BOOOOOOM.
Massive yellow rings burst outward from the sky above the pacific, tearing through the air as though the sky itself had been threaded and yanked apart. They didn't expand randomly, they followed one another in perfect sequence, four colossal rings chasing each other as they tore across the heavens.
And at the center of them was Gojo.
His body was hurled forward like a meteor, space collapsing behind him as the rings pulsed.
Gravity didn't just increase, it asserted itself.
The force slammed into him from every direction at once, compressing the air, bending light, dragging him downward with the certainty of a collapsing star.
Gojo's eyes widened and he used his domain again but this time it, the amplification.
Domain amplification!
The thin film of of his domain wrapped around him just as the pressure intensified again, but it barely helped. His body screamed as the rings stacked gravitational force exponentially, multiplying it with each pulse.
The ocean rushed up faster than something of that magnitude should have.
He crossed his arms just before impact and HIT. The water didn't part.
It exploded outwards.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
SPLASHHHHHHHHHH
A titanic wall of sea water erupted outward as Gojo slammed into the surface, the force creating a shockwave that flattened waves for miles. The ocean boiled where he struck, steam blasting skyward as if the sea itself were screaming.
Above in the sky, Annihilus hovered in the air.
His missing arm was gone but now it was replaced by a jagged construct of yellow energy, The Cosmic Control Rod pulsed violently in his remaining hand.
But his expression had changed.
Gone was the rage, the arrogance.
His eyes were distant now, empty. Something else was looking… through them.
Below him, the ocean convulsed as the sea life fled in every direction, schools of fish scattering, massive shapes vanishing into the deep as instinct screamed run.
The rings began to shrink.
Their diameter collapsed inward, tightening like nooses around the battlefield and with it the gravity spiked again.
Gojo rose from the churning water, steam rolling off his body in thick waves, his breath came in heavy.
"…What the fuck," he muttered.
His boots touched upon nothing, the air felt impossibly dense. He tried to move but the rings pulsed again and this time the water around him changed.
Gojo looked around and raised an eyebrow as he saw the molecules realigning.
The ocean hardened, chains of liquid forming around his limbs as matter manipulation forced water into unnatural configurations. Each movement made the bindings tighten and the pressure increasing with a mechanical force.
Gojo's eyes narrowed.
'So that's how you want to play it.'
Heat surged from his body in waves, pure thermal dominance. The water screamed as miles of ocean instantly boiled over, the chains vaporizing in an explosive blast of superheated steam.
The sea detonated outward again and in the same instant—
BOOOOOOM.
Annihilus smashed down from above and the rod came with him as the It struck Gojo mid-guard, slamming into his crossed arms with a force that shattered the ocean beneath them. The impact drove them both downward, water collapsing inward as though gravity itself had been inverted.
Gojo's eyes widened. 'Shit, I didn't even feel him coming.'
His instincts screamed.
'Reject!'
For a fraction of a second the pressure vanished.
Annihilus was yanked backward, space snapping as rejection asserted itself and then, It came back full force and harder.
The Rod screamed as it forced its conceptual existence on Gojo and Annihilus reappeared instantly, smashing into Gojo again, the blow sending a shock through his entire body. Pain flared up all over his body destabilizing him.
Gojo gasped as his muscles locked and his vision blurred. 'No, not now'
The pressure didn't stop and it kept getting stacked.
His body trembled as the truth settled in, he'd pushed himself too far, he'd used too many rejections.
Too many concepts overwritten.
'…I've overused it.'
The realization hit harder than the blow and as Annihilus loomed over him, rod blazing, and the rings tightening, Gojo knew for the first time since this battle began. He was in real trouble.
They disengaged for the briefest moment causing the ocean around them to part.
Then Annihilus surged forward again, with the gravity warping around his frame, just as he got close to Gojo, a few centimeters before the lock again, Gojo vanished.
A short burst teleportation. He reappeared beneath Annihilus, the ocean below them churned violently as Gojo twisted his body and kicked upward with both legs, his heel driving straight into Annihilus' chest.
The impact alone cracked the water.
"Maximum… Red." The technique detonated upon impact. Repulsion exploded outward like a divine rejection of reality itself. The ocean was ripped open, water peeling away for miles in a violent crimson flash as a titanic void formed where the sea had been.
Annihilus was blasted upward, he broke the sound barrier once, then again and again. Over eleven times, the sky screaming behind him as shockwaves stacked upon shockwaves.
Below, the ocean stood hollowed out, a vast circular wound where water had been erased rather than displaced. The walls trembled before collapsing inward, but not before devastation rippled through the depths.
Sea life was annihilated.
Entire ecosystems were reduced to drifting particulate matter. A whale caught too close to the blast simply ceased to exist, its mass scattered into vapor by pure repulsive force.
A second later…
BOOM.
Gojo shot out of the empty hole, trailing red lightning and steam, the hole behind him taking nearly a full minute before the ocean dared to reclaim itself.
He chased Annihilus into the sky and Into the thinning air up to the edge of space.
As Annihilus punched through the upper atmosphere, Gojo narrowed his eyes.
'…So I was right.'
Another sonic boom rang out as Gojo accelerated.
'The rod's taken over completely.'
His gaze locked onto it.
The Cosmic Control Rod pulsed again harder, deeper and for the first time, Gojo heard it and his eyes widened.
Not through sound but through existence itself
"Remarkable."
The voice surrounded him, vibrating through spacetime itself.
"In epochs of conquest, in systems reduced to silence, few have resisted my host to this extent."
Annihilus' body twitched unnaturally as the rod spoke through him.
"Fewer still have pushed him to such… inadequacy."
They finally broke free of the atmosphere and silence fell. Stars stretched endlessly around them as both came to a stop in open space, the rings drifting away before stopping behind Annihilus like dying halos.
Gojo exhaled.
Then vibrated his vocal cords in a precise and controlled manner. His voice rippling through the vacuum until it reached Annihilus.
"…Wow," Gojo said casually.
"You really just moved in without knocking, huh? Rude. But hey, nice to finally meet you."
The rod pulsed brighter.
"You are not Annihilus, yet your resistance exceeds expectations. Your dominion over space… your refusal of imposed law over and over again…"
There was a pause.
"I have tested you sufficiently."
Gojo tilted his head.
"Become my host, I will grant you authority over collapse and creation. Galaxies will bend when you speak."
"You will not be constrained by flesh, nor by time."
The rings around Annihilus trembled.
"Accept."
Gojo stared at it for a long moment.
Then smiled.
"…Yeah," he said lightly.
"I'm gonna pass on that offer."
The rod vibrated and Annihilus' body moved without his will.
"So be it."
One of the yellow rings shattered causing space to bend slightly.
Gojo's eyes sharpened and His body suddenly ignited in red and blue light, space shimmering violently behind him as a massive red orb formed in his palm.
"Reversal technique… Red."
The second ring broke and space folded inward.
Behind Gojo, a titanic Blue manifested causing gravity and space to scream and collapse as it tore matter toward itself.
"Lapse… Blue."
The third ring shattered and spacetime buckled.
Gojo raised his hand, and with a calm voice he recited an incantation. It was completely unnecessary but for some reason Gojo simply couldn't resist it.
"Nine Ropes."
"Polarized Light."
"Crow and Declaration."
"Between Front and Back."
The Red and Blue collided and birthed Purple. In front of Annihilus, the remaining shattered rings fused, forming a catastrophic yellow beam, space screaming as the rod asserted its will in it.
"Be erased."
The beam fired and the massive orb of purple shot forward as well.
"Hollow… Purple."
The two forces met and reality curved again affecting the spatial curvature of the earth where they collided.
Space bent inward like wet paper, stars stretching into spirals as mass and concept collided. The battlefield above earth warped into a crushing singularity of purple and yellow, each force escalating and refusing to yield.
Gojo gritted his teeth.
'Come on… come on…'
The pressure increased and became unbearable.
Just then.
BOOOOOOOOOOM.
A catastrophic explosion boomed and swallowed everything.
Gojo's eyes widened as he tried to teleport but space dragged him back.
He tried rejection again but unfortunately it failed all the same. His body was simply too tired to pull off a rejection capable of negating the effects of the spatial lock.
——————————————
From Earth, they saw a new sun ignited in the sky. Half purple and half yellow, It blinked and they saw how the the sky warped right before their eyes, it bent inward as the gravity weighed heavily on space.The image of the real sun bent inward, turned black for a heartbeat then it all snapped back.
And just as suddenly It was gone.