My ice surged and started to freeze even the flames of the Balor in defiance to natural order but I ignored that to rush the beast. Now suddenly on the back foot the monster roared angrily and sent wild strikes to harm me but I parried each with an accompanying black flash. Three, four, five, the number lost meaning as I felt a state of enlightenment fill me as though I became cursed energy and it became me. I unconsciously moved my hands into position and spoke calmly.-
"Domain expansion: Forge of the fallen."
The world stopped in it's tracks and the very air around me froze as an intense "gaze" landed on me as the surroundings shifted like a mirage. Hellfire surged along the ground to replace the ice but the Balor screamed in pain this time as the flames began to burn away the impurities. In front of me a pool of cool liquid manifested along with a wicked black anvil in contrast to the red stone. The illusory figures of my screaming victims flicked mid air behind me as i brought my weapon down on the anvil.-
"CLANG!"
The sound like metal striking metal rang through the air as black lightning like ribbons of cursed energy ripped out the point of impact. With it came to skin of the Balor. The beast screamed in pain at this but the forge was without mercy towards materials and it's master was no different. Each swing of my weapon tore away and reduced the Balor to nothing more than material to be refined. The final blow that reduced the barely alive creature to so much smoke caused the surroundings to ripple as if solidifying ever so slightly. -
I released my technique and immediately coughed up blood as the backlash hit me all at once. The anvil and liquid all faded with the screaming visages of my domains previous victims but the distortions in the true landscape were proof the dungeon was changed truly. The dungeons "gaze" remained incredibly intense for several more minutes as though studying me but I could tell even without my technique it was more than likely warning me to never do this again. It didn't feel like a malicious warning either but like one given out of genuine concern. At first I couldn't understand why this was but once I thoroughly checked myself over I figured it out.
My soul had been burnt away.
Only a little around the edges but the damage was VERY real. Using a domain on the real world strained my soul so greatly that it actively burnt it away. My eyes widened as I understood why.
'It's the difference between a mortal and divine soul!' I thought in both shock and understanding.
Until now I knew a gods soul was different than a mortals as I could see the difference but until now I couldn't fully grasp what that difference was.
A gods soul IS their domain. This is why their unsealed presence causes the surroundings to warp to match it. An unsealed god is the same as a curse user unleashing a domain without a barrier. Both have to hold that release with their souls but for a god it was no strain being their natural state but for a mortal curse user like me we couldn't handle it. The very act burns away our souls to temporarily even the field between us and a god. This knowledge was taboo, no, BEYOND taboo. This wasn't just trespassing in the realm of the divine but a blasphemous imitation of it.-
I could as a result understand why the dungeon would warn me so seriously not to do it again. Feeling a "god" within it might prove uncomfortable for it but it had eaten gods before so hardly a problem. The real problem was the damage to myself the technique caused and what it would mean if I unleashed it on the surface. Inside the dungeon I was safe from being booted to the divine realm but outside it the world would very likely treat me like an unsealed god.-
It honestly wasn't worth it in my opinion. Sure being able to perform a barrierless domain expansion was a step closer to godhood for me but until I was at the end of this path that wasn't something I could use. Still once I calmed down from this realization and advancement of my technique I frowned. I didn't know what came next for my cursed energy. A barrierless domain was the pinnacle of all cursed techniques as far as I knew from JJK. Yet despite that I wasn't a level nine on the edge of godhood. -
I was level five and might only qualify for level six now. There was four whole levels between me and the theorized threshold for godhood if I could level up and each one more difficult to reach than the last. I thought about this as I began my rise back to the surface. Slower this time to farm smoke but up all the same. Hestia didn't even seem surprised to learn I fought the Balor and won but that was to be expected at this point I suppose. Both the ancient calamities were at the same level so naturally the Balor wouldn't prove too troublesome.-
It only took me four days at my slowed rate to reach the surface and feel true sunlight on my skin once again. The harvest was plentiful to say the least too. A couple hundred level three and four stones(lots of spartoi) and plenty of metals, drops and rare resources as well. Miach practically fainted when I presented him the frankly insane amount of high end alchemical materials and told him to go nuts before handing to results over to my familia. This was a strange business deal as technically neither side made a profit but it satisfied us both so it worked.