Who am I, where do I come from, where am I going.
This question often troubles a person for their entire life, but tonight, Taka had found some answers.
After killing Kokushibo, Taka had wanted to immediately seek out traces of Muzan or the other Upper Moons.
But in the next second, he suddenly collapsed to his knees, his strength gone.
"What's happening to me?"
He was startled and uncertain. Several times he tried to stand, only to find his body seemed to have lost control.
"If you continue to fight, the situation will be irreparable, Taka."
The voice from within, after many days, sounded again.
Taka immediately recognized it as the voice of the boy who appeared in his sea of consciousness.
But the other party's voice now had shed its youthfulness, carrying a maturity and calmness tempered by time.
So he no longer resisted this feeling of weakness. He calmed his mind, sat cross-legged, and sank his consciousness into his sea of consciousness.
The world within his heart was different.
The originally desolate Rukongai was now covered in moss and vines. Small animals of unknown origin were running everywhere. A scene full of life.
And in the center of the Rukongai stood a massive ancient tree. On its branches lay a young man.
The young man had his eyes tightly closed. His appearance was somewhat similar to Taka's, yet more mysterious and aloof.
"You have already released too much power. If this continues, you will break through the limits."
His emotionless voice drifted over: "Stop now. Leave the upcoming battle to the mortals."
"What do you mean? Haven't I been using the Zanpakuto's power all along?"
Taka's question was answered by a snort of laughter from behind him—
[Heh... Did you think this master's power was only that third-rate?]
He turned to look and found another figure he could recognize at a glance, yet had never seen before.
A pure white wolf, its entire body rippling with muscles, was lying prone behind him.
The white wolf had hexagonal patterns on its forehead, densely extending from its forehead all the way to the tip of its tail. Long black lines spread from the corners of its mouth.
"Tonan?"
[....Kid, don't call me so affectionately. Don't forget, I haven't forgiven you yet.]
Though Tonan's appearance had changed a lot, it still had that fierce bad temper.
It snorted in dissatisfaction and turned its head away with a grunt.
'What is going on here.....'
"Taka, I shouldn't need to remind you that you are different from them, right."
The black-haired young man on the tree lightly leaped down, silently landing before Taka. His tightly closed eyes seemed able to pierce through the soul:
"If I didn't restrain you, once your power and Tonan's erupted in this present world, it would have unforeseeable consequences due to your existence."
"Restrain? Why restrain?" Taka naturally did not understand.
The young man crossed his arms and carefully thought about how to explain this problem to Taka. Tonan spoke up first:
[Simply put, this world and our world are in different planes.]
[Although there are also higher-level planes here similar to the Soul Society and Hell, ultimately, they are not on the same path as us.]
[If your overwhelming Reiatsu gushes forth here, the souls of this world will be affected. The Reishi Cycle will be broken.]
[The most likely outcome is that, because of your existence, this world will see its first Hollow!]
'Hollow?' Taka knew of this terrifying existence but had never seen one with his own eyes.
'What did this have to do with me?'
"Your body is a cage I built for you using the Reishi and material particles of this world, firmly sealing your essence as a wandering spirit."
"You don't need to think about the specifics. You just need to know that if you continue to fight, your Reiatsu will inevitably break through this cage."
"If you had chosen to be an ordinary person, you might never have heard me say these things to you."
The young man's expression was very serious. This was one of his rare earnest expressions: "But now, if you don't want this world to be destroyed, stop. You cannot fight any longer!"
Taka was silent.
It wasn't that a sense of responsibility was stirring within him, nor that a sense of mission to save the world had surged up.
He didn't understand.
"But if I don't fight, many people will die. Isn't there any way to solve this?"
"....I've been talking for a while, and you haven't taken any of it in at all."
"I listened. But I still want to ask, is there really no way?" Taka's gaze was extremely firm. "They are too weak. Even the Upper Moon Kizuki can make them frantic. If they have to face Muzan, everyone might die!"
Seeing his resolute attitude, the young man also fell silent.
He pondered for a long time, then threw out an answer that made Taka's eyes contract:
".....Then the only way is to construct a domain capable of withstanding the influence of your Reiatsu."
"How?"
The young man frowned deeply: "The moment you break through your limits, I will distort the surrounding space into a nonexistent plane."
"Because the restrictions are lifted, your physical body may collapse. At most, it can support you for fifteen minutes of fighting."
".....Even so, forcibly interfering with the reality plane will still carry immense risks."
"Fifteen minutes. After that, no matter what happens, I will forcibly close the Reiryoku Circuit within you."
"After that... we can only rely on luck...."
The young man's words echoed in Taka's ears, long unable to subside.
"That's enough."
In reality, Muzan had severed his own neck, laboriously recovering the injury to his head, fleeing at light speed from Taka's terrifying blade.
He had already decided. Now, he would split into two thousand pieces! Flee immediately!
But the next second, he froze.
He wanted to flee, but was suppressed by some force, unable to freely control the division of his flesh!
Space was distorting.
Centered on Taka, an overwhelmingly unreasonable sense of oppression swept out, instantly enveloping a distance of a hundred meters.
At this moment, whether it was the watching Hashira, the struggling Demon Slayer Corps' members, or the Kasugai Crows flying in the sky,
all living creatures felt their breathing become difficult. A heavy sense of suffocation gripped their throats!
Then, wave after wave of irresistible fatigue and dizziness, like a tidal wave, violently assaulted them, trying to drag their consciousness into the boundless dark abyss!
"What is this feeling? Muzan's Blood Demon Art?" Sanemi's reaction was intense. Without hesitation, he stabbed his blade into the back of his hand, trying to use the intense pain to stay conscious.
But he quickly found that this dizziness was not a physiological reaction, but a fatigue from the depths of the soul.
Thud... Thud...
One after another, muffled grunts and the sounds of people kneeling echoed.
Even as strong as the Hashira, they could not completely resist this soul pressure emanating from a higher-level existence. They uncontrollably knelt, doing their utmost to resist this exhaustion from the depths of their souls.
Shinobu broke out in a cold sweat. Her eyes, full of worry, looked towards the boy who now stood suspended in mid-air:
"Taka.... what exactly are you...."
His skin was burning. His muscle tissue was peeling away. His entire figure even began to become blurry and transparent.
Except for Tanjiro's special vision, which could see souls, and the Hashira who had opened the Transparent World, no one could clearly see Taka's figure.
That grey-white haori, before everyone's eyes, rapidly spread with the pitch black symbolizing quietus and death.
His momentum was growing more and more terrifying.
"Muzan, pay for all the sins you have committed."
Taka released the Zanpakuto in his hand. With a gentle breeze, he let it turn to ashes in the air.
His lips moved silently.
The next second, whether it was everyone on the Infinity Castle battlefield, or the nearby Tokyo citizens startled by the battle, they all together witnessed a miracle.
Boom—!!
The night sky of Tokyo was illuminated.
A blazing sun suddenly appeared in the sky, releasing a scorching, dazzling brilliance!