Chapter 42: The Sword of the God of War
Gojo Satoru saw that the attack which so easily penetrated 'Infinity' was not a special ability, but a technique.
Although there are methods to break through 'Infinity' within the domain of Cursed Techniques, they invariably rely on the principle of Cursed Techniques canceling each other out, or are simply due to the nature of a specific ability.
But this attack was different: the sword was nothing special—just a longsword—but the swordsmanship itself, purely through technique, reached a "Divine Domain."
Gojo had never heard of anything capable of transcending spatial restrictions using only technique.
Secret Sword: Tsubame Gaeshi... the technique supposedly created by Sasaki Kojiro? It was thought to be completely lost after his defeat by Miyamoto Musashi, so he hadn't expected it to actually exist.
In response, the deep secret that Gojo was about to reveal was—
"Domain Expansion.
It integrates the principles of Barrier Techniques. Essentially, it uses Cursed Energy to manifest the Innate Domain into reality, then injects the Cursed Technique, constructing a surrounding barrier with a massive expenditure of Cursed Energy that has the Cursed Technique applied to it.
Within the Domain, the Sorcerer receives a BUFF, and the Cursed Technique applied to the Domain is guaranteed to hit.
As a side note, the Innate Domain roughly refers to the place that manifests when the spirit enters the inner world."
Why say the spirit enters the inner world, and not simply describe it as the spiritual world? It's because everyone possesses an inner world, but not everyone possesses an Innate Domain.
Gojo maintained the posture of pulling down his blindfold with one hand while holding the other vertically in front of him, stacking his index and ring fingers together.
"In the realm of Cursed Techniques, Domain Expansion is undeniably the ultimate secret. It's the limit for the few Sorcerers who master it to be able to use it once a day.
But it doesn't matter. The only thing that can neutralize a Domain is another Domain. By the time this ultimate secret is unleashed, the fight is usually nearing its end."
"So..." Before Gojo could finish his sentence, Emiya completed it.
"So I must end the battle before you successfully deploy the technique, right!"
"Trace on!"
Without giving Gojo any further opportunity to speak, Emiya projected dozens of swords again, unleashing a downpour.
From the opponent's explanation, Emiya roughly understood that Domain Expansion and Reality Marble are two concepts with considerable overlap.
The difference is that the former is a specialization of the Sorcerer's own Cursed Technique, while the latter is a complete manifestation of the inner world, with its capabilities entirely dependent on the caster.
Making the Cursed Technique inscribed within the Domain guaranteed to hit doesn't sound overwhelmingly powerful, but what if that Cursed Technique is the type that guarantees an absolute disadvantage upon contact? Like the 'Blue' from earlier; Emiya wasn't confident he could easily stop it, and Gojo seemed capable of unleashing such attacks freely.
But whether it's Domain Expansion or a Reality Marble, they both must share the same condition—the caster and the target unit must be within a certain distance. Emiya didn't know the specific distance limit, but all he had to do was maximize the distance.
Boom Boom Boom——————
Using the surrounding mountains as boundaries, the path from Gojo's feet to Emiya's location was indiscriminately covered by the sword rain. This attack wouldn't hurt the opponent, but it only needed to disrupt his vision and movement.
Emiya quickly retreated several hundred meters, setting up his longbow and re-aiming at the battleground. He saw Gojo leap high into the air, intending to escape the interference and regain control of the situation. He would definitely not miss an aerial shot at this distance.
"Caladbolg II!"
Slicing through the sky was a deep crimson spiral, swift as lightning.
"Vwoom!"
"Spiral Sword?"
The sword-arrow stopped abruptly in front of Gojo without warning, but the instant he clearly saw the sword, the Broken Phantasm activated in the next second.
BOOM———!
The mountainside within a hundred meters was leveled.
Knowing this was only a stalling tactic, Emiya prepared to shift position again, but Gojo's figure suddenly shot out from the fire and smoke, arriving above him in the next instant.
The activation of 'Blue' seemingly doesn't require a physical object as a point of resistance, or maybe this guy can just use the air as a foothold?
At this moment, the blindfold was long gone from Gojo's face, but his right hand still maintained that strange posture. "That was quite a powerful blow, but I won't let you escape again."
By pulling the opponent into the inner side of the Limitless, he forces the opponent's brain to repeat countless 'perceptions' and 'transmissions' in order to 'stay alive,' thereby generating a massive amount of useless information, causing the brain to cease function, leaving the target to merely stand and wait for death.
However, to prevent irreversible damage to Emiya's brain, he would only deploy 0.2 seconds of Unlimited Void. The brain would be overloaded with about six months' worth of useless information, paralyzing him for a day at most.
This was Gojo's Domain—
"Domain Expansion..." Gojo noticed a strange lead-colored stone sphere appear at Emiya's feet, but he paid it no mind. At this distance, Emiya had no chance of escaping.
"—Unlimited Void!!"
White light spread from around Gojo. This was the sign of a successful Domain deployment, and it could be said to guarantee the capture of the enemy.
However, a Domain Technique should be fully formed the moment it's deployed, so why? Why did Gojo see both the white light of the Domain forming and the action of Emiya reaching out to summon the stone sphere to his hand? It should be impossible to perform so many actions in the brief instant of Domain Expansion, yet it happened, violating the rules of time.
After Emiya summoned the stone sphere to the back of his hand in Gojo's sight, faint currents connected to his palm.
The surface of the stone sphere surged as if undergoing a magnetic field change, finally forming a shortsword with a celestial ring as its guard. And Gojo could only watch all of this happen.
After Gojo uttered the words "ultimate secret," Emiya had already planned his subsequent combat strategy, and everything he did in the fight was merely preparation for this moment. This was simply the importance of information advantage.
Turning his body into a posture of a throw or a punch, Emiya aimed the blade on the back of his hand at Gojo in the sky and shouted the True Name of this Noble Phantasm.
Its name is—
"Fragarach: The Sword of the God of War, which Aims at Retaliation)"
In this near time-stilled vision, the Domain, which had already begun to manifest, reversed its flow. As for the shortsword in Emiya's hand, it transformed into a flash of white light and shot forth, piercing through Gojo's chest.
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