"Penal Battalion's a shithole," Antonio pressed his fingers against his forehead, leaning back on his chair and looking at the ceiling. "It wasn't like this before, don't know what happened to those folks. But I guess ever since the passing of the Golden Age, so did their dignity."
"Hm," Megumi glanced outside the door, where Divine Dog: Totality had knocked them out and taken them to some other place.
"...Hey, are you sure they won't wake up and remember what happened?" Antonio released his hand, sitting up in a better posture. "They'll be on both of our asses if they do."
"I attacked their temporal lobe. I might have overdone it, and their brains could suffer from permanent short—term memory loss—but it doesn't really matter." Megumi shrugged towards the Liberi, "there is no reason to worry about them anymore." This sort of memory tampering technique via physical application was learnt from Gojo Satoru himself.
Can't have too many people being aware of Cursed Spirits, so this sort of thing was done to people who wouldn't 'cooperate' with keeping these sorts of things under wraps. Sure, nobody would believe the civilians who encounter such weird phenomena, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
Using enough force to cause permanent damage or sporadic memory loss was also illegal under Jujutsu Society laws, so there's that.
"Did you really do it?" Antonio glanced at Megumi with a strange expression. "The Church, did you actually—I mean, did what those Penal Battalion members say was true? I can't believe something as absurd as those... those monsters disappearing in one day." His words were a mess.
"I accepted your request on the very same day," Megumi tapped his forehead, "and you saw what I did before, right?" The black haired man was referring to the gigantic werewolf he had summoned to easily dispatch the Penal Battalion members.
"..Fair," Antonio grumbled out, "so what do you want to do next? Get to start making that 'Vajra' of yours?" As much as he didn't want to admit it, the Liberi man had been looking over that blueprint Fushiguro Megumi had made several times over.
It didn't look like a sword, but it sure looked like an Arts staff or an Arts wand, most commonly though, it could be considered a dagger. Maybe it doubled as both an Arts wand and a dagger, Antonio wasn't too sure how these casters liked their Arts Units.
The Vajra from the blueprint looked to be an object with a handle that looked to be about a foot or a little more longer. At both of its ending tips, there were golden curved prongs that acted like spikes at the end, along with a short blade sticking out at both the handles' middle parts, surrounded by the curved prongs.
Overall, it looked to be an extremely fancy looking dual bladed dagger, with the prongs being a spectacular work of art that Antonio would have thought came from a mythological image. Honestly, how did this kid know how to create something as good looking as the blueprint?
Well, everytime the Liberi man watched him sketch, that wheel of his always turned. It was strange, but maybe it was some sort of connection to his brain that made its functions work...? He wasn't a brain doctor, but Antonio could assume as much.
Whatever, it probably didn't matter.
"Do you have any unneeded materials? Ones that are so low-quality that you can't even bear to use them?" Megumi placed on a thinking posture and asked the Liberi man. "I'm going to have at least three practice rounds, and then we'll start with the main course." A small smile appeared on his face.
"...Sure, I'll see what I can bring up," Antonio sighed, "you'd better not screw this up."
"Guide me on the first three, and you won't have to guide me on the main product," Megumi explained to him, waving his hand in the air. "That much I can assure you, with my utmost certainty."
"To hell with that," Antonio shook his head vehemently, "I'm working on the fourth, final, and main product no matter what you say. Can't have you screwing over everything, you Aegir have always been causing problems for Iberia." The last part of his sentence held a joking humor.
"I'm not an Aegir," Megumi crossed his arms, "besides, that's—"
"Racist? Yeah, I know," Antonio shrugged, "it's the only thing they've been preaching across Iberia. Do I care about it, no, I don't at all. Whatever those people believe, I could hardly give a damn anymore." With how much Iberia itself had been screwing itself over, the Liberi wasn't going to discriminate on who to blame.
Not even himself.
"...Okay, how much do I have to pay for this?" Megumi asked.
"Nothing," Antonio spoke without much of an inflection in his voice, "you already got rid of those Church folk, and then you go out here and save my precious Iberian gold. Don't got much I can demand from you, now do I?" A rhetorical question left his lips.
"I see, then let's start," Megumi took off his black haori, taking a glance at his Dharmachakra still laying above his head. With the amount of Cursed Energy he had conserved while sparring with Laurentina—along with the journey to the blacksmith—the Jujutsu Sorcerer was sure he had enough.
Dropping the black haori in a shadow puddle while Antonio was moving to gather the materials and blueprint, Megumi stretched his arms. With his adaptation ready to go into full swing, and his Cursed Energy levels being at a good level, it was time to start.
The sparks of the forge were active, the heat of the furnace emanating at a higher level than before. Scent of burning coal and refined Originium could be heard, leaving an atmosphere that would leave even the most heat-tolerant of men sweating their skin off.
With all cast-iron tools ready to wrought a masterpiece never before seen in Primavera, the two men got to work.
***
The process was simple, or so what Megumi believed was supposed to be simple. But the black haired man had realized time and time again that concepts in theory were far easier to understand than actually putting something into practice. Case in point, attempting to use Reverse Cursed Technique to produce Positive Cursed Energy to heal.
Multiplying a negative with another negative to create a positive was extremely easy to understand, something spanning as far back as elementary school. So when Megumi had learnt that was all that was needed, the young soon-to-be Sorcerer was confident in accomplishing such a thing.
Imagine his disappointment when he couldn't get the feeling for an entire week, with Gojo Satoru poking fun at him for it. Not fun, not fun at all, as anybody would expect it to be. Even the Strongest Sorcerer admitted he had some level of difficulty trying to grasp the feel of RCT and putting it into practice, so Megumi didn't feel too bad.
Now, how about forging a Cursed Tool? Smithing? The Jujutsu Sorcerer could say it was a thousand—no—a million times easier than trying to use Reverse Cursed Technique. Megumi had to use the muscle memory of Ryomen Sukuna, the King of Curses to even understand after all. Along with that, a convenient source known as Round Deer also contributed to it with a near-death experience.
However, that did not mean that forging a Cursed Tool was an easy task in any form, with how much Megumi had struggled to apply things into practice. Antonio was coaching him from the sidelines saying that his understanding of his commands were good, it was just that his application was sub-par.
There laid on the table work bench was a burnt looking piece of metal that barely resembled that of the blueprint, steaming at its seams. Overall, Megumi could confidently say that he completely screwed up his first attempt at creating a Cursed Tool, all the Cursed Energy and Cursed Technique he attempted to imbue being put to misuse.
"The hell is this weird feeling?" Antonio stared at the object, feeling some sort of negative radiance coming off of it. Although he had vaguely sensed the same thing from Fushiguro Megumi, it was most prominent in this hunk of junk that was created.
"Don't know," Megumi shrugged, "how about we try again?" The Jujutsu Sorcerer didn't let this failure perturb him. Why? Because the wheel laid atop his head was twitching, taking in all the vices and failures that the apprentice of healing had made.
KLNK
Perfect rotation, perfect wisdom, perfect experience. All would be known to the Strongest Sorcerer when it would become completed.
***
Progress, that was what Megumi liked the most when training. Progress in Cursed Energy refinement, progress in understanding one's Cursed Technique, and progress in the advancement of physical strength. There was one thing that embodied what had happened with his next attempt, progress.
The material was handled at a better pace. Instead of coming off as a hunk of charred iron or steel, the object retained some sort of shape, only a few singes here and there on the object. Overall, it was definitely far better than the result that had come from last time, but there was something else that made Megumi happy.
Cursed Technique and Cursed Energy imbuement into the object had been successful, a complete contrast to the failure from last time. Although the material making up the base of the pseudo-Cursed Tool (it couldn't even be called an actual Cursed Tool) was destroyed, and couldn't emit the Cursed Techniques he added, Megumi was satisfied.
"...This came out better than I expected, but still—it's a failure." Antonio wiped his forehead with a towel, taking a glance at Megumi. 'Why isn't he sweating? The hell is he even feeling right now?' The neutral expression plastered upon the mysterious man's face was always present, along with that wheel of his.
Strangely enough, there was a slight upwards turn at the corner of his lips, the celestial object perched above his noggin starting to twitch once again. The Liberi man raised an eyebrow, halting his towel wiping to take a clear look at it.
KLNK
A further path to enlightenment, there was something strange with the expression Fushiguro Megumi had now held.
***
Mold, a mold was used to form the Vajra. Surprisingly, Megumi had found out that Antonio had already created a mold for the Vajra on the blueprint, making the process of casting the molten materials inside much easier. When he had asked the Liberi man how long it took, the late middle-aged man simply waved him off.
Apparently, creating a mold such as that was extremely easy, despite the complexity of the Vajra design that the Jujutsu Sorcerer had admittedly copied from what he had read from mythology. But nobody needed to know that, right?
That was besides the point.
The steaming object didn't look as terrible as the previous two results that Megumi and Antonio had made. The pulsating Cursed Energy had spoken of a successful creation, the metal and silver-like sheen cast around the Vajra wasn't the greatest, but it certainly looked like a piece of art.
The shape was on point to the mold and blueprint, having found the perfect heat and temperance needed to make it keep the shape from its superheated form. Megumi was the one responsible for every step, by his own hands while Antonio only instructed him this time, which led to another turn of his wheel in the background.
But staring at this completed object, with a spark of purple electricity emanating from it, Megumi could feel a certain joy boiling up in his chest. After all the failures he had made, and all the bouts of insanity in life-or-death situations, this little moment of mundane creation was... just different and rewarding in its own way.
"Aren't you quite happy?" Antonio stared at the object with a slight glint in his eye, "electricity, huh? This really is an Arts Unit..." the cracks of electricity emitting very vaguely at the tipped ends of the blades was certainly a sight to see.
"You can keep it," Megumi waved his hands in the air, "we're going to get to the finished product, right?" The black haired man held an indomitable grin, a light in his eyes in which Antonio had never seen before.
The Liberi man was about to open his mouth, but found the words dying in the middle of his throat. There had been many stories his father had told him of people who could forge the greatest of weapons, and some his long since passed old man has experienced for himself... and only one word came to his mind.
Genius...
No, Fushiguro Megumi didn't seem to be just a genius. That wheel, that damned divine wheel seemed to spell everything out to him, to Antonio. The middle aged Liberi hadn't experienced the vast stories his father had told him of the Golden Age blacksmiths, but he believed that he was witnessing all those stories gathered into one at the moment...
Monster...
Fushiguro Megumi wasn't just a genius, he was an absolute monster. No amount of progress could be made in such a short amount of time, no amount of physical nor mental stability from smithing in this sort of heat should be stable... Yet the person in front of him had completely destroyed such predetermined notions Antonio had believed.
A complete and utter monster...
KLNK
***
What stood against wisdom, what was its antithesis and its opposite? As order is to chaos what peace is to war, then so is enlightenment to ignorance. The supreme state of the mind which stood above all else, standing at a territory which transcended the mortal realm in its magnificence.
To cut through ignorance, that was the philosophy of a Vajra, to slay the sinners who dared stand upon the Earth with their two feet. Delusions were rampant in the world, and so did those who exploit such delusions with their ignorance and invoke chaos exist as those who needed to be struck down.
They were all demons in their own right, and so one tool would be used as the supreme solution to eradicate them in a martial way. An all-powerful tool which could summon lightning powerful enough to cut through such ignorance and delusion that plagued the mortal plane.
Antonio stared at the steaming golden object emitting an iridescent irradiance, one that invaded every single part of the room. It was intense, far too intense for his eyes to even comprehend. Shielding it with his head, the Liberi man desperately attempted to peer through it, to see the whole process through.
An aureate permeance was what he saw, the crackling of golden-white electricity spreading across the cooling object. Beside it stood Fushiguro Megumi, the black haired man narrowing his eyes with his hand extended forward. There was a great deal of focus in his eyes, one absolutely unmatched compared to anybody else the Liberi had seen before.
Despite his pride, despite his ignorance, Antonio couldn't help but swallow deeply. There was nothing he could say to save his face in such a sight, this single young man who had only been smithing failure after failure had completely surpassed him in every single right. To put it into his own perspective, the ignorance which the late middle-aged man held deep within was cleaved straight in half.
Irrefutable, the majestic and grand sight in front of him was absolutely irrefutable. All Antonio could do was take it in, burn it deep into his mind at the forging of a Heavenly and abstract tool which he could barely comprehend—barely comprehend how it had come into existence in such a way.
The pounding rain outside no longer mattered, nor did the creeping terror that came alongside it. This single divine sight had left a calming impression, despite the intensity in which its unbearable heat gave off.
A twitching, something that Antonio had seen four times now. The twitching of that blasted wheel which laid above Fushiguro Megumi's head, the object that glowed a greater light than even the object being forged in front of him... greater than the energy which had completely dominated the room.
KLNK
The sound of a celestial machination's cog being turned was heard alongside the rattling wood clashing against itself.
A process of adaptation, one that encompassed all laws of the universe. Perhaps Antonio was starting to have a grasp of what he was witnessing, as his eyes seemed to be lost in the light permeating all across.
A masterpiece, a magnum opus... or was this something that had surpassed such concepts? The Liberi man wished he knew.
Megumi felt his hand and arm burn, the coursing golden thunder filled with an empyreal ivory sparkled across his limb. It was starting to hurt and burn, far more intensely than when he was hit by the purple flames of his own Incinerator. Why was that so? Because he couldn't even focus on Cursed Energy reinforcement.
To create a Cursed Tool with the perfect process, all attention needed to be put into creating the object in front of him, imbuing the Cursed Technique, and enhancing it with a permanent mark of Cursed Energy. His own Cursed Energy, both serving to make it more powerful, and to mark the weapon as his own.
Therefore, the feeling of flaking skin, ripping flesh, tearing muscle, and draining of Cursed Energy forced Megumi to grit his teeth.
It was worth it, the results that came out of this heated battle was going to be worth it. Fushiguro Megumi continued to reason this in his mind, as the high temperatures started to finally get to him.
A shift in body temperature, his brain firing off neurons to get the other processes of his body to cool it down, in the form of sweat and many other activities happening.
Moving his other hand to surround the Vajra encompassed in a golden glow, Megumi let out a gritty sound from out his teeth, his focus starting to somewhat wane. Right after, a small breath left his lips, attempting to let a calming sensation enter his body, and release the pain that he was feeling.
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Feel calm... breathe in, and then out. There was no need to stress himself over such a worldly affliction, and neither would he be swayed by such a foolish thing.
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Now that was much better, Megumi could feel everything leave his body at once. His Cursed Technique applications, his Cursed Energy, and all the adrenaline that had built up. There was an inner-peace forming inside and drifting about, something the black haired man vaguely enjoyed.
However, at the same time, a lingering stroke of death graced his cheek, as if beckoning him to fall into its endless grasp. With the risk of attempting to create a Cursed Tool with hardly any experience and only adaptation, the Jujutsu Sorcerer was starting to realize his limits...
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...His limits that would obviously be surpassed!
KLNK
The fifth and final rotation was completed, the full adaptation of the Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General becoming one with his body itself.
Fushiguro Megumi shot his eyes wide open, returning back to the place that he was familiar with, before reaching his hand through the orb that had formed around his newly forged Cursed Tool.
It popped like a bubble, the golden and transparent sheen immediately breaking off and shattering into a million sparkles and motes of transcendent lights. The nascent shell had been removed and it had entered its next phase:
Completion.
Shadow Extension: Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga
Shadow Extension: Chimera Beast Agito
Those two Shikigamis made up the Cursed Techniques that had been imbued in this object oozing with grandeur. With Nue: Totality possessing such a colossal size that it could tear apart city-blocks, becoming enhanced by Tiger Funeral and Round Deer—it was unmatched even by Sea Dragon Mizuchi.
The fact that Nue was the base also contributed to such a fact. The Totality had been formed when he had the Shikigamis strike himself, pre-planned before he had entered a smith. Ah, Binding Vow loopholes, wasn't it just amazing?
Taking another glance at the Cursed Tool in his hands, a euphoric sensation entered Fushiguro Megumi. A serene silence came along with his admiration of the Cursed Tool, something that could be considered Special Grade, made within a single day.
With Mahoraga's addition to this Heavenly Vajra, Megumi was sure that the golden-white electricity emitting from this Cursed Tool would be able to adapt to the defenses of his enemies, becoming stronger every time it struck somebody.
...Oh, he felt dizzy, did his wheel turn off?
'Shit.'
Megumi fell over and fainted.