Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice… shame on me still?
Satoru didn't actually know the exact proverb, but it sounded right in his head.
After Mordo casted the spell Curse of the Unmaker from the Book of the Damned. Satoru felt the energies of the area they were in on the compound vanishing and feeding the blood-red carvings on the floor.
'Looks like this is powered by the energies around and from that book in his possession,' Satoru assumed as he gazed around and glanced at the Darkhold.
The situation felt familiar. Using a crowd as a distraction to trap him — it was just like Shibuya, but different. They wanted to strip him of his sorcery before the fight could start.
It was smart. Only if the target wasn't him. Still, smart.
"You really went all out for a welcome party, Mordo," Satoru said. "Sacrificing your own pets just to get an edge? That's some serious commitment."
Mordo stood at the edge of the ritual circle. "This is the end of your arrogance, Gojo!"
Belasco laughed, sensing the fluctuation in Satoru's presence. To him, the plan was working perfectly. "A bird with clipped wings. What will you do now, I wonder?"
Illyana struggled to lift her head from the grass. She felt the magic drain from her Soulsword too and knew the situation was dire. "Gojo... get out of here."
"Stay down, Illyana." Satoru didn't even look at her. Instead, he reached up and tapped the Vibranium-Uru brooch on his new blindfold.
"Clipped my wings?" Satoru chuckled. "I still have this."
The Mind Stone flared. His Six Eyes glowed as he channeled the stone's power. Even though the magic in the air was gone, he could see that Belasco and Mordo were untouched by their own spell.
"I think you're confused," Satoru said. "I'm not the one trapped in here with you."
He stepped forward, the ground cracking under his feet from raw physical force alone.
"You're the ones trapped in here with me."
Satoru didn't wait for a reply. He dashed towards them with frightening speed.
Even without the reinforcement of Cursed Energy, his body was in still in peak condition and was a force of nature just by itself.
He appeared in front of Mordo before the sorcerer could react.
Satoru drove a heavy palm strike into Mordo's chest. The air left Mordo's lungs in a violent wheeze as he was sent tumbling backward across the field.
Belasco's eyes widened because in his point of view, he had just sent Mordo with a palm strike, and the next he was already in front of him.
The demon desperately swung his claw, channeling a significant amount of the energy from Limbo.
But, Satoru evaded it by ducking. The claw whistled over Satoru's head, but the force of the attack didn't stop as it carried over, shearing through a stone pillar like butter.
Satoru didn't give him a chance to think. He drove a lightning-fast jab into Belasco's ribs, followed by a knee to the solar plexus that lifted the demon lord off his feet.
Mordo scrambled to his feet, his face red with rage and humiliation. He raised the Staff of the Living Tribunal, its tip glowing with a chaotic purple light. "I will peel the skin from your bones!"
He unleashed a barrage of Chaos Magic bolts.
Satoru looked back and moved away from Belasco, then his body swayed and dipped between the homing projectiles with effortless ease.
Even without Infinity, his Six Eyes processed every movement, making Mordo's attacks look like they were moving at a snail-like pace in his eyes.
Satoru closed the gap again, appearing behind Mordo. He grabbed the back of the sorcerer's head and slammed him downward into the stone tiles.
'How!?'
Mordo and Belasco both roared in their minds.
BOOM! CRACK!
From the other side of the field, Belasco roared, manifesting a wave of hellfire that swept across the lawn.
Satoru didn't evade as he met the wave of flames head on, the Mind Stone glowed a golden-yellow on the brooch on his blindfold. The glow shielded him as he pierced through Belasco's attack like it wasn't even there.
Satoru leaped over Belasco with his legs in the air, he winked at him then performed a mid-air twist before landing a heavy heel-drop on Bleasco's shoulder which he tried to parry with the guard on his arm.
The demon grunted from the force, his knees buckling under the physical weight of the strike.
"Is this it?" Satoru asked, sounding genuinely bored as he dodged a counterattack swipe from Belasco. "You have all that magic, and you still can't land a single hit on a 'clipped bird'?"
The humiliation was grating, but as they continued to trade blows, Belasco's yellow eyes stayed glued to the glowing brooch on Satoru's forehead.
He could feel an absurd amount of pressure from it, and he was dying to know why. 'Is that stone the source of his physical strength?'
He thought as his mind raced for answers, but he denied it just as quickly. 'No…'
Satoru caught Belasco's wrist, twisting it until the demon hissed in pain, then leaned in close. The yellow light of the Mind Stone reflected in Satoru's crystalline blue eyes through the thin silk of the blindfold.
Belasco's heart — or whatever dark core pumped blood through his vessel — skipped a beat.
He had spent years living as an unliving in a demonic dimension called Limbo. He attained knowledge and lore of the multiverse that not any mortal could decipher and understand the weight of knowing.
He knows what that stone is now…
The demon kicked Satoru away with desperate strength, not to counter-attack, but to put distance between them.
He scrambled back toward Mordo, who was pushing himself up from a crater in the tiles, spitting out blood and broken teeth.
"Mordo!" Belasco shrieked, his voice cracking with panic. "You fool! You didn't tell me he had the Mind Stone!"
Mordo looked at him, dazed and confused, his Staff of the Living Tribunal shaking in his hand. "The stone? What stone? Does it even matter what he has? The curse is siphoning his sorcery! Focus and help me!"
"You crazy human!" Belasco roared, pointing a trembling, clawed finger at Satoru, who stopped and stared at them talking with a tilt of his head. "The Unmaker spell is eating the energy around and inside him, but it can't touch what's inside that stone! In other words… he's playing with us!"
Belasco's voice cracked with terror. "Any other stone would've been fine, the Time Stone can't stand chaos since it's affected in the Unmaker spell. But, the Mind Stone is different! Unless you're plan involves killing all of us under the ritual where the conscious mind would be undone, you can't 'unmake' the mind, Mordo! Not with the Unmaker spell!"
Satoru stopped his advance and shoved his hands back into his pockets, looking like he was watching circus clowns in the act. The Mind Stone on his forehead pulsed, agreeing with his mock.
"Mordo," Belasco sighed. "Tell me you have planned for this."
Mordo frowned, his black-veined hands trembling as they gripped his staff. "I didn't know," he muttered, his eyes darting between Satoru and the golden brooch. "How could I have known he carried an Infinity Stone?"
Belasco seethed, his claws digging into his own palms until his own blood dripped onto the stone.
'Why did I ever agree to work with this short-sighted human?' he screamed in his mind.
The demon lord turned his head slowly. His yellow eyes landed on Illyana, who was using the dull blade of her Soulsword to prop herself up on the grass. Their eyes met for a few seconds — his eyes were filled with unwillingness, she was right there!
Belasco looked back at Satoru, his posture shifting from aggressive to negotiating. "Listen to me, Sorcerer. I have no interest dying for his man's petty grudge and waste a bloodstone. I only need the girl. Give her to me, let me take her back to Limbo, and I will back off. I'll vanish, and you can do whatever you wish with this man."
Mordo's eyes widened in total shock. "What is the meaning of—?!"
"Shut up!" Belasco snapped, not even glancing at the sorcerer. His focus was entirely on Satoru, waiting for an answer.
Satoru stood there for then, a sharp grin spreading across his face.
"You're not going anywhere with Illyana, cockroach," Satoru said. "In fact, I'm thinking about fumigating your entire dimension just for laying your filthy hands on my students."
Belasco stared at Satoru for a few moments, his yellow eyes darting between the Mind Stone and the girl he so desperately wanted as he weighed his options. Finally, he looked up, his expression twisted in a sneer as he made up his mind.
"This isn't over," Belasco said. "I will have her, sorcerer. If not today, then I'll simply wait, let's see how your mortal body can last."
The body of Kaecilius suddenly convulsed. His limbs began to tremble violently as purple smoke started pouring out of his mouth and eyes.
The demonic soul of the Lord of Limbo was departing. As the energy left, the cracks under Kaecilius's skin began to mend and fade, returning to its natural state.
The body slumped over onto the grass like a puppet with its strings cut. Satoru's Six Eyes scanned the fallen man; he could still see him breathing. Kaecilius was alive, just unconscious.
Satoru turned his attention back to Mordo, who was standing alone in the center of the flickering ritual circle. The former Master looked small, his face pale as he clutched the Staff of the Living Tribunal with hands that wouldn't stop shaking.
"Well, that was unfortunate," Satoru said, his voice returning to that carefree and annoying tone Mordo hated. "Your teammate just tucked tail and ran. Guess the health insurance in Limbo doesn't cover 'getting punched into oblivion by Gojo Satoru'."
He took a step forward, the Mind Stone on his forehead glowing menacingly as he advanced.
"So, Mordo," Satoru chirped, tilting his head. "Are we going to keep doing this the hard way? Because I'm starting to get hungry. You see, you made me miss dinner with the Asgardians… There's a bakery in London that closes in twenty minutes as well."
Mordo exhaled heavily. He looked down at the Darkhold on his waist. The book was whispering to him, urging him to use the one spell he had been afraid to touch.
"I am not... done..." Mordo hissed, his eyes turning entirely black as the corruption of Chthon surged through his veins.
In a last minute gamble, pushed into a corner he can't see any way out of, he offered the rest of his soul to Chthon.
...
[ Athor's Notes ]: Stone me...
We've finally reached 40 chapters and 90k+ word count deep into the story! If you liked the story so far; stone me, maybe even give a review of the fic?
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