Nakime struggled desperately, crawling forward as best she could. During the crawl, her arms and legs painfully regenerated—only for a streak of black blade light to fall and sever them again the instant they reformed.
As Nakime writhed, Kurosaki Rei drove his blade straight into her neck, pinning her firmly to the ground. He crouched down, grabbed her by the hair, and forced her head up. In the process, the blade carved a long, ragged gash across her throat.
Kurosaki Rei stared directly into Nakime's single eye.
"If you keep regenerating, I'll chop your head off. Understood?"
Nakime was so terrified that the whites of her eye flooded with blood. She wanted to cry, but with her windpipe pierced, she could only let out hoarse, garbled cries—ah… ah…
Kurosaki Rei slapped her head hard, smashing her face back into the ground. The blade scraped violently against her neck as he did so. Then he grabbed her hair again and forced her to look at him.
"I asked if you understood. Why aren't you nodding?"
Nakime felt that the man before her was more monstrous than any demon—an absolute devil among devils. Overwhelmed by fear, she no longer cared about the pain. Even while her scalp tore under his grip and her neck was being sliced by the blade, she desperately nodded.
"I want out," Kurosaki Rei said calmly. "To the place Muzan just went. Open a door."
Kurosaki Rei still didn't fully understand the structure or principles behind the Infinity Castle. Nakime held the control authority, and he couldn't be sure whether she herself was the creator of the castle. If he killed her outright, there was a real chance he'd be trapped inside.
And even if the Infinity Castle collapsed due to her death and spat him out, there was no guarantee he'd emerge anywhere near the battlefield. Getting back to the main fight could still take precious time.
"Mm… mm… ugh…"
Nakime whimpered, tears streaming down her face as she shook her head weakly.
Leaving aside the fact that she was one of Muzan Kibutsuji's more loyal subordinates, just imagining the consequences of betraying Muzan made her shudder with terror.
As terrifying as Kurosaki Rei seemed to her, she still believed Muzan was even more frightening.
"So I was being too gentle," Kurosaki Rei said with a kind smile.
"Don't let my face fool you—I know quite a few interrogation techniques."
Back when he was pursuing vengeance, there were times he hadn't killed his targets immediately, but interrogated them first.
Martial artists were often tough, stubborn people—but under torment techniques he'd learned from ancient manuals, such as tendon-severing and bone-dislocating methods, they all eventually talked.
Demons might regenerate at high speed, but that didn't mean they didn't feel pain.
"Mmm—ugh—! Mmm! Ugh!! Mmmmmm—!"
In the dim room, Nakime's muffled sobs and screams echoed unceasingly. About ten minutes later, Kurosaki Rei finally withdrew his hands, looking down at Nakime, who was now lying in a puddle of saliva, tears, and other fluids, utterly broken.
"So," Kurosaki Rei asked softly, "do you want me to keep giving you a 'massage,' or would you rather open the door and gamble on whether your boss can kill me?"
His voice was like a devil's whisper. Nakime shuddered violently.
She glanced at the biwa in Kurosaki Rei's hand and cautiously looked up, seeking permission with her eye. Only after Kurosaki Rei nodded did she regenerate a single hand and pluck the strings.
Dong—
With the sound of the biwa, a door opened in front of Kurosaki Rei and Nakime. Outside, the Nine Hashira were still locked in a fierce battle with Muzan.
Amid thunderous explosions, Muzan unleashed his Blood Demon Art. Countless thin tentacles lashed out, forcing the Hashira—and Tanjiro's group—back.
By this stage of the fight, Muzan's own consumption was enormous. Though the amount of Tamayo's medicine inside his body wasn't large, it was more than enough to severely affect his stamina.
As a result, even though dawn was still far away, Muzan had already begun considering retreat. He felt that tonight's hunt was unlikely to succeed. His plan was to force the Hashira back, then withdraw into the Infinity Castle.
As for Kurosaki Rei inside the Infinity Castle—he could simply have Nakime expel Kurosaki Rei from the castle. Then he'd hide inside for a hundred years. Once this generation of Hashira died off, he could come out again and look for Nezuko.
In Muzan's twisted logic, Nezuko had already conquered sunlight. He had no idea she'd reverted to being human. Even if he did know, it wouldn't stop his resolve to flee.
What truly terrified him were the Hashira before him—especially that towering blind monk. The man was absurdly strong. Muzan felt that among his subordinates, only Kokushibo could reliably defeat the Stone Hashira one-on-one. Any other Upper Moon would likely lose.
Muzan admitted that in peak condition, defeating the Stone Hashira wouldn't be difficult—but this wasn't a duel. These despicable Hashira had coated their blades with poison, causing his strength to steadily decline and his regeneration to slow dramatically.
Every second, he had to expend massive energy just to counteract the accelerated cellular aging inside his body, all while fending off the coordinated assault of the Nine Hashira. It was exhausting.
What he found most intolerable was that after fighting for so long under the Stone Hashira's lead, he hadn't managed to kill even a single Hashira.
Worse still, he hadn't even killed those brats who joined the fight.
Unacceptable. Utterly unacceptable.
Bang—
The instant the Infinity Castle door opened behind him, Muzan's first reaction was relief.
As expected of my excellent subordinate, he thought. Nakime didn't even need orders—she came to support me.
But when he turned around and saw inside the Infinity Castle, his expression froze.
He saw Nakime—tears and mucus streaming down her face, looking utterly ruined—being held by the hair by Kurosaki Rei, forced to face him.
And there stood Kurosaki Rei, baring a dazzling, bone-white grin as he met Muzan's gaze.
"Mm… ah… ugh…"
With Qiumo still piercing her throat, Nakime couldn't speak. She could only babble incoherently at Muzan, desperately trying to convey one message:
Run!
Muzan didn't even have time to consider whether Nakime had betrayed him. The moment he met Kurosaki Rei's eyes, his scalp went numb.
He saw no sign of Kokushibo or the other demons. Kurosaki Rei had taken Nakime hostage and forced open the door—what did that mean?
It meant the Infinity Castle had been completely wiped out.
How long had it been? Twenty minutes? Had twenty minutes even passed?!
A nameless rage surged within Muzan as he cursed aloud, "Useless trash, all of you!"
In barely twenty minutes, Kokushibo and the other Upper Moons were completely annihilated. Weak. Disgustingly weak.
He had once placed great hopes in Kokushibo, the brother of Tsugikuni Yoriichi. He'd given him large amounts of blood and treated him with respect.
And when it mattered most, Kokushibo turned out to be utterly worthless.
Muzan seethed with anger—but it was quickly swallowed by fear.
Because the moment Kurosaki Rei met his gaze, he launched forward at godlike speed, bursting out of the Infinity Castle straight toward him.
Despite cursing the incompetence of his subordinates, Muzan was deeply afraid of Kurosaki Rei—someone who could clear the Infinity Castle in twenty minutes. Instinctively, he chose to flee.
He acted without hesitation, turning and sprinting away. Countless fine tentacles sprouted from his body, bracing against the ground and propelling him into the air. He had to escape—far away!
It wasn't that Muzan didn't want to retreat into the Infinity Castle. Rather, in the instant before Kurosaki Rei charged, Muzan saw Kurosaki Rei swing his blade and behead Nakime.
With Nakime dead, the Infinity Castle lost control and began collapsing and sealing itself off. Even as its true master, Muzan would need time to repair and reconstruct it.
"MUZAN—DON'T RUN!"
Tanjiro roared as he charged forward, unleashing the Dance of the Fire God. Vast arcs of flame swept through the air, blocking Muzan's escape route.
With the battle at a critical point, Tanjiro had sent Xiaochahua to protect Nezuko and joined the fight himself. With Zenitsu and Inosuke supporting him, their coordination actually caused Muzan no small amount of trouble.
The Nine Hashira also moved in unison, their Breathing Forms and sword techniques sealing off every possible escape route.
Stepping out of the collapsing Infinity Castle, Kurosaki Rei first swept his gaze across the Hashira. They were all injured to varying degrees—but not a single one had fallen.
He was very satisfied.
He'd arrived just in time. Muzan was cowardly, yes—but if the fight had dragged on longer, Muzan would have realized something.
The Hashira were running out of stamina.
Breathing Form techniques were burst-oriented by nature. On top of that, they'd forcibly amplified themselves with Ghost God. Their endurance had dropped sharply.
If the battle dragged on for even a few more minutes, the Hashira would start to collapse from exhaustion. With the long night ahead, the Nichirin Blade system alone was insufficient to kill Muzan. The only option would've been to stall until sunrise.
From that perspective, the Ghost God technique Kurosaki Rei taught them wasn't ideal for prolonged attrition. The Demon Slayer Marks lasted longer, but their side effects were brutal—older users might even die afterward.
So if Muzan had been braver and continued fighting, he actually had a good chance of winning.
That is—if Kurosaki Rei hadn't arrived.
Unfortunately for Muzan, he'd already been terrified by the Hashira's ferocity. With Kurosaki Rei now on the battlefield, he completely lost his will to fight.
"You damned Demon Slayers!" Muzan roared after being beaten back.
"Why must you obstruct me?! Why can't you just obediently die?!"
He flailed his long tentacles wildly as he shouted, "Other than your families, what do the people I ate have to do with you?! What's the point of killing demons?!"
His voice rose hysterically. "Compared to your human wars, what are the few people I've killed?! Why can't you just treat it as a natural disaster and accept your bad luck?!"
"Ridiculous."
Kurosaki Rei's cold voice rang out. He slashed through Muzan's tentacles in one stroke, stepping to the forefront of the battlefield, sealing Muzan's escape route together with the Stone Hashira.
The Hashira were livid at Muzan's shameless words. Veins bulged on the Stone Hashira's forehead as he roared:
"It's time to end your twisted, thousand-year-long existence! We will never let future generations suffer under you again!"
"Muzan! I'll kill you!"
Tanjiro recalled the slaughter of his family, fury burning in his eyes. As he activated Ghost God, the mark on his forehead flared once more. His blade ignited with a massive ring of flames as he struck Muzan.
Faced with Tanjiro's terrifying slash, Muzan didn't even dare to block. He instinctively retreated, old scars aching—the wounds left behind by Tsugikuni Yoriichi.
He narrowly avoided Tanjiro's strike, but the Hashira's attacks left him nowhere to go. His movement space was sealed completely.
At that moment, Muzan saw nothing.
Not the Hashira's blades.
Not Tanjiro's Dance of the Fire God.
Not Inosuke's Beast Breathing.
Not Zenitsu's flickering lightning.
In his vision, there was only one thing—
A slash that seemed to sever heaven and earth.
A jet-black blade wreathed in dark purple mist, wrapped in golden lightning, carrying unrivaled killing intent as it descended diagonally.
Boom—!
The slash cleaved through Muzan and tore open the earth itself, carving a lightning-shaped fissure over ten meters long.
"AAAAH—!"
Muzan screamed in terror. "Stay away from me!"
He abandoned all hope.
Kurosaki Rei's strike didn't just cut his body apart—it destroyed multiple internal organs and even his brain.
Worse still, the lightning surged endlessly within him, tearing apart his cells on a microscopic level, trying to erase him entirely.
The last time he'd felt such brutal, domineering power was centuries ago—when a man named Tsugikuni Yoriichi had cut him down like this, leaving wounds that still hadn't fully healed.
Back then, he'd made the decision without hesitation—self-detonation. He'd blown himself apart into countless fragments of flesh and escaped in all directions, barely surviving.
Now, it was time to use that trick again.
In Muzan's mind, Kurosaki Rei was just as terrifying as Yoriichi—no, even more so.
Without another thought, Muzan's body began to swell.
He was preparing to self-destruct.
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