"So, where is the endgame anyway?" Lucy asked Megumi.
"No one knows until the 19th" Megumi replied.
"True, to be honest, I don't know why I am here," said Lucy while walking in a different direction.
Megumi followed as he didn't want to make an enemy out of her by running away.
"Are you a reincarnated sorcerer or the one who awakened a technique?"
He asked, knowing such a powerful person must be the former rather than the latter. He never met or even heard of her officially.
"Neither, I'm a sorceress from Europe. I am travelling around and ended up seeing the barriers and how so many curses are flocking into them. Since I have nothing to do, I have joined the fun."
Megumi realised the nonchalancy in her tone, meaning she is not taking this battle Royale seriously. Considering her amount of cursed energy and technique. He evaluated her as at least a special grade.
"People are dying to escape from here."
He replied as he followed her with the Remi puppet walking beside him, like it was walking on its own. But he knew she was being controlled by Lucy.
'This technique is like Mechamaru's cursed technique. Except, the range is very small, and it works on humans, which makes it even more deadly' He thought in his head.
"Maybe, but I can simply collect points and escape from here. I will make a rule. But... That's besides the point. What do you want from me? I can feel your hesitation and fear."
"I have a plan to save everyone, I just need points from others," Megumi explained his plan partially, without going into details.
"Saving everyone? That's a noble goal. Someone is approaching us."
Megumi looked around vigilantly upon the warning, but he didn't sense anyone close by.
"They are miles ahead of us. It will take a few minutes to get here."
Lucy summoned a few more puppets and arranged them in a way where they are led by Remi's puppet.
Seeing this, Megumi knew she was not joking. He summoned the divine dog, and sure enough, a guy in a weird costume appeared.
"Are you talking about him?"
Lucy answered, "No, besides, if he wants, we will be dead even before we know it. I am talking about them."
Hana Kurusu, a sorceress who shares her body with Angel, appeared.
"Hello there~, my fated one"
She said as she saw Megumi. A mouth opened on her cheek, and it spoke
"You are powerful, puppeteer. But, we didn't come here to fight with you."
Megumi immediately became even more vigilant; this felt exactly like the Sukuna and Yuji situation to him.
"Thank you for your praise, but how can I trust you? Especially when you brought an enemy along with you?"
Hana and Megumi looked at Takaba, who was in a funny suit. Seeing many eyes on him, he said, "I'm not an enemy, I am just an entertainer."
As he bowed, a cap suddenly appeared, which he tipped like a gentleman.
"I'm not talking about you but him," Lucy pointed towards an empty space behind Hana and Takaba.
They turned to see nothing.
"Haha, I never thought a modern sorcerer could discover me."
A mask floated away, suddenly a sorcerer in a Haori and nothing else appeared. Beside him are many shikigami that surrounded Lucy and others.
Megumi saw many shikigami, although they are all weak, they are in great numbers.
"Is he like Geto suguru?" He murmured.
"I don't know if that is Geto Suguru but... You guys should leave this place. He's my match."
Lucy placed the strings on Takaba, Hana, and Megumi. She pulled them back while she stayed on the front lines.
"In terms of numbers, I have more shikigami than your Puppets," the reincarnated sorcerer said, commanding the shikigami to overwhelm Lucy.
Lucy placed her puppets between her and the shikigami.
She used a 'telepathy' spell at the same time, a string attached to the three sorcerers.
'Don't get involved in this fight. Look around for other enemies'
She retracted the strings. This is just to cover her Telepathy spell. After all, no one likes a mind reader. When a string is attached, it will give the illusion that strings are necessary to access their minds.
Lucy focused on the shikigamis and with her puppets, she attacked.
The puppet master and shikigami user didn't battle themselves, but stood behind their minions and commanded them through various means.
Although Lucy's puppets are strong and are made of metal. They are still taken down by the shikigamis.
'Sure enough, these puppets can only be used against long-range magicians of Abel Walker's world. If a melee fighter with superhuman abilities fought them, they would be just cannon fodder.'
Lucy merely conducted the experiment to confirm her hypothesis.
All the puppets, except for Remi, are destroyed.
'Time to see how useful she is'
"Haha! Even though you have an incredible cursed technique and cursed energy. You suck at using it properly" mocked the ancient shikigami user.
"Please, I'm just testing the waters."
Lucy replied as she controlled the sole Remi puppet.
Remi's hair grew like a mane of a few meters in length. The hair then ensnared the swarming shikigami, crushing some in the process.
One of the shikigami that escaped nearly got to Remi when Lucy pulled her back, disabling her hair-cursed technique in the process.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Shikigami swarmed towards Lucy
"I always wanted to test this. Marionnese Secondth : Harm puppet"
A huge three-headed puppet is summoned; it is attached to a marionette controller, which is floating in the air. Lucy could feel the control over it.
A shining light ball of thread hovered in the air; the threads moved at high speed towards the shikigami.
Instead of controlling the physical bodies of shikigami, she focused on the Cursed spirit cores, which are like the heart of a soul.
The strings are directly drilled into the cores of the shikigami instead of their bodies.
Every shikigami turned into a marionette under the control of the Harm puppet, which is controlled by Lucy.
The reincarnated sorcerer, seeing this, tried to flee but felt paralysed, then he noticed thin strings attached to him.
At the same time, everyone's Kogane announced
[Players may transfer any number of points between one another]
"Yuji did it!" Megumi exclaimed.
Lucy heard it.
"Oh well, I initially planned to kill you, but I have changed my mind. Transfer your points to me, I won't kill you. You can refuse that, too. I would simply turn you into a puppet like that girl. Then, you will do as I say, whether you like it or not."
The reincarnated sorcerer screamed, "I would rather die than have those strings on me."
A tamed cursed spirit emerged from his stomach, almost killing him, but at that moment, Lucy's figure flashed, and she appeared in front of the reincarnated sorcerer. Although she just moved extremely quickly, everyone else looked at it as teleportation.
She then injected him with tonnes of positive energy, draining half of her cursed energy reserves. Of course, there's no need to use that much, but Lucy didn't want him to die.
The cursed spirit was killed in an instant, and the flesh wound regenerated in an instant due to overwhelming positive energy.
"She can use the reverse curse technique, too? And that speed..." Megumi didn't know what to think about Lucy, but he understood one thing
'We can't make her our enemy at any cost'
This fight isn't even a fight from the beginning. In the eyes of everyone, Lucy dominated the reincarnated sorcerer.
Lucy completely controlled the body of the sorcerer and touched his forehead
"Marionnese change"
He turned into a wooden puppet.
"Marionnese liberation"
Pink gas flowed from Remi's skin, her wooden skin turned into fleshy skin as she felt free from the strings.
"Go away, I'm setting you free" Lucy said as she picked up the new puppet.
'Normal puppets are useless, especially since I'm dealing with superhumans. Either directly controlling the enemies or using this type of special puppet is the only way for now. Not to mention, now I can control the shikigami, I can simply stop them before they enter the battle.'
She can control the shikigami, but as she can only bring the best potential by controlling humanoid beings, she would rather not use shikigami as puppets with their chaotic shapes.
"You are letting her go just like that?" Megumi asked.
"She's not useful after all and weak. She'll be a burden. It's best if she survives on her own" Lucy said as she turned the Sorcerer puppet into a contract with Reggie's technique.
"Now then, who's this Yuji?"
Megumi pondered for a while, sighing, he explained, "he's a member of Tokyo Jujutsu High. I'm sure you don't know what that is. It's the organisation that trains the sorcerers in Japan..."
He continued to explain the full plan while leaving some personal details out, intending to gain Lucy as an ally. The plan is quite simple, gather and use points to create a new rule where everyone can exit colonies, unseal the strongest sorcerer with the help of Angel and finally defeat the mastermind of the game. Ofcourse, it's quite complicated to execute these steps.
They are searching for Higurama because he has more than 100 points.
Hana replied, "That's a wonderful plan, and you completed two objectives."
Megumi replied while being annoyed, "We only found Higurama. We still haven't found 'Angel'-"
Megumi suddenly realised, pointing at Hana, he asked, "That cursed spirit occupying your body. She's Angel?"
A mouth opened on Hana's cheek and said, "Yes, you can call me that. Although I'm not a cursed spirit. I'm a reincarnated sorcerer like some other players, but I don't want to erase Hana's personality and soul. So, I won't fully possess her."
"That's weird, then why did you reincarnate in the first place?" Lucy asked the question she knew the answer to.
"To kill 'The fallen'. He's called 'Ryomen Sukuna'. As for why I'm calling him 'Fallen' and against the 'reincarnation'. It's simply against the way of God."
Megumi was surprised and asked, "God?"
"It's more like my philosophy than a religion. I don't believe in any God. It's just easier to explain. And reincarnation is really against nature. These reincarnated souls are not just possessing the people's bodies but are merging with the souls overtime, defying death, which makes them even more dangerous."
"Regardless, I think we should get away from here first. I sense multiple cursed spirits and sorcerers approaching."
Listening to Lucy's warning, the group of sorcerers went to an abandoned 5-star hotel tower.
At the same time, Yuji arrived at their place as well.
"Those are a lot of new faces," he commented.
Seeing Lucy was extremely surprising to him, given her cursed energy. He only felt it from two other people, and now Lucy is added to that list, too.
Megumi was about to say something when Lucy interrupted him.
"Well then, I would go on my way. I have some preparations to do for the endgame. If you guys need me, just burn this script with cursed energy. That should summon me. Megumi, I will send you the points after a while."
She gave a receipt and left the place without listening to their future plan.
For her, the most important thing is still her Ascension Ritual.
She teleported to a random hotel room in a nearby building.
She summoned the shikigami sorcerer and ordered him to transfer all his points to her.
"149 points? How many people did he kill?"
After saving 90 points for herself, which means she has 100 points now, just in case of an emergency. She sent the rest of the points to Megumi.
'Finally, I can leave this game whenever I want.'
Lucy relaxed.
'Now then'
She manipulated the sorcerer to summon one of his shikigami.
Once again, her magic threads drilled into the cursed energy core of the shikigami.
"Sure enough, just like before. These powers interact well. But, what if I want it to sleep?"
Lucy cast a basic sleep spell. Contrary to her expectations, the spell didn't work.
"Am I missing something?"
She cast the spell once again, but this time, she focused on the cursed energy.
"Failed? But some magic can still interact with cursed energy."
In a way, she expected this to work towards a certain extent as the super soldier serum influenced the Shapeshifter's body. But that's genetics, it is physically possible. This is magical and soul-related. So, she's still trying to expand the possibilities.
Her eyes went to Level 1 on the system.
"Perhaps, if I am Level 2. My abilities will coordinate even more well? This is because with my increase in my level, my existence also increases."
As she mumbled, a thought struck her.
"How did I know that just now?! I never heard about it from the system."
She completely searched her memory, frantically searching for the source of information. Yet, she can't remember any prompt or information notice from the system.
She held her head, trying to recall.
Another thought struck her
"Wait! Why am I here in the first place? Why am I doing the missions? Isn't it all pointless? Then, why have I decided to level up?"
No matter
Her eyes locked onto the status screen.
She screamed
" What are you doing to my mind!"
Her Hands transformed into claws as fur began to grow on her.
Noises of chairs smashing into the Glass walls of the luxury room were heard.
Lucy tried to grab the system screen in front of her, shouting
"Are you manipulating my mind!"
Yet, all she could grasp was empty air in front of her.