Hearing the commotion behind him, Muzan Kibutsuji spun around at once, only to see a face both familiar and strangely unfamiliar.
"This woman…"
For a moment, Muzan actually froze.
But the next second, Mitsuri Kanroji's attack was already upon him.
"Love Breathing, Sixth Form!"
"Cat Paw, Love Breeze!"
A Nichirin blade that should have been rigid as steel now moved like a flowing ribbon, lashing in from razor-sharp angles and wicked blind spots, striking Muzan from every direction at once.
The range was so wide, the trajectories so unpredictable, that Muzan couldn't even decide where to dodge.
He could only raise both arms, flesh swelling and piling up in frantic layers as he forced a defense.
At the same time, he noticed another figure, one with a small white snake around his neck.
And in an instant, Muzan remembered.
Wasn't this one of the two that Nakime, Upper Rank Four, had supposedly killed?
What was going on?
Had they not died?
Impossible.
Muzan rejected it instantly.
In the vision, both of them had been cleaved in half. They were human, not demons. That kind of damage would have ended them on the spot.
And yet, now, neither of them showed so much as a scratch.
"Nakime! What the hell are you doing?!"
Muzan roared, firing two snarling masses of fanged flesh that slammed into the two approaching figures and forced them back.
"Why are two dead people still alive?!"
Meanwhile, the Nakime Muzan shouted at sat motionless on her platform, arms wrapped around her biwa.
Behind her, Yushiro's eyes were bloodshot, veins bulging across his forehead.
His fingers were sunk deep into Nakime's skull, forcibly overriding her mind.
The images Muzan had seen were exactly what Yushiro had made him see by controlling her.
Muzan's furious questioning reached him clearly.
Yushiro didn't flinch.
He snapped back, voice sharp as a blade. "What am I doing? Didn't you just watch it yourself?"
His veins swelled even more.
"Muzan Kibutsuji… you made Lady Tamayo suffer for more than a hundred years. Do you even understand what kind of sin that is?!"
"I'm going to slam you into the ground and make you die under the sun!"
Rumble!
Yushiro's rage surged, and the Infinity Castle began to shake.
The platform beneath everyone shot upward, an immense pressure crashing down so hard it stole their breath.
Under that weight, even standing was a struggle, let alone fighting.
Muzan stood still, both eyes turning a murky white.
Inside Nakime's body, he was wrestling Yushiro for control.
And the result was the entire castle convulsing, tilting left and right, rising and dropping without warning.
Everyone drove their Nichirin blades into the wooden floorboards to anchor themselves, forcing their footing to hold.
Muzan grew even angrier, and in that moment he also realized who this demon was.
"You're Tamayo's demon, aren't you? Bold. Truly bold, to dare oppose me."
Muzan barked the words, and Nakime's side reacted instantly.
Yushiro's face twisted.
The hands buried in Nakime's head began to turn blood-red.
Muzan's cells were trying to swallow him. He could feel numbness creeping up his fingers.
"I… I can help… eat me. If you eat me, you can beat Muzan…"
One of the Demon Slayer Corps members who had been following Yushiro blurted it out, seeing the struggle reach its peak, thinking his own body could become fuel.
Yushiro would never do that.
If he started eating humans, what would be the difference between him and the monsters under Muzan?
"Shut up. You're loud. Stop getting in the way!"
Yushiro snarled, terrifying the young slayer into silence.
"S-sorry…"
At that moment, Muzan suddenly sensed danger. His awareness snapped back to the battlefield.
His two eyes shifted in different directions.
Even under the crushing pressure, two people were charging in.
"Water Breathing, Fourth Form!"
"Striking Tide!"
"Serpent Breathing, First Form!"
"Winding Serpent Slash!"
Two attacks came from opposite sides, both aimed straight at Muzan's head.
"Nuisance."
Muzan frowned, and multiple spikes burst from his back, flinging both attackers away.
But their interference had been enough.
Yushiro's suppression began to take effect.
The unnatural red faded from his hands.
He actually forced Muzan's cells back.
The moment Muzan broke free of the two attackers, a figure appeared right in front of him.
"And you again? You're truly unbearable. Die already!"
Muzan glared at Vincent Fox, and to his own disgust, felt the slightest flicker of fear.
That gray-white aura rising off Vincent Fox, those cold silver-gray eyes, carried a faint, sacred edge.
It made Muzan furious.
Dozens of blades shot out from his back, wrapping in from every angle, stabbing toward every blind spot.
For a heartbeat, Muzan even pictured it, Vincent Fox riddled into a sieve.
But what happened next was a scene that would haunt Muzan for a century.
Vincent Fox's body twisted in midair, flipping and turning with impossible precision.
He avoided every strike by a hair's breadth, yet never lost control.
His movements were too fast to see, and terrifyingly steady, nothing like a man staring death in the face.
Snap!
Vincent Fox caught two blades in his hands.
Then he yanked.
Muzan, falling through the air at the same time, was dragged helplessly toward him.
What met him was a massive fist.
Splurt!
Muzan's head was punched into pulp, meat and blood splashing across floor and wall.
His flesh wriggled.
His head began to regenerate.
In the blink of an eye, half a skull grew back.
Vincent Fox didn't give him a chance.
His right fist slammed again, blowing the newborn head apart.
Again.
And again.
Muzan's regeneration couldn't keep up with Vincent Fox's destruction.
"It's working! Look!"
Mitsuri cried out in shock as Vincent Fox completely suppressed Muzan.
They had been carving Muzan over and over, and it barely mattered.
But under Vincent Fox's pressure, Muzan's head just would not finish growing back.
At the same time, with Muzan pinned down, Yushiro forced Nakime to accelerate the Infinity Castle's ascent.
Sensing that, Muzan clenched his fist.
Nakime's head exploded on the spot.
"What? Can't win the struggle, so you just destroy her? Is this how you treat your own subordinates, Muzan Kibutsuji?!"
Yushiro's teeth clenched.
"No. The Infinity Castle still hasn't broken through to the surface. We can't win down here… her cells aren't fully dead yet. There's still a chance!"
He plunged his hands into Nakime's neck, forcibly seizing what remained, pushing the Infinity Castle upward again.
Then, a sound rang out, sharp enough that even Vincent Fox's attention snapped sideways.
A blade, from an angle no one saw coming, lunged straight toward Mitsuri Kanroji.
And it was still extending, still growing longer…
----------------------------------------------------
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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