End

The darkness curse burst out of the ground, its form reinvigorated, appearing as good as new.

Suddenly, his curse energy erupted forth like lava from a volcano, spreading out into the surroundings, suffusing itself into the ground, the rubble, and the very air itself. Darkness spread itself out, appearing like the darkened nights devoid of stars and the moon, like a void that sucked in everything around itself to curve space.

The eyes of every sorcerer present widened in surprise, turning into the diameter of needles.

Homura who had landed next to the darkness quickly retreated back, lightning flashing across his feet that melted the ground as he dashed across it.

In the blink of an eye, he retreated a full 100 meters back into the rubble, crashing across multiple structures as he did so.

Abenanka hummed a melodious tune. A fluttering orange fire burned across the rubble all over the battlefield, then turning into a blazing pyre that covered every single sorcerer behind it, shielding them from the onslaught of the darkness that couldn't even be seen.

The invisible force of darkness that rushed across the land crashed into the orange burning flames, ripping them apart. The flames stood strong, shielding the ones behind it from an unknown opponent.

Crash!

Homura walked out of the rubble, his mouth filled with blood that dripped down like a fountain of crimson red. His clothes were stained with blood, completely covering him with a deep red hue. It seemed as if he had walked out of an unseen war with injuries that might as well render any other warrior dead on the ground.

"Homura!" Natsuhiko yelled out in concern.

"I'm fine! Take care of the curse!" He yelled with fervor and resolution.

Shuichi grimaced at his words. He had scanned the man's wounds with his Records of Tenjin, and what he saw was definitely not pretty. His lungs were badly damaged, with the damage spreading like corruption towards his heart and other soft organs.

"Natsuhiko-san!" He yelled and threw his sword towards him.

Natsuhiko effortlessly turned in the air and caught the blade, the steel bursting into flames just a moment after. With a gaze of steel, he sliced through the air.

The flames spread ahead, burning through the air and the curse it carried like a spark lighting up oil.

Shuichi dashed towards Homura's sorry looking figure. On the other side, all of the sorcerers, with the air and the ground cleared of the darkness curse's power rushed straight at the curse.

The curse, seeing the rapidly approaching figures of its pursuers, began to undergo a change.

It's preciously giant body shrunk down, vibrating incessantly like a plucked string. Then, a humane scream echoed across the horizons.

Boom!

A deafening explosion rung out in the area, throwing away the surrounding buildings and crushing all the remaining architecture in the compound. Just with the single strike, 30% of the entire compound had been utterly crushed by the curse.

At the other side, Shuichi shielded himself and Homura with the Shogun's funeral Bell, and rapidly performed reverse cursed technique on him.

"You... you can use reverse cursed technique?" He asked in wonder.

Shuichi smiled in response. Then, as Homura got healed, he pulled something out from his inventory.

It was a small paper, rectangular in size and red in colour. It was various Kanji symbols inscribed onto it, emitting a powerful aura.

With a deranged smile, he patted the paper right onto Homura's back.

"That's the Benzaiten's Golden Sutra*, a tool I made down there." He explained. "It holds power to concentrate strength through movement and rhythmic vibrations of the Universe. Meaning, as long as it is kept equipped, it constantly absorbs the surrounding rest frequencies of the outside world and concentrates their strength." Shuichi continued to explain seeing Homura listening on intently.

Boom! Explosions rang out in the background.

"It's main power comes in it's ability to generate and exponentially increase the power of cursed techniques through the power absorbed. Meaning, as long as enough strength can be stored, anything can be one shotted." He finished with a toothy grin.

Homura didn't say anything. He too flashed a hearty smile.

A gigantic pillar of light extended in the distance, turning the surroundings into a light show.

Homura dashed out without further delay, rushing headfirst into the fray.

Shuichi stood still for a moment before pulling something from his inventory.

In his hands emerged a small wheel like object, completely golden in colour. It had a circular form and rough edges with a single hole in the middle.

He put the wheel like object on his index finger. It began to spin around.

It was the Sudarshanchakra**!

A curse tool he had made previously through an entire 2 days worth of time!

It had a single cursed technique inscribed on it, something he named golden rule.

By its virtue, anything exchanged through the Sudarshanchakra would be met by power returns of several folds. The larger the value of the thing sacrificed, the greater the multiplication on power.

To put it into simpler terms, let's say one sacrifices cursed energy worth 1 point. The chakra would give the other party a multiple worth 3 points. And if the person sacrificed something like 10 points, the multiple would be something like 700!

It was rightly deemed, by Shuichi himself, as his strongest cursed tool, solely for it's ability to end most if not all fights almost instantaneously.

However, the price it took to use would almost certainly render him unable to continue through with the fight, which was a large drawback when fighting against multiple opponents.

Pulling it out and adorning it on his left index finger, Shuichi dashed into the flurry of explosions, light and fire, mixed in with occasional bursts of a dark light flashing.

A bright light descended from the sky, emveloping the curse within it.

Dark tendrils extended from the void, tying themselves tightly around Gabimaru and Natuhiko.

The sound of bones breaking rang out as the dark tendrils enveloped them.

Seeing the darkness closing in on the other sorcerers, Shuichi yelled Homura's name, calling him out.

Homura's eyes turned to him, seeing him nod.

Homura nodded in response and both turned simultaneously towards the curse.

Abenanka's flames burned the entire battlefield in an orange pyre, burning cursed energy itself.

Shuichi and Natsuhiko dashed towards the curse who still looked to be in prime condition.

Throwing a kick, Shuichi staggered the curse for a moment, only for it to be hit my lightning from the side.

Grrrrrrr!

Homura appeared right before the curse, piercing it with a lightning spear. The curse punched back in response towards his chest, an attack which was blocked by his arms.

A flurry of attacks went through, both of the opposing parties, Shuichi and Homura in front of the darkness curse battled it out, sending Shockwave across the battlefield. The darkness tendrils didn't slow down one bit, spreading out further and further, enveloping even Abenanka within them, leaving only Edward Horrowitz as the last sorcerer, barring Shuichi and Homura.

Shuichi held a wild smile on his face as he threw fist after fist, each carrying larger quantities of cursed energy than the last. He could feel himself adapting, getting stronger and faster with each exchange, changing his very fundamental self to evolve into something far greater than he could perceive.

His eyesight turned sharper, his hearing turned stronger, his muscles screamed out in relish, and his mind turned tranquil as if there was nothing else that mattered in the fight more than to punch the other party.

He didn't know at which point, but he found himself laughing like a maniac amid the blood filled brawl of fists laced with lightning and darkness.

Suddenly, he heard Homura yell, "It's time!"

Shuichi jumped back, the chakra in hid hand shining with the golden shimmer of the morning sun. His eyes light up with excitement, overjoyed at having the opportunity to test out his mightiest cursed tool on an actual living opponent.

Homura adopted a stance, lightning blazing all over his body. His eyes glazed over, filled with a blue shimmer out of which lightning overflowed like water out of a tap. From the perception of an onlooker, it seemed as if he had become lightning itself. At that moment, the paper on his back, inscribed with various Kanji letters glowed in a malevolent red tinge.

Grrrrrrr!

Boom!

Lightning enveloped the compound like an ocean of power, turning the entire battlefield into a sea of plasma among which three acolytes of power still stood strong and beside them snakes of white blue heat curled and danced around in the air.

Shuichi, at that exact moment after the paper was activated, too activated the Sudarshanchakra!

With a mental command through the Records of Tenjin, he sacrificed 90% of his cursed energy!

And then, there was light.

Golden light all around, as if they had just stepped into the deepest corners of Heavens where Angels sang around and clouds danced with the templar spirits. And shimmering disc bathed in gold floated above Shuichi's head, ready to be unleashed at any moment.

"Go!!!" He yelled with all his might and threw the golden disc towards the darkness curse.

Homura, also having charged up his attack materialized a spear of pure lightning, travelling at 1/3rd the speed of light!

However, just a moment before they were released, they heard the malevolent words of the curse; words that would instill deep despair into the hearts of the opponent.

"Domain expansion..." The voice seemed still, standing in contrast to the rough, extremely fast paced fight they had went through. It even gave the illusion that the speaker was on a light stroll through a garden, telling passing gossip to it's fellow acquaintances.

And as their attacks left their hands, darkness overtook them.

"Anyeṣām Andhakārah***!" The voice sounded again, this time seemingly from all around them.

Shuichi felt as if he didn't exist. As if everything that had happened, is happening and will happen was all a lie, a sweat dream in the ever present darkness that is and is and is to exist.

He could not feel, he could not think. Hell, he did not even know if was still there.

Just then, his eyesight returned, not by a wide margin, but enough to see faint glimpses of the curse and Homura who were trapped in the domain.

"This is my domain. Anything trapped in here will have complete deprivation of all living processes, thoughts, desires, feelings and even sense of existence." The darkness spread out its hands as if proclaiming a great doctrine.

"In this domain, as long as one steps inside, they are as good as dead. As no conscious, unconscious or non-conscious action can be performed here!" He declared.

Shuichi tried to activate his simple domain, only to realize that he couldn't.

Shit! Although my sense of thought and feeling has returned, I can't perform any conscious actions still! He cursed in his heart.

Just as he felt as if it was all over, something snapped.

Crash!

Shatter!

A faint light, coming from somewhere infinitely up above, or perhaps somewhere close by.

Someone jumped inside, speaking something.

"Simple Domain Modification: Gyan Mudra!" The voice yelled. And then, Shuichi felt all his functions return back to his body.

Huff! Huff!

He huffed, taking in breaths that he didn't know he was holding in.

He looked towards their saviour. It was Arjun Patel, the Indian sorcerer, holding his hands into a gyan mudra and supporting a simple domain that shielded them from the domain's sure hit.

Shuichi quickly scanned all around, 'seeing' the presence of their attacks stuck in the darkness, as if frozen in time.

So even conducted actions will have their existence ceased... Shuichi thought grimly.

"What happened to the attacks?" Homura asked, having caught his breath.

"They're stuck in the domain like we were. Although your attack isn't capable of self adjusting, my attack can still land, I can adjust it's direction if we can shatter the domain!" Shuichi yelled out.

Shuichi could indeed alter the pre determined direction of the chakra through the Records of tenjin. However, doing so was incredibly energy consuming and not so practical when took into condition the fact that the speed of the chakra was well above what almost any sorcerer or curse could dodge, easily reaching Mach 30.

Homura's gaze turned grim.

"Then we'll have to destroy his domain, is that it?" He asked.

The darkness curse looked on, as if in amusement.

Shuichi took his battle stance.

However, something unexpected happened.

The domain which has enveloped them all around, shattered into a million pieces!

[The outside barrier of the domain, like almost every other domain was incredibly prone to attacks. And having shifted it's attention to the domain and the ones caught inside, the darkness curse let go of the ones it captured outside.]

[Naturally, Abenanka, Gabimaru, Natsuhiko and Edward all colluded together to destroy the barrier in one fell swoop, right after Aryan descended into the domain!]

Shuichi's eyes widened, not having expected the domain breaking.

And it seemed that neither did the curse, as it staggered to the ground, its cursed energy weakening.

Without missing even a millisecond, Shuichi dialed his perception limit to the maximum and directed the chakra right towards it.

Whoooooooooooooosh!!!!!!

Boooooooooommmmm!

A gigantic explosion rang out, kicking up dush and wisps of cursed energy.

The surroundings calmed down for a moment.

"Is it dead?" Edward asked from the side.

Shaaaaa!

Shouldn't have jinxed it! Shuichi lampooned in his heart as he saw the dust getting cleared by an unknown force.

However, from the rubble and dust, emerged the sorry figure of the curse.

It was almost completely obliterated, its lower body gone and most of its right torso also destroyed. It's antlers were broken and only shallow stumps remained in their place.

Shuichi's eyes shined, and so did everyone else's.

Then, Shuichi, Aryan and Homura who were the closest to the curse dashed out, the ground beneath their feet cracking.

The air gathered around Shuichi, the remaining cursed tools in the air.

Aryan and Homura also cocked their fists back in unison.

Then, reaching the curse at the same time, they all punched.

Black Flash!

Black Flash!

Black Flash!

Three great flashes of black lightning appeared, and then, the curse vanished, disintegrating into thin air.

[Your experience has been filled!]

[You have gained a level!]

[You have gained a level!]

[You have gained a level!]

[You have gained a level!]

[You have gained a level!]

[You have gained a level!]

[You have gained a level!]

[You have gained a level!]

[For levelling up 8 times, you have gained 80 skill points!]

{[Status]} [Skill Tree] [Inventory]

[Name: Zenin Shuichi

Level: 29

Class: Sorcerer

Cursed Techniques: Cursed Heart; Hard to Kill; Hundred Armament Refining

Innate Skills: Cursed Technique Creation; Corrupted Mind

Skill Points: 198]

~~~

Benzaiten's Golden Sutra*: Benzaiten (shinjitai: 弁才天 or 弁財天; kyūjitai: 辯才天, 辨才天, or 辨財天, lit. "goddess of eloquence", Benten, Chinese: 辯才天, Biancaitian) is an East Asian Buddhist goddess (technically a Dharmapala, "Dharma protector") who originated mainly from the Hindu Indian Saraswati, goddess of speech, the arts, and learning. Worship of Benzaiten arrived in Japan during the sixth through eighth centuries, mainly via Classical Chinese translations of the Golden Light Sutra (Sanskrit: Suvarṇaprabhāsa Sūtra), which has a section devoted to her.[1] Benzaiten was also adopted into Shinto religion, and there are several Shinto shrines dedicated to her.

Sudarshanchakra**: The Sudarshana Chakra (Sanskrit: सुदर्शनचक्र, IAST: Sudarśanacakra) is a divine discus, attributed to Vishnu in the Hindu scriptures.[1] The Sudarshana Chakra is generally portrayed on the right rear hand of the four hands of Vishnu, who also holds the Panchajanya (conch), the Kaumodaki (mace), and the Padma (lotus). In the Rigveda, the Sudarshana Chakra is stated to be Vishnu's symbol as the wheel of time.[3] The discus later emerged as an ayudhapurusha (an anthropomorphic form), as a fierce form of Vishnu, used for the destruction of demons. As an ayudhapurusha, the deity is known as Chakraperumal or Chakratalvar.

Anyeṣām Andhakārah***: Anyeṣāṁ means "of others" or "of other people." Andhakāraḥ means "darkness". So, (anyeṣāṁ andhakāraḥ) captures the essence of the phrase "darkness of other people."

~~~

A/N: Apologies for the late chapter. Anyway, in a couple of chapters, the star plasma vessel arc will he beginning. So stay tuned for that.

Also, throw some stones.

Cheers~~~