"Shokyu?!"
When Shinichi saw the man's face, his pupils contracted in shock.
The other slayers on the battlefield were merely stunned by the newcomer's resemblance to Muzan, but Shinichi, who knew the truth, realized the entire battle had just changed in a way no one could have predicted.
If anyone was as shocked as Shinichi, it was Muzan.
He stared at Shokyu's leisurely expression, at the smiling Kamaro behind him, and he remembered the sudden, traitorous sound of the biwa.
"Traitor!" Muzan spat the word, his face contorting with an apoplectic rage.
He raised his black claws, pointing them directly at the two.
"Tear them apart! Bring me that girl!"
At Muzan's absolute command, nearly half the demons on the battlefield, regardless of their own will, broke off their engagement with the Demon Slayers.
With chilling roars, they turned like a tidal wave, baring fangs and claws as they surged toward Shokyu and Kamaro.
"Oh dear, we can't have you disturbing the master," Kamaro chuckled, taking a single step forward.
The gray flesh on his chest writhed, and in the blink of an eye, a familiar gray face appeared there—the face of Mukago, the former Lower Moon Five.
"Blood Demon Art: Pseudo-Inflating Rising Vine!"
With a sickening crack, the earth split open.
A gigantic serpent, composed of countless thick, ferocious vines, burst forth from the ground.
With a simple, sweeping motion, the vine-serpent tore through the dozens of demons at the front of the charge, crushing them into a fine pulp.
Foul blood and severed limbs splattered everywhere.
The difference in power between a twelve kizuki and the normal demons was on full, horrifying display.
Kamaro alone had erected an insurmountable barrier, slaughtering Muzan's own forces with terrifying efficiency.
"Damn you!"
Seeing his own subordinates being butchered, Muzan's rage nearly boiled over.
He wanted to order Kokushibo, Douma, and Akaza to strike, but a glance across the battlefield showed they were still locked in desperate combat with the Hashira.
Then, a far colder realization struck him.
If Kamaro and Nakime had betrayed him, then that meant... his other new Upper Moons... Maito and Lee...
As expected, Muzan's anxious gaze swept the chaotic battlefield, but the figures of Maito and Lee were nowhere to be found.
They had been Shokyu's subordinates all along!
Their submission had been a lie.
The blood he had given them must have been neutralized by that bastard Shokyu!
The fury of being so completely and utterly tricked sent a cold chill through Muzan's body.
"Brother, don't be so angry," Shokyu said, seemingly oblivious to the carnage.
He looked at Muzan's furious face with a condescending, mocking smile.
"You're always so... naive. You haven't improved at all, still so easily swayed by your emotions, just like a child. And so timid. A man dead for hundreds of years still scares you so much you've hidden in the shadows ever since. Tsk, tsk."
Shokyu's words were sharp knives, twisting in Muzan's deepest insecurities.
He then raised his hand, gently displaying the sleeping Nezuko in his arms like a precious trophy.
"Look, brother. The key you've been dreaming of," Shokyu's smile grew colder.
"What a pity. She's not a demon anymore. Just a lovely human girl. And she's in my hands. After everything you've done to me… do you really think I would ever hand her over to you?"
Muzan stared at the hope that was so close, yet so impossibly far.
He trembled with a rage so profound it threatened to tear him apart.
But he couldn't attack.
He couldn't risk harming Nezuko.
He was trapped in an agony of his own making.
Meanwhile, the Demon Slayers, though bewildered by the demonic civil war, understood one thing: Nezuko had been kidnapped.
That meant their rear headquarters, the one guarded by their former Hashira, had fallen.
Kuwajima-san! Urokodaki-san! Kiriya-sama!
Anger and worry exploded in their hearts.
Gyomei was the first to roar, "YOU WRETCHED DEMONS!!"
"GIVE NEZUKO BACK!" Tanjiro screamed, his voice breaking as he tried to charge, only to be held back by Shinichi's firm grip.
Shinichi took a deep, shuddering breath, forcibly suppressing his own rage.
His gaze was icy cold, locked on Shokyu, the new power of the Breath of Life surging within him.
He now understood Maito's strange, suicidal behavior.
It had all been for this.
"Shokyu..." Shinichi's voice was a low growl, filled with murderous intent.
"I don't care what your game is. Give Nezuko back."
"Hmm? Shinichi, your aura…" Shokyu's eyes lit up with genuine, excited interest.
"Hahaha, it's impressive! I wasn't wrong about you. You've mastered the Breath of Life. Maito was right. You truly are even better than Shunichi Moriki."
The battlefield, already a chaotic nightmare, had just become infinitely more complex.
A fragile, three-way standoff had formed between the Demon Slayer Corps, the cornered Muzan, and the manipulative Shokyu.
And at the very center of it all, the unconscious form of Nezuko Kamado had become the most dangerous, and most critical, prize.