Chương 21: Limitless Technique

After locking the door, Aren sat cross-legged on the bed. He settled his breathing, cleared his mind, and remained still for a long time. Then his eyes opened.

"Right... how exactly am I supposed to do this?" Restrictions and Pledges sounded simple in theory: set a rule, swear to follow it, accept the price, and the power would multiply. In practice, Aren had no idea where the switch was. He had already spent half the day swearing in his heart without feeling anything change. He tried again.

"I, Aren Voss, swear on my life. From this moment on, whenever I use Limitless Technique, I will consume a portion of my life force. The wider the area covered, the greater the cost. The farther the space is folded and extended, the greater the cost. The stronger the attack I face, the greater the cost." Four pledges in a row. All paid with life force. In this world, only Aren could afford to play that kind of game. Anyone else would probably burn himself out after a few uses. He waited. Nothing happened.

Aren stretched out his right hand and activated the ability anyway. A faint, invisible ripple spread from his palm. He sensed it carefully, then grabbed his hair with a frustrated sigh.

"Still nothing." Even if he spent all his active aura, he could only fold and extend the space around his right hand by about one meter. Limitless Technique was a Nen ability he had developed after remembering Gojo Satoru's Limitless from Jujutsu Kaisen. The original technique interfered with matter at an atomic level and ruled space through the concept of an endlessly converging series. In simple terms, the closer something came, the more the distance between it and the user was divided, until it seemed to stop.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. Aren's version worked from the same idea. He folded and extended the space in front of himself so that an incoming attack could never truly reach him. Then he added his own change. Anything entering that folded space could have its direction altered. An enemy's attack could be bounced back, bent aside, or forced into another path entirely. After Aren's modifications, calling it Infinity was not quite right.

It was closer to vector manipulation. But because he controlled space rather than vectors, he named it Limitless Technique. On paper, it was absurd. That was why it had taken him an entire month of sleepless development and nearly limitless aura just to force it into existence. After fusing with the Undying, Aren could sleep, but did not need to. He could eat, but did not need to. His body no longer had any biological needs he had to obey. It only had preferences.

Even so, Limitless Technique consumed too much aura. Aura alone was not enough either. To push it deeper, he needed understanding of space itself. Without that, the cost rose exponentially. If ten thousand aura units let him fold fifty centimeters of space, then extending that to a full meter could require one hundred thousand. The farther he went, the worse the price became. That was why most Nen users focused on one ability. Not because they could never build more.

Because reality punished them for spreading themselves thin. Kastro had been an Enhancer, yet he still developed Tiger Bite Fist and a conjured Double. Gon's Jajanken contained three different expressions if developed fully. Multiple abilities were possible. Possible did not mean wise. A thousand weak abilities were still only a thousand mosquito bites. Aren was different. As long as he could develop an ability, he could strengthen it through Restrictions and Pledges paid with life.

His limit was no longer lifespan. His limit was how many abilities he could build. Luckily, his soul carried a spatial trait from the crossing between worlds. Without that, even spending life might not have given him a spatial ability within ten years.

"Damn it. Still no good." Aren raked his fingers through his hair. Restrictions and Pledges were the key to his future. He had to break through this wall. The frustration felt like missing a shot in an FPS by a hair's breadth over and over again, until the urge to smash the mouse became almost physical. Aren exhaled and forced himself calm. Then he began reviewing every example he could remember. Kurapika. Gon. Franklin. Even the movie-only ability that sealed Netero with a life-based price.

'Damn you, Togashi. You left too many gaps,' Aren muttered inwardly. Kurapika's Chain Jail was simple enough: it could force a captured target into Zetsu, but only against the Phantom Troupe. Break that rule, and Kurapika's heart would be destroyed. Emperor Time was also clear. It let Kurapika use every Nen type at full efficiency, but every second burned an hour of his life. A classic life-payment restriction. Gon's case was stranger.

His adult form looked like forced growth paid for with life and future potential. Yet after Alluka saved him, he lost access to Nen, which looked more like backlash from a broken pledge.

'If the payment was already life, why would there be a second backlash?'

'Was it because he didn't have enough life force to pay the full cost?'

'But if that were true, shouldn't he have died outright?' Aren leaned back and frowned at the ceiling. The answer was close. He could feel it.