Chapter 87 (Patreon)

Ragnar Kagenou stood alone on the rooftop.

“Yuta. Your break is over. Come back to Tokyo.”

On the other end of the phone, Yuta Okkotsu answered immediately.

“Ragnar-nii… did something happen in Tokyo?”

“Something?” Ragnar glanced toward the city below. “You could say that. From here on, Tokyo is going to become the center of the jujutsu world.”

At that moment, a mass of scorching flame suddenly bloomed in the distance.

Ragnar’s eyes shifted slightly.

“You got here faster than expected.”

Seven-Layered Shield of the Firmament.

Boom!

The flames smashed into the shield and tore through one of its flower-like layers. A small, thin figure emerged from the fire.

On the other end of the line, Yuta’s voice tightened.

“Are you under attack? Should we return right away?”

Ragnar looked at the cursed spirit standing before him.

A special grade cursed spirit.

Jogo.

“No need to rush. Just take your scheduled flight back.”

Yuta hesitated for a moment.

“…Understood. We’ll arrange the tickets now.”

Ragnar hung up without another word.

“Sorry. An interesting cursed spirit just showed up.”

Jogo raised his hand.

The ground around Ragnar bulged and cracked as several volcano-like openings rose from the rooftop.

Ragnar glanced at them.

“Not bad. Cute little toys.”

Boom!

Pillars of flame erupted all at once.

In an instant, the rooftop was swallowed by blazing heat.

Jogo clicked his tongue with a smug grin.

“So that’s all? He died before he could even use his technique.”

The smoke cleared.

Ragnar was gone.

“Look up, dog.”

Jogo’s eye snapped upward.

Ragnar stood atop a streetlight, clad in golden armor, looking down at him as if he were no more than an insect crawling at his feet.

“A stray should know where it belongs. Crawl on the ground and die there.”

Behind Ragnar, golden ripples spread across the air.

One.

Ten.

A hundred.

Then a thousand.

The night sky glittered with countless Noble Phantasms, each one aimed directly at Jogo below.

Jogo’s expression twisted.

“You’re awfully eager to die, brat.”

Ragnar’s gaze remained cold.

“No. I’m simply deciding how much effort a mutt deserves.”

Jogo’s face darkened.

“Watch your mouth.”

He unleashed his cursed technique again. Dozens of small volcanoes erupted across the ground, spewing molten fire. The heat was intense enough to melt the surface beneath him.

Ragnar looked down at it all without moving.

“How long do you plan to keep showing me those cheap tricks?”

The magma shot upward like pillars of fire.

But the moment it met the Noble Phantasms falling from the golden gates, it was torn apart in midair.

Jogo’s eye widened.

“Impossible…!”

Ragnar raised one hand slightly.

“You don’t get time to breathe.”

Whoosh!

Golden Noble Phantasms rained down, filling the sky.

There was nowhere to run.

Jogo understood it instantly.

If he held back, he would die.

White steam violently erupted from the top of his head as his cursed energy surged.

Boom!

He blasted the incoming Noble Phantasms with flames. One was swallowed by fire, but countless more followed immediately after.

Puchi!

A golden sword pierced through Jogo’s left hand.

Before he could melt it, more Noble Phantasms struck him from every direction.

In an instant, Jogo’s body was pinned and pierced until he looked like a golden hedgehog.

Ragnar stopped the barrage.

Plop.

Jogo dropped to one knee.

A long spear was still lodged through his eye. His body was riddled with holes, purple blood spilling down his face.

“I… I’ll kill you…”

Flames burst violently from Jogo’s body.

That brief pause gave him just enough time to force his body to regenerate.

Ragnar watched him recover without the slightest concern.

“Good. Struggle harder. I haven’t even begun to entertain myself.”

Purple blood ran from the corner of Jogo’s mouth. His eye was bloodshot, filled with pure hatred.

Humiliation.

Rage.

He had been toyed with.

“Brat… I’ll tear that face off and burn it until nothing is left!”

Jogo clasped his hands together, forming the Mahakala mudra.

“Domain Expansion.”

Pitch-black cursed energy surged outward.

“Coffin of the Iron Mountain.”

The world changed.

The rooftop vanished, replaced by a hell of black rock and flowing magma. Blazing heat filled the domain as eruptions burst from the ground again and again.

Jogo laughed.

“No matter how strong your technique is, it doesn’t matter anymore. If I drag you into my domain first, victory is mine.”

An ordinary sorcerer would have been burned to ash the moment they entered.

Jogo’s grin widened.

“I’ll burn away your skin, your flesh, and your bones. I’ll make you regret ever standing in front of me.”

Ragnar frowned.

“…You really are irritating.”

Jogo laughed even harder, his expression twisting into something ugly.

“Too late to beg now!”

Ragnar slowly lowered his gaze.

“You dragged me down to the same ground as you.”

Golden ripples appeared behind him one after another.

This time, the Noble Phantasms within them were different.

A-rank.

Every weapon carried a presence sharp enough to make the entire domain tremble.

“That alone is enough to sentence you to death.”

Boom!

Magma and fire erupted from every direction, rushing toward Ragnar.

Whoosh!

The Noble Phantasms shot forward.

Jogo’s flames were the sure-hit effect of his domain.

But even a sure-hit meant nothing if it was crushed head-on.

The A-rank Noble Phantasms pierced straight through the magma.

Jogo’s face stiffened.

“No way…!”

He slammed his palm against the ground. Walls of rock rose before him as a shield.

It was pointless.

The rocks shattered the instant the Noble Phantasms touched them.

Puchi!

A flash of golden light crossed Jogo’s vision.

His arm vanished.

For a moment, Jogo simply stared at the empty space where his arm had been.

His eye trembled.

Fear finally appeared in it.

The domain began to shake.

Thunderclouds formed inside Coffin of the Iron Mountain.

Jogo looked around in disbelief.

“What… is this?”

When he came here, he had treated this as nothing more than a game.

Even if he failed to kill Ragnar, he thought it would not matter.

But now, what stood before him was not an enemy.

It was a wall.

An endless, absolute wall he could never climb over.

“My pride as a cursed spirit… my pride as a new human… I won’t accept this!”

Ragnar raised his hand.

“Then drown with that pride.”

The magma-covered ground split open.

A golden ark rose from beneath it, forcing its way through the domain as if the burning earth itself had no right to resist.

“Advance through the storm.”

The ark shone with divine light.

“Oh Ark, illuminate the earth.”

Golden radiance bloomed.

In the next instant, violent seawater surged from all directions, swallowing the magma, the rocks, and the flames.

“I am the Book of Radiance, the progenitor who carries the world forward.”

The Tree of Life, Kabbalah, engraved upon the ark erupted with blinding light.

Jogo stared at it, frozen.

“What… the hell is that?”

——————

Noble Phantasm: Noah’s Ark

Rank: A+

Type: Anti-World Noble Phantasm

A Noble Phantasm that crushes the enemy beneath a violent storm and overwhelming currents.

Once all things are submerged, the ark rises like a vessel from the depths. A dove carrying an olive branch returns to Noah’s side, and a rainbow appears in the cleared sky as proof of the covenant.