Jin-Woo stood alone on the cracked red earth, facing a highly motivated, frustrated, and conceptually enhanced Goku. Gojo was recovering from the conceptual shock of having his Infinity bypassed, and Saitama was distracted, scanning the wasteland for a convenience store.
"You smell like the boss of a very hard dungeon!" Goku cheered, instantly powering back up to Super Saiyan Blue. "Let's see your best move!"
Jin-Woo did not move. He did not power up his Mana. He used his full Monarch's Authority—the sovereign control over the battlefield—to view Goku not as an enemy, but as a complex, volatile equation.
He saw every particle of Ki, every micro-twitch of muscle, and every possible trajectory of an attack. Jin-Woo was attempting to fight Goku not through strength, but through Absolute Efficiency, reducing the chaotic Saiyan to a predictable, solvable system.
Jin-Woo raised his cold-blue dagger, Kaisel's Fang, his voice low and commanding, resonating with the ancient power of the Shadow Monarch.
"Attack Priority: Zero."
The command hit Goku's Ki field. It wasn't physical; it was conceptual. Jin-Woo was not trying to stop Goku's power; he was trying to declare Goku's actions 'Unnecessary' to the system.
Goku flinched, pausing mid-power-up. His Saiyan instincts, usually so reliable, momentarily questioned his next move.
Why do I feel like punching this guy is a waste of time?
Goku shook his head, instantly overriding the conceptual doubt with pure fighting spirit. "That was weird! Did you use magic? Try it again!"
Goku launched himself forward, a hurricane of blue Ki. He threw a lightning-fast combination of punches and kicks, each move designed to test Jin-Woo's limits.
Jin-Woo moved. Not with speed, but with perfect, predictive timing. Jin-Woo's movements were minimal, designed to exploit the infinitesimal weaknesses in Goku's form. Jin-Woo wasn't dodging; he was executing Conceptual Evasion.
Goku's first punch missed because Jin-Woo shifted his weight by 1/1000th of an inch, using the ambient Ki flow to redirect the blow's momentum.
Goku's kick missed because Jin-Woo's shoulder was already positioned exactly where the kick's center of mass would be if it were a perfect attack, causing Goku's instinct to register Jin-Woo as a solid, immovable object and auto-correct.
Jin-Woo was fighting the idea of Goku's attack, not the attack itself.
"He's making every punch strategically null and void," Gojo observed, now watching intently. "He's defining the battle as a stalemate, not through force, but through calculation."
Goku, the ultimate fighter, was becoming genuinely frustrated. His purpose was to fight, to grow, and to win. But Jin-Woo was making him fight a ghost that never offered resistance, only perfect, frustrating non-targets.
"Stop moving like that!" Goku shouted, his voice cracking with exasperation. "I can't feel the impact! This isn't a fight! It's like... like trying to punch a spreadsheet!"
In his frustration, Goku powered up again, preparing a devastating, high-speed Ki Barrage. He aimed not at Jin-Woo's body, but at the entire area around him, intending to overwhelm the Monarch's precision.
This was the mistake. Goku released his absolute power, driven by anger, not focus.
The moment Goku's control wavered, Jin-Woo's Monarch's Authority found its crack.
Jin-Woo roared, unleashing his own power. It wasn't the Shadow Monarch's power they knew. It was something deeper, something Cosmic.
A brief, blinding flash of purple and black energy erupted from Jin-Woo. The air grew cold, and the very concept of Death seemed to assert itself over the Saiyan universe.
This was a conceptual leak—a momentary channeling of the Absolute Power of the Shadow Monarch that Jin-Woo had not yet fully awakened in his timeline, a glimpse of the ultimate ruler of Death and Shadows.
For a split second, the full force of the Monarch of Shadows was unleashed.
Goku didn't see an opponent; he saw the Concept of his Own Death. His fighting instinct, which had never acknowledged death, stalled. The Ki Barrage vanished, not because it was destroyed, but because the concept of the attacker had momentarily ceased to exist in the context of combat.
Goku stumbled backward, clutching his head, his Super Saiyan Blue dissolving. "What was that? I saw... everything... and nothing... I don't want to fight that!"
The effect was instantaneous and profound. Goku's fighting spirit was shattered, replaced by a sudden, primal terror.
But the unawakened power was too volatile for Jin-Woo's current body.
Jin-Woo collapsed to his knees, sweat pouring down his face, the brief flash of cosmic power receding. He felt as though every nerve ending had been burned. The Anchor Point was stunned, but the player was critically damaged.
"A temporal anomaly," Gojo muttered, catching Jin-Woo before he hit the ground. "He touched his future self. The power is gone, but the shock remains."
Jin-Woo gripped Gojo's arm. "Gojo... now. He is unstable. Use the conceptual rejection!"
Goku was still reeling, terrified by the glimpse of the ultimate, final limit. The perfect time to deliver the final conceptual blow. The combination of Absolute Authority and Aesthetic Rejection might be enough to stabilize the universe.
Gojo looked at the dazed, terrified Saiyan. "Aesthetically, seeing the concept of death is far more interesting than constant screaming. Fine. Let's send the loud one home."