121 Chapter 120: Ending The Game Too Early

During the iterations, there are the so-called 'fixed events' and 'chance events'. The former always occurs on the exact date as they did in the previous iterations. One such example is the Shinjuku incident. No matter what, they would occur on October 31.

Meanwhile, chance events are something that is heavily dependent on variables. An example of that is this event.

There was a time when Jogo killed everyone inside a restaurant during their meeting to seal Satoru-san. These incidents occurred in different times across several iterations. It could happen two weeks before the Shibuya incident, but it could also happen a week before it.

What I didn't expect, however, is that they would choose to act now.

"It's been some time since I met one of your kind. Hm… how was he called again..?" The thousand-year-old sorcerer muttered. "Yes, Nettesheim."

Kenjaku made a thoughtful look while wiping the blood off his head. The small hole that I pierced from before remained the same, however.

"Lord Nettesheim? He is doing well as we speak."

When this conversation started, my nine partitions worked in full power. I deduced the possible paths I could take to completely catch him off-guard. Kenjaku is someone who has too many tricks up his sleeves. I do not believe he isn't as tricky as Lord Nettesheim.

My sole trump card…

It lies not in the Inverse Spear of Heaven but Ein Sof. Its main concept is the eternal freeze that completely halts the coming end.

If I do this right, I will be able to skip through the Shinjuku incident, thus preventing the series of events which would lead to the Culling Game as well as Sukuna regaining the majority of his power.

Looking at him, I am aware he is also thinking the same way. It is completely up to our cards on whether who would be surprised more.

"Are you sure about that?"

"Please elaborate."

"He dropped by here before disappearing." Kenjaku revealed with a smile. "By what I mean disappear, it is his confrontation with something. That was an intense battle, I believe."

"..."

Lord Nettesheim's disappearance… it was something prevalent throughout several iterations. Knowing the looming threat—the materialization of the concept of the end—I have a clue as to what happened.

But to think I was this late..?

'…'

There's no use being shaken up. I have to wrap this up properly.

"You wouldn't reveal more, no? If so…"

Click-!

Hum-!

The surroundings froze due to the sheer intensity of my psychic chill.

"Infinitus Commuto." (Infinite Conversion.)

Buzz-!

The hundreds of magic circles in the sky glowed brightly. WIthin this mirror world, it is my home field.

"Veritas luceat id terrarum." (May the light of truth illuminate this world.)

Hundreds of lances made of white light emerged. They didn't take long before they reached their target.

BAM-!

The 'mirror' version of the establishment collapsed to pieces due to the attack's sheer intensity. Rubbles flew out from its blast range.

I took a single leap before arriving at his position. Holding the Inverse Spear, I initiated Khurikara Dharani. The blade became wrapped with mysteries as multiple copies of myself surrounded him.

"Detorqueo Veritas." (Destruction of Truths.)

Swiftly, I crept up to his control over his antigravity system. It worked similar to Satoru-san's [Limitless] with nigh-unbreachable defenses. Still, disrupting its operation for a moment is possible.

Pssshk-!

'It's not a solid hit.'

I felt these strikes hitting his body. However, it wasn't the brain.

My sight shifted to the cursed spirit who returned in this place. His stitched-up body would look horrifying to most humans. It was the special-grade curse born out of the humans' transgression towards each other.

'I won't let you.'

Just as Kenjaku disappeared, the same happened to me. On the way, I used up a chance.

'Modify the object's state to five minutes ago?'

'Confirm.'

Tick.

The wristwatch removed its previous mundane state. It took the form of [Sora] which I wielded on my right hand.

When Kenjaku reappeared, his hand was already on Mahito's shoulder. Before the cursed spirit could even react, he was forcefully converted into a black orb. I could see he was planning something for it, but I didn't give him a chance.

Hum-!

An arc of blue light came off the tip of my blade. It swiftly went to Kenjaku. His widened eyes were all it took to know he was caught off guard.

He couldn't prevent the direct contact of the blue light.

'It's successful.'

Contrary to his expectations, what it targeted was not him, but the orb on his hand. To be more exact, the Mahito who got turned into such.

Granting it the eternal freeze, he would not be able to use it to initiate one of his plans.

'The end…'

Tick-!

I didn't hold back at this moment. The Sacrament distorted mysteries to its barest bones. As if showing its abnormality, arcs of blue lightning surrounded it. It became blurry on 'normal sight' due to the phenomena it produced.

The amount of energy it empowered elevated my existence with sheer force alone. It isn't wrong to say that I could match those gods at this moment.

Just like before, I traced Kenjaku's 'string' with the help of Seder Hishtalshelut (Chain That Ties). It ensured he wouldn't be able to escape from this lock-on.

The strike that injured Goetia…

BUZZ-!

…will be used to strike Kenjaku down.

*****

Nothing seemed wrong from the perspective of the mundane. Humans kept their daily life without knowing about the events that happened behind the scenes.

However…

"What was that?!"

The headquarters of Jujutsu (Sorcery) went into a huge panic.

"It isn't cursed energy… Those magicians..!"

"Have they forgotten the vow?!"

The center of Jujutsu was concentrated on the power of the three sorcerer families, namely: Zen'in, Gojo, and Kamo.

One was purely concentrated on their elitism regarding their sorcerer lines, one supports the strongest contemporary sorcerer, and the final one consists of a corrupted lineage.

The ideology for elitism has long been rooted in these three sorcerer families. It is a product of a thousand-year-old practice that came all the way from the Heian Era. Add to that the fact that the Zen'in and Kamo kept the Gojo clan in check, it isn't surprising for their political struggles to be extremely entangled.

It is for such a reason that sorcery became messed up in the near-future.

"Stop it. It's useless."

The voice of one man took the attention of all.

The current head of the Zen'in Clan, Zen'in Naobito.

"Who would like to act against that?"

"..."

Everybody fell silent.

Even now, they felt shivers down their spine upon sensing a fragment of that blue light's strength. It was something far beyond their level. Perhaps only the special-grade sorcerers could match that.

Internally, the arrogant ones didn't want to lose their life. It is for such a reason that they humbled themselves in Satoru Gojo's presence.

"We should let him take action."

As Naobito spoke, he sensed another familiar signature of cursed energy. This time, he was sure it was none other than Satoru Gojo himself.

*****

'A domain…no, it's different.'

For the first time in a while, Satoru became serious. He treated Nobu's words over the phone seriously, as evident when he made his first transaction with him. It is completely unknown as to how Nobu knew about the Inverse Spear in his hands.

What's more, the level of jujutsu knowledge he exchanged is more than twenty years advanced compared to the current level of their theoretical knowledge. It was thoroughly researched, to the point he guessed that it must've been fifty years ahead as opposed to the twenty years that Nobu told him.

Crack-!

Within his sight, he saw something similar to a curtain crumble down. The transparent shards turned into white motes of light as they disappeared. A noticeable trace of an arc could be seen on top of the domain, or in Nobu's words, [Dreamland].

Although, it began to reform itself. Before it closed down, Satoru used his cursed technique.

Instantly, he reappeared on Nobu's side. Before he could ask, he saw Suguru Getou's current state.

He was split into half… literally.

His upper torso was separated from his lower torso. Blood continuously came out of his mouth like a fountain. His eyes started dimming.

Satoru was caught off guard by "Getou's" appearance, but he was more concerned about the different cursed technique he saw on him. His flow of cursed energy is enough to tell everything.

"Mind explaining?"

"...He isn't Suguru Getou. Do you recall Noritoshi Kamo?"

"Him? The one responsible for the Cursed Womb?"

"Yeah. That's him using your best friend's body."

"..."

Nobu sensed a small activation signal on Satoru's cursed technique. He didn't hesitate to nearly activate his Domain Expansion against "Noritoshi Kamo".

Nobu shook his head at him.

"He's already dying. I would still like to know about some things from him."

"...Then why call me?" Satoru replied in an irritated tone.

It was as if he got played around by Nobu when he crossed nearly the entirety of Japan just to arrive here. He's not just summoned over to become an audience or something...

"I will be resurrecting Suguru Getou for a while. I hope you could be the one responsible for explaining about certain things." Nobu explained as he looked at Kenjaku's severed form.

"...Hold up."

Satoru walked over to him before he disabled his Infinity partially. Then, he grasped his shoulder.

"What did you say?"

"I have a way of resurrecting someone. It is something possible on the magicians' side. As long as someone has enough strength, they would be capable of doing this."

Of course, Nobu's statement is completely relative. They need to have the fragment of Lapis Lazuli, the 'Cauculus Albus', which could manifest biblical miracles and resurrect someone from the dead. 

That, or the 'Holy Grail' possessed by him.

"...Fine, I understand." Satoru replied after a while. "You called me here to settle this mess, didn't you?"

"Partly, yes."

Nobu left out another reason—the drawback of using [Ein Sof]. He would be quite weakened once it happens. Although it isn't as bad as when he faced Solomon, he still prepared for a precaution in case Kenjaku still has a trick up his sleeves.

Nobu soon approached the halved-Kenjaku.

The latter's look expressed frustration and resignation.

"...You ended the game too early."

"I did. So?"

"What a cold guy."

Nobu didn't take Kenjaku's remarks seriously.

"Before you die, do you have anything to say about Lord Nettesheim?"

Kenjaku laughed as he heard that.

"On what grounds do you think I would say anything?"

"Your personality. I know about it. You will do anything to be entertained, isn't that right?" Nobu paused before adding, "Before I forget, you are extremely interested in cursed energy due to its intrinsic nature. Are you fighting the Twilight Syndrome?"

It was a shocking statement. Kenjaku, someone so vile his infamy spreads even a thousand years later, actually fought the common enemy of the world?

"Have you faced an undefeatable enemy? Someone so insurmountable you couldn't begin to fathom its limits?"

Kenjaku responded with questions instead.

"It didn't fail to entertain me until the end."

Nobu processed his words. 387 million thoughts ran through his head. Soon, they formed a prominent question:

'How insurmountable was it?'

Swiftly, Kenjaku's life nearly came to its end. The eternal freeze affected his ether body (soul), in turn deteriorating his physical body. Once the physical body deteriorates, the soul loses its anchor and disappears into nothingness.

In short, [Ein Sof] dealt an extremely fatal soul damage to Kenjaku. He wasn't even able to pull out his trump cards and counters as it happened.

"Nettesheim… He faced that problem several months ago." Kenjaku spoke with nostalgia. "He would've left something if he failed."

Just as Nobu was about to ask a question, he sensed his death.

As of this moment, the schemer behind the culling game, the thousand-year-old Sorcerer, died with an interested smile in the hands of the new Magister.