Gojo stood beneath a sky of false stars, the cursed domain stretching infinitely over the Lands of Always Winter.

  The air was poison. The sky, heavy. Every inch of this realm crushed down on him with the pressure of a curse that had endured for millennia.

  And still—he had no Domain Expansion.

  No matter how much he trained, meditated, bled, the technique remained elusive. Perhaps it was the nature of his Conversion technique. Perhaps it was his own fractured soul.

  But he had something else.

  "Simple Domain," Gojo whispered, and the barrier snapped into place, thin as glass and just as fragile.

  Thirty seconds. That was all it would last under the overwhelming pressure of the Moon Shard’s sure-hit domain.

  But that was enough.

  He launched forward like a white blur, cursed energy burning bright as he clashed with the Ice Vessel.

  It met him in kind, wielding ice and shadow, swinging its frozen sword like the wrath of a long-dead god. But Gojo was faster—cleaner. Their strikes echoed like thunderclaps.

  Twenty seconds. The ground cracked beneath their feet.

  Gojo caught the puppet’s blade in one hand and shattered it with a twist. The puppet staggered, confused again, empty eyes trying to comprehend loss.

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  Ten seconds. Gojo’s hand glowed. He felt it—the moment of harmony.

  A perfectly timed strike.

  Black Flash.

  Gojo’s fist slammed into the Ice Vessel’s chest. The cursed energy resonated, tearing the puppet apart, scattering pieces of it across the battlefield. Icy ribs, frozen entrails, and a spine like glass shattered into the snow.

  But the domain didn’t collapse.

  Gojo’s eyes narrowed. “What?”

  Five seconds.

  His Simple Domain was cracking. The Moon Shard’s eye above twisted—almost… smiling.

  Gojo took a gamble.

  He dropped to one knee, scooping the liquid oxygen that had flooded the cursed domain, and without hesitation—

  He drank it.

  It tore through his throat like razors and ice, and for a moment, he felt his insides burning and freezing at once.

  “Damn cold,” Gojo gasped, forcing Conversion to activate—turning the deadly substance into raw cursed energy.

  With his last breath inside the domain, Gojo summoned his strength.

  Red.

  It wasn’t a technique—it was a cannon.

  The empowered Red slammed into the remnants of the Ice Vessel, vaporizing it completely and leaving only a frozen crater in the cursed land.

  Gojo landed, panting.

  He waited.

  Waited for the domain to fall.

  But nothing changed.

  The eye in the sky blinked. The Moon Shard's eye... grinned.

  Then Gojo realized.

  “It wasn’t the puppet casting the domain expansion,” he muttered. “The domain… is the Moon Shard itself.”

  His Simple Domain cracked, shattered—gone.

  And in that instant, a piece of the cursed moon fell from the sky, impaling him through the chest. Gojo didn’t scream. He barely had the breath for that.

  Ice surged through him.

  He was frozen solid in an instant—every cell encased, cursed energy flickering like a dying star.

  Then—

  Shatter.

  Gojo Satoru, the Strongest, broke into a million pieces of light and snow.

  And the cursed moon watched, silently, as its domain remained untouched.