The instant the gate flew open, all nine Hashira saw Muzan's grotesque form.
At the same time, behind Muzan, they caught sight of the fierce battle raging deep within the Infinity Castle.
Black-and-gold lightning flashed continuously through the Infinity Castle. Wherever it passed, Demons fell in droves; almost none could stand in its way.
In that brief gap in time, the nine Hashira met Luke's eyes deep within the castle. Their gazes were filled with mutual trust.
A thin sheen of sweat formed on Muzan's forehead. He was caught between a rock and a hard place, but after weighing his options, he decided Nezuko was still more appetizing. Trying to eat Luke would take far too much effort.
So he "gathered his courage," stepped through the gate, and charged at the nine Hashira.
He was the Demon King. He possessed endless life and regenerative power far beyond that of the Twelve Kizuki. There were still ten hours until sunrise. Even if he had to wear them down, he believed he could exhaust these Hashira to death!
"Muzan!"
Amid an enraged shout, a streak of golden lightning slashed past. Muzan instinctively dodged and sprinted far to the side.
Only after evading the attack did Muzan grow irritated. He realized the one who had attacked him was merely a child—not particularly strong—yet he had instinctively fled from him in fear.
For that instant, he had thought Luke had come to cut him down. It was only some brat using Thunder Breathing.
"Charge like a boar! Charge like a boar!"
An energetic shout came from his flank. Muzan had barely begun to turn when the Stone Hashira's attack was already upon him, forcing him to deal with the Stone Hashira first.
This time, he was prepared. He reinforced his body with Blood Demon Art and met the Stone Hashira's attack head-on.
Boom—
Yet to Muzan's shock, even in this grotesque form, even with his defenses prepared, the Stone Hashira's blow still sent him flying. The vibration nearly shattered all his internal organs.
Fortunately, his regeneration was extraordinary, healing those injuries in an instant. But the Stone Hashira's threat level soared in his mind.
He stared at the earthy-yellow patterns on the Stone Hashira's face, then thought of the purple-black patterns on Luke's face. His expression darkened.
He had seen Demon Slayer Marks before, so he could tell that this was not one—especially since the Stone Hashira was clearly no longer young, yet the patterns on his face did not seem to impose any serious burden on him.
Could it be that the Demon Slayer Corps had evolved again and mastered a technique even more advanced than the Demon Slayer Mark?!
Muzan's heart sank. At the same time, he was glad he had acted so decisively tonight. Coming to the Demon Slayer Corps had been the right choice. He had to become a Demon immune to sunlight as soon as possible, or the Demon Slayer Corps would only become harder and harder to face in the future.
He had already made up his mind. Once he seized Nezuko, he would retreat. The instant he became immune to sunlight, he would leave this country and find somewhere new to begin a new life.
As for partners like Kokushibo?
They could go die. Once he became perfect, every subordinate would become useless. A perfect, immortal life-form only needed one throne-holder. He had no need to share that throne with anyone else.
The nine Hashira and Muzan broke into a fierce battle. Tanjiro could not help climbing onto the wall to watch. If the Hashira had not specifically ordered that someone must stay beside Nezuko in case Muzan's subordinates launched a surprise attack, he would have charged in to fight Muzan to the death long ago.
Lady Tamayo also stepped out of the house. As she watched the battle beyond the courtyard, her expression was grave and her eyes brimmed with hatred.
"Why has my regeneration slowed down?"
After fighting for some time, Muzan realized he could not defeat the nine Hashira quickly. Worse, he noticed that his regeneration was no longer as swift as it had been at the beginning.
Then he noticed Tamayo's gaze from atop the courtyard wall and roared in fury, "Tamayo, what did you do to me?!"
Besides his slower regeneration, Muzan could feel a force within his body consuming itself, grinding away at his Demon cells.
"Oh? Shouldn't you be asking the Hashira what they did to you?"
Tamayo's lips curled upward. Seeing Muzan in such a miserable state gave her immense satisfaction.
The fruits of more than two months of research by her and Shinobu Kocho had taken effect. Following Luke's suggestion, the poisons meant for Muzan had not been stored only in Shinobu's syringe-like Nichirin Blade. The other Hashira had also coated their blades with highly concentrated toxins.
Even the most upright Flame Hashira had raised no objection to the proposal. When dealing with an evil monster like Muzan, why bother with honor?
Thus, every Hashira had used poison—and a mixed poison at that.
It contained not only medicine capable of turning Demons back into humans, but also a drug that could rapidly consume Muzan's lifespan.
He was called the immortal Demon King, but eternity was only relative. Tamayo estimated that even a Demon with an ample supply of nutrition could live for at most ten thousand years. Muzan, as the Demon King, would not exceed that by much. She estimated that Muzan had a lifespan of no more than twenty thousand years.
And the toxin she had developed could age Muzan fifty years every minute.
Besides those two poisons, there was also Shinobu's wisteria poison, effective against Demons and equally capable of causing sustained damage to Muzan's cells.
So, faced with the joint assault of nine Hashira at peak condition, all using [Secret Technique: Demon God], Muzan was taking a brutal beating. The longer he fought, the more wrong things felt. A sense of weakness began to overtake him.
While the nine Hashira battled Muzan to stop him from devouring Nezuko, the Infinity Castle presented an entirely different scene.
"Hahaha, this is exhilarating! This is the first time I've ever met a man as powerful as you. Come, keep fighting!"
The armless, legless Akaza had barely regenerated when he charged at Luke with a laugh, driving a fist toward Luke's head.
At this point, he no longer cared about being outnumbered. Luke's strength had proved that even while surrounded, he could effortlessly slaughter the other Demons in the Infinity Castle. Several casual punches had already grievously injured Akaza.
"How pathetic."
After forcing back Kokushibo's blade with one slash, Luke spun and swept a kick behind him. Empowered by Armament Haki, the kick directly blew Akaza apart.
He drew a deep breath. The power granted by Thunder Breathing made his attacks fierce and forceful. Once he had steadied himself, he brought his blade down on Kokushibo again.
His title's effect passed its power check, sending Kokushibo flying. Luke then turned and charged at Akaza, who was in the midst of reforming his body.
Akaza truly was someone who loved fighting and had constantly pursued strength, but he had forgotten why he had become a Demon in the first place.
His life had been pitiful and tragic. He had trained his fists to protect others, but never had the chance to use them for that purpose. His beloved master and fiancée had been poisoned to death by a jealous rival dojo using underhanded means. He went there afterward and killed every one of them barehanded, but he still could not bring back his master and fiancée.
Luke deeply empathized with Akaza's circumstances. Had he not suffered the same?
He had once had a master and senior sister who loved him, whom he loved in return. Yet they had been murdered by villains. In the end, he completed his revenge, only to become a wandering ghost left in this world with no reason to live.
That was why he thanked Endspace in his heart. Endspace had given him a second life and allowed him to find a reason to live again.
He would overcome all that was extraordinary and reach the absolute pinnacle of martial arts.
He would make his name resound across countless worlds, so that his master and senior sister in heaven could hear it and know that he had not squandered everything they had taught him.
And perhaps, through Endspace's miraculous powers, some tragedies could still be reversed.
Akaza had not been so fortunate. After his master and wife died, his life lost all meaning. In his daze, he encountered Muzan and was turned into a Demon. To exploit Akaza's strength, Muzan buried his memories and made him into a battle-hungry man who knew only how to pursue greater strength.
But Akaza had long since stopped wanting to live. He only wanted to see his master and wife again, yet Muzan had kept him wandering this world as a Demon for centuries.
"I'll send you on your way."
Luke reached Akaza and swung his Zanpakuto horizontally. A purple-and-gold flash of steel severed Akaza's head from his body.
The instant his head separated from his body, Akaza's eyes first turned confused, then deeply sorrowful. Finally, when he looked at Luke, an emotion called gratitude appeared in his eyes.
"May you meet those you long for..."
Luke spoke calmly, then turned and blocked Kokushibo's blade with a slash.
"What a rude bastard..."
Luke slid backward as he dissipated the force. "What I hate most is someone interrupting while I'm talking."
More than ten minutes had passed since the battle began. Facing the combined assault of Akaza and Kokushibo, Luke had darted and maneuvered through the three-dimensional battlefield of the Infinity Castle, slaughtering vast numbers of evil Demons along the way.
Now, aside from himself and Kokushibo, there were likely fewer than ten Demons still alive.
"Only the two of us remain. Good. Now you will not flee, will you?"
Kokushibo did not pursue. Holding his sword level at his side, he said, "Come. From here on, this is a battle between the two of us."
Luke took a small black pill from his storage space and swallowed it. It was a Soul Source recovery item he had purchased in Endspace earlier. Maintaining [Secret Technique: Demon God] in such an intense battle for so long, along with using high-level Binding Spells, had consumed a great deal of his Soul Source.
Just after swallowing the black pill, Luke heard Kokushibo's words and nearly choked.
He swallowed it down, tilted his head, and looked at Kokushibo in confusion. "When did you get the impression that I was running away?"
From the beginning of the battle until now, he had indeed kept moving through the Infinity Castle with the extreme mobility of Thunder Breathing and Flash Step. But that was to hunt evil Demons and pursue Gale and Doma. Since when had that become running away?
"Wasn't that what you were doing?"
Kokushibo shifted to a two-handed grip on his blade. "Then show me your true strength and face me head-on."
From Kokushibo's perspective, Luke had never exchanged blows with him continuously. Each time, Luke took his attack and then vanished to kill other Demons. Kokushibo considered that an obvious attempt to avoid a direct confrontation.
He admitted that Luke was extraordinarily fast—so fast that even he could not hope to match him—but that was travel speed. Once they closed in, it remained to be seen whose sword was faster.
Thus, he did not believe he would lose to Luke in a direct clash. He had confidence in the Moon Breathing he had honed for centuries.
He had grown stronger than he was in the past. Even if his younger brother returned to life, he believed that he would be the one to win!
"You're Yoriichi Tsugikuni's older brother, aren't you?"
As he spoke, Luke felt the recovery item taking effect. His Soul Source was slowly climbing back up and had already passed the fifty-percent mark.
"Do not mention that name!"
Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, Kokushibo's voice was filled with rage as he glared at Luke.
"Whoa, getting desperate already? Don't tell me you still couldn't beat your little brother even after becoming a Demon? Don't tell me that frail old man of a brother one-shotted you?"
Luke said with a grin. He did not usually enjoy taunting enemies in battle, but Kokushibo's spectacular expression was far too entertaining.
Sure enough, after hearing Luke's words, Kokushibo's face darkened like charcoal. His voice was grim. "What exactly are you?"
Kokushibo now seriously suspected that Luke was not human. No—he had already decided that Luke was not human, but a "primitive Demon" like Muzan.
Otherwise, there was no explaining why Luke knew so much about the past, nor why he could use Blood Demon Art.
"Me?"
Luke adjusted his breathing. As he spoke, the lightning around him grew even fiercer. "I'm human, of course!"
As the words fell, Flash Step activated. Amid crackling electricity and explosive bursts of air, Luke struck like a raging thunderbolt. In an instant, he was before Kokushibo, Prison Demon slashing toward Kokushibo's neck.
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