Yuji roared as he rushed in again, stubborn to the end.
Sung Jin-Woo didn't block this time. He sidestepped, letting Yuji's fist pass within a hair's breadth of his cheek. The young sorcerer spun, launched a kick Jin-Woo caught it without looking, holding him midair.
"You've got heart," Jin-Woo said casually. "But heart doesn't break kings."
He tossed Yuji aside like a stone skipping across water.
Before he hit the ground, a shadow cushion caught him gentle, but firm.
Yuji blinked in confusion. "You're… not trying to kill us."
Jin-Woo shrugged. "Why would I kill children still learning to walk?"
Gojo flashed behind him, aiming a close-range Red into his back.
Jin-Woo's shadow rose like a shield absorbing the blast in silence.
"Seriously?" Gojo muttered. "Not even flinching?"
"Try a different angle," Jin-Woo replied, vanishing.
He reappeared behind Gojo flicked him on the back of the head.
Gojo crashed into a tree.
Megumi unleashed his Divine Dog Totality, lunging with a roar. For the first time, Jin-Woo stepped forward with mild interest.
He let the dog bite into his side.
No blood spilled. The bite phased through his shadows.
"That's better," Jin-Woo mused. "But you still don't understand…"
Beru swooped from the sky, letting out a screech that made even Maki flinch.
The battlefield twisted.
Jin-Woo raised both hands, fingers barely twitching. In that instant
Panda was caught in a shadow net mid-jump.
Maki was stuck mid-dash, her own shadow pinning her legs.
Megumi's shikigami froze, refusing to obey.
Gojo was held in place by countless spectral hands yet still breathing, still analyzing.
And Yuji he stood alone, chest heaving, fists up.
Jin-Woo descended slowly, boots touching the cracked earth.
He looked at all of them. "I'm not your enemy."
Yuji coughed. "Then why are you playing with us like dolls?"
Jin-Woo's expression darkened not cruel, but firm.
"Because if I hadn't held back, none of you would be standing. And I needed to know if you'd break before the real fight begins."
The sky overhead rippled.
A dark portal opened pulsing with unfamiliar, suffocating magic. The very air screamed.
A voice whispered through it ancient and cold.
"Jin-Woo… You've found their weakness."
The first Apostle of Itarim began to descend.
Jin-Woo turned to the stunned sorcerers, eyes glowing with regal weight.
"Now you'll see why I came."
---
The sky tore open like paper.
Out spilled darkness, not like Jin-Woo's this was cold, ancient, foreign. The kind that didn't crawl across skin it crushed it.
The Jujutsu sorcerers froze.
Yuji's breath caught in his throat. His knees buckled.
Gojo gritted his teeth, veins bulging in his forehead. "T-This cursed energy… isn't cursed energy…"
Panda fell to his knees. Maki dropped her blade. Megumi's shikigami shattered before forming.
The Apostle of Itarim stepped through the rift.
A towering figure of obsidian and silver bone. Wings of runed stone spread behind it, each feather humming with anti-life. Eyes like inverted stars glowed from beneath a shattered mask.
Its aura wasn't just pressure. It was domination. Existence bent around it.
"This world reeks of weakness," the Apostle said, voice like stone grinding steel.
The sorcerers gasped they couldn't move.
Gojo, for all his mastery, felt like a bug staring at a god's boot.
Even Sukuna's fragment inside Yuji trembled.
"What is this…?!" Sukuna growled in panic. "That thing is not from this realm."
Only one figure stood tall.
Sung Jin-Woo.
Unbothered.
Unflinching.
He slowly walked toward the Apostle, each step nullifying the oppressive aura.
Yuji looked up, shocked. "How…? You're not even resisting it…"
Jin-Woo glanced over his shoulder.
"That's because this isn't strength meant for humans to resist."
He turned back to the Apostle.
"But I'm not human anymore."
His shadow surged. His eyes glowed violet. The air behind him split as his army slowly emerged Bellion, Beru, Igris, and the others, kneeling behind him.
The Apostle's wings extended. "Monarch of Shadows. Still pretending to play guardian?"
Jin-Woo smiled coldly.
"Not pretending. Just waiting."
He snapped his fingers.
The shadows expanded across the earth, forming a jagged black throne beneath his feet.
He sat.
"You wanted war?" Jin-Woo said, his voice now echoing like thunder.
"Let's begin."
---
The Apostle's presence hit like a celestial storm.
The world dimmed. Trees withered. The ground cracked just by its arrival.
Yuji gasped, collapsed, barely able to move a finger.
Maki gritted her teeth, blood trickling from her eyes.
Gojo, for the first time in years, looked terrified.
"This pressure… this isn't cursed energy. It's something older."
The Apostle of Itarim descended fully.
Runes burned across its arms, and the very laws of gravity seemed to twist around it.
"Kneel," it whispered.
The Jujutsu team's bodies obeyed.
But not Jin-Woo.
He stood alone, casting no fear, no hesitation.
Then he raised his hand.
A black dome of shadow expanded from his feet, engulfing the Jujutsu sorcerers.
And the pressure lifted.
Yuji gasped as strength returned to his limbs. Maki felt her legs again. Gojo straightened, eyes wide.
"Wh… what is this?"
Jin-Woo didn't look back.
"Get out of here," he ordered calmly. "Hide. Watch. Learn."
Gojo stared at him. "Why are you helping us?"
Jin-Woo's voice was steady.
"Because you still have a world to protect."
With a flick of his wrist, a shadow tunnel opened behind them teleporting them to a nearby cliffside, out of the Apostle's aura but close enough to witness what came next.
Yuji looked down from their new vantage point and froze.
Because Sung Jin-Woo was no longer alone.
The ground split open.
One by one shadows rose.
Thousands. Tens of thousands.
From behind him emerged:
Igris, the Black Knight Commander.
Beru, screeching with primal wrath.
Bellion, blade drawn.
Tusk, hands alight with forbidden magic.
Iron, Tank, Jima, and a sea of shadow soldiers.
A million strong.
The skies above them warped again.
And from the Apostle's back the same thing happened.
Tearing through reality, Itarim's army arrived twisted, bone-plated beasts with weapons carved from dying stars. Their eyes burned with madness. Their numbers matched Jin-Woo's.
Two legions. Two realms. Two kings.
The Apostle raised a hand.
"Let us test your legend… Shadow Monarch."
Sung Jin-Woo stepped forward, his soldiers roaring behind him.
"You'll find it's not legend."
"It's truth."
Then
He pointed forward.
"Kill them all."