Jump 385: DC Occult

Jump #385: DC Occult
>Justice: Things set to rights. Karma restored.
This is the sort of card I'd hope for after the scenario I picked.
>Power Source: Half-Blood
>Identity: Prince Jumper, of Jumperworld
Would that be Prince Crux, of Crossworld? Wait, am I the half-blood prince?! God damn it, I see what you did there!
>Scenarios: (+900) The Books of Magic, Trigon Be Gone
Oh, lovely, I've been sent to one of the realities where I can go up to Raven and go "you had literally had one job". Except she's probably dead, and I have to save a kid from the locals since reality is in an unhappy state.
>Drawbacks: (+600) Interesting Times, The Chosen One
I THINK A REALITY WHERE TRIGON WON IS DEFINITELY INTERESTING TIMES. GEE I WONDER WHAT I WAS CHOSEN TO DO.
>Mystical Sensitivity (2400)
At least with all the rest of the insanity running around - and make no mistake, there is a LOT of it - I'll be able to pick up on details I'd have otherwise missed before now.
>Talking is a Free Action (2000)
Useful, to be sure. Never know when you might need to say something in a hurry. Like "hyper clock up".
>The Moving Finger Writes (1400)
So instead of me having to hunt down perks to mitigate the downsides of certain magics and whatnot... now I just increase the casting cost of such spells in order to keep my soul pure, or not have to sacrifice people for the proper effect if I have enough mana going into it. Why, yes, I CAN quantify the price of a soul. It's less than you think. Wait, I think this means my magic is vegan-safe now.
>Twisted Sister (Free, Half-Blood)
Compulsions, hypnotism, that stuff's boring. At least all I have to worry about dealing with is the bigger stuff, and I have other measures in place for that.
>Dark And Troubled Times (Free, Half-Blood)
At least I know how to blend in where I need to.
>Blessing of Delirium (1200, Half-Blood)
Delirium is a sweetheart honestly. She reminds me of Luna Lovegood. I wish I got to talk to her a little more, but that is dangerous to do.
>Highway To Hell (Free, Prince)
I can step between dimensions normally, but now I can step into pocket universes and whatnot? Useful, I suppose.
>Thirteen (900, Half-Blood)
Considering I'm in a reality where a demon prince took over the planet, I think having blanket immunity to any and all magic will be useful. --wait, what do you mean I already have two perks that do this?! WELL NOW I AM THREE TIMES AS IMMUNE TO MAGIC AS SOMEONE WHO'S IMMUNE TO MAGIC, SO THERE.
>Dimension Lord (Free, Prince)
So basically I now have a pocket dimension the size of Ohio. You know what, I'll just merge this with the rest of my pocket dimensions in my soul and keep it consistent.
>Carefully Chosen Words (600, Half-Blood)
>Tower of Fate (0, Half-Blood)
Those last two, I'll be getting once the jump ends. I can live without the Tower of Fate, but it sounds pretty useful in case I go to a jump that suffers a total existence failure. It's more likely than you think. As far as the other... that's basically Jack Slash's superpower, or so I'm told.

First things first, to start this jump, I started in the pocket world rather than elsewhere, which gave me a lot of time to check it out and deal with a sudden influx of idiots and low-grade demons. It would seem that the issue with having your own pocket world the size of Cuba is that everyone else wants to try to steal it. Or eat it. Or do weird things.

I mean, there's this one guy who found his way in and got lost for two days until he wandered into the city and dropped off some kid that he'd been dragging around, right at my feet, then disappeared. So of course I sit down with the kid, who has attracted MORE invaders by dint of just being here, and we talk a while. I find out that Earth's gone to hell in a handbasket (because how the hell would I know its current state?) and he's supposedly got some kind of fantastic fate or something, but nobody's bothering to take care of him because they're trying to protect what's left of Earth.

He's a nice enough kid, though, and I promise to teach him whatever he wants to learn. But first, Earth needs to get un-fucked, so I leave him in the city with Elodie and Louise to take care of him.

Instead, I go to the warehouse to get some gear that's been sitting since Doom, along with the Magic Skull from the days of Actraiser. I get my armor to assume an appropriate form and head to Earth, walking from one end of the continent to the other while Trigon's minions attack me progressively more strongly, seeking to take me before him. The land's left purified in my wake, the skull sucking out the diabolic energies and glowing cherry red with heat as it hovers, following me. Sure, I'm at a quarter of my normal power, but... come on, none of these scrubs have a prayer against a late-game jumper.

When I get to Trigon's gaudy castle made of dark magic... I start using Blade Blacksmith. Highschool DxD was a long time ago, but I still occasionally use it as a pseudo-Gate of Babylon type of attack. That is, manifest holy swords and launch them like arrows at certain unholy opponents and targets. The castle's half destroyed by the time Trigon emerges in a fury and engages me. I put up a good fight, of course, and holy blades aplenty pierce him before the battle begins to take its toll on me and I start ceding more and more ground. And when it becomes too much, I finally make a run for it, heading to my pocket dimension.

He does, of course, follow me.

Now, those of you who did not see this as an obvious trap, with me going to a place where I am four times more powerful than I was while I was holding my ground against Trigon earlier, please raise your hands. Now please smack yourselves in the back of the heads, because did you really think I didn't have every second of this planned out with all the clairvoyance and precognition I have? Yes, yes, late-game jumpers are hax.

Regardless, the White Blade can and will kill anything up to and including concepts, and I can make sure the universe won't fall apart if those concepts' living embodiments die. Trigon is no such concept, and despite being rather tall, I can still abuse powers he wasn't seeing in our fight - haste and hilariously amplified speed for me, slowing the passage of time for him, and pulling all kinds of magic out of nowhere that he wasn't expecting, along with what is functionally unlimited blade works - all you have to do is block his retreat and it becomes a battle of attrition.

Frankly, if he hadn't followed me, it might have taken a whole lot more effort to plan and carry out his execution than it did.

Things after that were a lot more straightforward. I used a lot of scry-and-die to exterminate demons on Earth as quickly as I could, and after that pulled together as many survivors from the magic community for a ritual to mass-resurrect folks. Obviously this isn't going to work for everyone that died, but... surprisingly, when given the choice to come back to a world that's in the midst of rebuilding, about four out of five adults were willing. Not a lot of kids because holy shit that was traumatic, but even then, some were.

I used as many self-duplication perks as I could to visit with everyone who lived, and offered to take away any harsh memories they didn't want. Surprisingly, a (slim) majority of people declined, because it meant they knew what they'd survived. After that... well, it was a matter of putting the world back together. Sure, it's four-billion-and-change strong instead of six, and I've NEVER used that much magical energy before in ANY jump, but... well, I've got solutions for that problem, the least of which is a microverse that's been tweaked to pump out nothing but pure energy in any format I wish, in massive amounts, because Minecraft is best craft and EMC is a flexible energy supply.

As for the kid... he watched the aftermath, helped rebuild. I and my companions trained him, helped instill a sense of morals in him, but still with the flexibility needed to get things done and a willingness to work outside the box instead of letting himself get trapped in a no-win scenario. Sure, there's some crazy stuff happening on Earth, but I'm confident that he'll be able to deal with it all and come out of it smelling like a rose. Usually.

>"This is all your fault. You know it."
"Hello to you too, John."
>"You don't get to call me by name."
"Fine. Look, it's an infinite multiverse. As loathe as I am to say it, this world and variations on it would have existed if I hadn't come here-"
>"Not THIS world! Not here! This is because of YOU!"
"-and others are safer because Trigon is dead in a way that he CAN'T be normally. Am I pissed off that five and a half billion people died? Fuck yes, I am."
>"But it was worth it, because you're greedy."
"No, not worth it. I didn't... fully understand, I suppose. All the apologies in the world would be empty, but god damn it, you aren't always right about everything, you self-righteous bastard."
>"I'm right about this one."
"Tell me there aren't another dozen - another HUNDRED - realities out there where Trigon conquered Earth."
>"Bloody sodding fascist."
"I didn't even conquer anything here! I put the governments back in place where I could!"
>"And yet we're still just another feather in your cap."
"What do you want me to do here, Constantine? Go back in time?"
>"I want you to fix it. I want you to make it so it never happened."
"That'll just erase you and everyone here from existence. Or just put ME in a different reality and you all go on as you are. You tell me which is worse - and that's assuming I can get away with breaking the rules like that."
>"To hell with you, then. I hope you get sodomized by a demon."
"And I hope you live a long, happy, healthy, BORING life."
>"Fuck you! And everyone like you! Power-hungry sadist!"
"Just... just go away, would you? There's nothing more to be done here. I'm leaving, now."
>"You should stay! Your penance should be to fix everything- to put right what you ruined!"
"Goodbye, Constantine. May you find peace, someday."
>"I'm not finished with you yet, you fuck-"