The way of Jumping

Deep in the mountains, nestled in the bosom of mother earth was the Ainu Flame School of Hokkaido; a sacred place that metaphysically harbored 2 of the 3 sacred treasures of Hokkaido.

The Flame School, otherwise a haven for sorcerers on any occasion has now been reduced to a burning and battered landscape.

6 human figures stood in opposition to a Goat like figure which had reindeer like horns on its head.

The curse looked quizically at the two new arrivals.

"A Goat?" Edward asked in puzzlement, looking at the strange figure of the curse in a mocking fashion.

And that was the breaking point.

The short silence that had been established between the characters broke down just at that moment and the entire area exploded out into a burst of shadow and darkness.

Shuichi jumped back to one of the rooftops.

Hundreds of shadowy figures, each humanoid in shape rushed out, violently smashing at everything that came in their way.

Shuichi pointed his hand into the air, and 10 meters up, dozens of halberds and swords materialized.

"Die!" He yelled. And with that said, sonic booms sounded.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Grrrrrrr!

Along with the sonic boom, the sound of lightning rushed out and enveloped his weapons into a sea of blue plasma.

Explosions soon littered the ground and the air, bombarding the shadowy figures with relentless assault of artillery grade firepower, perhaps even beyond that.

Shuichi heard a strange humm in his ears. He turned his head to see Abenanka singing in a beautiful and melodious voice. And alongside her, a majestic fire dragon danced around in the air, getting longer and longer and longer still.

It ate up the shadowy figures like they were candy, extinguishing them completely.

At the other side, Gabimaru who was covered in paper filled with enchantments and Natsuhiko who had glorious lighting surrounding him rushed out towards the darkness curse.

Shatter!

The sound of glass shattering came promptly, and with it, the Moonlight dimmed considerably.

The darkness curse slammed his fist into the ground, prompting Gabimaru and Natsuhiko to jump to the sides.

From besides his figure, black tendrils immediately rushed out, smashing the two sorcerers deep into the concrete underneath.

Shuichi looked up towards the sky.

The barriers are broken! He thought.

[The barriers that surrounded the compound were both defensive and offensive in nature. However, when the darkness curse reached the compound, offense would destroy the compound itself due to the scalding hot temperatures. As such, the entire force was directed towards suppressing the darkness curse.]

Shuichi quickly propped up two of his fingers before him.

"That which is darkness, blacker than itself." He started chanting.

[Which made the curse prioritize breaking the barriers first to overtake all of its cursed energy output back. A task which it had surprisingly succeeded in.]

Edward Horrowitz, the enlighman appeared right in front of the darkness curse.

Without delay, he spread out his hands perpendicular to his body and straightened out his legs.

"Holy Baptism!" He yelled. And with it, a gigantic holy cross made out of light descended from the sky and enveloped a space with the radius of 10 meters, completely covering the darkness curse.

Auururyuryghhhhh!

"The pinnacle of purity and impurity, the perfect Yin and Yang." Shuichi continued to chant.

[That made Shuichi make the impromptu decision to layer a barrier of his own, one buffed by the effects of his rule making.]

The darkness screamed in a Crooked voice. It tore of its own flesh, materializing tendrils out of its body to do the job, most likely trying to muffle the pain through more pain.

Then, it punched blindly into the light that enveloped it.

Bam! Whoosh!

Being hit straight into the chest, Edward was thrown back.

"Seal this space henceforth." With that, the cursed energy in the environment plummeted.

The two sorcerers, Abenanka and Homura who had been busy taking care of what seemed to be thousands of shadowy figures were given a moment of rest as the shadows dissolved into the ground.

The darkness curse staggered and genuflected on the ground, its figure appearing weak.

At the same moment, Natsuhiko dashed out from among the rubble.

To the side, paper figurines the size of humans dashed out, and behind them, Gabimaru also emerged.

All of these figure dashed onto the curse, pummeling it incessantly.

The curse screamed in pain and torment. Not understanding what had happened.

[The fact was, Shuichi had undertaken a binding vow on top of the rule making that could already be established.]

Shuichi took out a sword that was all too familiar from his inventory. It was the weapon that 'burned' through curse energy, and could easily reach temperatures close to 3000 degrees Celsius.

With a small effort from his legs, the roof beneath him shattered and he dashed out. The air around him whirled into a circle, propelling him faster. It had been turned into a cursed tool!

[The rule that Shuichi had made was simple. Anything inside of the barrier that could not he described to be 'organic' would have its cursed energy output suppressed forcibly. Fact was, this was in itself a form of binding bow. The greater the leeway given the better the effects, meaning, because almost all of the occupants of the barrier were humans and hence organic, the power of the barrier was forcibly strengthened.]

The moment Shuichi appeared in front of the curse, his cursed tool ready to strike, he heard the sound of thunder and flames, along with a shout.

"Holy Baptism!" Edward yelled.

And so, Shuichi, Gabimaru, Paper effigies, Natsuhiko and the Darkness curse were swallowed into an ocean of light.

Then, thunder and fire rushed into the light, slamming right into the figure of the darkness which was still visible because of its dark, almost void like fur.

Shuichi closed his eyes, so did Natsuhiko and Gabimaru. With their senses dialed to the maximum, being surrounded by such blinding light would be nothing short of a flashbang.

Utilizing his necklace, Shuichi figured out the location of the darkness and sliced.

[However, that was not the binding vow Shuichi had made himself. Instead, the vow he had made was as follows: In return for making the outside of the barrier as fragile as possible, the inner barrier was strengthened to an astounding degree. Not only that, Shuichi had designated a specific door inside of the barrier itself. Meaning, if anyone passed through that metaphysical 'door' the barrier would collapse by itself, giving the barrier another bout of strengthening. In essence, he made it almost implausible for the curse to escape its own weakening.]

The curse screamed even higher. For a moment, Shuichi felt as if he was bullying a child. But then, he remembered what type of creature it was. And then, he sliced it with his sword again.

His sword which was swept in a sea of flames sliced through the body of the curse like hot knife through butter, the curse's cursed energy igniting within it's own body.

Paper figures covered the body of the curse and forcibly took on all the properties of the elements which were raining down on its body. Lightning, light, Holy cross, flames and the like, all were immediately copied into the papers and imbued directly into the curse through them.

The Holy cross disappeared and Shuichi opened his eyes.

The curse was in shambles. It's body was deeply burned, appearing more like burnt coal that the void it previously appeared to be. It's limbs were torn off and cuts riddled all of his structure. Various depression could be seen on it, which were a result of the relentless barrage by Natsuhiko and Gabimaru.

As the light cleared, the paper figures which were on its body crumbled into dust and disappeared.

Natsuhiko didn't stop to observe the curse. Balling his fist, he punched out.

Boom!

A sonic boom sounded with his fist, smashing the jaw of the curse.

Shuichi quickly grabbed the antlers and slammed it right into the ground, preventing it from flying out due to the force of the blows.

Then, Abenanka and Homura appeared beside him.

They all nodded to each other and started to throw their respective powers right onto it.

Boom! Whoosh!

Crackle! Sizzle! Shaaaaaa!

Auuuuryryruyyuuugyyyhyhhhhhhhh!

Pain.

The curse screamed and yelled and bellowed and cried out in pure unadulterated pain.

For the god, no, the curse, no, more like the pitiful worm that crawled on the ground at this moment, it was the first time it had been in such a situation. It ran through the villages, devouring the people in the all consuming darkness without a care in the world.

Never had it experienced any pain, or even a sliver of such a feeling.

Auuuuuu~

Suddenly, it quieted down and breathed.

Shaaaaaaaaaa!

Then, a pool of darkness appeared under it, rushing out like a raging tsunami that threatened to swallow up the world.

He sorcerers jumped back, narrowly avoiding the sudden attack, most likely a last ditch effort for survival. Shuichi smiled, knowing that there was no possible way the curse would escape their encirclement, and if it did, his barrier.

Without delay, the attacks landed again onto the ground where the curse had been.

However...

Whooooooshhh!

Tuuuuuuffffff!

Bam!

The ground under trembled as something gigantic moved through it.

A large protrusion swept up under the ground, like a whale moving underneath the sea. It's destination?

It was going towards the Thousand Faced Tower effigy! Attracted by the coalition!

Seeing the place it was going towards, the colour from Shuichi's face drained.

[Seeing itself driven into a corner and not even being able to resist due to the suppression from the barrier, the curse saw only one way out. And that was to devour the coalition itself, achieving strength through it!]

[However, even then, there was no way for it to get out of the barrier. Except there was...]

[The metaphysical door that Shuichi had decided towards was towards the tower effigy itself, right at the edge of the barrier. And considering the direction of the curse, which was also towards the effigy, it would soon run into it, disabling the barrier and regaining itself fighting capacities!]

[The small blunder happened only because the size of the 'door' Shuichi had decided on was a 5 meter large door, in order to boost the effects further. It was a calculated decision on his part, made because he had not anticipated that the curse would ever go in that direction.]

[However, the situation turned out to be different!]

Homura's feet surged with lighting and he dashed out.

His speed, although could reach the terrifying speed of lightning which travelled at one-third the speed of light, reached Mach 2 in just under a second! There was indeed a reason he was called Enlightened Heart of Lightning!

Appearing in the sky, a gigantic spear of lightning appeared in his hand.

"Where do you think you're going?" He yelled.

Then, with a swipe of his hand, the lightning dashed right onto the upper side of the curse.

Auuuurghh!

The curse screamed again, however, that wasn't enough for the curse to stop. Instead, it ran right through the door of the barrier without stop.

The cursed energy in the environment surged again as the barrier went down. The Moonlight dimmed and the darkness seemingly came alive.

Booooom!

The curse surged out of the ground, rising like the morning sun.

It's figure had completely regenerated, appearing good as new.

"Humans! Die!" It yelled.

Sigh! Shuichi sighed.

~~~

A/N: Apologies for the late upload. Check out my other fanfic, Tower of God: Sequence Strength. It's a tower or God story with Lord of Mysteries pathway, more specifically, the LOTM pathways.