"It's over. It's really over this time."
Little Camellia stared at the fish monsters surrounding the forest, despair filling her heart. She knew the enemy had spared them only to toy with them and use them as bait, but she had still clung to a faint hope that they might escape.
But Gyokko's ability had now sealed off the entire mountain, crushing that last shred of hope.
Bang!
A lightning-fast figure shot past her. The boy in the yellow haori slammed into a tree. Whether from the pain or because Enmu had voluntarily released his ability, Zenitsu woke up.
Taking in the fires blazing through the woods, the horde of Demons, and the fish monsters, Zenitsu screamed in terror. "Aah! I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead! What kind of nightmare is this? Wasn't I just getting cozy with Nezuko a second ago?!"
He looked down at the blood covering his body. "It hurts so much... Why does it feel like every bone in my body is broken?"
Seeing his reaction, Little Camellia's heart sank even further. "Zenitsu, this is a nightmare. Hurry up and go back to sleep. It won't hurt once you're asleep."
She still wanted to try getting the Sleeping Hashira back online. The situation was already bad enough. Sleeping Zenitsu was a decent combatant; at the very least, he could hold off an Explorer. But what the hell were they supposed to do now that he was awake?
"It's a nightmare?"
Zenitsu froze, but then his face twisted. "But it hurts so much! You're not supposed to feel pain in dreams!"
Realizing Zenitsu was not going back to sleep, Little Camellia could only grip her Nichirin Blade tightly and prepare for a desperate fight.
Their swords were not newly forged by swordsmiths. They were temporary Nichirin Blades issued by the trainers. These swords had been left behind by deceased swordsmen who used the same Breathing Styles, so anyone using a compatible style could wield them.
However, because they were not personal blades awakened by their owners from the beginning, they could not unleash their full power. Zenitsu and Tanjiro were in the same situation.
Of course, Little Camellia did not think giving these young protagonists their personal swords would turn the tide anyway.
"What a flamboyant dead end."
The Sound Hashira was drenched in blood and breathing heavily. During his brief exchange with Upper Rank Five, he had suffered serious injuries. The swarm of tiny fish monsters had bitten into his body, drawing copious blood.
Yet even so, a sunny smile remained on his face. "Then let me make a flamboyant comeback!"
"Lord Uzui..."
Tanjiro's eyes welled with tears. Beneath the Sound Hashira's torn clothes was a mass of mangled, bloody flesh, and even his muscular arms were pitted with wounds.
Those wounds had been caused by Gyokko's Blood Demon Art: Ten Thousand Gliding Slime Fish. Gyokko had produced ten pots decorated with slime-fish patterns and summoned ten thousand slime fish to bite the Sound Hashira. Those fish had sharp teeth capable of gnawing an enemy down to the bone.
Though the Sound Hashira had retreated in time, a group of fish had still bitten him, inflicting extensive wounds. Bone was visible in some places. Worse, the fish carried poison that was already eating away at his body.
Even in that state, the Sound Hashira did not give up hope. He threw out two smoke bombs, which exploded in the forest, and shouted, "Tanjiro, run toward where the sun rises!"
Tanjiro understood instantly. The Sound Hashira was telling him to run east. Though kindhearted, Tanjiro was not indecisive. He immediately hoisted the boar-headed boy onto his back and directed Nezuko to carry the injured Zenitsu eastward.
Little Camellia was a beat slower in catching on. She followed Tanjiro and charged ahead, but after two steps, she gritted her teeth, turned around, and slung the half-dead Little Whirlwind over her shoulder before chasing after Tanjiro with all her strength.
The Sound Hashira's sudden smoke bomb attack obscured the Demons' vision. The Explorer Demons warily watched their surroundings, afraid that the Sound Hashira might suddenly come for them. Gyokko, Enmu, and Rui, who had originally been members of the Twelve Kizuki, remained relatively calm.
Within the smoke, relying on his hearing and memory of the terrain, the Sound Hashira charged straight east. In an instant, he killed five or six fish monsters.
He broke through the fish monsters' blockade to the east, but his physical injuries and the poison made him cough blood whenever he exerted his strength. After dealing with the fish monsters, his body swayed. He could no longer run and could only stab his twin blades into the ground to barely keep himself from falling.
With tears in his eyes, Tanjiro brushed past the Sound Hashira without pausing. He knew that if he wasted time on sentimental words now, the Sound Hashira's death would be for nothing.
The Sound Hashira watched Tanjiro and the new Demon Slayer Corps members pass him and run into the dark mist. Yet in his eyes, they were running toward dawn.
I'm sorry. I'm still not strong enough. I couldn't protect everyone.
But at the very least, I have to let you young flames escape.
"Blood Demon Art: Killing-Eye Cage."
Yet with that deep, gloomy voice, the Sound Hashira's desperate hope of saving the newcomers seemed to become a fantasy.
A web of blood-red spider threads spread out, blocking Tanjiro and the others. Had Tanjiro not instinctively drawn his sword, they would have been sliced apart by the threads.
Now that they were exhausted after a bloody battle, Lower Rank Five's Blood Demon Art was like an impassable chasm, something they could never cross.
"If you're calling for help, letting one little rat go is enough. How can you all run away together?"
Rui stood in a tree, weaving blood-red spiderwebs between his hands as though playing cat's cradle. His burning gaze fixed on Nezuko. "If you give me your sister, I can let you pass."
"What are you saying?! There's no way I'd hand Nezuko over to you!"
Tanjiro roared as he slashed at Rui's threads. The Sound Hashira had opened a path for them with his life. If they still could not escape the mountain, it would be too tragic.
"How dare you destroy my artistic creations..."
Gyokko stood on a branch above Tengen Uzui, his expression dark as he watched the slain fish monsters. "...I've grown tired of this game too. I'll turn you into my newest pot."
As long as someone could send word out, more Hashira would come later. He would not lack for entertainment.
"As an artist of music, hearing a disgusting thing like you use the word 'art' makes me want to vomit."
The Sound Hashira was not crushed by the despair before him. His voice was weak, but his fighting spirit continued to rise. The circular dotted makeup around his left eye seemed to deepen in color.
Just as he seemed to grasp some mysterious sensation and was about to stake his life on killing Gyokko to open a path for Tanjiro and the others, his sharp hearing caught a sound.
It was like a howling gale, mixed with the furious roar of rushing thunder.
Gyokko and Enmu, whose senses were more acute, heard it as well and turned their eyes toward the eastern foot of the mountain.
A gale swept in, shaking the forest. Fallen leaves scattered like rain, and the mist parted like water. It was as though thunder had crossed the sky—lightning tearing open the darkness!
A black figure, wreathed in golden lightning, blasted through the pitch-black night and shattered the dream woven from blood-red webs.
Only after he came to a stop did the gale seem to arrive belatedly, sweeping past from behind him and stirring his black haori. The fires on either side of the mountain forest parted and stood at his flanks.
Luke placed a hand on the shoulder of the half-kneeling Tengen Uzui. "Save some strength to see your family..."
Firelight illuminated the man's profile as the fierce wind stirred the loose strands over his brow. An invisible pressure swept over everyone present like the gale that had just passed through, making the Demons forget to attack for a moment.
Luke caught sight of the battered Tanjiro and the others from the corner of his eye. His gaze paused on Zenitsu, who was covered in blood, and his expression darkened. "...I'm taking over this battlefield."
At that moment, the Kasugai Crow, delayed because it could not match his speed, finally flew in from above. It circled overhead and announced, "The Thunder Hashira has arrived on the battlefield! All injured Corps members, withdraw at once!"
"Senior Brother Luke..."
Zenitsu stared at the man's back, silhouetted against the flames. His initial delight swiftly turned to concern, and he weakly warned, "Senior Brother, be careful of that Demon. He can make people fall asleep."
Luke used Kaidō to stabilize the Sound Hashira's injuries. Without turning around, he swept his gaze across the horde of Demons gathering to the west. "No wonder they dared to besiege a strongpoint and ambush reinforcements. There are quite a few of them."
"Be careful. The one inside that pot is Upper Rank Five."
Though it was his first time meeting Luke, the Sound Hashira had long heard of his exploits. Along with the Kasugai Crow's announcement, he knew the Thunder Hashira had arrived.
He wanted to thank the Thunder Hashira for protecting his wives in the battle at the Entertainment District, and he also wanted to thank him for coming to their aid. But this was not the time for pleasantries. He had to use his dwindling strength to relay the enemy's information immediately. "The fish he summons are poisonous. His close-combat ability is unknown. Don't make eye contact with Lower Rank One."
Luke used Kaidō to stop the Sound Hashira's bleeding and nodded. "Don't worry."
Then he turned to Tanjiro. "Tanjiro, take the Sound Hashira and everyone else down the mountain."
"Senior Brother, it's too much for you alone!"
Zenitsu forced his battered body upright and used Thunder Breathing to catch his breath, wanting to fight beside Luke.
Luke kicked a fallen Demon Slayer's sword from the ground. The blade shot out at high speed, pierced the neck of an Explorer attempting to sneak up on him, and nailed him to a tree trunk.
At the same time, Prison Demon slid from its sheath. In a flash of lightning, Luke cleaved apart a fish monster lunging at him.
Amid the sky-splitting curtain of blood, Luke gently shoved the Sound Hashira toward Zenitsu behind him. "I'm taking over this battlefield. You'll only get in the way."
"My, my. I've eaten quite a few Hashira, so I do not particularly care whether one lives or dies. But that one has such a handsome face. I wanted to make him into living art, so I cannot let him leave."
Gyokko's body stretched out from within his pot. His eyes fixed on Luke, while the tiny hands beside his face pointed toward the Sound Hashira and Tanjiro's group.
At once, two goldfish emerged from a nearby pot marked with waterweed patterns. The goldfish rapidly spat several volleys of poisonous needles from their mouths, blanketing the Sound Hashira and the others.
Blood Demon Art: Thousand Needle Fish Kill!
Tanjiro and the others' scalps went numb. Not only did they have little strength left, but even at full strength, they could never withstand an Upper Rank's attack.
Yet the flying needles never reached them, because Luke made his move.
Lightning surged upward like a reverse waterfall, forming a barrier that intercepted the needles and blasted them apart.
Thunder Breathing, Seventh Form: Thunderfall!
Zenitsu was utterly stunned by Luke's technique. He had never seen it before. Their grandfather had taught them only six forms of Thunder Breathing. Had Senior Brother Luke comprehended a new technique in just a few days?
After blocking the needles, Luke rode the lightning upward and slashed at Gyokko's neck.
As Luke closed in, Gyokko finally felt the sharpness of that killing intent firsthand. Every cell in his body screamed a warning: the threat of death had arrived.
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