Lifting her head, she gazed at the intricate, tangled wooden architecture around her—some of it even turned completely upside down.
Kiryuuin Fuka quickly pulled her gaze back and turned to address the companions at her side:
"We're indoors here, so there's no threat from sunlight. Just to be safe, anyone who doesn't need to use Ripple should go ahead and activate the vampire bloodline from the Stone Mask. Otherwise you might get one-shot before you ever get the chance to use it."
Hearing this, Tachibana Akane glanced at the classmates in their group who were finishing the operation one after another.
She couldn't help feeling a little relieved that none of them had developed a rebellious streak in reaction to Nagumo Miyabi's overbearing leadership style.
She focused her attention and turned to look at the radar of the [Controller] that Kiriyama Ikuha had handed over to her before they'd set out.
Staring at the dense cluster of red dots on the holographic screen, Tachibana Akane fell into thought:
"These monsters seem to be just like vampires—they can't stand sunlight either... And what's more, the scores shown on the radar aren't all that outrageous. The highest is only sixty points."
"I suppose it really was just because Chris and the others used a nuke to maliciously farm points during their intrusion that the Black Sphere temporarily raised the difficulty," Tachibana Akane said, breathing a sigh of relief. "As long as we act carefully this time and clear things out step by step, we should be fine."
Kiryuuin Fuka, however, remained noncommittal. "Better to err on the side of caution."
"Don't forget that cat-woman from the last exam."
"As long as you destroy them thoroughly enough, even vampires will die... But the top priority right now is to use the Controller's radar to find this exam's missing persons and the intruders first."
Tachibana Akane nodded. "The Black Sphere told us that this exam is decided by traversing the rooms of this so-called Infinity Castle... Let's just hope nothing goes wrong along the way."
Kiryuuin Fuka was about to speak when her gaze swept over the demons surging toward them from all sides like a tide.
Just as she was about to rally everyone to meet them in battle— Suddenly! She felt the ground vanish from beneath her feet as the floorboards split apart to either side without the slightest warning!
Below was an endlessly stretching corridor of wooden walkways!
Several massive wooden panels came rushing in from around them as if alive, clearly intent on forcibly splitting the group apart!
Kiryuuin Fuka raised an eyebrow.
She immediately concluded that either the entire building itself was the problem, or this was the special ability of some demon.
At this critical, hair's-breadth moment, Kiryuuin Fuka used her Stand ability.
Without hesitation, she summoned the golden Stand behind her. "The World!"
As the burly Stand materialized, the world drained of all color, freezing into a still gray-white.
Still, she had only fused with [The World] a short while ago, after all.
Even with the vampire bloodline stacked on top, plus the dual boost of the [Beast King Transformation] Imperial Arms and her Combat Suit, the time she could currently freeze barely amounted to three or four seconds.
That little sliver of time was nowhere near enough for her to study things in depth.
She grabbed Tachibana Akane, who was still staring down at the Controller and hadn't reacted at all.
As for the other few classmates...
With the vampire bloodline active and equipped with Combat Suits, as long as they didn't have the bad luck to run into a high-score monster, holding their own for the time being was absolutely no problem.
And indeed, things played out just as she'd expected.
As color returned to the world, the wooden panels slammed shut.
The group was split apart into different, dislocated spaces.
Facing the endless tide of demons,
the classmates who had turned into vampires—though unable to use Ripple—relied on their vampiric bodies and the amplification of their Combat Suits, combined with the teleportation-capable Y-GUN in their hands, to send the demons one by one into an alternate dimension.
It wasn't the most efficient method, but at least there was no risk of death.
Meanwhile, on the other side,
the moment Tachibana Akane found her footing, she too crushed the vampire bloodline capsule, completing her transformation into a vampire.
She nimbly flipped herself over and stood once more atop the wooden panel.
By now, under the triple stacking of the Combat Suit, vampire bloodline, and [Beast King Transformation], Kiryuuin Fuka—lion ears now sprouting atop her head—had already torn every demon that lunged at her to shreds.
Kiryuuin flicked the blood from her fingertips and looked over at Tachibana Akane, who had reopened the Controller to check their positions:
"Don't just look at everyone's positions—check the enemies' specific abilities while you're at it."
Tachibana Akane nodded and tapped open a few of the reddest, brightest dots nearest them.
Reading the information that surfaced, she quickly explained:
"The place we're in right now seems to be the ability space of Upper Rank Four, Nakime. She can freely manipulate the room structures here, and even flip gravity at will..."
"And what's more, the bestiary indicates that the sixty-point 'Demon King Muzan' can synchronize the vision of every demon!"
Kiryuuin Fuka's eyes narrowed slightly. "If we really let them use the terrain advantage to keep our people divided and conquered like this, that's no good either."
"We still need to run into an Upper Rank demon as soon as possible and trigger the exam's opening conditions."
Just as she was mulling this over, Tachibana Akane suddenly cut in:
"Fuka, it looks like two green dots are rapidly closing in on our position..."
"It's the underclassmen... Amanatsu Kazuha and Shiina Hiyori?"
Through the gazes of the countless demons positioned in every corner of the Infinity Castle,
Muzan Kibutsuji had pieced together, more or less, what these humans were after, from just a few scattered words.
Just like the Demon Slayer Corps, they too had come to kill him.
But the difference was that these people not only held bizarre items that could transform them into something resembling demons—they also possessed a radar that could pinpoint his exact location!
Why, even Douma might have been quietly done in by this very group!
As a Demon King who was cautious to the core and held survival above all else,
facing these humans with their bizarre methods that lay entirely outside his expectations, Muzan had, in truth, already begun to entertain thoughts of retreat. But considering that this was the Infinity Castle...
There was no doubt the advantage was his. 'No matter how bizarre your methods, I refuse to believe a second Yoriichi Tsugikuni could exist in this world!'
Muzan let out a cold snort in his heart.
Moreover, he was deeply wary of the Parasyte on Amanatsu Kazuha's left arm—the one that could easily slay demons without needing a Nichirin Blade.
Even less could he allow the dangerous secret—one that could turn ordinary humans into demon-like creatures in an instant—to continue existing.
It was a challenge to his absolute sovereignty as Demon King!
He could not accept the existence of demons that were not under his control!
And so, with all these factors intertwining, Muzan made his decision.
He sent a telepathic message to Upper Rank Three, Akaza, who was on standby nearby, ordering him to go test the level of those humans.
If possible, to capture them alive and bring them back.
He intended to use his own blood to control these people and wring every last secret from them!
However— Just as Muzan was watching the tide of the battlefield,
he suddenly noticed that, over by Amanatsu Kazuha, Shiina Hiyori had pushed a card box onto a belt that appeared at her waist, facing a pane of glass.
As a faint light flashed, a suit of white armor covered Shiina Hiyori's body!
Right after, she reached out, gave a pull, and stepped directly into a phone screen—taking Amanatsu Kazuha along with her.
Although the two only stayed inside the mirror for a moment before reappearing and rushing toward Kiryuuin Fuka and the others,
this bizarre ability still set Muzan's nerves on edge.
If the enemy could hide inside mirrors at will...
the implications behind that were far too vast.
Although there weren't many mirror surfaces available for them to use within the Infinity Castle,
just to be safe, Muzan also sent a telepathic message to Upper Rank One, Kokushibo, telling him to join in as well.
He had nearly forgotten—that idiot Akaza had a laughable rule about never raising a hand against women.
And of all things, that team strangely happened to be made up entirely of women!
At the same moment Muzan made his decision,
Shiina Hiyori and Amanatsu Kazuha, having confirmed through experiment that the [Blank Card Box] could indeed bring ordinary people into the Mirror World, quickly worked out their tactics.
Amanatsu Kazuha would control the Parasyte to clear the way up front, slaying the demons along the route.
Meanwhile, Shiina Hiyori would use the Controller's radar to search for the classmates who had been split off nearby.
Once she found them, she'd use the phone's mirror surface to pull them into the Mirror World to take shelter.
Their advance along the way could be called smooth.
Although Nakime tried to forcibly separate the two by constantly switching the room positions,
Amanatsu Kazuha had long since upgraded the Combat Suit so that the Parasyte on her left arm—'Lefty'—could also enjoy the Combat Suit's bonuses.
Add to that the blank armor on Shiina Hiyori—though it had no contract beast yet, its base stats were at least equal to those of a mass-produced [Leo Cavalry].
Naturally, the two could easily dodge Nakime's ambushes.
Before long, they arrived at the spacious tatami room where Kiryuuin Fuka and Tachibana Akane were.
By this point, two classmates who had happened to drop nearby had already gathered at Kiryuuin's side.
And before the four of them stood a pink-haired demon, bare from the waist up, his body covered in deep blue tattoos.
It was none other than Akaza, who had hurried all the way over.
Only, at this moment, Akaza was rubbing his chin, his face full of helplessness and conflict.
Seeing Amanatsu Kazuha and Shiina Hiyori suddenly appear...
Akaza let out a deep sigh.
He paused for a moment, then ultimately followed his principles and spoke:
"You're all women. You shouldn't have gotten dragged into this kind of brutal slaughter in the first place."
"I don't kill women. Leave this place at once, before I change my mind."
But... no one paid his goodwill the slightest mind.
Shiina Hiyori walked over to the two classmates on her own and skillfully dragged them into the phone screen.
Only after doing all this did she look, somewhat surprised, at Akaza, who had no will to fight whatsoever.
She turned her head toward Kiryuuin Fuka and asked softly:
"Senpai... what's going on here?"
Hearing Shiina Hiyori's voice, Kiryuuin Fuka chuckled lightly and explained:
"This monster is worth 38 points—an Upper Rank demon. But he seems to have a strange rule about not killing women. I only just had a brief run-in with him myself."
"Perfectly convenient—as an Upper Rank demon, his appearance lets us trigger the opening conditions for the main exam..."
Kiryuuin tossed her silver hair, her tone relaxed:
"But I've activated the vampire bloodline now. I can't use Ripple at all, and I'm not confident that ordinary physical attacks can truly kill him for good."
"So I was planning to stall for a little while and wait for Nagumo and the others to arrive."
Hearing this, Amanatsu Kazuha's eyes lit up with an idea:
"In that case, leave it to me~"
"I've fused Lisa Lisa's Ripple, and with Lefty too, I can play support for you, Senpai."
Looking at this group of women who didn't take him seriously in the slightest,
Akaza shook his head helplessly. Yet he had no intention of fighting at full strength either.
After all, Lord Muzan had long since tacitly permitted his rule about not killing women. At worst, he'd let them off in a bit and go grab a few extra male humans to bring back and fulfill his task.
However— Faced with Akaza's carelessness,
Kiryuuin Fuka used her Stand without hesitation. Time froze once more!
In the gray-white, silent world, Kiryuuin Fuka, together with The World, closed in,
and unleashed a merciless flurry of blows upon the utterly defenseless Akaza!
"MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA——!"
Three seconds later. Time resumed its flow.
"BAM!!!"
Before Akaza even had time to grasp what had happened, his body—as if run over by a heavy truck—had every bone shattered, and he was sent flying backward, blood spraying wildly!
Before he could even react, Amanatsu Kazuha had already made her move. "Lefty! Ripple Dash!"
The Parasyte transformed into several long, slender tentacle-blades, their surfaces wreathed in dazzling golden Ripple,
and in an instant they sliced into Akaza's body as it still hung suspended in midair!
"Shiing——!" Accompanied by an infusion of Ripple equivalent to the power of the sun,
Akaza's regenerative ability failed. His entire body was sliced to pieces in midair, then dissolved into a sky full of drifting ash amid golden flames.
A demon of martial arts for the ages, dead just like that—stiflingly, anticlimactically—undone by a single smooth little combo.
"This—" Through the eyes of a demon lurking in the shadows, Muzan drew a sharp, cold breath.
It was right at this moment that Kokushibo finally arrived at this great hall.
When he saw Akaza—the warrior he respected—die so wretchedly before his very eyes,
Kokushibo grew unexpectedly furious. He set aside his contempt for women, his battle aura erupting as he prepared to give it his all!
But what he didn't know was that, during the time Kiryuuin Fuka had deliberately been stalling,
Nagumo Miyabi and the others—who had long since made their preparations in the presiding god's space—had already descended into the Infinity Castle!
And what's more, just to be safe, Nagumo Miyabi had deliberately purchased a [Rose of the Destitute] as a final insurance policy.
With the self-destruct power of Purgatory Invocation, combined with the explosive force of the Rose,
Nagumo Miyabi was confident that—even if it didn't guarantee a win—he could at least knock out a few of those high-score monsters' teeth before going down!
Then. When Nagumo Miyabi and the others landed and saw that everything surging toward them were just ordinary demons they could one-shot at a casual flick, the whole group couldn't help falling into a brief moment of thought.
Although, to be safe, they had lent the Controller to Tachibana Akane beforehand,
because they knew how important positioning and monster intel were in a Black Sphere exam, they'd had someone with points on the team purchase another Controller as a backup.
So, after confirming that there was indeed only a single sixty-point Muzan Kibutsuji as the boss,
the whole group couldn't help heaving a long sigh of relief.
All these demons littering the ground, shattering at the slightest touch...
This was utterly a golden opportunity gifted to them by the presiding god to farm points!
On this point, everyone present was thinking the same thing in tacit understanding.
But the Infinity Castle, in the end, existed as Nakime's Blood Demon Art.
They soon discovered that carrying out their original plan of advancing together in a tight group was simply impossible here.
The floorboards beneath their feet could flip at any moment, the walls could shift at any moment, and one slip of attention would see them split off and teleported by Nakime to some other battlefield.
After mulling it over for a moment, Nagumo Miyabi decisively made up his mind. "We can't let her lead us around by the nose."
"Priority is to take out Nakime! I'll handle her—you all go find the others first!"
Otherwise, if she kept splitting up the battlefield at will, not only would it be hard to find people, but once someone got isolated, it'd be a fatal problem for the weaker classmates!
...Meanwhile, on Kiryuuin's side. Facing Kokushibo, who was preparing to unleash Moon Breathing,
Kiryuuin Fuka had already followed the same playbook. Just as she had with Akaza, she summoned The World once more.
The World!
Four seconds of frozen time wasn't long. But with the combo of [The World] plus [Beast King Transformation], gravely wounding Kokushibo and interrupting his sword technique was absolutely no problem.
By the time the flow of time resumed and Kokushibo discovered, to his shock, that he'd been wounded,
Amanatsu Kazuha had once again sent the Parasyte's blades streaking like rays of light, slicing him to pieces!
After all, no matter how strong Kokushibo was, he was different from Muzan, who required the complete destruction of five brains and seven hearts.
An infusion of Ripple was enough to snuff out his life force.
What's more, to avoid being judged by the presiding god's system as "maliciously farming points," Amanatsu Kazuha even held back at the very last moment.
She had Kiryuuin Fuka use the Y-GUN's teleportation function to banish him into an alternate dimension.
And behind them, Shiina Hiyori obediently followed along, safely gathering every split-off classmate they encountered along the way into the Mirror World for protection.
...At this moment, Muzan, hidden in the shadows, finally couldn't help but frown.
Watching these absurd humans who strolled through it all as if taking a leisurely walk in a garden,
and seeing, in the distance, Nagumo Miyabi—clad in the [Gorilla Suit]—charging straight toward the elevated platform where he and Nakime were,
smashing through every room and wall that tried to block his path through sheer brute force!
A vein throbbed on Muzan's forehead. He made his decision then and there.
'Just as I thought—it's the same as back when I faced Yoriichi Tsugikuni all those years ago...'
'I'll just scatter into countless chunks of flesh and flee!'
He'd let the demons of the Infinity Castle cover his retreat as their final use.
Once he'd gotten to the bottom of who these people were, and once he'd absorbed Nezuko to overcome his weakness to sunlight, it wouldn't be too late to plan his next move.
In any case, he was a Demon King with an infinite lifespan. At worst, he'd just survive a few more centuries! He'd outlast these arrogant humans!
Surely these humans, with their mere century of life, couldn't possibly outlive an immortal Demon King like himself?!
With that thought— "BAM!" In the instant Nagumo Miyabi was about to charge onto the platform, Muzan Kibutsuji's body abruptly burst into countless tiny fragments of flesh!
Like a swarm of flies filling the sky, they scattered madly in every direction!
Nagumo Miyabi couldn't help being stunned—what the heck just flew out past me?
Watching all of this from a God's-eye view, Chris couldn't keep a straight face either.
Still, this was indeed exactly the sort of thing Muzan would do.
As long as he stayed alive, he couldn't care less about the dignity of the strong.
Since he knew that someone in this group had slain both Kokushibo and Akaza, he naturally wasn't going to gamble on whether he could win against this human who clearly looked to be of fairly high status.
You could say that, out of all the enemies he'd screened, they were the most special, most unconventional existence of all.
____
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