To kill a demon, first you have to rip its heart right out. And Marcus's words sank into Rui like a dagger looking for exactly that spot.
Your family has betrayed you… There is no place for you anymore.
"I'M GOING TO KILL ALL OF YOU!!!"
Rui completely lost control. His body jerked like a broken puppet as he wove blood-red threads between both hands and violently lashed them forward.
Instantly, a tide of threads rushed head-on, with the clear intention of shredding Marcus along with his "family".
But Marcus didn't even bother to draw his sword… He simply blinked.
The next instant, Rui's arms, the very same ones shooting the threads, were forced up above his head. And all the threads, like a red wave, shot up into the sky.
A couple of innocent little birds fluttering by were sliced to pieces on the spot.
And then… a dead silence.
Rui, enraged, was petrified.
Ivy, who was trembling from head to toe, gaped in shock.
Daughter Spider, who was already spitting cocoons to defend herself, froze mid-gesture.
Even Tanjiro, who was watching tensely from a distance, opened his mouth wide.
Only Nezuko kept doing her own thing…
Nom, nom!
Clang!
That was the sound of Tanjiro's sword dropping to the ground.
He knew Marcus possessed a Demonic ability… he knew he was tremendously strong.
But even so…
The technique that had almost killed him and Nezuko… had he just neutralized it just like that!?
This isn't just being strong anymore… This is cheating.
Tanjiro, the same guy who always got back up no matter how many times he fell, felt something inside him waver a little.
Meanwhile, Marcus didn't show the slightest change. In fact, he looked slightly bored.
Then he turned his head toward the two demonesses behind him, who after the initial shock had a glimmer of admiration in their eyes.
"The thing I gave you earlier. Take it out and use it."
"Huh? Oh… oh!"
Ivy was the first to react. She frantically rummaged through the wide pockets of her uniform, pulling an object halfway out and shoving it back in before finding the right one.
Daughter Spider also came back to her senses. She pressed her lips together and, with more composure, pulled out a small object she kept tucked against her chest.
They were metal devices with a built-in syringe, specially custom-made by Tamayo.
Seeing them in their own hands and remembering Marcus's instructions, they both went pale
Of course they knew what they were for. And they also knew 'who' he intended them to use it on.
Holding the purifiers with trembling fingers, the two of them locked their eyes on Rui's floating head.
In their eyes, you could read a mix of fear and hesitation, an old terror, buried deep within their hearts a long time ago.
Marcus didn't get mad seeing their indecision. He just raised an eyebrow.
"What's wrong? You don't dare?"
The shadows one drags from the bottom of their soul aren't wiped out with a command, and he knew it.
He didn't blame them.
But he also knew that the best way to conquer fear is to look it dead in the face. And if they were going to stay by his side, they couldn't keep running forever.
With a slight movement of his eyes, Rui's head shot through the air and fell without veering an inch, snapping right back onto his neck.
At that moment, everyone was stunned again, especially Tanjiro, who knew Rui's power firsthand and was already about to lunge forward…
But then he saw Rui entirely suspended in the air and stopped.
With his arms crossed over his chest, the euphoria of getting his head back lingered on his face even as terror replaced it.
Earlier, the only thing out of his control had been his head. Now his head was back… but his entire body remained utterly unresponsive.
He wanted to release threads, but his hands were trapped right under his armpits: firing them would only result in stabbing himself.
And even if he endured the pain and insisted, something invisible wrapped around his body, blocking any thread before it could extend.
He was an insect trapped in amber. Alive, conscious… and completely defenseless.
To the others, this change remained invisible.
In Marcus's eyes, it was simply a cage of densely woven Arrows around Rui.
Every fiber of his body was covered by them, and the moment he tried to apply the slightest force, the Arrows dissipated it instantly, returning him to total immobility.
"Done. He is immobilized. You can start."
Seeing this, the admiration both of them felt for Marcus completely overflowed.
But their fear of Rui persisted.
Seeing that both of them were still hesitating, Marcus frowned and was about to open his mouth—
Ivy took the first step.
Ivy, precisely the more timid of the two.
Her underlying timidity remained fully intact.
That kind of thing takes time to change. Simply put, between the two of them, she trusted Marcus the most. If her Master said Rui was totally immobilized… then he remained completely immobilized. Period.
Daughter Spider saw her step forward and clenched her fists. She refused to be left behind.
She remained terrified. Her knees trembled, her palms sweated, and every step felt like walking on glass.
But even with her fear…
Precisely because of her fear…
She had to give it her all!
Under Marcus's approving gaze, both of them gathered whatever courage they had left and, one on each side, with the purifiers firmly gripped, they approached Rui's sides.
Facing the two of them, Rui erupted in insults:
"TRAITORS! You've betrayed the family! I'm going to skin you alive and tie you up under the sun until you're reduced to nothing but ashes!"
He intended to vent and intimidate them. But completely oblivious to the truth, every single word struck their most sensitive nerves, precisely the ones that had grown totally immune to his threats.
The two exchanged a look. And pushing past all hesitation, they drove the devices into his neck together.
Marcus, right on cue, opened a small gap in the Arrows so they could insert them flawlessly. Instantly, both sides of Rui's neck began spurting massive amounts of blood, as if someone had turned on two faucets at once.
The device was T-shaped: the left end was inserted and secured into the demon's body, the center housed a simple filtering mechanism that separated the useless blood, expelled through the right end, from the purified blood, which dripped into a test tube attached beneath the filter.
Every drop falling into that tube was the essence of Rui's power.
In the past, he had used barely one or two drops of that blood to distribute his abilities among them, transforming them from ordinary demons lacking unique techniques into what they were today.
And what Marcus intended to do was much simpler: squeeze him to the very last drop.
At the end of the day, the stronger both of them became, the greater the benefit they would bring him.
"Senpai... what are you doing?"
Tanjiro carefully dodged the blood splatters and approached Marcus. His expression showed clear discomfort, "We avoid torturing demons…"
"You don't understand shit."
Marcus flicked him on the forehead and pointed at the two demonesses.
"The stronger they are and the higher the concentration of Muzan's blood in their bodies, the more useful it will be for the upcoming experiments. Besides..." he crossed his arms. "In the future, your senpai is going to be a man surrounded by people. Maids, servants, assistants... I can't be personally taking care of every shitty demon that crosses our path."
He paused and looked at them.
"They need to be upgraded. Ivy, and..."
His gaze shifted to Daughter Spider. He scratched his head for a moment, and suddenly his eyes lit up.
"Pearl. You'll be called Pearl."
"Huh!? Just... just like that?"
She clearly didn't expect him to name her right then and there, in the middle of a blood extraction.
"What? You don't like it?" Marcus put on a serious face, "Well, even if you don't like it, tough luck. You don't have human rights, so your objections are invalid."
"Hmph..."
Pearl pursed her lips and lowered her head. A faint blush crept up her cheeks.
"... I never said I didn't like it." she muttered.
_____
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