Chapter 1382 - 978: The Optimization of Cursed Energy

Just like being struck by an invisible meteor and collapsing into a huge pit on both sides of the square.

Reiger and Knot confronted each other in this way, across a large pit, questioning each other.

"Answering a question with a question?"

Knot had already healed his physical wounds and looked at Reiger on the opposite side, his gaze resembling the disdain for some inferior creature.

"Alright," Knot said, "Although I don’t know if an uncivilized monkey like you can understand my thoughts, if you want to know, I don’t mind telling you."

Knot’s demeanor became very transcendent, like a seeker in pursuit of truth, he spoke word by word.

"My purpose is actually very simple, it’s the optimization of curse power."

This sentence made Reiger frown.

"Optimization of curse power?"

What does this mean?

Ignoring Reiger’s confusion, Knot continued.

"Although I’m merely an outsider occupying this body, there’s a thought that Geto Suguru and I are quite aligned with," Knot sneered, "That is, there are simply too many uncivilized monkeys in this world."

To some self-claimed superior mages, ordinary humans who can’t even refine curse power or use spells, are like monkeys, bearing a human-like appearance yet truly remaining uncivilized beasts.

This idea is not held by Knot and Geto Suguru alone; in fact, many families in the world of sorcery think this way.

Otherwise, someone like Fushiguro Toji, who once forced the not fully awakened Gojo Satoru into a desperate situation, would not have been despised by the Zenin Family and eventually exiled.

It is because many mages hold such thoughts that existences like Knot and Geto Suguru emerge.

"But, unlike Geto Suguru who wholeheartedly wants to create a paradise for mages and eliminate all non-mages, I actually do not care who exists in the world I end up creating."

Knot shifted his verbal tones, saying thus.

"Whether mages or curse masters or even curse spirits, as long as we can achieve the optimization of curse power, the world I envisage will be born."

Knot suddenly smirked at Reiger.

"And the means to achieve this aim is Tengen."

Upon hearing this, Reiger’s frown deepened.

"You know Tengen, right?" Knot squinted, "A barrier master with the ’immortality’ technique, able to reshape the body as it naturally ages, producing evolution, ultimately transcending the human category to become a higher existence."

"The existence of Tengen itself is actually a symbol of humanity’s future, a stepping stone for human evolution to the next stage, and even higher."

"So, I kidnapped Him from the Sorcery High Institute to make Him assimilate with humanity."

Knot opened his arms.

"As long as humanity can assimilate with Tengen, it can transcend towards a higher concept."

"Then, non-mages might become mages, mages, like Tengen, would evolve to a higher existence, even curse spirits would undergo evolutionary phenomena, eventually becoming another form of life, granting curse power a different form."

"For this, I held the Destruction Revisit."

According to Knot, the Destruction Revisit is actually preparation before assimilation.

By setting barriers at ten locations in the country, creating the stage for Destruction Revisit, letting mages from ancient times to now fight within, the ten barriers will be filled with curse power, providing energy for the assimilation ritual.

Whether mages or non-mages, the massive negative emotions generated before death will form equivalent or more curse power.

In this way, Knot can utilize this curse power to initiate the previously prepared ritual, allowing all of humanity to assimilate with Tengen, and evolve.

"...Is this really feasible?"

Reiger remained silent for a while, then asked expressionlessly.

"Of course," Knot said without hesitation, "Tengen himself has already evolved into a form similar yet contrary to humans, it’s closer to the form of a curse spirit than a mage."

"And as is known, curse spirits are the condensate of curse power. As long as Tengen continues to evolve, the ultimate result will definitely be a new form of curse power."

"Such a Tengen is practically equivalent to an omnipresent existence, His soul is already saturated within the world."

"Therefore, as long as the means are reasonable, the theory correct, combined with my guidance and ritual, humanity will certainly be able to assimilate with the ubiquitous Tengen and advance to a higher level."

This is the so-called optimization of curse power, that is, collective evolution of humanity.

"Sounds pretty good."

Facing Knot’s explanation, directly touching this grand plan, Reiger yet maintained his expressionless demeanor.

No way.

"I have only one question," Reiger inquired Knot, "What benefit does it bring you?"

Upon hearing this question, Knot fixedly looked at Reiger for a while, then sighed heavily.

"That’s why I said, a monkey like you simply doesn’t understand," Knot stated boringly, "If it was Reiger Brillhaut, he would surely understand, right?"

"Is that so?" Reiger spoke blandly, "But I don’t think so."

"Then you surely don’t understand Reiger Brillhaut as a person," Knot affirmatively uttered, "Do you know? Originally, he too, like you, had no curse power, no spells, once making me wonder if he was also a counterexample of ’Heaven and Curse Binding.’"

"But after that, he came into contact with cursed energy, came into contact with sorcery, and exhibited an extraordinary attitude towards learning and a capacity for understanding, almost madly delving into various sorceries."

"Because I’ve always been watching his connections, I’m very clear on just how immersed he became after coming into contact with sorcery."

"I believe that his ability to make the impossible possible, mastering ’Limitless Sorcery’ without the Six Eyes and successfully subduing the Ten Kinds Shadow Magic’s Divine General, owes greatly to this purely research-driven attitude."

As he spoke these words, Knot’s smile grew eerie.

"And I am no different."

These words, spoken from Knot’s mouth, imparted an unsettling aura to him.

"The assimilation of all humanity with Tengen to become a higher-level existence; this existence would undoubtedly be a new form of cursed energy, yet no one knows what form this cursed energy would take."

"Just like Curse Spirits, which are condensations of cursed energy, with appearances as varied as the spectrum. If all humanity and Tengen were to merge into a new cursed energy form, thus giving birth to a new Curse Spirit containing the energy of billions, what would this Curse Spirit look like?"

"At that point, would it still be called a Curse Spirit?"

Knot’s tone at this moment would evoke an image in anyone’s mind.

That image was not of him creating a new Curse Spirit or a new humanity but of him creating the world, creating a deity.

— "Deification."

This was the impression that formed in Reiger’s mind.

And Knot continued speaking.

"I’m very curious whether the existence born at that time could be controlled by the ’Curse Spirit Manipulation Technique’?"

"If I were to use ’Vortex’ on it, what would happen?"

"Would a technique also emerge within its body?"

"If so, what kind of grand sorcery would it be?"

Knot became more enthusiastic as he spoke, so much so that his arms opened wide as if he were embracing the world, and his voice naturally grew louder.

"I want to know this, I want to conduct this research."

"Isn’t this urge essentially the same as Reiger Brillhaut’s desire to delve into various techniques?"

"No, to achieve this idea, I’ve even spent a thousand years planning, forging contracts with sorcerers across eras, and waited specially for this era, waiting for Tengen to reveal a flaw for me to seize."

"From this perspective, I am even more fanatical and pure than that special class Curse Involvement member."

As he continued speaking, Knot seemed to find such a notion amusing and burst into laughter.

If it were anyone else present, hearing Knot’s words and seeing his mirthful laughter, they would undoubtedly feel chilled to the bone, wouldn’t they?

For this?

For this, is the person before us going to incite countless sorcery incidents in this era, commit countless slaughters, and use all of humanity as his research material?

The disappearance and sacrifice of hundreds of millions, even billions, in exchange for an unknown form, an unknown existence, or even an unknown concept of a... Curse Spirit?

Reiger quietly gazed at the laughing Knot.

In this moment alone, he understood what a curse truly was.

Without a doubt...

"You, standing before me, are the curse."

Reiger uttered these words.

"You are an existence that must be eradicated, Knot."

Reiger did not speak these words with utter certainty, but rather as if announcing a fact, calm and indifferent.

Yet, Knot’s laughter inevitably faded away because of this.

"Didn’t I say? How could a primitive monkey like you possibly understand?"

Knot glared at Reiger coldly, his tone also growing calm.

"An entity like you, with absolutely zero cursed energy and inferior even to ordinary humans, has no place in the world I wish to create."

The cursed energy optimization Knot sought mirrored, inversely, the phenomena such as Fushiguro Toji’s ’Heaven and Curse Binding’.

In the new life, new world he desired to assimilate, create, and nurture, all humanity would be freed from mediocrity.

Without exception, they would all have cursed energy.

And reverse cases like Eric Mozart’s ’Heaven and Curse Binding’ would be incapable of possessing cursed energy.

And so, Knot thought this way as well.

"You are an existence that must be eliminated."

In Knot’s raised hands, darkness gathered.

"Let me see you off then."