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In the end, Alex agreed to help.
Before leaving, he informed Shinobu Kocho of the upcoming Swordsmith Village arc and asked her to lead several Hashira to deal with Upper Rank Four and Upper Rank Five.
Shinobu had already read the original story and knew what was coming next.
She told Alex not to worry and assured him she would handle everything.
With the Demon Slayer Corps' current strength, they truly weren't afraid of Kibutsuji Muzan anymore.
If only they knew where the Infinity Castle was, they would have stormed it already.
Seeing this, Alex felt at ease and accepted Yue's mission, temporarily leaving the world of Demon Slayer.
…
A mundane world. The Great Orcus Labyrinth.
On the first floor of the labyrinth, Alex was teleported in.
Unfortunately, the location was awkward. He appeared right in the middle of a group of monsters.
Luckily, these were only first-floor monsters and posed no real threat.
Alex released a trace of his aura, instantly shattering them all.
After that, he began moving downward through the labyrinth.
In just over half a day, he reached the deeper levels.
According to the plot he remembered, the protagonist Hajime Nagumo obtained a treasure in the depths of the labyrinth: the Divine Crystal.
The water that dripped from the Divine Crystal was known as Divine Water. It could heal any injury and restore magical power.
Hajime had relied on that Divine Water to fuse his body with the cells of deep-level monsters, evolving his physique and causing his stats to skyrocket.
Thinking about this, an idea struck Alex.
If he obtained the Divine Crystal, could he use it to fuse the cells of powerful beings?
Gods. Dragons. Even Star Spirits from the Little Garden world.
The thought alone made his heart race.
From then on, every time he descended to a new floor, he blanketed the entire level with his immense divine power, searching both for the Divine Crystal and for the location where Yue was sealed.
After slaughtering an unknown number of monsters, Alex finally reached the deepest layers.
At last, he found what he was looking for.
The Divine Crystal lay deep underground.
Alex drew the Sky-Proud Sword and cleaved straight through the earth.
A glowing blue orb, about fifty centimeters in diameter, appeared before him.
Beneath it flowed a pool of Divine Water.
This Divine Water had accumulated over countless years.
With a grin, Alex stored the Divine Crystal inside his Unlimited Blade Works space. Then he took out containers and collected all the Divine Water.
Ten bottles of five hundred milliliters each. About five liters in total.
He stored nine bottles away and kept one for himself, intending to fuse monster cells.
In the original story, after fusing with monster cells, Hajime gained their traits, mastering monster skills and manipulating magic directly without incantations.
Alex didn't care about monster skills themselves. What he wanted was direct magic control and chantless casting.
Next, he began a brutal massacre of monsters in the deepest layers.
For an entire day, he slaughtered everything in sight.
Strong or weak, nothing survived.
He piled the corpses together, cleaned them, and then started roasting the meat.
Once the monster meat was cooked, Alex ate while drinking the Divine Water.
As expected, under the influence of the Divine Water, the monster cells began fusing with his own.
Thanks to his God-Slayer physique, Alex didn't feel the agonizing pain that Hajime had endured in the original story. Instead, it felt oddly pleasant.
The monster cells merged with his own, filling in flaws and imperfections.
No one is born perfect.
Height, weight, beauty, or lack thereof are all determined by genetics.
Even though Alex had been cleansed by sacred flame and become a God-Slayer, his innate genetic foundation couldn't be changed.
But as he fused with the cells of countless monsters, his genes began to complement one another. Flaws were corrected one by one, and his body gradually moved toward perfection.
At the same time, Alex gained the traits of monsters, mastering more and more of their abilities.
After organizing and integrating everything, he distilled it down to four innate talents.
Heavenly Step: Air Walk, Instant Shift, Mighty Kick, Flash Step.
Adamant Body: Super Strength, Hyper Armor, Enhanced Healing, Enhanced Stamina, Focus Amplification, Buff Infusion, Limit Break, Full Attribute Resistance.
Magic Manipulation: Chant Cancellation, Magic Discharge, Magic Conversion, Mana Clustering, Magic Compression, Long-Distance Control.
Omni-Perception: Long-Distance Vision, X-Ray Vision, Night Vision, Magic Perception, Aura Perception, Thermal Perception, Divine Sense.
After finishing all the monster meat and drinking the entire bottle of Divine Water, Alex felt indescribably refreshed.
He conjured a mirror with divine power and saw that his appearance had changed once again.
"This makes the third time now," Alex said with a sigh.
The first transformation had been when Hestia cleansed him with sacred flame, turning him from an ordinary person into a genius, and changing his looks from plain to strikingly handsome.
The second change came when he fused multiple types of magic with holy flame, giving birth to divine power and divine fire. His appearance grew even more flawless, and because of that divine power, his black hair turned gold.
Strictly speaking, it wasn't true color change. Divine energy flooded through his hair, releasing a faint golden glow, which made it look blond.
When Alex cut off the divine power, his hair returned to black.
But this time was different.
After fusing with monster cells and gaining monster traits, Alex ended up just like Hajime Nagumo in the original story: silver hair and crimson eyes.
This was a fundamental transformation. His hair had truly turned white.
Now, Alex looked even more handsome than before, but there was an unmistakable wickedness in his bones.
At the same time, his ancient divine power lent him an air of holiness.
The fusion of wickedness and divinity made him look like an evil god walking the mortal world.
Alex didn't dwell on his appearance. With a wave of his hand, the mirror vanished.
It was time to go deeper into the labyrinth.
He didn't know how long he walked before a massive stone gate finally appeared before him.
On either side of the gate stood imposing guardian statues, and in the center were three circular indentations.
Clearly, they were meant to hold keys, and those keys were embedded in the two guardian statues.
Alex looked at them.
The statues seemed to come alive.
Stone cracked and fell away as they transformed into two enormous monsters.
A glowing orb hung from each of their chests.
Those orbs were meant to be devoured.
"..."
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