The day after Sung Jin-Woo explained the truth about Itarim and the multiverse, the world seemed… eerily calm.
Too calm.
Tokyo was still abuzz with the aftermath of the televised battle between Jin-Woo's summoned soldiers and the Apostles. Media outlets scrambled to piece together what had happened, labeling Jin-Woo as everything from a "Savior" to a "World Threat." People feared him. Others worshipped him. But none could ignore him.
And yet he was gone.
Gojo stood on top of a high-rise building, the wind tugging at his white blindfold and coat as he looked down at the city with narrowed eyes.
He's not responding, he muttered, arms crossed. No cursed energy, no shadow presence, nothing... He's just gone.
Yuji, Megumi, and Yuta arrived moments later, equally concerned.
"I checked everywhere," Megumi said grimly.
"No trace. Not even his shadow soldiers are responding to me."
Yuta frowned.
"He wouldn't just disappear. Not after all that talk about the war and the Outergods. Something happened."
Yuji looked up. "Maybe Itarim did something to him?"
Gojo didn't answer immediately. The city below him felt off subtle shifts in cursed energy, unusual distortions in the air, and an oppressive sensation building at the edges of perception.
"Maybe," Gojo muttered.
"But whatever it is… we're blind. We've relied on Jin-Woo for everything since he arrived. Now he's missing, and we're standing here like children waiting for an adult to fix it."
Megumi grimaced. "We weren't ready for this. None of us were."
Suddenly, a loud thunderclap split the sky.
The clouds churned violently, swirling into unnatural patterns. In the distance, the horizon shimmered, like reality itself was being bent torn.
Yuta's eyes widened.
"That's not a natural storm."
"No…" Gojo muttered.
"That's something else."
Out of nowhere, a massive rift in the sky opened glowing with a dull red hue, almost like a wound in the heavens. From it came a sound like a hundred whispering voices layered over each other, speaking in an ancient, cosmic tongue no one understood.
Gojo immediately took a defensive stance.
"Get ready. This… this might be the beginning."
But even as he said it, something felt wrong.
There was no presence. No cursed energy. No divine aura. No monsters.
Only the sensation of being watched by something beyond space and time.
Yuji shivered.
"Where's Jin-Woo when we need him the most…?"
The rift slowly closed again but the damage was done.
Reality had glitched for a moment. People across the world began reporting strange visions black suns, spiraling voids, and a voice calling their name in dreams.
Gojo clenched his fists.
"We're losing time. We don't know where he is, and now the world is cracking at the seams."
Suddenly, Megumi's phone vibrated. He glanced down.
It was a single encrypted message, no sender ID.
> "This is not the first time a King has vanished before the storm. Seek the forgotten gate beneath Shibuya. Time is against you."
Gojo snatched the phone and read it silently. He didn't like riddles. But this wasn't a time to argue with mystery.
"Shibuya again, huh?" Gojo muttered darkly.
"That place is cursed in more ways than one."
Yuji stepped forward. "What do we do now?"
Gojo's blindfold flapped in the wind. His voice was colder than ever.
"We find the gate. We find Sung Jin-Woo. Because if we don't… we won't survive whatever's coming."
Gojo stood on the rooftop, his gaze fixed on the darkening sky where the rift had once been. His fists clenched as he processed the gravity of the situation. The group had been waiting for a clear sign, some indication of what to do next. But it had been a full day, and still, there was no word from Sung Jin-Woo. No sign of his whereabouts. No instructions.
They couldn't keep waiting forever.
Yuji's voice broke the silence.
"Gojo, I don't think we should keep waiting for Jin-Woo."
Gojo turned to face him. "What are you talking about?"
Yuji, his expression determined but edged with frustration, stepped forward.
"Jin-Woo might be gone for good. We can't keep waiting for someone who isn't here. We've seen the signs. The world is falling apart. We need to act now."
Megumi joined in, his arms crossed and a frown etched across his face.
"It's not just about waiting anymore, Gojo. This world is changing, and if we rely on Jin-Woo to solve everything, we're just putting off the inevitable."
Yuta nodded, his normally calm demeanor giving way to rare irritation.
"We need to prepare for the worst. I don't care how powerful Jin-Woo was. We need to step up and fight for this world ourselves."
Gojo's mouth twitched slightly, his usual easy-going demeanor giving way to a rare seriousness.
"You think we can handle this without Jin-Woo?"
He laughed bitterly, shaking his head.
"Even with all of your powers, do you really believe we can take on the Outergods, the Apostles, and whatever comes next without him?"
Yuji's eyes burned with resolve.
"We may not be as strong as Jin-Woo, but we still have our own strengths. Waiting for him to save us isn't going to change anything. We need to act, even if it means going into the unknown without him."
Megumi spoke next, his tone quiet but resolute.
"Jin-Woo isn't the only one with power. We've all been through enough battles to know that we can't just wait. If we stand around doing nothing, that's as good as giving up."
Gojo remained silent for a long moment, his expression unreadable. The winds swept through the rooftop, but it felt like the world had slowed to a crawl. The others were right. They couldn't just sit idly by.
Finally, Gojo sighed, shaking his head with a rueful smile.
"You're all stubborn, I'll give you that. But you're also right."
He clenched his fists, the raw power beneath his skin crackling with energy.
"We don't have the luxury of waiting for someone else. If this world's going to survive, we need to act on our own. Itarim's coming, and we can't afford to hesitate."
Yuji stepped forward, his voice steady.
"So we'll fight. We'll find a way to protect this world. No matter what happens."
Gojo's gaze softened, a rare glimpse of pride flashing through his eyes.
"Alright then, we'll do it your way. But know this if things get out of hand, we won't have time to play nice. So you'd better be ready for what's coming."
He turned, facing the city again, his expression hardening.
"We find that gate. We find the source of this chaos. And we do it without hesitation."
Yuji, Megumi, and Yuta nodded, their resolve steeled. They weren't waiting anymore. They were moving forward.
After a long and painful day of decisions and discussions, Gojo and the others began heading home.
For now, Gojo thought, they've chosen to move forward without Jin-Woo. But what does that even mean in a world that's already unraveling?
The city was calm again unnaturally so. The skies were clear, no cursed energy disturbances, and no other anomalies. For the first time since Jin-Woo disappeared, things seemed almost… normal.
That peace lasted less than five minutes.
A low, thunderous hum filled the air like a distant engine roaring to life. The clouds above Shibuya swirled unnaturally, forming a perfect circle, pulsing with black light.
Yuji stopped in his tracks and looked up.
"What the hell is that…?"
In the center of the swirling clouds, something began to emerge a massive, obsidian-colored Gate, at least a hundred meters tall. It hung in the sky, silent but terrifying, covered in otherworldly runes that shifted like they were alive.
Megumi narrowed his eyes.
"It's like the portals Jin-Woo used before…"
Gojo's smile vanished completely. "That's no ordinary cursed domain."
The Gate pulsed once.
Then again.
And then cracked open with a sound like shattering glass and screaming metal.
A shockwave tore through the district, windows blew out, alarms wailed, and debris flew through the streets.
Yuji covered his ears. "What the hell is that thing doing?!"
Gojo activated his cursed technique instantly, shielding the group.
From the Gate poured a thick black mist, and out of it came roars hundreds of them. Massive, bestial howls that echoed across the entire city.
Then… they appeared.
Dragons.
Enormous, jet-black dragons with burning crimson eyes, wings that could blot out the sun, and claws that could tear skyscrapers in half. The first one emerged with a roar that shattered nearby glass. Then two. Then ten. Then fifty.
Within seconds, the sky was filled with flying monsters.
Yuji stared in horror. "Are those real dragons?"
Yuta trembled slightly, gripping his blade.
"Where did they even come from? This isn't cursed energy... This is something else entirely."
Gojo looked up, his eyes narrowing beneath his blindfold.
"So this is what Jin-Woo meant… Dungeon Breaks. Gates. Raids. We don't even know the rules of this war."
Megumi activated his shadows. "What do we do?"
Gojo exhaled sharply. "We don't run."
The dragons shrieked and dove toward the city.
"We fight."
The city descended into chaos as the dragons swarmed out of the black Gate like a living storm.
Screams filled the streets. Cars crashed, buildings trembled, and the skies burned as fire rained from above.
Gojo clicked his tongue. "Yuta, Megumi! Get the civilians out now!"
Yuta nodded without hesitation.
"Understood!"
Megumi summoned divine dogs and a massive toad to help clear the way. "Yuji! Go with them!"
But Yuji stepped forward instead, fists clenched.
"No. I'm fighting with Gojo."
Gojo smirked. "You sure? These aren't cursed spirits, kid."
Yuji didn't flinch as a dragon swooped low, its tail smashing into a traffic pole.
"Doesn't matter. If I can punch it, I can kill it."
Gojo laughed and pulled down his blindfold slightly, revealing his glowing blue Six Eyes.
"Alright then. Let's put on a little show."
One of the dragons spotted them and let out a piercing screech, launching a torrent of black flame toward the street.
"Cursed Technique Reversal: Red!" Gojo roared, blasting the fire mid-air and sending the dragon spiraling back into a building.
Yuji ran up a broken wall, leapt high, and drove his fist into the snout of another beast mid-flight. The creature roared in pain as its face cracked under the force.
"They're tough," Yuji muttered as he landed.
"But not invincible."
Meanwhile, Yuta and Megumi coordinated evacuation efforts, creating barriers and calling out escape routes as more dragons began attacking the outskirts of the city.
"These aren't just random monsters," Yuta said to Megumi, panting.
"They're organized."
"They're scouts," Megumi replied grimly.
"Testing the city's strength before something worse arrives."
Gojo cracked his neck as three more dragons circled overhead.
"We'll give them a reason to report back empty-handed."
He shot into the air with his Limitless Technique, landing mid-air with graceful power. With a single sweep of his hand, space itself twisted and a dragon was ripped in half.
Yuji leapt high, landed on another beast's back, and drove his fists into its skull over and over, roaring louder than the dragon itself.
"We're not waiting for Jin-Woo anymore!" he yelled.
"We're taking our world back ourselves!"
On the ground, civilians watched the battle in awe confused, terrified, but hopeful.
They didn't know what was happening…
But they knew they were witnessing the birth of a new kind of war.
The clash of dragon and sorcerer raged on.
Gojo hovered mid-air, striking down another flaming behemoth with a Limitless-infused kick, while Yuji landed a crushing blow to a smaller dragon's throat, sending it crashing into a shattered highway below.
Below, smoke rose from collapsing buildings as Yuta and Megumi continued guiding civilians to underground shelters. Sirens blared. The air was thick with ash and burning magic.
Gojo wiped blood from his cheek and chuckled. "This is getting repetitive."
Yuji, breathing hard, looked around at the trail of defeated dragons. "We're not even halfway done…"
Then suddenly everything stilled.
A freezing silence fell over the battlefield, as if time itself took a breath.
Even the dragons halted in the sky… trembling.
Yuji looked up. "What is that?"
High above the Gate, where the rift in the sky crackled with black lightning, a figure descended slowly. Not falling floating, arms crossed behind his back.
He was tall, inhumanly tall. His entire body was covered in black scale-like armor that shimmered with void energy. Wings were folded behind him like a cape, and his face was half-hidden by shadows except for glowing, reptilian eyes.
A twisted, ancient aura radiated from him, one that made every sorcerer's instinct scream "run".
Yuta felt his knees weaken. "That's… not a dragon."
Megumi's breath caught. "That's something worse."
The air grew heavier with each heartbeat.
Gojo narrowed his eyes, instantly activating Infinity.
"Tch… he's no Apostle. This guy's different."
The figure hovered above the battlefield. The dragons around him lowered their heads, submitting.
And then slowly, confidently
The Unknown being looked directly at Gojo and Yuji below…
…and smiled.
A sharp, unnatural smile that stretched across a face not built for emotion.
The storm was far from over.