Chapter 51: Failsafe
Roaring for the last time, flames swept out from its body empowering it, as it raised its massive arm, and mustered all the strength in its body, ready to tear its opponent apart.
*BOOOM!*
But right then and there, a massive flaming dragon, smashed into it's body, the explosion shaking what's left of the mountain range, as if a nuke had been dropped there. The demonic entity was hurled several meters back as it's massive figure crashed into another hill nearby.
*SWOOSH!*
In a flash, Sasuke reappeared before Aoda walking to his summon with a small satisfactory smile as he patted it's head fondly.
Feeling the fondness from it's master, the snake lowered it's head gently in shame before uttering in a low tone. "Forgive me, Lord Sasuke. I wasn't able to hold on for much longer."
"You did the best you could. I'll take it from here.."
Sasuke formed a hand seal, and the snake slowly began to shrink, it's body glowing as it turned into a small golden orb which Sasuke absorbed.
Taking it all in, Sasuke let out a sigh. "Such pure energy. Should be enough.." Aoda's chakra was even purer than he thought, and far more boundless than his own cursed energy. He had sent it back into the system where it could recuperate for the time being from the grievous injuries it sustained.
With a deep breath, Sasuke turned towards Kenjaku's demonic entity and let out a crazed smile.
His clone could only use PLCM to stall Kenjaku and the cursed womb for only three minutes, which meant that he had just three minutes to take down this son of a bitch.
Molding the chakra through his cursed energy pathways he slowly began to form multiple hand seals with both hands at a snail's pace, calling forth every iota of chakra he could pull with every seal he performed.
He knew this was a crazy idea. Wanting to use a Jutsu that he had only theoretical knowledge on, in a situation such as this was basically suicide, but he had to.
He originally meant to use it for Kenjaku, but too many variables not counted for made his plan a dumb move so he had to improvise.
After performing about ten hand seals, he blitzed towards the demonic entity that seemed to be regenerating from his dragon flame attack and jumped atop its body.
"Fuinjutsu: Shiki Fujin!.-- Sealing Jutsu: Reaper Death Seal.."
The next moment, Sasuke clasped his palms together in front of him and called out and right then and there, an ominous aura began to seep out of his body. An energy that seemed to originated from Hell itself began to seep into the atmosphere as darkness slowly covered the land.
"What the Hell?!"
The Zen'in clan elders who were rushing towards the current battlefield had to halt in their tracks, the sudden darkness and the baleful aura causing their hairs to stand on end as they retreated in fear.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield, Kenjaku who was stuck in a stalemate with the clone could only widen his eyes in fear and shock when he sensed the energy.
"What is this?!"...
Meanwhile, no one was more terrified of the current turn of events than Sasuke himself. Smoke slowly arose from his body and coalesced above his head, slowly materializing into a devil like figure that caused his heart to pound in his chest.
Unnaturally scarred purple skin, long white hair reaching it's trunk, a crazed smile revealing unnaturally white rows of razor sharp teeth, that bit into a short blade. Long arms that extended out of its long white robes, his right hand grasping onto prayer beads and his left covered in weird black tattoos.
Sasuke felt the grim reaper's nonchalant gaze ripple over his figure. It took all he had to remain calm and collected and he dived deep into his consciousness. The only reason why he was able to use such an attack was because he was 3 souls living in one body. His body consisted of his own soul, Virgil's soul and Zen'in Sasuke's soul hence he was free to do as he pleased since he had basically absorbed all of their memories.
Choosing which soul to sacrifice, his vision was filled with the image of a bit younger version of himself dressed in Jujutsu robes who stood at the end of a long tunnel with a tear dripping down his cheek. And in a moment, the version of himself began to turn into flakes that blew away in the wind.
Meanwhile in real life, the hand of the shinigami was thrusted deep into Sasuke's chest as it pulled out a blue shiny humanoid soul out of his body which it's hair grasped onto.
In this moment, Sasuke felt a wave of dizziness, nausea and fatigue grip his consciousness followed by an excruciating pain as blood flowed from all his orifices. A soul had just been forcefully torn out from his body and he was suffering the repercussions. His body nearly gave out, yet he held on and watched as the shinigami's arm dove straight into the belly of Kenjaku's demonic entity who has been frozen and incapacitated by the shinigami itself and fear.
The tattoos on the left hand of the grim reaper appeared on the body of the entity and slowly the grim reaper began to pull out what looked a roaring devil like amalgamation of human and cursed spirit souls that tried it's very best to fight the shinigami's hold, yet to no avail.
But right then and there, Sasuke felt an influx of information from his clone, which meant only one thing - the clone had been destroyed. Kenjaku was coming and his three minutes were up.
He turned his head to the side only to see a flabbergasted Kenjaku glaring towards him, with a face full of fear.
Normally, aside from the caster and the target, bystanders could probably not see the shinigami, but Kenjaku was no ordinary person. Even if he could not directly see the shinigami, one thousand years of Jujutsu experience and expertise and instincts honed over that period alerted him in the face of that baleful aura.
The look on Kenjaku's face caused a bloodied smile to blossom on Sasuke's face involuntarily as he watched the Shinigami completely pull out and absorb the amalgamated souls.
Normally, Kenjaku was supposed to panic in such a situation, seeing as how his heaviest hitter had just been killed, but instead a crafty smile formed on his face as he got into a stance and readied his cursed energy.
"Withering Vein Cursed Technique: Blackthorn.."
Readying himself, he stood in position, extending his arms, like an archer ready to fire a arrow into the heart of the sun. His right hand stretched forward as if grasping a bow, while his left stretched backwards as if ready to release the bowstring.
In a flash, a dark black cursed energy construct materialized above his head, resembling a thorn from a rose, straight and long, with jagged edges that seemed to burn with a corrosive flame.
"Go..."
Whispering gently, Kenjaku released his left arm and watched as the thorn shot forwards at night sonic speed. Sasuke who was almost about to release the sealing ritual caught the incoming thorn from the corner of his eye.
The shinigami was almost done absorbing the amalgamated souls all that was needed was a few more seconds and it'd all be over.
Gritting his teeth, he surrounded himself with a sheath of cursed energy and watched, helplessly as the thorn plunged into his chest, completely ignoring the cursed energy around his body as a scream was ripped from his throat..
The instant the shinigami disappeared and the Jutsu was released, Sasuke dropped to the ground, squirming and shivering. He could feel something crawl within his body as the pain wracked his senses. Gritting his teeth, he mobilised his cursed energy to try to down or corrode the weird sensation he felt only for his body to freeze for a moment and shudder before another scream, louder and greater than the one before ripped from his throat.
"Aarghhh!" His body convulsed as blood poured out of his orifices, and smoke arose from his body, as if he was getting boiled alive.
"Sigh.." Kenjaku took a seat, sighing as he run his hand through his hair. "I wouldn't do that if I were you.." He chuckled at Sasuke who seemed to be in less pain than before.
"Withering Vein was one of the most vile techniques I possessed back in the Heian Era. Didn't think I'd have to use it again.."
He laughed a little and watched Sasuke who crawled to a nearby rock and rested his back against it, while taking in deep breaths and gasping.
"It's maximum technique, Blackthorn allows me to inflict a target of my choice with a deadly poison.." He paused for a bit before continuing..
"A poison that corrodes and inflames your cursed energy pathways whenever you try to mobilize cursed energy. You might feel a little....discomfort when you try to use a technique or do anything with cursed energy.." His eyes gleamed murderously when he mentioned discomfort which Sasuke noticed and couldn't help but sigh to.
"The more you try to mobilize the cursed energy, the more your pathways wither off, and in no time, you'll end up a cripple unable to use Jujutsu. Impressive right?"
Kenjaku laughed as he explained the nature of his cursed technique, but he raised a brow when he realized he was not getting the desired reaction out of Sasuke.
Rather than be frightened or scared by Kenjaku's words, Sasuke wiped the blood off his lips and let out a small laugh.
"A cripple huh. That's okay. Didn't think I was going to make it out alive anyway.." He straightened his back against the rock and spat out the lump of blood in his throat.
"But, I must say, I really appreciate the gift. You really put much effort into it for me. That was kind of you, so how about I thank you with a gift of my own huh.." The moment Sasuke finished his words, dark clouds slowly condensed within the skies, and thunder boomed as drizzles of rain fell to the Earth around them..
A/N: Hope you enjoy the chapter.