Standing beside Enmu, A Luo's forehead was slick with cold sweat. Yet the trembling in his body soon stopped. He tightened his grip on Xiao Lian's hand, the fear in his eyes gradually fading, replaced by resolve.
"Xiao Lian… you have to live on."
He said this to his lover over team chat. Then he raised his hand and touched Enmu, using Enmu's Blood Demon Art to write words on Enmu's back, passing along his message.
"A Luo… what are you doing?"
Xiao Lian was pale with terror. Since meeting A Luo, this was the first time she had ever faced such utter despair. She had believed he could use his wits to lead her out of danger—but had they truly reached the end?
"I'm creating a way out for you."
A Luo replied briefly over team chat. Then he stopped speaking, drew a deep breath, and fixed his gaze on Kurosaki Rei and Gyokko, both trembling in the midst of battle.
It was obvious—Gyokko was no match for Kurosaki Rei. Without that cowardly life-saving Blood Demon Art that let him transfer between pots, and without constantly summoning giant octopi to block Kurosaki Rei's attacks, he would have been chopped into dozens of pieces already.
A Luo knew he couldn't wait any longer.
An Explorer had to walk toward death. And for a weakling like him, if he wanted to protect the person he cared about, he had to steel himself for death—only then could he gamble against the strong.
At that moment, Kurosaki Rei slashed out, cutting Gyokko cleanly in half at the waist. As the second slash was about to take Gyokko's head, Gyokko transferred once again.
Just as Kurosaki Rei prepared to pursue, a figure burst out from his flank.
It was a black-haired young man. Fear filled his eyes, yet his footsteps never hesitated. He gripped a military knife and swung it at Kurosaki Rei.
Kurosaki Rei was constantly aware of every enemy's position on the battlefield. After confirming that Enmu was still slightly above and to the side, he slashed once.
The gap in speed was absolute. Before A Luo's blade could even touch Kurosaki Rei, his head was already sent flying.
Yet at the final moment, a smile appeared on A Luo's face.
Because his timed swap item had activated—perfectly, down to the exact second he had calculated.
As his consciousness faded, he looked into Kurosaki Rei's eyes, filled with cold killing intent, feeling both regret and relief.
He was relieved that he had used his life as bait to outplay such a terrifyingly powerful Explorer—and had timed it perfectly, carving out a path of survival for Xiao Lian.
He regretted that the last thing he saw before dying was the eyes of this killing god, rather than Xiao Lian's gentle face.
From Kurosaki Rei's perspective, Prison Demon swept across horizontally. It first met A Luo's neck—and then sliced through effortlessly.
But just as the blade passed through and continued outward, the neck in front of him suddenly reconnected.
No—this wasn't A Luo's neck at all.
The person in front of Kurosaki Rei had been swapped.
The head atop that neck was Enmu's.
Those pale green eyes, marked with Lower Rank One, bulged with veins, clearly strained to their limit.
Blood Demon Art: Forced Coma Sleep · Eye!
This was Enmu's strongest Blood Demon Art. Its sleep-inducing effect far surpassed that of Forced Coma Hypnosis: Whispering Voice, which relied on sound from the hands.
He had already tried the Whisper earlier—but Kurosaki Rei's resistance to sleep was too high, and it hadn't worked. So Enmu had gambled everything on this one strike.
He didn't know how that demon had managed to swap positions with him, but after a brief tactical exchange, he understood that this was their only chance—and so he agreed.
Even if, at this close range, he could only control Kurosaki Rei for a single instant—enough time for Gyokko to kill Kurosaki Rei—he himself would likely be cut down in return.
But as long as he could eliminate a threat to Lord Muzan, that alone would fill him with supreme happiness.
The instant Kurosaki Rei met Enmu's gaze, his vision wavered—
—and he found himself standing inside an old, dilapidated warehouse.
He was sneaking a manga in his hands, when a woman's voice came from outside.
"Ali, peeking at comics again?"
The moment Kurosaki Rei heard that voice, his nose stung. Instinctively, he wanted to turn around and call out those two words.
But his reason screamed at him—
This is a dream.
You have to get out immediately.
Even sparing a moment to look back would cost him his life.
So he resonated with Prison Demon, using the soul-shaking power of his Zanpakutō in tandem with the Giant's Heart's control-reduction effect, instantly shattering the dreamscape.
When his vision cleared again, what greeted him was completely unexpected.
He had not been grievously wounded by Gyokko's Blood Demon Art.
Instead—
[Side Quest: Demon Hunter progress updated. Purple treasure chest dropped.]
The familiar system prompt rang clearly in his ears—the reward notification that followed killing demons.
The mountain forest burned around him. The heavy stench of charred wood mixed with choking smoke. There was no sound of incoming attacks.
At his feet lay Gyokko's corpse—his body—and his head rolled nearby.
Directly ahead of him was Enmu, bisected at the waist, writhing and crawling on the ground.
"M-monster…"
Still perched on a tree, Xiao Lian's voice trembled. Her body went limp, and she fell from the tree, eyes filled with a terror far deeper than before—as if she had witnessed some unspeakable demon-god.
Kurosaki Rei frowned at Gyokko's corpse.
"So Master wasn't joking with me after all…"
He recalled something from his childhood.
His master once told him that he sleepwalked—sparring with wooden dummies in the training grounds while asleep. When his master tried to wake him, he discovered that even in his dreams, Kurosaki Rei fought on instinct. After one exchange, his master had nearly lost.
Back then, Kurosaki Rei had thought it was just a joke. After all, he never felt tired the next morning, nor did he have any bruises.
Later, he never got the chance to confirm the truth.
Not long after that episode, the company's hounds and those people came knocking. He became a wandering orphan, never again sleeping soundly—always on high alert, never entering deep sleep.
Just now, Enmu's ability had put him to sleep. Even if it was less than a second, it was still deep sleep.
So… had he sleepwalked for one second?
Or had he carved martial instinct so deeply into his body that he could fight even while asleep?
Kurosaki Rei shook his head. Now wasn't the time to dwell on that.
He stepped toward Enmu, ready to end the battle.
"M-monster… what are you?"
Sensing Kurosaki Rei approaching from behind, Enmu twisted his body around. His lower half had only just regenerated halfway. With barely half a leg, he could only scrape backward along the ground.
His face was frozen in pure terror, as though he had glimpsed ultimate horror.
Now Kurosaki Rei was genuinely puzzled.
Enmu was a mentally unstable pervert—one of Muzan's "excellent employees." By all logic, this kind of demon shouldn't feel fear.
What exactly had he seen?
When I'm asleep… I can't be stronger than when I'm awake, right?
I'm not Zenitsu.
Kurosaki Rei had full confidence in the skills he had honed through endless tempering. He didn't believe that fighting on pure instinct while asleep would surpass his conscious self.
Enmu kept retreating, ignoring the burning ground beneath him, flailing like a helpless child and even throwing flaming leaves at Kurosaki Rei.
Earlier, after that weak demon had sacrificed himself to swap positions, Enmu had decisively activated his Blood Demon Art. In the instant it succeeded, he had believed the battle was already won.
Even if Kurosaki Rei sensed Gyokko's killing intent and woke up, even if Kurosaki Rei could counterkill him, Gyokko would still eliminate Kurosaki Rei—removing a grave threat to Lord Muzan.
But in the moment his Blood Demon Art succeeded—
He saw the true… demon god.
Kurosaki Rei was shrouded in thick violet mist. Beneath that purple haze, black smoke-like substance billowed upward. His aura was cold, violent, bloodthirsty—carrying killing intent so overwhelming that even the raging flames seemed to bow.
Gyokko had rushed in to strike, but before he could even act, no one saw what happened—
His head was severed by a jet-black blade of light.
Before Enmu could comprehend what was happening, Kurosaki Rei's blade reversed—
—and Enmu was cut cleanly in half.
In less than a second, Kurosaki Rei had awakened.
Yet in that fleeting moment, the suffocating presence radiating from him had blanketed nearly the entire mountain range.
"So rude…"
Kurosaki Rei stepped on Enmu's chest.
"No matter how you look at it, I'm human, right?"
Without Gyokko, Enmu and that trash-tier Explorer couldn't even break his defense. He wouldn't have minded reminiscing a bit longer in the dream.
But Enmu now seemed mentally shattered. He didn't even try to use Blood Demon Art—only struggled desperately, screaming words like "monster" and "demon."
Kurosaki Rei brought his blade down, ending Enmu's life.
What surprised him was that even though Enmu was only a Lower Rank, he still dropped a purple chest—probably average quality.
After killing the last demon worth mentioning, Kurosaki Rei turned his gaze to the remaining female Explorer.
Xiao Lian had been scared stiff. Her long, fair legs beneath her short skirt buckled as she knelt on the ground. When she saw Kurosaki Rei approaching, she screamed in terror.
But once Kurosaki Rei drew closer, she stopped screaming, burst into tears, and shouted:
"Please, spare me! I swear I'll never oppose you in this world!"
"You two were a couple?"
Kurosaki Rei glanced at A Luo's corpse.
Xiao Lian first nodded—then frantically shook her head.
"No! I didn't know him! He was the one trying to ambush you, boss! It has nothing to do with me! I was just following them to have a look—I never meant to oppose you!"
Fear twisted her once-pretty face into something ugly.
"Please, let me live! I don't want to die! I'll do anything you want…"
As she spoke, she began tearing at her clothes, exposing pale skin.
"I'm really good at—"
Before she could finish, Prison Demon fell.
Her twisted, ugly head rolled across the ground.
Kurosaki Rei looked at A Luo's body and sighed softly.
"Not worth it at all…"
A Luo had undoubtedly been a weak Explorer—but he had a sharp mind. He knew how to concentrate power, combining Upper Rank Five and Lower Rank One to set up a trap at Natagumo Mountain. For the Demon Slayer Corps, it had been an extremely dangerous situation.
That swap item he used at the end—Kurosaki Rei had seen similar ones in the market. Limited by quality, they usually could only bind to living targets, with restricted range—often no more than a kilometer.
But even five or six hundred meters was plenty.
With A Luo's intelligence and temperament, he would never have entered the mountain without an escape route. That item was probably bound to other living nodes on the mountain. If he truly wanted to run, there was a chance he could have escaped in the chaos.
Instead, A Luo chose to wager his life—betting on controlling Kurosaki Rei long enough for the person he loved to live.
Regardless of faction, Kurosaki Rei acknowledged A Luo's intelligence, resolve, and courage.
Just… his taste in women was terrible.
"You gave your heart to the wrong person, brother."
With that, Kurosaki Rei moved again. The fire was spreading fast—he needed to clean up the battlefield quickly.
Half a minute later, Kurosaki Rei stood there holding two purple treasure chests, carefully reviewing the system log in his storage, deep in thought.
He had killed nine Explorers in this battle.
But somehow…
Not a single Fallen One's Chest had dropped.
That didn't make sense.
Wasn't my luck supposed to be pretty good?
…Ah well. Must be a coincidence.
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