Vincent Fox drew his Nichirin Blade and thrust forward.
Slash.
Sekido's throat was pierced clean through. As Vincent moved, the head slid off and dropped to the ground.
"A little underwhelming," Vincent remarked.
With a casual flick of his hand, several flames shot out, continuing to suppress the bodies that were still trying to regenerate.
"Damn it, why won't my head grow back?!"
"This isn't just suppression, his flames are eating faster than we can regenerate!"
"Think of something, we can't…"
"Calm down, you're embarrassing. Just put out the flames!"
The three severed heads rolled on the ground, bickering nonstop.
Vincent stepped down and crushed the loudest one into pulp, then shifted his gaze to Genya, who was slumped there with a hole through his body.
"Huh? The kid already dealt with that?" Vincent said, sounding mildly impressed. "Not bad."
At Vincent's voice, Genya snapped his head around.
During that fight, Genya's body had changed completely.
His eyes were now pitch-black like a demon's, saliva leaking from the corner of his mouth. The aura around him was unmistakably demonic, nothing like a normal human.
"You bastard…"
Clearly unhappy with Vincent's comment, Genya flashed forward in an instant and got right up in his face.
"What do you mean 'not bad'? Don't act like you're so great just because you've got some strength!"
"I'm going to become a Hashira! I'm going to defeat an Upper Rank!"
"Don't think beating Upper Rank Six means anything!"
"I'm killing Upper Rank Four for sure!"
"I'm the one who'll become a Hashira!"
Genya screamed until he was hoarse, spit dripping onto the floor.
"Huh? It's already over?"
Tanjiro finally arrived, only to see several demons already missing their heads.
He was about to check everyone's injuries when he saw Genya yelling at Vincent.
"Genya, stop!"
Tanjiro rushed over and grabbed Genya's arm with both hands, holding him back.
"This is Vincent Fox. He's our teammate!"
"And you said you want to become a Hashira? I believe you can do it!"
"I'm sure Vincent Fox will support you too!"
Tanjiro smiled brightly as he spoke.
It was hard to stay angry at someone smiling like that. Seeing Tanjiro's earnest enthusiasm, Genya instantly lost his momentum.
"T-That's… fine then," Genya stammered, trying to regain his composure. "Get ready to start calling me Lord Hashira."
As he spoke, Genya raised his shotgun and blew apart the demon head in his hand.
"Why isn't this thing dying? How is it this tough?"
At the same time, Tanjiro realized something was wrong.
These demons had been decapitated, yet their bodies weren't dissolving.
That meant there was still something else.
Tanjiro cleared his mind and focused, catching every thread of scent in the air.
Then his eyes widened.
"There's a fifth demon. I can smell it."
He lowered his voice and searched more carefully.
The "Joy" demon's wind had filled the area with strong sulfur from the hot springs, masking almost everything and smothering the demon's scent.
But then Tanjiro caught it again.
This time, the scent felt different, as if it had condensed into a continuous line, stretching forward and guiding him directly to its source.
"Northeast!" Tanjiro shouted. "Low ground! The fifth demon is there!"
The moment the information left his mouth, both of them moved.
Genya roared and charged first.
Vincent Fox followed, calmer, steadier.
His Byakugan activated instantly, his vision widening dramatically.
Invisible streams of aura appeared within his sight.
"Found you."
The tiny demon was exposed immediately under Vincent's Byakugan.
Vincent's speed exploded.
His Nichirin Blade swept through the brush, clearing every obstacle in an instant. Flowers and grass were cut clean at the roots.
Hantengu's figure appeared in their line of sight.
"He found me!"
Hantengu turned and ran, his small body bursting with unbelievable speed.
"Running?"
Vincent's expression stayed cold. He swung his blade.
Clang!
The Nichirin Blade struck Hantengu's neck and actually threw off sparks.
Hantengu's body was knocked flying.
Vincent's blade, however, took a massive chip, a deep jagged notch torn into the edge.
"So hard," Vincent muttered, shocked. "That neck is barely thicker than a finger, and it's this tough?"
Even so, Vincent did not stop pursuing.
Genya arrived with a hoarse scream, raising his double-barreled shotgun.
Boom!
It hit Hantengu dead-on.
The demon's clothes were shredded to rags.
But the damage was superficial.
It still did not truly hurt him.
"What the hell?" Genya's jaw nearly dropped.
His shotgun could tear through most demons, yet it barely worked on Hantengu.
"Keep going! Don't let him get away!" Genya shouted.
He pushed his speed to the limit, grabbed Hantengu into a brutal hold, and brought his Nichirin Blade down again.
"Aaaaaaah!"
Hantengu, small as a rat, let out a scream so loud it felt like it ripped the air apart.
Genya's ears bled instantly.
For a moment, he couldn't hear anything at all.
And just like before, the Nichirin Blade snapped.
"Behind you!"
A voice shouted from somewhere nearby.
Genya's body stiffened.
A terrifying demonic aura erupted, thick and concentrated, almost solid.
A new demon had already appeared behind Genya, its claws aimed straight for his body.
"Hah!"
Vincent planted his stance and threw a punch.
Boom!
A monstrous shockwave exploded outward.
The new demon's body was blasted open with a massive hole.
Even Genya, standing close, was shoved off balance by the force, staggered sideways by the wind of the punch.
Thump!
A drumbeat sounded from the demon's body.
In the next instant, the ground cracked.
A twisted tree erupted from below, growing violently upward like it was alive.
Its trunk coiled as it rose, and its ends formed dragon-like heads.
The forest itself was ripped apart as two dragon heads crossed and surged into the sky.
They even let out dragon roars, disturbingly lifelike.
"What? This ability…" Tanjiro gasped, dragging his battered body forward.
He looked around desperately, but he could no longer find the demons' bodies that should have still been burning.
"No… it's not a sixth demon."
"Their presences… the four demons of Joy, Anger, Sorrow, and Pleasure… all of them disappeared."
Genya tore off a chunk of the new demon's tree and chewed it, gaining power, and with it, fragments of memory.
So that was what had happened.
While Vincent and Genya were chasing the tiny demon, the "Anger" demon had dragged itself over and swallowed two of the others.
Then "Sorrow" tried to resist, but was absorbed by Sekido as well.
That was how the current form was born.
Rather than a sixth demon, it was a fusion.
A single entity formed from the combined bodies of four.
At that moment, the newly formed demon finally spoke.
Its voice was low, heavy, and full of disgust.
"This really pisses me off…"
"Picking on the weak, the lot of you…"
"You animals."
----------------------------------------------------
The deeper he goes, the more the truth unravels. Don't wait read ahead and witness Vincent's rise before the world catches up!
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