BOOM!!!
The grand hall of the Eternal Paradise Cult was no longer a building.
Countless violet crescent blades flooded every inch of space.
Pillars were severed, the roof torn away— even the hardened stone floor was sliced apart like tofu by those bizarre, circular moon blades.
"Rin-Nichi Breathing · Fifth Form · Blazing Sun!!"
Blue lotus markings spread across half of Inosuke's face.
His silver-red hair whipped wildly within the storm of sword aura.
The refined-gold twin fans in his hands spun to their absolute limit, their surfaces forming a golden barrier that guarded his throat and heart with desperate precision.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Dense impacts fused into a continuous line of sound.
Every second, at least a hundred blade winds slammed into him.
"Ghk—!"
Inosuke let out a muffled groan, black blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.
His neck was protected—but the rest of his body wasn't.
Thighs. Arms. Side.
Countless thin moon blades slipped past his defense, carving into flesh, even scraping bone.
Pain that cut straight into the marrow—yet that wasn't the most terrifying part.
Inosuke's heterochromatic eye was locked on the translucent countdown hovering at the edge of his vision.
[Demonification Remaining Time: 03:42]
Less than four minutes.
He could only maintain demonification for five minutes a day.
Once time ran out, he would revert to a fragile human body.
At that point, even a stray aftershock—let alone a killing technique—would shred him to pieces.
"Moon Breathing · Seventh Form · Calamitous Mirror · Moon Reflection"
Kokushibo didn't move.
He merely stood there, lightly swinging Kyōkoku-kamushi.
The sword aura on the ground suddenly changed—
no longer straightforward slashes, but fan-shaped waves that reflected off the floor, attacking Inosuke from all directions without a single blind spot.
"What kind of bullshit technique is this?!"
Inosuke's pupils trembled violently.
Shhk! Shhk!
Two moon blades bypassed the fans and pierced straight through his shoulder and left leg.
"…Too slow."
Kokushibo's six eyes coldly observed him, disappointment and killing intent thickening in his voice.
"You possess a breathing style like Yoriichi's—
yet this is all you can do?"
"You insult your own talent."
He showed no restraint.
Every strike was aimed at reducing Inosuke to minced meat.
Orders had long been thrown aside.
At this moment, Kokushibo wanted only one thing—
to erase this boy who was squandering a gift that should never have existed.
Infinity Castle
Kibutsuji Muzan was watching the one-sided slaughter through Kokushibo's eyes, thoroughly entertained.
A satisfied smile curled his lips.
"Good. Exactly like this.
Break his limbs. Tear open his flesh.
Let him understand that in the face of true power, his little tricks are worthless."
Muzan had no idea about Inosuke's five-minute limit.
He assumed the boy's desperation was simply the result of absolute suppression by Kokushibo's overwhelming strength.
He saw the panic in Inosuke's eyes.
The despair of someone on the brink of death.
After all—he wouldn't really die.
"Dōma."
Muzan turned toward Dōma, who was still pinned in place by thorny tendrils, his tone teasing.
"Your precious son
is being dismantled piece by piece."
Dōma didn't smile.
That face which was always laughing was now as cold as obsidian ice.
Deep within his rainbow-colored eyes, emotions churned—emotions he had never known before.
But Dōma said nothing.
He was waiting.
Back Mountain, Deep Forest
The battle here was just as brutal—but the situation was completely different.
"Thunder Breathing · Seventh Form · Flaming Thunder God!!"
A golden thunder dragon roared as it tore through the darkness.
Zenitsu's figure moved so fast it was nothing but a streak of gold.
BOOM!
The massive aberrant demon at the front didn't even have time to scream before its head flew into the air, the severed edge scorched black.
"Not over yet!!"
Zenitsu landed, legs taut, Nichirin blade sheathing itself.
To protect Nezuko and Kotoha behind him, he unleashed his full strength.
On the other side—
"Hinokami Kagura · Blue Sky!!"
Tanjiro's blade burst into blazing flames as he carved a perfect arc through the air.
Fire swept outward, instantly beheading three demons attempting a sneak attack.
"Don't you dare get one step closer to Aunt Kotoha!!"
And Kaigaku—once consumed by jealousy toward Zenitsu—was now fighting more ferociously than anyone.
Using the Nichirin blade he'd brought to the Paradise Cult, he flashed through the demon horde with Thunder Breathing's explosive speed.
"Thunder Breathing · Fourth Form · Distant Thunder!!"
Kaigaku became a streak of black lightning, appearing behind a demon and driving his blade straight through its eye socket.
In just a few minutes,
Dozens of demons near Lower Rank level were slaughtered by these three boys, leaving behind nothing but slowly fading ash.
"Hah… hah…"
The three stood back-to-back, gasping for breath.
They were covered in blood—some demonic, some their own.
Suddenly—
BOOOOOOM!!!
A heaven-shaking explosion came from the direction of the Paradise Cult.
Immediately after, a gigantic crescent blade shot into the sky, flattening half a mountain.
The terrifying pressure made even the air here shudder.
"That's—"
Tanjiro spun around, pupils contracting.
"Inosuke…"
That level of battle…
was on an entirely different plane from what they were facing in the forest.
Inosuke's scent was becoming chaotic.
"No—!"
Tanjiro clenched his teeth and made a decision.
He turned and stared straight at Zenitsu.
"Zenitsu!!
You take Aunt Kotoha and Nezuko and run!!
Use your fastest speed—head toward the Demon Slayer Corps!!"
"Then what about you?!" Zenitsu shouted.
"I'm going to help Inosuke!!"
Tanjiro gripped his sword, his gaze terrifyingly firm.
"If I don't go—he'll really die!"
"I'm going too."
Kaigaku wiped blood from his face, eyes sharp and vicious.
"Letting him act cool alone over there?
No way.
Zenitsu—you're the fastest. Escort duty is yours.
If a single hair on Aunt Kotoha is harmed, don't you dare call yourself my junior!!"
Zenitsu looked at their resolute expressions, biting his lip as tears welled up.
He knew this was the right call.
"…Got it."
He took a deep breath, eyes burning with focus.
He lifted Kotoha onto his back and grabbed Nezuko's hand.
"Wait for me!!
I'll get Aunt Kotoha to safety and come right back!!"
Whoosh!
Zenitsu vanished toward the Demon Slayer Corps.
Watching him go, Tanjiro and Kaigaku exchanged a glance, said nothing—
and turned back without hesitation.
Eternal Paradise Cult
[Demonification Remaining Time: 01:12]
One minute left.
Inosuke had reached his limit.
His body was riddled with wounds.
Even with demon regeneration, healing could no longer keep up with the damage.
His stamina—his focus—was being wrung dry by Kokushibo's endless moon blades.
"Hah… hah…"
Half-kneeling, Inosuke's left arm had been severed at the shoulder, flesh slowly sprouting to regrow it.
He stared at the six-eyed swordsman before him—
unharmed, unbreathing, untouched.
"I can't win…
I can't even touch him…
Everything's been seen through…"
Kokushibo seemed bored now.
"It ends here."
He raised Kyōkoku-kamushi, no mercy in his six eyes.
"Your path… ends now."
"Moon Breathing · Fourteenth Form · Calamity · Full Heaven Slender Moon."
A wide-area annihilation technique.
Massive crescent blades descended like an inescapable net from the heavens.
"Am I… going to die?"
"Here?"
As Inosuke stared at the sky filled with moon blades,
a pink-haired man appeared in his mind—
Akaza.
The man who had beaten him down again and again on the training grounds, then taught him again and again.
Don't rely on your eyes.
Feel it… feel the fighting spirit, the muscle contraction, the blood flow.
When you discard all distractions—
the world becomes transparent.
"…Transparent…"
Inosuke closed his eyes.
At the brink of death, he forced himself to forget fear, time, pain.
Sound vanished.
Kokushibo's skin became transparent.
He saw the terrifying muscle fibers beneath, the river-like blood flow.
He saw the tiny twitch of muscle just before the swing.
"I see it…
That instant—an opening!"
Inosuke's pupils vanished, turning into a pale, empty white.
Transparent World — Open!
At the instant the moon blades were about to tear him apart—
Inosuke moved.
He stepped forward.
That step was absurd. Against all logic.
Like a fallen leaf weaving through rain, he slipped through the airtight blade net at an impossible angle.
Three inches left—avoid the main blade.
Tilt fifteen degrees—avoid the crescent.
Crouch—avoid the horizontal slash.
Whoosh!
Inosuke appeared directly in front of Kokushibo.
Distance—half a meter!
For the first time since the battle began, he was this close.
All six of Kokushibo's eyes widened.
"What?!"
He saw that world reflected in Inosuke's eyes.
"Transparent World?!
You awakened it… at the brink of death?!"
"DIE!!"
Inosuke swung his right-hand fan.
"Rin-Nichi Breathing · Final Form · Solar Wheel · Sunburst Thrust!!"
The fan closed, becoming a blade.
Carrying the power of Sun Breathing—
and absolute killing intent—it stabbed straight for Kokushibo's throat!
Shhk!
Blood sprayed.
Kokushibo tilted his head at the last instant, but the fan tip still sliced his neck, severed a lock of black-red hair, and burned a blackened scar across his face.
Silence.
Dead silence.
Kokushibo touched the blood at his neck.
For centuries—aside from Yoriichi—no one had ever wounded him.
Today, a boy barely in his teens had done it.
"Good.
Very good."
Kokushibo's expression twisted completely.
"You must die!!!"
The Road to the Paradise Cult
Wind howled.
Trees blurred past.
Shinobu Kochō led the charge.
She was moving at her absolute limit—lungs burning—but she didn't care.
Behind her flew the sky-darkening Kasugai Crow convoy, crying out directions.
"There!!"
Shinobu pointed toward a distant mountain peak.
Purple crescent light still flickered there.
"I see it!!"
Not far behind her, three figures were rapidly closing the distance.
"That light—?"
Sanemi Shinazugawa, new blade on his back, face feral.
"He's making this big a mess—what the hell did Inosuke run into?!"
"Hold on!!"
Rengoku Kyojuro was wreathed in flames, each step smashing craters into the ground.
Giyu Tomioka said nothing, but his speed was no slower.
His blade was already drawn, eyes locked ahead.
Farther back—
Uzui Tengen.
Iguro Obanai.
Tokito Muichiro.
They were all sprinting.
Watching the crow swarm in the sky like a lighthouse, only one thought filled their minds:
Don't lose them.
Eternal Paradise Cult
[Demonification Remaining Time: 00:00]
Miracles last only an instant.
The explosive awakening of the Transparent World drained Inosuke's final reserves.
As the timer hit zero—
the demonic state sustaining his body vanished like a receding tide.
Zzz…
The lotus markings faded.
Silver-red hair returned to black-blue.
He became human again—
a human who could barely stand.
His body went weightless—then crushing pain and weakness crashed down.
The wounds Kokushibo had inflicted burst open without demonic suppression.
Blood flooded the shattered ruins.
"It's over."
Kokushibo looked at the now-human Inosuke.
His caution vanished, replaced by naked cruelty.
"A time limit?
Or were you underestimating me?"
"Either way—die."
He raised his blade.
A plain, unadorned downward slash.
In Inosuke's current state, it was unavoidable execution.
"Am I… going to die?"
As the blade fell, Inosuke's vision blurred.
"No—
I can't die.
Kotoha isn't safe yet.
Those idiots haven't run far enough…
we haven't seen that perfect ending yet!!
Who gave me permission to die?!"
Madness ignited in his eyes.
His hand moved—faster than human limits—into his chest.
There was a small wooden box.
A dose meant for someone else.
The same medicine he used to save the Shinazugawa brothers.
Shhk!
A microsecond before Kokushibo's blade touched his scalp—
Inosuke plunged the injector straight into his own heart!
THUMP!!
A thunderous heartbeat echoed like a war drum through the entire hall.
BOOOOOOM!!!!
A surge of demonic energy far more violent than before exploded outward.
The shockwave blasted an unprepared Kokushibo three steps back.
As the dust settled—
A far more grotesque figure slowly rose from the crater.
"KOKUSHIBO!!!"
Inosuke clenched his twin fans.
"COME AGAIN!!!"
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