Plop.
A thick stream of bodily fluid seeped down Doma's face, and an eyeball that had already begun to rot loosened and dropped to the floor.
He lifted his hands on instinct, trying to touch his face, only to realize his hands were in even worse shape.
His left hand had melted completely.
His right hand had been reduced to two fingers, rotting flesh splitting open to reveal stark white bone, even that bone already corroding.
"This is… poison?"
Doma's expression froze, shock crashing over him like a wave.
When did it start?
When had that kind of terrifying toxin been forced into him?
And how had he only noticed once it finally erupted inside his body?
To cause damage like this, it could not be the pitiful trace of poison on Shinobu's Nichirin blade.
It had to be something else.
Something far worse.
Was it… back then?
Doma's gaze snapped to Vincent Fox.
Vincent was smiling too.
Slowly, Vincent opened his palm.
Tiny shards glinted there like broken glass.
Test tube fragments.
His palm had been stained purple by the wisteria poison, but the toxin only targeted demons. It did almost nothing to him.
And with that alone, Doma understood exactly when Vincent had done it.
It was not "injected" so much as slammed straight into his body.
Earlier, when Doma unleashed the Misty Ice Lotus Bodhisattva, Vincent had punched away half of Doma's torso.
That was the moment.
Vincent had crushed the test tube in his hand, and the poison had naturally entered through the fresh wound.
And the source of that poison was obvious.
It was the concentrated toxin Shinobu had refined earlier.
The only question was when Vincent had gotten it from her.
But there was no time to think.
Doma's condition was collapsing fast.
His body seemed to melt from the inside out, rotting in patches.
He sagged to the floor, coughing up mouthful after mouthful of blood.
"You disgusting, rotting piece of trash!" Inosuke roared, springing into the air. "Get on the road to the underworld!"
His twin blades crossed as he brought them down on Doma's head.
But Doma was Upper Rank Two.
Even like this, he could still strike back.
With a dull snap, he shifted his iron fan using what remained of his finger bones, then whipped it hard.
A cloud of freezing mist swallowed both of them.
At the same time, the Misty Ice Lotus Bodhisattva swung down toward them.
A massive palm rose high, then crashed down indiscriminately in their direction.
Doma's remaining eye narrowed, blurred vision desperately locking onto Inosuke's position.
If that hit landed, it would erase a Demon Slayer on the spot.
Or at least pin one down, buy Doma time to break the poison apart.
Yes.
Even in this miserable state, even with a dose that massive, the toxin still could not kill him instantly.
Long ago, he had gathered information on the Hashira.
Muzan had strengthened his ability to decompose poison as well.
Given time, he could break down anything.
The crystal palm screamed through the air.
Hard ice carried a cutting wind, closing on Inosuke at terrifying speed.
Inosuke saw it.
He did not care.
He was gambling.
If he could cut the demon's neck before the palm landed, nothing else mattered.
But the timing was brutal.
It looked like the strike would reach him first.
"What a pain."
A calm voice sounded behind Inosuke.
Vincent Fox.
He sank his hips slightly, then drove his right fist forward.
Boom!
Flames exploded across the space, a violent detonation that swallowed the room.
The Bodhisattva's crystal hand shattered into fragments.
And Vincent's punch did not stop there.
It was like he had struck the creature's weak point.
Cracks spiderwebbed from the shattered palm up into half its body.
Crack. Crack.
The fractures spread.
Vincent punched again, and the already unstable crystal giant burst apart.
Bang!
The ten meter ice titan exploded into countless glittering points that drifted down like snow.
Vincent flicked fire through the falling shards.
The misty ice disintegrated in midair.
The Misty Ice Lotus Bodhisattva was gone, completely destroyed, no chance of reforming.
And Doma had only just summoned it.
To create another would take time he no longer had.
Not in his condition.
Not when he looked this pathetic.
Cold droplets rained down on Doma's ruined body, and for the first time in his life, something inside his chest trembled.
What was this?
Fear?
No.
Was it remorse?
He could not tell.
But in that instant, Inosuke's twin blades clamped hard around his neck.
Crunch!
Metal scraped bone with a sound that made teeth ache.
Even with his body rotting away, Doma's toughness was still monstrous.
Inosuke did not sever the head on the first cut.
"Disgusting bastard!" Inosuke snarled. "Stop crawling and die already! Go to hell!"
Doma felt the blades bite deeper into his neck.
Then Inosuke yanked.
It was like being sawed through.
Doma's head finally tore free and dropped.
His mangled, rotting head rolled, and his consciousness began to fade.
"Huh? My head… actually got cut off? You've got to be kidding me…"
"To lose to trash like this?"
His rainbow eyes drifted.
A boar masked idiot.
A poison user who could not even decapitate him cleanly.
And one more…
His gaze caught Vincent Fox.
Vincent's face was still calm, faint silver gray aura rising around him.
This one was different from the Demon Slayers Doma had met before.
From the start, he had been trading punches head on.
Demon Slayers were supposed to carry Nichirin blades.
So why had this man barely drawn his sword at all?
Doma's mind kept slipping, but the last thread of unwillingness remained.
"I spent centuries preaching 'happiness' for humanity… and this is how I end?"
"But maybe… maybe I can still live. Like Lord Kokushibo… and Akaza too, he nearly reached that realm."
He fantasized wildly, clinging to the idea that he could overcome decapitation itself.
But as his head lay on the floor, his body began to crumble.
"…No. It's not happening. I can't feel anything."
"No fear of vanishing."
"No bitterness over defeat."
"It's like when I was a child… when Mother went mad, killed Father, then poisoned herself…"
"And all I thought was how they were going to stain the floor."
Doma's voice was soft, almost curious.
"For centuries… I've always been like this, haven't I?"
His rainbow eyes dulled.
His head turned to ash.
And then he was gone.
----------------------------------------------------
The deeper he goes, the more the truth unravels. Don't wait read ahead and witness Vincent's rise before the world catches up!
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