In the Academy as Sukuna

"Among ruins and wreckage, one finds satisfaction that words cannot reach, only carnage can express."

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(POV: Ryomen Sukuna)

"Domain Expansion: Malevolent Shrine."

Time itself seemed to slow down. It was as if I could feel everything, the movement of blood in my veins, the air as it entered and exited my lungs.

My soul slowly faded, as if it was being erased from reality.

A dark energy seemingly erupted from beneath me... a darkness that spread out over the battlefield, engulfing every being it saw in its path.

The demons around me froze, a primal fear gripping their hearts. The demon in front of me, who had lunged towards me, was now standing on the ground, her eyes fixed at my figure, her body trembling in terror.

Watching her be so scared sent a weird sensation through me... was it satisfaction?

My expression, however, remained unchanging. I was focused on limiting the domain's area of effect, since I didn't want to hurt Eva at all.

The sky turned a deeper red, as if it were bleeding just from witnessing my attack.

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. The domain was ready to be used.

I had limited the domain's boundaries to 120 meters, a distance I had set purely on assumption. If I were to assume how far my allies were, 180 meters would be a better guess.

My eyes shot open, my pupils seemingly glowing in the dark as my silhouette casted a long shadow on the ground, as if I was looking down on these demons like a God from above.

My heart burned with a sense of anticipation, and also, suspense. I wanted to see these demons be minced to the ground...

The domain's imbued technique activated, sending an immeasurable number of slashes through the whole battlefield.

The demon in front of me... or is a female one called a demoness?

Anyhow, she was the first to be attacked. A few slashes hit her together, dividing her body into 6 before she even had the time to react.

Her eyes widened at the sensation of being cut, her mouth moving as if she wanted to say something, but nothing came out.

She was dead.

I stood in the middle of this carnage, streams of blood forming on the ground, mixing with the soil, while fountains erupted from the bodies of the demons being mercilessly dissected.

A few drops of blood landed on my face, making me slightly flinch.

But, it wasn't uncomfortable, it felt more like... a deep, dark satisfaction that I got from seeing these beings get massacred.

A feeling rose in my heart, I don't know what it was... but it told me to kill... to kill more.

I kept the domain up for 30 seconds, which was more than enough to slaughter every single demon in its range.

Finally, I broke the domain with a sharp gasp, my eyes drooping slightly. However, there was a small smile on my face... I enjoyed it.

Suddenly, I felt a gust of air pass beside me. These were my allies, joining the fight.

Their faces were astonished, fearful, adoring, even, as they had just witnessed the most dangerous attack they had, and probably ever will, see in their lives.

A group of more than a hundred fighters shot across the battlefield, the gusts of air due to their rapid movements almost uprooted me from the ground.

Among them was Eva, her hands trembling slightly as she ran to the frontlines.

It seems that the domain had awakened some bad memories in her... memories of the massacre.

Our eyes met for a brief moment. We both smiled slightly, looking at each other, but had no time to do anything else.

I stood at the middle of the battlefield, the sounds of metal clashing far away assaulting my ears non-stop.

The war had reached its climax, humans were openly clashing against demons, fountains of blood erupting around the field.

I raised my hand to the level of my chest. It was trembling.

A chuckle, devoid of humor, escaped my lips. This was the result of using a domain, I could feel my cursed energy circulate violently inside me.

My cursed technique was unstable.

It would take a little while for my cursed technique to restabilize, and hence, I wasn't going to join the battle until this happens.

I turned to the battlefield, and the effects of my domain were truly devastating.

The whole field was filled with blood, shining under the orange light of the sun. Pools of blood formed on the ground, being slowly leached into the soil.

Some demons who had tried to heal themselves weren't completely decomposed into a pool of blood. Some of their body parts were still intact, spread around the whole field.

It was a tragic sight, one worthy of being called a 'war'.

On the other side, humans and demons were fighting relentlessly, the sounds of battle cries, and also, cries of pain and agony, resounded in the battlefield.

Surprisingly, a lot of demons remained. I had managed to take out only about half of the demons with the domain. Though, it made sense, since I had reduced its area of effect deliberately.

I suddenly felt something... something vibrate inside me.

It was quite an uncomfortable sensation, as if there was a vibrator... inside... me.

Okay, that sounded wrong, ignore that.

Suddenly, the System screen opened beside me, glowing in a dim, navy blue light.

Inside it, I could see my inventory. In the inventory's first slot was the Amulet - Null.

This amulet was the one I had found in the Ruins quite a while ago, in the S-Rank dungeon we entered when the academy still existed.

I obtained it just after I was taught about the soul, but I had no idea what it was used for, so I just left it in my inventory. And in all honestly, I had completely forgotten about it.

I poured positive energy into my inventory, though it was still a little unstable because I had just recently used my domain.

The amulet popped into my hand, vibrating violently.

I raised an eyebrow. It didn't seem to have any effect, nor was it doing anything special.

I observed it for a minute, but it simply kept vibrating, no change visible.

With I sigh, I put it back in my inventory, the weird, vibrating sensation coming back, making me groan in frustration.

My gaze turned back to the battlefield, and it seemed tha—what the fuck.

My eyes widened at the sight. Almost everyone was dead, and the demons were quickly approaching towards me, only the few people alive left to combat them.

My jaw clenched as my gaze darted around... I just hoped that what I feared didn't happen.

Soon, my gaze landed on Eva, who was injured, but not dead. A sense of relief washed through my body, as if a huge worry was just taken off my shoulders.

I bent my knees, getting ready to run. I was sure that it had been enough time for my cursed technique to stabilize again.

"I'm coming to save youuuu," I muttered sarcastically to myself, making a joke and not laughing at it.

With a deep exhale, shot shot off towards the crowd, a gust of wind blowing wherever I passed, making a sea of bloody sand rise up.

It's time to join the fun.

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(POV: none)

Eva struggled to stay on her feet, cuts and bruises bleeding openly from all parts of her body.

She was breathing heavily, her heart beating in her chest as she swatted a demon away with her left hand, while also stabbing one on her right with a small dagger she was holding.

Blood flowed down her forehead, her teeth grit as she pushed away the demon she had stabbed, causing it to fall on one behind it.

With a big swing, she threw the dagger at the demon she had just stabbed. It went tearing through its skull, piercing into the demon under it, killing them immediately.

With sluggish steps, she walked to the dead demons, pushing the one on top away to retrieve her dagger.

There was a hole on the demons throat where the dagger had pierced it. he dug her fingers into the hole, taking the dagger out, which was covered in deep red blood.

Suddenly, she heard a crack echo behind her, her head snapping to see a demon falling to the floor, drooling out of its mouth.

Its head was twisted more than 180 degrees, killing it immediately. The one who did it was... Sukuna.

"Missed me?" He said, getting closer and wiping the blood off her face.

To Eva, he seemed to be much better, much more than what she witnessed at the mansion, where he looked like he would destroy anything in his path.

Unable to control herself, she fell into his embrace, her arms wrapping around him.

She didn't know what to do... so she cried. She cried into his chest, her tears mingling with the blood.

She had lost her family, she killed the one who caused it, and then... she didn't know what to do.

She had realized... she had found her family, and that she was refusing to get closer to them just because she feared losing them again.

With Amara's condition, she finally realized this fact. Her heart threatened to burst out of her chest as she wept and wept until all her emotions were out, her sobs drowning in the sounds of the battlefield.

it was like two flowers, glowing brightly, were alive even in the midst of this chaos.

Sukuna didn't move, hugging her back, letting her let all her emotions out.

He saw a demon charging at them, its mouth wide open, ready to bite down on Eva with all its might.

Sukuna's eyes narrowed, a flicker of anger passing through his eyes.

With a simple flick of his finger, he sent three Dismantles at the demon, cutting of both its legs and the third one went straight at its chest, wounding it deeply.

It fell to the floor, a guttural groan escaping its lips as it writhed in pain, trying to heal itself.

Eva didn't notice this, however. She was overtaken with emotion, and she was confident that if she was with Sukuna, nothing could hurt her.

After a few seconds of suffering, the demon was finally killed with two more Dismantles, its body falling into two parts, its innards leaking to the floor as its eyes lost all color.

Ignoring the grotesque condition of the demon in front of him, Sukuna noticed that Eva had steadied herself, stopping to cry.

Her breathing had softened as she held herself tightly in his embrace.

"You're not done, are you?" Sukuna whispered into her ear, making her smile as she pushed back, her eyes burning with a new, reborn fire.

"Of course not," she replied, her body seemingly completely rejuvenated.

Looking at her made Sukuna's lips curl up, a huge smile forming on his face as he stretched his arms, noticing a few demons approaching them.

"Well, shall we begin then?" His voice was deep, the old excitement coming back as he felt affected by the exhilaration Eva felt.

There was something in his heart that told him to go on... to kill anything he sees.

Inside his inventory, the amulet vibrated more violently, but he failed o notice it as he, along with Eva, lunged towards the incoming demons, on their faces smiles that would only be called savage.

Who knew that Eva would turn out like him...

Sukuna landed on a demon, pushing him to the ground with a thud. Without hesitation, he dug his hand into his throat, a primal scream escaping its mouth.

Thought, this scream died down quickly as his throat was damaged enough to make him mute, blood gushing out from it at a lethal rate.

Beside him, Eva had plunged her dagger into a demon's face, his arms thrashing around.

The dagger had injured nerves of his eyes, making him blind, possibly permanently.

With a grunt, Eva pulled the dagger downward, dissecting the demon like meat. The dagger cut his face into half, then his throat, going down all the way through his chest and stopping at his gut.

With a groan, Eva pulled out the blood-red dagger, the demon falling onto the floor with a whimper.

His bones were visible, ice shards forming inside his body, which was caused by Eva.

"You're serious, huh?" Sukuna said, making Eva turn towards him.

He had already taken care of the others, leaving a single demon to fight.

"I got carried away," Eva said, slightly embarrassed about not using her ice abilities to get rid of the swarm at once.

The last demon rushed towards them, and they turned towards each other, their eyes meeting as their smiles widened. They shot towards the demon.

But suddenly, their eyes widened as they saw what happened.

A silhouette, bloody and half-dead, fell towards the demon, crushing it under the force of the fall.

The figure slid on the ground, stopping a few meters away, leaving a trail of blood in its path.

Sukuna immediately noticed something familiar, and ran towards the figure sprawled on the floor.

Eva, though confused, followed him, catching up with him as he stopped beside the body.

"Ren," he muttered, his eyes fixed on the bleeding corpse-like body of the boy.

Ren, however, was alive, which was indicated by his chest rising and falling extremely shallowly.

Sukuna was unsure of what to do... he wanted to fight Ren at least once, and he couldn't let him die here if that was the case.

He turned to Eva, his face serious. "Eva, I need you to—"

Eva was listening attentively, but her eyes widened in shock as she saw Sukuna's face crushed by a fist that came from the side, as if suddenly appearing from thin air.

Sukuna face pushed to the side, the fist digging into his cheek. His eyes widened at the sudden impact from someone he didn't even notice.

He was sent flying far away, landing on the ground on his two feet, sliding a little far back.

He felt someone in his mouth, so he spit it out. They were two of his teeth.

He used reverse cursed technique to heal his wounds, his teeth reappearing and his cracked bones being strung back together.

His gaze rose, meeting the intimidating eyes of Ren, who was now standing next to Eva, staring right at him.

However, a chill went down Sukuna's spine as he gazed at Ren's eyes, which were now completely black.

He felt something very dangerous from Ren... something that could hurt even him.

"Did you go into UI or something..." Sukuna joked. However, he had no idea that this mode was actually called UI. "...Daniel Park?"

Even as he joked, he was completely alert, his hands slightly trembling as he stared at the seemingly monstrous silhouette of the boy he had known for only a few days.

As he got ready for a battle, he realized... this was going to be the hardest one yet.