Chapter 214: The Weight of a World
Heavenly and earthly upheavals; it was nothing less than that.
The power, inherited from the strongest gods of their respective mythologies, was further amplified to a level nearing their living states by the Noble Phantasm-strengthening runes cast by Bazett on Angelica and the others. The Noble Phantasm attack they unleashed was, without a doubt, a genuine divine punishment.
This was a thought that could not help but arise in the mind of anyone who witnessed their attack.
"...Useless!?"
Even an absolute kill-shot of this intensity, after accurately striking the Cursed Spirit of [Pandora's Box], succeeded only in creating more smoke.
The massive, titanic body of the [Pandora's Box] Cursed Spirit, akin to a giant from mythology, merely waved its arm. That alone was enough to instantly disperse the fruits of Angelica and the others' combined assault, clearing away the smoke that had obscured the Cursed Spirit!
"Shirou, is this enough?"
Saber, seeing this, looked at Emiya Shirou—who was already standing before them—with a grave expression. "Is it really unnecessary for us to continue attacking?"
With a Servant's vision, Saber could actually see things no worse than Emiya Shirou. She could see that within that smoke, the [Pandora's Box] Cursed Spirit, having received the full force of their combined Noble Phantasm assault, was indeed injured.
Even this time, due to the speed of the Cursed Spirit's recovery, it had uncharacteristically failed to keep up with the damage, finally allowing a wound to appear on its body. But for the [Pandora's Box] Cursed Spirit, this "wound" was less of an injury and more like having its fingernail trimmed by a clipper. It would only take a few seconds for this "trimmed nail" to grow back and restore itself.
Was this level of damage really sufficient?
"Yes, Saber. This is enough." Emiya Shirou replied firmly, shaking his head. "If the [Pandora's Box] Cursed Spirit possessed consciousness, then this would certainly not be enough... No, let alone 'not enough,' we would almost have no possibility of causing it damage, let alone defeating it—defeating an entire world.
But precisely because the [Pandora's Box] Cursed Spirit lacks self-awareness and acts entirely on instinct, this level of damage—damage that forces it to realize it can be hurt—is sufficient for what I intend to do next."
Following Saber's question, Emiya Shirou explained specifically to the others.
This was, in fact, one of the benefits Emiya Shirou chose to gain by having [Pandora's Box] undergo curse-transformation.
Unlike opening [Pandora's Box] through normal steps, which would allow the world inside to thoroughly erode the Earth—and in the process of replacing Earth, hatch a true Deterrence belonging to the world inside [Pandora's Box] that would be deeply influenced by Darius—Emiya Shirou's curse-transformation of [Pandora's Box] had undoubtedly bypassed Darius. It prevented Darius from easily performing displacement on this Deterrence to replace the one born from the world inside [Pandora's Box].
And without Darius's conscious participation, the Deterrence of this newly born world inside [Pandora's Box] was simple-minded enough to be influenced by Emiya Shirou's methods.
"—[Domain Expansion: Unlimited Void]!!"
Holding the [Pseudo-God Anubis] in one hand—or rather, using the application of Reverse Cursed Technique he learned in the Jujutsu Kaisen world to combine the [Pseudo-God Anubis], the Cursed Technique Neon Blade that automatically manifests within the [Truth Love] domain after Yuta Okkotsu copies the [Limitless Technique], and the eyeballs of the [Six Eyes]—Emiya Shirou successfully bypassed the limitation of projection magecraft not being able to project biological traits, successfully projecting the [Limitless Technique] onto himself.
With his other hand, he aimed the hand sign he had formed toward the [Pandora's Box] Cursed Spirit. Through the chanting of the incantation, he bombarded the location of the [Pandora's Box] Cursed Spirit with the information-bombardment he had painstakingly prepared!
"Not enough, not enough... How can it still not be enough!?"
"Why?"
"If it were only magical energy backlash, this amount of time would have been enough for me to recover! Why, why am I still unable to perform the displacement!?"
Inside the inner world of [Pandora's Box].
Because curse-transformation causes a world-like domain—similar to a Reality Marble, called "Domain Expansion"—to be inscribed within a living organism, even though the [Pandora's Box] Cursed Spirit appeared on Earth in its Cursed Spirit form, the inner world of [Pandora's Box] had not thoroughly manifested externally to complete the erosion of Earth.
Rather, this sealing was even firmer. Unless the [Pandora's Box] Cursed Spirit mastered the technique of Domain Expansion and fully manifested its inner world, Darius, who had displaced himself into the inner world of [Pandora's Box], was almost impossible to get out.
He did not know that [Pandora's Box], under Emiya Shirou's influence, had long since escaped his control. He was even still racking his brain, trying to find the reason why he couldn't perform the displacement with Julian.
BOOM!!
A massive volume of information suddenly bombarded his brain. It instantly drowned him in an ocean of data, rendering him unable to think further.
Coincidentally, just like in the original Jujutsu Kaisen, the reason Sukuna was able to resist the information bombardment of [Unlimited Void] and give Mahoraga a chance to adapt to the [Limitless Technique] was precisely by using the soul of Megumi Fushiguro, who was still within Sukuna, to share the burden of the damage, thereby barely preserving his own consciousness and preventing Mahoraga from being instantly killed.
Possessing an entire world, the [Pandora's Box] Cursed Spirit was even more efficient than Sukuna. It distributed this sudden information bombardment onto the heads of every living creature born and derived within its inner world over these thousands of years!
The information bombardment of [Unlimited Void] was likewise useless against the [Pandora's Box] Cursed Spirit!
"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH—!!!"
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