Chapter 147: Cursed Techniques' Hidden Nature

The very first thing Nobu had to face was Vlad III's wrath.

Pssshk-!

Hundreds of blood-red thorns emerged out of the ground. They overcame the freezing temperatures and attempted to reach him—

Shatter-!

—only for them to shatter into pieces right before making contact with him.

Lancer of Red followed up by summoning forth flames in his direction.

Once again, they disappeared moments before touching Nobu.

Sou-!

Zoom-!

This time, an arrow was fired by the Archer of Black, Chiron. Although he was vigilant due to the fact that Nobu hadn't attempted to dodge it, he still fired it with his usual strength.

Still…

"I see."

It was stopped once more just as it was about to touch him. The distance of the space that surrounded Nobu is no longer finite. From there on, unless he changes a convention within Satoru Gojo's cursed technique, [Limitless], nothing from his surroundings could harm him—not even a god. Coupled with his superior brainpower and perception compared to him, that statement became even stronger.

The moments from his previous iterations reoccurred right at this moment.

"Not all sorcerers are destructive, but the way they go against the physical laws is on another level…"

In short, cursed techniques are as much of a "hack" compared to grand magicka. So as to say, as long as they have enough 'basic stats' to use it, these techniques could be as strong, if not even stronger, than it.

This time, the Saber of Black, Siegfried, decided to take the front. He charged straight at Nobu with his demonic sword, Balmung, in hand.

The eyes of the two briefly met.

'...Strange.'

Siegfried noticed the inconsistencies within Nobu. He looked like a fine knight at first, but he suddenly turned into an elegant scholar the next. It wasn't particularly concerning, but he also noticed how their attacks wouldn't simply land upon him… literally.

They still haven't identified its duration, but for the meantime, they tacitly decided to try out several things at once—all without showing all of their trump cards, of course.

Swoosh-!

Swoosh-!

Surprisingly, Nobu decided to start dodging his blows. His demonic sword couldn't catch up with him.

Swoosh-!

The downward vertical cut was promptly avoided by him with a backstep. The two entered a momentary pause before something formed out of Nobu's fingers.

It was a red light.

At the same time, Karna decided to enter the melee scuffle with Siegfried. Another wave of projectiles flew in Nobu's direction.

"Oh..!"

Despite the fact that everything seemed strange—and that the magician is a much greater opponent than they thought—Shakespeare simply enjoyed everything. Rooting for the antagonist isn't on the top of his favorites compared to tragedies, but it is still up there.

The moment the two heroic spirits came close to his vicinity…

"Repulse, Red."

The red light turned into a sphere before emitting a force of repulsion.

Bam-!

Something pushed them back away from Nobu. The force went through both Siegfried and Karna's [Magic Resistance], startling them both. It only meant that this power… isn't magic or anything based on miracles.

"Ah…"

While Nobu had used these "cursed techniques" before, he was still under the belief that "magic resistance" somehow worked with them. That was evident when he conducted several experiments himself back in his world.

Turns out, it doesn't classify as "magic" in this world.

If so, what is the difference between the two?

Buzz-!

This time, he summoned a blue light. He was able to swiftly blitz through the two and was already nearing the Black Faction.

'This was supposed to be a test… but now I need to know more.'

"Attract, Blue."

As the blue sphere appeared, Nobu made a pulling gesture. The sphere flew not far away from him.

"Huh..?!"

The first one to feel the brunt of it was the Berserker of Black, Frankenstein. She floated uncontrollably towards the blue sphere.

"Whaat's thiissss?!?!"

Rider of Black, Astolfo, followed suit with his hands on his skirt. Meanwhile, Vlad III prevented himself from being affected by encasing himself in thorns.

'I'm somewhat there… What did I miss..?'

Nobu didn't let his deep thoughts distract him. He went for the "most troublesome" opponent that might be able to figure out [Limitless]'s shortcomings in this fight.

"You went for me."

The teacher of numerous Greek heroes, Chiron, decided to unleash his fatal strike.

"With the stars as my eyes…"

The dim night sky started being decorated by bright stars. They formed a constellation that is largely familiar to Nobu—Sagitarius.

Without any hesitation—

Fzzt-!

—Chiron let go of the arrow.

A star fell dazingly. It didn't let go of its target, keeping him in its clutch.

Nobu had seemingly resigned to his fate. He didn't do anything huge and allowed the arrow to 'hit' him.

For the first time, an attack bypassed the infinite distance. The star passed through the infinite and reached Nobu's side.

Just then, something strange happened.

"What..?"

Chiron's eyes widened as he "felt" what happened to the "arrow" he shot.

"...I'm so dumb."

Nobu wore the same expression of surprise. A hint of realization appeared on his face as he "played around" with the star shot by Chiron's Noble Phantasm.

"How could I miss something quite obvious… I am the one to blame, though…"

"You are…"

His attention turned towards the shocked Chiron. The latter also realized something so absurd, yet would explain things about this magician they're fighting.

"The star of an archer always aims at the scorpion… What an apt description, Mister Chiron."

"You… I see..!"

"It's time to silence the smartest one… at least for now."

Nobu sent the star—the arrow shot by Chiron—high in the sky. A huge magic circle formed out of nowhere. The previous [Orion's Moon Hunt] was summoned forth from its traces. He demonstrated the [Spell Continuation] that every high-rank magician could do by reusing a spell's trace to reconstruct it in an instant.

"Dea, Obsigno Faatum." (My goddess, I leave to you my fate.)

Fzzt-!

A similar star fell down from the sky, striking down Chiron. The shockwaves sent everyone in the vicinity flying. By the time the aftermath died down, all that was left was a crater with the unconscious Chiron in it.

"I finally understood it."

With a noticeable smile on his face, he turned to look back to the serious-looking heroic spirits.

"You… You're the one who caused that?"

Nobu turned to look at Atalante.

"Indeed. I am the one whom you assumed to be Orion."

"..."

Her expression turned disappointed as she heard it.

"Lancer."

At this moment, Shirou called out to the floating Karna. The latter gave a brief nod as he understood what was about to happen.

"Saber of Black. You'll be left behind at this rate. Tell that to your master." Karna spoke to the saber.

"...He agreed to it."

"Good."

Despite being enemies, the two shared a common understanding on the battlefield. If they wouldn't go all-out, they wouldn't be able to defeat the mysterious magician in front of their eyes.

Hum-!

From afar, Gordes utilized two of his command seals. Both of them empowered Siegfriend. A surge of power came out of nowhere before enhancing his magical energy as well as the effectiveness of his incoming Noble Phantasm.

Meanwhile…

Click-!

One by one, Karna's armor fell to the ground. All that was left of him is his clothing and the massive divine spear in his hands. The said spear is currently brewing an untold amount of power—one that could easily reach the level of a divine.

Slowly, the temperature of the surroundings rose accordingly.

While the two readied to release their strike, Nobu had long known about the nature of their Noble Phantasms. The moment they decided to reveal it, his privilege as a Ruler worked up. He was able to know about their descriptions with a single look.

'Siegfried's won't be a problem. Karna… a strike from the King of Gods' divine spear?'

Although there are many strong heroic spirits such as Vlad III who acquired a massive buff from being in his land and Atalante who could summon out arrows with Artemis' blessing, no one could match Karna, one of the heroes from Mahabharata.

In one part of the story, he was deceived by his father, Indra, into removing his armor [Kavacha and Kundala]. He disguised as a poor brahmin just to do it.

However, when Karna unhesitantly did it despite knowing he was Indra, the latter's guilty conscience followed. As such, he gave Karna something in exchange—the divine spear which even he couldn't wield properly.

'If cursed techniques could directly manipulate reality without any mediums… if this framework could be applied to magicka…'

Back then, Nobu had already conceptualized an 'automatic barrier' similar to Satoru Gojo's [Limitless]. It was just that the disadvantages of the said technique are rectified in his creation—that is, as long as the attack spanned an 'infinite distance' (i.e., the world), it could be easily bypassed.

It is for such a reason that he merely took a part of it and applied it to his work-in-progress.

'What if…'

He suddenly had a bold idea. It was something he would have never thought of if he hadn't encountered these events in this world.

By the time he completed his plan, he already foresaw the lethal threats in his way. Two lights—one red and one blue—appeared dazzling yet menacing to its target.

Unsurprisingly, everyone had already gotten far away from Nobu, isolating him within a certain range. The Rider of Black, Astolfo, moved swiftly to evacuate those who were near him.

The demonic sword that slayed the evil dragon Fafnir.

The divine lance which even Indra couldn't properly control.

"Balmung!"

"Vasavi Shakti!"

For a moment, everything became still in his eyes. The framework which he built based on Satoru's cursed technique ran.

"A shield that fended off something like Goetia's full-powered strike…"

The unbreakable walls of Camelot stood tall.

*****

I have been a fool.

Ever since I gained a lot of strength, I began to miss more things. These may be small, yes, but one of them could lead to a huge progress… just like now.

If I realized the true nature of cursed techniques… that they aren't fully anchored into mysteries… not even the realm of miracles.

Cursed techniques manipulate reality itself.

They don't rely only on mysteries or miracles but on themselves. Since I tested them in my world with strong mysteries (therefore making miracles possible), this contingent made me misunderstand several things.

Now that I used it on this world with lacking mysteries while being severely restricted by both the wills and the planet-wide [Reality Marble] that [Revelations] told me, it worked just as usual.

While cursed techniques do use up mysteries and miracles to pull off its strength, it worked differently in an environment without the two—just like a person having a different reaction to a natural environment from being in space. Its powers will be lowered, but the "sure-hit" effect remains the same. Maintaining that function alone is shocking compared to most magicka.

In short, I dug up a new use for cursed techniques, or rather, the [Sure-hit] effect it came with. Expanding that aspect applied the "absolute" rule towards anything, much like the concept behind the [Durandal] in Gekai.

With Satoru-san's [Limitless] as the framework, I revamped many details from my automatic defensive magicka… which is now known as [Camelot].

The very first thing that occurred is the nature of "defense".

Hum-!

Fuzz-!

A magic circle shaped like my shield appeared out of nowhere. It didn't let anything pass. It worked just like its original Noble Phantasm version. It originally depended on its wielder's willpower. The stronger it was, the more the attack would be fended off.

It was anchored in [Willpower] to produce a miracle that could block the attack.

But now…

"It's not progressing by an inch."

It is no longer the expansion of space nor the utilization of miracles to do the impossible. [Camelot] directly altered reality and made the attack disappear. It's akin to enforcing the law of entropy with one's own will.

That was how it meant by "absolute protection".

"Huh…"

It didn't take long before it died down… literally. What was even more strange is that it didn't take much toll on my dream organs. Its cost is similar to Satoru-san's exhaustion after using [Domain Expansion] for several times at once.

Soon, I noticed the exhausted heroic spirits who fired the attacks. I could see shock in their eyes when I remained visibly unscathed from their full-powered attacks.

After all, Vasavi Shakti guaranteed the "erasure" of its target. Nothing could stand between the divine lance and its target… except for reality itself.

"You… are a god?"

Karna asked him with a slight jolt in his tone.

"No. Not yet."

"...I see." He replied. "It was a good fight… at least for my side."

Karna's Noble Phantasm was powered up by more than ten command spells, yet all it did was to alter my surroundings indirectly.

Aside from the one I am standing, my radius has been turned to several dozen-meters deep crater.

I could understand why he resigned in such a battle.

'I'm this strong…'

Just as I mused about my strength, I heard Atalante let out a surprised yell.

"AH?!"

I noticed that the shield Achilles left her was long gone.

A red blur blitzed through the battlefield and arrived not far away from me. Before I could even properly react, Achilles' shield, [Akhilleus Kosmos], was thrown in my direction.

Just like that, I faced an entire world.

*****

A/N: Just a little side note. I have seen the limitations of Infinity compared to other ACG powers. Though, it was mostly resulted by Gojo's brain not being actually able to 'perceive' fast enough to 'block' these attacks (i.e., attacks from gods). So, if that aspect became far stronger (the perception), that hacks turns into an even more absurd hack. That's what happened in this arc, thus digging the hidden potential of CE. 

PS: All of the info from that came from the canon (even Gojo's limits too). Y'all could expect Mahoraga's technique being utilized at some point in the future (another hack).