Chương 48: Infinity Castle Arc (Part 2)
Instead of infinitely falling through Muzan's Castle, like I thought I would, I was safely positioned in a room. Almost like the door that I fell through was simply to introduce me to this seemingly normal room. However, rarely anything is normal after all, proved by the sudden presence of a powerful individual.
"You came… Demon Slayer."
Whipping around, I find myself staring at a pale-skinned, tall and muscular man with long and spiky black hair with red tips that he kept in a ponytail. His most notable feature however would have to be the three sets of eyes on his face with yellow irises and red sclera that have black straight lines diverging from each iris. His middle set of eyes features the kanji of "Upper Rank" and "One". Kokushibo also has red marking resembling flames on the top left side of his forehead and the bottom right of his chin.
"So, you're the one that that man warned us about."
This demon's aura was so much different than any other demon I'd faced before, almost giving off a dignified and majestic feel to it. And his blade, even though it's warped, I could tell that he's a master with it and he was most likely a Demon Slayer before and there was a possibility he could use a breathing art as well.
Wrapping my hands around the chains of the axe and flail, I also activated my demon slayer mark, yet even with that, I knew it wouldn't be enough.
"Your… name… what is it…?"
"Shiro Urokodaki. And you are?"
"My… name back when I was a human was Tsugikuni Michikatsu…" The demon answers, "Though the name that I've been blessed with is instead Kokushibo…"
Rubbing my chin, I think aloud, "Never heard of the 'Tsugikuni' name before, so it must have died out. It has been a hundred years after all, so that was probably inevitable."
Kokushibo nods his head, "That much is true."
Kokushibo then exudes a great bloodlust, but it doesn't even affect me in the slightest, after all, isn't that what I was training others to overcome.
"Your mental strength… is worth… some praise… you weren't… even bothered… But now."
Before Kokushibo can even try and take a step forward, I use 'Stone Breathing First Form: Serpentine Bipolar', manipulating the chain and sending both the axe and flail out simultaneously to try and grind through Kokushibo.
Kokushibo knew that he couldn't simply dodge this attack, so he unsheathed his blade, revealing its disgusting appearance for the world to see. It's fleshy red in color with veins and his eyes all around the blade and even the hilt.
Yet alongside deflecting my initial attack, Kokushibo sent out numerous chaotic crescent blades in which I manipulated the chain to deflect each crescent. Pulling both my axe and flail back to me, I watch as Kokushibo carefully brandishes his sword against me.
"As much as I would… like to rush into you… he warned me against being rash… so I shall not."
"Loyal Dog." I sneer, before starting to twirl around my flail, generating enough speed with it, that it even started to cause Kokushibo's uniform to flutter.
Yet, as I continued to spin the flail for longer, its speed continued to increase. Reaching what I would call peak velocity that even Kokushibo started to get pulled towards me, I flung it straight towards Kokushibo.
In order to take the strike with his blade, I hear him murmur "Moon Breathing Second Form: Pearl Flowers Moongazing", performing several slashes in rapid succession that managed to deflect the flail off to his left, causing it to shatter the ground where it hit.
Kokushibo then thought that he would have the opportunity to move forward against me, but I had already thrown my axe at him. In response, Kokushibo fell backwards and tried to execute another one of his Moon Breathing techniques, but I stamped my foot down on the chain, causing the flail to rebound from the floor, fly upwards and down upon Kokushibo.
Even with this, Kokushibo simply dived over to the left, yet I had already prepared for this, having set my chain in a position in which it would wrap around his neck. Kokushibo tried to cut at the chains, but I only smiled in response.
Ducking straight down to avoid being choked by the chains, I laugh, "Find you can't break those chains, can you?"
"I can tell… that these weapons aren't pure iron… but it's absorbed sunlight to this extent…"
Saying that Kokushibo then dove forward, trying to get into proximity with me, but in return for him cutting where I was, I jumped straight up, twirling myself behind him, and then using 'Stone Breathing Third Form: Stone Skin'.
Even though that technique was defensive, it's made for dealing with up close opponents, so it would in fact cleave through Kokushibo. Much like before though, Kokushibo just evaded the attack and then went into his own. It was a constant game of cat and mouse with the real question being which one of us was the cat.
Whipping my chain around Kokushibo's deformed sword, I manage to snap his blade. Without even wasting a second however, Kokushibo uses 'Breath of the Moon Second Form' while I use 'Stone Breathing Fourth Form: Volcanic Rock-Rapid Conquest'.
Watching closely as our two attacks fight against one another, they eventually cancel out, leaving the two of us to stand there, looking at one another. My eyes dart to Kokushibo's blade and I can see that it had regenerated, meaning that it was a creation of his flesh, not an actual sword.
"We won't get anywhere if we continue like this… so, I'll get just a bit more serious to fight you." Activating the transparent world, a light-blue sheen also covers my blades, a statement that they could now slow the absurd regeneration of demons.
"I… didn't know if you were using it before… but you should know something about that birthmark you're using… Those with birthmarks, without exception… …die before they see the age of 25. The appearance of the birthmark… true, it increases one's power… but in the end, it is no more than an exchange for one's life. Once you pass the age of 25, you will die. You have mastered your body and techniques to such a degree… wouldn't it be a shame if they vanish from this world?"
"I don't." I answer simply. "I was aware of that fact since the beginning, yet with my unique constitution, I don't really have to worry about that problem. After all, you bare the same birthmark, and you're not dead."
"Well, I am a Demon, so I have the ability to preserve my body, my techniques." Kokushibo states.
"Well, so can I, and there was an exception to such a rule, wasn't there."
"Hmm…"
"A person who bore a birthmark and lived well past 25. And since I'm stronger than the original Breath user, I think I can surpass my limits just as he could."
This comment seemed to touch a sore spot for Kokushibo as he readily dashed forward, aiming for my neck. But, slamming my foot onto the chain again, my flail rockets upwards, breaking the phantom crescent slashes and knocking Kokushibo's blade away.
Having also manipulated my axe to be in my hand, I slash forward, watching Kokushibo's muscles to see that he was going to be dodging to back right.
Extending the length of my axe, I grip impossibly hard onto the chain, trying to cut through Kokushibo's neck. My axe manages to hit, but Kokushibo kills all of its momentum by throwing his body in the same direction.
Skirting away, Kokushibo locks eyes with me before blinking in confusion. Feeling at his neck where my blade had cut, Kokushibo holds his hand out in front of him, seeing it covered in his own blood.
"The blue is the same as the red…" I hear him murmur.
Stamping his foot into the ground, Kokushibo slashes his sword in a consistent horizontal and vertical way, creating an endless stream of claw-like slashes, easily covering the distance between the two of us.
Using 'Stone Skin' to block this endless barrage. Kokushibo had used his own attack as a cover for him to get closer and then to swing his word in two gigantic crescent slashes. A storm of smaller crescent spread from those two and decimate the entire area where I had been standing. I had only managed to defend myself once again by twirling the axe and flail around one another in front of me, creating a shield with the chains.
As I'm sent backwards, Kokushibo takes a lower stance before then shoving the point of his blade forward. As well as that, his blade extends outwards, managing to pierce past my defenses and stab me, luckily not hitting a major organ.
Being trapped in the air for some desperate seconds that Kokushibo was taking full advantage of, I murmur, "Sorry to all the residents."
Gripping the middle of the chain so hard that the muscles on my arm bulge outward and begin to tremor, I use a 360-degree scope to fling my axe and flail around. Breathing in, it could be visibly seen as the air was sucked in, and the entire room's air pressure dropped. The moment that the toes of my feet touched the floor, I planted myself, sending the floorboards cracking and splintering before slamming my arm down with all my might, effectively using 'Stone Breathing Sixth Form: Uncontested Might'.
I saw as Kokushibo tried to defend the attack by creating a chaotic vortex of powerful omni-directional slashes, but my attack was made to breach all defenses and so I watched as Kokushibo's attack was broken, his sword shattered, and the start of his head being collapsed in on.
My swing finally hit the floor, and my surroundings began to shake violently, making it increasingly difficult to stay on my feet as that attack was incredibly taxing on my body, using almost all my strength to execute.
After thirty seconds of trying to keep myself erect, the shaking finally ended and all was silent, the sawdust settling. Hauling my axe and flail back to me, I don't see any sign of Kokushibo, sending a wave of unease to crawl over me.
And sure enough, that sort of unease wasn't unfounded, as Kokushibo's signature suddenly flairs from behind me. I turn my head just in time to find Kokushibo creating a barrage of downward crescent slashes. As the powerful sixfold slash begins to arc around me, the feeling of death looms over me, something I hadn't felt since I'd fought against Doma.
Unable to whirl my axe and flail around for a final time, the crescent slashes crash into me, letting me feel the agonizing pain of have my limbs severed from my body and my organs slashed. By the time that the attack had ended, I could be seen as nothing more than a bloody corpse, even so, I remain standing.
Letting my head drop just a little bit, the blood that made my own skin shine, began to climb back to the injury that they came from. My arms, which lay lame on the floor, had blood flow from them, trying to place themselves back in their sockets. And now, the attack which should have left me dead, now looked as if it never occurred in its first place.
The only memento to the attack ever having happened, was that my entire Demon Slayer Uniform was in tatters, revealing my Demon Slayer Mark that looked like a black hole consuming stars.
Aiming my black and white eyes at Kokushibo, I find the entire right side of his face mangled, trying to regrow, and almost all of his left body gone. However, Kokushibo's blade was a completely different story, having seemed grow extensions upon itself to add to his attacks.
"There you go. That's the way. Embrace being a demon. Though, you feel false, so I'll make sure to eradicate you before you can reach him."
As if the timer to his wounds had gone off, Kokushibo regrew all of his body which I had spent so much of my strength to destroy. Swinging his sword in a powerful frontal slash, I watched it create a multi-directional frontal assault, gouging out the ground as it made its way towards me.
Breathing in, I throw the chain of the flail and axe forward, grabbing the chain next to the weapons themselves before then starting to spin the weapons opposite of each other. Using the pure momentum of these weapons to destroy the oncoming attacks, the air temperature begins to drop, and the colors of the room start to desaturate, almost as if getting absorbed by my weapons, which still exude their light-blue light.
"Ice Breathing Tenth Form: Gaia's Glacier"
Having gave my new technique a name, I fling the flail forward, closely followed by me throwing the axe behind it. The axe, being faster, slams into the back of the flail, instantly causing the flail's speed to increase. I could tell that Kokushibo wanted to move away from this attack, but the closer that the flail got to him, the more his movements seemed frozen. Kokushibo barely even managed to put his sword up in time, just to watch it explode, along with his own head.
Yet, as if to follow Akaza's example, Kokushibo stopped his bleeding Upper Torso, preserving his own life. Kokushibo also grew the tips of blades from his body, making his body a deadly weapon if he were to ever twirl around. Going to pull the chain down to slice through Kokushibo, Kokushibo reaches up and grips the chain himself.
This lets me show a small smile, since Kokushibo grossly overestimated his own strength. Beating Kokushibo in simply strength, the chain breaks his arms and slices from his neck down to his pelvis. As the two halves of Kokushibo begin to fall apart, they stop in mid-air and his blood reaches to reconnect himself.
"Oh, just die!" I scream.
Kokushibo wouldn't go down even after saying that as I watched his body quickly reconnected and his head regrow.
Rushing towards Kokushibo, I hold the handle of the axe in my hand, ready to decapitate him. Kokushibo however seemed to realize how grossly deformed he had become just to try and fight with me longer and as if to insult me, the middle portion of his neck instantly blew apart, becoming dead demon skin in a second.
Still not halting my run however, I finish the job using 'Ice Breathing Second Form: Frostbite'. Even if the extra range on my weapon was unnecessary, it made me feel better as the last threads of Kokushibo were cut.
His hand trembled upwards for a second before he fell to his knees and the remainder of his body crumbled. Finally, being able to release a breath of relief, tiredly transforming myself back into a human, feeling both physically and mentally drained from that fight with Kokushibo.
Celebrating my victory alongside me, I hear a crow call out, "Shiro!! Defeated Upper Rank 1!! Defeated!!"
Leaving behind my axe and flail in the room I fought Kokushibo, I open the door to my room, instantly feeling a pressure much stronger than Kokushibo, reminding me of the actual threat.
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