Beta'ed by ObsidionJaguar15

Chapter 1: Dark Beginnings

"Why is Okkotsu Yuta still alive?"

Sitting inside the office room trying to use the chairs as a bed, Gojo Satorou let out an audible groan. He was at wits end as he tried to argue with Gakuganji about the fate of his newest student. It wasn't his fault that the higher-ups were too short-sighted to see the enormous potential that the boy had within him.

Orimoto Rika was not to be trifled with, and even though he couldn't predict what the Special Grade might unleash upon the wider world, the uncertainty actually made her more dangerous. That was why Satoru could see hesitance to make him an official student in Jujutsu High.

However, he couldn't have cared less.

"I told you, old man, I will train him to become a fine sorcerer. Why can't you trust me on this one?"

"Your last recruits have been… below-average sorcerers if we want to be generous. At this point, they tend to be more trouble than they're worth."

Satoru couldn't help but snort at that.

Hakari got his entire salary blown away and now lived solely on gambling money. Funnily enough, the punishment he received wasn't because he got addicted and earned a bad reputation from the students. No, the higher-ups didn't care about that much if it didn't involve them beyond some tutting and shaking of heads.

It was because he got the school into a massive debt by claiming he was fighting against a Special Grade curse and needed resources that only the best could buy, preferably in hard cash. Needless to say, that pachinko parlor wouldn't need to worry about dry spells or rent for a very long time.

Obviously with such a nasty loss they needed to cut back on salaries and bonuses to make up for the sudden black hole of a budget.

He saw Mei Mei of all people nearly lose her cool as she saw her next paycheck come back with all the buying power of a value lunch at a corner store.

Satoru was shaken from his thoughts when he heard another older-and significantly less cuddly-man pouring sake into a saucer.

Zen'in Naobito rubbed his temples as he contemplated the predicament before them. His usual arrogant, condescending attitude was nowhere to be seen for once as contemplative and cold worry hung on his face.

He spoke, his voice grim. "Listen, I don't care what you do with Maki. She's a joke that should never have been born as far as the Zen'in are concerned, but the boy…" he paused, his eyes narrowing. "He's cursed with love. He's too dangerous to let live. So no, we can't trust you. End of discussion."

Satoru took a deep breath, slightly lifting his blindfold to let a bit of the hauntingly blue Six Eyes through with a flash of roiling anger. "I'll let that little jab at my student slide this time, but do that again…" he trailed off, his voice dripping with menace. "And I will kill you."

Naobito gritted his teeth, but then smiled back at the challenge. "You're welcome to try."

Satoru turned to Gakuganji, his eyes steely. "As for the kid—"

"I already told you he's not placing a foot in Jujutsu High."

He narrowed his eyes, trying to keep his patience and usual attitude intact over the myriad power fantasies that were but for his restraint he'd have long fulfilled. "Let me finish. I don't think any of you old geezers realize his potential—and the consequences of killing him."

Gakuganji and Naobito eyed him with intrigue and not a bit of caution.

"To prove that I ain't trying to bluff you, here's somebody that'll surely convince your rotting brains." He pulled out his Scroll and opened a holocall, revealing a slightly blurry image that started to clear itself. He smiled in anticipation as the image began to reveal a peculiar man.

His regal posture, the way he held his cane, and his mere presence screamed respect. One of the highest authorities in Remnant started to make himself known as he adjusted his glasses and was ready to address the room with the gravitas of his station.

However, his welcoming party was anything but respectful to him, the atmosphere immediately becoming hostile as the headmaster of Beacon Academy made himself known. Ceramic could be heard breaking and liquor could be heard splashing out as Naobito rose from his seat with a feral grin, his veins popping out from his forehead as he looked half-ready to try and see if he couldn't somehow use his Projection Sorcery from an ocean away on a man just about every Jujutsu Sorcerer wanted dead, be it now, a decade later, or a century ago.

"Greetings, gentleman," Ozpin said calmly, his gaze sweeping over the three men in the room. "Gakuganji, Satoru— Naobito."

Satoru didn't miss the slight venom in his tone, and was delighted to see how Naobito caught it and looked a second away from an aneurysm that, how unfortunate, Satorou wouldn't be able to heal as he just hadn't figured out how RCT could be used on others.

"What in the world are you doing contacting that traitor?!" Gakuganji roared, his face red with righteous anger.

"You have the gall to even show your face after everything you've done, eh, Ozpin?" Naobito sneered, a feral growl underlying his voice in place of the roaring anger of the principal.

Ozpin's smile faltered then as it began to hit that perhaps this wouldn't be as easy as he thought it'd be, "I had no control over the situation that happened nine years ago. I thought I made that perfectly clear."

"Yet you still failed us. What business do you have with us today?" Gakuganji demanded.

"I need Okkotsu Yuta alive," Ozpin said simply.

"Why?" Naobito asked, his eyes narrowed. "Is this another one of your shady plots, the, what, hundredth in a decade, or am I being too kind on a man who would make a conspiracy just to return some spoiled milk?"

"Yes, he is a part of my planning, at least, I hope," he said, "Sooner or later, we'll be facing a war we cannot win as we are now, and we will need him and others just like him," Ozpin said gravely.

"Ha, I've heard this story enough times now that I can't even be bothered to tell you all the ways it will go." Naobito scoffed. "Though, I thought you had Salem under control at the very least. Was that another unfortunate estimation as well?"

Satoru kept his attention on the conversation as they bickered. Ozpin hadn't explained it to him, but he said that he needed him to hold a meeting with the higher-ups and to bring him along to speak with them, save for himself of course.

If Salem was part of why he was eager for a surprise cameo…well, the whole world might have a big problem on their hands that not a bit of bleach, lavender spray, and baking soda would settle.

Ozpin laughed in response to Naobito, a bitter and hollow thing that belied a man far older than geezer who reeked of alcohol. "I don't know which one of you thought for even a second that Salem could be controlled forever. Nobody is that foolish, except, perhaps yourselves."

"Who's the fool, now?" Naobito asked, his voice rising as he stood up from his seat with an indignation that seemed more appropriate for an irate god than the half-sober man he actually was. "To come to us asking for peace, only to make a mockery of us once again and act as though we have nothing but warm bodies to offer. No, I don't care if Vale burns to the ground or your precious academy teaching everything us proper Jujutsu Sorcerers abhor is turned into a killing field, I will sooner that than compromise ourselves for you again!"

"Do you wish to hold onto your grudges and traditions and be annihilated so that you can satisfy your ego by not even attempting to come together?! Because I swear to you it won't stop with just me or Vale or even all the Hunters, but with you and all of Jujutsu too!" Ozpin shouted, his eyes flashing with anger that few ever saw, many enemies included, the kind of a warrior of a thousand wars.

Satoru let out a sly grin as he took it all in. Somebody needed to say it other than him who had long been considered an annoying dragonfly in how loudly he spoke against them. It was a surprise from the usually professional headmaster, but if it served to get the point across to these relics of history, then he couldn't afford to look meek, and it was definitely satisfying to see.

Naobito kept his gaze locked with Ozpin's, making Satorou wonder if ego or need would win out today, before the drunkard sat back down, muttering incoherent curses and chatterings with Gakuganji. After a minute and change, the two officials looked at each other one last time and nodded.

"Depending on the magnitude of the threat Salem presents, we're… willing to discuss further on the matter," Gakuganji said finally. "Do you believe you can convince the entire council to join your cause?"

"Oh, I'm sure we will find much to talk about, whether they want to listen or not," Ozpin said with a knowing smile.

"Since it's clear you and that idiot Gojo planned this meeting, we would like you to do one thing for us should you want to regain our trust," Naobito said, his eyes fixed on him.

Satoru and Ozpin looked at each other and shrugged. Whatever this old bastard wanted to do, it shouldn't be too hard to follow.

"We will let Okkotsu live—for now. Make sure that he controls his powers. Should he prove to be more trouble than he is worth, then the kid will be eliminated, and…" Naobito let out an evil grin. "All Hunter schools in Mistral shall be replaced by Jujutsu schools."

'Wait, what?'

Did Naobito become senile that fast? He must have if he decided to pull out such an idiotic request like that. Ozpin definitely wouldn't—

"I accept."

The man was insane.

He was completely, utterly insane.

Satoru suppressed a chortle that was trying to escape from his mouth, very poorly he might add. Oh, he couldn't wait when the news reaches Lionheart's ears. He eagerly would wait to see how this all blossomed out.

Naobito stood up and raised his bottle of sake. "Since we can't formally shake hands, let us have a drink."

Ozpin had a glass of whisky ready on his desk and raised it.

"To peace."

Naobito let out a mischievous grin. "To your downfall."

The men downed their glasses without a second thought.

"Why are you driving?!"

The one who asked the question was Zen'in Maki. Or, as Naobito loved to call her, the failure of the Zen'in clan, a failure currently stuck in the seat of the world's strongest man…and probably the worst driver on Remnant. She was tapping her foot impassively as Satoru made his way to the driver's seat, acting like a circuit racer when he could barely figure out the difference between reverse and neutral.

"Because Ijichi said that he needed to take care of business, and I'm the only one old enough to drive?" he said as he smiled teasingly at her. "What– scared?"

She took a deep breath and locked her eyes at him.

"You are wearing a blindfold."

"Yes."

"You've barely ever touched a car."

"I normally let others drive for me, so you're technically wrong."

"Are you telling me there isn't a single worker here at Jujutsu High? The place with probably hundreds of people working overtime?"

"Can you drive?"

Maki gritted her teeth at him and sighed. Not wanting to argue any further, she went and took her seat in the back, grumbling to herself. Another person followed suit. A kid with a white shirt sat beside her—a reasonable distance away from her, to be precise.

This kid was the newest Special Grade sorcerer, Okkotsu Yuta.

Satoru revved up the engine and took off at blinding speeds—next destination, Sanctum Academy.

He let out a silly grin as the cars around him started to open up and let him through. Advantages of him driving? No one, not anyone, will dare to fuck around with someone driving with a blindfold on as he swerved around with dangerous ease.

Yuta fidgeted nervously as he stared at Maki, then at the window, then at her again. The girl didn't even pay attention to him, staring out the window with a cold expression. Satoru sat in the driver's seat, humming as he drove.

He glanced over at Yuta. The kid was scared; that much was obvious, no matter how hard he was trying to hide it. He smiled still. He knew that Yuta had potential; he just needed to bring it out.

"Sensei," Yuta said, his voice trembling slightly. "How many curses are inside Sanctum?"

Satoru glanced in the rearview mirror. "Hmm, it shouldn't be too many," he said. "And that number rarely happens in the first place."

"Rarely?" Yuta echoed.

"Places with a lot of negativity are usually overflowing with Curses," Maki replied, keeping her disinterested gaze on the window. "Kids are immature and lack the self-awareness to know how this world works, so they curse each other nonstop. Places like this are usually reserved for Grade 1 sorcerers and above."

Satoru chuckled. "Recently, Curse activity has been lower than before, which is why this'll be the perfect initiation for you!" he said. "Nothing too crazy should hopefully happen, but either way, I say you kids should be able to handle yourselves just fine."

Yuta forced a smile at his dismissive tone.

Satoru saw the building of Sanctum Academy and pulled up in front. He turned off the engine and got out of the car. Yuta and Maki followed.

"Here we are," he said. "Now, let me pull out a curtain..."

"Emerge from darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure." He chanted.

A gray dome started to form and slowly descended from the top to the entirety of Sanctum, covering it all the way to its yards, Yuta looking confused on the what and why.

"A lot of people in Mistral don't take too kindly to the likes of us," Satoru explained. "So we're kinda forced to cover our tracks if we want to keep a low profile. We don't want pedestrians to flood us with their hate and cynicism and make the situation worse for everybody."

The curtain managed to cover Sanctum in its entirety. Satoru looked towards his students as he started to make his way outside.

"You can start your work now," he said, waving goodbye at them. "Oh, and try not to die~"

The last thing he saw was Yuta gulping with all the gusto of a nephew forced to choke down a carbonized meal they had to politely accept from the aunt they never saw.

He laughed as he remembered how Shoko reacted on her first mission, for once knocked out of her relaxed malaise when forced away from the comfort of the nurse's office. He and Geto teased her nonstop after that…might have explained the smoking habit she picked up for the next couple of years.

His smile vanished as he glumly remembered his estranged friend.

'Suguru…'

What could he have been doing now? How many more has he killed in his mad crusade to kill the "monkeys"?

Just then, he heard the radio of the car crackling to life, and he got a reminder that the world didn't stop for anybody.

"We interrupt this broadcast to inform you about an urgent case regarding Sanctum Academy," a voice said. "There have been reports of children disappearing for a whole three days without any trace of them. We implore any Hunters available, to resolve this crisis and rescue the children for the sake of their families and communities."

He frowned, "Well, that can't be good…"

The last thing they needed was a pair of Hunters interfering with them. God forbid they kill the Curses without a Cursed Tool.

"Nah, they'll be fine," he tried to shrug off as he got inside the car and reclined his seat to relax. The kids'll be okay; he picked them as his students, after all, so he knew more than anybody else what they could do.

His only concern was if he should have lied to them to trust Ozpin's prediction.

"Now, this is worthy of being called a burger!" he proclaimed as he held a tray that perilously balanced three burgers on top alongside an order of fries and some cherry colas. Two of these patties had an appearance like the gods above had handcrafted them, the triple beef patties held in a beautiful golden brown bun with Atlesian cheese that had melted in each layer, the perfect processed thing that melted so beautifully. There was a sweet onion sauce nearly falling off the burgers, the perfect vegetable and condiment in one. It was enough to make his mouth drool, an odd sight for a man dressed like a monk.

The other "burger" left much to be desired, as it was merely a sandwich stuffed with countless tiny fish, wobbling in an awkward bun that was never made to hold a bunch of individually fried mackerels and anchovies, all the while smelling like the worst of a fish market. Who comes to a burger joint to order a fish sandwich?! It was her idea to reunite here, and yet she'd ordered this undressed abomination of a sandwich that stood so strangely compared with the beautiful buns of meaty glory.

He hated to admit it, but he had to give credit where it was due; the monkeys sure knew how to cook a good meal.

Geto walked toward the table where two Faunus waited for him, looking out of place in a way that was hard to describe beyond a bad vibe. The male Faunus-and Adam Taurus, about as infamous a name as there ever was-wore a black leather coat and a red shirt underneath, the kind of thing that would always stand out like a flashing warning sign to not bother this lout. His most notable feature-beyond the pair of small horns that blended in with his spiky crimson hair enough to be mistaken as just some brown locks-were his sunglasses, which gave him a cliché 'bad boy' aura as they shone back with a mirrored gaze that belied nothing. Honestly, if he said he was "the edge", he wouldn't have been surprised. He sat alongside his girlfriend, Blake Belladonna, who wore a more modest-well, for her anyways-outfit, opting for her black vest and white undershirt that made her look closer to a waiter at the local steakhouse over her usual RPG default look (he seriously wondered how that became such a trend, as hypocritical as it was considering what he was wearing).

He placed the tray on the table alongside the radio that was playing, giving them…music for the meal. Blake and Adam wasted no time and grabbed their food faster than they blinked, eating with the ferocity common to people used to having little variety but take-out, rations, and whatever bugs and weeds they could scrounge from anywhere they called a temporary home. Geto chuckled at the sight.

"-we implore any Hunters available, to resolve this crisis and rescue the children for the sake of their families and communities." The radio chimed in with its desperate broadcast.

"Oh, so soon? Well, that's your cue then," he said, taking a bite of the burger. "Any questions before the show starts?"

Adam looked at him, then to Blake, then back at him again, questions gnawing at him as he spoke. "Yeah, two of them." Adam deadpanned. "Blake, the fuck is that?"

Blake's eyes widened, and she turned to look at him as if she were eating the bacterial gunk of a long-clogged drain, "Why are you even asking like that?"

"I'm asking because, well, who comes to a burger place to order that? They're supposed to sell the best burgers in town, going by the ratings anyway. Why did you even recommend this place if all you were getting was some piss-poor excuse of a fish sandwich? Doesn't even have a remoulade or lettuce, fuck's sake."

"I… seriously would like to know that as well. Seems like such a waste," Geto added. Blake's cheeks flushed at the attack as she coughed awkwardly at the attention.

"I– like eating this, that's good enough for you two?" Blake said. "Not like you two know anything about food…"

"Said the literal cat," Geto added. Blake merely grabbed her sandwich, leaned towards him, and started eating it—slowly. His face crunched in disgust.

'The cheeky brat!'

"We're getting sidetracked here." Geto gulped and shuddered, turning away from the disgusting sight. He turned to Adam, who merely looked at him with a slight smirk at seeing the Curse User so disquieted on something this petty, "What else do you want to ask before we start?"

Adam's smile faltered as he gave him a look filled with his own rare emotion: fear.

"Can you remind me why we're committing suicide?"

Geto sighed. "Don't worry, you two will be fine, I promise."

"Geto, we'll follow you even if it costs us our lives, but are you sure that it's smart to be that close to Satorou Gojo and potentially a Special Grade Curse if all we're hearing is right?" Adam asked, taking another bite from his burger in an oddly funny bit of irony, Geto just now realized.

"Knowing Satoru," Geto said. "He's probably using the school to test Okkotsu and won't interfere. Rest easy; if for some reason he decides to move, I promise I'll get you both out of there just like that."

When he heard the news about a new Special Grade coming to Mistral, his interest was peaked. The four Special Grades were the pinnacle of Jujutsu society, so earning that classification was far from easy; practically impossible in all honesty. A regular prodigy would get to Grade 1 maximum, thinking that all their skill and power was more than enough, until they met the monsters of the Special Grade and saw for once just how little they had really achieved beneath people who saw the world like a cardboard city for all it meant to them.

He knew the higher-ups didn't give up ranks that easily on the first day, considering how long Gojo stayed as "just" a Grade 1. As he investigated this rising star further, he found an exciting bit of information.

Okkotsu Yuta had an interesting lineage. He was a descendant of Sugawara Michizane. Being a descendant of the Gojo family, no matter how distant it may be, was bound to earn him an advantage in the practice of sorcery. He also had a history of mass killings that Jujutsu higher-ups quickly swept under the rug, even though the kid looked like he couldn't harm a fly.

Why hadn't the elders already killed him if he was so dangerous? Brothers know why. They could send a couple of Grade 1 sorcerers and be done with it by the morning if the boy was seemingly this dangerous yet still too green and innocent to fight back against real warriors.

Unless they couldn't—and that changed a lot.

The kid was cursed.

The Special Grade sorcerers won't want to help the higher-ups with this task. Satoru won't harm a kid with immense potential, Yuki abhorred the elders themselves, and the final one wasn't even allowed to be in Mistral.

This was a golden opportunity.

Geto thought about the political consequences of him losing control again and leaking the data of Yuta's lineage, jeopardizing the name of the Gojo clan. It's not like he held anything against Satoru, but the possibility of the kingdoms waging war against Jujutsu High would be at an all-time peak, something that would bring about the end he envisioned upon the monkeys and their facade of a society.

But what he wanted the most was Yuta's curse. How dangerous was it that it got the geezers so riled up?

He had to see what he was capable of, what depths of power were there that would get the old coots all worked up.

If you two are finished," Geto said, downing his "burger with one big bite and splash of cola. "Come with me."

Adam and Blake looked at each other and giggled like schoolchildren at seeing the scariest man they ever knew have the general manners of a Mantle Dust miner after a sixteen-hour shift.

"What?" he said through stuffed cheeks as he somehow gulped it all down. "Come with me, you brats."

The two of them finished eating and stood up from the table, exiting the establishment and walking towards an alley, where they found a manhole. Blake looked around before nodding, putting on her White Fang mask.

Adam put on his mask as well as he grabbed the door and opened it. His body immediately froze, and he sighed.

"You have got to be kidding me."

Blake's face started to lose color. "Geto, you're not thinking what I think you're thinking, right?"

The sight couldn't have been more appealing. They looked at a colorful red blob with white stripes decorated with a tinge of golden ornaments along its antennae. The mollusk opened its spacious mouth, covered in a strange green-looking slime, inviting them to enter like it was just another cab.

This curse is one of his favorite rides!

Geto let out an innocent smile. "You two, get in the slug."

Adam shook his head. "I swear sometimes you're having way too much fun with this," he said, taking a deep breath and jumping into the mollusk's mouth.

"Blake?"

Geto looked at the cat faunus with intrigue and noticed her slightly blue face as she tapped the worm with her shoes, only to wobble at her touch.

"…What are you doing?"

"So— slimy,"

The only sensible action he could do as that ridiculous statement left her mouth was to place his hand on his forehead.

Not even Utahime in her teenage years was this picky!

Sanctum Academy was once a combat school that held much prestige in the country. It gave Mistral constant top-tier hunters like Leonardo Lionheart and Taiyang Xiao Long, people who had carved out a respectable name in society as they fought Grimm, solved crimes, and held the peace in whatever way they could. Parents almost always wanted to enroll their children here, so much so that its classrooms started overflowing yearly.

Its prestige didn't hold quite so.

Once its top students started to graduate after the sixty-year mark, society's bar for them in general started to get higher, so high that it became unreal for anybody but the best to uphold, which naturally added more and more weight and pressure to students and staff already dealing with a difficult situation.

The result? Stressed-out kids constantly bullied each other in whatever ways they could from simple gossip mills to beating down Faunus students to once having an incident involving a near horror in a bathroom with a rusty razor that nobody wanted to remember. Meanwhile, teachers resigned for the inability to control the students, the stress of parents and politicians blaming them for everything regardless of the reality and punishing them with cuts and restrictions, and a declining pay system that often had them working for half the money they could find as normal Hunters, which culminated in many leaving for greener pastures, be it at other schools, as Hunters once more, or often, just leaving the whole business entirely as whatever love they had for the work was crushed beneath the wheels of despair. Like a domino effect, the quality of the education started to decline as teachers either checked out mentally or had to make do with barely qualified substitutes trying to teach increasingly larger and more chaotic classes, which meant that the kids began to regress to their most primal instinct in violence that turned the above incidents into a daily horror for many years. Curses started overflowing the place not long after a kid killed himself out of pure stress, and since then, even with good years still happening, the school just couldn't hoist itself out of the pit it had found itself in.

As the duo walked through the hallways. Yuta started to notice his surroundings with a different eye unburdened with the chaos. Broken windows, dusty walls, subpar graffiti art tagged everywhere that lacked anything more than a fuck you to the system. It was safe to say that he didn't like this place at all; the constant bullying he used to receive back in the day added to his anxiety as he could just feel the oozing negativity.

Why was he sent to the school without any weapons? Either Gojo Satorou was not as responsible as he might have seemed, or he was testing his powers to see what he could work with when forced to use just his own strength. Both options seemed likely with a man who had shown himself to be a wily bundle of energy and teenage rebellion wrapped up into a twenty-something year-old body.

Either way, Yuta didn't mind what the outcome may be; he was only scared from to the bad memories the school gave him. If he died on the mission though…well, at least he hoped it would be quick.

"Hey, step up," Maki said, breaking him from his stupor. "We don't even know what could be out there, and your fear will create even more Curses, or attract Grimm."

Yuta nodded and took a deep breath. "I know, I know," he said. "It's just that I don't like schools. E-even if I'm producing negativity, though…the Curses don't seem to be acting up, right?"

Maki glanced at the classrooms and noticed that there were a couple of lower grade Curses watching them from afar, none daring to make a move towards them.

"They are scared," she said, raising her naginata. He gave him an analytical look. "Of you."

"Me?"

"Of your curse, to be precise," she concluded as she narrowed her eyes. "But it takes more to be Special Grade than just scaring Curses."

Yuta tried to open his mouth to speak but couldn't. The girl in front of him glared at him with such intensity that he started to feel small just by being watched. He has dealt with that judgmental look for too long to know what it was like to make anything like an argument or explanation.

"A-Are Special Grades supposed to be strong?"

Maki blinked once. Then twice.

"Seriously, you…" she sighed, "Special Grades are the highest class in the system; they are considered utter anomalies, the kind of people who can change the world with a snap of their fingers. Currently, there are only five special grades in the world, yourself included."

"I-I don't think I deserve to be called such. I haven't done anything worthy of the title," he laughed sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head.

"I agree," She said instantly and with no small amount of contempt, which made him freeze. "…You don't have any motivation at all, do you? You won't last long with that attitude here, even if you got something powerful in you."

Yuta lowered his head at her harsh if painfully true words. Why was he rescued, even? Why was he here? There was no reason for someone like him to be training for Jujutsu or Aura or even a job as a fry cook, and yet here he was. Did the world like to play jokes around him while he stewed in his misery?

Suddenly, the school started to shake, taking him out of himself as he saw and felt things. The windows rumbled, and some of them broke from the vibrations into thousands of painful shard. The walls crumbled, and the floor cracked in a way that reminded Yuta too much of all the bones and bodies a certain ghost had broken in her rages.

Maki was the first to recover from her shock as she realized that the ground beneath them was starting to break apart, not just around them.

Then, the sound died down. Everything stopped dead and cold.

Click. Click. They started to hear a sound that didn't fit anything here.

Suddenly, rows of teeth emerged from the floor, launching both of them in the air as they threatened to eat them.

"Watch out!" Maki shouted as she placed her foot on the rubble at the last second and pushed herself hard enough to move. She grabbed Yuta and launched herself to the side as the floor beneath them shattered. A lipless slug monster with rows of teeth threatened to swallow them whole, its mouth dripping a strange green slime.

The Zen'in readied her spear. "Get ready, transfer student!"

The monster started to get bigger and gagged once.

Twice.

At the third gag, it spat a human bullet like an errant hairball. Its speed was such that it managed to graze Maki's face before she could even think of moving aside. She barely managed to step out still thanks to pure instinct, but the threat worked as blood started to come out from her cheek as she gritted her teeth. Yuta could only watch in horror at how the toughest girl he had ever met almost got killed in front of his eyes.

The attacker landed gracefully on his feet, then stood up, facing the others and sheathing his katana in one smooth motion.

His blood ran cold as he laid eyes on the mask that the redhead wore; the marks of a White Fang mask.

The monster spat another figure, who came out slower than the first. A girl wearing the same mask landed beside the curse, a stone-cold expression on the brunette's face. The fact they almost killed them as soon as they laid their eyes on them confirmed what he feared the most; this wasn't a mission to hunt a Curse anymore…this was a terrorist attack.

The slug started digging down the hole and disappeared now that it's "passengers" had stepped out.

Both attackers surrounded them in a pincer formation almost immediately, a trained grace to them as Maki grit her teeth and looked at both sides, waiting for either of them to strike.

"Adam fucking Taurus…" Maki said through a strained scowl.

Who?

Yuta tried to open his mouth to ask the question but was interrupted as soon as Adam started shooting bullets-or were they slugs, pellets?-from his sheath, which Maki quickly blocked with her spear.

"I don't want to waste my time chatting with a monkey," he said as he unsheathed his sword and ran head-first at them.

The girl meanwhile rushed forward and kicked Yuta in the face, sending him crashing towards a window, which shattered on impact. He tried to get up quickly but was placed in a chokehold by his attacker. He put his arm beside his throat on instinct, saving him in a pinch from being taken out of the fight so soon.

As Maki exchanged blows with Adam, the latter used both his sword and the gun of his sheath with great effectiveness, swinging forwards while shooting, and occasionally batting her with the sheathe. It was straightforward but effective, forcing her on the defensive while leaving little room to maneuver. However, she had an advantage that her opponent hadn't realized yet.

Polearm, greater range, better poke.

She had to be precise. She was in a tight hallway, and it was dangerously easy to mess up her form with the naginata but not too tight to render it useless at least. She went on the offensive.

She spun her weapon with fluidity, threatening to strike him at any moment. It halted Adam's assault as he started to back off from her spins, trying to find space now to try and close the gap.

Feint, after feint, it seemed that she was just stalling the inevitable and getting worn down in the process though. It made the redhead lose his cool at this sort of waiting game.

"Damn human!" Adam shouted, lunging with his sword for a fast finisher to this fight.

Big mistake, as Maki found her opening. With his torso wide open, Maki swept to the side and swung her knee at him, kicking him with such strength that it made him gag and sent him stumbling backward.

Don't… hurt…Yuta!

Adam gasped as he saw two white claws emerging from nothingness, threatening to rip the girl in half.

"Blake!" Adam shouted. In his distraction, Maki managed to cut him, a shallow blow, but enough to make him bleed.

Blake noticed Rika looming over her and was quick enough to get out of her range before it was too late. Yuta started to cough as he tried to recover from the hold, dread coming in as she made herself known.

The cat faunus wasted no time rushing to her partner's side, unleashing two blades tied together with a rope.

If Maki got tangled with those, she would be instantly executed, forcing her on the defensive to avoid an ignoble end.

Capitalizing on this opportunity, Adam and Blake started to overwhelm her with their combined attacks, wailing at her in their own way.

Blake started slashing her with her weapon. The cuts weren't fatal, but were enough to wear her down, not even the reinforcement from her uniform helping her tank that many attacks.

As soon as Maki tried to block Blake's attacks meanwhile, Adam punched her square in the face with a haymaker, sending her backward with a nasty crack; the attack had broken her nose and made her bleed like a waterfall.

It wasn't over still; both White Fang members kept to the same strategy. Each time Maki defended herself from Blake's attacks, she would get punched by the other, and there was nothing she could do about it.

"Mak—"

His breath hitched as he started to feel Rika's fury increase the longer the fight dragged on. He clutched his head as the rage and sorrow and hate clouded his mind and threatened to let loose her spirit. Her claws vanished as he tried his best to suppress her, yet it seemed like the barest of an outline was still there.

Let me… Yuta. LET ME EAT THEM!

'No, no, not again!'

A part of him wanted her to do something, yet everything else screamed within to just let this end even if it meant killing him, because then at least it wouldn't have been blood on his hands for once. Because it meant that the worst person to exist would be gone, and life could continue on without ever another mention of Yuta and his sins.

'I just want to die, dammit!'

Suddenly, he heard glass shattering and turned his gaze upwards. He watched as a figure in red and bronze ran toward Blake and Adam and bashed them hard with a shield.

The White Fang members backed off, and Yuta heard a growling from Adam as he barely held back from feral hate.

"You…" he said as he tried to suppress his snarl. "Why are you here?!"

Yuta heard the clacking of heeled footsteps approaching him. His vision started to catch up, and he finally got a good look at his savior.

The girl was beautiful, no doubt about that. She wore a spartan outfit with a brown and red corset decorated with bronze, while her hips were armored with a bronze plate decorated like her weapons, a spear and shield. Her emerald eyes scanned him for life-threatening wounds, and once she found nothing, she smiled and offered him her hand.

"Are you alright?"

The way she said those words was soothing, as if everything would be alright now. It calmed his thoughts, and Rika started to calm herself, but not before her jealousy stirred up and reminded him she was still there.

It made him dizzy, but he could work with it. It wasn't as suffocating as it was before.

He heard Maki laughing from behind, seeming to not mind her bloodied face as she let out a feral grin at them.

"Now that we have some much-needed backup…" she said as she took up her battle stance once more, "Let's try that again."

Yuta grabbed the gladiator girl's hand and managed to stand up.

"I'm alright, thank you," he said as he watched both of the White Fang members sweat when they weren't even fighting, not even daring to move. It was strange; they had the upper hand not too long ago. Was this newcomer that good? "Excuse me for asking, but who are you?"

The girl's eyes widened, and she tried to open her mouth and then closed it like a goldfish pondering a rock, seemingly lost for words. Maki meanwhile looked at Yuta like he'd grown a second head.

After all, no one, not a single soul in Mistral or even Remnant was ignorant of the existence of the greatest prodigy of the Hunters.

Twenty years ago, that title belonged to Summer Rose. Now— it belongs to Pyrrha Nikos.

"I'm… Pyrrha Nikos, it's, uh, nice to meet you?"

Pyrrha's calm bravado was long gone, replaced by a painful uncertainty, which was strange coming from the Pride of Mistral herself. However, it didn't matter; their numbers were equal, and now they could fight their attackers. Maki didn't count Yuta as a fighter, nor did he possess the requirements to become one.

"Nice to meet you too…well, um, thanks for the save!" he beamed as he dusted himself off—the attack the cat faunus made earlier left him with pebbles and dust all over his outfit, but little else he noticed.

"You're… welcome?" Pyrrha said, still stunned for a few moments at meeting somebody so wonderfully ignorant.

"Hey, Invincible Girl, focus!"

Maki's voice bellowed throughout the room. She had no patience to withstand Yuta's ignorance right now, nor for a friendly chat with a girl like Pyrrha Nikos. Her shouting made the gladiator girl switch focus to the fight before her, and she was fixed on the duo of foes who did not dare make a move.

Just before, they were beating her and Yuta without wasting a single second. Now? They even let them have some small talk, a complete 180 in how it had been going before, and Maki knew very well what made them hesitate, much to her relief and slight annoyance.

"Can you fight?" Pyrrha asked as she spared a glance at her bloodied face.

Maki touched her head and grunted. She lowered her hand and saw no blood soaking her hand; it already dried. She felt her head spinning slightly, but she could fix it with a few deep breaths, the pain not even a novel thing considering what her "wonderful" cousins and uncles had done to her in the past. A broken nose paled compared to the Zen'in's "training" and abuse that all would have like to see her dead and gone.

"A little tap, but I'll be fine, she said, letting out a grin. "I can still move just fine if it means kicking his ass."

Adam let out a growl at that dismissive taunt, and glanced at Blake, which she returned, nodding at the understanding they had.

"Don't mess around this time," Blake said, pressing the button of her weapon, which caused it to change shape, the chains' magnets breaking apart, and the weapon morphing into a pistol with a strange sickle. Adam just grabbed the hilt of his sword until his knuckles went white.

"I'll kill her in an instant."

Maki snorted. "Well, come on then! I'm wearing bright red just for you!"

This jackass…she didn't know why, but he pissed her off something fierce.

Blake opened fire at Pyrrha, which she swiftly blocked with her shield. Frost covered her shield, but not nearly enough to make it unwieldy.

Adam meanwhile let out swift and aggressive strikes. Maki dodged to the side, her eyes never leaving her opponent's weapon as he flailed around in a rage compared with the clinical cuts and blasts of before. She knew she had the advantage and tried to keep her distance as she poked him with her spear, further agitating the bull Faunus.

Pyrrha tried her best to support Maki, but the cat Faunus was a persistent foe, not letting her get close to Adam by any means, so they were on their own for now.

Swift stabs and retreats. That was the best strategy to defeat a sword user.

Maki's frown deepened. No matter how much she slashed and stabbed Adam, he didn't seem to take any damage at all, not even a grunt. It was as if—

Her eyes widened as she watched Adam start to glow bright red from all over his body. His sword, hair, and mask shone brightly like blood in the moonlight. He burned more colorfully and more brilliantly the more she hit him.

He was charging himself up on the damage he was getting!

Maki wasted no time and jumped, using all of her strength to get away from his range, not wanting to risk whatever was going to come her way.

Her muscles tensed, and her breath hitched; Adam was already by her side, sword glowing like an unrelenting flame straight out of hell.

Pyrrha's hand glowed black in response, and she flung a heavy desk at Adam, saving Maki just barely. The leader grunted but managed to land swiftly and focused his attention on the hoplite girl, his gaze glowing scarlet from under his mask.

"Tch, bastard nearly killed me," Maki spat, her eyes narrowing at him. She felt the cold sweat coming down her forehead as she felt the waves of energy coming off him. Still, she stood strong. "I know your tricks now, you mad cow."

"Blake. Hurricane. Now." Adam spat out, causing the cat Faunus to grab a black orb from her pocket and throw it to the ground, a thick haze enveloping them.

Smoke bombs, huh?

Maki's gaze hardened as she saw a shadow leaping forward, running in circles around them. The movement was fast enough to create afterimages of itself as it surrounded them, making them all feel like rats surrounded by a pack of tomcats. It was a disorienting thing as they all tried to keep track of this Blake Belladonna, the wannabe ninja doing a good job of keeping them unsteady.

She started shooting bullets at them, which Pyrrha quickly blocked with her shield, subtly guiding them to hit only the metal. The spartan girl focused all her attention on the cat, plans turning in her head as she figured the best way to take her down.

Not so for Maki; she knew very well who the real threat was between the two White Fang agents. Adam waited, biding his time to strike them down with his fully charged glowing stick of a sword. But doing so while protecting Yuta, who stood close to them and was next to useless, would prove difficult.

"Hey," Pyrrha whispered loud enough for her to hear. "Count to ten and take down that sword guy. I'll make an opening for you when I find the real one."

Real one?

Maki's face lightened up; so that's how it was.

'One.'

The average time the untrained eye can see per flick is 12 milliseconds.

'Two.'

Nobody can move that fast unless your name was Gojo Satorou.

'Three.'

So, there had to be a catch.

'Four.'

That meant Blake wasn't unbelievably fast, not exactly.

'Five.'

It was her Semblance that allowed her to move fast under certain conditions, conditions that if she just got in the way but once...

'Six.'

The smoke and the moonlight helped her hide the true nature of her semblance.

'Seven.'

Clones or illusions of multiple fakes tried to disorient and distract them from the real one.

'Eight.'

Pyrrha Nikos figured out that Semblance in less than a second, all while monitoring Adam's actual threat and protecting Yuta.

'Nine.'

She really was invincible.

'Ten!'

Maki's gaze hardened as Pyrrha deflected one last bullet before spinning her shield, circling and throwing it at one of Blake's silhouettes, and it disappeared in a puff.

The cat Faunus capitalized on her now shieldless opponent and shot her entire magazine at her, but Pyrha was ready. She tanked the bullets with her Aura and used her Semblance to redirect her shield back at her, aimed right at Blake's back.

A direct hit caused her to lose footing. Her entire body started flicking in purple light as her Aura gave out to the force of the blow.

Maki could hear a snarl getting closer, taking her off the clinical takedown of the wannabe ninja. Adam had emerged from the shadows and charged right after her, his face full of rage and hatred, his sword unsheathed and glowing brightly.

She let out a grin. She was prepared for this; her mind never left him for one second. Instead of running away from certain death, she welcomed it and used her spear to take the slash of the blade.

Her plan worked, if with that annoyance at dealing with these more average Cursed Tools; the pole of the spear managed to block his semblance briefly before her weapon broke.

"I got you now!" she yelled as she used the small window of opportunity she had to grab Adam's shoulders and hit him with a powerful head-butt to the face, breaking his Aura and mask (and she hoped his nose) at the same time. Her feral smile did not leave her at any time.

All this time, he could have ambushed Pyrrha instead, who was busy fighting his partner thus leaving her wide open, but he decided to come at her still over taking that golden opportunity.

It didn't surprise her, because there was an aspect of Adam's behavior that started to piss her off to no end, yet might just be what she needed to beat him.

Throughout the fight, he did not attack Pyrrha, using every opportunity to attack her instead, Blake seeming to have caught on to this behavior and tried to use herself as a decoy to keep some kind of balance.

When watching Pyrrha, the White Fang leader seemed calm and focused—tense for sure, but he didn't lose his composure and kept a clear head, pathing carefully to not get into her range. When he fought against Maki, though, his slashes became erratic, and his aggression started to rise to the point of almost seeming berserk, at risk of becoming like the animal whose horns he shared.

It was clear that Adam wanted to crush her, and she enjoyed every one of his failed attempts as Maki grabbed the tip of the spear and sliced through Adam's torso.

"Adam!" Blake yelled as she saw her partner's torso bleeding from the cut. In her distraction, Pyrrha hit her with the tip of the shield, shattering her Aura instantly. The faunus landed beside Adam as she groaned.

Neither of them were dead. Maki came close, but the cuts she gave him were too shallow; she didn't hit any vitals, but it was still enough to keep him down. After all, she wanted to know why these fools attacked them in the first place.

Maki kneeled to the ground, panting. The pain from her earlier beating started to come back as she felt her head begin to spin again. She took a deep, shuddering breath and steeled herself to stop the nausea from coming.

She watched as Adam crawled towards her with his sword in hand in one final attempt to take her down. Maki rolled her eyes.

With a haymaker to the face, she sent him rolling meters away.

"Learn to know when you're beat, dumbass," Maki said, her face no longer holding that grin she preferred and instead replaced it with a scowl.

She could hear him groan as he clutched his head, trying but failing to get up as his mind didn't quite connect with his body. This time, it would be hard for him to stand up.

"Finally, it's over..." Pyrrha sighed as she walked towards her side. She looked in better shape than she thought she would. Her armor barely had any scratches or dents. It was like she wasn't hit at all.

"I should be the one saying that…" Maki muttered as she stood up from her spot. She grabbed the spear, which now had the size of a fork, and walked towards Blake, who began to clutch Adam tightly in her arms.

Maki uses her free hand to yank the mask off Blake's face. The cat's golden eyes narrowed as she gritted her teeth when the spear reached her throat.

"Why's the White Fang here?" Maki said curtly. She jerks her thumb at Yuta. "Is it because of him?"

"Me?"

"Yes, you, I highly doubt they were here because of me."

A new Special Grade sorcerer would have sent alarms to any nearby criminal who wanted to challenge Jujutsu High. Anyone who wasn't affiliated with the school would try their hardest to see them wiped off the map, as not a single faction in Remnant is on good terms with them.

One could have concluded that the White Fang should have sympathy for them, as they were outcasts from the world, something the White Fang could relate to. However, a terrorist's mindset is as narrow as a water hose.

Sure, they could have been after Pyrrha. Killing Mistral's prodigy would surely plummet their morale, leaving them open for attacks, but they should have sent more manpower if that was the case. These two idiots weren't going to cut it if they didn't manage even to touch her.

They had to be after Yuta. Why did they want him? She doesn't have the answer to that question.

Blake didn't say a word; she merely stared at her with blank disregard. It was starting to piss her off enough to make her almost consider just killing her here and now.

Almost.

"It will be complicated to interrogate someone so deep in their delusion," Pyrrha added, her tone firm yet pitying. The gladiator girl merely watched the terrorists with a grimace. "We should leave this to a professional."

"I will agree with you on this one; they aren't going to be as kind as us," Maki said as she lowered her blade. She turned to see Pyrrha, who had a sour look on her face. Her emerald eyes were scanning her thoroughly.

"Are you absolutely sure you're alright? They were giving you a nasty beating before I arrived," she asked as she pursed her lips.

Maki shrugged it off.

"I'm fine; it's nothing too serious," she muttered.

Jeez, she wanted to change the subject. It felt uncomfortable when others worried about her, like she was just waiting for the other shoe to drop and they all dropped the nice guy routine to dunk on her just like her rotten family did.

"Why are you here anyway?"

Pyrrha blinked, seemingly taken off guard by her question.

"Oh… that," she began to rub her shoulder. "I heard a commotion this morning, and since I was nearby, I went to investigate. It turns out this place had a lot of Curses nearby that were killing the students there, so I rushed in and did my best to evacuate everyone while fending them off. As luck would have it, I arrived just as the Curses started to lose control so I could save people in time."

Maki raised an eyebrow at that. "All by yourself? How did you even kill the Curses without Cursed Energy…or a Cursed Tool?"

"I… didn't use a Cursed Tool to kill them," Pyrrha said. Before Maki could express her displeasure, she continued, palms raised, "I know what you want to say, but I had to do something. Otherwise, I would have let people die… and I wouldn't forgive myself if that happened. You can castigate me later, if you still feel that strongly, but I won't regret what I did."

Killing Curses without a Cursed Tool was beyond irresponsible. There was a reason sorcerers were needed to deal with higher-level Curses; their equipment and experience were invaluable on this field, and Huntsmen and Huntresses lacked those.

When a Curse dies to anything but Cursed Energy, it isn't exorcized; it merely regenerates itself and keeps causing more trouble for the people even if it takes say a week to come back. Cursed tools and sorcerers are necessary to keep them at bay, to keep any of this running like it had been.

If Jujutsu Sorcerers didn't deal with Curses, Grimm would quickly overflow, and chaos would ensue as Grimm and Curses fought over the people they wanted to kill.

No faction wanted that. It would be unreasonable for them to attack each other like warring tribes.

So they leave each other be…and that causes more problems along the way.

If Jujutsu High provided them with Cursed Tools, then Huntsman would finally be able to fight Curses fair and square. They could deal with Grade 3 or lower Curses with no problem while leaving the higher-leveled ones at the hands of professional sorcerers, and still be of some help there as only a fool would turn away the extra hands.

But no, the families would prefer to watch the world burn than work with the kingdoms…and vice versa.

If the kingdoms left history behind and tried to reach an agreement, things would be different…or perhaps not, knowing how her wretched clan could be.

Maki looked at the devastation of the school. No corpses littered on the ground, as curses ate any whole before they could be found, so now they wouldn't be at peace. So long as no accord could be reached, scenes like this would keep repeating.

Still, Sanctum was doomed either way given its history. The quality of its education plummeted further still ever since Pyrrha had graduated, so it was only a matter of time until it broke down, though it happening in this way wasn't what anybody wanted.

"No offense, but this place is a dump," she said bluntly. Instead of being offended, the gladiator girl merely nodded.

"It wasn't always like this. When I studied here, it was a very peaceful and well-ordered school. The people who taught me were some of the kindest I'd met, and I will never forget them…even if I did have to check my privilege. Regardless of its reputation now, I still have to protect it."

Maki blinked a couple of times. She was just like…

Like…

A comic book hero jumped right out the page.

She glances at Yuta, who smiled at her words. She even has the heroine's charm!

It's not like that was a problem. In a cursed world, people like her are essential to remind others they aren't destined to curse each other…she just felt weird was all that there really was somebody like that after seeing so many people in all their warty selves.

"Right… sorry for doubting you." That was all Maki managed to say. She began walking towards Blake, who held her partner tightly in her arms; she probably needed to knock her out if she caused too much trouble.

"Anyway, we need to leave. Since you've been here a long time now, you must be tired. We can take you to eat as thanks."

Pyrrha tilted her head.

"It's been that long? I have been here only twenty minutes."

That stopped Maki in her tracks. She furrowed her eyebrows and glanced at Pyrrha as if she had grown a second head.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" she said, startled by Maki's sudden change of mood.

"Because the curses already lost control by the morning, and it was already past noon since we arrived…" Maki muttered. She placed her hand on her chin in deep thought.

If Pyrrha arrived in the morning, then why did she take so long to leave? At the very least, she should be tired… unless she was lying—

No, she seemed far too genuine to lie about something like that. Still, there was no way she had been here for only 20 minutes.

Her eyes widened in horror as it hit. All these "unknowns" were too familiar in the books she read, but she hadn't experienced them yet… and didn't want to either.

Maki ran towards a nearby classroom door and opened it. She felt a knot in her throat and resisted the urge to punch a nearby wall out of frustration.

"Nikos… did you feel like the curse spirits were becoming more erratic?"

"I don't know what you mean, I just—" Pyrrha rushed to her side, and she immediately became quiet as soon as she saw what was through the door. "What… is that?"

It was the same hallway they just fought in. The damage from their previous battle remained: the broken windows, the cracked floor, the ruined furniture.

But what most caught her attention was that she could see everyone through the door: Pyrrha, Yuta, Blake, Adam, and herself.

A domain in the entire school.

It was an incomplete one, but it didn't negate the fact that they were trapped inside it. If the entire school had been warped by it, it would have been impossible to go through the fight in the first place, as they would be unable to find anyone if the caster didn't want to.

Unless that someone-or something-did want them to fight.

Maki rushed towards Blake, who merely watched her with a blank expression. She grabbed her by her vest and pulled her up, glaring intently at her eyes.

"These curses are yours; command them to stand down!"

Blake frowned and furrowed her eyebrows. She was going to ask her again until she heard Adam coughing, blood pouring out of her mouth.

"Did you…" he gasped. "…exorcise the curse?"

Yuta grimaced and looked at him.

"I thought you waited for us to exorcize the curses! You arrived exactly after we finished!" he yelled. He didn't try to hide his anger at the leader.

"They did, but at the same time they didn't…"

Everyone turned to see Maki, who started to massage her temples. She began to walk back and forth at a fast pace.

"When did you two arrive?"

"Two hours after you entered," Blake said as she averted her eyes. She cupped her chin as she seemed deep in thought briefly. She then let out an audible gasp, her golden eyes contracting to the point of almost turning into slits.

Time was warped here. There's no way to tell how long they had been here or how much time had passed outside.

What was Gojo doing?! He should have picked up an anomaly like this with his eyes alone!

Hehe…

The building's temperature seemed to drop below zero, and the atmosphere became heavier and thicker than it was before. Everyone seemed to feel it as they stopped their pondering to face the immediate danger they were in, all reacting in their own dread at what they witnessed.

Adam grit his teeth and tried to crawl away from the zone, but he was too weak to make it anywhere, giving up the moment he realized he would not get far like this.

Blake trembled uncontrollably, clutching her weapon with no intent of letting it go like the world's sharpest security blanket.

Yuta almost pissed his pants, whimpering from the repulsive sight that was before him as he felt a fear similar yet different to what Rika brought whenever she was…excited.

Pyrrha gulped, and sweat started pouring out of her forehead. She readied her spear and shield, waiting for the worst to happen as she faced down something far beyond the Grimm and tournament fighters she'd faced.

What stood before them was a pale mockery of a person, wearing a simple long rag as its sole piece of clothing. Its whole body had an unnatural paleness, with its hands painted corpse blue. Its face had a set of tendrils seemingly grabbing its skull and descending down like some mockery of a braid. Its four eyes opened up, and it let a huge cheshire grin at them as it sized them up.

But what stood out the most was its Curse Energy; the amount it radiated was beyond ridiculous, a suffocating miasma of rage and hate and gleeful destruction.

None of them were prepared to face a Special Grade Curse.

For anyone out there who is confused about what I have created, let me tell you: this is a setting fusion. The two power systems and customs of both worlds are being combined into one. As to how that works, you can ask me in the forums of Questionable Questing, Spacebattles, or Sufficient Velocity. If you want to ask me in other mediums, here is the Discord server I'm staying, where I have a channel of my own.

Emerald Library: discord dot gg/elibrary