Unexpected Ally
Watching her hands slowly extend into claws, thin horns emerging from her head radiating silver moonlight Atlas took a step back as she collided with the writhing mass, a beast without shape or form.
Carving giant marks down the front of the swirling entity the gashes quickly were consumed by the growing beast, no damage lingering even though she had been able to hurt it. She was perfect for the job, being able to generate her own light source to fight it.
Watching her dance around the writhing black mass that struck out with claws, bites, slashes, punches, swinging tendrils, every attack one could think of. Adaptability, that was darkness. You never knew what hid beneath it.
Dodging a stray attack Atlas darted to the side, kicking off the wall and flipping over the hands that emerged from the floor attempting to grab him. The expanded space of the ship's hull slowly fell away piece by piece.
The walls and floor slowly crumbled into dust.
Its domain was growing.
Backing away further Atlas watched as she started to get affected, the crushing darkness weighing down on her, With each strike she landed on the spirit was getting weaker and weaker, because of its writhing nature the small wounds just folded into the mass. Disappearing either healing or hiding them.
It didn't have a proper form to damage.
Getting ready to act when he saw her get hit by a glancing blow that sent her crashing to the floor with a reverberating bang that echoed endlessly out into the infinite darkness. He started to prepare his own technique but saw her stand up.
Her eyes glowed a brighter silver light her wings were slowly losing feathers, becoming more like ethereal strands of solid moonlight that wisp out of her back like licks of flame. Her horns growing longer, straight and narrow pointing out of her head.
Her claws grew up her arm into scales and spiky extrusions.
Dashing forward again with surprising speed she slammed into the beast, leaping into the air and planting both her feet on the mass before kicking off and away from the multiple attacks that snapped at her.
Slicing them all as she twisted in the air. Dodging blow after blow and reaping the limbs of the beast. Cutting the form that it gave itself to attack.
But it was still growing.
Staring out at the foggy black mass Atlas knew that it wasn't working, she was still losing.
It would tire her out without her being able to deal any real damage.
Watching her put her clawed hands together he narrowed his eyes, she was going all out. Preparing himself to act at a moment's notice he walked forward to make sure that he was going to be in her range to but stayed on another plane so she couldn't hit him with her effect.
"Domain expansion!" Mizuki yells. A flashbang of moonlight lit up the darkness around them as for a brief moment Atlas saw the beasts form, a writing black snake, tiny glowing red eyes littering its face. Thicker than a house and longer than he could see, it seemed to wind around itself endlessly making it impossible to figure out where it really ended.
If it did at all.
Watching the darkness-filled space slowly give way as a barrier formed Atlas felt the earth start to shake and twist as the ground slowly transformed into the surface of the moon. Silvery moon beams appearing everywhere.
Holding her hands out the light beams twisted down, swirling into her palm, slowly condensing into a twisting vortex of solid silver, a metallic sheen covering the condensed light, so compressed it no longer was transparent.
Sending it out as a beam that slammed into the black scales of the beast multiple other beams rained down from the sky, slamming into the side of the spirit like arrows raining from heaven. Bright flashes illuminate the creeping darkness with each blast.
Screeching a sudden sonic wave blasted from the snake. A wave passed over them both blasting moon dust into the air.
Watching as it slowly uncoiled, the writhing mass of scales stretched out as it started to tower above them. Two giant red eyes opened on either side for four in total. Unlike the tiny ones, they were much more reasonable compared to its size.
"Oh that's wonderful, looks like he finally woke up." Atlas joked as he smirked at her, seeing her shocked look as she backed away. The beams of light paused for a moment as she saw that the most damage they did was some slight burn marks on its scales.
Only the large beam she had personally shot had done some damage. But even then, it had only knocked a few scales off and made it mad.
"Humans, no, you are not humans, are you? Wandering into my domain." Its deep voice surprised them both.
Staring at it Atlas tilted his head to the side. This spirit was strong enough to be sentient.
---
Throwing the ball at the wall Geto watched as it bounced off the floor into the wall before it landed in his hand only for the cycle to repeat. Each throw got a bit faster as he got more comfortable with the rhythm.
"So what do you think the mission was? Must be a strong spirit if the principal was asking for him personally to do it. This is like the second special grade to be taken out in Tokyo." Gojo said as he walked up and chucked a can of drink at Geto who caught it letting the ball bounce into his lap.
Sitting down beside his friend Gojo asked, "Are you alright?" His voice held a lot of concern as he leaned against the wall, across from where his friend was sitting.
Seeing his hollow gaze that was deep in thought, it was clear that he was trying to figure out a lot of things in his head.
"Talk to me," Gojo said as he pulled the ball to his hand with his technique before he started throwing it back and forth to Geto.
"Would you consider us family?" He asked, clearly thinking of the words he was saying as they came out of his mouth.
"You're my best friend, that is for fucking certain," Gojo replied as he caught the ball and held onto it. "Why?"
"How far would you go for me?" Geto asks again, clearly working through a line of thinking.
Pausing for a moment Gojo thought before he answered, not wanting to say something carelessly. "There is a lot that I would do for you Suguru, I would do a lot of things. I would kill someone if they hurt you, I would become a curse user to save you." Gojo confessed as he thought about it. "If there is one thing that Atlas has taught me-"
"He is why I am having this problem," Geto said with a sigh, leaning forward as he continued, prompted by the questioning look Gojo gave him. "Atlas risked being a curse user to save Riko and us from Toji, but that man was his friend. He said to me that if he was forced to pick a side he would pick Toji. I don't know how I feel about trusting a man that is willing to do the wrong thing for someone they care about. Shouldn't we do what is right? Isn't that why we have the powers we have?" Geto asked.
Laughing lightly Gojo said, "Who cares? Atlas is strong, he can do what he wants and no one can stop him. The Higher-Ups sure can't. I am comfortable with taking on almost any mission on my own and beating any sorcerer apart from him. I have the right to protect who I want because I am strong enough to do so. I would protect you just like Atlas is protecting Toji, we protect our best friends." Gojo said, his voice serious as he stared at Geto, lowering his glasses so he could look over the rims at him.
Sitting there in silence for a moment Geto got to the real meat of what he was dealing with. His voice was hesitant as he said it under his breath. "He is also protecting the killer of Ayumu, Frank is Atlas' Father."
---
"Wandering into my Domain and attacking me as I slumber. Foolish or brave, I will not let you leave here." It spoke as it started to move winding around the edge of its domain, circling them over and over, and over again. Round and round it spun, dizzying them as the walls of the domain slowly shifted in a fluid mass of scales that glimmered in Mizuki's moonlight.
Hissing a sudden rumble passed throughout the domain as panicked, Mizuki started to rain down hundreds of moonbeams upon the twisting snake. Although it just… chuckled at her efforts. Pressing against the barrier until cracks formed.
And then her domain shattered.
Dropping to her knees Mizuki let out a gasp as her transformation vanished. The only source of light vanishing from where they once now were again, in the domain of the spirit.
Watching the snake suddenly be engulfed by black fog, swirling miasma of darkness and desperation he couldn't help but shake his head.
This spirit was different, it had to at least be as strong as the 4 spirits that Kenjaku worked with. But it had never appeared in Canon.
Things were changing, first Mizuki, a half-human half cursed spirit now a sentient spirit. He needed to find out what was happening.
Seeing a whip of shadow slash out of the miasma towards Mizuki he teleported between her and the attack, knowing the snake was fully surrounding them and shattered the dimensions around the two of them completely. Creating an impenetrable barrier of folding glass.
"Interesting, such a power in the hands of something so weak. What. Are. You?" It hissed, its red gaze flashing from in and out of the miasma.
"I am who I am," Atlas answered, curious about the answer as well, this was the first time anything had referred to him as something other than human. Tilting his head he said. "I have a student to protect so I think I should end this fight." His voice bored. The low chuckle responding to his words showed the snake's confidence.
Snapping his fingers Atlas used his technique, still confused about how it works he went for something simple. He simply found a plane where there was light and pulled it into his plane. Bright sunlight suddenly illuminated the entire domain from giant cracks that formed overhead.
Hearing the hiss of displeasure and pain as the sun shone in blasting away the miasma once again he pointed his fingers to his right at the coiling mass of scales and a large split suddenly tore its flesh apart. Ripping a giant gash in reality as he watched to see how the spirit reacted to the damage.
He didn't want to kill it, no, this was far too valuable. Geto needed this spirit. Or at least try to obtain it.
"Where's that confidence snake?" Atlas mocked as he waved his hand again severing the spirit once again, chopping right through the writhing mass. Black blood ran down from its wounds as he cut the snake in half.
Splitting the coiling beast as it screeched in pain.
Thousands of shadowy attacks launching at both him and Mizuki but he simply kept them in another dimension.
Pointing his fingers at the spirit's forehead he blasted it with a shock-wave. Willing hundreds of his reflections to slam into the beast's head, raining punch after punch that it couldn't even see cracking and splitting scales as it tried to heal.
Watching it start to grow back its body Atlas waved his other hand and once again it split, sending blood and guts everywhere as he clapped his hand together making the cracks in the air widen letting in even more sunlight.
"Come on snake!" Atlas said as he pointed at its head once again and blasted it with enough power to sheer the flesh from its skull. The shattering of dimensions echoed throughout the breaking domain.
Watching in shock Mizuki couldn't help but stare at the carnage before her. Watching that the spirit she had so much trouble dealing with while it was asleep was being decimated by Atlas without any effort whatsoever. It was eye-opening.
This was why she wasn't a special grade.
Because it was still impossibly far above her.
Struggling to her feet she watched as blast after blast tore the spirit apart.
It wasn't long before its healing started to slow. Tilting his head to the side Atlas walked forward, clearly seeing that it didn't intend to fight anymore. For something so proud it lost its will awfully quickly.
"Why?" It asked as Atlas approached it, "Why don't you just exorcise me?"
"Because a friend can use you to help people," Atlas spoke honestly. This was a spirit that could talk, as something with sentience he would respect it enough to answer its questions.
"I just wanted to live in peace. Why must you keep sending hunters to hurt me? I was not leaving my domain, I was not harming those that didn't wander into it on their own. I was not causing trouble. I wish for none either." It said as its hissing became low and broken.
Waiting for a moment Atlas paused, was it trying to use his emotions against him. No, it was stating a fact. It hadn't left here to hunt, it was sentient enough to stay out of the way…
"You are a spirit, is it not in your nature to kill and hunt humans?" Atlas asked, genuinely curious about how it worked, how it thought.
"Of course, you all brought me to life, your fear and your hate. I wish to rid this world of it. So that I must not suffer from your outcast emotions. But I know that you humans are all fools, you do not realize what you are doing. I have no need to hunt down those that don't understand. He did not understand, that terrible man. He wanted to make me leave here and hunt. He said that I would regret not siding with him." The spirit spoke.
"Wait who? Someone came to visit you, did he have a crown scar?" Atlas suddenly ask, forgetting about Mizuki. Of course, Kenjaku would have approached the sentient spirit. If he had influence in the council then he could have sent hunters to exterminate it since it didn't side with him.
"Yes. His head was marred." The spirit replied, its hiss confused as it started to realize that something was up.
"I cannot ignore that you are a spirit, so I will not be able to let you live. But I can give you a choice to serve my friend. You can live your life in peace once we kill this man. I can promise you that, I will personally help you find a place to be safe, even if I must create another dimension for you. Help me fight that scarred man." Atlas said.
He didn't trust the spirit, but if it let Geto become its master, then he wouldn't have anything to worry about and they would gain a very, very powerful ally.