That Time When I Fell Down the Stairs and Became a Jujutsu Sorcerer

Chapter 21 - Sanjō (NSFW)

In the heart of Sanjō, nestled between a quaint antique store and a charming café, stood an unassuming building with a faded sign reading "The Reliquary". The once grand entrance was worn down, revealing a dimly lit staircase leading to the cellar deep beneath the street level. Even non-sorcerers seemed to sense the malevolence, and few dared to venture near, let alone step inside.

Satoru stepped ahead of me, his eyes already aglow with infinity behind his square sunglasses. Even he bristled with unease, his eyes focused ahead as we descended the steep steps. The wood groaned and creaked, some of the steps had grown soft with age. At the bottom was a door.

The door itself looked like any other, made of plain wooden planks and adorned with rusty hinges and a rickety doorknob. However, upon closer inspection, strange symbols etched into the wood revealed themselves to be the grotesque visages of oni and other malevolent spirits. These were no ordinary decorations; they seemed to pulse with a dark energy that sent shivers down the spine of anyone who gazed upon them.

I glanced at Satoru, and he leaned forward with his hand on his chin. Gently he reached out and touched the door lightly with his index finger. His eyes scanned over the door before he stood up straight and steadied himself. Reaching beside, not taking his eyes off the door, he gave me a light push to stand behind him. With a low grunt, he placed his palm flat on the door and blasted it to pieces.

Behind it was a dimly lit corridor, filled with twisted metal instruments of torment and decay. The air reeked of death and suffering. As he took a step further, the walls began to shift and writhe like living flesh, as if the very stones were alive and angry at our intrusion.

I narrowed my eyes, trying to focus on the darkness as I followed beside him. A voice was whispering somewhere, speaking in a language long lost to time. The ground beneath our feet began to shake, and the walls seemed to close in on us, threatening to rush us at any moment.

"It's just an illusion, right?" I asked, looking up at Satoru and taking a step back from the walls, "It feels very real but somehow I think it's not."

"Oh, yeah sorry." He said as I broke his concentration for a moment, "I didn't think to tell you."

I looked up at him, his eyes were still focused hard ahead. He was watching something closely. When I looked ahead, all I could see was darkness, and the walls that threatened to fall.

The walls continued to constrict and Satoru continued to walk forward, hyper focused. The air grew thicker with the scent of decay and despair. Every surface seemed to seep with the lingering essence of suffering, as If the very walls themselves had been saturated with the tears of countless victims within these confines.

Stepping into a large room, our footsteps echoed off the stone walls. Reaching into my pocket I pulled out my phone and turned on the flashlight, illuminating corners where instruments of agony lay scattered like grotesque works of art. A rusty iron maiden, its metal body covered in ancient runes, leaned against the wall, its open mouth seeming to whisper sinister promises to any who passed by. Nearby, a series of racks held the twisted remains of what appeared to be human limbs, their bones stretched and contorted into impossible positions, as if subjected to some madman's sadistic experiments.

But it was the centerpiece of this gruesome exhibit that commanded my attention. A massive wooden chair, adorned with carvings of skulls and other morbid symbols, loomed. Its high back and armrests seemed to close in, trapping you in a suffocating embrace, while the seat itself appeared to pulse with a malevolent energy. This was the true source of the horrors that lurked within The Reliquary, a device designed to inflict unthinkable pain upon its helpless victims.

Yet, even as I stood there, a strange sensation began to manifest within me. It started as a subtle tingling in my fingers and toes, gradually spreading throughout my entire being until I felt consumed by an overwhelming sense of euphoria. My trepidation melted away, replaced by an intense longing to surrender myself fully to whatever darkness resided within this accursed place.