16. Altar of Death (1)
Geto found himself chuckling at this unexpected event. Previously, he intended to absorb the curse, but his inexperience hindered him as he didn't end the battle sooner. That mistake had bitten him back.
What a pain in the ass! It was to be expected that he still lacked some cuts since he had only been a sorcerer for two months.
The third-grade cursed spirit had consumed its own body, and now it had advanced to that of a special grade. The cured energy within it increased by leaps and bounds; even now, it is still rising higher and higher.
Like the rising tide, the power of the Cursed Spirit soared up without the sign of stopping.
The curse had evolved greatly. Its grotesque body structure had warped, molded, and grown rapidly. It now stood on two legs, had three human heads, and had a whipping tail behind its head. However, it had no eyes as the unknown liquid started to flow out of its empty eye socket.
Seeming to threaten Geto to stay back, it let out a howling shriek.
It ripped its own two heads out, grasping each in both hands, and a stream of black blood gushed out of its wet socket.
"Domain Expansion: Altar of Death."
Abruptly, the domain's barrier enveloped everything within a 10-meter radius. Then, five distinct stone pillars with mysterious scribbles carved on them rose up out of the earth. Geto found himself standing in front of them, and they radiated an inexplicable mystical aura.
Geto's eyes shrunk in surprise as the speed of opening its domain was simply too fast. He couldn't put up any fight with it because domain expansion was the pinnacle of jujutsu.
Fortunately for him, the domain had a sure-hit effect but not a sure-kill. If it were, then he wouldn't be alive right now.
"Shit." Geto mumbled underneath his breath. His mind was running at full speed to find out how to escape this domain expansion.
Considering its name, it should be something that is related to death itself, but to acquire it, some conditions must be met.
The grotesque abomination placed its two severed heads on the stone altar as it widened its hands, seemingly welcoming him. Suddenly, two of the pillars glowed up, emitting a cerulean dimming light.
Gleaming over his surroundings, he saw the civilians were caught in here too. Geto clicked his tongue in annoyance.
With little to no choice left, Geto sprinted over as he fixed his gaze on the stone altar. He summoned his weakling meat shields in his arsenal to hide the worm-like curse underneath the ground.
They swarmed over the Cursed Spirit, which had remained in the same pose ever since it opened its domain. No trace of emotion was shown on its face as it continued to stare at him with its hollow socket.
In a blink of an eye, every Geto's Curse that attacked the humanoid Curse withered and disappeared without a trace.
"What?!" Exclaimed Geto, as he couldn't find out what this weird phenomenon was.
The humanoid Cursed leered at him in his pathetic effort as it picked up one of the civilians nearby. It was a man in his thirties with a salary outfit. His eyes were dull as he was grabbed by the neck and lifted up.
His eyes had lost their color, as if what was left was nothing but a husk of a man. Geto watched it as he grinded his teeth as he saw this, but he couldn't act rashly as he still didn't fully grasp what this domain does. His inexperience was the cause of his downfall.
What is the point of having power if he couldn't save those who are weaker than him?!
It placed the man on the stone altar and chanted something. Finally, it whipped its tail into the man as blood splashed out, coloring the altar in red blood.
The third pillar lit up.
All of this happened in merely 5 seconds after the domain expansion. Goo was put between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, he wanted to lash out and rush at the curse with all of his might, but that wasn't rational.
On the other hand, he wanted to see if his theory was right. His talent as a jujutsu sorcerer bloomed in a dark moment like this. He'd shine even more in the future if no incident occurred.
Crack-
The cracking sounds were heard as Geto turned over quickly. There, he saw his classmate dropping down together with a black knight cosplayer and a beautiful civilian.
They made their entrance in the most noisy way possible but Geto was pissed off with the fact that Gojo brought two civilians here, knowing the danger that loomed over the jujutsu world.
"Cursed technique Lapse: Blue"
Upon bashing his way in, Gojo sent a Blue toward the Special-grade Cursed in an instant. Blue was a fascinating technique using the cured Energy to forcefully fold the space itself into a 'Negative' state so that the space around it had to compensate by adding up the missing space to neutralize it.
The result was that everything would be pulled toward it.
The Cursed didn't even bulge as it tanked the Blue straight to its face. However, that odd phenomenon happened once again.
Like Geto's Cursed Spirits, it disappeared without a trace.
"Hahahahaha, interesting!" Gojo began to laugh maniacally as he stared at the Cursed Spirit. His round sunglasses were nowhere to be seen, as his Six Eyes allowed him to analyze the fluctuation of Cursed Energy to an absurd level.
Veilhem rushed toward the Cursed Spirit with a speed that no ordinary person could see and delivered a powerful hack.
"Wait! No!" Before Geto could warn him, Veilhem's figure had already arrived in front of the Cursed Spirit.
He summoned his Curses in order to push the man out but that was too late.
Veilhem's chipped blade went straight through the Cursed Spirit without any difficulty. However, the sensation was not right, as he didn't feel that feeling when you cut through flesh and bones.
Then his blade disappeared too!
Veilhem jumped back a few meters and joined with the others.
"Do you know how irresponsible that is?! Charging in without knowing what that Curse could do." Geto shouted at Veilhem but the latter completely ignored him. He had a brief theory in his mind but he needed some more information.
"So what is that thing?" Veilhem asked as he pointed at the five pillars and the stone altar in the middle.
"Arghh, I assume that the pillar was some kind of countdown, and if it reaches 5, we all die." Geto grumbled but he knew this wasn't the time for this. He began to brief his theory for the rest of them.
"But for each of those pillars, a sacrifice must be made. It had sacrificed two of its heads and a civilian to light up three pillars so our priority is to save the innocent before it could catch anyone else." Geto said as he locked his gaze onto the Cursed Spirit.
"This Cursed Spirit proved to be a difficult foe, I presume." Makima exclaimed as she had observed the Cursed Spirit the moment they entered its domain.
"Well, at least we are safe for now." Geto said as he commanded his Cursed Spirits to rescue the unconscious victims and bring them as far away as possible from the Special Grade Cursed Spirit.
Makima pointed at the Cursed spirit, and from her supple lips came a powerful word.
"Bang."
Its left hand was blown up in a way no one could expect. Even the Curse was taken aback by the rapid development, as it had not expected these puny humans to be able to injure it, left alone able to kill it within its own territory.
It raised its remaining arm up, but that effort was futile as Makima's bored eyes stared at it. Her finger gun was still pointing in the curse's direction.
"Bang."
Like the first time, its remaining arm was crushed into paste as purple blood gushed out from its wound. The Curse wailed in horror, as it felt like those eyes were those of a higher being judging it from above. Those golden eyes, detailed with several red rings, instilled the concept of fear into its soul.
Seeing that the curse had been neutralized, she lowered her hand as she searched for something in her pocket.
The Curse's hollow sockets widened in absolute terror as it stepped back in fear. All the while, Makima's concentration wasn't on it anymore. After a while, she took out the cigarette from her pocket, but she couldn't find the lighter.
Turning back to Veilhem and the two sorcerers, she asked.
"Does anyone have a lighter?" She held the cigarette in her mouth as her hands were put into her pocket. That casual demeanor earned her several looks with different emotions.
Veilhem sighed as he was pretty used to her swing of mood, despite the cold face she had. He extended his hand and snapped; the friction between the metal in his gauntlet caused a spark of light to appear.
"Now that the target is neutralized, you can proceed with the exorcism procedure. I'm kind of curious about it." Makima turned back to the two sorcerers as she sang.
Gojo gazed at her with an excited look, as he didn't expect to meet two interesting individuals here. One had insane physical prowess, while the other had an interesting means to damage opponents just by pointing. Perhaps they were the cause of the sudden change in the world's balance recently.
Geto, the one who used to be the brain of the two, couldn't believe his eyes, as what he saw wasn't in any way called a cursed technique. It didn't even use cursed energy, to be more specific.
Shaking his head out of his train of thoughts, Geto rushed his cursed spirits at it.
Gojo launched another Blue towards it.
Usually, this was more than enough to deal with any cursed spirit, but not this one, not after the arrival of certain people that shifted the equilibrium of this world.
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(A/N: Yes, I have shot myself in the foot trying to create a domain. That's why it took me so long. *coping* Definitely not because I was too lazy to edit the chapter.)
(P/s: Have you seen the new csm leak? Damn the author awaken something in me I don't know I have... inspiration.)