Gyutaro was furious because Luke had cut off his sister’s head. But he was terrified because he could no longer sense Daki. Their bodies and hearts were connected; whether he lent Daki his power or the two of them could survive being decapitated individually, it was all because of that connection.
Yet now, he was clearly still alive, but he could no longer feel Daki at all—as if Daki... had already died.
But how was that possible? His own neck had not been cut. As long as he was alive, Daki should have been able to reattach her head. Even if this man had some special method that made it difficult for them to regenerate, his sister should not have died.
"Oh?"
A smile that looked demonic to Gyutaro and the Explorers spread across Luke’s face. "So she really didn’t come back to life."
He casually swung his sword, as though he had eyes in the back of his head, cleaving apart a sniper round headed for him. "I thought I had to cut off both your heads at the same time. Looks like there was no need to make things that complicated."
The Zanpakuto was far more effective than he had expected. Due to its soul-cleaving nature, it did not fundamentally rely on the power of the sun to kill Demons. Once he severed their heads, their souls were truly destroyed.
Thus, even though this pair of Upper Rank Six siblings could only die if both their heads were cut off at once, that rule was useless before Prison Demon. As souls, they were still independent individuals.
"You... you dare..."
Gyutaro shouted hoarsely, rage and despair burning in his eyes. His sister had been his only reason to keep living.
In life, he had failed to protect her and had lived with that guilt. Then, when they had been driven into a corner, they encountered Lord Muzan Kibutsuji and were given a new life. Yet in the end, he had still failed to protect his sister.
His sister had died before him. That was something Gyutaro could never accept.
Rage and despair flooded his mind. The only thing he could do now was kill Luke to avenge his sister. Then, he too would choose death.
Because he feared the road to the underworld would be dark, and that his sister would be afraid to walk it alone.
"You mean, how dare I kill your sister?"
Luke remained unmoved by Gyutaro’s fury. "Then when you and your sister killed people, did you ever think that they might have siblings too? Families too?"
"Huh? Who cares about that? Our happiness was destroyed long ago. Everyone happier than us deserves to die!"
Gyutaro’s voice was dark and venomous. He assumed a stance and pushed his Blood Demon Art to its limit. Right now, all he wanted was to cut off the black-clad man’s head.
The other Explorers brightened at the sight. Gyutaro was ready to die and no longer burdened by his sister. He would surely be a whole level stronger than before. If they coordinated with him, they might actually have a chance to kill this terrifying man.
"Because you got drenched in the rain, you want to destroy everyone else’s umbrellas too..."
Although Luke had long known what Gyutaro thought, he could not help sighing. "It’s not like I can’t understand it."
His own happiness had once been destroyed. He knew better than anyone the despair of losing someone important. After his master and senior sister died, he had once looked at happy families with envy as a child.
He envied those who had fathers and mothers while his own parents had abandoned him. He envied those who were well-fed and warmly clothed while he had to hide from place to place, freezing and starving.
But as he grew older, beyond that envy, what he felt more deeply was longing for the warmth he had once possessed. The envy gradually faded, ultimately becoming a faint blessing.
What he truly could not tolerate were the utterly depraved people who still sat in high places and enjoyed everything. That was why he had once planned that, if he succeeded in taking revenge and survived, he would join the resistance and overthrow the Company’s rule.
He understood Gyutaro’s feelings very well. The other man had suffered an even more tragic past. Human evil had taken away the only light in his life, which was why Gyutaro was the least regretful Demon in the world. He truly believed Muzan Kibutsuji had done him a kindness.
Gyutaro was a monster born from humanity’s evil. Because he had endured the coldest winter, he wanted to bring that cold to everyone else.
Luke tilted his head aside to evade another bullet, then sighed. "How pathetic..."
"We don’t need your pity!"
Gyutaro roared and charged. Blood Demon Art: Flying Blood Sickles activated. Countless crimson blades slashed toward Luke, while Gyutaro himself burst forward at extreme speed. One blood sickle swung for Luke’s arm; the other went for his neck.
In the next instant, thunderous detonations erupted and lightning burst from the ground where Luke had stood. Gyutaro was blasted backward, several wounds carved across his body. Blood streamed from them, and the injuries did not close immediately.
Thunder Breathing: Sixth Form—Rumble and Flash.
Luke held his blade at his side and slipped past the sniper’s bullet. "I wasn’t pitying you. That would be an insult to the dead."
He shifted sideways to evade Steel Plate’s savage charge, then drove a knee into Steel Plate’s abdomen, launching the whole man into the air. In the next moment, Prison Demon came down and severed his thick neck.
Luke strolled through the battlefield as if taking a leisurely walk rather than fighting for his life, casually cutting down several people. "I also know you won’t repent. If you had to choose again, you’d still become a Demon. So there’s nothing more to say..."
"Crimson flames..."
Seeing Luke speaking, the female mage began chanting, intending to cast a spell from behind him and launch a surprise attack.
But in the next instant, Luke’s figure flickered out of sight. Empowered by Flash Step and Thunder Breathing, he moved like a phantom of death across the battlefield. When he reappeared, he was already standing before the female mage.
Already taut with fear under the pressure of the battlefield, she saw Luke coming for her and instinctively clenched her long legs together beneath the overwhelming sensation of mortal danger. Even her chanting voice trembled.
Her chant was never completed. A sharp blade stabbed into her mouth and pinned her to the wall behind her.
Luke held his lunging posture, Prison Demon embedded in the mouth of the female mage whose every valve gushed copious fluid. The smile on his face looked demonic to her. "No manners at all. Can’t you see I’m talking to someone? Why are you interrupting?"
The female mage was terrified and desperately wanted to say that she had not interrupted anyone—but with a blade inserted in her mouth, she could not speak.
"Let her go!"
The sniper roared furiously and fired at Luke again and again. But to his despair, Luke did not dodge this time, nor was he hurt.
In his rage, the sniper’s aim had gone wild. The bullets struck Luke’s back with metallic clangs. Through the holes torn in his clothes, the sniper could see that they had left only faint white marks.
Prison Demon swept sideways in Luke’s hand. With a burst of force, the blade flashed, and a head streaked with tears and saliva rolled across the ground.
Setting aside their hostile factions, these Explorers had chosen to become Demons and eat humans. Luke would show them no mercy.
As for whether they were male or female, it made no difference to him on the battlefield. Whoever needed cutting down would be cut down.
A fierce gust struck from behind. Gyutaro’s hate-filled attack had arrived. Luke spun and caught Gyutaro’s twin blood sickles with Prison Demon, while the tiny blood blades produced by the Blood Demon Art struck his body and left only pale marks.
That was the power of Level 10 Armament Haki combined with Pure Black Nightmare. Ordinary attacks could hardly injure him now.
Gyutaro was highly skilled at close-quarters combat and killing, but the raw power of his Blood Demon Art was rather mediocre. Even in the original story, he had not inflicted a fatal injury on the Sound Hashira. His greatest threats were the blood sickles he wielded in both hands and the poison contained within them.
But as long as Luke’s skin was not broken, he would not be poisoned. Besides, he doubted that poison would necessarily be lethal to him anyway. His Constitution exceeded 30 points; the Sound Hashira and Tanjiro Kamado were in no way comparable to him.
Of course, he was not stupid enough to test the poison’s effects himself. This was a fight he could crush head-on. There was no reason for him to play around.
"What the hell are you?"
Even overwhelmed by rage and despair, Gyutaro could not help asking the question. To him, the man before him was simply too abnormal.
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