The purple torrent formed by Hollow Technique: Purple was instantly engulfed and dissolved by the black-and-red cursed energy.
At the same time, sensing that dense aura—one that felt as though it pointed straight toward death itself—Gojo Satoru's pupils shrank.
Purple… neutralized head-on?
No—more accurately, it had been eroded by something even more terrifying.
The imaginary mass attack that should have carried overwhelming destructive power instead behaved as though it had encountered a natural predator. Before that black-and-red cursed energy, it failed to produce even the slightest ripple, vanishing without a trace the moment it was covered.
Was this the effect of her technique?
Noticing that Seele's power and demeanor were now completely different from before, Gojo immediately realized that the "curse" dwelling within the girl named Seele had likely seized control of her body during their exchange.
His heart sank.
Seele's Quantumization alone had already been troublesome enough. Now, on top of that, there was an unknown cursed technique from the entity within her…
This was no longer a fight he could afford to indulge in.
Gojo raised his right hand at once.
He had to subdue this curse—immediately.
"Domain Expansion—Unlimited—"
Splurt!
A scythe blade burst straight through his chest.
At some unknown moment, Dark Seele had used Quantumization to slip behind Gojo and strike at a speed he couldn't react to at all.
Normally, an injury like this would have meant nothing to Gojo. With Reverse Cursed Technique, he could have easily healed after pulling some distance.
But as the black-and-red cursed energy clinging to the scythe flooded into his body, Gojo felt his limbs turn cold, his consciousness rapidly slipping away.
He tried to circulate cursed energy—to force the enemy back, or at least break free—but the immense cursed energy that once filled his body vanished at an alarming rate the moment it touched that foreign power.
Without cursed energy, a jujutsu sorcerer instantly lost most of their strength. And once his physical functions came into contact with that black-and-red cursed energy, they collapsed completely.
At this moment, Gojo Satoru realized—
He had no moves left.
"Did I… get careless…?"
He tried to use the last of his strength to turn his head and look at the enemy behind him.
But before he could even complete that motion, his consciousness gave out, plunging into darkness.
...
At the outskirts of the abandoned construction site—no, what was now nothing more than a field of ruins—on an open patch of ground that both Gojo and Seele had deliberately avoided earlier, An Xora watched as Dark Seele returned, dragging Gojo Satoru back like a dead dog.
He wasn't surprised in the slightest.
In terms of raw strength, Seele alone had already been more than enough to defeat Gojo. With Dark Seele joining in, the outcome was even more obvious.
As mentioned before, abilities purchased from the system shop were all modified to adapt automatically to different power systems.
Once the Authority of the Herrscher of Life and Death adapted to the cursed energy system, things changed drastically. Setting aside the power of Creation for now, the Authority of Withering, in addition to decomposing life and matter, gained the ability to decompose cursed energy itself.
Just like how it had instantly dissolved Hollow Purple—and the cursed energy within Gojo's body earlier—after adapting to the cursed energy system, Withering became an absolutely terrifying counter to both jujutsu sorcerers and cursed spirits.
Sorcerers didn't even need explanation. Every cursed technique relied on cursed energy to function. Being able to decompose cursed energy meant that no matter how elaborate or powerful a technique was, it would crumble on contact with Withering.
Hollow Purple.
The Limitless.
Before Withering, all of it became meaningless, collapsing the instant they made contact.
The only reason Gojo was still alive was because An Xora had no intention of killing him, and Dark Seele had deliberately restrained the effect of Withering during the final blow.
Otherwise, the moment a scythe coated in Withering touched Gojo's body, he would have quite literally ceased to exist—body and cursed energy alike decomposed into nothing in an instant.
For jujutsu sorcerers, Dark Seele's Withering couldn't be blocked by techniques, and was effectively instant death on contact.
As for cursed spirits?
They had it even worse.
Cursed spirits were, at their core, special lifeforms born from cursed energy generated by human negative emotions. Even though they possessed bodies, most of those bodies were composed primarily of cursed energy.
Which meant that when facing Withering, cursed spirits suffered double effectiveness—and the erosion spread far faster than it did through ordinary matter.
Either way, they were dead. No exceptions.
Thud.
Dark Seele tossed the unconscious Gojo onto the ground, then returned to An Xora's side.
"What should we do with him?"
"Have Seele heal his injuries, then leave him here."
"…Alright."
Dark Seele nodded, relinquishing control of the body.
Moments later, Seele took over once again and extended a hand toward Gojo lying on the ground.
As the power of Creation spread out, several white flowers quietly bloomed from the earth, and Gojo's injuries healed at remarkable speed.
"That should do it. Let's go back. Once he wakes up, he'll come looking for us on his own."
Leaving Gojo behind at the construction site, An Xora and Seele returned to their apartment.
Despite having just fought the strongest figure in the jujutsu world, neither of them seemed affected at all.
Seele went back to handling the housework, even starting to consider ingredients for the next meal.
An Xora, meanwhile, sat off to the side, thinking about how to deal with the jujutsu world going forward.
First of all, the jujutsu world was definitely something he needed to engage with. As long as An Xora was present, Seele killing cursed spirits would count as "protecting the Host," allowing him to earn system points. And once they made contact with the jujutsu world, they could make use of its intelligence network to locate cursed spirit hotspots and farm points efficiently.
That said, the jujutsu higher-ups needed to be handled carefully.
In terms of actual threat, those people posed no danger at all to An Xora or Seele—but they were extremely good at being disgusting.
Even if the fact that Seele had defeated Gojo Satoru spread through the jujutsu world and intimidated a large number of people, there was no guarantee that some brain-damaged individuals wouldn't decide that if overt methods didn't work, they could try something underhanded.
So the best solution was to deal with the higher-ups once and for all—perhaps even turning the tables and directly taking control of the jujutsu world.
Seele wasn't well-suited for that kind of task. Combat-wise, she was more than enough, but post-conflict handling would be troublesome.
It might be better to manifest a new clone—one specifically tailored with abilities suited for this purpose.
With that thought, An Xora opened the system and checked his point balance.
Initial gift package: 10,000 pointsAuthority of the Herrscher of Life and Death + Quantumization: 7,400 pointsManifesting Seele: 1,500 points
(Base clone cost 500 points; Stigmata and Dark Seele counted as special talents, +1,000 points)Total spent: 8,900 pointsRemaining: 1,100 points
Income so far:
Awakening cursed energy with Seele's help: 500 pointsClearing cursed spirits at the abandoned site: 1,700 pointsLying flat for two consecutive days: 100 pointsTotal earned: 2,300 points
Adding income to the remaining balance, An Xora now had 3,400 points.
That wasn't nearly enough to buy any truly powerful abilities. And with the shop's discount section not yet refreshed, An Xora decided to wait for a month—both to accumulate more points, and to see whether the discount section would roll something useful to assign to the next clone.