The collapse of the world seemed to hinge upon a single thought.
The thick smoke and volcanic ash spewing from Mount Fuji had already dyed half of Japan's sky into a despairing ash-black.
Hundred-meter-tall tsunamis devoured the shattered coastline.
This was the fury of the King of Curses, Ryomen Sukuna.
This was the apocalyptic festival he offered to a world that had displeased him.
On the face of Hundred-Finger Sukuna, which usually wore an arrogant smirk, only one emotion remained.
Pure, unadulterated rage.
It was the rage of having his existence, his dignity, and his everything utterly trampled and denied.
"Why!"
He roared, his voice carrying a faint tremble that even he failed to notice.
"Why are my attacks useless against you?!"
His [Dismantle], capable of severing space itself, and his [Cleave], capable of erasing an entire city from the map, were so fragile before that thin, invisible barrier.
Everything he took pride in seemed so laughable, so powerless before this man.
Ian looked at his exasperated state and let out a bored yawn.
"Useless?"
"No, no, no, I must correct you."
"It's not that they're useless."
"It's just that your attacks haven't reached me yet. They're still flying through an infinite distance."
"Try a little harder, and you'll hit me any second now."
Those words finally made Sukuna understand.
The man before him wasn't using Satoru Gojo's Limitless Cursed Technique at all.
He was using a higher-dimensional "rule" that Sukuna couldn't even begin to comprehend, casually toying with him.
Sukuna realized the gap between them.
It was an absolute chasm that no amount of effort could bridge, and no scheme could overcome.
In Sukuna's four crimson eyes, all the rage and indignation slowly subsided in that moment.
Replacing it was an unprecedented, tragic, and resolute calmness.
He slowly closed his four eyes.
He forged his final Binding Vow with this world.
At the cost of "never reincarnating."
At the cost of "completely erasing every trace of his existence from this world."
In exchange for a fleeting moment of power that surpassed all limits of this world.
BOOM—!!!
The very rules of the jujutsu world let out an overwhelmed wail at this moment.
A terrifying power that defied all description erupted from Sukuna's body.
His body began to turn translucent.
His proud, solitary soul, which had been imprisoned for a millennium, was burning at an astonishing rate, turning into fuel for this ultimate strike.
Tokyo, Japan. Jujutsu High.
The Pentagon, USA. The deepest underground Supernatural Phenomenon Research Center.
The Vatican. The Forbidden Library that was never open to the public.
Every entity on Earth possessing supernatural power, whether they called themselves jujutsu sorcerers, espers, or so-called "proxies of God."
At this moment, they all unanimously cast their gazes toward the sinking island nation.
They could clearly feel it.
A terrifying power capable of utterly destroying the planet was rapidly taking shape there.
Sukuna slowly opened his eyes.
He gathered all of that power, which had surpassed the world's limits, entirely at his fingertips.
A darkness so pure and absolute that it seemed capable of devouring all the light in the world slowly coalesced at his fingertips.
He looked at Ian not far away, his eyes holding nothing but a heartfelt, pure respect for the true "strongest."
"I'm sorry,"
he spoke, his voice flat but carrying an unprecedented solemnity.
"I couldn't give you a satisfying fight."
"You are the strongest existence I have seen in a thousand years."
"To die by your hands... is perhaps my honor."
Ian looked at him, looking at the world-destroying darkness at his fingertips.
On that face that seemed to have never taken anything seriously, a hint of approval finally appeared.
"Not bad."
"This strike is finally getting a bit interesting."
In the distant sky, two streaks of light hurtled over at supersonic speeds.
It was Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto, who had immediately sensed this apocalyptic power right after the former had resurrected his best friend.
When they clearly saw the pure darkness at Sukuna's fingertips, the pupils of these two men standing at the pinnacle of modern jujutsu sorcerers violently contracted.
They knew.
This strike—let alone them in their current state—
Even if every Special Grade Jujutsu Sorcerer in the entire jujutsu world were gathered here, they absolutely, unequivocally could not stop it.
Sukuna smiled.
It was the most hearty and relieved smile he had shown since his incarnation.
He slowly swung his arm.
That pitch-black slash, condensing his everything and surpassing the world's limits, silently cleaved toward Ian.
The pitch-black edge carried no grandiose momentum; it simply and silently sliced through space, through time, and through causality.
Wherever it passed, all things ceased to exist.
Air, light, sound—everything was utterly erased.
Facing this ultimate strike capable of splitting the entire world in two,
Ian neither dodged nor defended.
He just stood there quietly, allowing the pitch-black slash to strike his body.
BOOM—!!!
A terrifying energy that defied all description violently erupted.
Under the shockwave of this power, the entire Japanese archipelago was completely torn apart, sinking into the dark, freezing depths of the ocean.
Centered on the sunken island nation, a massive, ring-shaped shockwave swept across the entire globe.
The tectonic plates of the entire planet violently shifted under this force.
The light dissipated.
Sukuna's translucent body floated quietly in midair.
He looked down at the completely erased area, now nothing but an endless ocean, and a satisfied smile appeared on his face.
However.
In the next second.
The smile on his face instantly froze.
Because he saw it.
In that void where absolutely nothing should have existed, a figure still stood quietly, completely unscathed.
And that ultimate slash—which had condensed his everything, capable of severing concepts and destroying the world—was currently being pinched between two of that man's fingers.
The pitch-black edge trembled violently at his fingertips, wailing, yet unable to advance even a single fraction of an inch.
Sukuna's mind went completely blank.
'How... is this possible?'
'My final strike, for which I gambled everything, burned my soul, and even sacrificed my very existence...'
'Is actually... completely useless!?'
Then, Ian's flat voice drifted leisurely into his ears.
"Your attack was pretty good."
"In this world, I am willing to call you the strongest."
The moment his words fell, Sukuna's translucent body began to dissolve into a sky full of golden motes of light.
This King of Curses, who had stood in solitary pride for a thousand years, failed to comprehend the true gap between him and his opponent even in the final moments of his life.
The particles of light scattered.
Ryomen Sukuna completely dissipated.