"Give it! All mine! Give it to me!"
The cursed spirit hung suspended in midair, gripped by an invisible hand.
Space itself seemed frozen by some eerie force.
Even the air solidified under Gojo's hand signs.
Overwhelming power radiated arrogantly, pouring freely through the construction site. It compressed the near-Grade 1 curse's energy into a harmless ball of flesh.
Sensing the strange shifts around him, Ryder felt genuine shock.
"So this is Satoru Gojo. Terrifying. To have this much power at his age."
Gojo's fingers moved casually. The curse above twisted like clay in a child's hands.
Its body, saturated with cursed energy, warped and deformed. The boneless creature was wrung into grotesque shapes.
"AHHH! AHHH!" The curse screamed in agony, helpless and pitiful as a lamb before slaughter.
"It really is strange," Gojo mused. "Cursed techniques should be imprinted on a sorcerer's body from birth. Yet you broke that rule."
His attention lingered on the curse for only a few seconds before shifting back to Ryder.
His sunglasses slipped down.
For the first time, those captivating blue eyes were revealed.
Within those heavenly pupils, the entire starry sky seemed contained, rotating according to some hidden law.
"Every time I see them, I'm still amazed." Ryder gazed at those eyes that made both curses and sorcerers alike deeply wary.
He showed no tension. Only appreciation.
The Six Eyes, which commanded the attention of the entire jujutsu world.
"If the Six Eyes could be gouged out, those old fossils would've made their move long ago." Seeing Ryder ignore his question, Gojo didn't press further.
Instead, he followed Ryder's thread with his own mocking tone.
"The Gojo family wouldn't stand for it. Even those fossils would have to consider the consequences," Ryder replied, looking up at the continuously twisting curse.
Gojo opened his mouth to say something, then his brow furrowed.
"Oh no."
BOOM!
A massive arm erupted from the ground. Tremendous force tore the earth apart. Gojo moved instantly. Ryder, meanwhile, had vanished the moment the arm appeared.
"There's another one?"
Gojo leaped to a high platform.
He looked down at the cursed spirit emerging from the ground, identical to the one in the sky, and shrugged helplessly.
"Give it! Give me everything!" The newly appeared curse roared. Across from it, Ryder's form slowly materialized.
"Hey, Satoru. Your little test is pretty cliché, don't you think?" Ryder shot a displeased glance up at Gojo, who sat on the platform looking thoroughly entertained.
If anyone else claimed they'd overlooked a near-Grade 1 curse, Ryder might believe them.
But Satoru Gojo, with the Six Eyes? Unless he deliberately chose not to see, every curse stood out like a blazing torch before him.
Gojo rubbed his chin and let out a small laugh. He said nothing.
He couldn't quite get a read on Ryder's true strength. Now that the opportunity presented itself, he wouldn't let it slip.
Besides, he didn't believe his "kindred spirit" could actually be hurt by a curse of this level.
"Give it! Give me all of it!"
The curse's voice carried a whining edge. It spread its arms wide. Countless limbs extended like centipede legs, covered in mottled patches of cursed energy.
They reached viciously toward Ryder.
"Yeah, yeah. I get it. You can have it all."
Facing such a powerful attack, Ryder's tone carried mild exasperation, as if the monstrous curse before him were merely a bratty child demanding candy.
His fingers rose instantly, two overlapping. The cross pendant at his chest flashed with ghostly light.
BOOM!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The curse's countless arms were about to seize Ryder when a spectral blue radiance blocked them. The limbs that touched the glow rotted rapidly, as if poisoned.
The glow formed a translucent barrier before Ryder, repelling the curse's power entirely.
"AHHH!" The curse wailed. Above, its companion was compressed by Gojo's technique to the verge of explosion.
"You want cursed tools? Fine. Take them."
Ryder waved his hand casually.
In the next moment, the cross erupted with overwhelming cursed energy.
The spectral blue light transformed into hellish red spider lilies, beautiful and lethal. It engulfed the curse completely.
Threads of dark purple cursed energy, barely visible, were absorbed by the blue glow.
BOOM!
At the same instant, the curse in the sky exploded into fragments.
"Instant cursed tool creation. Summoning them at will. A technique that devours cursed energy." Gojo stared in shock at the scene below. Through the Six Eyes, he'd seen everything Ryder just did, crystal clear.
"You really are something, Ryder."