Emmanuel_Capricorn
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DS : Chapter 189
🕑 Added 2025-05-15 17:29:18 +0000 UTC[Seiji's POV]
"Stop moving, bro, that's just... ew!"
Imagine pieces of flesh and body parts squirming around like a splintered earthworm. But the fact that the parts were all distinct and the eyes were moving made it worse.
"It would be more effective if I had used a Nichirin sword, but I didn't have time to fetch my sword since you attacked us so suddenly," I said while crouching down near a single ear.
"I guess you will have to wait for the sun," I said.
One eyeball stared back at me with demonic hatred in it. He thought I was mocking him, which was precisely what I was doing. But to be fair, I thought this would be the end of it.
My sword had broken into pieces after the last attack, and my Demon Slayer Mark had also receded to that small permanent mark. My body was cooling down, my heartbeat was slowing, and adrenaline had stopped.
Which kinda explained why I never saw it coming.
I barely felt it.
When I looked to my side, all I saw was the reflection of myself being smashed by a huge tentacle arm. My reflection came from the crimson red eyes.
Oops, it kinda slipped past me that Muzan could share the senses of all his demons.
*BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!*
For the first time in over a year, I was rag-dolled. My body caved in and was literally reshaped. I felt some cracks here and there, but nothing too concerning. I've taken worse hits.
"Goddammit!!" I cursed and did some flips in the air before I landed with both feet. I made two lines as I slid to a stop.
The entire vicinity was an open area due to trees and mounds being reduced to rubble from our clash. There was nothing for me to crash on, so that made the aftermath of the attack less bad.
"Can't even let a man revel in his own victory?" I asked, eyes glowing purple between thin lines of blood.
How come Muzan got uglier and uglier every time I saw him? I remember the first time I saw him, he was a hot chick.
My thought was cut short when Muzan leapt in the air and descended from the sky. His right arm bulged into an ugly mass of flesh before it turned into a huge limb with a blade for a hand. The blade looked like a cursed war axe.
He came down like a falling star, bright, fast, and full of raw power. With no weapon in hand, I was forced to make a bold move and raise my hand to block the attack.
The clash gave birth to shockwaves that turned the air upside down. The ground cracked like wafers and yielded under the raw strength of the demon king.
The earth made a crater on which I stood, unfazed.
Not really, but that sounded cool in my head. In reality, I caught the attack on the unbladed part of the limb. My arm, which had been trained and evolved to handle and regulate precise vibrations, was able to let the kinetic energy flow through them and redirected most of the force on the earth beneath my feet.
The manipulation and redirection of force was like bread and butter in any form of martial arts. And my circumstances made me the best at it.
It was not a perfect technique, though, as my arm immediately turned purple and almost buckled under the sheer weight of the demon king. I held him there for a while, suspended in mid-air.
His flesh moved and my eyes predicted spikes and blades coming from the place I held, so I quickly regripped his arm in a split second to make sure the blade passed between my fingers.
"Heh," I smiled. I did not have a sword, so it would seem I had no way to attack.
I might have no weapons, but I had comrades.
*ROOOOOARR!!!*
I have not heard it, but people told me that it sounded like the roar of a mythical beast when he moved at that speed.
"Running away is getting old!!" Tengen bellowed as he came from the side. He became a sword I did not have and cut the demon lord in two places instantaneously.
One cut chopped his arm off so that I could escape, and another chopped off a huge portion of his head in a splatter of sheer gore.
I took that moment to slip under Muzan's guard and delivered a powerful spinning back kick. I aimed the attack just right so that it crushed one of his hearts that was beating at his abdomen.
A shockwave erupted from his back as if my kick had gone right through him. Then he was launched away by the force of my attack.
"Flashy move! You learned that during training?" Tengen asked as he landed beside me.
"Yes, I figured even a swordsman could not be dependent on his sword. Variety and adaptability win more battles than raw strength," I commented back with a smile.
"Cool reply, I'm stealing it!!" he said and broke the chain connecting his swords before passing his other sword to me.
Tengen's sword was vastly different from any other blade I've held. It's like he immediately put my words to the test.
Some people got it wrong, but this is the greatest example of the power of friendship.
We blurred towards Muzan once more. He was standing beside the pieces of flesh, which were Kokushibo. The demon king was letting himself bleed out on the remains of the Upper Moon One.
That couldn't possibly be a good sign, so we moved even faster. The demon mark on my head released a purple glow before growing once more.
"Sound Breathing: Fourth Form," Tengen declared and then burst into greater motion.
"Constant Resounding Slashes!!"
I followed not far behind. I allowed the strange sword to feel familiar in my hand. I had no time to experiment on how to wield it, so I just used them as they were supposed to be.
"Sound Breathing: Third Form," I stepped onto the ground and pushed myself off with an insane burst of power. My footsteps made a sound akin to a rapid beating drum as I followed that same pattern.
"Resonant Rampage."
Tengen and I, side by side, we gave the demon king a run for his money. Sound Breathing was one of the fastest Breathing Styles in its own right, so we were moving at sonic speed at our laziest attacks.
Muzan grew his arms and split them into two so that he had four tentacles. They moved like whips and circled around like the wings of a helicopter. We attacked from all sides, but he managed to hold on.
In the meantime, I was studying my opponent once more. I was figuring out how special Muzan was compared to his underlings. I also noticed that his movements and patterns were more refined than last time.
He had improved in an adorable amount.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM*
The night was lit up by the flashes of our clash. The explosions were quick enough that it would sound like a machine gun firing rapidly to normal ears.
I overestimated myself and created an opening for a split second. I quickly caught myself after that, but that made me realize something.
Muzan was not fighting to kill us. There was no killing intent behind his attack, so much so that my unconscious mind allowed me to make a mistake, even if it was small. Had my life really been threatened, I would be too cautious to make mistakes.
'Buying time? For what? Time was on our side,' I thought to myself. The other Hashiras were quickly approaching us and the sun was soon to rise as well.
I stopped for a moment, and that was enough for the fight to blitz past me. In just a few seconds, the fight was taking place in another location.
I stood there for a while before I turned to look at Kokushibo's dismembered corpse.
Except it was not in pieces anymore.
"Cockroaches," I muttered before I blitzed towards him.
Kokushibo was not regenerating. I had taken that ability away from him by convincing his own body that it was unharmed. I mutilated the blueprint of his existence to always be in pieces.
But what he was doing was not regenerating, but rebuilding. By taking control over all his cells, he was rebuilding his body from scratch. He did not just regrow a limb, he was creating a limb.
From what I could tell, it took much more effort and time than simple regeneration, but he could still heal in theory.
Of course, the higher-ranked demons were always tricky unlike the rest. Although that would infuriate me, it brought some kind of relief in my heart. Perhaps I was ecstatic that I got the chance to kill him more than once.
I swung the awkward sword at Kokushibo, but by that point, he had recreated himself enough to block me.
Steel clashed with hardened flesh.
"Your genius knows no bounds, Seiji Shigan, but so does my persistence," Kokushibo stated as the clash grew more intense. Although we were already touching, we released a new shockwave to the surroundings.
Wait till I get the sword I ordered specifically to skewer you.
My instincts screamed, and I looked to the side. This time, I was able to block against Muzan's attack as he swung a heavy bladed tentacle at me. The friggin' thing had mouths that managed to bite and tear off a piece of my uniform.
During that short time, their battle had made a full circle and came back to me. Muzan seemed awfully drawn towards Kokushibo.
I leapt back and landed not too far away. Tengen landed beside me with ragged breath. He was human and actively going past his limits, so he was almost out of fuel.
Muzan did not attack. He merely helped Kokushibo regain his full body. We watched without attacking as we were anticipating what would happen next.
"I feel like this is the part where you make your grand escape," I said to Muzan as his demonic transformation receded and he looked more humane.
"What's the next bold move? Hide for a century or so, hoping we die from age!?" I mocked with a sneer. I had already made preparations, so that won't happen, but it would be better if we end it now.
Muzan glared at me, but before he could make another move someone landed on his right.
"You think you can escape? Huh!!!???" Sanemi landed in a burst of cyclone. His face was anger, his eyes rage, and wrath was written all over his body in the form of veins.
Another moment later, someone landed to the left. This one was gentle and elegant in the way she made herself known.
Kanae.
And then behind Muzan, a calm presence filled the air. You would almost miss his existence if you were not looking right at him.
Giyu.
And then one by one the Hashiras gathered around the two remaining demons. Shinobu, Obanai, Muichiro, and even Mitsuri.
The Hashiras had gathered.
"Wait, I'm also here!!" Rengoku came in brilliant lights. He left a trail of fire on his path, so it was easy to see how he came here.
Okay.
Now the Hashiras had really gathered.
"So, what's your next move?" I asked, or should I say final move?
Muzan and Kokushibo looked around cautiously before they turned to me as some sort of unspoken leader.
And then...
...
...
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Comments
Radhin~
Noo...Not the cliffhanger🥲
Bluestar_sword
Oh come on😭😭😭 that clip hunger is punch on the gut man
