"You'll die!"
He hated it.
He hated his weakness.
He hated Satoru Gojo's madness.
Most of all, he hated that he could only watch as the man who had dragged them back from the edge of hell again and again was being trampled by his own best friend.
"Oh my."
Gojo tilted his head and looked at the smoke covered ruins in the distance.
A cruel curve appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"Looks like I used a little too much force."
He took a slow step forward.
"Is he dead? That would be boring."
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
His footsteps rang clearly through the ruined chamber.
Each step sounded like a countdown.
Then, as Gojo approached the rubble, a faint sound came from the collapsed pile.
Click.
Crack.
A blood covered hand pushed aside a heavy slab of stone.
Yami staggered out of the ruins.
His black uniform was torn to pieces.
Wounds covered his body. Blood ran down his cheek, chin, and arms, dripping onto the ground beneath him and gathering into a dark pool.
There was no doubt.
This was the worst injury Yami had suffered since arriving in this world.
But he was still standing.
His back was slightly bent, yet there was something unyielding about his posture, like a pine tree rooted into stone.
And the most frightening thing was his gaze.
There was no anger in his black eyes.
No pain.
No fear.
Only an absolute calm, colder than ancient ice.
"Oh?"
Gojo stopped.
A sick excitement flickered in his eyes.
"You can still stand?"
His smile brightened.
"Amazing, Yami. You really didn't disappoint me."
He opened both hands.
Two mesmerizing lights appeared at his fingertips.
One blue.
One red.
"Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue."
"Cursed Technique Reversal: Red."
Gojo brought his hands together.
The two opposing forces collided, fused, and began annihilating each other in his palms.
An energy capable of tearing space and erasing matter spread through the Tomb of the Star Corridor.
"Hollow Technique."
Gojo's smile sharpened.
"Purple."
This was the strongest attack Satoru Gojo could unleash at this moment.
The ultimate technique born from combining attraction and repulsion.
"It's over…"
Geto closed his eyes in pain.
He could not bear to watch Yami be erased.
But in that desperate instant, Yami drew in a slow breath.
[Ding! Host has pushed potential to the limit on the edge of life and death.]
[Synchronization has broken through 45 percent.]
The System's cold prompt echoed in his mind.
Transparent World was forcibly pushed to an unprecedented state.
For one fleeting moment, Yami's aura, fighting spirit, and even his sense of existence seemed to vanish from the collapsing space.
His vision pierced through the storm of energy with impossible clarity.
Through Gojo's near perfect Limitless.
Straight into the Cursed Energy circuit inside his body.
There.
A sharp light flashed in Yami's eyes.
He raised his left hand and drew something from inside his sleeve.
A cracked, incomplete cross shaped hilt.
The remains of the Inverted Spear of Heaven.
In the 0.1 second casting gap before Gojo could release Purple, Yami moved.
He squeezed out the final strength from every cell in his body and forced his speed to an astonishing level.
Swish!
His figure pierced through the energy field that had not fully formed, appearing directly in front of Gojo.
"What?"
For the first time, astonishment appeared on Gojo's face.
His Six Eyes widened.
He had not expected a man this badly injured, someone already on the edge of collapse, to still erupt with such terrifying speed.
But Gojo did not panic.
He had absolute confidence.
He had the Limitless defense that separated all attacks from his body.
Then Yami's left hand pressed the broken hilt of the Inverted Spear of Heaven against the invisible barrier in front of Gojo's chest.
Crack.
A crisp shattering sound rang out.
The remaining ability of the Inverted Spear of Heaven, the power to forcibly nullify active Cursed Techniques, erupted for one instant.
The Limitless defense Gojo trusted as absolute shattered like a bubble pierced by a needle.
"How is this possible?"
Gojo's mind went blank for a fraction of a second.
And in that 0.1 second that decided everything, Shiranui moved in Yami's right hand.
The blade whistled through the air.
Not the edge.
The back of the blade.
It struck the back of Satoru Gojo's neck with perfect accuracy.
Bang!
A dull impact echoed through the silent Tomb of the Star Corridor.
....
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