Despite his overwhelming terror, Jogo still harbored a desperate sliver of wishful thinking. Perhaps if he deployed his Domain, the absolute environmental advantage would neutralize the strange armored boy's Cursed Technique. If he could strip away that fire immunity, he could still win!
"Do not regret this when you are burned to ashes, Jujutsu Sorcerers!" Jogo roared, clasping his hands together. "Domain Expansion: Coffin of the Iron Mountain!"
The vision of the Jujutsu High group suddenly went pitch black. A deafening, violent roar, exactly like a catastrophic volcanic eruption, rang in their ears.
Bubbling lava surged violently from the asphalt, and the surrounding environment instantly transformed into the deep crimson interior of an active volcano.
Rivers of blindingly hot magma flowed in every direction. Shin immediately checked his status effects. His Fire Resistance buff, which should have lasted for a full fifteen minutes, had instantly plummeted to a mere ninety seconds.
Furthermore, the overwhelming ambient Cursed Energy of the Domain instantly downgraded all of his secondary and tertiary buffs to their lowest base levels, severely shortening their durations as well.
Conversely, Jogo's stats skyrocketed within his own Domain. With a gentle, arrogant lift of his hand, a massive tidal wave of magma—carrying dozens of jagged, unmelted boulders—surged toward the students at lethal speed.
Although Shin's Fire Resistance potion was still technically active, the sheer kinetic force of the high-speed boulders posed a massive, lethal threat to Megumi, Yuji, and Nobara.
Satoru Gojo simply smiled. He gently hooked a finger under his blindfold and pulled it down, revealing his brilliant, pale blue Six Eyes.
With a slow, casual lift of his hand, the space directly in front of the group seemed to freeze entirely. The roaring tsunami of magma and jagged rocks halted perfectly in mid-air, suspended inches away from their faces.
This was Satoru Gojo's Cursed Technique: Limitless. It functioned by manifesting the concept of infinity into reality, allowing Gojo to manipulate space through immense Cursed Energy. He could repel, attract, and even teleport. Naturally, creating an absolute spatial barrier to stop attacks was effortless.
"Alright, my dear students," Gojo announced cheerfully. "The final section of tonight's lesson is: How to Counter a Domain. As everyone knows, a Domain Expansion comes equipped with a guaranteed-hit effect, making evasion impossible."
He gestured to the frozen magma.
"The first method is to block the attack directly with a defensive Cursed Technique like I am doing now. However, this is incredibly taxing and usually yields poor results for an average sorcerer. The second, and absolute best method, is to expand a Domain of your own."
Gojo lowered his hand, though the magma remained frozen.
"When two Domains clash, the side with the stronger Cursed Energy output and the more refined Cursed Technique will overwrite the other. Even if your Domain isn't strong enough to win outright, the clash will still neutralize the opponent's guaranteed-hit effect."
Having finished his lecture, Gojo turned and signaled for Shin to deploy his Domain to counter Jogo's Coffin of the Iron Mountain.
Gojo could not use his own Domain, Unlimited Void. His technique indiscriminately flooded the brains of everyone trapped inside with infinite information, resulting in permanent catatonia. The only way to shield someone from the effect was to maintain constant, direct physical contact with them, which was impossible while protecting four separate students.
Shin looked at Gojo with completely deadpan eyes. He raised his hands in exasperation.
"I cannot guarantee that my Domain is refined enough to overpower a Special Grade's barrier," Shin stated flatly. "I can only promise that I will try my best."
Shin brought his index fingers together.
"Domain Expansion: Genesis."
Instantly, a wave of pixelated blocks spread rapidly outward from beneath Shin's boots. The moment the churning, hyper-realistic magma from Jogo's Domain splashed against the blocky terrain, the lava hissed and vanished into nothingness.
Shin's internal block reserves began plummeting at a terrifying rate as the system desperately consumed inventory to overwrite Jogo's spatial coordinates.
Opposite him, Jogo was sweating profusely. The curse continuously pushed his Cursed Energy output past his absolute limits, yet he still could not stop the bizarre, blocky world from steadily encroaching on his volcano.
Shin's heart bled as he watched his hard-earned material reserves drain away, but he had no choice. If he tried to clash with Jogo based purely on raw Cursed Energy reserves rather than his system's override mechanics, the Special Grade would undoubtedly crush him.
Jogo frantically compressed the Cursed Energy within his body, burning his lifeforce to maintain the massive output required to support his Domain. He knew his Domain was his final swan song.
If his barrier was shattered, he would suffer from Cursed Technique Burnout. Stripped of his fire magic, his physical stats would plummet. In a state of Burnout, Jogo knew he couldn't even defeat a standard Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer, let alone the monster that was Satoru Gojo.
Absolute despair gripped the curse's heart. He realized with chilling certainty that he was not going to survive the night.
Crack.
A web of dense, glowing fissures spiderwebbed across the barrier of Jogo's Domain. A second later, with a deafening sound like shattering glass, the Coffin of the Iron Mountain violently exploded into fragments.
The illusion of the volcano vanished, revealing the cool night air of the mountain highway.
Gojo casually pulled his blindfold back over his eyes and stepped heavily onto the back of Jogo's head, pinning the exhausted, Burned-Out curse to the asphalt. Fortunately for Jogo, Gojo opted not to violently rip his head off this time.
"Hey there," Gojo asked coldly, all traces of his previous playfulness gone. "Tell me exactly how you knew I was going to be traveling down this specific classified route tonight. Tell me, or I will kill you right now."
As he spoke, Gojo gradually increased the pressure of his foot, slowly crushing Jogo's skull against the pavement.
"Hmph!" Jogo spat defiantly through his shattered teeth. "Go ahead and kill me! We, the true humans, will never betray our comrades like you filthy monkeys do!"
"You are just a Cursed Spirit," Gojo scoffed disdainfully. "Do not speak to me so arrogantly."
Gojo channeled Cursed Energy into his heel, preparing to crush the curse's head like a melon and exorcise him permanently.
Suddenly, a beautiful, idyllic cluster of blooming flowers sprouted from the asphalt directly beneath them.
Although Shin knew exactly who was coming to rescue Jogo, the moment his eyes locked onto the vibrant petals, a profound, unnatural sense of peace washed over him. His mind went entirely blank.
Ah! What beautiful flowers...
The exact same thought echoed through the minds of Gojo, Megumi, Nobara, and Yuji.
A split second later, both Gojo and Shin violently slapped their own cheeks, snapping themselves out of the hypnotic pacification.
But it was too late. Jogo was already strapped to the back of the towering, branch-covered curse, Hanami, who was sprinting away at blinding speed.
Simultaneously, thick, whip-like vines erupted from the ground, wrapping tightly around the ankles of Megumi, Yuji, and Nobara. The vines violently launched the three teenagers high into the air in three completely different directions.
Directly in the projected flight paths of the students, massive clusters of razor-sharp wooden spikes sprouted from the earth, waiting to impale them.
Shin instantly abandoned all thoughts of chasing the Special Grades. He bolted toward the closest student, Nobara, catching her mid-air and hurling her safely toward the flat highway. Without breaking his momentum, he lunged toward Megumi.
Shin managed to grab the back of Megumi's collar and yank him backward a fraction of a second before the boy was impaled on a wooden spear. At the exact same moment, Gojo casually teleported into the sky and caught Yuji.
By the time everyone was safely back on the ground, the two Special Grade curses had completely vanished from Gojo's Six Eyes perception.
This stealth was entirely due to Hanami's unique physiology. Hanami possessed the ability to seamlessly merge their Cursed Energy signature with the natural environment. To any sensory technique, Hanami simply registered as an ordinary plant. It was this exact camouflage that allowed Hanami to stage a rescue right under Satoru Gojo's nose.
Gojo did not seem particularly bothered that the curses had escaped. He simply shrugged his shoulders helplessly.
"Alright, kids, you can head back to the Jujutsu High dorms," Gojo instructed. "Shin and I still have a very boring meeting to attend. We have been delayed for quite a while now. I really hope those rotten old oranges don't have too many complaints waiting for us."