Chapter 16

The skies thundered. The battlefield trembled.

Beru, his claws already soaked with aura, stepped forward.

"My King… let us, your loyal shadows, handle these pests."

Igris raised his sword and knelt.

"They are not worthy of your blade."

Bellion hovered beside them, wings folded in grim respect.

"We exist to protect your throne. Let us fight in your stead."

But Sung Jin-Woo shook his head.

"No."

His voice was calm but absolute.

"This… is my fight."

He stepped past them, alone into the storm of chaotic energy the Apostles had summoned.

The Apostles, now in monstrous godlike forms, attacked without warning.

A beam of celestial flame shot forward.

A spiral of cursed chaos followed, twisting space itself.

Both attacks struck.

BOOM!

The earth shattered. Explosions rocked the world. Light devoured the battlefield.

Gojo, Itadori, and the others shielded their eyes, stunned by the scale of the blast.

"Did… they get him?" Yuta muttered.

But as the dust cleared

A black figure stood unmoved.

Jin-Woo emerged, not a scratch on him. His eyes glowed with void-like power.

He raised his hand… and snapped his fingers.

CRACK!

A shockwave tore through the Apostles' forms, sending them crashing to the ground.

They screamed in disbelief.

"H–How?!"

"We used the full power of the Absolute Being!"

Jin-Woo looked down at them, expression unreadable.

"Power without purpose is just noise."

He vanished then reappeared above them mid-air, his blade drawn.

"And I've had enough noise."

The Apostles, still reeling from Jin-Woo's overwhelming presence, watched as he descended blade in hand, coated in abyssal energy.

A swing came like a falling star too fast, too precise.

Both Apostles dodged barely.

They twisted through the air, their divine speed stretching physics to its limits.

But Jin-Woo didn't need a direct hit.

A whisper of his blade passed across their feet.

A thin, almost invisible cut.

A moment of silence…

Then

"AGHHHHH!!!"

They collapsed in mid-air, crashing violently into the ground.

Chunks of their feet were missing not wounded, not bleeding… erased.

The flesh wasn't regenerating. It wasn't healing.

It was gone, removed from reality itself.

"Wh–What did you do…?" gasped the vessel Apostle, crawling back.

The original Apostle of Itarim trembled.

"T-That's not possible… Our forms are eternal…"

Jin-Woo floated down slowly, eyes locked on them like a hunter.

He raised his blade again, dark energy crackling.

"My power isn't just strength."

"It's dominance."

A pause.

"And you don't belong in this world."

His aura began to rise again blacker than any shadow, heavier than any gravity.

The Apostles shivered, realizing…

They were prey.

Dust coiled in the air as Jin-Woo's words echoed across the battlefield.

> "My power isn't just strength… it's dominance."

From the sidelines, Gojo's eyes narrowed.

"He's not bluffing… That wasn't just an attack it erased their existence…"

Yuta, still panting, whispered,

"W-What kind of power is that…?"

Even Sukuna, lurking in the background through Itadori, paused with a grin.

"Heh… this guy's no joke."

Then the Apostles roared.

Their divine bodies flared with radiant light and abyssal flame. Their voices layered with cosmic resonance.

> "We are the Apostles of Itarim! Born from the breath of the Absolute Being!"

They lifted their hands skyward.

Reality split.

From the void, two spears of godlike energy formed one burning like a dying star, the other humming with pure annihilation.

> "This is the Absolute Verdict!"

> "The End of Soul Law!"

The spears shot forward with blinding speed aimed at Jin-Woo's core.

These weren't normal attacks.

They were divine decrees skills that erased body, mind, and soul from all planes of existence.

The battlefield cracked. Time itself slowed. All others froze.

And yet

Jin-Woo didn't move.

He let the spears strike.

BOOM!

The explosion was cataclysmic.

A crater formed beneath his feet. A shockwave tore through clouds and continents alike.

But as the smoke cleared

Jin-Woo still stood.

Unharmed.

He reached out with one hand… and crushed the lingering divine energy into dust.

The Apostles stared, paralyzed.

"Impossible…"

"Even the Absolute Being's authority… failed?"

Jin-Woo raised his gaze, cold and calm.

"You don't understand."

"I don't fear gods."

"I erase them."

His shadow rippled beneath him.

And it began to expand.

The divine aura around the Apostles began to flicker.

Fear true fear had finally taken root in their hearts.

They stepped back, eyes wide with disbelief.

"This… this isn't a mortal..."

"He's something else"

One turned to the other.

> "We have to retreat. If we tell Itarim maybe–"

They didn't finish the sentence.

Because in the blink of an eye

Jin-Woo vanished.

SHUNK.

A blade of pure shadow pierced through one Apostle's chest from behind.

His body shattered like glass.

Before the other could scream

SLASH.

A clean cut across the air and his entire upper half evaporated.

Time froze.

A moment later both divine beings fell in pieces, shattering like celestial crystal.

Silence.

The Apostles of Itarim erased.

Jin-Woo stood among their remains, his blade still humming with cold power.

He spoke only one word:

"Judged."

Everyone watching Gojo, Itadori, Sukuna, Yuta, even Suguru Geto stood in total silence.

The king wasn't just powerful.

He was the end of gods.