Chapter 230: How Can the Malice of Cursed Spirits Compare to Humans?
This ocean, where no land could be seen, was not as boundless as it appeared. It possessed an actual edge in the physical sense, and that edge was the limit of Dagon's cursed energy. The process of Emiya using Sul-sagana to continuously incinerate this ocean was, in essence, using his own power to erase Dagon's cursed energy—a form of endurance battle.
However, this process was infinitely more crude and rapid than before.
Furthermore, Emiya, wielding the Sea-Cleaving Sword, possessed a conceptual advantage, making him the party with the absolute elemental upper hand.
In his original body-restricted state, even with such an advantage, Emiya might not have been able to exhaust Dagon's vast sea of cursed energy with his limited mana. But now, things were completely different.
Not only could he obtain unlimited mana through [Reverse Cursed Technique], but Emiya had even mastered the method of driving Noble Phantasms with cursed energy...
If it came down to a contest of energy reserves, Emiya could truly perform carpet-bombing with legendary, unlimited "light cannons."
Unfortunately, this method still had minor flaws. First, the projected Noble Phantasm itself had strength limits and could not withstand unlimited infusion. Second, the amount of cursed energy poured in required a proportional amount of mana to act as the core support.
The process of Emiya mixing mana and cursed energy to activate a Noble Phantasm was like adding plain water to high-concentration wine. Before reaching a certain ratio, the wine was naturally still wine.
But if one poured out all the wine in the bottle and replaced it with pure water, could it still be called wine? If the Noble Phantasm could talk, it would probably jump up and curse him for such treatment.
Regardless, if it was just for wearing down Dagon's Domain, the current Emiya could fully achieve it with Sul-sagana. Emiya was certain of this, yet Dagon, lurking beneath the surface, still harbored a glimmer of hope.
Even though it was suppressed in every aspect, this was still its Domain. If it couldn't do anything to the opponent here, was it really going to be defeated inside its own territory along with the Domain itself? Such a thing had never happened in the history of the jujutsu world. If it became the first case of a cursed spirit whose Domain was broken from the inside by means other than another Domain, it might just go down in history.
So, even though it had decided to give up frontal resistance to stall for as much time as possible, it still had to do everything in its power to stop the fall of that blade.
"To dare speak so arrogantly... but I won't give up just like that, human!"
The ocean is not a completely transparent medium. It appears azure because the blue part of sunlight is mostly scattered, while the remaining primary colors are absorbed by water molecules.
At a depth of approximately one hundred meters, since other colors and wavelengths are almost entirely absorbed, the sea appears purely blue. Once the depth reaches a thousand meters, almost no sunlight can reach it, turning it into a world of total darkness. Even if the eyes of the fish living in such deep seas haven't completely atrophied, they have no light-sensing ability and are merely for show.
At this moment, Dagon let out a low growl from within this murky water where almost nothing could be seen, then suddenly thrust its palm out to churn the entire ocean. By the time this surging undercurrent reached the surface, it had evolved into a monstrous wave nearly a hundred meters high, making it impossible to find its point of origin.
But it didn't matter, because Emiya didn't actually need to know.
"This is my first time trying this. Though I might have been a bit reckless... one only finds the right path after a bold first attempt.
Cursed energy conversion... Full Output!!!"
As Emiya began to pour cursed energy and mana into the projected Divine Construct without restraint, the lava-like blade began to burn with eerie flames and light, instantly clearing the originally gloomy sky. There was no sun in this bright sky, because Sul-sagana itself was the unquestionable, sole "Sun" here.
Sizzle sizzle sizzle—!
Fire and water—two things people see as opposites that restrain each other—actually result in the former overwhelmingly crushing the latter in a true clash. Unless it is extreme cold approaching absolute zero that can stop molecular motion, no source of water or frost can pose any formal threat to high-temperature flames. Even calculated by the formula of heat conservation, how could frost at minus one hundred degrees reach an equilibrium with temperatures in the thousands?
The water in this ocean was condensed from Dagon's cursed energy, complementing its negative energy... but so what?
The waves towering into the clouds were only terrifying visually. They didn't even have time to get close to the burning blade of Sul-sagana; dozens of meters away, they were completely evaporated and dissolved by the intense heat.
The end of sky and sea, the pinnacle of the "Domain of Melting Mixture," the furnace that dissolves all things... these were all titles used to describe Sul-sagana.
When the flames and light condensed to the limit on the craggy surface of the blade, a crimson flash of sword-light suddenly erupted.
BOOM!!!!!
The entire world was dyed into a vivid red haze like fire. Before this crimson flash, right and wrong, good and evil, sky and ocean, enemies, and opposing things would all dissolve and vanish equally within the dawn light.
The light, countless times more dazzling than the sun, cut off vision; the sound that melted everything also blocked hearing; even the sense of touch was stripped away by the extreme heat. A Divine Construct that won purely through power happened to come with the side effect of sealing the five senses. It can only be said that when power truly reaches a certain level, all fancy little tricks lose their purpose.
Thus, when the all-dissolving flash completely vanished from this space after a dozen seconds, the originally vast ocean was left as nothing but a parched, cracked, and ruggedly strange ground. It wasn't strange for land to exist in Dagon's Domain, as a Domain is just a special barrier attached to physical space; it couldn't fundamentally change rules like "floating oceans."
On this dry land, Sul-sagana, having exhausted all its heat, stood thrust into the center, continuously emitting rising plumes of steam. As for Dagon's actual location, it was naturally easier to confirm... was it not kneeling miserably right in front of the blade?
"How... what on earth is this?!"
Given that its cursed energy and spirit were almost completely evaporated, being able to utter such a meaningful question was already impressive.
Before Emiya could approach it, the massive space of the Domain began to rapidly collapse from the edges. Curiously, while the distance between Emiya and Dagon seemed vast within the Domain, as the walls crumbled and revealed the outside world, they remained in their original spots, having barely moved.
Clearly, it would be inaccurate to say that a Domain is a low-tech variant of barrier techniques. If it were truly that easy to understand, less than a dozen people in the entire jujutsu world would be able to master it.
In these short ten-odd minutes, Dagon had likely thought more than in the first half of its life combined... because back then, under the protection of the other cursed spirits, its days consisted of nothing but eating and sleeping; a comfortable life with no worries.
The battle with Emiya had exhausted all its abilities and wisdom, yet who would have thought the final end would be so tragic—a failure of utter ruin.
Fortunately, in the final moments of its life, Dagon—who was never good at fighting—no longer needed to think about these things. The only things it cared about were whether it had bought enough time for Jogo, and whether the other had realized its intent and fled the battlefield.
"Fortunately, even if I only secured this outcome, the time must have been enough. Jogo, he..."
As Dagon whispered this to itself and turned its head toward where the Domain had shattered to reveal the outside, it happened to see Jogo, pinned to the ground by Kenjaku's gravity technique and unable to move.
"What??!"
Being on the same side, it naturally recognized Kenjaku's face, stolen from Geto Suguru. These cursed spirits usually hid within its Domain with him to avoid being discovered by sorcerers. But previously, being simple-minded, Dagon had never harbored wariness toward this ill-intentioned collaborator like the other spirits did, naively believing they were just partners with the same goal.
Until this scene was displayed before its eyes, Dagon, who hadn't considered those dark aspects, had to think in that direction.
In the end, it was just a cursed spirit; no matter how vile its personality, it could not compare to a human who had accumulated countless shadows over nearly a thousand years.
"Dagon...?!"
Jogo, also exhausted to the brink, was surprised and happy that his companion could actually emerge intact from a Domain shared with Emiya, but this joy lasted only a moment before vanishing.
In this current state of "wolves in front and tigers behind," what did it matter if Dagon hadn't been killed by Emiya yet? This human who was supposedly an ally was absolutely not going to let them go.
Having plotted together for so long, Jogo at least knew that Kenjaku possessed the technique [Cursed Spirit Manipulation]. Now that the other had turned his spear toward them, was it not clear what his plans were? Compared to the end of being killed directly in battle by Emiya, becoming a puppet through [Cursed Spirit Manipulation] seemed infinitely harder to accept.
"You actually came out of the Domain unscathed? Honestly... it makes me want to take that technique for myself as well."
"I just wonder if the fellow over there would agree to such an option?"
Even though Fushiguro Megumi had held nothing back while commanding Mahoraga in battle, Kenjaku remained in a state of ease, as if everything was within his grasp. This state persisted even as Emiya returned to the battlefield from the Domain.
"...Kenjaku...?"
Upon discovering the massive reversal in the outside battle, Emiya's first reaction was to check the status of his students, then he turned his attention to Kenjaku, the enemy who had appeared here for unknown reasons. Although Itadori and Kechizu were temporarily out of
sight, judging from the intact state of the others, those two shouldn't have any major problems.
The question was: why did Kenjaku, who had fled elsewhere before, suddenly appear here? And why did he strike at Jogo, who should have been an ally? Right, that special technique called [Uzumaki], which is said to be able to strip techniques directly from a cursed spirit's body...
Didn't this guy say back then that Mahito, who was supposed to die, had his [Idle Transfiguration] stripped by him using [Maximum: Uzumaki]? Or was that his original goal for approaching Mahito from the start?
If he was now prepared to take the techniques of these cursed spirits here, it could only mean one thing—the opponent's plan was complete or nearing completion, at least for this stage. Therefore, he no longer needed these cursed spirits as his propellant. Since they were no longer useful, why not maximize their value? After all, the techniques of these Special Grade cursed spirits were all powerful and useful.
In the end, the greatest threat to humanity remained humans themselves.
But ultimately, the thing Emiya should consider most was not the relationship between the cursed spirits and Kenjaku, but what exactly the plan he wanted to achieve was, and to what stage it had progressed for him to be so unperturbed.
"Kugisaki, where is Itadori now?"
Emiya didn't rush to change the current battle situation, but first asked his student for key information.
"Huh...?
Because this guy just tried to strike at Itadori and was going to feed him a massive amount of fingers to release Sukuna's seal, Fushiguro had Itadori leave the battlefield first.
That guy called Kechizu—he's the one who ran off with Itadori."
Seeing Emiya appear, Kugisaki Nobara felt as if she had found her pillar of support, naturally narrating the sequence of events simply and completely the moment he asked.
"Itadori has already moved away from here? That's good then..."
Emiya just breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing those words, but then, as he refocused on the smile plastered across Kenjaku's face, that bad premonition couldn't help but surface again.
"Wait, could it be..."
Having Itadori leave his side—was that this guy's goal?!
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