47. A paradox and a devil

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(A/N: Makima is a Pokemon player, change my mind.)

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The battlefield lay in eerie silence, the air thick with tension. 

Gojo stood alone.

Across from him, two figures loomed. The knight and his lady both stared at him with a bored gaze. They were not mere opponents, they were beings who dictated reality rather than obeyed it.

Makima's golden eyes gleamed with an unsettling serenity as if she were merely observing the inevitable. 

She was not here to struggle, to clash, or to prove anything. The outcome had already been determined in her mind before the battle began.

Beside her, Veilhem stood, his form wreathed in eerie golden embers that licked at his armor, consuming something far more than flesh and blood. 

The knight himself did not hesitate. 

Morality, conviction, principles,... such things held no weight in his mind for a purposeless man did not question the hands that guided him. 

Whatever side took him, whatever cause claimed him, he would follow without fail.

Because he had already been chosen. 

That alone was enough.

The weight of their combined presence bore down on Gojo. He felt like he was facing a monarch of old. The aura of them threatened to smother him in sheer pressure.

But he wasn't called the Strongest Sorcerer for nothing.

His lips curled up into a smile. A slow, knowing grin as his fingers rose, forming the hand sign.

Cursed Energy boiled beneath his skin, surging around him in a violent vortex, distorting the very fabric of the air.

In stark contrast, Makima's gaze, ever composed, remained unchanged even in the face of that impending threat.

Veilhem rolled his shoulder, the faint crack breaking the silence as he braced for the inevitable clash.

The world seemed to freeze. Time teetered on the edge of something inescapable.

Gojo exhaled. His voice rang clear, slicing through the stillness.

"Domain Expansion: Unlimited Void."

The world shattered and reality folded in on itself as the Unlimited Void spread outward, swallowing everything.

A cosmic sea of information, infinite knowledge forcing itself into every mind trapped within it.

Veilhem froze mid-motion, his body rigid as his mind was flooded with infinite knowledge. Thought itself ground to a halt, crushed beneath the sheer weight of understanding.

For the first time, Makima blinked.

Her golden eyes widened ever so slightly. But that was all.

She had never been in this space before. 

She had never needed to be.

Gojo's smirk deepened as the Domain locked into place, its sure-hit effect binding everything within. He stepped forward, his figure illuminated against the endless void, their frozen forms caught within his world.

"I wonder." He mused, voice smooth yet laced with amusement. "How do you handle the weight of infinity?"

The Unlimited Void stretched outward, swallowing everything in its grasp.

Gojo stood at the center of the abyss, his supremacy absolute.

Makima should have been helpless, trapped in his world.

Frozen under the crushing expanse of infinite knowledge.

Her mind should have been drowning, overwhelmed beyond salvation.

Her body should have been motionless, unable to resist.

But instead, the ever-present smile that lingered on her lips never faded.

The infinite knowledge that should have crushed her mind, that should have drowned her in an ocean of meaninglessness, and yet, she shook it off as if it were nothing more than an afterthought.

Gojo's brows furrowed slightly.

Makima took a moment to observe the space around her, analyzing its structure with practiced precision.

A conclusion was formed in her mind.

She was cut off.

The usual contracts that made her near-immortal outside this Domain held no power here. The bindings that tethered her authority had been severed.

But Makima was nothing if not adaptable.

And so, she chose the simplest, most efficient solution.

She offloaded the burden.

Veilhem's body was already locked in place, his mind struggling under the unbearable weight of infinite knowledge forced upon him.

So what harm was there in adding a little more?

But that was not all because Makima had more cards in her hands.

She always had more.

Another piece in her arsenal. The newly sealed contract that she had just acquired.

Suguru Geto.

Her lips parted, and in a breath softer than a whisper, she spoke words that did not belong to her.

"Usage: Domain Expansion"

"Cradle of the Unborn."

Gojo's expression hardened, his smirk vanishing as a new force erupted from Makima, colliding against his own like a thunderclap in the void.

The shadows around her split open.

And from the abyss, something crawled.

Curses.

Not just a handful. Not dozens. Not even hundreds. But an unholy flood.

They surged forth like an unrelenting tide, grotesque and writhing, their twisted forms clawing at the very fabric of reality. 

Hulking monstrosities, slithering horrors, eyeless abominations, all kinds of Curses dragging themselves across the ground, others taking flight with malformed wings, their screeches like nails raking against existence itself.

The void strained beneath their weight.

There were far too many.

With no space to hold them, they piled atop one another, crawling, pushing, trampling, their jagged limbs stabbing into weaker ones below. The crushed bodies dissolved into black miasma, only to be reborn, and forced back into the ceaseless swarm.

A cycle went on and on.

And they screamed.

A cacophony of agony, hatred, and hunger. Their voices tore through the stillness of the Domain like an all-consuming wail, vibrating through the endless void as they surged forward, their singular purpose clear.

To devour everything except Makima and Veilhem.

The remnants of Suguru Geto.

His Cursed Spirit Manipulation had been reborn but no longer guided by will, no longer controlled by a master's hand, but twisted, reshaped into something far more insidious.

A force of nature, not of man.

The two Domains collided.

Space fractured, splitting apart like shattered glass at the point of impact.

The Unlimited Void swallowed curses by the thousands, forcing them into a prison of knowledge and their minds crumbled in an instant. 

The weight of infinite comprehension reduced them to little more than dust, their grotesque bodies collapsing, dissolving into nothing.

Yet, more came.

An eternal tide, surging forth without hesitation, on and on, slowly chipped away Gojo's energy.

The Cradle of the Unborn churned with boundless malice. For every curse that perished, another two were born anew. 

The cycle repeated, endlessly, a grotesque birth and death played out in an instant, drowning Gojo's Domain in a sea of writhing, unrelenting nightmares.

The very air strained under the battle of infinities.

The void trembled.

Reality itself was starting to break.

Gojo's feet remained planted, his eyes scanning the chaos with sharp precision. He could feel that his Unlimited Void was reaching its breaking point. 

He was powerful, but even infinity had limits since his energy capacity was not infinite to supply the Domain forever.

Makima stood unmoved at the heart of her Domain, her expression calm, her golden eyes gleaming as her endless swarm ate away at infinity itself.

Gojo clicked his tongue.

Cracks began to form.

They started with thin fractures threading through the void like cracks in a frozen lake. Then came the sound of an ear-splitting shatter that rang through the battlefield.

Unlimited Void was failing.

They both knew it and yet—

Makima's own Domain was unraveling at the same time.

The infinite swarm should have devoured everything, but the power of the Unlimited Void was still absolute. 

The moment a curse was exposed to it, it ceased to function. No matter how many appeared, they could not escape the fundamental truth of his power.

It was a situation where an unstoppable force met an immovable object.

The moment Gojo saw the fractures appear across Makima's Domain, his eyes sharpened.

She was at her limit too.

The realization was immediate.

They had reached a deadlock.

Two infinities grinding against one another, both demanding total dominance, neither one capable of truly consuming the other. 

CLANG!

Both Domains collapsed simultaneously. The shockwaves flattened the landscape for miles, shattering the earth beneath like fragile glass.

Gojo and Makima were launched backward, torn from their Domains, and thrown into the void between them.

For a moment there was nothing.

Just the ringing aftermath of their clash.

Gojo landed first, skidding across the fractured ground, dust billowing around him. He pressed a hand to his forehead, exhaling sharply.

Makima landed second, her boots touching the ground with eerie grace, completely composed, as if she hadn't just torn reality apart.

A silence stretched between them.

Gojo exhaled sharply, eyes scanning the ruined terrain. He could still feel the aftershocks of their clash rippling through reality itself, but what unsettled him wasn't the aftermath.

It was Makima's serene expression.

She stood amidst the devastation, utterly calm, seemingly untouched by the surroundings around her.

Because for a mastermind behind the scenes, she always had something else planned.

It was a subtle thud at first.

That single thud was a signal foreshadowing the terrible outcomes.

A sorcerer fell to their knees.

Then another. And another. Simultaneously. 

One by one, the fallen sorcerers and cursed users collapsed, their bodies folding in synchronization. 

Not a single scream nor a moment of resistance. 

Their expressions remained unfazed as if their very wills had surrendered the moment Makima deemed them unnecessary.

Then it clicked.

Gojo's eyes widened.

She's sacrificing them… to open another Domain.

There was no escape once she fully opened it. Fortunately, there was still some time left because this Domain wasn't opened in a normal way.

Gojo had already opened his Domain twice and even he couldn't ignore the strain that was placed on his brain.

His thoughts raced. 

There was only one way to reset his ability.

A self-destructive technique that no Sorcerer in their right mind would ever attempt unless they had no other choice.

Gojo clenched his fists.

He had to do it.

Before it was too late.

His mind sharpened, already preparing for the process. He had to destroy the section of his brain that stored his Domain Expansion technique, erase it, and then instantly restore it with the Reverse Cursed Technique.

It was a momentary death to be reborn anew.

All so he could use his Domain again.

Makima simply smiled, her golden eyes flickering with amusement as she turned toward someone else.

"How long are you going to lay there, sleepyhead?"

Gojo's movements halted for just a moment. He realized she wasn't talking to him but someone else.

She was talking to Veilhem.

A few feet away, Veilhem's armored body shifted. The once motionless knight slowly pushed himself up, pressing against the ground as he rose. 

His blackened armor groaned from the strain, eerie golden embers flickering weakly around him.

For a moment, he was silent. Then came a sigh from his mouth.

"I almost died there, you know?" Veilhem muttered. His fingers flexed, cracking like breaking steel. 

"And you have the audacity to say that after dumping all that shit into my head too."

A brief flicker of annoyance crossed his tone, but his voice was light. He wasn't angry because he had already resigned to his fate at this point.

Makima, still poised and elegant, merely tilted her head to the side, her golden gaze unwavering, looking all innocent. There was no ounce of guilt on her face. 

She didn't respond because she had no sensible comeback. After all, she had indeed thrown him under the bus.

And they both knew it.

He really wanted to pinch her cheek for that treatment but they were still in a battle so he left it for later.

Veilhem's ember-lit eye flicked toward her, a small, knowing smirk playing at the edge of his lips.

"Tch. Figures you are as shameless as always."

"How can you call a lady shameless?!"

"Yeah yeah."

He cracked his neck, then shifted his stance. The conversation was over.

Because the Domain was about to be opened.

Gojo clenched his jaw. He realized that this was a race and that he was already behind.

No matter how he looked at it, Veilhem was in his way.

Makima was the real threat. Her Domain was already forming, reality itself bending under her influence. 

If it fully manifested, he'd lose this fight.

"Nah, I'd win." Gojo's smirk widened.

But still, Gojo hadn't figured out how Veilhem kept bypassing Infinity.

That was the real problem.

Veilhem knew it too.

"You're running out of time, kid."

His voice was calm, yet an unmistakable reminder like the ticking of a clock before detonation. He stood between Gojo and Makima like an immovable wall.

Veilhem didn't need to attack first. He just needed to stall for some time.

Gojo's fingers twitched.

Think.

Veilhem wasn't just some brute throwing himself at him. If he were, Gojo would have already blown him apart. He was a precise, efficient veteran on the battlefield. 

Every time Gojo's Infinity should have stopped him, it didn't.

Time was Veilhem's weapon.

Gojo had to make a choice.

Would he risk figuring out Veilhem's secret first and potentially lose everything or gamble on brute force, and try to overwhelm him before Makima's Domain fully took hold?

Gojo exhaled sharply. His mind was racing, but his body moved first.

Veilhem was already shifting forward, his massive frame deceptively fast, the golden embers licking at his armor flaring with unnatural intensity. 

He grabbed the iron bar on the ground and infused it in the golden flame, throwing it at Gojo in a perfect arc. There was no wasted movement and certainly no hesitation.

Gojo sidestepped, his body flickering like an afterimage, dodging the makeshift weapon just as it sliced through the air toward him. 

He launched forward, palm raised, Cursed Energy crackling to the surface.

Veilhem was already reacting.

With a sharp twist, he backhanded Gojo mid-motion, his gauntleted fist moving through Infinity like it wasn't even there.

Gojo didn't even have time to think as he raised both hands to block the strike.

BANG.

The impact sent him flying.

He twisted midair, flipping several times before slamming his foot down onto the shattered ground, halting himself just before colliding with the rubble behind him.

His head tilted up, eyes sharp.

He had felt that.

Not just the immense force behind that strike but also the effect.

His hand brushed against his cheek where the punch had nearly landed. The skin felt tingling, presumably burned slightly.

Gojo's smirk returned, but this time, it was a realization.

"I get it now." He murmured, rolling his shoulders. 

Veilhem came at him again. This time, he picked up a Cursed Sword from the nearby fallen Sorcerer and swung it at Gojo from below, aiming straight at Gojo's neck.

Gojo didn't move.

His eyes, glowing with analysis, locked onto the blade.

Then came a revelation. 

They weren't simply heat or energy.

They were consuming something far more abstract.

Concepts.

Then it all clicked in Gojo's head. The one concept that mattered most when an object traveled through a finite distance.

Time.

That was why Infinity didn't work.

It wasn't about overwhelming it with speed or breaking through with force.

The flames were consuming the time it took for anything to reach him.

The fundamental law of motion [s = v × t], the very law that governed motion, distance, and time was erased before it could ever apply to him.

In the presence of Veilhem's flames, the relationship between speed, distance, and time was meaningless.

A paradox in a human form.

Veilhem had become an anomaly to the timeline itself. An existence that refused to be bound by the normal flow of cause and effect.

But the moment Gojo came to that conclusion, Makima had already won.

She lifted one hand toward the sky, the other resting calmly behind her back.

Veilhem stood at her side, his golden embers flickering, but for once, he did not move.

Gojo's eyes widened, he had spent too much time analyzing Veilhem's strange fire and now Makima's Domain was fully opened.

"Usage: Domain Expansion."

"Cradle of the Unborn."

An exact 666-square-area with Makima at the center had been claimed with the same murky water, its boundary was not drawn with barriers. A divide technique that didn't separate the inner Domain from the world outside.

A Domain Expansion without walls.

Not a prison that trapped someone within but a brush that painted its influence directly onto the canvas of reality itself.

Here, Makima was the artist.

There was no escape.

But unlike the first time she opened the Domain, no Curse was seen in plain sight.

And then, from the surface of dark, murky water, an unseen depth pulled something through. It emerged.

A force too great to be called a devil, too monstrous to be called a god.

It was a calamity.

The Gun Devil.

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(Pic)

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As the name of her Domain suggested, Makima could bring forth any monstrosities that didn't exist so long as she had some knowledge about them.

And what could be more fitting than the Devils from her old world?

Even within this space, she could only summon 20% of the Gun Devil, but even that was enough.

Its presence alone was cosmic horror given form.

A walking calamity.

The sky vanished beneath its shadow, its colossal body stretching beyond human comprehension. A fusion of iron and flesh, mechanical and organic, refusing to take on a single, definable shape.

Its spine twisted and coiled, stitched together from gun barrels, writhing like some eldritch monstrosity.

Its head was nothing but the cold steel sniper's barrel. No eyes could be seen. It didn't distinguish between good and evil because indiscriminate slaughter was its only purpose.

Its ribcage gaped open, filled with thousands of human faces. They wailed in silence, their voices stolen, just as their lives had been. All they could do was cry blood tears.

Its arms were not flesh but an arsenal, a tangled mass of rifles, machine guns, and revolvers, fused into two colossal weapons. Barrels stretched endlessly, belts of ammunition feeding from nowhere.

Its very existence reeked of blood, gunpowder, and war.

And now, it was free to fire. 

A wide smirk slowly stretched on this abomination's face.

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(A/N: The Flame that burns time is my interpretation of how we can warp to the end of time to fight Gael in DS3 so don't question me that it's not canon. The world of Dark Souls is never explained properly so it's canon in my work.

I nerf Makima too much... but ig it's fair if we don't want her to fked this verse up.

Suggest me another name for this chap, I'm suck.)