Chapter 102: Casios the Eternal
Several ambulances rushed to ferry the wounded away. Mechamaru stayed behind to coordinate with the newly arrived reinforcements from the Jujutsu Association. Aside from the dead Curse User, there were no fatalities. Hachiman had sensed the man attempting to initiate a massive, destructive ritual and had killed him just as his previous "Reflection" technique was deactivating.
"Have you identified him?" Hachiman asked.
"Yes," Mechamaru replied. "A member of the Daisen Cult. A bunch of masochistic lunatics."
The cult originated in Southeast Asia, worshipping a deity named Hui, the master of the Path of Suffering. Believers thought that the more agony they endured, the more they earned the gaze of their god. Mechamaru mused bitterly that he almost felt a kinship with them, given the daily pain of his Heavenly Restriction—except he sought the sun, while these bastards actively mutilated themselves.
"They haven't been seen in a decade," Mechamaru continued. "The last time was linked to the Curse User Geto Suguru."
Years ago, the Association had condemned Geto for massacring a village of "civilians." They later realized those people were high-ranking members of this cult's logistics department, but by then, Geto had already killed enough sorcerers to make his defection permanent. Finding the unconscious Nanako and Mimiko at the scene suggested this was a long-delayed revenge hit.
Hachiman thought of the look of ecstasy on the dying man's face. It reminded him of the followers of Slaanesh, the Lord of Pleasure.
To these cultists, stimulation—even through pain—was a drug. This "Hui" likely occupied the same niche as the [Lord of Wandering Ecstasy], one of the "Four Saints" currently rising. Hachiman resolved to bury the entire cult before they could cause more trouble.
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Meanwhile, in a secluded classroom, Yukinoshita Yukino stared at the [Ghost Post Office] panel in shock. The mission involving the [Whip of Torment] had forcibly changed due to "Special Circumstances."
The timer was a blood-red countdown: Ten Minutes.
The whip, crafted from what looked like a biological tongue, was vibrating violently. Purple, cursed energy erupted from it, emitting the shrieks of ghosts. It was turning from a tool into a living thing.
"When a Cursed Object finds a suitable vessel, it becomes active," Hagoromo Gitsune observed.
"This place doesn't follow normal rules."
Yukino was worried.
"If this thing incarnates in a crowded city and hurts people, who takes responsibility?"
She tried to have the Fox destroy the object, but the timer suddenly glitched into a mess of code. In what felt like only five seconds, the countdown hit zero.
Before she could react, the Post Office warped the whip away, along with a stray ice shard Yukino had fired at it.
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The whip reappeared in a mountain range—the stronghold of the Pan-Star Religious Group. Nearby, hidden in the woods, were three hundred followers of the Daisen Cult, led by their Pope, Kurata Hiroshi.
Hiroshi was a man in a state of religious frenzy. He knelt before an altar, stuffing his own fingers into his mouth and devouring them with a calm, terrifying efficiency. "I'm so jealous... so jealous of Nobuhiko's death," he gurgled.
To this cult, being chosen by "Hui" was the ultimate honor. When Nobuhiko died, every member felt the ripple of their god's attention. Hiroshi felt entitled to that love. "Why wasn't it me?!"
The extreme pain and jealousy activated the [Book of a Thousand Woes] stitched into his flesh. Red, worm-like runes crawled across his skin. 120 kilometers away, Hachiman's newly built signal tower immediately flared with a Type Blue alert—the signature of a Chaos-tier entity.
"Hikigaya-senpai! Coordinates received!" Mechamaru shouted.
Hachiman didn't hesitate. He called Gojo Satoru to arrange an immediate long-range teleport.
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Back at the altar, Hiroshi felt a pair of invisible hands prying open his skull, stroking his brain with a terrifying "tenderness."
"My brain... is trembling..." He wept tears of blood. "The God's love!"
As he reached out to grab the manifesting [Whip of Torment], an ice shard (the one Yukino had fired) suddenly materialized and pinned his head and shoulder to a wooden pillar. Hiroshi died instantly with a smile on his face.
"Is this... also a gift?"
The whip, now a greedy predator, didn't care that its host was dead. It latched onto Hiroshi's arm and devoured it whole, then spread across his torso like a living purple breastplate. Faces of agony formed on the armor, their mouths wide in a soul-deep wail.
The surrounding cultists watched in awe. To them, this was the arrival of the [Lord of Pleasure and Agony].
The armor sprouted tentacles that pierced the nearby followers, rooting into their flesh. Hiroshi—or the thing using his body—shed his golden hair in clumps until he was bald. His handsome face cracked like porcelain, covered in a web of scars.
"God... every inch of pain is a symbol of your love," the thing prayed.
The Pope was gone. In his place stood Casios the Eternal, a champion of the Ruinous Powers. He wore purple power armor with a backpack that pumped sensory-enhancing stimulants directly into his spine, ensuring constant ecstasy. He reached into his own back, ripped out his blood-slicked spine, and watched as it transformed into a wicked scimitar.
"I've slept for so long," Casios smiled, his face a ruin of scars. He had been a champion of the Lord of Ecstasy in the war-torn lands of Europe before his soul was bound into a Cursed Object.
"The God's decree: we are to absorb the one called Geto Suguru as a believer."
Casios turned his blade toward the three hundred loyal followers.
"You are too weak."
He didn't kill them. Instead, he forced a "blessing" upon them. Their bodies swelled, their skin splitting as muscles expanded beyond human limits. They transformed into pale, alien-like monsters with elongated, moon-shaped heads—each bearing the agonized face of the human they used to be. Their original jujutsu was warped and amplified by Chaos.
Inside the Pan-Star Palace, Geto Suguru was undergoing a blood transfusion to dilute the frostbite toxins in his veins. A woman in a red suit rushed in.
"Geto-sama! Nanako and Mimiko have been taken by the Jujutsu Association!"
"What?!" Geto's calm expression shattered. "How?"
"A Curse User attacked them, but the Association intervened and took the girls for 'treatment'."
Geto felt a surge of relief that they were alive, followed by a cold fury. He planned to retrieve them personally, but a sudden, sharp pain stabbed through his head.
"My defensive barriers... they've been shattered."
The door flew open.
Miguel, a powerful sorcerer from Africa and Geto's right hand, walked in, his expression grim.
"We have a big problem."
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