Chapter 62: “Power Without Ownership”

The裂 screamed.

Not in sound, but in pressure. The overlapping realms strained against each other, spirit matter bleeding into the human world like light through broken glass. The air felt heavy, thick enough to choke on.

Gojo stood at the center of it.

He could feel everything now.

Not just the Spirit God inside him, but the imbalance everywhere. Fear. Anger. Hope. Regret. The emotions of the fairies behind him. The distorted hunger radiating from Rakhara.

It was too much.

His knees buckled for a moment.

“Gojo!” Hiyori reached out instinctively, stopping herself only because she knew touching him now might disrupt whatever was happening.

Gojo clenched his fists. His breathing turned shallow.

“This is it…” he muttered.

Rakhara sensed it instantly.

His eyes widened, pupils burning with hunger. “There it is. Full output.”

The air around Gojo began to glow, not blinding light, but something softer. Like dawn pushing through fog. The Spirit God’s presence unfolded completely for the first time.

No voice.

No command.

Just flow.

Energy poured through Gojo’s body, not exploding outward, but moving like water finding its path. His pain dulled. His fear didn’t vanish, but it stopped controlling him.

Raika stared, stunned. “He’s not… forcing it.”

Anzu shook her head slowly, flowers trembling around her ankles. “It’s responding to him. Because he’s letting it.”

Rakhara laughed, ecstatic. “Yes. Yes! That’s it!”

He stepped forward, arms spreading wide. The corrupted energy wrapped tighter around him, spiraling like chains hungry to snap.

“You finally understand,” Rakhara said. “That power exists to be used.”

Gojo lifted his head.

“No,” he replied calmly. “I understand it exists to move.”

Rakhara lunged.

This time, he didn’t strike.

He reached.

Black tendrils of spirit corruption shot forward, piercing straight into Gojo’s aura. The contact made the air scream, the裂 spasming violently as if something was being torn out by force.

Hikami cried out. “He’s stealing it!”

Gojo gasped, body jerking as the pull intensified. The Spirit God’s energy surged, reacting instinctively.

Rakhara grinned. “Yes! Give it to me!”

But something was wrong.

Instead of collapsing, Gojo steadied.

He planted his feet.

And let go.

The Spirit God’s power didn’t resist the pull.

It flowed.

Straight through Gojo.

And past Rakhara.

The tendrils trembled.

“What…?” Rakhara’s grin faltered.

The energy didn’t bind to him. Didn’t obey. It slipped through his grasp like water through clenched fists, flooding the space around them instead of entering him.

Rakhara staggered back. “No. No, that’s not possible!”

He pulled harder, corruption flaring violently. “It’s power! It has to submit!”

Gojo looked at him, eyes steady, glowing softly.

“It doesn’t belong to me,” he said. “So you can’t take it from me.”

The Spirit God resonated.

Not as a weapon.

As a system.

The energy adjusted itself, stabilizing the裂 even as Rakhara tried to tear it wider. Where corruption pressed, balance answered. Where force increased, resistance adapted.

Rakhara screamed in frustration, corruption cracking along his arms.

“Obey me!” he roared. “I sacrificed everything for you!”

The Spirit God gave no response.

It simply continued to flow.

Rakhara dropped to one knee, breathing hard, veins blackened and unstable.

“You don’t control it…” he whispered, realization creeping in like poison. “You’re not commanding it at all.”

Gojo stepped forward slowly.

“I don’t own it,” he said. “I never did.”

He raised his hand.

The Spirit God’s energy followed, not surging violently, but aligning naturally, forming a barrier between realms. The裂 shrank slightly, trembling but stabilizing.

Behind him, Suma let out a shaky breath. “He’s doing what none of us could.”

“Because we all wanted it to choose us,” Mizuki said softly.

Rakhara forced himself up, eyes wild now, desperation cracking his composure.

“Then what am I?” he shouted. “What was all of this for?!”

Gojo hesitated.

Then answered honestly.

“You were trying to carry everything alone.”

Rakhara laughed bitterly. “And you aren’t?”

Gojo glanced back.

At Hiyori’s clenched hands. At Hikami’s determined glare. At Anzu’s trembling flowers still blooming despite the chaos. At Raika standing ready even while afraid.

“No,” Gojo said. “I’m not.”

The difference hit Rakhara harder than any strike.

His corruption lashed out one last time, unstable, self-destructive. The Spirit God responded instantly, not attacking, but neutralizing, dissolving the excess power into harmless light.

Rakhara collapsed fully now, coughing, power bleeding away.

“…Acceptance,” he whispered hoarsely. “That’s what I never had.”

Gojo stood over him, energy still flowing through his body, calm but immense.

“This fight isn’t over,” Gojo said. “But it doesn’t end with control.”

The裂 trembled again.

Deeper within it, something ancient stirred.

The Evil God Fairy was waking.

And now, for the first time, Gojo was ready to face it without trying to own what was never meant to be owned.