“There is no need to fight on the enemy’s home ground,” Panda added thoughtfully. “Since Domain Expansion consumes so much Cursed Energy, if we can lure out the enemy’s Domain Expansion and then escape, the situation becomes favorable for us.”

  “Salmon.” Toge Inumaki spoke as usual. He should really just keep being a repeater.

  Akira supplemented their answers. “Besides that, Cursed Technique confrontation is still effective. Satoru Gojo only said you cannot dodge, not that you cannot block.”

  “That is what I have been doing all along,” Satoru Gojo replied lightly.

  “Shinra Tensei” and “Bansho Tenin” were not small skills in Naruto, but in the hands of Satoru Gojo they were no different from basic attacks. He could use them freely without restraint or concern for cost.

  “Even so, this is not a good way to respond,” Satoru Gojo said seriously. “Competing in Cursed Technique inside an enemy’s Domain Expansion is foolish to begin with. I can do this only because my completion level and understanding of Jujutsu surpass Rika Orimoto’s, and because Rika Orimoto’s Domain Expansion is incomplete.”

  “After all, this is a dream,” he continued. “If the range were consciously controlled and Cursed Technique properly concentrated, even I would find it difficult. And because of Barrier Techniques, escaping from Domain Expansion is extremely hard, so the most effective response is for us to deploy Domain Expansion as well.”

  “When both sides use Domain Expansion at the same time, the one with superior Cursed Technique gains the advantage,” Satoru Gojo concluded. “Of course, compatibility and the amount of Cursed Energy also matter.”

  In the end, Domain Expansion still fell within the scope of Jujutsu. The basic principles of Jujutsu applied inside Domain Expansion as well.

  “So, teacher, are you going to use Domain Expansion?” Yuta Okkotsu asked excitedly.

  “No, that will not do,” Satoru Gojo said as he shook his head.

  “Why?” Maki Zenin pressed, half provoking him. “Does someone who calls himself ‘invincible’ lack confidence in a Domain Expansion battle?”

  “That is not the reason,” Satoru Gojo replied patiently. “In terms of Cursed Energy reserves and domain size, Rika Orimoto has the advantage. As for Cursed Technique, I am confident I can beat anyone.”

  “I just cannot guarantee what state Rika Orimoto would be in after my Domain Expansion overwrote this place,” he said more quietly. “Do not forget, this is Rika Orimoto’s dream. We are here to wake someone up, not to kill them. Invincible does not mean all-purpose.”

  That last sentence was a true reflection of Satoru Gojo’s own situation. Even with unrivaled power, there were many things he still could not do as he wished.

  Force was only a final option. In life, there were far more moments where one did not fight than moments where one did.

  “So that means we have to clear it step by step and reach the center of the nightmare,” Akira said.

  He understood now. Other people’s Domain Expansion were one thing, but if Satoru Gojo mishandled his own, Rika Orimoto could end up mentally broken.

  “There is another necessary condition,” Satoru Gojo added. “Yuta has to be in the team. If Cursed Spirit Rika is part of the nightmare, the real Rika Orimoto might not recognize us.”

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  It had to be admitted that when it came to recognizing people, Satoru Gojo was reliable enough. Unfortunately, he usually did not bother recognizing people at all.

  “Then what are we waiting for?” Akira urged. “You said you would carry us and let us fly.”

  “Carrying you is easy,” Satoru Gojo said. “The hard part is bringing Yuta to Rika Orimoto. A normal Domain Expansion is usually limited to a few hundred meters at most, but the scale of Rika Orimoto’s domain is something even I cannot determine.”

  “The monsters inside likely grow stronger the deeper we go, and there is also the map itself,” he continued. “Let us probe it a bit first.”

  As he spoke, Satoru Gojo formed hand seals. His left hand released forward rotation of Cursed Technique called Blue, while his right hand released reverse rotation called Red, and when the two met, he spoke again.

  “Hollow Technique. Purple.”

  The essence of Blue was negative infinity, while the essence of Red was positive infinity. When the two collided, they formed an imaginary mass, and when that mass was pushed into motion, it produced an annihilation-like effect powerful enough to cut through space.

  The sky collapsed and the ground split apart as a shock streaking with blue and purple light surged straight ahead. Everything it touched was sliced apart, and it showed no sign of weakening even at the edge of sight.

  The students stood there in shock. They knew Satoru Gojo was absurdly strong, and they knew he always talked about being invincible.

  But until they saw it with their own eyes, none of them truly understood what invincible meant. Now, they did.

  The supreme perception granted by Six Eyes allowed him to see everything. His casual attacks freely manipulated attraction and repulsion, while his defense relied on an almost unfair constant Holy Shield.

  If he was injured, he could heal himself with Reverse Cursed Technique. On top of that, he had Domain Expansion that overwhelmed anyone, and the map-altering power of Purple.

  Aside from the physical limits of the human body, this man had no weaknesses. That was why he stood at the very top, and why he was called invincible.

  Even Akira could not avoid being impressed. Knowing the settings, reading the original work, and witnessing it firsthand were completely different experiences.

  What looked like a finishing move, Purple, was at most a small skill in his eyes, and there were many others like it. By using Blue and Red, he could even achieve Teleport.

  Beyond that, Satoru Gojo’s control over Cursed Energy was so refined that his consumption approached zero. The ways Akira could think of to defeat him boiled down to only two possibilities.

  Either restrict him through the environment and disable Cursed Energy and Jujutsu entirely, reducing him to the limits of a human. Or shatter his Holy Shield in a way he could not respond to and destroy him completely.

  Otherwise, even if one had greater raw strength, victory was not guaranteed. To be honest, even training the Mythical Pokemon Darkrai to level one hundred would not give Akira much confidence.

  Unless he could obtain an even more broken Pokémon with rules that took priority over Infinity.

  After showing off a little and unleashing an attack strong enough to redraw the terrain, Satoru Gojo was still not satisfied. He flicked his hand and shook his head, his expression calm but clearly displeased. “It’s worse than I expected.”

  At first, everyone thought his usual habit of humble bragging had returned, but it did not take long before they understood where the word “worse” came from. The land that had been split apart by “Hollow Technique · Azure” was restoring itself at an alarming speed, just like a wound healing under Reverse Cursed Technique. The crack in space closed almost completely in front of their eyes.

  Along with the “wound,” the “body’s” immune response also recovered. If the shadows Satoru Gojo had cleared before were just ordinary cells, then what came now were the body’s “white blood cells,” far greater in size and pressure than the earlier darkness. Their aggressive advance felt as if they were shouting, “Die, foreign matter.”

  If that were all, it would not have mattered much. With Satoru Gojo around, they could always keep firing Hollow Technique and force their way forward. The real problem was that through the “wound” cut open by Satoru Gojo, Akira saw something deeply abnormal.

  It was a mirrored, inverted world. Mountains hung upside down, water flowed against gravity, and scattered floating islands could be seen in the distance. Compared to the space they stood in, that reflected world was filled with a much denser sense of death, closer to a hellish underworld.

  Ruin World? Distortion World? It was not that Akira was overthinking things, but that the sense of familiarity was far too strong. Ruin World and Distortion World were concepts under Pokemon World, referring to the same location in different terms.