[3rd POV]
{Toyama Region)
The Toyama region was home to one of the three sacred mountains of Japan, Mt. Tateyama. The mountain range was like domineering towers overlooking the entire landscape.
The mountains act like natural walls that stop the cold winter clouds from spreading throughout Japan. It was one of the reasons why it was considered a sacred mountain, people believed that these masses of earth protected them from the frigid winter.
On the peak of the highest mountain in the region, where the temperature could plummet well below -30 degrees, there sat a man who was built firm like the mountains around him.
"Namu Amida Butsu," the man prayed while sitting in a lotus position. He held a prayer bead between his palm which he would occasionally roll around in his hand to test if he could still feel them amid the cold.
"Namu Amida Butsu,"
He was the personification of a mountain in human skin. His Demon Slayer uniform and his haori that proudly declared 'Stone Pillar' was covered in a new layer of snow but other than that, there was no indication that he was in a freezing temperature.
His body was tight, in a way that showed his skin was barely able to contain the muscles beneath. His body was almost all sculpted muscles without unneeded fat and so thick veins popped all over his body, thrumming with life and seemingly begging for violence.
In all its glory, it was obvious that his body was bred for war. It was the ultimate tool of violence and destruction.
But his body akin to that of a god of war was contrasted by his peaceful facade. He had blind eyes, whiter than snow and a kind expression. You could tell from a glance that it was not the face of a warmonger but that of a saint. Buddha perhaps.
One could only imagine if his body was attached to another head. The world would've been in chaotic times.
The man was Gyomei, the Stone Pillar.
He took a deep breath and created a vacuum around his nose. His body trembled with raw strength and his muscles bulged like living snakes under his skin. But he remained completely still, showing absolute control over his power.
Soon after, his body started producing smoke and the snow which was on top of his clothes fell off or melted away due to his increase body heat. He was akin to a volcanic mountain at that moment, ready to explode.
The hazy smoke only receded after he stopped flexing his muscles and disrupted his breathing pattern.
"Still not enough," he said soon after when he felt the overall strength of his body.
The statement was insanity. Anyone in the world would be more than satisfied to wield the power he did. But to him, his strength was nearly not enough.
It was nearly not enough to protect everyone. It was not enough to defeat his enemies. It was not enough to take the burden of being the strongest from his younger brother.
This amount of strength was not enough for Gyomei.
"I need to be stronger, I need to be tougher and I need to be more unyielding," his deep voice penetrated the frigid air.
"Lord Buddha, turn me into an immovable object between my loved ones and my enemies," he prayed deeply, "So that the people behind me shall be at peace and the enemies that stood before me shall yield,"
He pressed his hand so hard the prayer beads turned into powder and a map of veins appeared in his hand.
"Namu Amida Butsu,"
The sound of air being sucked by a vacuum followed. Oxygen was scarce in such high altitude and cold air. It was a certain death to everyone else but it served as the perfect training ground for Gyomei.
His muscles tensed and churned with strength. The simple act of producing enough body heat to survive in the freezing temperature put a strain on his body and it was moulding it to be stronger and tougher.
At this point, he was not comparable to Gyomei in the manga.
He was so much stronger than his canon counterpart. Even without mentioning how the Upper Moons emerged earlier and the other changes in fate, Gyomei always took the fact that Seiji was the strongest personally.
He had been the strongest before and he knew the burden that title entailed. That sense of duty and responsibility should never fall on a young soul like Seiji.
It should be him instead.
So he was always training like a madman to take the burden back when his canon counterpart remained stagnant.
The region of Toyama was much like Gifu, covered in snow and winter. There had been no increase in demon activities but that didn't mean relaxing for Gyomei. It only meant that he had more time to train so here he was, at the highest peak of the mountain range and training his breathing while trying to achieve the Demon Slayer mark.
It might seem not so wise to try to get your body temperature to increase in such a cold place but Seiji did it in a colder situation - a direct attack of an Upper Moon.
So he was simulating that in both body and mind, trying to reach the same enlightenment as his young comrade did.
But his training was interrupted by the sound of a bird flying towards him. That was a curious observation since almost no animal resides in the mountain anymore with the ongoing winter.
Gyomei stopped his breathing and headed to the lying bird. He allowed the bird to fly close to him and eventually land on his shoulder.
And then the bird whispered to him a message that froze his body where the freezing temperature failed.
"Seiji," Gyomei whispered and his frozen body exploded in raw strength.
The mountain trembled as the Stone Hashira took a giant leap in the air. His humongous body started falling from the edge of the mountain.
After falling for a few seconds, he landed on the steep side of the mountain and then he started scaling down the towering earth.
BOOOOOM!!!*
There was no finesse in his action, only raw power. So as he scaled down the mountain, the thick layer of snow was moved by the shockwaves and they started flooding down as well.
An avalanche started, just like that.
Gyomei cared little about that since he knew there were no animals in the mountain Instead, he started scaling down faster and faster. He was like a boulder rolling down the mountain.
At one point the avalanche grew big enough to become a moving calamity. Gyomei rode on it to scale the mountain even quicker.
The trees and frozen vegetation were destroyed as Gyomei changed the landscape with each step he took.
When he finally came down the mountain, he took a small compass out of his pocket and felt the direction.
He then proceeded to the east. To the region neighbouring the Tomaya region.
Gifu region.
He noticed as he made his way towards the east as fast as he could, that the Kasugai crow of Seiji was flying in another direction.
'West,' Gyomei observed briefly, 'That is his territory,'
It seemed it was not just him but every Hashira nearby that the bird was summoning. Gyomei commended the bird mentally and wished her luck.
He did not know what the situation was but he knew that if the strongest among them had called for help...
It must be the gravest of situations.
...
...
...
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[3rd POV]
Raven flew above the clouds enduring the harsh winter air. She flapped her tiny wings as fast as she could since she knew her partner's life depended on it.
She flew to every region around Gifu and sent the message to them. It was a call for help from Seij and one that was serious enough that he believed he might lose his life.
She went to Gyomei first like she was instructed and now she had just finished relaying the message to the second Hashira.
...A Hashira who was somehow even faster than her.
FLASH!!!
Tengen was a blur of speed as he manoeuvred through the forest. He had ignored the long winding roads and made a direct line through the forest towards the Gifu region.
His body cut through the air like an arrow. He knew he had to reserve his energy while travelling so that he could fight when he reached the destination. His shinobi training screamed at him to slow down and run more efficiently.
But he ignored all that.
Breathing alone proved to be a challenge at the speed he was going. But he utilized his breathing style to the limit anyway and used the new form he had learned from Seiji.
At one point he had asked the younger Hashira for how to get faster. And he was introduced to the unique styles taken from Wind Breathing and Water Breathing.
"Sound Breathing : Seventh form,"
The Gifu region was around 60 kilometres. Tengen wanted to reach there in ten minutes.
"Echoing dash,"
..
..
..
[IMAGE]
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[Seiji's POV}
'How long has this been going on?'
The tendrils were a blur of speed that my eyes could barely see. What had started with one had now become six as they whipped at me with neverending momentum.
It was not just their speed either but also their random pattern that made it extremely difficult to see them. There was no system in the action action, each one moved like it had a mind of its own and I suppose that was true considering Muzan had five brains.
Having five brains meant more than just reducing his weakness. It also allowed him to process information at frightening speed and he was able to control each individual tendril without relying on instinct or muscle memory.
'It has not even been an hour yet it feels like forever,'
The onslaught was straightforward and intense. I always prided myself in my ability to excel in a face-on battle, maybe some might say that I had gotten arrogant. My eyes, my genius and my perfect training had never betrayed me in this regard. If I were struggling with an opponent, it meant that they had tricky abilities or they were exploiting my weakness.
Never had an entity faced me in my strongest front and dominated me quite like the Demon King was doing.
'Maybe I should run now. I'm sure Tanjiro and his family are already safe,'
My thoughts were chopped up. I could barely find time to think of one sentence now and then because he onslaught required all my focus and attention. I didn't have time to come up with strategies, didn't have time to ponder on a plan or even despair at the situation.
Every working part of my brain was focused on the flashing tendrils that were just a blur as I tried my best to stay alive.
It was the first time my eyes had failed me.
'I can't run. He is infinitely faster than me. My only hope is to wait for the sunrise and that's,,,,hours away,'
I didn't even have time to calculate the time.
My arms numbed and the number of attacks I was able to block reduced. I was forced to move back - which proved to be difficult when I couldn't hear. And I dodged as many attacks as I could and stepped out of range from more.
On the other hand, Muzan was fully covered in Demon marks. He was naked but with the lack of private parts - like a titan. He looked absolutely calm as he strode forward with grace and elegance.
He looked like he was merely taking a stroll.
Four tendrils had popped out from his back, the origin and the tip of the tendril had a hard shell made of bones. They were bones sharper than any blade I had ever seen. Muzan also reshaped it every time it was chipped so they remained like a razor.
And those razor ends shot at me with the force and violence of someone swinging a Warhammer. Our clash produced bright sparks like fireworks. I was being pushed back, my feet sank to the ground with the force of each attack.
The difference in our overall power was clear. The gap was unfathomable to me.
But not everything was hopeless because, with the ongoing battle, I believed I had grasped the essence of the Demon King.
I knew him now.
Clearer than I'd ever known him. Because you see, fighting was a conversation and he had told me almost everything.
Muzan Kibutsuji was not a fighter in essence. I guess that was to be expected when you went from a sickly man to the strongest being in the world overnight. There was no skill or experience to be gained on that journey.
Only Yoriichi was the one who could challenge him and look how much that one instance traumatized him. This showed an immense lack of determination and resolve to be considered a warrior. He had never trained before in his life and that was also why he leaned on to using all his brain to control his tendrils, doing things manually.
In warrior terms, Muzan was a baby with the power of a nuclear reactor.
I learned his nature through the battle. He was completely dominating me and yet he never made the effort to end the battle. Instead, he revelled on the superior might he had over me. It was like I reminded him of someone and he was doing this, enjoying the act of dominating me to soothe a wound from long ago.
And yet even with all the power he had over me, he was always far away. It was why I could move out of range from his tendrils. Even with all the power he had over me, he was scared deep down. It was not caution because people do something if they are cautious. He did nothing except prepare himself to run.
I noticed his habit of not moving his right arm while he swung his left when he walked. All of his hearts seemed identical to me but from the way he was protecting his right side, I deduced that those were vital than the rest.
His seven hearts beat together in synch which gave him explosive burst of power. But the flow of blood from that allowed me to predict which part of his body he was going to move next to a certain degree.
His body was perfection. I could not see any weakness or flaws even when he changed his flesh to suit him in battle. But that perfection made it obvious - the flaw in his fighting style. It was like watching a shit driver on a sports car.
The tendrils were his safe means of attack. Each of them seemed to have a mind of their own as they moved manually and not on previous training so that made it hard to predict them. With six of them, that was almost more than a million combinations of attacks so memorizing them was out of the question.
What I did notice though was they were not working as one entity. That meant sometimes three tendrils attacked me all at once, sometimes none at all. Those create openings. So it was giving me openings in exchange for unpredictability.
Unlike what others think, perfection in a fight is predictable. So his unpredictability was due to how far he was from being perfect.
He was perfect in all but body. A golden goblet with urine.
I also took note of the fact that he never aimed for my sword. He always went after the part of my body that was furthest from where my sword covered. He was limiting himself to his area of attack by doing that. But I suppose that was just a by-product of each tendril being controlled individually by a brain.
...
Endless amounts of information brew in my head, making my head throb in pain. I had never focused so hard on a fight before and I was glad that I had no one to protect or think about.
The only problem was that I never got the chance to return the attack. I was given no chance to utilize the information I had.
Fight was more than just raw power so I had a chance no matter the gap. He might overwhelm me in power but I did the same to him in terms of skill.
If fighting was a debate, then Muzan was talking with no time limit. I did not have time to rebut as he talked endlessly. His turn was forever.
What I needed was a moment of respite. I needed even just a few milliseconds of time to think of a plan. I needed a set of movements that was other than defending.
I needed an ally who could divert Muzan's attention from me so that I may have a chance.
'Had Raven found a Hashira? I sent her out way before Muzan came upon us so help should come soon, right?'
But until then, I could do nothing but try to survive the onslaught.
..
..
..
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Author : Double chapter
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