Olga Marie Animusphere's eyes shot wide open.
The first thing she felt was air–cold, damp, unfamiliar–dragging into her lungs like she hadn't breathed in hours. The second was pain, sharp and bright in her chest, before it flickered out completely.
She jolted upright with a gasp.
"Director!"
Mash's voice cracked as she surged forward, nearly tackling the just-awakened woman. The twins followed right after her.
Roman's hologram blipped before his voice came through–
"DIRECTOR!? OLGA!? CAN YOU HEAR ME–"
Olga flinched at the volume, wincing as she pressed a trembling hand to her temple.
"What… what happened…?" she croaked. Even her own voice sounded wrong–hoarse, raw, scraped thin.
Mash looked like she was seconds from crying.
"You're safe now," Mash said softly. "H-He–uh, Sukuna–he healed you."
Her eyes finally adjusted to the dim bunker light.
And then she saw him.
A man in tattered clothes, blood spotting him everywhere yet standing perfectly fine. Flexing his right hand as if testing a joint. His index finger still faintly steaming.
He raised a hand in a lazy half-wave.
"Yo. Welcome back from the dead."
Olga froze.
A very human reaction.
Her survival instincts kicked hard–eyes widening, posture snapping upright. She scrambled back until she hit the wall. Mash crouched beside her, steadying her shoulder.
"D-Don't be afraid, Director," Mash said quickly. "He's… he's agreed to help us. I think."
"That is a very generous interpretation," came a dry voice.
Olga turned sharply to see a blue-robed man leaning against the wall, cracking open a can of beer like this was all routine.
Sukuna snorted as he approached him. "Not inaccurate."
Roman's projection darted around the screen frantically.
"Director, PLEASE tell me if you feel anythings wrong! The scanners show your body is stable after–whatever procedure that man did–but your heartbeat's spiking–WAIT, WHY IS THERE STILL A PATCH OF SILVER IN YOUR HAIR–?!"
Olga grabbed a strand of hair–her eyes widening further when she saw the thin streak of silver-grey woven through the white.
"What… What happened to me?"
Ritsuka stepped forward, steadying his nerves.
"You, uh… got hit by that mon–berserker," he gulped. "Pretty hard. You–uh, you almost died."
Gudako nodded rapidly beside him. "Like, actually died. If it wasn't for Caster pulling you out of the water."
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Olga turned toward the sound–Mash's tears dripping onto the floor, guilt clawed across her face.
"I-I'm so sorry, Director… I wasn't strong enough to–"
"Stop," Olga's voice cracked but held firm. "Do-Don't apologize. You must have done all–"
Her eyes widened.
The memories hit her all at once.
Standing on the bridge. She had just finished making the summoning circle when he appeared. This hulking mass of grey. She remembered how Mash had stood ahead of them, trying to stop the giant in what turned out to be a futile effort.
How after it swatted Mash, it turned to her.
Those menacing red-eyes, that smile on its face as the monster swung his hand towards her.
The brief, blinding pain–
"There's no need to apologise," Olga whispered. "I remember. You did everything you could."
Mash's breath hitched.
For a moment–the room softened.
Then Sukuna ruined it.
"Well, technically I saved your life," he said, shrugging. "You were already halfway to becoming a curse-human hybrid by the time I looked at you."
"Sukuna!" Ritsuka yelped, scandalized.
"What?" Sukuna deadpanned. "Accuracy matters."
Cu snorted loudly into his drink.
Sukuna ignored him entirely.
His eyes locked onto Olga again–sharper this time. Measuring.
He wasn't trying to appear hostile.
But he wasn't trying to appear gentle, either.
"You're lucky," he said plainly. "While this 2-bit caster could pause your body, he couldn't do shit towards fixing the problem. Fixing you was simple enough. What interests me is–"
Sukuna paused.
He lifted his head slightly.
As if something tugged at the edge of his senses.
"This energy…"
Cu noticed instantly. "...You feel that, huh?"
Sukuna only responded with a low hum.
Roman's hologram flickered. "What–? What's happening–?"
Sukuna rolled his shoulders once, loosening them.
"Your Berserker," he muttered, voice dropping low.
"He's coming."
-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-
As Sukuna stepped out of the stairway and into the cold night air, he couldn't help replaying the last few minutes in his mind.
----------
"Your Berserker," he muttered, voice dropping low. "He's coming."
For a moment, the entire safehouse had gone still.
Then? Pandemonium. Olga's breath had hitched into a full panic attack, Mash froze with her shield half-raised, the twins jolted, and Roman's hologram immediately started screaming into Ritsuka's watch. Sukuna felt the spike of the Director's panic rolling off her in waves–loud enough that even without seeing her, he could feel it.
But none of that was the real problem.
----------
The moment he stepped onto the street, he broke into a sprint.
Just as he felt Cu's bounded fields disappear behind him, he heard it.
ROOOOAR!
The sound rattled the streetlights.
He veered around a shattered corner–just as a massive shape flickered past an alleyway. Heracles was close. Very close.
----------
While the group scrambled in a panic, Cu had stepped up to him, expression tight but not surprised.
"I can feel him getting closer and closer. Pretty sure it was that little show you put on–y'know, with that curse-ball thing–that pulled him right here."
"So your bounded field couldn't even hide that much, huh?" Sukuna smirked. "What an outstanding caster you are."
"Har-har," Cu shot back. "How was I supposed to know you'd flash half your damn power for even a second? That 'Uzumaki' thing–maybe warn the guy maintaining the walls next time?"
----------
Sukuna could hardly argue. A split second of uncontrolled output was more than enough to punch a hole in any bounded field not built specifically to contain a calamity.
He passed another alleyway–caught a glimpse of Berserker's massive silhouette–and instantly accelerated.
"Anyway," Cu said, scratching his cheek, "he's sniffing around alleyways. He'll cross the boundary any second. Once that happens–"
"He comes straight to us." Sukuna finished.
Cu nodded grimly.
"And I really don't have to spell out how bad fighting him underground would be. One wrong swing, and that bunker becomes a tomb."
Sukuna hummed.
"That's not even considering them–" Sukuna jerked his chin back toward the group, where the twins had barely managed to calm Olga down.
"They'll be a liability. If the kid had already summoned someone, maybe they'd stand a chance of surviving. But as they are–"
"They'd die," Cu finished. And they both knew he wasn't exaggerating.
"And someone," Sukuna added, rolling his shoulders, "needs to stay behind to clean up the mess. Explain things. Keep them from dying of panic."
Cu snorted.
"Yeah, yeah…I'll babysit. But I'll be right behind you once the kid summons someone. Don't hog all the fun."
Sukuna strode toward the exit–only to feel Cu's hand clamp onto his shoulder. He turned.
Cu held out a fist.
Right… the contract.
With a quiet smirk, Sukuna bumped his knuckles against Cu's.
Light flared between them–an invisible bond forming, a Masterless Servant tethering himself to the biggest battery he'd ever seen.
And then Sukuna was gone.
----------
He rocketed down the broken street just as the final building between them collapsed outward from sheer pressure.
The two monsters met eyes.
Sukuna skidded to a halt–sandals grinding into asphalt, force cratering the ground beneath him.
Heracles mirrored him, jamming his massive stone-like blade into the road for leverage. The force cracked the pavement like glass.
The world froze.
For a heartbeat, they watched each other.
Waiting.
Sukuna grinned as he raised his hand.
Heracles lifted his blade, stance widening.
Pause.
Sukuna swung his hand sideways–
–and the pavement simply ceased to exist.
Hundreds of invisible cuts carved the world apart. Dust exploded into the air. Heracles' skin split in dozens of shallow lines as the slashes hit him.
Sukuna darted forward through the haze, aiming his first strike–
Then his eyes widened.
The wounds were shallow. Barely scratches.
Heracles moved.
Sukuna ducked under the oncoming blade and drove a fist into the giant's torso–
CLANG!
The sound was wrong.
The feeling was worse.
What!? Why did that feel like hitting a steel wall!?
Heracles backhanded, the air howling as Sukuna flipped backward to dodge. The giant didn't give him space. It charged–legs cracking the road beneath it.
With all his might, Berserker pushed off the ground, attempting to strike Sukuna, yet he seemed slower… No, it would be more accurate to say that Sukuna had become faster.
Sukuna's eyes narrowed as he tried to analyze what exactly happened.
He leapt sideways, planting a foot against the corner of a ruined building, then launched himself back toward Heracles' head. The giant followed, blade sweeping upward–
–and struck nothing.
Sukuna had jump-stepped off the air, twisting above the swing to get a better angle.
Heracles turned, readying another blow–
And Sukuna finally understood.
Right. GODHAND. That damn Noble Phantasm.
The giant raised its blade, guarding just as Sukuna descended. His leg crashed into the stone weapon, miniature Dismantles coating his limb like a buzzing second skin.
The street cratered under the impact.
But Heracles held firm–completely unphased.
Sukuna pushed off–
And Heracles dismissed the blade.
His footing vanished.
The second his balance slipped, something enormous hammered into him.
Heracles' fist.
Sukuna rocketed backward, smashing through one building, then another, then a third–before digging his fingers deep into the frame of a collapsing fourth to halt himself. RCT pulsed through his body as it repaired the damage.
He stared in the direction of the coming Berserker.
But that still made no sense. He hadn't killed the giant with slashes, yet the giant was somehow immune to them. As far as he remembered, Heracles adapted to whatever killed him, gaining high resistance to that method. But he hadn't killed him with–
Sukuna's eyes widened, the crux of the matter suddenly clear. He could feel the giant's footsteps reverberate through the block; he could see the buildings collapse as the giant ran through them.
ONE!
Right. He had killed Heracles with that Black Flash. While it was a cocktail of his own Cursed Energy, Nue's lightning, Orochi's poison, it was the pure brute force of a Black Flash that had ended the Giant.
TWO!
The Black Flash had amplified his understanding of Cursed Energy (CE), increasing his output while simultaneously pushing his mastery of physical enhancement. This had boosted his speed, which now slightly outpaced Berserker's. This should have been the game-changer, but the most probable outcome was that God Hand had increased Heracles'–
THREE!
"Durability," Sukuna whispered, his eyes meeting the giant's. He was sure he could see a small upturn in its smile. "God Hand increased his durability as a counter to brute force, yet in turn, it also increased his resistance to any physical attack."
A slow, delighted grin spread across Sukuna's face.
This…
This was fun.
He released his grip on the wall, falling freely, forming a familiar hand sign.
This changes things. Dismantle won't work. Cleave could–but it wouldn't be as effective as he needed it to be.
THUD!
He landed in a crouch, hand pressed to the cracked road.
He slowly raised his gaze, staring at the giant, who had resummoned its massive blade. His smile turned into a full-blown smirk.
Sukuna took one deliberate step as Heracles mirrored him. Shadows pooled beneath Sukuna's feet.
He took another, the giant doing the same. The shadows swirled up his arm, around his shoulders, above his head.
Sukuna pushed off the ground with everything he had–
And so did Heracles.
The shadows snapped together and vanished–leaving behind a rotating Dharma Wheel above Sukuna and a steel blade strapped to the back of his right hand.
CLANG!
Their weapons collided.
The ground exploded downward.
Ten Shadows: Partial Summon – MAHORAGA.
Sukuna laughed as the blow forced Heracles back half a step. Godhand improved his durability–but not his other stats.
The Black Flash had improved all of Sukuna's.
They pushed harder. Cracks webbed beneath their feet.
Neither budged.
Then–
Sukuna's shadow widened, just a fractional amount.
Just enough.
The giant's right leg instantly sank into the shifting imaginary space of the Ten Shadows.
With Heracles' footing suddenly compromised, Sukuna gained the crucial advantage. With a grunt, he started pushing the giant back, and the deadlock shattered.
Sukuna roared, pouring all his might through his hand and into the blade. It worked. He launched Heracles backward, right along the path the giant had just taken.
The giant flew, and Sukuna gave chase.
The blades met in a brilliant, deafening clang, the force rattling the air, yet the sound was immediately overshadowed by the heavy, metallic clinck of Mahoraga's wheel rotating overhead.
Sukuna's smirk widened as their weapons met again, the blow forcing Heracles back another step. The giant dug his feet into the pavement, struggling to hold his ground as they clashed a third time. Slowly, but surely, Heracles was managing to slow the momentum.
With a guttural grunt, Heracles shoved his opponent upward and swung his blade in a sweeping arc.
They clashed again–
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
And slowly, Sukuna noticed it.
His blade.
The Executioner's Blade.
Small at first. Barely visible.
It was chipping.
Of course.
Mahoraga's blade was never durable. Sukuna had broken it easily in his own fight with the Shikigami.
But he hadn't summoned the blade for durability.
He had summoned it for this–
CLINCK.
High above, Mahoraga's Wheel shifted, the sound sharp and fatal. At the same moment, Heracles' blade struck a newly weakened edge.
The Executioner's Blade fractured–
Sukuna caught the broken piece with his free hand.
Heracles swung.
Sukuna blocked with his right arm–
Flesh tearing, muscle splitting, bone grinding–
But he didn't care.
He hurled the reclaimed blade fragment into Heracles' chest.
It sank in.
Deep.
Right through the boosted durability.
Heracles' roar shook the street.
Sukuna grinned.
Exactly as planned.
Reverse Cursed Technique (RCT)–= pure positive energy–was poison to Angra Mainyu's corruption. The Executioner's Blade used RCT as its core.
Meaning… It was one of the few things that could injure Heracles.
Sukuna's eyes narrowed in concentration. He kicked the pained Berserker, pushing it back as he pulled his own nearly severed right hand.
Heracles attempted to pull the broken blade from its torso, and that was its mistake.
Sukuna's swiftly regenerated right arm surged forward, and for the second time that day, the Sparks of Black blessed him.
Heracles, recognizing the danger, threw up a hasty guard as Sukuna swung with all his might.
"BLACK–"
The space around his fist warped as his cursed energy flashed black.
"–FLASH!"
The explosion tore the street apart.
Heracles was blasted backward through multiple buildings, vanishing under rubble–
And overhead–
CLINK.
The Dharma Wheel rotated again.
The Executioner's Blade reformed.
Sukuna laughed, output skyrocketing as he sprinted after Berserker.
He kicked off the ground, shattering the asphalt beneath him, and launched himself skyward. For a heartbeat he hung in the air–then dive-bombed straight toward the collapsed row of buildings Heracles had flown through.
-X-X-X-X-X-
Below, rubble shifted.
A massive arm punched upward.
Heracles rose from the destruction, stone blade clattering at his side. Dust rolled off his shoulders in waves as he straightened to his full height.
The broken Executioner's Blade fragment jutted from his chest.
He gripped it.
And Pulled.
Tossed it aside with a wet thud.
The wound–wide enough for Sukuna to fit his hand through–did not bleed.
It boiled.
Black mud oozed up instead, searing and steaming, knitting itself into crude muscle before hardening into corrupted flesh.
Angra Mainyu's taint.
Visible.
Alive.
Sukuna grinned as he fell toward him–
–until every instinct in his body flared.
Something's off.
He twisted mid-air, arms crossing into an X.
A streak of light shredded through the sky–
FWOOOM–BOOM!
A Broken Phantasm slammed into him, detonating on impact.
The explosion swallowed him whole.
Sukuna tore through a building, then a second, then burst out the far side in a fountain of shattered brick and glass. Smoke curled off his skin–patches burned away, small portions blown clean off his arms and ribs.
But cursed energy flared.
A single spark.
His flesh regrew instantly, wheel clinking overhead as Mahoraga's adaptation rotated once more.
CLINK.
He jumped sideways just as a chain–ending in a wicked iron nail–speared the ground where he'd been standing. The impact cratered the street.
A dagger whistled past his cheek the next instant.
A thin line of red appeared.
And healed before the blood could fall.
He exhaled sharply through his nose, side-stepping another chain that lashed toward him from behind. He flipped upward, using an air-step to avoid a second dagger slicing for his eyes.
He lifted Mahoraga's blade to block–
CLANG!
Heracles dropped from above, stone weapon grinding against Sukuna's summoned blade. For a moment, they held dead even mid-air–
Then gravity kicked in.
The collision hurled Sukuna downward like a meteor.
He smashed through the front of a ruined storefront, rolling across shattered tile before coming to a stop. Dust billowed.
A moment later he stepped out.
Calm.
Loose.
Expression bordering on annoyed amusement.
A half-shattered bottle of water was in his left hand. He took a drink. Then poured the rest across his face. Steam rose off his skin.
He casually tore off the top half of his kimono, revealing a black undershirt riddled with fresh holes. Water dripped down his jawline as he slicked his hair back with one hand.
Only then did he lift his gaze.
Medusa–corrupted, eyes glowing beneath her blindfold–slithered from an alleyway, chains rattling behind her.
To his right, atop a half-collapsed rooftop, a hooded figure crouched low–Assassin.
And further beyond, far enough that only someone like him would spot it…
A faint glint.
The subtle tightening of bowstring.
Archer.
Sukuna clicked his tongue.
"Four of you, huh?"
A slow grin stretched across his face.
He could take any one of them alone.
Even two would be fun.
But four–and one of them being Heracles?
"Annoying."
Fine. Then he just wouldn't fight alone either.
His hands came together, forming the familiar sign.
Shadows pooled.
The air darkened.
The Dharma Wheel trembled overhead–
He prepared to fully summon Mahoraga.
Then–
His eyes widened.
Because every Servant froze.
Heracles stopped mid-charge.
Medusa's chains stilled.
Assassin straightened.
Even Archer's killing intent faltered.
All of them–
Turned their heads left.
So did he.
Because something–NO, someone was coming.
A voice drifted across the broken street.
Calm. Casual. Almost annoyingly cheerful given the situation.
"Honestly… turn my back for five minutes and you start a war without me."
Every Servant on the field went still.
Sukuna didn't see anyone.
But he heard the footsteps–light, steady, confident–closing in.
The voice came again, this time with a hint of amusement:
"Don't worry. Backup's here."
-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-
-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-
Authors Note:
Yo, how's it going guys? Good? Neat. So–how did you like this chapter?
As you've probably noticed, this chapter was a bit shorter than my usual stuff (normally I hit 4k+ words, this one's a bit over 3k), but I couldn't stretch it without messing up the pacing. If I forced more word count, the writing would've suffered, and trust me–you don't want filler.
Speaking of, how'd you like the fight?
I tried out that present → flashback → present → flashback → present format this time, so definitely tell me if that worked for you guys. Also, if any part of the fight felt weird, off, or just "eh," do let me know. I genuinely think everything I write is trash half the time, but considering you guys are actually paying for this… maybe it's at least readable. Hopefully.
Now, the real question: Who is the mystery Servant?
Heh. I'll keep quiet on that one. I'd love to see some of you try guessing though.
Also yes–because I used CLANG! for the blade clashes, I had to use CLINK! for Mahoraga's wheel. Please tell me if that felt okay or goofy.
More content available on my PA-TREON . COM / ST_SCARFACE :CKA INTER 5, FCO Fuyuki Arc(Completed) and INTER 1, 4 chapters of A Pragmatist's Guide to a Prophecy (HP SI AS HARRY) for now.
As always, thanks for all your support. See you in the next one.
Ciao