Chapter 16 (Patreon)

It was only natural that Ragnar Kagenou was excited.

The first of the four seals placed on the Gate of Babylon was:

【Slay a Special Grade Cursed Spirit】

【Unlock all B-Rank Noble Phantasms】

“How can I not be excited?”

He looked completely serious.

“A special-grade cursed spirit and the Inverted Spear of Heaven ended up in the hands of a curse user. That’s unacceptable.”

Then he declared, in the most righteous tone imaginable,

“As a proper jujutsu sorcerer, I have a duty to eliminate a threat like that before it endangers innocent people.”

He turned sharply.

“Let’s go, Satoru!”

“…Huh?”

Gojo immediately grabbed Ragnar by the shoulder.

“If we just steal it in broad daylight, it will become an international incident, so maybe calm down a little.”

Even so, before long, Gojo Satoru and Ragnar Kagenou had already followed the group all the way to the outskirts.

Ragnar glanced sideways at him.

“I’m not trying to be difficult here, but do you really think this is enough to hide who we are?”

He pointed at the crude robber-style mask sitting on his head.

Gojo, on the other hand, looked full of confidence.

“Daijoubu. Trust me.”

Ragnar stared at him for a second.

“…Hearing that from you somehow makes me less confident.”

Gojo looked ahead.

“The area in front of us is a restricted military zone. Sneaking in won’t be easy.”

Ragnar answered calmly, “Relax. That won’t be a problem.”

The two of them quietly made their way into the military base.

After checking the area and confirming no one was nearby, Ragnar spoke under his breath.

“Well?”

Gojo looked at him, then at the cloth.

“You actually have stealth gear like this? What are you, some blue robotic cat from the future?”

“Of course.”

The reason they had entered so easily was because of the Stealth Cloth from the Gate of Babylon.

It was the prototype of all stealth-type Noble Phantasms, the origin from which countless concealment tools across history and legend had derived.

Anything covered by the cloth could not be perceived by magical or optical means.

Against opponents who relied entirely on supernatural perception, it could be absurdly effective.

Of course, it was not perfect.

Sound, scent, body heat, and physical movement could still betray the user.

Even so, for infiltration, it was more than enough.

After that, the two continued downward.

The laboratory was packed with equipment and experimental facilities. There was so much there that it was hard to take it all in at once.

Gojo’s expression changed first.

“…That’s cursed spirit experimentation.”

Inside the facility were grotesque cursed spirits being restrained and studied like specimens.

Ragnar clicked his tongue.

And it did not stop there.

Among the experiments were subjects that had clearly been created by fusing cursed spirits with human bodies.

“The research being done in this place has completely abandoned all humanity.”

Experimenting on cursed spirits was one thing.

Human experimentation was another matter entirely.

After some time, they reached the lowest level.

There, submerged inside an unknown liquid within a massive cylindrical tank, was the upper half of the special-grade cursed spirit.

And above the laboratory floor stood Dracula, quietly observing it.

Ragnar’s gaze turned cold.

“Satoru. Let’s make our move now and tear this place apart.”

Gojo stretched his shoulders slightly.

“Works for me. Sneaking around was getting annoying.”

Ragnar gave a small nod.

“My thoughts exactly.”

Then he added,

“You deal with the cursed spirits and the test subjects in the lab. I’ll kill him.”

The moment he said that—

“Hey.”

Ragnar’s voice rang out clearly across the lab.

“You mutt. Look behind you.”

Dracula spun around at once, instantly locking onto the two intruders with a wary expression.

“Who are you?! To trespass in a restricted military zone—”

Ragnar cut him off without hesitation.

“The people who are about to kill you.”

Dracula’s eyes narrowed.

“Jujutsu sorcerer assassins from another country…”

He reached behind himself and drew out the special-grade cursed tool—

the Inverted Spear of Heaven.

Ragnar stared at him coldly.

“Last words?”

Dracula’s face hardened.

“Arrogant brat.”

The instant the words left his mouth—

Swish!

Dracula moved.

At the same time, ten golden ripples opened behind Ragnar.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The Inverted Spear of Heaven barely managed to deflect the Noble Phantasms flying toward him.

But the force transmitted through the weapon still slammed into Dracula’s body hard enough to drive him backward several steps.

Shock flashed across his face.

That power alone was monstrous.

And combined with the endless barrage of Noble Phantasms, it meant his movements had already been sealed off.

He could do nothing but defend.

If he tried to move carelessly, those merciless blades would turn him into a pincushion.

“Damn it!”

Dracula suddenly realized something was wrong.

The so-called special-grade cursed tool in his hands—

the Inverted Spear of Heaven—

was doing nothing.

At this distance, a jujutsu sorcerer’s cursed technique should have already been nullified.

Yet Ragnar’s attacks continued without interruption.

Dracula’s expression turned ugly.

…A fake?

Had he really been sold a counterfeit?

“Damn that Japanese woman… she dared give me a fake?!”

Whoosh!

A golden Noble Phantasm flashed through the air and tore off his arm.

The Inverted Spear of Heaven fell from his grasp and hit the floor.

“You dare—”

Splat!

In the next instant, Dracula’s entire body was skewered by a dense storm of Noble Phantasms.

Then, as those weapons dissolved and returned to the Gate of Babylon, his body broke apart into a cloud of blood mist—

and recovered completely.

His voice came back low and venomous.

“To humiliate me like th—”

Splat!

Whoosh—!!!

He was turned into a hedgehog again.

“I’ll—”

Another volley pierced straight through him.

“….”

Ragnar looked at him expressionlessly.

“Not talking anymore?”

Splat!

Dracula glared at him and finally spat out,

“Fuck you!”

Ragnar’s eyes narrowed faintly.

“Well said.”

As a reward—

a thousand swords through the heart.

Honestly, Ragnar had to admit it.

Romanian vampire curse users really were absurdly hard to kill.

Even with his heart pierced, Dracula still refused to die.

“I’ll tear you to pieces!”

At that point, Dracula gave up on maintaining his human appearance.

His flesh twisted and swelled, transforming into the hideous body of a cursed spirit.

At the same time, a shrill alarm rang throughout the entire base.

A violent tide of blood mist rushed toward Ragnar.

Ragnar’s expression did not change.

“Hideous.”

“ROAR—!”

Dracula’s circular maw split wider, revealing ring after ring of sharp, crowded teeth.

His limbs thickened grotesquely.

Only the rough outline of something humanoid remained.

Ragnar looked at him like he was staring at trash.

“The clown’s performance ends here.”

Dozens of golden ripples opened behind him again.

The moment the Noble Phantasms shot forward, Dracula dissolved into blood mist to evade them—

and reappeared directly in front of Ragnar.

“…Huh?!”

In the next instant, the Chains of Heaven wrapped around Dracula’s body.

Boom!

He was blasted apart by the incoming Noble Phantasms.

Holes of every size tore through his flesh without mercy.

And hidden among those Noble Phantasms—

Ragnar had fired Rule Breaker.

Dracula, who had been just about to dissolve into blood mist again, suddenly froze.

He couldn’t use his cursed technique.

His expression distorted.

“That dagger…!”

Ragnar answered coldly,

“That’s right.”

Then his eyes sharpened.

“And now die.”

The incoming storm of Noble Phantasms was less than a heartbeat away from finishing him off.

It was a decisive kill.

But at the final moment—

Dracula tore off his own arm by force.

And screamed,

“Domain Expansion—Bloody Undead World!”

An overwhelming flood of blood swallowed Ragnar whole in an instant.

Inside the domain—

there was only blood.

Blood everywhere.

Eerie.

Cold.

Oppressive.

Ragnar stood within that crimson world and looked at Dracula, who was grinning in front of him.

“I didn’t expect you to know Domain Expansion.”

Dracula laughed darkly.

“Inside my domain, you are nothing but blood prey waiting to be butchered.”

Inside a domain, the caster gained a boost to their attacks and the certainty of guaranteed hits.

But Ragnar only looked at him with contempt.

“Such disrespect…”

Golden ripples began to bloom behind him.

“…is punishable by death.”

Two hundred golden ripples opened at once, their radiance forcing back even the blood-soaked pressure of Dracula’s domain.

Ragnar’s voice turned cold and absolute.

“You mutt.”

“I’ll erase you completely.”

Gate of Babylon—full firepower.

Countless blood arrows rained down from every direction.

And at the same time—

Outside the domain, after clearing out the laboratory, Gojo Satoru noticed a blood-red sphere on the ground.

His expression changed instantly.

“Domain Expansion?!”

In a battle between sorcerers, getting caught inside an enemy’s domain usually meant certain death.

Then—

Crack.

Gojo’s eyes narrowed.

“…Hm?”

The blood-colored sphere had begun to fracture.

“The domain… is breaking from the inside?”

Under Gojo’s stunned gaze, cracks spread across the small crimson sphere one after another.

It looked as though it might shatter at any moment.

And from within those widening cracks—

a dazzling golden light began to spill out.