"You're fucking joking..." Satoru leaned back, closed his eyes, rubbed his eyes, punched the wall, groaned, ate a fruit, tore out a few bits of his otherwise perfect hair, ate another fruit, screamed into his palms, punched the wall again, and then sighed. Hovering across him, Kairos just looked... amused at his reaction. Perfectly understandable. Because not even Satoru was absolutely certain as to what the right reaction was supposed to be. He didn't want to be rude; so, he just picked all of them. He wasn't sure where the fruits came from.
After a moment, Satoru breathed in again and forced himself to calm the fuck down.
All things considered, this really wasn't as bad as it could possibly be. It just meant that Round 2 was, indeed, possible, even if it was going to be a bitch to win. Why? Well, it could be because of the fact that his apparent enemy was already here for quite a long time before Satoru even arrived. Or maybe because said enemy was somehow lucky enough to be reborn in a superhuman body or some other weird shit that didn't make as much sense to him when Caoimhe explained it. Satoru got the gist of it, however. When Round 2 eventually happened and it definitely fucking was going to happen, then he was gonna be the underdog.
"So... that motherfucker, Ryomen Sukuna, was here about ten thousand years before me and he was reborn in a super duper body that makes even Space Marines look like sick babies in comparison and he has kids?!" Satoru's eyes narrowed. Around them, the flaming embers of the Cursed Realm ebbed and flowed, screeching and screaming faces forming in the sea of infinite Cursed Energies. They weren't technically in the Cursed Realm; no, as Kairos explained, this was merely a sub-realm that was connected to the greater Cursed Realm, a small portion of it that was claimed by Tzeentch, one of the Four Major Gods of the Cursed Realm, who was also subsequently his and Kairos' boss – at least, for now. What that meant, apparently, was that all the Cursed Energy in this place technically belonged to Tzeentch.
That also meant that, as great as the idea might've been, Satoru couldn't take any of it for himself.
Oh yeah, he could do that now. With the Mark of Khaine on his right hand, alongside the knowledge he'd gained from that Star Piercer, Satoru had figured out the method to acquiring ambient Cursed Energy and from the Cursed Realm itself. The one thing he'd not figure out was the method to opening a small rift into the Cursed Realm, but that sort of knowledge came with experience. Eventually, he'd figure it out. Sukuna, no doubt, probably already knew the method, after ten thousand fucking years in this hellhole of a galaxy. So, Satoru had to learn quick.
"Indeed," Both of Kairos's heads spoke at once. "Ryomen Sukuna is the lord of the Devourers Legion – quite the terrifying bunch of Astartes they are, very powerful. But, despite what you might believe, the World Drinker has spent much of his time in this galaxy imprisoned in a place that will not be opened for a very long time. And, no, they're not his literal biological children, just enhanced using his biological template."
An image flashed in Satoru's mind, a prison so intricate and so powerful that not even the King of Curses could get out. He'd been stuck there for almost ten thousand years at this point. Good. That gave Satoru plenty of time to prepare and gather strength, learn new techniques and figure out more and more of the Aeldari brand of sorcery. After all, the doors to reaching the ultimate power was opened to him the moment he arrived in this place and became the Britheim. Khaine, the shard of a literal god, merged with him and granted him a bunch of cool new shit to play with, like fire.
And, even now, Satoru's mind brimmed with new ideas regarding the creation and usage of his own version of Wraithbone, which he hadn't had a lot of time to experiment with. Oh, he was gonna rectify that as soon as possible. The possibilities were, quite literally, limitless.
Heh.
It was only a matter of time, Satoru mused, until he attained the level of power needed to challenge the version of Ryomen Sukuna in this galaxy. And, this time, he had no intention of losing.
"Ah, of course; that makes sense. The dude's crazy enough to warrant something like that," Satoru nodded. "Typical. Anyway, I doubt you called me here to talk about Sukuna."
"Of course," Kairos chuckled. "The Master wishes to congratulate you on completing your first task. Neither of us expected such an outcome; we – I – are rarely surprised these days."
"Stick around, buddy, and you'll get to see a lot more surprises." Satoru grinned. Yeah, all things considered, Kairos was a pretty swell guy. No wonder Kenjaku had a bunch of Cursed Spirits as friends. And, in this case, Satoru was pretty sure he wasn't strong enough to beat Kairos in a straight up duel. Similarly, there was no need for Kairos to actually fight him. So, what was there to do? Yep, become buddies. Great idea. "Anyway, what's the next one? Also, assuming I'd want to send Tzeentch some wine; who would I go about doing that?"
"Amazing. But, if you're truly keen on, quite literally, drinking with the God of all Sorcerers, then you may open a portal in the Realm of Tzeentch. The Great Master is quite fond of you; no harm will come to you should you wish to enter the Realm of Sorcery. You'd be welcomed, in fact, Britheim." Kairos answered. Another image flashed in his mind's eye – a realm of endless labyrinths and shifting libraries, a realm of great secrets and plots, and all sorts of dastardly shenanigans that honestly seemed like a lot of fun. And, at the center of it all was Tzeentch himself, pitting his own Cursed Spirits against each other in what seemed like an eternal game of politics.
Yep, definitely seemed like a load of fun.
Satoru shrugged. "Sounds cool. I'll figure out a way to open a portal once I find a good-enough beverage. Anyway, the next task? I'm one for three at the moment."
"In your journey, you will come across a foul creature that goes by the name of Be'lakor," Kairos explained. "Bind its essence to yourself. The means to performing such a thing is already known to you, Gojo Satoru; you need only look."
Almost immediately, Satoru's eyes went to the Mark at the back of his right hand. Interesting. Yep, he was going to study this thing, anyway.
"Cool." And then, his eyes widened. "Oh, I almost forgot. You said you'd secure a means of escape, yeah? Well, I don't need that anymore, but the father and daughter duo that came here with me might be able to make use of it. Can you take them away from this place? I'm sure they're sick and tired of being around aliens."
Honestly, with all the shit that was happening around him, Satoru would readily admit that he kinda sorta forgot about those two. Well, no, he didn't forget about them – not quite – he just didn't remember them. There was a difference in there, somewhere.
"T'is already done." And then, Kairos faded and so did the darkness and the sea of power that came with visiting the Cursed Realm as he did. Satoru awoke on his bed, covered in sweat, his Cursed Energy fluctuating rapidly. Well, that was a neat fucking trick. Satoru had been a little worried that there was no real means for Kairos to communicate with him here, without alerting every single Aeldari, but it turns out there was nothing to worry about, because the fucking two-headed bird could apparently just show up in his dreams now. Sighing and shaking his head, he stood up and walked to the open window.
It'd been... a few days now, by his reckoning, since the Craftworld thwarted the Mechanicus attack, slaughtering their fleet and their ground forces, and hunting down the stragglers who thought they were hot shit and wouldn't be found if they hid well enough. Well, maybe, they could do that if they weren't on the Craftworld. And now, there was... nothing left of them and their forces, aside from the mess they left behind, which the Aeldari were still hard at work cleaning up. And, in that time, Caoimhe became the leader of the Farseer Council, seeing as she was the first to unlock all the latent power that was available to an Aeldari. The others struggled, especially the older ones, to make use of what was now theirs. Satoru had to admit, Caoimhe, in terms of raw power alone, was probably about a fourth as strong as Kairos and that was no easy feat.
Of course, strength and power alone did not determine anything. A puny, powerless human could easily kill even a powerful Sorcerer if they possessed the right tool or struck at the right time. For instance, in terms of quantity of Cursed Energy Reserves, Caoimhe almost had the same amount as Satoru himself. But, in terms of fine control, she was nowhere near his level. Caoimhe and, indeed, just about all the Aeldari, were incapable of using something as simple as Positive Energy to heal themselves. Indeed, they made use of Positive Energy for lots of things, but they never seemed to heal themselves with it, which struck Satoru as peculiar. Caoimhe, like a lot of other Aeldari, also couldn't create Wraithbone, even after Satoru shared the process he'd streamlined. Sure, she had plenty of spells and incantations at her disposal, and many of those were certainly very powerful, given the fact that Aeldari Sorcery was incredibly potent already, but – in a fight between the two of them – Satoru would win.
He proved that, last night, when Caoimhe respectfully asked for a spar, because he was the only one strong enough, in the entire Craftworld, to who was stronger than her.
His control was finer and greater. And, as many people already told him, Infinity was just bullshit. And now, Satoru was pretty sure he could use Khaine's Mark to further reinforce the weakness of Infinity; he wasn't entirely sure how to go about doing that, but he knew it was possible. Khaine's Cursed Energy should be able to deal with pesky little things, like Domain Amplification, by its very nature of being separate from Satoru himself; in other words, Khaine's Mark granted him an entirely new domain, which meant he could, in theory, use Domain Amplification and his Innate Cursed Techniques at the same time, without having to constantly shift between the two as Sukuna did in their fight.
So, if someone used Domain Amplification to try and get through Infinity then that person was essentially just fucking themselves over. Khaine's Mark granted him quite a bit of leeway in this case.
The opposite was also true. Satoru could use Domain Amplification, by sacrificing Limitless, while still making use of the Sword of Khaine and all the literal firepower it offered. Satoru had barely scratched the surface of what he could do with his newest toy.
The most exciting and, likely, the most difficult part was actually manifesting Khaine's Domain Expansion, which Satoru knew nothing about. It wasn't as though the Aeldari studied their own gods extensively. So, he was gonna have to figure that shit out by himself. The very thought of it was exciting, however.
And, speaking of gods, and definitely not to anyone's surprise, the Britheim being the coalescence of all the shards of Khaine was apparently a part of the prophecy – or, at least, it would be if one squinted hard enough. But, the Aeldari ate it all up and now he definitely was Britheim or whatever else their prophecy wanted. He didn't care anymore, honestly, but he was going to ride this wave and see where the fuck it took him, because it honestly was just hilarious. Their faith grew stronger, however, which meant the passive stream of Cursed Energy he received from all the Aeldari of this Craftworld also grew in both quality and quantity.
But, all of that would have to wait. One step at a time and all that. The next portion of his training would involve Wraithbone. After all, a poor craftsman did not properly make use of all his tools and Satoru would rather die than be middling in anything. He had all this power, all this potential, and he was going to master all of it. That bitch-ass Sukuna better watch out, because Round 2 was definitely happening... in maybe a few hundred years, which meant one of his challenges was to try and find a way to prolong his lifespan. The Mark of Khaine was already doing that, he noticed a few days ago, but it didn't grant him true agelessness.
Oh well, one step at a time.
AN: Chapter 38 is up on (Pat)reon!