Kokushibo felt a surge of exhilaration he had never known before.
In a thunderous instant, every ounce of his power was released.
His muscles swelled visibly.
And the demon blade in his hands began to grow without restraint.
In the blink of an eye, it stretched to a horrifying length.
Barbs sprouted along it in clusters, vicious and grotesque, turning the weapon into something more like a living predator than a sword.
Muichiro Tokito stood off to the side, watching the blade's mutation, his chest tightening with shock.
That kind of warped reach, paired with Kokushibo's speed…
It was flawless.
The next moment, Kokushibo discarded the aloof pride of Upper Rank One and struck without hesitation.
The air around them thickened, almost congealing.
Even the backdrop seemed to change.
It was as if everyone had been dragged beneath a moonlit sky, as though Kokushibo had hauled the battlefield right up to the edge of the moon itself.
White fog rolled in from all directions, dense as clouds.
"Moon Breathing, Seventh Form!"
"Calamity Mirror, Moonlit Reflection!"
His long blade whirled.
In an instant he unleashed countless slashes from every angle.
Violet arcs tore through the floorboards, splitting the ground as they raced toward everyone.
"Mist Breathing, Seventh Form!"
"Obscuring Clouds!"
Muichiro answered with his own ultimate technique, a burst of colored haze wrapping tightly around him.
But this time, he was using it to defend.
A dark violet slash collided with Muichiro's haze and detonated.
The colored fog was blown apart in a violent blast, and Muichiro was driven backward by the impact, boots skidding hard.
Inosuke hacked wildly with his twin blades, barely managing to stop just one of those strikes.
But that was only part of Kokushibo's assault.
The remaining blades moved as if guided by intent, curving toward Vincent Fox.
Boom!
Vincent stood there, calm and unmoving, and the violet light exploded in front of him.
He did not even raise a hand.
The slash detonated a full ten feet away, as if an invisible boundary had forced it to burst.
"So fast… but there's more coming."
Kokushibo was shaken by Vincent's speed.
Even with the Transparent World active, he still could not see what Vincent had done.
Not even a twitch of muscle.
It was as if the slash had simply chosen to explode on its own.
But Kokushibo did not believe that for a second.
That had been a full power strike.
His blade lashed again.
Violet light filled the air, surging straight at Vincent.
"Let's see how you block this!"
Vincent remained rooted in place.
His hands began to tremble.
The violet slashes detonated one after another in front of him, every single one exploding within that same ten foot radius.
None could cross it.
Kokushibo finally understood.
Or rather, he could only guess.
Vincent's hands were not trembling.
His punches were simply too fast.
So fast that to Kokushibo's eyes, the strikes seemed to happen without his fists changing position at all.
"Good. You're strong."
Kokushibo's voice deepened.
"But Moon Breathing doesn't end there. The next attacks are coming. Let's see how you withstand those."
His presence exploded outward.
The demon blade swelled again, growing even longer.
"Moon Breathing, Eighth Form!"
"Moon Dragon Ringtail!"
A single swing.
Five meters away, the floor erupted into splinters.
A clearly visible violet blade wave shot out, wrapped in countless blue crescent blades that churned like a storm.
The range was so immense it swept over even the two fighters in the distance.
Inosuke raised his swords to block, but his feet were still sliced, blood spraying in thin lines.
Muichiro unleashed his strongest form again, only to be sent flying, slammed deep into a wall.
"It's too fast. The range is terrifying!"
Muichiro shouted, his right hand trembling around his hilt.
"At this rate, forget cutting off his head. We can't even get into striking distance!"
As if responding to that thought, Vincent briefly used Skywalk, slipping the attack, then shot forward like a bullet.
"Moon Breathing, Ninth Form!"
"Descending Moon, Chain Slash!"
Kokushibo's blade flashed in rapid succession, throwing out several arcs at once.
The slashes sealed off Vincent's path from every angle.
Yet Vincent did not dodge.
He did not retreat.
His right fist drew back for a heartbeat, then drove forward.
Boom!
A brutal explosion ripped through the web of blade light, shattering it.
The crescent blades within detonated in midair, scattering like falling stars.
Vincent burst out of the smoke.
His left fist ignited, turning into a blazing hammer, and he punched.
Kokushibo's pupils tightened.
His demon blade expanded, widening and thickening into something like a shield, braced in front of him.
He meant to block.
In the next instant, the thick blade met Vincent's flaming fist and shattered on contact.
Shards of his own weapon reversed into him, stabbing into his body.
Blood splashed across his chest in an instant.
Kokushibo's eyes widened.
Vincent was already throwing another punch.
Kokushibo twisted hard, narrowly avoiding a direct hit to a vital point.
Even so, half his body was scraped away.
Using the shockwave from the explosion, Kokushibo shot backward, retreating fast to open distance again.
"Moon Breathing, Tenth Form!"
"Piercing Face Slash, Lunar Loam!"
He cut sharply, buying time as his body regenerated.
A violet blade wave appeared, broad enough to look like it stitched the ground to the sky.
From within it, crescent blades poured out, spinning toward Vincent like hungry things that had found blood.
Those crescents expanded and contracted mid flight, their reach stretching and shrinking unpredictably.
Nasty. Relentless.
Vincent drew power for a fraction of a second, then punched again.
Serious Punch.
Boom!
The attack in front of him was blasted open, a massive hole punched through the wave.
Most of the crescent blades were wiped out instantly.
At the same time, Vincent coated his neck, joints, and other vital points in Armament Haki, locking down every weak spot.
Those crescent blades were difficult to track.
One stray piece slipping behind him could be lethal.
Around them, the pillars were chopped down one after another.
This section of the Infinity Castle became a flat, ruined plain, a battlefield made for the two of them alone.
The crescent blades kept firing.
Vincent frowned.
He could feel Kokushibo's demonic aura condensing again.
His injuries were almost certainly fully healed.
This deadlock had to be broken quickly.
Kokushibo was not the final boss.
Vincent shot forward, skimming the ground like an arrow flying low.
He drove straight into the violet blade wave.
Midair, he gathered strength for an instant, then smashed his fist down.
The blade wave shattered again.
But what followed was more Moon Breathing, endlessly changing, endlessly relentless.
"Moon Breathing, Sixteenth Form."
"Moonbow, Solitary Moon!"
Kokushibo swung his demon blade.
Fierce winds fell from above, smashing the ground apart.
At the same time, crescent blades poured down like a waterfall.
They expanded and contracted as they fell, carving moon shaped cuts across everything.
The sky was filled with crescent slashes.
----------------------------------------------------
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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