Bang! Bang! Bang!
Vincent Fox's fists kept crashing down, spraying blood and torn flesh. The scene was brutal, almost too cruel to look at.
"Damn you!"
Muzan Kibutsuji's voice came out hoarse as he let out a furious roar.
He was the Demon King, an existence that had endured for nearly a full century.
And now he was being pinned down and beaten senseless by a kid who looked barely twenty.
How was he supposed to accept that?
In the next instant, Muzan found a way out.
His blood ignited.
His stamina began to burn away at a terrifying rate, but in exchange, his regeneration skyrocketed, multiplying explosively.
His wounds sealed in a blink, and his body swelled rapidly.
In an instant, he grew to three or four meters tall.
He stomped forward, only for Vincent Fox to smash that leg to pieces with a single punch.
At the same time, Muzan kicked off with the other leg and retreated nearly ten meters.
Ten meters was nothing to the fighters here, a distance crossed in the blink of an eye.
But for Muzan, it was a sanctuary compared to the point-blank hell he'd just escaped.
Then his body began to shrink again.
In the time it took to breathe, he returned to his original form.
But that brief sequence alone drained a massive chunk of his strength.
He had to replenish.
Muzan's gaze slid to the corpses of the Demon Slayer Corps scattered across the ground.
"The thought of eating dead bodies makes me sick… but I don't have a choice."
Forced into it, Muzan's back erupted with countless tentacles lined with jagged mouths, stretching in every direction.
"Don't let him recover! Stop him!"
Vincent Fox roared and charged first, smashing several tentacles apart with one punch.
The Hashira reacted at once, flashing across the battlefield.
"Water Breathing, Tenth Form!"
"Constant Flux!"
Giyu Tomioka's Nichirin blade danced, and surging water surged into being, shredding the nearby tentacles to pieces.
But that was only part of it.
With more Hashira joining the fight, Muzan locked onto his target instantly.
Countless blades erupted again, so fast they were almost invisible.
In a blink, they surrounded the group.
Before anyone could properly react, they were forced down, crushed under relentless pressure.
The blades went wild, thriving in the open space like fish in water.
And with the cover of night, Muzan's attacks vanished into the air itself, silent and unseen.
"Not good!"
Mitsuri Kanroji immediately sensed Giyu's danger and tried to rush to his aid.
But Muzan split his blades again, shifting their focus, and the bulk of the attack surged toward the advancing Mitsuri.
"I can't see it. I can't see anything!"
Mitsuri couldn't even swing properly.
All she could do was dodge on instinct, gambling her life on luck.
Boom!
Mitsuri was blasted backward. She narrowly slipped out of one encirclement, flipping in midair to widen the distance.
"Too fast… wait, what?!"
Something caught at her foot.
Then it clung like a suction cup, dragging her speed down in an instant.
Mitsuri's heart dropped.
She twisted her body with everything she had, trying to squeeze out one more lucky escape.
But luck is impartial.
It does not keep choosing the same person.
A deep gash opened across her shoulder, and a strip of flesh was shaved off her left cheek.
Blood burst out of her like it cost nothing, splattering wildly onto the ground.
That single strike stole her consciousness.
"Mitsuri!"
Obanai Iguro noticed immediately.
He tore himself out of the encirclement, his footwork strange and drifting, slipping through attacks as he sprinted toward her.
He brushed death again and again, and finally reached her.
"Are you alright?!"
He shook her once, then scooped her into his arms and retreated again at full speed.
"What was that just now?"
Gyomei Himejima smashed Muzan's reaching right hand with a swing of his flail, his mind working even as he fought.
Mitsuri had dodged.
She had clearly dodged.
So why had she still been hit?
Elsewhere, Obanai laid Mitsuri down in a comparatively safer spot and rasped instructions to the arriving medics.
"She's badly injured. Find the Demon Slayer with the strange eyes. He can heal."
"His name is Yushiro!"
With that, Obanai looked down at Mitsuri one last time, then turned to rejoin the battle.
"Wait!"
Mitsuri's eyes flew open. She gasped for air and stopped him.
"I… I can't rest. I can still fight!"
"I'm sorry, I'm dragging everyone down again, but… at least let me do something!"
"Don't leave me here. Let me fight… please!"
Obanai's chest tightened. He tried to soothe her.
"Don't say that. You've done enough. You did well."
"No…"
Mitsuri shook her head, staring at the ground as if she could burn a hole through it.
"I haven't hurt Muzan at all. I haven't contributed anything. If I'm forced to retreat like this… I won't be able to die with peace."
Obanai looked at her again, pain and tenderness filling his eyes.
Then, without warning, he struck.
Thud!
His hand chopped down hard on the back of her neck.
Mitsuri's body went limp at once, consciousness fading into darkness.
"I'm sorry, Mitsuri. This is the only way…"
He placed her carefully into the medics' arms.
"I'm counting on you. Find that sharp-eyed guy."
"Yes!"
The medic answered instantly, watching Obanai's retreating back with worry.
"Mitsuri… if there's a next life, I hope we meet in a world without demons."
"A world where we can be happier."
"This filthy body of mine… it would take dying once to ever be worthy of you."
The bandages Obanai had always used to hide his face were already torn away.
Two grotesque scars stretched from the corners of his mouth, unmistakable under the blood and grime.
"Muzan Kibutsuji… how many ordinary people lost the right to happiness because of you?"
"Today… I will kill you."
Not far from the battlefield, Demon Slayer Corps members with "Kakushi" markings on their backs were evacuating nearby civilians.
"You really can't go forward. It's dangerous!"
"Are you police officers?"
A civilian stared at their strange outfits, suspicion plain in their voice.
"We… we were asked by the police to evacuate everyone. There's been ground collapse ahead. It's really dangerous!"
"Really? Then will there be a fire?!"
The questions kept coming, and it was giving them a headache.
Still, they kept persuading, patiently, urgently.
Then something collapsed in the distance.
A seven or eight story building folded in on itself in an instant, kicking up a storm of dust and smoke.
Everyone froze, hearts jolting.
The tallest building in the district… had just come down.
----------------------------------------------------
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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