Standing beside Enmu, Ken's forehead was drenched in cold sweat, but his trembling quickly subsided. He gripped Lily's hand tightly, the fear in his eyes gradually fading, replaced by determination.
"Lily, you must live well."
He spoke to his lover in the team chat, then quietly reached out to touch Enmu, using his Blood Demon Art to write a message on Enmu's back.
"Ken, what are you doing?"
Lily's face was pale with terror. Since meeting Ken, this was the first time she'd faced such a desperate situation. She'd always thought he could use his wits to get them out of any predicament—had they really reached the end of the road?
"I'm creating a path for you," Ken said briefly in the team chat, then fell silent. He took a deep breath, and kept his eyes fixed on Gusion and Gyokko.
Gyokko was clearly no match for Gusion. If not for his ability to swap places to survive and constantly summon giant octopuses to block attacks, Gyokko would've been hacked into dozens of pieces by now.
Ken knew they couldn't drag this out any longer. Explorers had to risk death to survive. For someone as weak as him to protect those he cared about, he'd have to be ready to die—only that way could he challenge the strong.
At that moment, Gusion slashed Gyokko in half at the waist. As Gusion's second strike neared Gyokko's neck, Gyokko swapped places again.
Just as Gusion prepared to pursue Gyokko, a black-haired young man burst from the flank. Though fear filled his eyes, his steps didn't hesitate. He brandished a military knife and charged at Gusion.
Gusion, always aware of enemy positions on the battlefield, checked that Enmu was still above to the side, then slashed.
The difference in speed left Ken's blade unable to even touch Gusion before his head was separated from his body. Yet, in his final moment, a smile appeared on Ken's lips.
Because his timed swap item had activated, right on schedule, just as he'd calculated.
As his consciousness faded, Ken looked at Gusion's cold, murderous eyes, feeling both regret and relief.
He was relieved that, using his life as bait, he'd managed to trap such a powerful explorer and timed everything perfectly, opening a path for Lily to escape.
He regretted that the last thing he saw before dying was this god of death's eyes, and not Lily's gentle face.
From Gusion's perspective, his Mazuko blade swept horizontally, first touching Ken's neck, then slicing through without effort.
But as the blade sliced through Ken's neck and continued outward, Ken's head instantly reattached right in front of Gusion!
No, that wasn't Ken's head anymore—Ken had swapped with someone else before Gusion's eyes!
The head on the neck was not Ken's, but Enmu's head!
Those greenish eyes, marked with "Lower One," were bulging with veins, strained to the limit.
Blood Demon Art: Forced Sleep—Eye!
This was Enmu's strongest Blood Demon Art, with a hypnotic effect far surpassing the forced sleep whispers released by his hands.
He'd already tried the whisper, but Gusion had strong resistance and it hadn't worked. So, he gambled everything on this attack.
He didn't know how the lower demon managed the swap, but after a brief tactical exchange, he realized this was their only chance, so he agreed.
Even if he could only paralyze Gusion for a moment at this range, Gyokko could kill Gusion, even if Enmu was killed in the process. As long as he could eliminate Lord Muzan's threat, he would feel supreme bliss.
As Gusion locked eyes with Enmu for a split second, his vision blurred—and he found himself in an old, dusty warehouse.
He was secretly reading a manga, when a woman's voice called from outside, "Gusion, you're sneaking manga again?"
Upon hearing the voice, Gusion's nose stung; he instinctively wanted to turn around and call out her name.
But his rational mind told him this was a dream world. He needed to leave immediately—even a split second lingering could cost him his life.
So, he resonated with his Mazuko blade, using the soul-shaking power of the Zanpakutō and the Giant's Heart's resistance to control, instantly shattering the world before his eyes.
When his vision cleared again, unexpectedly, he hadn't been badly wounded by Gyokko's Blood Demon Art.
[Side Quest: Demon Slayer Progress Updated. A Purple Chest has dropped.]
The prompt from the Endspace system sounded in his ear—a reward for killing demons.
Amid the burning mountain forest, the heavy stench of smoke and scorched wood filled the air. No sounds of enemy attacks could be heard. At his feet lay Gyokko's corpse and head.
Directly ahead, Enmu, bisected at the waist, was struggling to crawl on the ground.
"Mo...monster..."
Still standing in a tree, Lily's voice trembled. Her body went limp and she fell to the ground, eyes filled with a terror far greater than before, as if she'd seen some unspeakable demon god.
Gusion frowned as he looked at Gyokko's corpse. "So my master wasn't joking..."
He recalled a childhood incident: his master said that after falling asleep, Gusion had sleepwalked into the dojo and sparred with wooden dummies. His master tried to wake him but discovered Gusion's battle instincts remained even in his sleep. The match nearly ended with Gusion winning.
Gusion had never experienced sleepwalking before, so he'd thought his master was teasing him. After all, he woke up the next morning with no fatigue or bruises.
Later, he never had a chance to verify the truth—soon after that incident, company thugs and others came for him, turning him into an orphan. He never slept peacefully again, always on guard, never reaching deep sleep.
Just now, Enmu's power had put him to sleep. Even if it was less than a second, it was still deep sleep. So had he actually sleepwalked for a second?
Or had he engraved martial instincts into his very body, allowing him to fight even unconscious?
Gusion shook his head, knowing now wasn't the time to ponder this. He walked toward Enmu, ready to end the fight.
"Mo...monster...what are you?!"
Sensing Gusion approaching from behind, Enmu flipped over. His lower body was still regrowing, so he could only kick with half a leg, desperately crawling backward, his face twisted in terror.
Now Gusion was truly baffled. He knew Enmu was a mentally unstable pervert, Muzan's prized subordinate—someone like that shouldn't be afraid, right? What had Enmu just seen?
Could he really be stronger asleep than awake? He wasn't Zenitsu, after all.
Gusion was confident in his skills, not believing his unconscious self could outperform his awake self.
Enmu, seeing Gusion closing in, didn't care about the burning ground. He kept scrambling backward, like a helpless child, even flinging burning leaves at Gusion.
After that weak demon swapped places with him in a last-ditch effort, Enmu immediately activated his Blood Demon Art. The moment it succeeded, he thought they'd won.
Even if Gusion woke up sensing Gyokko's intent and counterattacked, taking Enmu with him, Gyokko could still finish the job, eliminating Muzan's greatest threat.
But when his Blood Demon Art succeeded, he saw the true...demon god.
Gusion was wrapped in dense purple mist, with smoky black energy rising beneath it. His aura was chilling, violent, bloodthirsty—his killing intent so strong even raging flames seemed to bow before it.
Before anyone could see what happened, Gyokko—rushing to strike—was beheaded by a flash of black blade.
Before Enmu knew what was happening, Gusion's returning blade cut him in half.
In less than a second, Gusion woke up again, but in that brief instant, his suffocating presence had shrouded the entire mountain!
"How rude... No matter how you look at it, I'm still human, right?"
Gusion stepped on Enmu's chest. He wasn't worried about more Blood Demon Arts—without Gyokko, neither Enmu nor the weak explorer could break his defenses. He even felt like reminiscing in the dream.
But Enmu seemed to have snapped, no longer using any Blood Demon Arts—just struggling, screaming about monsters and demons.
Gusion shrugged and swung his blade down, ending Enmu's life. Unexpectedly, even as a Lower Moon, Enmu dropped a purple chest—though perhaps of only average quality.
With the last halfway-decent demon dead, Gusion locked his gaze on the female explorer.
Lily was too frightened to move, kneeling with her pale, slender legs exposed beneath her skirt. As Gusion approached, she screamed in terror.
But as he drew near, she stopped screaming, and crying as she pleaded, "Please, I beg you, let me live. I swear I'll never go against you in this world."
"You were lovers?" Gusion glanced at Ken's corpse.
Lily nodded, then shook her head wildly. "No, I don't know him! He wanted to set you up, nothing to do with me! I was just following along, I never meant to oppose you!"
Her face, once rather pretty, was now twisted by fear. "Please, spare me, I'll do anything you want..."
She even began tearing at her own clothes, exposing her pale skin. "I'm very skilled, I promise you'll be satisfi—"
Before she could finish, Gusion's blade fell, severing her grotesquely contorted head.
Gusion looked at Ken's corpse, sighing, "What a waste..."
Ken was undeniably a weak explorer, but he was clever—he knew how to gather strength, combining the powers of the Upper Five and Lower One to set up a deadly trap. For the Demon Slayer Corps, this was a huge threat.
The swap item Ken used was similar to the ones Gusion had seen on the market. Limited by quality, they could only swap with living things and within a certain distance—usually no more than a kilometer.
Even five or six hundred meters was a considerable range. With Ken's mind and character, there was no way he hadn't left himself an escape route before climbing the mountain. The item had likely been pre-bound to other living creatures, so if he wanted to run, he could've used it just for himself and had a good chance of escaping in the chaos.
But Ken chose to use his life for the plan, gambling on being able to control Gusion long enough to save the one he loved.
Regardless of sides, Gusion respected his intelligence, resolve, and courage—just not his taste in women.
"You chose the wrong person, brother."
Gusion moved to clean up the battlefield, as the fire kept spreading.
…
Half a minute later, Gusion held two purple chests, reviewing the system logs in deep thought.
He'd killed nine explorers in this fight, yet...not a single Death Man Chest had dropped.
This shouldn't be. Wasn't his luck supposed to be good?
Hmm, must be a fluke.