Chapter 155 - Are You Afraid?
On the third day after successfully mastering the Reversed Cursed Technique, Emiya also successfully learned how to use the positive energy that restores the body to replenish the depletion of his body when the Magic Circuits convert life force(Od) into magical power.
In short, the Magic Circuits are responsible for converting life force in the body into magical power, while the Reversed Cursed Technique is responsible for converting cursed energy into positive energy to compensate for the depletion of life force.
Because Emiya hasn't yet grasped the technique for repairing the Magic Circuits, the Reversed Cursed Technique can currently only compensate for the magical power depletion, allowing him to wield magical power at any time under normal conditions.
After two transformation steps, the conversion ratio between cursed energy and magical power, in Emiya's own estimation, is roughly three to one.
The loss is significant, yet this amount of loss has no effect whatsoever on Emiya, whose Cursed Energy reserves are bottomless.
As for the downside... it's probably that maintaining the operation of the Reversed Cursed Technique during combat requires a lot of mental focus and attention. After all, the basis for this technique to maintain the body is imagination; he must at least imagine the state of his body being restored.
For other Mages who came to the Jujutsu world and mastered the technique of the Reversed Cursed Technique, the improvement might not be huge, but for Emiya himself, this advancement is a world of difference.
He can spend his magical power creating powerful Noble Phantasms during peacetime, and then use the Reversed Cursed Technique to restore it. This is equivalent to converting all that restored magical power directly into tangible combat power, like a 'Noble Phantasm Reserve.'
Restoring magical power through the body's self-regulation is very slow. Even under ideal conditions, Emiya would need at least twenty-four hours for his magical power reserves to return to a healthy state.
But with the Reversed Cursed Technique...
The amount of magical power consumed by high-precision Projection over dozens of minutes can be completely replenished in just a few minutes. As long as Emiya is willing to spend a great deal of time and effort on this, he can increase his Noble Phantasm Reserve to a considerable level in a short period.
From this perspective, even spending a lot of time teaching his students has become a waste of time.
But it doesn't matter; the remaining time is still enough for Emiya to quickly craft some very practical Noble Phantasms.
For example, after realizing that the modified Rule Breaker could deliver devastating blows to the effects of Cursed Techniques, Emiya would naturally strive to increase the reserve of this Noble Phantasm as much as possible—
"Reinforcement technique, simulated creation... Trace on!"
In the interwoven flow of magical power and cursed energy, several short-handled weapons identical in appearance quickly materialized and condensed before Emiya, instantly bypassing the lengthy forging process and the genuine historical foundation.
The Reinforcement technique doesn't just help Emiya convert the attributes of a Noble Phantasm into Cursed Energy; it also allows the 'simulated forging' during Noble Phantasm Projection to become faster and more authentic. This is a method of use he recently developed.
"If one blade can't catch you, then what about increasing the quantity?
Do you still insist that your barrier can do whatever it pleases?"
The thing Emiya is best at is making these self-important individuals realize how ridiculous their notions are.
If he truly were as powerful as he claims, why wouldn't he go eliminate the people who are genuinely harming the Jujutsu world, but instead choose to swagger within the School?
"...What?
Not only can he self-forge Cursed Tools that break techniques, but he can even replicate them in a short time... What kind of ability is this?!"
Even Tengen, who is claimed to be omniscient, completely fails to understand the existence of magical power and Projection Magic. After all, this is a system entirely outside of his cognition.
How can someone who mechanically absorbs knowledge but doesn't know how to think or progress understand?
Tengen's Cursed Technique is Immortality, and this technique actively leads its owner to 'evolve' toward a higher state to ensure the individual's immortality.
Refusing 'evolution' to maintain a human form is certainly not a bad thing, but for one's consciousness not to progress with the trend of the times is a complete mistake.
Didn't even Ryomen Sukuna realize the importance of reading now? It's just that he, being inside Yuji Itadori's body, completely lacks the opportunity.
How pitiful, the King of Curses.
If the current Ryomen Sukuna knew that there was a fellow here who could readily absorb all the useful knowledge of modern society yet completely failed to cherish it, he would probably be so furious that he'd leap out of Yuji Itadori's body and give him an elbow strike.
Yet, Tengen is clearly not stupid either. At least he knows that after Emiya displayed such an ability, he would have absolutely no chance if he didn't immediately regain the initiative.
"I'll let you calm down in a far-off place first."
Although he said that, Tengen's hands were already moving before he even spoke.
Even with his Barrier Technique honed to his current level, simple hand signs cannot be omitted, because any Cursed Technique requires at least some simple 'Binding Vows' to serve as anchors.
Whether it's incantations or hand signs, they are necessary to maintain the technique's precision.
The existence of such 'Binding Vows' inherently enhances the technique's power and precision.
"As if I'd let you succeed!!"
Emiya, using weapons for direct attack, naturally doesn't require such a complicated process, so the moment Tengen made a move, his weapons were already hurtling out.
Before the semi-transparent barrier could fully form in front of Emiya, the daggers shot out in quick succession had completely disrupted the technique's process, arriving instantly under Tengen's four eyes.
However, this fellow's intelligence in combat isn't insultingly low. An identical barrier formed in front of him and closed, utilizing the timing difference of the daggers' flight.
Using a barrier to obstruct Rule Breaker's trajectory is completely unrealistic, as the technique-erasing effect means those shields won't provide any physical resistance. Therefore, Tengen wisely chose to shift his own position.
Bang—!
Several short daggers simultaneously embedded themselves into different corners of the room, while Emiya himself, pulling the chains, charged toward the location where Tengen reappeared in the room.
The fact that this creature chose to remain in the room instead of leaving was the biggest mistake he had made, despite not being stupid.
Bang—!
Tengen, who had just moved there, had his outer barrier layer shattered by Emiya's dagger. Who would have thought that this creature, afraid of death, was reluctant to even consume its
barrier body? It had set up multiple layers of protection inside the barrier and used them to move to another corner.
"Trace on!"
Bang—!
His instantaneous movement was fast, but Emiya's Noble Phantasm Reserve had increased by several orders of magnitude compared to before.
Using Rule Breaker meant there was no need to worry about harming Tsumiki Fushiguro in the ward, but this creature, in its Cursed Technique-condensed form, could not afford to touch the blade in the slightest.
"Fighting with this kind of thing, what a joke!"
After barely dodging yet another flying blade, Tengen-sama couldn't control his body's coordination and stumbled against the wall, utterly unable to believe what he was witnessing.
Cursed Tools that can forcibly stop the operation of a Cursed Technique exist, but those are unique weapons, and there is a difference between stopping operation and erasing a Cursed Technique. The former even has a limit that this one seems to exceed.
For example, the core of the Split Soul Katana could only forcibly stop the part of the technique that the blade touched. If the technique's range was too vast, or the Cursed Energy too overwhelming, the Split Soul Katana's blade would enter a stalemate with the continuous Cursed Energy output.
Because it was dangerous, Tengen had specifically studied the properties of that Cursed Tool, and that thing had long since been ruthlessly destroyed by Gojo Satoru with a Cursed Technique that exceeded its limit.
But this weapon seems to be able to ignore the effect of Cursed Techniques and directly erase them... Tengen could barely accept the existence of just one special weapon, but what is with this multitude of identical ones?
His Cursed Technique has no offensive capabilities, and his specialty, Barrier Techniques, holds little offensive power. Wouldn't he be completely countered by a weapon like this?
This means that as long as Emiya wants to deal with him, he can only hide and scurry around like a rat, absolutely unable to remain in front of him for more than a few seconds.
"...."
How could this be possible?
"Are you afraid?
There are no incomprehensible things in this world, only facts people are unwilling to accept.
But some people refuse to accept that fact because they have the courage to change it, while others are simply blinded by fear.
With your ability, there's absolutely no need for you to stay so cautiously in the Star Corridor Temple, and you don't seem to be diligently researching anything... Could it be that you are hiding from something?
Something related to that person you mentioned earlier, the one you can't tell me about?"
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