"Let me get this straight," Satoru began, brows raised as he stared at the holographic display of a planet that was most definitely not Earth. The little girl he'd promised to keep safe remained firmly glued to his left leg, refusing to let go. It was cute, but a little cumbersome. She'd stuck to him the moment he returned to fetch her and hadn't let go since. While there were no truly safe spaces within the massive city, he and the survivors found some respite in the basement an abandoned factory, which was apparently connected to the city's sewer system. "Your "Planetary Governor" was a corrupt nobleman, you toppled him and his entire family in a bloody coup, and now these "Astartes", as you call them, are here to pacify the entire world by exterminating everyone; did I get that right?"
The red-haired woman, Magna, as she called herself, nodded. "Yes... we have no regrets. The people of Adraticus have lived under that family's tyranny for generations. Even if it was to our death, we'd change nothing."
She was keeping something from him. But, what it was, he couldn't care less.
"Yeah, you keep saying that, shut up; I'm trying to process everything." Satoru sighed as he ran a hand over his face and brushed his hair back. His eyes narrowed. I just woke up from the dead and now I'm somehow involved in a Space Opera.
"Realistically," Satoru continued. The other survivors huddled close together, listening. "We can't do anything until we somehow deactivate that ship of theirs. Even then, you claim that there really isn't much of a population anymore. Let's say we succeed in driving back these Astartes, what then? You can't exactly rebuild everything with just a handful of souls; there's like only ten of you guys. And, chances are, they'd just send another ship full of them at some point."
These people were boned. Even if he succeeded in wiping out these Astartes – as they really couldn't do much to him with Infinity – it'd be a moot point if the survivors all wound up dead within a month anyway. Besides, he had to make sure they survived because he was on this planet now and Satoru did not intend to die a second time if he could help it. That said, it was strangely... pleasant to not have to deal with Cursed Spirits and Cursed Users for a change; never in his life did he imagine he'd become a part of a resistance movement against an interstellar empire. No offense to the King of Curses, but this was definitely the more exciting prospect of the two, even if it seemed like he was also definitely going to fail.
He was just out of his depth here.
"The psyker's right," Another one of the survivors, an aged man whose name was too long for Satoru to bother memorizing, suddenly said. Satoru turned to regard him with a raised brow. Psyker... everyone here called him that and he still wasn't sure what that meant. Though, the most likely explanation was that it was their term for Jujutsu Sorcerer. "We're outnumbered and outgunned – not to mention outmaneuvered and, most of all, the Wolves of Fenris possess orbital superiority. What can we do against them?"
Satoru gave it some thought. Theoretically, he could destroy the vessel – outlines in a green holographic display – if he got close enough using Hollow Technique: Purple, which would blast a hole right through its hull. The problem was that Purple didn't exactly have infinite range. It dissipated after a while, usually after two kilometers or so of travel – three if he really pushed it. While that was useful for killing a lot of people, there was no way it was reaching a vessel in orbit. And, even then, its potential for destruction would be limited considering the vessel, in question, was apparently twelve kilometers in length and five kilometers in diameter, which was crazy to think about. Unless such a behemoth had a weakpoint he could target, then he'd have to use Purple about a dozen times to bring it down.
Of course, there was that technique, the one he developed in secret but never got the chance to use – not even against Sukuna, because it took up way too much time and concentration to reliably cast. He could use it here to take out the vessel, but it'd require line of sight and he paid enough attention to college astronomy and physics to know that there's no way he was hitting anything in outer space from the surface of a planet.
Which brought them all back to square one.
"Yes, thank you for your wonderful opinion," Satoru glared. "But we're all aware of that so shut up; what I need are actually useful suggestions."
"Could we, perhaps, sneak aboard their ship and take it for ourselves?" Someone from the crowd suggested, a child, which was ironic since that was probably the best suggestion he'd heard thus far. Satoru smiled at the little boy, who was probably ten or eleven, covered in dirt and grime, but still smiling.
Satoru considered it for a moment and shrugged. Eh, what the hell. It sounded feasibly, at least, if not for a single – glaringly large – window of error. "Is there anything we could use to board their vessel? Does anyone have any ideas? Yes, you, over there at the back."
"I'm... a sorcerer." At the woman's declaration, everyone seemed to step away from her. Satoru raised a brow. What in the hell was she talking about? This girl barely possessed a lick of Cursed Energy. With a lifetime of training and dedication, she might get to Yuji's level, but nowhere else. What was strange was everyone's sudden abrasion towards her, something they did not have for him. "I know a ritual we can use to teleport inside their ship."
"I'm sensing a big ol' but coming along." Satoru said. "Go on."
"We'll need to consort with Daemons." She said. And the entire room erupted into screams and shouts. As far as he was aware, 'Daemon' was a western term for Cursed Spirits. While consorting with Cursed Spirits generally wasn't a good idea, there were times when they proved beneficial, like Yuta and his weird girlfriend. If nothing else, however, Cursed Spirits were also useful as batteries, used as fuel for elaborate rituals and spells. That must've been it.
"Everyone, shut up!" Satoru raised his voice, letting loose a burst of killing intent as he did, which immediately silenced just about everyone in the small room. He turned to the self-proclaimed sorcerer and sighed. "Alright, explain to me, in detail, exactly what you plan on doing. I'm not averse to using Cu- I mean, Daemons, for rituals, but I gotta know what exactly it is you're planning."
"I don't know the specifics," The woman answered, looking torn and down from the glares directed at her. "But it requires the summoning and binding of a Blue Daemon, which will then be used to power an arcane array that'll take a few people into the vessel of the wolves."
"Alright," Satoru nodded. Her answer told him everything he needed to know; the woman likely knew how to make the ritual work, but did not understand it enough to know the actual details. That was very dangerous. Rituals were often used for very specific things and if she only knew to perform one from memory, then there were about a thousand things that could go wrong, like ending up in some other place other than the intended target or inside a wall. "We'll put that suggestion on the back-burner for now, to be used if literally no one else can suggest anything remotely useful."
"The planetary-governor has a secret, emergency space port hidden somewhere in the White Mountains," An elderly man said, catching everyone's attention. "I worked in their palace as a chef all my life, I've heard and seen many things. This was one of them. Many times, before the rebellion, I heard him mention it, just in case the planet ever came under attack by xenos."
"How will we ever get close enough to actually board the enemy vessel?" Another one asked. They'd all introduced themselves earlier, but Satoru didn't really care enough about any of them to remember their names. They were all humans, after all. Just humans. "Their ships are riddled with point-defense systems and anti-craft weapons. Even if we manage to find this secret port or whatever, a boarding action would just end with everyone on board becoming space debris."
Yeah, that made sense.
"Assuming there is a secret space port at all," Satoru said. After all, the old man's claim was not immediately verifiable. For all they knew, the space port might not exist at all. In such a situation, it was always better to assume the worst possible scenario; and the worst possible scenario was that a space port did not exist or no longer exists. Honestly, it'd be one of the first targets to prevent anyone from leaving the planet, considering this was supposedly a war for extermination. The giants also didn't seem like the incompetent sort, which meant they'd probably already taken care of it.
"Well, it looks like we don't actually any good options on the table, do we?"
Satoru's eyes narrowed. They had to move soon. He felt the Cursed Energy signatures of the giants; they were closing in on them. Another five minutes and it'd be over. There was nowhere left to run. He was honestly amazed how these guys managed to survive for this long. He'd save them, of course, but only because he had nothing better to do and because he'd accidentally made a promise to the little girl who was still hugging him – the same little girl whose name he didn't bother asking for.
Sighing, he turned to the woman who earlier claimed to be a sorcerer. "Alright, it's your time to shine, girly. What do you need for the ritual?"
"Blood," She answered. Ah, Gojo mused, the simplest and most primitive conductor of Cursed Energy, mostly because it was reliable and easily found. Modern Sorcerers – at least, on earth – didn't make too much use of it, though, since rituals mostly fell out of place sometime during the Sengoku Era, when Jujutsu transitioned to be more combative and martial in nature. Everyone else seemed mortified by her answer, however. "And a willing sacrifice..."
That was unusual. Human sacrifice hadn't been a thing since the Heian Period and, even then, it was relatively rare, reserved only for the most heinous of rituals – not one for long-range teleportation. For this ritual, at least, human sacrifice didn't seem necessary. He'd have to see the ritual seals himself beforehand, though, to confirm everything.
"Why do you need a living sacrifice?" Satoru asked, just before everyone could lynch her.
"The Blue Daemon requires a portal to enter real-space." The woman answered, keeping her head and her eyes down. Everyone hated her. "I can't summon it, otherwise."
"Hold the sacrifice bit," Satoru said. He was gonna have to improvise a lot if he was going to make this ritual thing actually work without backfiring horribly. "You're going to draw the ritual circle and I'm going to examine it. But that comes later. I still have to deal with a bunch of... what do you call them again? Ah, yes, a bunch of Corgis from Fenris! Everyone, start moving into the sewers. Don't worry, I'll find you once I'm finished here."
The giants were already here.
Ten of them, gathered right above their little meeting. And hundreds more in the immediate vicinity.
He glanced down at the little girl and pried her off him, pulling her away. She cried, but the red-haired woman whose name he'd already forgotten – Maggie? - grabbed her and held her close. "Don't worry. I'll be back. I've dealt with worse."
The giants weren't much of a challenge. His caution came from the fact that he didn't know their full capabilities and neither did he have intimate knowledge of the sort of weapons and armaments they carried. As everyone ran into the sewers, Satoru held out his hands and pointed both of them at the ceiling. Several meters above him, the Corgis from Fenris gathered, waiting for something; he didn't know what. But they could've easily breached through the place if they wanted. It's not like the shoddy metal entrance could even stop them.
Satoru shrugged. They made things easier, he supposed.
Convergence and divergence... forced together... forced to coexist... infinity and eternity at his fingertips... dancing like tiny flickers of fire.
"Hollow Technique: Purple..."