Chapter 222: Kenjaku: I Should Have Known Cursed Spirits Couldn't Be Trusted
The reason shikigami are called shikigami is, of course, because they are not independent lifeforms, but entities that rely entirely on the support of the caster's cursed energy to persist. Therefore, in a strict sense, shikigami are not true lives but merely temporary summoned objects.
After using lava to trap Mahoraga at least dozens of meters deep into the subsoil and moving completely away from the original combat site with Fushiguro Megumi, Jogo naturally and logically assumed that Mahoraga, unable to receive cursed energy support, had been forced to dispel its technique.
At that point, Jogo believed these brats had completely lost their means of restraining it head-on. Having been tricked once, it was impossible for Jogo to give them another chance to summon a powerful shikigami.
However, what it completely failed to expect was that the Mahoraga buried beneath the earth had not been forcibly dispelled. Instead, it had taken advantage of that time to climb bit by bit out of the subsoil that was almost entirely filled with lava...
Wait, even so, it seemed too much of a coincidence. How could a shikigami act independently of the sorcerer's commands? Could it be that the whole time...?!!
Finally realizing something was wrong, Jogo snapped its head toward Fushiguro Megumi's direction. Only then did it understand why the boy had been merely directing orders without moving a single inch, nor taking the opportunity to use his other bizarre techniques.
It turned out this fellow had been focusing entirely on maintaining the connection with the trapped shikigami while simultaneously calculating Jogo's own movement trajectory. These things were easy to figure out after they happened, but during the heat of battle, one could be kept entirely in the dark.
Even with Jogo's rich combat experience and decisiveness, it still failed to realize such a scheme.
"Surprised, Cursed Spirit? My shadow shikigami are different from usual ones; the essence of the shikigami can even exist independently of the sorcerer.
As of now, the Mahoraga that has crawled back out of the lava has completely adapted to your technique. What are you going to do now?"
In normal summoning arts, the shikigami's persistence is entirely dependent on the jujutsu sorcerer.
However, the [Ten Shadows Technique] is a freak of its own: not only does the sorcerer need to rely on their own strength to exorcise the shikigami, but the shikigami within the exorcism ritual does not consume the sorcerer's cursed energy.
Fushiguro Megumi didn't even know where the cursed energy maintaining these shadow shikigami came from, but after he successfully learned the "Yu-Gi-Oh style" application of [Binding Vows], his summoned shikigami had gained an additional cursed energy subsidy.
Historically, members of the Zen'in family were troubled by the exorcism ritual itself, but Fushiguro Megumi had flipped the script.
He borrowed cursed energy from an unknown existence to maintain his shikigami's persistence—and it was the kind of loan he never intended to repay.
Otherwise, relying solely on himself, how could he possibly maintain the simultaneous existence of so many shikigami?
"Curse you... you're just a few brats...!!!"
Jogo tried to struggle free from Mahoraga's restraint, but instead, it was slowly dragged back down by Mahoraga, who was using its strength to climb out of the lava. Jogo, who had always appeared quite violent, now looked somewhat pathetic and battered.
It wasn't that it was wallowing in the sensation of defeat, but rather it could not understand, for the life of it, why its powerful self—a cursed spirit—was being pushed to this extent by a few wet-behind-the-ears human brats.
Calculating by human concepts of time, it had lived for nearly five hundred years. The number of jujutsu sorcerers it had seen and killed was countless. While humans learn quickly, even an exceptionally talented sorcerer should at least be in their thirties or forties before having the ability to contend with it.
These brats... the time they had spent learning jujutsu was at most a few years, and one of them hadn't even reached two months... why were such green children able to struggle with it to this degree!
Even in the concepts of the jujutsu world, isn't the accumulation of time particularly important?
Those ancient jujutsu families would directly call ordinary sorcerers without background "laymen" or even more insulting names.
The reason these guys could become so exaggerated was definitely not because of their own accumulation, but the result of someone teaching them wantonly.
As expected, these brats kept shouting "Emiya-sensei, Emiya-sensei" because that man had given them such abnormal guidance and confidence... Just how on earth does that guy teach his students?!
One must realize that the strength of an individual and having the means to pass that strength down are two completely different concepts. Just like in those Xianxia works: a cultivation method that can only be used by a specific person versus a supreme path that countless people can follow—which is stronger is obvious.
No matter how strong Gojo Satoru is, he is just one person. He has no way to pass his strength down. Cursed spirits could even use the despicable method of simply outliving him until he dies of old age to solve the problem.
Therefore, Gojo Satoru's dozen-plus years in education hadn't yielded results as substantial or exaggerated as Emiya's two months.
Teaching students is indeed a matter of talent, and Gojo Satoru happened to lack that talent entirely.
As long as Emiya has the ability to pass down this teaching method and its results, the combat power of the "reformist faction" will only continue to swell until it completely changes the situation of the jujutsu world. If Jogo, theoretically the highest natural combat power the cursed spirits could produce, could only struggle to respond, ordinary Special Grade spirits would surely be even more miserable.
"You're right... the future of the jujutsu world belongs to us 'brats.' As for an obstinate stain like you?"
Fushiguro Megumi wasn't originally one to brag, but he believed that since he had become Emiya-sensei's student, he had to live up to the teacher's meticulous guidance. Perhaps Emiya himself didn't care for glory, but as a student, Fushiguro felt it necessary to fulfill his duty. He couldn't remain a mediocre person after receiving such a favor.
"Of course, you'll just be cleaned up once and for all!"
"Stop talking big to me!"
"Mahoraga!!!"
Shouting aloud, Jogo slammed its palms against the ground, making the entire melted earth surge with waves like the ocean, while countless fire pillars erupted wildly along with the air currents.
But in response, Fushiguro Megumi's heart-wrenching shout steadily overpowered Jogo's voice. Having finally received the command to attack, Mahoraga immediately raised the hand growing the Sword of Extermination and slashed down fiercely at Jogo, who was being restrained by its other hand.
SQUELCH—!
The sound of tearing flesh rang out, but it wasn't the Sword of Extermination tearing into Jogo's waist. Instead, Jogo had proactively severed its own right leg at this perilous moment.
Because Jogo knew very well: if it were wounded by the Sword of Extermination, it would completely lose the possibility of recovering its body in a short time, and likewise lose the slim chance of achieving victory in the battle.
Rather than that, it chose to decisively sever its own leg. Though pathetic, it still left a glimmer of hope to recover its flesh and turn the tide.
In a flash, Jogo's figure reappeared dozens of meters away from Mahoraga, with foul-smelling blood dripping continuously from the stump of its right leg. If it managed to survive this, it would likely have a psychological trauma regarding Mahoraga.
Pant, pant, pant...
Breathing heavily, Jogo continuously exhaled hot air, trying to restore its physical state to normal, but it simply couldn't do it in the short term. When "curses" materialize into spirits, they are likewise subject to the limitations of the physical world. Even if they don't possess conventional organs, they must follow the rules of injury and depletion.
They don't even need [Reverse Cursed Technique]; they can directly use the cursed energy within their bodies to restore themselves. This is an advantage, but also a drawback. Cursed energy, being negative energy, can easily cause malignant growths in flesh during restoration, requiring the spirit to have excellent control and sufficient experience.
Given Jogo's currently un-ideal state, doing such a thing was clearly impossible. If no further accidents occurred, the battle reaching this stage could basically be declared over. At this moment, the only thing Jogo could do was flee decisively. But because Dagon was still trapped within its own Domain, it was impossible for Jogo to actually do so...
"..."
Jogo, who had always been confident in its strength, finally felt powerless and despairing.
Right at this moment—whether it should be called lucky or unlucky—Jogo suddenly heard a voice it was exceptionally familiar with:
"I should have known long ago that cursed spirits simply can't be trusted... Fortunately, your sacrifices weren't entirely useless.
Thanks to Dagon's Domain, otherwise it would have been difficult for me to appear here at this time..."
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