The poison still throbbed faintly beneath Karina's skin, but it no longer dictated her movements. Her violet eyes blazed with absolute focus, each pulse of Arcane energy reinforcing her mastery over perception and reality. The streets of the Entertainment District seemed to warp around her, lanterns flickering as though in acknowledgment of the lethal force now fully awakened.
Gyutaro's crimson gaze remained fixed, narrowing with growing alarm. His daggers, once extensions of predatory confidence, now clashed ineffectively against the fractured illusions Karina orchestrated. Every strike he made was met with counter-arcs, reflections, and feints that bent reality itself. For the first time, he felt hesitation—a crack in centuries of assured dominance.
"You… you cannot be real," he hissed, staggering back, venomed daggers flashing too late to land. "A human… a variable… impossible!"
Karina's stance was unyielding, Mirage Blade arcs slicing cleanly through his attacks while simultaneously creating disorienting patterns of light and shadow. Each strike forced Gyutaro to retreat further, his movements losing their deadly rhythm as he struggled to track the impossible precision of her form.
Tanjiro moved nearby, observing in awe as Karina's Arcane Breathing – Awakening Form dictated the battlefield. Even Inosuke and Tengen, engaged against Daki, sensed the shift. Gyutaro's confidence, the cornerstone of his fighting style, was eroding. The twin who had always been a predator was now cornered by something he could neither predict nor counter.
Karina's breathing remained calm, controlled, each Mirage Blade arc flowing seamlessly with the poisoned chaos around her. The venom in her veins throbbed, but every beat only sharpened her focus. She did not merely fight; she orchestrated, manipulated, and dictated. Every misstep Gyutaro made became a calculated advantage.
"You call yourself a demon… yet you hesitate," she murmured, violet eyes gleaming with quiet authority. "Fear is the reflection of your miscalculation."
Gyutaro's daggers faltered again, hesitation spreading across his movements. The venomous attacks that had once pressured her now seemed sluggish, predictable. With each Arcane strike, Karina pushed him further, exploiting the cracks in his confidence and control.
Finally, with a series of impossible, interwoven Mirage Blade arcs, she forced Gyutaro to retreat, staggering against the cobblestones. His breathing was sharp, unsteady, and for the first time, he had recognized the foreign slayer not merely as a threat—but as a predator beyond human comprehension.
The streets were silent for a moment, the weight of the clash settling over the battlefield. Karina's violet eyes scanned the alleyways, unbroken, precise, and radiating the power of a master who had faced defeat, trauma, and venom—and had emerged stronger, unshakable.
Tengen's voice cut through, firm yet impressed. "She is… extraordinary. Far beyond what I expected."
Tanjiro nodded slightly, awe tempered by respect. Inosuke growled, eyes blazing, ready to continue but sensing the shift in the tide. The Upper Rank demon, Gyutaro, had been forced into retreat, unaccustomed to opposition that combined human discipline with unearthly precision.
Karina's resolve remained absolute. She was the variable—the anomaly—the force that would define the outcome of the Entertainment District. The Upper Rank siblings had been shaken, their arrogance cracked, and the battlefield now lay open to the strategy, skill, and will of those determined to rewrite destiny.