Satoru Gojo figured dying would be a lot less loud. One minute he's bleeding out in Shinjuku, eyes fluttering shut, expecting the sweet silence of the grave; maybe a nice void to nap in forever.
Instead, some raspy prick starts yapping in his ear, "Wake up and find-" before cutting off like a drunk DJ dropping the beat.
"Find what, asshole? A map? A sandwich?" he grumbled, already annoyed with death's customer service.
Then he opened his eyes and, 'Fuck me! Bruh, am I really in hell?' Thought the dumbfounded Honored One.
It was a goddamn fever dream. Lava rivers twisted through the ground like the earth had a nasty infection, glowing red and stinking like a dumpster fire.
Pools of molten shit bubbled everywhere, and the mountains? Black, sharp, like someone took a sledgehammer to a pile of coal and called it art.
The air hit him next; thick, nasty, like sucking on a tailpipe. "Oh, great!" he said, smirking despite the burn in his chest.
"I die and end up in Satan's armpit. Five stars, would not recommend." A complaint no one would bother hearing.
His Six Eyes flicked on; the place was also a zoo. Demons stomping around, all horns and claws, looking like they'd crawled out of a kid's nightmare after too much sugar.
"What, did I really just stumble into a cosplay convention for Hellraiser rejects?" he snorted, eyeing one with a face like a melted foot.
But it wasn't just the freaks that got his attention. The energy here was heavy, dark; like Cursed Energy after a bad breakup, all bitter and suffocating.
Except he wasn't choking. He should've been a corpse by now, but something was keeping him kicking.
That something? His Reverse Cursed Technique was running on overdrive, pumping life into him like a shot of adrenaline straight to the heart.
"Well, I'll be damned." He said, flexing his hands. "Guess I've got a VIP pass to the 'not dead yet' club." His Six-Eyes dug deeper, and holy hell, he was loaded.
His Cursed Energy wasn't just big; it was a fucking monster, dwarfing Sukuna's stash like a skyscraper next to a shack.
That bastard had doubled up back in his world, outgunning Yuta and Rika combined, but this? This was next-level juice, enough to make Satoru feel like a goddamn god.
'18? No, it's about 20 times higher than that fossilized prick.' He grinned.
And the kicker? His RCT was spitting out so much positive energy it could've powered a small country. He grinned, that wild, shit-eating grin that scared the hell out of anyone with a pulse.
"Sukuna's gonna need a therapist when he hears I'm out here flexing this hard. Well, poor guy's probably already crying into his extra fingers right now."
(A/N: Blob Kuna... Sukuna fans crying in the corner.)
He glanced at a demon chewing on something slimy nearby. "Hey, drooly, they got a bar down here? I need a drink to toast my new glow-up. Not that I ever drink."
He never understood why people were so obsessed with the tase of Alcohols. 'Men have ruined their life drowned in that piss.' A twisted sneer appeared on his face.
The thing growled, spitting black gunk. Satoru just laughed. "Yeah, put it on my tab, buddy." He could feel it now.
The power buzzing through him, bigger and bolder than ever. Whatever this hellhole was, it'd turned him into a walking cheat code.
The air might've been poison, the scenery might've been a lava-drenched shitshow, and the locals might've been dumber than a bag of hammers, but Satoru Gojo?
He was alive, he was stacked, and he was ready to make this place his bitch. "Alright," he said, brushing off his hands like he hadn't just crawled out of death's dumpster.
"Let's see what kind of welcome party these clowns throw. Spoiler: I'm betting it's a scream-fest."
Satoru stood on the cracked, steaming ground, above the demon he just turned into a paste. The air thick with sulfur and the distant rumble of lava rivers.
He rolled his shoulders, smirking at the second demon to lumber into view, as it strode towards him, and its intentions, 'That's definitely not looking for a hug.'
A giant, fifty feet tall, its body a grotesque slab of muscle and molten rock. Lava dribbled from its fists, sizzling as it hit the dirt, and its face was a nightmare:
One eye hung loose, dangling by a string of flesh, while sores wept yellow pus across its jaw. "Alright, big guy," Satoru said, his voice light but sharp with sarcasm, "let's see if you're as tough as you are beautiful."
He raised a hand, and Blue sparked to life; a glowing, swirling orb of amplified Cursed Energy. It shot forward, slamming into the giant's chest.
The impact was deafening; flesh tore open with a wet, ripping sound, ribs snapped like dry branches, and a flood of steaming guts spilled out, splattering the ground in a dark, chunky pool.
The giant staggered, let out a gurgling roar, and collapsed, its blood soaking into the cracked earth. But before Satoru could catch his breath, more came.
The shadows shifted, and a pack of smaller creatures scurried out; six-legged things, their bodies covered in a shiny, beetle-like shell that oozed green slime.
Their mouths gaped, revealing rows of jagged teeth dripping with saliva. He smirked, stepping forward, and crushed one under his boot. "We have Walmart Tyrranids now huh!"
Its shell burst with a sickening pop, spraying sticky, rancid innards across his leg.
"Gross," he muttered, flicking Infinity on. The rest lunged, but the barrier did its job. Space stretched infinitely between them, and they exploded, pressed by the barrier on the ground.
Bodies rupturing into a mist of blood and shredded meat. Bits of shell and twitching legs sprayed around, none managing to touch even his hair, 'Oh, what would I do without you, Infinity?'
'I still ended up dead though.' Sukuna's world cutting slash came flashing into his memories, shattering his thoughts like a massive wrecking ball.
Then the sky turned dark. A massive, winged demon swooped down, its leathery wings torn and patched with dried blood, its talons long and curved, crusted with gore.
It screeched; a sound that stabbed at his eardrums and aimed straight for him. Satoru dodged, the tips of its claws grazing the air an inch from his face.
"Close shave," he said, grinning, and fired Red. The crimson sphere of concentrated energy lanced through the creature's gut, punching a hole clean through.
Its insides erupted outward, exploding along with the red sphere, unleashing a slimy cascade of intestines and bile that completely covered the infinity around him.
Infinity expanded outwards, wiping clean all the gore and flesh away from him. Though the smell made him twist his nose. "Yeah, you're definitely not winning any beauty contests."
The ground trembled again, cutting his quip short. A fissure split open nearby, and something massive crawled out; a centipede, its body stretching hundreds of feet long.
Its armored segments glowing red from the lava it had been swimming in. Black ooze dripped from its mandibles as it reared up, hissing.
Satoru teleported back, putting distance between them. "You're one ugly bastard," he said, and without any chant, combined two red and blue spheres of energy. Unleashing the Purple.
The bright purple void of power ripped forward, ripping the centipede in half, and turning the land behind into a chasm.
Its front end flailed, spewing a geyser of molten bile that burned craters into the rock, while its back half slumped into a puddle of its own guts, legs kicking weakly.
The stench hit him hard; burnt flesh mixed with something sour, and he coughed, waving a hand. "Somebody needs to fumigate this place."
He was still chuckling when the game flipped upside down. A new demon stepped out of the haze; taller, leaner, its skin cracked like dark glass, its eyes glowing white and unblinking.
It moved fast, very fast, and swung a blade grafted onto its forearm, shining with a dangerous gleam. Satoru didn't even flinch, Infinity should've stopped it cold.
But the claw cut through, space bending around it in a nauseating warp, and pain exploded across his chest. Blood sprayed, soaking his shirt, and he stumbled back, clutching the wound.
Flesh hung in ragged flaps, and he could see the gleam of his own ribs. His mind raced, sharp and cold despite the shock.
'That wasn't just strength. It bent spacetime, folded infinity like a cheap paper. This shit's playing by different rules.' A thrill sparked in his gut, dark and electric.
Infinity was not his get-out-of-jail-free card here, anymore. It was his guts, his madness, that's what, was gonna bury those fuc*ers.
The demon lunged again, but he was ready; Blue yanked it forward, and Red blasted its head apart, sending a spray of gray brain matter and jagged bone shards around it, which was well stopped by Infinity.
RCT kicked in, stitching his chest back together with a wet, sucking sound, and he spat blood, grinning. "Alright, round two."
The onslaught didn't let up. Another giant barreled toward him, this one swinging a mace made of bone wrapped in jagged, flaming barbs. It roared, and the blow came down hard.
Infinity flickered, strained, and gave in; in the same twist of space. The mace smashed into his shoulder, shattering the bone with a wet crunch. Blood gushed, his arm flopping uselessly as torn muscle dangled.
"That hurt! You son of a bitch!" he shouted, pain lighting up his nerves. In his heightened adrenaline and state of pain, he completely ignored re-activating the Infinity.
Bright red light suddenly flared in the area, and the giant's torso exploded; guts sprayed outward, a loop of intestine slapping against his leg, hot and slimy. He shook it off, cursing, as RCT patched his shoulder, bones grinding back into place.
Then the flyers hit. A flock of them, screeching, swooped down, claws tore into his back, ripping skin in long, bloody strips. One sank its talons into his neck, blood spurting in a hot arc.
He grabbed it, crushed its skull with a squeeze; its brains oozed between his fingers, warm and sticky, and spun Blue upwards into a vortex.
The rest got sucked in, popping like overripe fruit, showering him in feathers, blood, and pulped flesh. RCT raced to keep up, sealing the wounds, but he could feel it; each hit was pushing him further, sharpening him.
The centipedes came back, three of them, slithering from the lava with scales that glowed and cut like razors. One coiled around him before he could react, squeezing hard.
Infinity surrounded him late, but the sheer heat had already seared his ribs, blistering skin into raw, peeling patches. He grit his teeth, teleporting free, and fired another chant-less Purple.
The blast turned them into a smoking mess; guts burst out, molten and black, splattering the ground and carving the landscape behind, as severed legs twitched in the wreckage.
Blood trickled from his nose; the overload of the insane CE output hit him hard. But he wiped it away, laughing hoarsely. "Keep coming, you slimy pricks."
The real bastard showed up next; a titan, taller than the length of those centipedes, its body rippling with muscle, horns curling from its head, dripping fresh gore.
It carried a blade of black flame, the edge smoking with the stench of burnt meat. It swung, and Infinity shattered again, space warped, and the blade carved into Satoru's side.
Ribs snapped like twigs, organs ruptured, and blood poured out in a thick, dark stream. He hit the ground, gasping, clutching the wound; intestines pulsed under his fingers, slick and warm.
The titan raised its foot, and he rolled just as it slammed down, cracking the rock where he'd been. RCT surged, pulling his guts back in with a nauseating squelch, but the titan swung again.
His thigh split open, muscle tearing apart, hanging in bloody flaps. He teleported, barely, and fired Red, a sphere that punched through its knee, black blood jetting out like a fountain.
Pain screamed through him as well as the demon. But while the demon wailed in it, he laughed, ragged and wild.
His CE flared, a tidal wave of power; his body tightened, muscles hardening, senses razor-sharp. "You're done, asshole!" He growled.
Blue spiraled into a storm, dragging the titan in; Red pierced its chest, bursting lungs in a wet spray.
He clasped his hands together, the two spheres of destructive energy, combining into the Purple, which instantly erased half its body, flesh disintegrating into a pink cloud.
It collapsed, a mountain of gore, and Satoru stood, shaking, stronger than ever.
The horde kept coming. Each time his infinity failed; claws shredded his arms, exposing his bones. A flyer's beak punctured his lung, blood frothing in his throat.
He crushed it barehanded, squishing its brain, and fought on. Blue minced giants into red paste, Red disintegrated everything in its path as he pushed through the swarms.
Purple carved the earth into craters and chasms of meat. Hours passed, bodies piled up; centipedes in oozing heaps, giants leaking pus, flyers a carpet of guts.
Finally, the spawning stopped. Satoru stood in the carnage, drenched in blood, his and theirs, grinning through split lips. "That all you got?" he rasped, spitting red.
Hell had tried to kill him, and he'd turned it into his bitch; tenacity, his weapon and madness, his crown.
Satoru leaned against a jagged rock. The air was still heavy with the stench of blood and demon flesh.
His chest heaved as he sucked in a deep breath, RCT humming through him like a live wire, knitting every torn muscle, every cracked bone back into place.
His shirt was a shredded mess, soaked in gore, his own and the countless bastards he'd turned into minced meat.
He wiped a smear of black blood off his face, flicking it to the ground with a smirk. "Well, that was a hell of a workout," he muttered, rolling his neck until it popped.
But his mind wasn't on the carnage behind him; it was on those few freaky demons, the ones that'd slipped past Infinity like it was nothing.
He crouched down, resting an elbow on his knee, staring out at the smoldering hellscape; lava rivers glowing red, volcanic pools bubbling like the earth's own festering sores.
Those claws and weapons cutting through his barrier weren't just lucky shots. He could still feel it; the way space itself had twisted, folded in on itself like some fucked-up origami trick.
'Spacetime anomalies', he thought, eyes narrowing. It wasn't brute force; it was physics getting bitch-slapped.
He'd seen it before; Sukuna's last attack, that smug prick's World Cutting Slash, slicing through reality itself, carving the world into ribbons.
That's what had ended him back in Shinjuku, left him divided into two. And now? Even these lowlife demons, these drooling sacks of meat, had that same trick up their sleeves.
Satoru stood, brushing ash off his hands, a slow grin spreading across his face. "So, Infinity's not the golden ticket anymore." He said aloud, voice low but buzzing with something; a dangerous excitement.
"Some of these fuckers can sever the space-time fabric itself, bend space and time like it's a cheap magic trick. Sukuna'd be proud." He laughed out loud, sharp and reckless.
If he could clock that anomaly early; feel the shift, the warp; he could dodge it, dance around it. Infinity was still his ace, his big, beautiful wall of "fuck off," but it wasn't foolproof here.
And that? That made this shithole interesting. "Guess I'm not untouchable anymore," he said, cracking his knuckles. "Good. I was getting bored being a God."
Fully healed now, skin smooth, energy pulsing like a goddamn reactor, he took a few deep breaths, the toxic air no match for his RCT.
His reserves were obscene, bigger than ever, and he felt it in his bones: he was a walking nuke, ready to blow this place apart.
He was about to pick a direction, figure out where the hell he even was, when the ground jolted under him. Not a tremor; a full-on earthquake, hard enough to make his teeth rattle.
"Oh, what now?" he groaned, steadying himself as rocks tumbled around him. The sky itself seemed to shudder, clouds of ash swirling like they were caught in a blender.
He looked up, squinting through the haze, and then it happened.
A mountain loomed in the distance; black, jagged, towering over the landscape like a middle finger to the heavens. It was massive, dwarfing everything in this lava-choked wasteland.
And then, with a sound like the world breaking; a deep, bone-shaking crack; it split. The peak shattered, stone crumbling from the top down, debris avalanching in a roaring cascade.
Dust billowed up, choking the sky in a gray-brown fog, and Satoru's Six-Eyes kicked into overdrive, piercing through the chaos. Something was moving in there; something big.
The cloud parted, and out it came; a Dragon. Not some fairy-tale lizard, but a fucking monstrosity, several hundreds of meters long, its four legs slamming into the ground with tremors that knocked loose rocks flying.
Its wings unfurled, leathery and torn, stretching wide enough to blot out the horizon. Scales glinted like obsidian, cracked with veins of glowing red, and its head reared up-
Horns curling back, jaws gaping to reveal teeth the size of swords, dripping with molten saliva that hissed as it hit the earth.
It let out a roar, a sound that rattled Satoru's skull and made the lava rivers ripple.
He tilted his head, staring up at it, and a wild, shit-eating grin spread across his face. "Well, fuck me sideways," he said, laughing.
"Aren't you a majestic son of a gun. What's the plan? Eat me or just amaze me to death?" The dragon's eyes locked onto him, as if it could hear him.
Its eyes a burning gold and slit with malice, and the ground shook again as it took a step forward, claws gouging the rock.
Satoru flexed his hands, CE crackling around him. "Guess we're doing this the fun way."
He was stronger now, no question; that last fight had rewired him, pushed his CE reserves into the stratosphere, his body humming with power.
But this thing? It wasn't some fodder demon. It moved, and the air itself screamed; dark flames erupted from its maw, blacker than night, streaking toward him.
Satoru's Six Eyes caught it instantly; spacetime warped around the fire, bending and tearing like fabric caught in a shredder.
"Oh of course, you've got 'that' trick too, why not?" he muttered, teleporting to the side. The flames hit where he'd stood, and the ground didn't just melt; it vanished, a chunk of reality erased in a smoking void.
"Alright, tanking's off the table now," he said, cracking his knuckles. Infinity flared, but he knew it wouldn't hold against that.
The Dragon lunged, wings beating, sending a gust of scalding wind that kicked up ash and debris. Satoru fired Blue; a massive orb that spiraled forward, slamming into the dragon's chest.
Scales cracked, black blood sprayed, but it barely flinched, retaliating with a swipe of its claw. The air twisted again, vibrating as if it was being buckled with unrelenting force.
Satoru dodged, feeling the edge of the strike graze his arm, slicing through Infinity and drawing a thin line of blood. "Cheeky bastard," he growled, and unleashed Red.
The crimson blast hit the dragon's flank, bursting flesh in a shower of gore, but it just roared and charged, dark flames licking from its jaws.
Satoru met it head-on, CE surging. He clapped his hands, and Purple roared to life; a void of annihilation that smashed into the dragon's flames.
The collision was deafening; black fire met purple force, spacetime rippling around them. The shockwave leveled a nearby mountain, rocks exploding into dust, the ground splitting into a jagged chasm.
Satoru laughed, wild and sharp. "Not bad, huh? Bet you didn't expect that from a tourist!" It reared back, golden eyes narrowing, and its voice rumbled like an avalanche.
"Human," it said, deep and resonant, "you wield power worthy of note. I am Adramalekh, Divine Incarnation of Destruction."
Satoru wiped blood from his nose, grinning wider. "Satoru Gojo, the Honored One. Nice to meet you, big guy; love what you've done with the place."
The dragon snorted, a plume of smoke curling from its nostrils, clearly caught off guard by the sarcasm. "Arrogant," it growled, "but impressive."
Then it attacked again, harder; claws raked the air, spacetime bending with each strike. Satoru danced around them, teleporting, firing Blue to yank the beast off balance, Red to blast chunks of flesh from its hide.
Purple met another wave of dark flames, and the explosion carved a crater half a mile wide, lava rivers boiling over into the gap.
The fight escalated; Adramalekh's tail whipped, shattering a ridge of black stone into rubble that rained down like meteors.
Satoru dodged, teleporting mid-air, and countered with a Purple so big and dense it turned the air violet. It struck the dragon's wing, tearing through scales and membrane, sending a spray of black blood arcing across the sky.
The dragon roared, flames pouring from its maw; Satoru sidestepped, but the edge caught his leg, bending the infinity and burning that part to the bone.
RCT kicked in, healing it fast and he laughed through the pain. "Gotta try harder than that!"
Adramalekh's eyes blazed, and the air grew heavy; oppressive, like the weight of a collapsing star. Satoru's grin faltered for a split second as the dragon opened its jaws wide.
A dense beam of black flame erupted, thicker than a house, backed by an energy so dark and massive it dwarfed his own CE output.
His Six Eyes screamed danger, 'Direct hit, and I'm toast, no healing from that.' The beam tore toward him, spacetime fracturing in its wake, reality itself groaning under the strain.
"Oh, you're pulling out the big guns," he said, voice tight but thrilled.
This was Satoru Gojo; not someone who'd go backing down. He focused, CE surging like a cataclysmic tsunami, and modified Purple on the fly.
He condensed it, shrinking the mass of destructive energy into a pinpoint so dense it warped light around it, a miniature black hole of pure destruction. "Eat this, you overgrown lizard!"
He shouted, hurling it forward. The tiny Purple met the black flame beam head-on; and the world broke in a complete silence for a few seconds, completely devoid of any colors.
For a few seconds that is. The collision unleashed an explosion that dwarfed anything human hands could ever dream up, a blast so massive it swallowed sound, light and everything.
Mountains vaporized, the ground shattered into a web of fissures, and the sky tore open with a jagged rift in reality, glowing with chaotic, shifting colors.
Satoru's laughter cut off as the force hit him. Spacetime ripped apart, the fabric of this hellhole unraveling, and the rift sucked him in like a vacuum.
He flailed, CE flaring uselessly, as the dragon's roar faded behind him. "Well, shit," he managed, before the void swallowed him whole, spitting him out of this world and into something else; somewhere new, unknown, and probably just as fucked.
Adramalekh stared at the rift, as it slowly closed up, wings folding, a low growl rumbling in its throat. "Honored One, indeed. We shall meet again." it muttered, as the dust settled over a landscape reduced to ruin.
Satoru blinked awake, squinting against a sky so blue it almost hurt; dotted with fluffy white clouds drifting lazy and slow.
He was sprawled out on a bed of soft moss, surrounded by towering trees, their leaves a deep green that rustled in a gentle breeze.
The air hit him first; clean, crisp, like a gulp of cold water after choking on ash and sulfur. His body groaned as he sat up, stretching his arms overhead with a wince.
Every muscle ached, stiff from that dragon-sized shitstorm he'd just survived, but he was alive; more than alive, he felt charged.
"Well, that's a step up from lava and demon guts," he muttered, cracking his neck with a satisfying pop.
He took a deep breath, letting the purity of the air sink in. It wasn't just the lack of toxic bullshit that caught him; it was something else, something in the atmosphere itself.
His Six Eyes kicked in, scanning the forest: sunlight filtered through the canopy, dappling the ground in golden patches; roots twisted through the dirt, birds chirped somewhere high up.
But there was an energy here, woven into everything; bright, warm, like the opposite of that oppressive sludge he'd drowned in back in 'Hell'.
If that was Cursed Energy's evil twin, this was… what? Positive energy, sure, but not the kind cooked up from human misery.
This was raw, primal, like it'd been here forever, untouched by petty emotions. "Feels like the universe took a happy pill," he said, smirking.
He reached out with his CE, trying to poke at it, maybe grab a handful of this new juice. Nothing. It didn't budge, didn't react; like he was a ghost trying to fist-bump a brick wall.
"Huh. Stubborn, aren't we?" he said, shrugging it off. Satoru didn't sweat what he couldn't control; life was too short, even after dying once.
He stood, brushing dirt off his torn pants, and gave the forest a once-over. "Alright, not Earth. No way my old dump had air this clean or energy this… shiny."
He tapped his chin, then snapped his fingers. "Mana. Calling it Mana for now; sounds magical, right? Let's go with that."
He picked a direction at random; north, maybe, who cared? And was about to stroll off when something pinged his senses.
A commotion, sharp and clear, cutting through the quiet. His Six Eyes zeroed in: 5.7 miles, a number that popped into his head faster than he'd ever clocked anything.
He froze, blinking. The forest snapped into focus; every leaf vein, every speck of dust on the bark, every flicker of a squirrel's tail half a mile off.
It was overwhelming, a flood of detail that should've fried his brain, strained his eyes like back in the day. But… nothing. No headache, no burn.
His RCT was running hot, patching tiny bits of damage as fast as they formed; into a negligible sliver of pain, a background hum. "Well, damn," he said, grinning. "Guess I really got the deluxe upgrade package."
He flexed his hands, feeling the power thrumming under his skin; stronger, sharper, like every limiter had been smashed to bits.
That hellhole had forged him into something new, unlocked a well of potential he hadn't even tapped yet. His CE reserves were a goddamn ocean, his senses a razor's edge, and his body?
It was holding up like it was built for this. "Not even close to my ceiling," he murmured, eyes glinting. "Can't wait to see what else I can break."
The commotion flared again; shouts, maybe, or something crashing through the trees. He tilted his head, curious. Was it trouble? Someone needing a hero?
"Pfft, nah," he snorted, starting toward it with a lazy stride. He was never the save-the-day type. Just bored as hell and lost in… wherever this is.
'Might as well see what's making noise; beats wandering around sniffing flowers.' His grin widened, a spark of mischief lighting up his face.
"If it's a fight, maybe I'll join in. If it's a party, I'm crashing it. Either way, I'm not sitting still in this fairy-tale bullshit."
The forest stretched out ahead, alive and buzzing, and Satoru moved toward the chaos, because chaos was where he thrived.
...... To be continued!!!