JJK: Chapter 56

Title: Frost Serpent

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"Frost Serpent. I am the Frost Serpent."

Majestic "flowers" bloomed across the frozen plain, but these enormous ice blossoms, each the size of a house, were lethal. Their petals were formed by tightly compressed ice crystals grinding against one another, sharp enough to shred sunlight into golden fragments.

Yet, despite their beauty and danger, they were futile. The Frost Serpent had already lost sight of the small human figure. Its initial attacks failed. Just as it prepared to ascend for a better aerial view, a searing pain drove its body down.

Shin Shuichi's first target was naturally the wings of the entity calling itself the Frost Serpent. In his Timeless state, he approached unnoticed and struck at its right wing with both Tsunokiri and Onikiri. Surprisingly, the wing was exceedingly durable. Only after repeated strikes did he manage to sever the entire structure.

As the severed wing crashed to the ground, the Frost Serpent let out a piercing scream. A visible whirlwind coiled around it, forming a tempest of destruction in moments.

Shin Shuichi found himself unable to get near the Frost Serpent as an almost solid "barrier" surrounded it. This wasn’t merely a storm-generated shield but one reinforced by the creature's cursed energy.

"Chrono Arrow."

Sheathing his two cursed blades, Shin Shuichi drew Extinction, his bow, and infused it with an overwhelming amount of cursed energy, pushing the weapon to its limit. When the energy discharged, the radiance pierced through the storm, tearing a clean path.

Despite being unable to see his target clearly, Shin's attack left a gaping, crescent-shaped wound on the massive body of the Frost Serpent. The wound was unnaturally clean, the flesh and blood seemingly erased.

The Frost Serpent had already realized something was wrong after the first attack. Normally, it could sense all movements within its snowstorm, as if the elements themselves were its eyes and ears. However, the assault that severed its wing had bypassed all its awareness.

In the face of an unknown technique, the serpent quickly adapted and strategized. Nevertheless, the Chrono Arrow breached its defenses again, leaving another grotesque wound that proved stubborn to heal.

"Crack!"

The injuries looked severe but were far from fatal. The Frost Serpent's massive body coiled around an ice pillar as it ascended. Hovering in midair, it attempted to dodge Shin Shuichi’s next strike, but a sudden noise drew his attention.

On the icy ground, a finger-thick hole appeared. Its edges were smooth, as though a precise and sharp force had drilled it. More peculiar was the absence of any surrounding cracks. Soon, Shin Shuichi identified the culprit.

Rain.

Raindrops descended from the sky, glittering under the sunlight. Wherever they landed, they bored holes into the ancient ice sheet below. Without a doubt, this was the Frost Serpent’s doing. In Shin Shuichi's perception, the "rain" spanned a 300-meter radius centered around him.

Each droplet carried immense penetrating power imbued with the serpent's frigid essence. A few strikes could be endured, but this was a relentless barrage. With no intention of foolishly relying on reverse cursed techniques to weather the assault, Shin opted for a more straightforward solution.

Raising Extinction once again, he activated—

Time Wheel: Reverse.

Time twisted. The rain surged upward, vanishing into the infinite darkness of the reversed flow. This phenomenon lasted but an instant in Shin Shuichi’s perception, a fleeting glimpse of reversed reality.

Chrono Wheel: Turn.

Five nearly invisible trajectories shimmered in the sunlight, tracing arcs in the air. They struck the Frost Serpent's humanoid torso, left wing, and serpentine body in quick succession, leaving horrifying wounds in their wake.

The serpent’s supporting ice pillar shattered and collapsed. Its deafening roar echoed across the frozen expanse.

"Domain Expansion: Everlasting Ice Prison."

The vast sky and blazing sun disappeared. In their place stood towering walls of frost, sealing every exit. This was now an inescapable frozen hell.

The domain's space was eerily expansive. Suspended in midair, the Frost Serpent’s broken right wing had been reconstructed from translucent ice crystals, while its other injuries had mysteriously vanished.

A blizzard raged throughout the domain, its biting chill ignoring Shin Shuichi’s cursed energy barriers. Only after deploying a simplified domain of his own did the frost’s relentless intrusion ease.

Still, something was strange about this domain. Not only did the environment amplify the Frost Serpent’s powers, but it also seemed to merge the serpent itself with the surrounding snowstorm. This connection explained its abnormal regeneration speed.

Shin Shuichi squinted, preparing another strike.

Caught mid-flight, the Frost Serpent froze momentarily in his perception. Empowered by the peak of Extermination's cursed energy, another arrow shot forth, carving through the icy storm. It breached the serpent's defenses, leaving gaping wounds that reflected dazzling light throughout the icy prison.

As the attack subsided, Shin observed closely. The wind and snow flowed back into the Frost Serpent’s body, as if mending a shattered painting. Its form now seemed less like flesh and more akin to the storm itself, transcending physical limitations.

“This domain’s effect... troublesome.”

Deflecting incoming ice shards with precision, Shin Shuichi sheathed Extinction and unsheathed Tsunokiri and Onikiri. With a sudden burst of speed, he closed in on the Frost Serpent, shattering a wave of icy beasts it had summoned.

Scaling a massive ice serpent summoned by his foe, Shin planted his blades firmly into its frozen body. Using the momentum, he leapt toward the Frost Serpent, leaving a trail of cracks and shattering its constructs beneath him.

Now wielding Dojigiri alongside his other two blades, Shin Shuichi unleashed a storm of strikes. Each slash tore through the serpent’s massive body, raining glimmering ice fragments across the battlefield.

As the Frost Serpent’s dismembered form plummeted to the ground, Shin Shuichi landed heavily, leaving a crater in his wake. He turned to see the shattered serpent rise once more, its body seamlessly reforming as though the damage had been an illusion.

"Shura!"

The cursed blade's technique detonated, conjuring a strange phantom above and behind the Frost Serpent. Wielding a decayed sword, the phantom ignored the storms and cursed energy enveloping the serpent. Just as it twisted its body to defend, the phantom struck with precision, cleaving through the creature's form, splitting it nearly in half.

For the first time within its domain, the Frost Serpent let out a cry of genuine pain. Yet, under Shin Shuichi’s disbelieving gaze, its body began to heal once more. Worse, its aura intensified, surging in sync with the blizzard’s fury.

"It’s fully integrated with its environment, even tying its existence to this storm. As long as the domain remains intact, the blizzard won't stop. And with the storm raging, the Frost Serpent is practically immortal. To make matters worse, this domain is specialized for defense," Shin muttered to himself.

Suddenly, pain erupted in his chest and abdomen. A sharp ice spike, as long as his forearm, emerged from within him. He could see it spinning and condensing before his eyes, coated in his steaming blood.

Though it vanished in an instant, and his body and torn clothing were restored, Shin Shuichi furrowed his brows. "This wasn’t a direct attack."

The realization hit. The cold energy lingering from earlier exchanges had been accumulating inside his body. Under the Frost Serpent’s control, it manifested as the ice spike. His technique reversal could heal the injury, but it couldn’t undo the past contamination.

"Damn it."

Another ice spike pierced through his torso. This time, Shin canceled his technique reversal, opting instead for a RCT. Yet, the more he fought, the more frost energy seeped into his body. It was turning into a battle of attrition neither could win—a stalemate without end.

The Frost Serpent shifted its tactics, engaging in close combat. Though Shin Shuichi's blades consistently shattered its body, the serpent’s real goal became clear. Every time its form was destroyed, it released massive amounts of frost energy into the air, forcing a trade: wounds for contamination.

"Even with the cursed blade’s technique working better than ordinary attacks..." Shin Shuichi paused, suspicion dawning. "Could it be that its soul has also merged with the domain? If so, it’s impossible to kill it here."

The Frost Serpent reformed in midair, its body now adorned with a dazzling armor of ice. The surrounding snowstorm converged around it, and it spread its wings, looking down at Shin Shuichi.

"Human! You are indeed strong. I will remember you. When I return, I shall bring a blizzard powerful enough to consume everything!"

Shin Shuichi’s eyes narrowed. "It’s trying to escape. If this drags on, the one who collapses first will be it—not me. But now that it knows it can’t kill me, it’s choosing to flee. From the air, I can shoot it down with Extinction and Chrono Arrows, but there’s another escape route…"

His gaze fell below the icy expanse to the depths of the ocean.

"The sea."

The Frost Serpent only needed to break through the thinner sections of ice and dive into the water. Once submerged, it would be impossible to pursue. And there was no guarantee he could kill it the moment it dismissed its domain.

The Frost Serpent seemed to be gathering power for a final move.

"I’ll have to test the technique I’ve been working on. If it fails, I’ll have to wait for the domain’s collapse to make another attempt."


Time Wheel..

Forward flow and reversal clashed violently. The acceleration of time and its reversal overlapped, warping the world around Shin Shuichi.

What would emerge when time’s forward motion collided with its backward flow?

The battlefield seemed to distort, each instant folding and unraveling. The Frost Serpent’s storm surged, intertwining with the warped time as the decisive moment loomed.

As Shin Shuichi’s technique unfolded, time within its bounds began to accelerate, only to be simultaneously reversed. The two contradictory effects clashed and then fused together.

For a moment, time itself unraveled, spiraling into chaos—and then everything stopped.

This wasn’t the “stillness” of his Timeless State. Shin could feel it. The cursed energy driving the raging blizzard, as well as the Frost Serpent suspended mid-air, had ceased flowing entirely. The “Unmelting Ice Prison” was still visibly present, but in Shin's perception, it had lost its connection to the Frost Serpent.

Maintaining this incredible phenomenon demanded most of Shin’s cursed energy. Feeling the strain, he wasted no time. Drawing his bow, he nocked an arrow and let it fly. However, the moment the energy arrow left the string, it froze in midair.

Startled, Shin realized he had no time to dwell on the consequences. The toll of this move was immense, and his reserves were rapidly depleting.

Switching to close combat, Shin rushed toward the immobilized Frost Serpent. Wielding Doujigiri, he leapt onto its back. Each slash came with little resistance, the serpent’s form shattering effortlessly, even without the weapon’s famed armor-piercing properties.

Feeling his limits nearing, Shin delivered a final strike—a diagonal slash cleaving the serpent’s humanoid face in two. Then, he released the technique.

The flow of time returned.

Gentle sunlight filtered down, breaking through the now-shattered Unmelting Ice Prison. The Frost Serpent, severed into pieces, continued speaking the words it had tried to utter before time froze. Yet before it could complete a single word, it faltered, its existence undone by the reversal of its fate.

Its towering, dragon-serpent form, once blotting out the sun, collapsed lifelessly to the ground.

Shin Shuichi coughed, blood spilling from his mouth and nose. Glancing at his blood-streaked left hand, he attempted to invoke his reverse technique. Yet the result was only partial.

"The technique... it’s temporarily unstable. Did something go wrong during the collision?" He grimaced but quickly moved to treat his internal injuries with what remained of his rct. Though non-fatal, his injuries were extensive and troublesome.

As he worked to recover, the Frost Serpent’s remains began to dissolve. Its blizzard dispersed, revealing an endless, serene icefield under a brilliant blue sky.

—-—

In the far horizon, a faint green light emerged, rapidly spreading across the heavens. Within moments, the entire sky was veiled in a flowing tapestry of green and blue—a breathtaking aurora.

The lights shimmered and danced, like the flowing gown of a goddess. A miracle of nature, its elegance and beauty left Shin momentarily awestruck.

He stood in quiet admiration, the majestic aurora reflecting in his eyes. Then, snapping back to reality, he turned to retrace his steps across the snowfield. Taking out the satellite phone given to him by the leader of the team, he listened as the voice on the other end, filled with excitement, confirmed the dissolution of the unnatural storm.

Shin Shuichi continued his journey, marveling at the rare natural spectacle, while awaiting the arrival of his team’s support.

"Stopping time... I can’t believe this crazy idea actually worked on the first try. I’ll have to practice and refine it when I return. Oh! I should ask Gojo-sensei to help again! Haha!"