Tengen Uzui brought both blades crashing down against the incoming slash. With a loud boom, a thin, scrawny figure slowly stepped out of the rising dust.
"You annoying bastards again." Gyutaro grinned viciously and raised his dual sickles.
"Blood Demon Art: Flying Blood Sickles!"
Massive amounts of blood poured from Gyutaro's arms and gathered on his bone sickles like they had a life of their own. "Die!"
In an instant, countless blood blades shot forward.
Boom!!!
Entire buildings were sliced apart. The blood blades covered a huge area and could change direction at Gyutaro's will.
"You have to cut both of their heads off at the same time or they won't die."
The Hashira had no time to ask how Ivan knew that. The attack came too suddenly, and the blood blades could turn mid-flight. Tengen's right arm got grazed. Coming from a ninja family, he was extremely sensitive to toxins.
When he felt strength draining from his right arm, he immediately warned the others.
"Those blood blades are coated in deadly poison. Be careful."
At the same time, Daki picked up her severed head from the ground and pressed it back onto her neck.
"Sanemi." Right before Ivan's figure vanished, he glanced at Sanemi. Understanding immediately, Sanemi dodged the blood blades while swinging his own blade at Daki.
Almost at the exact same moment— swoosh! swoosh!
Two very different heads left their necks and flew into the air.
The fight ended far faster than anyone expected.
"Huh? Why is my body over there?" Gyutaro stared at his own torso in confusion.
He couldn't understand what had just happened. The second he realized his head had been cut off, his consciousness started to scatter. Along with it, his head shattered like broken porcelain.
It's over?
Everyone except Sanemi, who had already been prepared, looked completely blank.
It took a few moments for the fact that Upper Rank Six was dead to sink in.
"Two Upper Ranks dead in a row. Muzan's probably losing his mind right now. Even if we head to the next location at full speed, we'll be chasing empty air. No point wasting time.
Unless the surviving Upper Ranks are complete idiots, they should already realize this is a targeted beheading operation."
Ivan sheathed his Nichirin Blade and spoke calmly.
...
Things played out exactly as Ivan had guessed.
The moment Muzan sensed the deaths of two more Upper Ranks, he immediately ordered the remaining ones to stop what they were doing and return to the Infinity Castle at top speed.
The lanterns inside the Infinity Castle still glowed with warm orange light.
As Nakime plucked the strings of her biwa, figures tore open space and appeared inside the room one after another.
This time, though, two were missing.
"Those guys actually dared to fight back. Interesting. Extremely interesting."
Doma didn't show even a hint of sadness over Gyokko and Gyutaro's deaths. Instead, he spoke in a playful tone.
"The Demon Slayer Corps is really something else. Did they take some kind of stimulant? They got strong all of a sudden. Good thing I ran fast, or Lord Akaza would never have seen me again."
"Speaking of which, Lord Akaza's heart is probably beating even faster than mine right now."
Akaza ignored Doma's mocking completely.
He simply stared straight ahead.
Out of the original six Upper Ranks, only four remained: Upper Rank One Kokushibo, Upper Rank Two Doma, Upper Rank Three Akaza, and Upper Rank Four Nakime.
Compared to before, Muzan's forces had taken an extremely heavy blow. The position of Upper Rank wasn't something just any demon could fill.
Talent, strength, and mindset were all required.
In hundreds of years, Muzan had only managed to create a handful of Upper Ranks. That alone showed how rare they were.
"Enough. All of you shut up." Muzan, seated in the high position, snarled with a dark expression.
He hadn't expected the Demon Slayer Corps' counterattack to be this fierce. Killing two Upper Ranks in such a short time was a loss that hadn't happened even once in the past several hundred years.
If he hadn't forced Nakime up to Upper Rank Four, only three of the original six would be left right now.
And strictly speaking, the Nakime he had forcibly promoted didn't even have true Upper Rank strength. He only raised her so he could control the Infinity Castle more effectively.
"It has to be that man who stepped in." Muzan narrowed his eyes, a clear wariness in his voice.
"My lord, what should we do next? Do we continue the operation?"
Akaza stood tall, as if he was always ready for battle. He was also the one who had killed the fewest people during this entire operation — he hadn't even killed a single woman.
In a way, he had stuck to his own principles the whole time: seek out the strong and defeat them. He had his own code and beliefs.
Doma was the complete opposite. His storage room was already stuffed full of women's heads from this operation alone.
"The operation is on hold for now. I need someone to deliver a final ultimatum to the Demon Slayer Corps and teach them a lesson."
Mindless slaughter meant nothing to Muzan. All he wanted was the blue spider lily. For that, he was willing to sacrifice everything — including the Twelve Kizuki.
"I'll go. While I'm at it, I can take a look at that strong one."
Muzan had originally planned to send Kokushibo, but he quickly changed his mind. Kokushibo's strength was second only to his own. If something went wrong, it would seriously hurt his future plans.
As for the other two, even if something happened to them, the loss wouldn't be that big. Three Upper Ranks were already dead. One more was still within what he could accept.
He had considered sending an ordinary Lower Rank, but that would be the same as admitting he had no strong demons left to send. His remaining pride wouldn't allow it.
"Fine. It's you. Don't disappoint me."
"This subordinate will not fail your expectations, my lord."
"Go."
Clang! A clear biwa note rang out, and Nakime teleported Akaza away.
The instant Akaza vanished, countless veins bulged around Muzan's eyes. His plum-red pupils expanded until they filled his entire eye sockets. At that moment, he shared Akaza's vision.
Once outside, Akaza didn't hesitate for a second. He raced toward the place where Gyutaro had died at extreme speed.
Through the first-person view, the buildings on both sides of the road kept flying past. Soon intact buildings became rarer and rarer. Signs of destruction grew more obvious.
Human limbs and severed arms started appearing on the ground. The glaring red didn't make Akaza slow down at all. Since he had been dropped close to Tokyo Prefecture to begin with, it wasn't long before he saw the traces Gyutaro had left behind before dying.
"A Demon Slayer Corps Kasugai Crow."
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[]~(￣▽￣)~*
Read 12 Advance Chapters—P@t- Captain69