Shalaxi Helbane sneered as the thin beam of Purple energy struck her forehead. The impact, while powerful, only left a small smoking hole on her otherwise flawless skin – a hole that rapidly closed. Satoru shrugged. He'd expected as much. Cursed Spirits didn't technically have any organs. One could rip their head right from their shoulders and the stronger of them would linger on as just a head, until they managed to heal themselves with Cursed Energy, kind of like that fire guy – whatshisname. Nah, the best way to deal with Cursed Spirits was by destroying their forms entirely.
The Cursed Spirit stepped forward. Her eyes, blazing with the fury of a thousand suns, locked onto Satoru, her lips curling into a sadistic smile. Shalaxi had four upper limbs, Satoru noted – two crab-like pincers, one holding a spear, and the other holding a long barbed whip.
"You think a mere spark can harm me, mortal?" Shalaxi hissed, her voice dripping with contempt as the portal to the Cursed Realm closed entirely, leaving the both of them trapped within the sealed hall with no way out for either. Perfect. The massively tall daemon twirled its whip and raised its spear right at Satoru. "I am Shalaxi Helbane, the Handmaiden of Slaanesh, the Harvester of Souls. Your end is nigh."
Satoru chuckled, the sound echoing through the sealed Hall of Khaine. The pistol cracked and he knew now that another shot would shatter it entirely. Weird. It should've already broke after that head shot from earlier but now it was just... very heavily damaged. Huh, better than he expected, then. "You sure talk a lot for someone who's about to get their ass handed to them. But hey, that's fine. I like a bit of banter before a good fight, bitch. Actually, I do enjoy a good banter, in general."
In a blur of motion, Shalaxi lunged forward, her spear slicing through the air with deadly precision. Satoru sidestepped effortlessly, his eyes tracking her every movement with the aid of Six Eyes. He could see the flow of her cursed energy, the rhythm of her attacks, the slight tells in her body language that betrayed her next move. That didn't help too much, however, because the damn purple-skinned piece of shit moved so fast that it was making Toji seem slow by comparison.
The fact that Shalaxi attacked with all four of her limbs didn't make things any easier, though they certainly made the duel a lot more exciting. The Cursed Spirit also made use of illusions, most of which moved with it in perfect synchrony, though none of them worked well enough to fool Six-Eyes and so appeared more akin to specters that didn't do shit. Almost clever.
Still, Six-Eyes compensated where his natural senses would've failed entirely. Satoru ducked, weaved, and pivoted as the spear stabbed and stabbed and stabbed and stabbed, each thrust faster than the last until Shalaxi's attacks were breaking the very air, creating sonic booms. Still, Satoru avoided each one. Not that they would've reached him, since Infinity was up, but doing so was just fun. It made the battle all the more engaging, more dynamic.
And wasn't that what all of this was about? It'd be terribly boring, otherwise, if all he did was stand there. It was a bit like being in the WWE, except his enemy was going at it for real.
With a flick of his wrist, Satoru fired another shot from his makeshift pistol, aiming for Shalaxi's heart. The beam of Purple energy streaked through the air, but Shalaxi's twisted her body, allowing the beam to graze her side instead, leaving a sizzling wound. The pistol shuddered and Satoru watched as the thing completely dissolved into dust and flickered away into the wind.
Ah, there it fucking goes.
"That tickles," Shalaxi mocked, her voice a velvet purr, but there was an edge to it that Satoru did not miss. Her whip snapped forward, aiming to ensnare Satoru's legs. But Satoru was already in motion, his body blurring as he activated Red, forcing the whip aside, before he surged forward with blue, warping and thinning space-time. Shalaxi barely had time to react as Satoru sent a left, Red reinforced, uppercut right into the Cursed Spirit's exposed stomach. Black blood burst out of Shalaxi's maws just as she was sent flying, her body crashing into the barrier, sending ripples fluttering all over them. The Cursed Spirit then fell to the ground, eyes narrowed in seething anger.
Satoru grinned, trails of smoke and steam rising from his outstretched left fist. "Did that also tickle?"
"Impudence..." Shalaxi growled in frustration as she pushed herself up onto her feet. That likely didn't hurt the Cursed Spirit as much as it might've seemed that way. If nothing else, Satoru noted, it might've been a little bit painful, but Shalaxi's regeneration would've gotten rid of that pain almost immediately. The Cursed Spirit surged forward, faster than lightning, her spear spinning in a complex pattern, aiming for Satoru's head. He parried with the Sword of Khaine. The weapons met and clashed, sending sparks flying in every direction, the very ground cracking underneath them as Satoru pumped and augmented his body with enough Cursed Energy to birth a disaster-level Curse.
"What's wrong sweet cheeks?" Satoru grinned at the mounting frustration on Shalaxi's face, his strength growing higher and higher until he was pushing her back. The Cursed Spirit pivoted, realizing the futility of resorting to brute force, and spun and jumped high, a flurry of thrusts and stabs and thunderous cracks lashing out from spear and whip. Satoru dodged each one, his body moving faster and stronger thanks to the augmentation. Looking back, Satoru mused, he'd never used this much Cursed Energy to augment himself before – mostly because he'd never had this much of it to begin with.
But now, the amount he'd used wasn't even a drop in the lake. His Cursed Energy Reserves were barely affected and, thanks to Six-Eyes, the efficiency with which it regenerated meant, technically, Satoru could sustain this level of Cursed Augmentation indefinitely. Though, he wasn't gonna do that, since it meant he'd be way too strong and having to adjust to that level of strength for everyday purposes like Superman did when he was a kid did not sound like a lot of fun.
The Honored One bobbed and weaved underneath Shalaxi's spear, before slicing open the Cursed Spirit's stomach with the Sword of Khaine. The wound hissed and blazed as black blood spilled forth from the opening. Shalaxi screamed and jumped back, clutching its wound.
Idly, Satoru noted how the wound caused by the Sword of Khaine did not regenerate automatically. It must've been all the positive energy, he mused, that emanated from the flames that coated the blade itself.
That or it possessed some kind of Enchantment that made it anathema to Cursed Spirits. Then again, both possibilities made use of Positive Energy anyway.
"Nice moves," Satoru taunted, before shrugging and turning off Infinity entirely, just to level the playing field - just to make things more fun.
Shalaxi Helbane was strong, he'd admit, possessing enough raw Cursed Energy to potentially rival someone like Kairos. Unfortunately, Shalaxi's main method of inflicting harm and damage came in the form of martial arts, using spear and whip and strength and speed and so the Cursed Spirit couldn't do anything to harm him as long as Infinity was up, unlike Kairos – the big blue fucking bird – who probably had like a million things up its sleeves.
"Hey, ugly, I've handicapped myself for your sake, since you're turning out to be rather... ordinary." Satoru finished.
"Ordinary..." Shalaxi Helbane repeated the word and it was as though the whole universe had stopped for her. And, suddenly her wounds no longer mattered. Shalaxi held out one of her pincers at Satoru and, with a scream, unleashed a storm of glass shards. Satoru smiled and stood still, his face stony and still even as the shards cut and sliced open his skin and flesh, each one causing an agonizing amount of pain that would've brought lesser men to their knees.
And yet, Shalaxi's spell – whatever it was – reminded him of something distantly familiar and a hundred times worse: Sukuna's Domain. Compared to the Malevolent Shrine, Shalaxi's little trick was nothing.
He just stood there, maintaining eye contact, until the spell ended moments later. No wound remained. Not a single drop of blood drawn. The individual shards all had some sort of enchantment that slowed down healing and regeneration. However, a brute-force usage of Positive Energy to heal his wounds, overwhelming the enchantments, easily dealt with the effects. Again, Satoru mused, Shalaxi was strong, but he pretty much countered everything she could do, a colossal incompatibility in his favor.
Satoru grinned. "My turn."
With a surge of Cursed Energy, Satoru unleashed a barrage of Red techniques, the destructive blasts converging on Shalaxi from multiple angles. She danced through the onslaught with unnatural grace, her movements a blur of lethal elegance. Her spear struck out, aiming for Satoru's chest, but he parried again, the force of the impact reverberating through his arm. Good. He actually felt something that time. Shalaxi ignored the open wound on her torso, black blood spilling everywhere as they clashed – spear and whip against the Sword of Khaine.
The very air screamed as they moved and blurred and surged faster than any creature could've possibly perceived. Their weapons clashed hundreds of times within moments, each one occurring faster than the blink of an eye. The very air itself sizzled with Cursed Energy.
Satoru's grin widened as his mind raced, analyzing Shalaxi's fighting style. She was fast, incredibly so, and her attacks were precise and deadly. Her technique was as close to perfection as it'd ever get. The way she used both whip and spear spoke of a level of mastery that most beings could never hope to achieve. She used two martial art styles as well, one for each of her weapons and yet Shalaxi utilized both so cleanly and so efficiently that Satoru doubted anyone else would've noticed. Not to mention the ease and fluidity with which her pincers moved. As a physical opponent, Shalaxi was the strongest he'd ever fought.
As Shalaxi's spear arced towards him again, Satoru activated Blue, but focused on her outstretched leg, pulling her off balance. Shalaxi's eyes widened in surprise as she stumbled forward, and Satoru seized the opportunity. He brought the Sword of Khaine down in a powerful arc, aiming for the outstretched leg. If the wound on the Cursed Spirit's stomach refused to heal, then a missing limb was likely going to stay missing for a while.
A missing leg was going to be very annoying to deal with, Satoru mused. And someone like Shalaxi, who relied primarily on speed and dexterity to do anything, would find such an injury to be more than a little annoying.
Shalaxi's reflexes kicked in, and she barely managed to raise her spear in time to deflect the blow. But the force of the impact sent her skidding backwards, her heels digging into the ground. She snarled, her eyes blazing with rage. Satoru surged forward, closing the gap with Blue, before unleashing a blazing inferno right towards Shalaxi, who roared and screamed as the flames blackened her skin to a crisp. The Cursed Spirit leapt backwards, but Satoru held out his left hand and pulled her right back in with Blue.
Shalaxi's eyes widened as Satoru jumped high and over her, before slicing off both of her pincer-bearing arms, the stumps bubbling and hissing as the limbs fell to the ground, leaking black blood and oozing a foul stench. Shalaxi screeched, releasing a noise so foul that it forced Satoru to reactivate Infinity, just to keep his brain from melting within his skull.
Shalaxi lunged towards him, whip and spear a whirlwind of death, screaming and screeching incoherently. Satoru stood still for a moment, before dropping Infinity and weaving underneath the Cursed Spirit's barrage, capitalizing on a single, extremely brief, window of opportunity. Satoru sent a punch right into Shalaxi's abdomen.
A flash of black streaks exploded around them as Satoru's fist connected. His punch tore through the Cursed Spirit's flesh and bone, but the power behind it was such that Shalaxi was sent hurling and spinning away regardless. The Cursed Spirit landed a few meters away, but Satoru was upon her immediately, sending a kick right into her face and sending her skidding across the open ground, spinning and tumbling right into a statue of Khaine, which crumbled atop her. A thousand tons of solid rock falling right over her head.
Of course, that couldn't possibly be enough. But, then again, Satoru wasn't trying to kill the Cursed Spirit. If he was, then he would've ended this battle before it even began. No, the goal of the ritual was to dominate and bind.
Shalaxi screamed and roared as she pulled herself out of the rubble. Satoru grinned. Fear. That's what he caught.
Shalaxi wasn't nearly as confident as she'd been before their duel began. And, of course not; she'd been losing this whole time. Still, the Cursed Spirit's reserves and output were phenomenal and, if Satoru was aiming for a battle of attrition, then he'd probably still win, but only after a full month of constant fighting.
As fun as that might be, he wasn't interested in fighting for that long.
Satoru laughed, the sound echoing through the hall. "Bring it on, ugly."
With a roar of fury, Shalaxi lunged forward again, her spear a blur of motion. Satoru met her head-on, their weapons clashing in a dance of death. Sparks flew as they traded blows, each strike more powerful than the last. Every so often, the Cursed Spirit would land a blow, but the extensive Cursed Augmentation meant Satoru barely felt anything or, when the wound was deep enough, he'd simply use a burst of RCT to heal himself. Now, he had to admit, Shalaxi was incredibly powerful. If she was facing any other enemy, then she might've already won. Her martial skill was ridiculous, honestly. And her speed and strength meant there were very few physical enemies capable of contending against her.
But Satoru, unfortunately for the Cursed Spirit, was one of the very few who were stronger.
"This should be enough." Satoru whispered as he pushed the Cursed Spirit away with Red. "You're boring and this is getting boring."
Unfortunately for Shalaxi, it was time for the next phase of his plan. Satoru grinned. "Domain Expansion: Unlimited Void."
AN: Chapter 41 is out on (Pat)reon!