There were plenty of lines that Gojo Satoru did not cross or only did so begrudgingly. One of those lines was the taking of civilian or otherwise innocent life. Despite his affiliation with the Aeldari and, very recently, the Drukhari, Satoru still very much cared for innocent human life, those who've done nothing wrong, those who did not deserve to suffer, those who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He vehemently disliked the Imperium of Mankind and all it stood for, yes, and its Space Marines and Inquisitors. He hated their staunch traditionalist ways, their penchant for breaking apart entire worlds for mere suspicions, and their mistrust of Jujutsu and... Psykers. Ignorance. Ignorance was the Imperium's greatest sin and Satoru hated them because of that.
But the humans themselves? The men and women who fought for their lives, for their families, for their future, and for the Imperium that cared very little for them... Satoru found that he really didn't want to kill any of them if he could. They weren't exactly innocents as that word had no place in war, but they weren't responsible for any of this, either. He didn't want to kill them. Unfortunately, these very same men and women fought alongside the Vlka Fenryka, the Space Corgis, which meant that, unfortunately, they were his enemies – not out of hatred, but out of circumstance.
And, as much as he hated it, Satoru would readily admit that he'd crossed this line before – many times before, actually. The Honored One had many enemies and many of them became so through unfavorable circumstances, like the men and women, the Imperial Guardsmen, who raised their weapons against him now. Lasguns, Satoru mused. He had one too, but he hadn't bothered to bring it along. Would've been cool to actually use it. Not cool to use it against humans, but just cool in general. Satoru sighed and smiled softly as the Guardsmen open fired, unleashing scores of red beams that never reached him, despite moving at the speed of light. Nothing got through Infinity without his permission – or without messing with time and space itself.
There were about a hundred or so Guardsmen in total, all of them firing their Lasguns right at him. As far as Satoru was aware, these guys were hunkering down to defend this already heavily fortified section of their battle line, covered in barbed wires, landmines, caltrops, trenches, and raised walls of sand bangs; it... honestly looked a lot like how Satoru imagined World War 1 would look like, which was a weird thing to think about, seeing as this was the 40th millennium or some shit and you'd think that future humanity would come up with new shit, instead of going back.
The corpses of Orks and the ruins of armored vehicles lingered on the ground, half buried and rotten. Satoru stepped forward and, with but a simple thought, shrunk the distance between himself and the Guardsmen, appearing right in front of them, their eyes widening in fear and surprise.
"It'll be painless," Satoru said, though he was pretty sure the Guardsmen didn't hear him. He brought his hand forward and made the symbol of infinity. The Guardsmen kept firing to no avail. "Domain Expansion: Unlimited Void..."
He discovered a few new things about his domain since he gained access to Tzeentch's realm and the infinite amount of Cursed Energies that came with it. Firstly, it was now possible to burn through far more Cursed Energy than usual, just to increase the range of his domain. If he spent enough, he could even cover the entirety of Tokyo – perhaps even the entirety of Japan – in his Domain. All it needed was fuel – of which he had an unlimited supply of. The effects of Unlimited Void would become even deadlier once he figured out how to create an Open-Barrier Domain.
In this instance, however, Satoru made use of just the barest amounts of Cursed Energy, opening his domain for only a split second. But that split second was all the time he needed to break the minds of the Guardsmen before him – hundreds of them, their minds rendered to mush, eyes wide and mouths agape. But they weren't dead. By his estimation, they'll probably recover after a year or so. With a sigh, Satoru reached out and grabbed a nearby Lasgun and, with it, shot down the Guardsmen – tossing away and replacing the Lasgun with another each time it ran out of juice. He shot each of them on the head, killing them instantly. Satoru did not enjoy killing them. He did it because he had to. And because they'd suffer a much worse fate under their leaders if he left them comatose.
More laser beams reached his Infinity, stopping dozens of inches before ever reaching his skin. Of course, there were more of them here. It seemed that the Vlka Fenryka did not bother leaving a few of their own to aid the Guardsmen in looking after this place.
Gojo Satoru paused for a moment, glancing down at the freshly fallen bodies of the Guardsmen he had just put out of their misery. His grip on the final lasgun slackened, and he let it clatter to the ground, the soft sound drowned out by the distant echoes of war.
"What else would I rather be doing?" he muttered to himself, eyes scanning the fortifications. Despite the fort's archaic defenses, it was formidable. And there were more Guardsmen, no doubt holed up in bunkers and trenches, waiting for orders they probably didn't even understand.
In another life, maybe, he would've just slipped past them, leaving them to fight for a future they didn't really have. But not today. Today, he had to make sure there were no loose ends. The war with the Imperium demanded it. He didn't want to kill them. But the amount of innocent people who were going to die if the C'tan actually woke up would be so freakishly high it wouldn't matter if he killed every living thing on this planet, since the rampaging C'tan would kill everything and everyone else, turning entire Solar Systems to dust. Killing these people was a step towards the greater good.
And Lelith needed the distraction, he supposed, for whatever plan she was cooking up.
Satoru sighed, rubbing the back of his neck as he stepped forward, his Infinity shimmering like a faint ripple in the air. The familiar sound of lasgun fire greeted him, though none of it would ever reach him. The Guardsmen had nothing that could harm him, no matter how much they tried. He moved with a lazy, almost disinterested gait, every step taking him farther down the battle line. More and more laser blasts tried to reach him, grenades, and shrapnel, and all sorts of things that would've shredded lesser men apart.
"I gotta give credit where it's due; you guys just don't quit," he muttered, his tone almost bemused. "Not even when all the odds are against you."
A stray rocket launched from one of the bunkers streaked toward him, its roar piercing the air. Satoru didn't flinch. The rocket slowed to a crawl mid-air, mere inches from touching his Infinity, the friction between dimensions tearing it apart before it could detonate.
With another flick of his fingers, he summoned a mass of Blue, and the bunker the rocket came from imploded, drawn into a singularity. The roar of collapsing steel and concrete was all that remained of its defenders as they too were silenced forevermore. Nothing remained of the bunker by the end of it, a mere second later. Dozens of them must've died in that moment, rendered down to dust. And yet, the other Guardsmen did not stop. They just kept on firing. They just kept on attacking, even when it no longer made sense.
Even so, Satoru killed them all the same. Red and Blue flashing out every few moments, breaking and ripping men apart so fast they hardly felt anything – no pain, nothing. They didn't even have a moment to scream before Satoru killed them. He made sure of that, of course. These people, for better or for worse, were innocent. He was pretty sure most of them would rather be anywhere else. Most of them would rather go home to their families than be in a battlefield. And so he killed them quickly and painlessly, simply because he had to, because there was no other choice.
It didn't take long before the next wave of Guardsmen emerged from behind their defenses. They moved in formation, more disciplined than Satoru would've liked, but they hesitated when they saw what was waiting for them - a man standing amid the bodies of their comrades, untouched, unbothered, and radiating power far beyond their understanding. Not that it mattered to them.
"Kill him!" Their leader commanded, the man standing at the front of their group, even being the first to pull the trigger and fire.
Commendable.
A burst of red lasfire came toward him, followed by the thunderous booms of heavy bolters. Still, none of it made it past Infinity. The more they fired, the more Satoru felt... melancholic. Battles were usually fun, usually engaging and interesting. This... what was happening now was none of those things.
Breathing in, Satoru raised his right hand and made a subtle gesture. "Domain Expansion: Unlimited Void..."
Satoru didn't restrict the range of his expanded domain this time. In fact, he pumped his domain full of Cursed Energy and tripled its range.
Their minds shattered. One moment they were firing, the next, they stood frozen, slack-jawed, staring into the endless abyss Satoru had opened for the briefest second. He didn't even need to kill them with his own hands this time. Their souls were already gone, leaving behind husks in the shape of soldiers.
He stepped over another trench and spotted a command tent in the distance. Probably an officer in there, sending these poor bastards to die for an empire that couldn't care less about them.
And then, the unmistakable weight of something else - something powerful - came into focus.
Satoru stopped. His eyes narrowed as he took in the figure emerging from the far side of the trench line. Unlike the rest, this wasn't a Guardsman. The power radiating from this newcomer was dense, and the armor they wore, a deep burgundy, marked them as something far more dangerous.
A Space Marine.
But not just any Space Marine. Satoru had encountered enough of those inhuman behemoths to recognize them by now, but this one was different. The burgundy armor was ornate, marked with sigils and iconography unfamiliar to him, though the sheer presence was unmistakable.
A Devourer. Though this one did not have Sukuna's markings all over its armor.
The Marine stood alone, the weight of his power evident in every step. His helmet, angular and cruel, locked onto Satoru, while his power sword crackled with energy, a faint aura of hunger radiating from it. Yep, that was definitely a Cursed Tool. And it was definitely dangerous. The Devourer himself was no pushover, bearing a Cursed Energy pool that was three times greater than the last guy had.
"Great," Satoru muttered, his hand lazily flicking at the side of his shirt. A fucking shirt. He was still wearing the same fucking shirt he died in. The Aeldari were just kind enough to wash and fix it for him. He still wore the same pants too. Huh, maybe a change in outfit was necessary. "Just what I needed - one of you guys."
He flexed his fingers, the tension building as the Devourer stepped forward, wordless but brimming with malevolent intent. And then, the Space Marine began laughing. "So, you're the one Brother Senshi warned us about, the Cursed User, who threw his lot in with the Eldar. Magnificent. I, Kureishi Mado, shall be your doom."
"Unfortunately, you won't even get to fight me," Satoru said, a grin forming over his face as Nobara – the Cursed Spirit he'd reprogrammed – suddenly appeared behind the Devourer.
AN: Chapter 53 is out on (Pat)reon!