"Sin Archbishop of the Witch's Cult, bearer of the Right of Greed. This position was earned through purity, through principle, and through perfection of self."
Regulus chuckled softly, his head tilting at a jaunty, unsettling angle.
"Ah, but I imagine that doesn't mean much to someone like you. You reek of chaos... power without purpose. You're the type who wakes up and decides the world is his playground just because he can flex a muscle, am I right? Tch. How utterly boorish."
Gojo didn't speak. His gaze hardened.
"See, what people never understand—what they're too stupid to grasp—is that I am a just man. I live with clarity. I do not like to fight, I do not steal, I do not compromise, I do not submit. I simply take what is rightfully mine. That is order. That is love. That is what it means to be free."
He spread his arms slightly, chest lifting as if expecting the blood-soaked trees to burst into applause.
"And really... what is a sin, if not the world's rejection of a man who refuses to be bound by its hypocrisy? If I want a thing, and I possess the virtue to keep it, by what right does the world call it a crime?"
The air around them remained unnaturally still. The thick stench of corpses failed to reach Regulus, as if the wind itself refused to infringe on his rights.
Gojo lowered his head slightly. His mouth curved upward into a humorless, razor-sharp smirk.
"...Huh. You really talk a lot. Like, a lot, a lot."
Regulus blinked, his brows furrowing in genuine, offended shock. "Excuse me...?"
Gojo raised his eyes——those cerulean pupils shimmering with a terrifying light beneath his snowy lashes.
"I said you talk too much, dude. Seriously. Is there a tax on silence in this world? Because you act like you're trying to avoid a massive bill."
Regulus tilted his head, that smug smile wavering for the first time as a tint of jagged annoyance bled into his tone.
"You think I'm being excessive? Hmph. Typical! The moment someone speaks with reason... TRUE reason... people call it rambling! But let me ask you——what's worse? Speaking at length with clarity or acting like a mindless beast, swinging your limbs around without a single philosophical foundation to stand on?"
Gojo said nothing, rather, he simply stood there, one hand slowly sliding out of his pocket, his thumb flicking against his index finger.
Regulus stepped closer, encroaching on Gojo's personal space with the confidence of a ghost.
"Silence? A wise decision! Better to be quiet and considered thoughtful than speak and remove all doubt, isn't that how the saying goes? Though, in your case, I suspect the silence is just a mask for the fact that there's absolutely nothing going on behind those eyes. But then again, I suppose I am speaking quite a bit. It's just that when you've attained true understanding—when you've tasted the absolute—your words tend to... linger. They have weight. They have right."
Gojo's voice came at last.
"You really love the sound of your own voice, don't you? I mean, I've met some narcissists in my time—I'm one of 'em, honestly—but you? You're on a whole different level. It's starting to get on my nerves, and you've only been 'enlightening' me for, what, three minutes? Damn, dude. Take a breath. Or don't. Actually, don't. You choking and dying sounds like the best outcome."
A slight tic crossed Regulus's cheek. It was brief, but it was there. The smile returned, tighter this time.
"...Words are the measure of will. The manifestation of one's ideals. Unlike people who skulk around using brute force like common thugs! I define myself through thought. Through virtue. That is why I alone am righteous."
He clenched his fist behind his back, his voice tightening with a restrained, neurotic fervor.
"Others simply act selfishly, recklessly. You look like one of those. Strong, perhaps, but foolish. Dangerous. Unruly. I despise that. Men like you trample values and impose will without consent. You walk into this forest, you kill these people, and you think you're a hero? That, my friend, is the true sin. You've infringed upon their right to be killed by me."
Gojo took a single step forward. His movement was completely silent, yet the space between them felt like it was instantly sucked into a vacuum.
Gojo exhaled lightly, almost amused.
"I've heard a lot of egomaniacs ramble before," he said, his fingers flicking the air idly as if shooing away a fly. "But this? You talk like a guy who accidentally ate a whole dictionary and is now suffering from the world's worst case of verbal diarrhea. It's impressive, in a 'wow-I-want-to-hit-you' kind of way."
He tilted his head, his gaze boring into Regulus.
"And I still don't know what you want. You didn't come here just to give me a lecture on your 'virtue,' did you?"
Regulus's pupils sharpened into pinpricks. He let out a slow, tight breath that failed to disturb even the dust on his collar.
"What I want is justice," he said, his tone dropping into a hiss. "To preserve what is rightfully mine. She is mine. Her love, her gaze, her attention! All of it was taken from me. That boy you and that little demon protect——"
He pointed a pale, trembling finger toward the dark treeline where Rem had fled.
"——he is a thief. A parasite. He's touched things that don't belong to him. And I am the hand of rightful retribution, as it should be."
Gojo's smirk faded. One silver brow rose. "You're talking about Subaru...?"
"I'm talking," Regulus said, his voice growing harsher, cracking with the strain of his own ego, "about a world that allows parasites like him to squirm into hearts that do not belong to them! I'm talking about the lawlessness of emotion! Where anyone can claim another's soul without contract, without permission, without the divine right of possession!"
He straightened his back, his voice rising into a shriek of righteous fury.
"I am not cruel! I am not the villain! I am the only man who knows what it means to truly love——to own something so completely it can never leave you! That is not greed! That is devotion in its purest, most sacred, most unchanging form!"
Gojo's hand flexed, balling into a fist. A breeze passed, ruffling Gojo's hair, but Regulus remained completely static, unmoving and unmoved.
Gojo blinked, his brow furrowing in genuine curiosity.
There's literally nothing when I look at him. No mana, no physical momentum. It feels no different than looking at empty space... according to the Six Eyes, this guy doesn't even exist.
Regulus now stood within arm's reach, his golden eyes wide and unblinking.
"You joke. But I find your lack of gravity deeply offensive," Regulus said, the venom behind his words finally stripped of its civility. "You see, violence is barbarism. It is a tool for those with no capacity for argument. A man who swings his fists is one who's already lost the debate."
Gojo's smile came back—cold, devoid of warmth, holding only the promise of an ending.
"Well, good news then."
His gaze sharpened; the glow in his Six Eyes pulsed.
"I didn't come here to debate."
Gojo struck without warning or retreat——pure, immediate offense.
His strike collapsed space itself. Blue-tinted sparks danced around his knuckles as he compressed the distance to zero. The region convulsed, ground shattering beneath their feet as a violent shockwave tore through the clearing. A thunderclap flattened the surrounding forest, pulverizing the trees into sawdust.
Regulus was launched like a white missile, carving a jagged trench across the dirt path and skidding with unnatural smoothness through the destruction.
Gojo narrowed his eyes, glancing down at his fist as a cold chill settled in his marrow.
That felt wrong. Too light. Like I hit... nothing?
Regulus slammed through a thick tree trunk, wood exploding in a burst of splinters before he finally came to a stop. He stood upright, adjusting his cuff with surgical precision.
"You dare...?" His voice was unnervingly calm. "Even after I've treated you with such niceties? You attempt to physically alter my state? To force your will upon my very person? Do you have any idea how greedy that is? To assume your fist has more right to be in my space than I do?"
He took a single step.
Gojo's Six Eyes screamed. He saw no physical attack, no trace of mana, but every instinct ordered him to move immediately. He kicked off the ground, twisting in mid-air just as the space he occupied vanished.
A colossal void of force erased space itself, a soundless sphere several meters wide deleting the earth beneath it.
Gojo landed in a crouch, sliding backward. A single drop of sweat rolled down his cheek as he stared at the blank crater.
I would've died.
"Ah," Regulus said, watching a lone leaf drift in front of him. He flicked it with a finger.
The leaf flew with the velocity of a railgun slug.
Gojo twisted, a fraction of a second too slow, as a thin line split across his cheek and blood welled up instantly.
"You're quiet now. That's good," Regulus said, his golden eyes glowing with a serene, terrifying light. "It means you understand your place. But there's no need to despair. I am, after all, a merciful man. If you get on your knees and beg—really beg—I'll grant you a death without pain. I'll even allow you to apologize for the intrusion. Isn't that generous? Isn't that the height of selflessness?"
Gojo's chin lowered, his jaw clenching. "Apologize? To a guy who can't stop talking about himself? I think I'd rather die."
"No? Well then. Don't forget I did offer."
Gojo moved with pure, unadulterated spite, vanishing and reappearing behind Regulus who didn't respond as he grabbed the back of Regulus's head and smashed it into a massive tree.
The trunk shattered, and before gravity could react, Gojo spun, burying his shin into Regulus's neck with enough force to level a skyscraper. The blow sent Regulus bulldozing through the forest.
Still, there was not a single scratch on him.
Gojo appeared mid-air, locking his hand around Regulus's throat as they tumbled, but the Archbishop felt like a mountain made of iron.
"Have you had your fun?" Regulus asked, his voice dripping with pure, suffocating condescension.
Regulus pivoted in a sloppy manner and drove a punch into Gojo's gut. The strike lacked elegance or skill, but the moment it connected, Gojo was launched through the air.
His spine ripped against the ground, smashing through rock and brush for hundreds of meters until he impacted the base of a mountain, burying him in stone.
"G-Gghhaah..."
Gojo dragged himself out of the rubble, his legs wobbling. His back was torn open by the earth he had been flung through.
I don't get it... Nothing I do works. But even the 'air' he moves hurts me!?
He looked up to see Regulus standing there——immaculate, free of dirt, bruises, or tension. Pure marble brought to life.
"You look surprised," Regulus said, walking forward as the air shivered around him. "Of course you are. You believed yourself a god among men. You thought being you made you the center of the world. But my 'Authority' is reality. I am the one true constant. The ever unchanging. The perfect."
With a simple swipe of his arm, a row of trees to his left disintegrated into dust.
"I exist in a world without compromise. The moment something affects me, it ceases to exist as a valid concept. I do not 'defend' myself, Satoru Gojo. I am simply not affected. Every technique you hurl at me is irrelevant. Invalid. You aren't fighting a man. You are fighting a fact."
He offered a wide, gleaming smile of absolute lunacy.
"So... when you punched me? You weren't 'too slow,' nor was I 'too strong.' Your attack was simply allowed, but ineffective. Therefore, do not delude yourself to be all-powerful... especially not before the actual All-Powerful."
Gojo stood his ground, blood dripping into his eye. He reached up, wiped the red away, and let out a short, breathy laugh that turned into a cough.
"...Don't really care, asshole... punching you is fun." He stood upright, his voice unwavering. "I won't be dying here, either."
Regulus exhaled slowly, exasperated and mildly irritated.
Infinity means nothing to him. Limitless doesn't apply. He's not ignoring my attacks... they're just not entering his reality.
The Six Eyes confirmed there was nothing standard techniques could achieve against this Authority. Yet Gojo's mind searched immediately for the logical loophole.
Reverse Cursed Technique… Pure creation. Positive energy born from clashing negatives. Power formed through contradiction...
He remembered Yaga's old lectures, the ones he had once dismissed with a cocky grin.
"Reverse energy is a contradiction, Satoru. You generate positive energy by multiplying two negative charges. It defies the natural flow. It's stupidly difficult. But that's exactly why it's the only thing that can rewrite a failing world."
A lightbulb clicked into place.
Gojo's eyes widened, his pupils dancing with a manic light as a wild laugh burst from his chest.
"Kehehe... BAAHAHAHA!!"
Regulus frowned, his lip curling in disdain. "Oh? Is that what desperation looks like on you? Or is it delusion, perhaps? To laugh in the face of your own insignificance is a pitiable sight, even for a barbarian like yourself."
Gojo launched forward, his foot splintering the earth as he shattered the concept of friction, moving at a speed that blurred the line between physical travel and teleportation.
Regulus's white brows furrowed. "What are you, some kind of primate?! How many times must I carve the truth into that thick, greedy skull of yours?!"
He extended an arm to erase the threat, but Gojo flipped overhead——a somersault propelled by pure, refined technique. He landed behind Regulus on the vertical face of the mountain, his palm extended.
Regulus turned, a flicker of genuine uncertainty passing over his face.
Gojo stood completely healed. The blood had vanished, his skin was pristine, and his aura burned with a terrifying, revitalized heat.
"I've got a student waiting for me~" Gojo muttered, his lips curling into a predatory smirk. "And he's already going through enough stuff for one day. I don't think he needs your 'Greed' cluttering up the place."
Two fingers and a thumb formed a gesture like a cold, iron gun.
"Cursed Technique Reversal..." A crimson spark ignited at his fingertip, humming with pure energy. "——Red."
The orb burst forward to repel, slamming into Regulus's chest like a nuke at point-blank range, launching his body skyward in a twisting spiral. Dirt and rock flayed beneath the Archbishop as he shot up the mountain face, tearing along the rocky surface.
Regulus clicked his tongue in annoyance. The air around him froze in an absolute suspension of momentum. His body halted mid-air, his boot tapping lightly against the vertical cliff face near the peak.
The mere pressure of his landing caused the mountain face to give way. A massive landslide followed, house-sized boulders tumbling down toward Gojo.
Satoru crouched and lunged upward, weaving between the falling debris like a ghost, launching himself off crumbling surfaces in a pre-written choreography. He burst through the final cluster of rock, meeting Regulus face-to-face five thousand feet above the forest floor.
Regulus floated effortlessly, standing on empty air. "You insufferable FOOL!" he snarled, thrusting a hand outward and flicking his wrist to throw the air itself.
A section of Gojo's side was eradicated instantly——flesh, muscle, and his entire left arm deleted into the void.
Yet, with a wild grin, hi sremaining arm screamed through the air faster than any strike he had ever performed. His fist slammed into Regulus's jaw, rocking his skull backward and sending a spatial shockwave rippling through the peak.
"——BLACK FLASH!!"
Space rippled in black-and-red lightning from the cursed energy's perfect sync. Regulus's head snapped back in pure fury.
Simultaneously, Gojo's Reverse Cursed Technique knitted flesh and muscle back together at a nauseating pace, regrowing his missing arm before the black sparks faded.
Regulus lashed back with a savage strike, grabbing Gojo by the collar and smashing him into the rock face. Blood sprayed from Gojo's temple, but his head stitched shut instantly, held together by sheer positive energy.
A razor-thin beam of suspended air scythed through space, slicing clean through Gojo's cheek and punching a tunnel through the mountain.
Gojo laughed, the gash closing even as he spoke. Seizing the Archbishop's collar, he twisted his body with the momentum of a falling star and drove a punch straight down into the state of total, unconscious focus.
"——BLACK FLASH!!"
Regulus was rocketed downward, breaking through the cloud cover at Mach speeds toward the green canopy below.
"Blue... Maximum Output——!!"
A massive blue sphere bloomed in the sky, a gravitational void whose pull dragged thousands of tons of mountain debris down in a concentrated avalanche. The pillar of stone and earth blocked out the sun, targeting Regulus directly as a square mile of forest was crushed under the weight.
Gojo hovered above the dust cloud, his breath ragged, scanning the debris.
"Stay down for a minute, bastard," Gojo hissed. "I've got a student to check on."
His Six Eyes picked up dozens of presences surrounding the area outside the destruction.
At least a hundred... all unfamiliar. Cultists..? I don't sense Rem or Subaru… I've got to move fast before this monster breaks out.
So at best, he had a minute, really.
————————————————
Subaru's anguished screams tore through the cavern, echoing off the damp stone walls as he wrenched at his chains, stripping the skin on his wrists to raw meat.
"I'LL KILL YOU... I— I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!!"
Petelgeuse's grin stretched so wide it seemed to split his face in two. "Ah! At last! Such passion! Such feeeeeeervor! Thank you, thank YOU!! Fellow devotee of LOVE! To feel such hatred is to acknowledge the depth of your heart! You are truly... BLESSED!"
The Archbishop turned his back on the boy, ignoring the carpet of slaughtered cultists Rem had felled before her capture. "Oh my... this place has become quite messy! Men, resume your duties and rendezvous with the other Fingers!"
The cavern ceiling vanished as a sphere of radiant blue light ate through stone, bathing the area in sunlight.
"——You damn sicko."
Gojo's fist buried itself in Petelgeuse's face before the Archbishop could even turn his head. The astronomical force sent Petelgeuse skipping across the floor like a stone over water, cratering the far wall.
Gojo Satoru landed in the center of the room, white hair messy, clothes in tatters. He ignored the monster and looked straight at Subaru, instantly destroying the chains that bound him with a swipe of his hand.
Subaru scrambled toward Rem's mangled form, his hands hovering over her in terror.
"Please... live..." her voice was a ghost of a whisper. "I— I love you... Subaru...."
"Rem! Rem, stay with me!" Subaru sobbed.
The air shifted, growing heavy, oily, and ancient. From the shadows, Petelgeuse reemerged, his face a ruin of torn muscle and broken bone.
"How... HOWHOWHOWHOWHOW?!" he shrieked, clawing at his face. "MY BRAIN... IT TREMBLES! TO BE STRUCK BY A FORCE THAT DEFIES THE UNSEEN?!"
"...You have truly outraged me beyond all reason," a calm voice drifted from the cave entrance. "You have trampled over my rights, scorning the mercy I offered to attack me like a beast."
Regulus Corneas stepped into the light, untouched, his white coat pristine.
Crap... he's fast for a guy buried under a mountain.
Gojo thought, his Six Eyes vibrating with warning.
"Subaru... take her and get out of here. Now."
"Gojo-sensei, but——"
"Go, you damn moron, you're in my way!" Gojo shoved him.
As Subaru turned to run, Regulus sighed. "To leave while I am speaking? A clear violation of my dignity."
Regulus swept his hand through the empty air.
Gojo threw himself into the trajectory to quickly push Subaru aside, all while the invisible force tore through Gojo's side, eviscerating his shoulder, torso, and half his face in a spray of crimson.
"GOJO-SENSEI!!!" Subaru screamed, frozen in horror.
"Get out of here already... you damn idiot!!" Gojo roared through a half-shattered jaw, Reverse Cursed Technique struggling to stitch his vital organs back together.
As Subaru vanished into the forest with Rem, Petelgeuse unleashed scores of Unseen Hands reaching for Subaru's retreating back.
Gojo raised his remaining good hand, his eyes burning with a sharp, absolute light. "I told you... I'm the one you're fighting."
A swirling vortex erupted in the center of the cave, pulling in rock, cultists, and Unseen Hands, crushing them into a singularity before they could reach the exit.
Petelgeuse fell to his knees, tearing at his hair. "THIS DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE! How do you interfere with my gift from the Witch?!"
Regulus scowled, stepping past him. "A mind as fractured as his wouldn't grasp something so simple. You aren't 'interfering.' You're just loud. A loud, dying man making a mess of my afternoon."
Gojo exhaled slowly, his vision blurring.
This is it. One shot. Everything I've got left.
He centered his core, redirecting every drop of cursed energy into the palm of his hand instead of healing his wounds.
The Lapse and the Reversal merged.
"You fool," Regulus said, stopping ten feet away. "Feel free to obliterate that screaming fiend beside me, but I will remain untouched. It is my right."
Gojo looked at the space between them, his fingers forming a sacred sign as two contradictions coalesced atop his fingertip.
"Imaginary Technique..."
The world went silent as a deep, swirling purple orb surged——an energy that deleted the very concept of matter.
"——Hollow Purple."
The orb roared forward, splitting the cave in two and tearing through the floor, walls, and mountain.
Petelgeuse Romanee-Conti vanished into nothingness, his madness silenced instantly in the violet flash.
When the dust settled, the cave was a canyon open to the sky.
Regulus Corneas hovered in the empty air, his hand resting calmly behind his back, coat still white, hair perfect.
"A valiant effort," Regulus said, his voice dripping with scorn. "But ultimately... a greedy one."
Gojo felt a sharp, burning sting in his chest as his eyes darkened. "...Damn it..."
Gojo's torso slid off his lower half as the suspended air Regulus had thrown completed its path through his body.
Satoru Gojo collapsed into the dirt, his head tilted back toward the shattered sky.
How stupid am I?
He took one last breath, looking up at the sun as the Strongest passed away.
As the light left his eyes, the temperature vanished entirely.
A cold beyond seasons began to bleed from the forest——an icy, mourning rage that threatened to entomb the world in silver.