Chapter 30 — A Slash That Plunders Everything
Rokuro had reacted to Asuka's strike.
And yet—
He was still cut.
He stared in shock at his own blurred body—still under the effects of Blood Demon Art: Mirage—and at the arm that had been severed from his shoulder. Blood poured endlessly from the stump, refusing to regenerate.
His expression twisted violently as his yellow pupils shrank to pinpoints.
"What… is this?!"
Mirage did not grant complete physical immunity.
Instead, it distorted his body to an extreme degree while manipulating light with blood-based energy, creating a shifting optical illusion. Any swordsman facing him would be unable to locate his true core.
The Nichirin blade should never have been able to strike his real body.
But now—
Fine gray-black ripples churned across the surface of his wound, gnawing relentlessly at his flesh. The sensation sent numbness crawling through his very soul.
How many years had it been?
He had spent centuries devouring humans.
When had he ever been the one experiencing such bone-chilling terror?
Meanwhile, Asuka's complexion was becoming noticeably healthier.
Even though his breathing rhythm had been disrupted by the release of his blade, the strength surging through him only grew more intense.
He could feel it clearly—
Pure, immense vitality was flowing from
Bakudatsu's Plunder into his body, nourishing every vein and bone.
The power was cold.
Dark.
Yet extraordinarily potent.
In other words—
He was devouring the demon.
"…So this is your power,
Bakudatsu's Plunder?"
Asuka murmured quietly within his mind, sensing the feedback of that energy.
The blade did not speak.
It merely vibrated with a hungry hum, expressing its desire for battle.
"…Not enough, huh."
"I understand."
Lowering his stance, Asuka kicked off the ground and charged at Rokuro again.
This time he abandoned the rigid forms of Wind Breathing.
Instead, he allowed the raging power within him to explode outward, tearing through the air with raw pressure.
"Looking for death!"
Rokuro roared in fury.
His remaining left hand spread wide as thick darkness erupted beneath his feet.
"Blood Demon Art — Endless Abyss!"
Instantly, the ground beneath Asuka turned viscous and soft like a swamp.
Countless black arms burst from the darkness, wrapping around his legs and dragging him toward a lightless hell.
At the same time, Rokuro's body blurred within the shadows.
Several identical Rokuros emerged from different corners of darkness, each radiating nearly identical presence.
It was Rokuro's preferred style of combat.
Traps.
Illusions.
Clones.
Confuse the enemy. Exhaust them. Strike from the shadows.
He never fought head-on.
His cowardice and caution were carved into his bones—habits born from his days as a trembling human who hid in dark corners.
Even after receiving his master's blood and becoming a Lower Moon, he had never changed.
Asuka's momentum slowed slightly.
But instead of struggling against the grasping shadow hands—
He swung downward with all his strength and smashed
Bakudatsu's Plunder straight into the swamp beneath him.
SHRRRAA—!
The serrated blade plunged into the darkness like a red-hot iron thrust into water.
Steam hissed violently as the swamp erupted with sizzling smoke.
The shadow arms recoiled instantly as if burned.
The swamp itself split open under the impact, revealing the solid floor beneath.
At the same moment,
Bakudatsu's Plunder transmitted a sensation of deep satisfaction—like a beast feasting.
The surge of returned energy sharpened Asuka's senses.
Relying on his increasingly acute spiritual perception, he scanned the flickering illusions surrounding him.
At last—
He locked onto one direction.
Rokuro's Blood Demon Art was extraordinary.
Neither sight nor spiritual pressure could easily distinguish the real body.
But Rokuro had overlooked one thing.
On the stump of his severed arm still lingered the gnawing spiritual residue left by
Bakudatsu's Plunder.
No illusion could imitate that.
Dragging the massive serrated blade behind him, Asuka burst free from the swamp and charged directly toward Rokuro's true body.
"What?!"
Rokuro's pupils shook violently.
His Mirage had been seen through?
Impossible!
Even Hashira-level swordsmen struggled to escape that technique!
Then realization struck him.
He glanced at his severed arm.
"…That thing?! The brat locked onto that strange power?!"
Clicking his tongue, Rokuro hastily commanded several shadow clones to rush Asuka and disrupt his charge.
At the same time, his true body retreated rapidly, preparing to melt deeper into the shadows.
Slash! Slash!
Asuka's blade tore through two clones effortlessly.
Another clone's claw ripped into his shoulder, leaving a bone-deep wound—
Yet he did not slow down.
Blood sprayed from the injury.
When it splattered onto the serrated blade of Bakudatsu's Plunder, the gray-black teeth silently absorbed it.
The weapon's glow grew even more ominous.
Closing the distance, Asuka swung the massive blade repeatedly, clashing with Rokuro's demonic claws.
Rokuro's superior strength and Blood Demon Arts continued to injure him again and again—
But Asuka refused to retreat.
He pressed forward relentlessly, forcing close-quarters combat.
Several wounds opened across Rokuro's body.
One strike even came dangerously close to severing his neck.
Asuka was fighting like a man exchanging wounds for wounds—
Life for life.
Rokuro began to panic.
He had never expected such unyielding resolve.
"You mad dog! Why won't you back off?!"
His illusions and traps were becoming less and less effective against the devouring blade.
Worse—
They were beginning to backfire.
Every time Asuka struck him, no matter how shallow the wound, Rokuro could feel his life force draining away.
And the boy before him only grew stronger.
The stolen vitality was flowing into him.
The shifting balance terrified Rokuro. His movements became restrained, cautious. Of his full strength, he could barely bring out seventy percent.
"Blood Demon Art — Thousand Shadows, One Kill!"
Rokuro shrieked.
All the shadows within the shrine suddenly came alive.
They twisted into countless black chains, slicing through the air with shrill whistles as they shot toward Asuka from every direction.
Rokuro no longer wanted to drag this fight out.
He intended to bind and crush this dangerous madman once and for all.
The dense shadow chains sealed off every path of escape. For the first time, Asuka felt a crushing pressure bearing down on him.
He tightened his grip on
Bakudatsu's Plunder.
The raging spiritual pressure within him fused with the strange demonic power he had just stolen, pouring into the blade without restraint.
The gray-black light along the weapon flared violently.
A savage pulse spread outward.
"…Howl.
Bakudatsu's Plunder!"
Asuka roared and swung the blade sideways toward the densest cluster of shadow chains ahead.
BUZZ—!!!
What erupted was not a single slash—
But dozens.
Hundreds.
Gray-black spiritual slashes burst forth like a pack of starving mad dogs breaking free of their cage.
They shot from the blade with ear-splitting screams, rushing forward in a frenzy.
They had no fixed trajectory.
No single target.
They simply lunged and bit wildly at everything ahead.
The slashes collided and tore at each other mid-air, generating a chaotic storm of spiritual turbulence.
The noise resembled a pack of feral hounds fighting over prey.
SHRRR—!!!
The howling swarm of slashes slammed into the mass of shadow chains.
Chains that had seemed unbreakable were shredded apart beneath the rabid assault.
They snapped.
Collapsed.
Disintegrated.
Though the uncontrolled slashes weakened themselves by clashing against one another, their sheer number overwhelmed the Blood Demon Art.
Rokuro's encirclement was torn open violently.
The remaining slashes, like a pack of beasts out of control, rampaged forward.
Pillars of the shrine shattered.
Stone tiles exploded.
Sacred offerings and wooden structures were torn to pieces.
And at the center of that storm—
The Lower Moon demon named Rokuro suffered the worst of it.
"AAARGH—!!!"
He tried desperately to dodge.
He even leapt into the air multiple times in an attempt to escape.
But the rabid slashes pursued him relentlessly—like hounds locked onto their prey.
They tore and devoured him without mercy.
His flesh disintegrated rapidly.
If not for the demon blood granted by that Master sustaining him as a core source of energy—
Rokuro would already have collapsed into a heap of rotting flesh.
After a long moment of shrieking agony and relentless tearing—
He crashed heavily onto the ground.
Rokuro struggled upright.
His entire body was mutilated.
Not a single patch of intact flesh remained.
Half of his head had been gnawed away.
Across from him—
Asuka leaned heavily on Bakudatsu's Plunder, breathing in ragged gasps.
Blood poured from wounds all over his body.
He looked like a man drenched in crimson.
Yet when he saw Rokuro's shattered face and the terror in the demon's eyes—
Asuka smiled.
For the first time.
The smile, however…
Was deeply unsettling.
"Come on…"
"Lower Moon."
"Your blood…"
"…tastes pretty good."