Chapter 81: The Thousand-Faced Demon...
Enjoy~~~
"How did you even get here, Hakouji-san, by the way?"
Tokito asked with quiet curiosity after drinking the miraculous healing potion that restored his body. He looked down at the shattered white blade in his hand with an annoyed frown. Without a sword, he was practically out of the battle.
Seeing his condition, Hakouji let out a light laugh, then reached toward his waist, pulled out one of his short swords, and tossed it toward Tokito.
Tokito caught the sword in midair with slight panic before drawing it from its black sheath. His eyes widened a little as he examined the blade. It was an incredibly elegant black sword, streaked with faint blue and white ripples along the edges, radiating a cold and deadly aura.
"Is this… one of the swords made by Rin-sama? It feels perfect. The weight and balance are unbelievable!" Tokito said with genuine admiration.
Hakouji nodded proudly. Rin's visit to the Swordsmith Village some time ago had been extremely useful, as he used his knowledge and the system's abilities to forge supernatural blades for several fighters. Unfortunately for Tokito, during tonight's patrol he had been carrying an ordinary standard sword instead of one made by Rin. (As for Zenitsushiro, he possessed a black blade threaded with white symbols that flickered like lightning sparks.)
"Yeah," Hakouji said while cracking his neck. "Rin sensed your location the moment he entered the castle, told me the exact direction, and then…"
Hakouji stopped talking and drifted into thought as he remembered what had happened earlier.
—Flashback, some time earlier.
Rin was carrying his little sister, Eri, on his back while running at terrifying speed through the inverted wooden corridors. The strange thing was that Rin was running with his eyes completely closed!
The sight made Hakouji, who was running beside him, glance at him with suspicion and concern.
"What is this lunatic doing? What if he crashes into a wall or gets crushed by one of these insane moving buildings changing every second?"
As if his thoughts had become reality, one of the massive walls suddenly shifted and shot toward Rin like a piston to crush him.
But Rin simply kicked the ground without even opening his eyes, and in a flashing instant, reappeared several meters away, smoothly bypassing the trap with terrifying ease.
Hakouji leapt into the air to avoid another trap and muttered hopelessly:
"Forget it… my mistake for thinking for even a second that he was a normal human."
Hakouji landed beside Rin and the two continued running. But after a while, Rin suddenly stopped. He opened his eyes, and his emerald pupils sharpened with terrifying focus as he stared toward the left wall with a dark, monstrous aura.
Rin whispered coldly:
"Found you…"
He turned toward Hakouji and said firmly:
"Keep going in the same direction, Hakouji. Don't stop."
After saying that, Rin started walking directly toward the solid wooden wall on the left.
Hakouji froze in confusion.
"Huh? But there's no path th— Rin?!"
Before he could finish speaking, he saw Rin raise his fist, wrapped in a black aura that flashed briefly. Rin exploded forward with terrifying speed and punched the wall!
The wall didn't merely shatter. The wood completely vaporized!
Hakouji watched that "human" boy charge forward, smashing through dozens of consecutive walls, piercing through rooms and corridors at insane speed, leaving behind a tunnel of destruction like a category-six hurricane.
"That monster…" Hakouji muttered in disbelief before continuing on his way to rescue the Hashira.
—Back to the present.
Hakouji shook his head, brushing away the memory.
"Ah… there's no time to explain now. Let's focus on cutting off that six-eyed spider's head."
"Yeah… let's do this as fast as my breathing," Zenitsushiro said with a smile after completely recovering thanks to the potion. He raised his lightning-covered sword and prepared himself.
In the next moment, he returned to his previous suicidal stance, and his entire aura changed.
"Kuyougi: Kengai no Kaihou!"
(Special Skill: Forbidden Release!)
Without hesitation, he activated the suicidal technique again and shot toward Kokushibo like a beam of light.
"Light Breathing — First Form: Flash!"
Kokushibo swung his sword and blocked Zenitsushiro's crushing strike. But while staring at the boy's face, the Upper Moon frowned in irritation.
From the corner of his left eye, Tokito appeared in the air. From his right side, Hakouji emerged with a terrifying human-demonic aura. All three were in the same deadly "limit-breaking" state, surrounding him from every direction!
"Hm… this will be slightly harder than I expected," Kokushibo murmured as his grip tightened around his sword.
. .
At that same time, Yukihara Rin had finally approached his target.
He kicked off the floor beneath him, causing the area to explode as he launched himself into a long leap through the air. Among the suspended buildings, he casually decapitated any foolish demon that crossed his path.
Finally, a thick wooden wall blocked his way.
Without hesitation, Rin raised his fist. "Cursed energy" wrapped around it, condensed to multiply his power.
In the next moment, he punched the wall apart into splinters and burst into the hidden chamber.
Inside the room, Nakime — the new Upper Moon — sat upon a raised platform nervously playing her biwa, while Daki — Upper Moon Six — kept whining loudly without pause.
"And like I said! If Muzan-sama hadn't ordered it, I would never leave Onii-chan's side! Onii-chan is reckless and stupid! He can't fight intelligently without me! He'll get hurt!" Daki shouted arrogantly.
Hearing Daki's words, Nakime silently sighed. In truth, Daki was the foolish one limiting Gyutaro's combat ability and preventing him from using his full strength freely.
If not for his attachment to her and his constant protection of her, Gyutaro might already have become Upper Moon Four. Perhaps over the years, without his sister holding him back, he could even have reached Upper Moon Three's level — or beyond. Muzan had finally realized this and separated them tonight.
Suddenly, both Nakime and Daki sensed a horrifying pressure and immediately stood up.
An enormous explosion erupted from the wall.
From within the scattered dust emerged a strange figure. At first glance, it looked like it had two heads. One of them possessed sharp emerald-green eyes radiating an aura more terrifying and blood-freezing than even Muzan's own gaze.
"A new demon?" Daki narrowed her eyes in annoyance.
"No… human. A Hashira," Nakime said anxiously after recognizing the uniform.
Then the dust cleared completely, revealing Yukihara Rin carrying his little sister Eri on his back.
Rin immediately charged toward Nakime.
Nakime's hand moved rapidly across the biwa strings, following Muzan's strict warning:
"No Demon Slayer must ever reach you… especially Yukihara Rin!"
Seeing that Rin himself had arrived, she had no choice except immediate escape and relocation.
"You filthy little—! I won't let you ignore m—!"
Daki screamed while arrogantly blocking Rin's path, fully confident in her immortality and inability to die from decapitation.
Rin didn't even look at her.
For a brief instant, his green eyes turned into glowing amber-yellow within complete darkness. Their deadly glow intensified.
He vanished from his spot as overwhelming pressure and manifested killing intent froze Daki in place.
This was not ordinary killing intent.
It was killing intent forged by someone who had slaughtered demons and curses across three different worlds in unimaginable numbers over countless years. Thick, suffocating, horrifying killing intent capable of crushing the soul itself.
Daki couldn't understand what had happened. The world tilted slowly.
Only then did she realize she could see her own standing body… without its head.
Rin had decapitated her within a fraction of a second, grabbed her severed head with his left hand, and continued charging toward Nakime at the same monstrous speed without slowing even one step.
"Damn…" Nakime whispered in genuine terror.
She tried playing the biwa to escape. At the same time, several sections and walls of the Infinity Castle moved to obstruct Rin while Nakime's platform rapidly shifted backward.
But was Rin really going to let her escape?
As long as he captured Nakime, he could rearrange every battlefield at once and end this trap completely.
Rin shattered every wall in his path. Cursed energy wrapped around his entire body.
Even though using cursed energy so forcefully in this world placed enormous strain on him because of the world's own will rejecting foreign powers… he didn't care.
Why would he bother protecting himself from damage or trying to capture Nakime carefully when he possessed Reverse Cursed Technique to heal instantly?
Rin grinned madly. His eyes glowed crimson red. His short black hair gradually turned pure snow-white.
At that moment, his strength and speed increased monstrously. The whites of his eyes turned pitch black again, with predatory crimson pupils.
He had entered the "Final Demon King State"!
"That aura… Muzan-sama?!" Nakime cried in panic while trying to close portals around herself.
But then sticky black shadows and tendrils burst from Rin's body, tearing through his back.
One tendril gently wrapped around little Eri protectively.
Another wrapped around Daki's screaming head, silencing her.
The remaining tendrils shot forward like black spears, destroying everything in their path toward Nakime. Empowered by cursed energy, their destructive power multiplied.
"Nii-chan! What is this?!" Eri cried fearfully upon seeing the terrifying transformation and the tendrils. Yet despite her fear, she didn't try to pull away or move, afraid of weakening Rin or becoming a burden.
"Don't worry, Eri… it's just a technique. Just close your eyes… sorry you had to see this. Your big brother will finish this quickly and get you out of this mess."
Rin's voice was gentle and warm, completely contradicting his horrifying demonic appearance as he softly placed his bloodstained hand atop her head before returning her behind his back.
…
Elsewhere, inside one of the giant forest-filled rooms within the castle, Kocho Shinobu, Kanao Tsuyuri, Rengoku Kyojuro, and Kamado Tanjiro were locked in a deadly battle against Upper Moon Two: Ryoga.
"Kamado-shounen, watch out!" Rengoku shouted as he saw Ryoga suddenly appear from the dense mist behind Tanjiro.
But even without the warning, Tanjiro — whose senses had fully awakened — had already detected Ryoga's location.
Instantly, Tanjiro dropped flat onto his stomach. Or rather, he bent forward with terrifying flexibility, narrowly avoiding Ryoga's lethal blade.
Ryoga smiled upon seeing the incredible reaction and leapt backward into the air to avoid Tanjiro's counterattack at his legs.
Ryoga vanished back into the dense fog, disappearing into a faint distortion like a ghost.
Rengoku appeared beside Tanjiro, the two standing back-to-back while focusing intensely on even the slightest disturbance in the mist or any trace of killing intent.
Shinobu and Kanao were doing the same nearby within the massive room. This "dense mist" was one of Ryoga's Blood Demon Arts, allowing him to move silently and attack from blind spots.
Ryoga's playful voice echoed throughout the room:
"Aah… you all should've died long ago… but it seems you possess suspicious prior knowledge about my techniques."
Ryoga suddenly appeared before Kanao, freezing her momentarily. He placed his cold hand beneath her chin and smiled teasingly.
"Does Yukihara Rin have something to do with this…?"
Before he could finish, he instantly drew his sword and blocked Shinobu's stabbing attack from behind, making her click her tongue in annoyance.
Ryoga leapt backward and vanished into the fog again.
"Oh come on, this isn't fun… you don't make any sound!"
"Isn't that your style? Then let's play by the same rules, Upper Moon," Shinobu replied coldly.
She placed a hand atop Kanao's head, and feeling Shinobu's warm touch, the girl recovered from the momentary paralysis caused by Ryoga's aura.
Shinobu frowned while analyzing internally:
"Staying too long in this mist weakens reaction speed and slowly poisons the body. Concentration becomes difficult inside a completely obscured world hiding everything."
"In truth, I'm not just using hearing to detect your positions and move freely here…" Ryoga's playful voice echoed from nowhere.
Suddenly, he appeared directly behind Shinobu and rested his head on her shoulder, whispering beside her ear with a teasing smile:
"I can smell you too… and you smell very nice…"
Before he could finish his sick flirtation, he jumped backward to avoid Kanao's slash toward his head while Shinobu simultaneously thrust toward his heart.
"Ahh, could you at least let me finish talking? Demon Slayers are so boring and impatient. Don't make me fight seriously, ladies. I want to enjoy myself until Rin-chan arrives!" Ryoga said in mock annoyance.
At that moment, Ryoga's smiling expression froze.
He violently swung his sword behind him… but found nothing!
When he slowly turned around, all he saw was Tanjiro's face inches away, completely devoid of human emotion.
The flame-shaped mark on Tanjiro's forehead pulsed violently while his black blade ignited with crimson flames.
"Hinokami Kagura — First Form: Enbu!"
Ryoga barely managed to retreat and avoid the full strike, but his neck was still slashed by a severe burning wound.
He vanished back into the fog in pain. After regenerating — much slower due to Tanjiro's flames — he frowned in irritation.
Tanjiro leapt backward several times. Rengoku appeared beside him and whispered while placing a hand on his shoulder:
"Well done! I can't hide my presence in the mist because my spirit burns too brightly… I'll keep him occupied and draw his attention. Your job is to find the opening and cut off his head, boy!"
In the next moment, the Demon Slayer Mark appeared across Rengoku's face. It spread from the upper right side of his forehead downward, covering half his face and right eye like living flames.
"Flame Breathing…" Rengoku whispered, his eyes blazing with unbreakable determination.
An instant later, Rengoku exploded forward at incredible speed, even the mist around him bursting apart from the heat as he charged toward Ryoga like a flaming dragon.
Seeing the terrifying assault, the playful smile vanished from Ryoga's face, replaced by battle-crazed excitement.
"So you've finally decided to play seriously!" Ryoga shouted enthusiastically.
He drew his blade and, instead of using demon techniques, whispered:
"Mist Breathing…"
He blocked Rengoku's flaming strike using an actual Breathing Style! Their clash created a violent shockwave that dispersed much of the room's mist.
Rengoku immediately analyzed the situation:
"As long as I don't let him create distance and keep forcing loud, violent exchanges, I can prevent him from hiding. And if he approaches Kamado-shounen or Kocho while focused on me, this demon dies!"
But then, while Rengoku and Ryoga exchanged furious blows, they both suddenly paused after hearing terrifying noises approaching from afar.
The sound of collapsing walls… consecutive explosions steadily drawing closer to their chamber.
Ryoga frowned in confusion.
"That sound… why is Nakime coming this way?"
Then silence briefly fell across the battlefield.
A massive explosion suddenly erupted through the ceiling.
The resulting shockwave completely blew away the dense mist filling the room.
Reacting instantly, Ryoga waved his hand and canceled the mist technique entirely to see what was happening.
From within the collapsing debris and clearing dust, three figures emerged.
Two demons and a girl? No… perhaps three demons?
"I knew he was strong… but this is honestly ridiculous," Ryoga said with a tense smile while resting a hand on his waist, as both he and the stunned Rengoku stared ahead.
The newcomer had slammed Nakime's body violently into the floor. While crouching over her body, he slowly rose to his feet.
He had just placed a paper talisman bearing a strange symbol over Nakime's face, covering her eyes. It belonged to Yushiro, Tamayo's subordinate.
This paper charm had been part of Rin's contingency plan — every Hashira and powerful fighter carried one. If any of them located Nakime, they were supposed to place the talisman on her face, activating it automatically to seize control of her vision and the castle.
Watching the seal pulse crimson red, Rin smiled. Yushiro would now detect their location and begin controlling the castle.
In truth, Rin had already thought ahead:
"Yushiro and several fighters disguised as Demon Slayer Corps members were supposed to patrol tonight searching for the castle's location…"
"Should I assume he got dragged in here too?"
Rin glanced at the system's minimap. He could see hundreds — perhaps thousands — of red dots, but also green dots representing allies.
There were more allies than just the Hashira and their companions.
Therefore…
Rin concluded Yushiro was somewhere inside the castle, and placing the seal would allow him to reach Nakime soon and take control.
With that thought, Rin slowly stood up, removing his hand from his chin. He had literally been crouching atop Nakime's body, calmly thinking while the dust cleared around him.
One of the black tendrils extending from his back pierced through and restrained Nakime tightly while another grabbed the biwa.
Rin slowly turned around.
There he saw Rengoku, Tanjiro, and Shinobu.
Judging by their horrified expressions, Rin thought internally:
"Alright… I admit I look like a complete demon right now with this white hair and these tendrils."
Then Rin turned toward Upper Moon Two — Ryoga.
Rin could finally sense and recognize him through his aura. But Ryoga's appearance had changed completely. His previous appearance had vanished like an illusion.
"So… his former appearance was just an illusion? A fake shell?" Rin thought.
As he analyzed him, Ryoga's provoking smile caused anger to rise within Rin.
Rin formed a terrifying, insane grin, drew his sword, and spoke in a voice layered between human and demon:
"Prepare to die… you cursed demon."
Every cell in Rin's body — human and demon alike — screamed at him to kill this demon immediately.
At the same time, every demonic cell inside Ryoga's body urged him to kill and devour the boy standing before him.
Rin's scent overflowed with overwhelmingly powerful rare blood — Marechi — capable of evolving demons to monstrous heights.
Yet Ryoga didn't attack immediately. He simply smiled and licked his lips.
"Rare blood, huh? You never told me you tasted this delicious… Rin-chan!"
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