Subaru was astonished, to say the least, when Gojo reappeared.
The man stood there—technically unharmed—but it didn't take a genius to realise he'd been through hell. His garments were ripped, smeared with blood that had long since dried into a black, rusty crust. Even if the wounds had mended, the aftermath of the slaughter clung to him like smoke after a forest fire.
But Subaru didn't have time to dwell on it. Neither did Wilhelm. The two of them were already rushing through what remained of the woods——now a flattened graveyard of splintered trunks and torn earth.
Gojo will be fine... he's the... the strongest!
Subaru thought, his heart hammering against his ribs.
Even if the man was acting strange—even if that manic laughter still echoed in Subaru's ears—he was still Satoru Gojo. Subaru gritted his teeth, his Cursed Energy reinforcing his legs, pushing his pace to the limit. Beside him, Wilhelm kept pace, his cloak billowing like a war banner.
"As we saw back there, Satoru is a man of endless surprises," Wilhelm said, his voice sharp despite the sprint. "Even the Archbishop believed him dead. He will survive, Subaru."
Subaru let out a jagged half-laugh.
"Yeah... you're right."
They burst through the village gates and were met with a wall of panic. Villagers were whispering in terror, and soldiers were scattered across the square. At the center of the chaos stood Ferris.
What happened? Did I miss the window? Did the Cult move faster than the last loop?
Subaru skidded to a halt in front of the healer.
"Ferris! What's the situation?!"
Ferris turned, his ears twitching nervously.
"Ah, Subaru! By the time we arrived, the villagers were already tied up. They said a man showed up——claimed he was a Sin Archbishop, just like you warned."
Not Betelgeuse. It had to be Regulus. How much did he change the timeline just to hunt Gojo?
"S-Subaru!"
A small figure darted toward him. Petra, her face stained with tears, clung to his side.
"Petra! You're okay?"
"I-It was scary," she sobbed. "But that white-haired mister... he saved me. Is he okay? I want to thank him..."
Subaru knelt, ruffling her hair with a shaky hand.
"Gojo-sensei is fine, Petra. I promise. He'll be back soon, and you can tell him yourself."
Thanks to Rem's earlier warning, the mansion had been cleared. With Subaru's confirmation that the Cult was active, the evacuation of the village shifted into high gear. Wilhelm and Ferris began overseeing the carriages, but Subaru stayed focused on the treeline. The forest had gone quiet. Too quiet.
"Mmm..."
A hand landed on his shoulder.
"GYAHHH!!" Subaru spun on instinct, his fist raised.
"——Yo."
Gojo stood there, waving casually. A half-grin sat on a face still streaked with dirt and blood.
"You're... you're actually okay?" Subaru asked, scanning him. Gojo's shirt was nearly vaporized at the torso, and his sleeves were gone.
Gojo shrugged.
"Well, I'm good now. But I don't even want to guess how many of my limbs got blown off back there. If you go digging through the rubble later, you'll probably find, like... twenty of my arms and legs."
He chuckled, then his expression flattened. He turned toward the trees, his eyes narrowing.
"...There are a lot of unfamiliar presences in that forest, Subaru."
Overhead, a massive purple hand erupted from the canopy—fingers clenched into a fist, soaring upward before plunging like a meteor toward the village square.
"S-SHIT! EVERYONE GET DOWN!" Subaru screamed.
The hand was invisible to everyone but him. But Gojo didn't need to see it. He could feel the warp in space, the foul displacement of air. He lifted a palm, his fingers curving upward.
The hand was invisible to everyone but him. But Gojo didn't need to see it. He could feel the distortion in space, the filthy displacement of air.
He lifted a palm, his fingers curving upward.
A shimmering blue sphere shimmered into existence above Gojo's hand. It surged with a terrible gravitational pull, devouring the Unseen Hand in an instant. The phantom limb was immediately pulled into the emptiness and erased.
The air fell still. Gojo grinned and slung an arm over Subaru's shoulder.
"Safe! Heh, what would you do without me?"
Subaru exhaled, a long, shaky breath.
"...You've got a point this time. I'll let it slide."
Gojo stepped back, the humor fading from his eyes.
"On a serious note... my spat with Regulus isn't over. I've pissed him off so badly I wouldn't be surprised if he's already on his way here."
"H-HERE?!" Subaru's eyes bugged out. "Dude! We aren't anime cheat codes! We can't regenerate! If we get hit by his bullshit attacks, we're just dead!"
Gojo raised an index finger.
"Exactly. That's why I'm going to stall him while you deal with whatever else is lurking in the trees."
He jerked a thumb toward the woods.
"Honestly? I think I've got maybe an hour of stalling in me. Maybe. If I get sliced in half at the waist, though... that's game over."
Subaru paled.
"Wait, isn't that what the 'Reverse Cursed Technique' is for?"
Gojo gave a cheeky, lopsided smile.
"Ooh, someone was paying attention in class! Yes——normally. But if I'm split in two..." He mimed a body tearing apart. "...the Cursed Energy can't travel from my head to my gut. It can't bridge the gap. No bridge, no healing."
Subaru stared at him, horrified.
"That is the biggest red flag I've ever heard in my life."
Gojo laughed, brushing it off.
"Hey, I've survived this long. What's a bit more stalling?"
He clapped his hands together, the air distorting around him.
"Ciao!"
In a flicker of refracted space, he vanished.
———————————————
Regulus stormed through the ravaged forest, each step a silent declaration of dominance.
No matter how much force he exerted, the ground refused to shatter beneath his feet.
Not because he lacked the strength, but because he hadn't allowed the world the privilege of reacting to him.
A low, sharp hiss cut through the air.
A deafening impact slammed into his side. A surge of raw, unfiltered power ripped Regulus from the earth in an instant. The shockwave splintered trees for dozens of meters as both combatants were launched into the open air.
From the epicentre of the strike, Satoru Gojo emerged like a heat-seeking missile.
"You—! You insignificant, persistent worm!"
Regulus snarled mid-flight. His body halted instantly, as if caught on an invisible axis.
One moment he was a blur of momentum; the next, he was absolute stillness.
"You should have known it was impossible to defeat me! And yet, here you are, charging back in like a mindless beast!"
The sun seemed to vanish. A silhouette blotted out the sky overhead, growing larger with every passing millisecond.
Gojo was plummeting, upside-down and twisting like a hurricane of white and blue. His fist screamed through the atmosphere, trailing a wake of distorted space.
The blow landed clean against Regulus's ribs. It was an impact forged from gravity and pure, concentrated spite. A thunderclap erupted across the horizon, shattering the air and reducing nearby cliffs to falling dust. A wave of force flattened the surrounding forest into a cratered ruin.
Regulus was launched again, his body carving a trench hundreds of meters long through solid rock and trees like a wrecking ball.
"You return to me yet again...."
Regulus shouted, standing up within the dust cloud, his white suit still infuriatingly pristine.
"Have you grown bored of living, Satoru Gojo? Or do you simply find yourself enjoying the pain!?"
Gojo stood up slowly, dust curling off his shoulders in wisps. His mouth twisted into a jagged grin that didn't quite reach his eyes.
"Nah," Gojo said, his voice flat but dangerous. "Just figured I'd make this a little more... personal~"
——————————————
Subaru knelt over the collapsed, grey-hooded body of the cultist he had just knocked down. His brows wrinkled in a deep, weary line.
"A Finger…? So they really were just fragments of Betelgeuse?"
Ferris looked unnaturally pale, his cat ears pulled back against his head. Beside him, Wilhelm remained silent, albeit the old man's stare were fixated on the treeline where more shadows seemed to dance.
"If they are merely his 'Fingers'..."
Wilhelm mumbled, his voice lowering into a dangerous tone. "Then where is the head? Is it possible the Archbishop himself still draws breath?"
Before Subaru could even grasp the thought——
A massive explosion rattled the very soil beneath their boots. The tremor arrived a second later, a wall of hot air that made the carriages rattle and the ground dragons screech in fright. Birds erupted from the canopy in a black cloud, and a tremendous column of dust and violet light pierced the sky in the distance.
Subaru hid his eyes, his heart skip-jumping into his throat.
"That's… Gojo-sensei?!"
Ferris turned toward the blow, his tail bristling to twice its regular size.
"That level of destructive power... there's only one other person I know who could pull off flashy crap like that, nyan..."
Subaru didn't engage in the conversation. He watched the smoke ascend, his jaw hard. He knew Gojo was a beast in a fight, but he also knew Regulus wasn't something you could just punch until it broke.
"Please..." Subaru muttered, his fingers curling into a shaking fist. "Just be alright, you idiot teacher..."
——————————————
The forest had fallen into a thick, ringing quiet, interrupted only by the seismic groaning of the earth as it struggled to settle.
Then——
A boulder the size of a small mansion came down like divine retribution, smashing the ravine floor. The hit sent a fresh wave of shockwaves crawling up the cliff sides. Dust exploded in every direction, turning the air into a thick, scarlet haze that blocked out the sun.
Somewhere in that stifling mist, a form was flung sideways.
Gojo's body skipped over the air like a stone across water.
He was a mess——his shirt was half gone, his skin was a map of shredded cuts and blood, and one arm dangled at an angle that made the stomach spin.
His ribs were plainly crushed, but through the jumble of white hair, his eyes still hummed with that electric, crazy blue.
The tissue was already mending back together, steam billowing from his wounds as the Reverse Cursed Technique worked overtime.
"Haaaahhh... still standing after that? I realise that you're 'unkillable' and all, but geez... give it a rest."
Below him, the dust separated.
Regulus agitated. His face was twitching——not from the physical anguish of the Red that had just engulfed him, but from a rising, inexplicable wrath. He was physically uninjured, his white suit still mocking the entire idea of a struggle, but his pride was gushing.
He softly floated, gliding upward as if gravity were a suggestion he decided to ignore.
"You... don't you get it yet?!"
Regulus's voice soared higher, breaking with wrath.
"Now that I've seen your strange little trick... all your nonsense that dares to interfere with my business——there is truly nothing you can do. This has gone far beyond mere rudeness. To even presume I can be moved... the only thing that can atone for such an infraction is your entire erasure!"