Emmanuel_Capricorn
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DS : Chapter 177
🕑 Added 2025-04-10 11:00:24 +0000 UTC[3rd POV]
"It doesn't matter how strong you are, all beings die after you destroy their spiritual core," Enmu said while standing in front of the fallen Sanemi.
He pulled at his own hand and ripped it off before throwing it at the unconscious body. The hand moved as if it had a mind of its own.
And it did have a mind of its own. Enmu had gotten stronger over the year, now he was able to split a part of himself, a part of his soul and send them to destroy the spiritual core of someone in their dream.
Before, he had to do it himself or make other people do it. But now he could do so with minimal risk, sending only a part of himself that he could recover easily in case the subject's unconscious mind fights back.
Enmu turned away to walk around as he felt other people try and penetrate his barrier of mist. The Demon Slayers had arrived, quite a number of them actually. They saw the fireworks and immediately made their way here.
But these Demon Slayers were stopped by Enmu and Rui. Their barrier made sure that the people inside stayed trapped while outsiders stayed out. No one could get in or get out without their permission.
"Hmmmmm?" Enmu paused as he heard a new command inside his head. It was sent by Nakime and it was about the new adjustments in their plans.
Not just him but every surviving Twelve Moon got the message.
"More demons? My my my, I guess the others failed already. My Lord is so pitiful, it must be hell living as the perfect being in such an imperfect world," Enmu said and started tearing up the more he thought about it.
"Everyone failed you, but I will make sure to never do so my lovely Lord," Enmu said while licking his lips.
"My King,"
...
He directed his gaze towards the Butterfly Mansion and he saw a door opening in empty space. The door appeared inside both his and Rui's barrier.
Hundreds of demons started flooding out from the door and ran towards the Butterfly Mansion with malice and hunger. Enmu smiled softly, he couldn't imagine the humans surviving for more than a few hours and that was being generous.
Meanwhile, he raised his remaining hand and thickened the fog. The demons were already inside using the gates of the infinity castle so they skipped the barriers, now all he had to do was make sure the demon slayers could not help the residents of the Butterfly Mansion.
"Yes, get lost," Enmu said, his eyes turning demonic and glowing an eerie colour, "Run around in circles forever,"
By hypnotizing anyone who entered his mist, he manipulated their sense of distance, time and direction so they ran in endless circles. His power was strong enough to manipulate a Hashira to a certain degree so the lower ranks did not stand a chance. They were simple puppets for him to control.
"Now then, onto my meal-"
He turned around, confident that Sanemi would have died by now. His soul would've been killed while his body remained in perfect condition for Enmu to enjoy. But when he turned. he saw his reflection on steel.
!!!!!
Through sheer luck and whatever villains had for plot armour, he dodged the blade that came straight for his neck.
Enmu fell on his butt, fear immediately etched across his demonic face. He didn't look intimidating at all when faced with his own death, he looked rather pathetic instead, to be honest.
He pushed himself away from the figure wrapped in mist almost immediately. He didn't even have a chance to stand back up. Only when he was far away and he blended perfectly with the mist that he took a moment to breathe.
"That is...impossible," he commented as he looked at the man who swung the sword.
Sanemi. His eyes were completely white and veins decorated his entire body, they became even more prominent than the multiple scars on his body.
Enmu searched for his detached hand and he saw it wrapping against Sanemi's neck. That meant the human had not broken out from his spell. But how was he moving?
Enmu had a guess, but it was so outlandish that he refused to believe it for several seconds.
"...I guess the Hashira are really a different breed of human," Enmu admitted at last with relieved chuckles.
Sanemi, the Wind Hashira was completely knocked out at the moment but his body was moving on pure instincts. Even though his mind was stuck in a dream, the body knew that it was in danger so it aimed to kill the source of danger.
Sanemi stayed in his place for a while, his body trembled now and then before he suddenly shifted and faced towards Enmu.
"You are inside my fog, you can't see, you can't hear, you can't feel, and you can't even think," Enmu said while standing up.
Indeed Sanemi was all that. But he knew one thing and that was the enemy.
He knew the enemy.
And he didn't need any other senses to cut down an enemy.
Sanemi burst into action. His body moved without a mind so he had no technique, but years of training had made his body a weapon in of itself.
Enmu replied to the attack. He grew claws and sparks flashed in the fog as they exchanged blows with each other.
Sanemi moved like a Zombie, fighting on pure instincts so he was nothing compared to his true strength. But that was enough to pose a threat to Enmu who was just a liar, and a manipulator.
Enmu was not a warrior.
"Tch," Enmju gritted his teeth as his knee buckled at the weight of Sanemi's attack.
To make the situation worse, he was currently weakened due to having to maintain the barrier around the compound. He could not beat Sanemi like this, he would die before his damned hand destroyed Sanemi's spiritual core.
Enmu changed strategy.
His stump hand exploded in blood and so did the detached hand that was choking Sanemi. A string of blood connected them and Enmu reconnected his hand.
"I'll destroy your soul," Enmu said and pulled Sanemi closer to him and put his other hand on his head.
Then everything paused. Sanemi froze as if restrained by invisible chains and Enmu closed his eyes.
The battle shifted and took place inside the dreamscape of Sanemi.
..
..
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Sanemi's dreamscape was like any other. It was a village, the village where Sanemi grew up with his family.
More often than not, the dreamscape of someone took the shape of a place they held dear. For most people, that was their home.
Enmu immediately saw a younger version of Sanemi, a child with white hair and earnest eyes. With no scars on his body, he looked innocent and kind.
The child was holding onto his own spiritual core with one hand, bringing it close to his chest protectively while his other hand held a weapon, a cleaver to be exact.
He was aiming the cleaver at a moving hand in front of him that was trying to destroy the core.
"He is aware that he had to protect his core, no wonder I can't kill him," Enmu said thoughtfully.
Most people were ignorant inside their own dream, too distracted by their own wishes being fulfilled. But Sanemi was acutely aware that he was inside a dream which made him an exceptional case.
For a person who never had a happy and carefree day in his life, a dream was easy to distinguish. It was how Sanmei realized he was in a dream in the first place.
Everything was too good to be true.
"No matter," Enmu said and approached the small boy standing on a dirt road. The houses surrounded them, from the looks of it they were in the middle of a street.
The singular hand jumped and reconnected with his stump when Enmu reached his place. Then he finally launched an attack.
Obviously it was not a physical attack, Enmu was a manipulator, a liar. He was not a fighter.
It was a psychological attack made to break whatever Sanmei had for a shell.
Enmu took the form of the person Sanemi loved most in the world. He was able to do this since his entire spirit was inside the dreamscape now and not just a part of himself.
'His mother huh,' Enmu thought while observing his own changed appearance. He did not have to do anything actually as Snamei changed him to look like the person he loved the most in the world.
"What are you doing here? Let's go, your siblings are waiting for us back home," Enmu said.
Sanemi was completely frozen, he only stared with hollow eyes at the woman Enmu had now become.
The demon felt a sadistic satisfaction when looking at his expression.
"What is that in your hand? Give it to me," she asked in a motherly tone. Sanemi remained still.
"Be a good boy and give it to me," she grabbed Sanemis's wrist and pushed down the cleaver.
"You can trust me,": she giggled, "Don't worry I won't break it,"
Her hand was about the reach the spiritual core and that was when Sanemi finally moved. A tiny shift brought the core out of her reach.
"??" she turned to look at Sanemi's face and her eyes widened.
...
Enmu had never seen such a broken face on a person. Sanemi's face was drained of colour as if abandoned out of pity. The eyes were alive, horribly alive and it showed all the bad things life had to offer.
His lip was straight, neither smiling nor frowning. But the scrunching of his expression made his juvenile face like that of an old man, weary and completely exhausted.
The demon was taken aback, he did not know life could make such a face.
"..Why did you make me do it again?" Sanemi whispered.
"Huh?" Enmu blinked as the cleaver struck the middle of his eyes.
Blood exploded everywhere and Sanemi did not stop there. The child continued beating his own mother again and again with the cleaver. The knife specifically made for cutting meat and crushing bones did its job as Enmu soon became a pile of torn flesh.
Again and again.
Enmu could not comprehend how someone could kill the person they loved the most. It had never happened before, it should have been impossible.
'And they called us demons,' he thought while looking at the hollow eyes of Sanemi as he continued butchering him.
Her.
The child killed his own mother.
..
..
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"HAAAAA!!!" Enmu screamed in sharp pain as his spiritual body was destroyed. He jumped away as far as he could from the Wind Hashira.
Sanemi staggered, he shook his head as if to shake away the remnant of the nightmare he had just experienced.
When he opened his eyes and stared at Enmu, his face was that of pure rage.
"You....!" Snamei could not choke out the rest of the curses. His eyes teared up, but instead of tears, they cried out blood.
The face of wrath, that was the last thing Enmu saw.
"Breath of the Wind God : First Form,"
Sanemi exploded like a hurricane, tearing away the layers of the atmosphere like they were paper. He was the incarnation of destruction.
"Wrath of Fujin,"
..
..
Enmu was reduced to red mist, his body was so finely sliced and ripped apart that it left nothing behind except colour.
But the attack did not end there. The wind, furious and alive, howled its vengeance across the land. It carved its shape into the earth with a signature written in fury. The wrath of gas tore through stone, ripping solid into shreds, turning ground to gravel and gravel to dust.
The fog barrier disappeared too in an instant.
Every Demon Slayer trapped in the fog was released. They roared in victory, knowing that one of the Hashira probably dealt with the demon responsible for the mist before they charged towards the Butterfly mansion once more.
On the other hand, Snamei remained in his place. His breath was ragged and panting as he stood alone surrounded by destruction.
It was not over.
The anger did not fate.
Instead, the rage fully consumed his heart.
"Demons, I will kill every single one of you," he renewed a promise before he too blitzed towards the mansion.
He was not here to protect anyone, his own rage blinded him. His only desire was to kill the demons.
A reasonable crashout might I add.
Now the demons had to bear the wrath of the Wind Hashira.
...
...
...
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