"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" Maito raised his head, his golden pupils dilating not with anger, but with a final, agonizing wave of despair.
If not for Lee holding him up, he would have collapsed.
"The dead have returned to nothingness," Shokyu's smile was a mask of pure, sadistic glee.
"Resurrection from the underworld? Hehe, that was just a ridiculous lie I wove to ensure your loyalty."
"You!" Maito's last hope shattered, and endless, crushing despair overwhelmed him.
But the grief of a broken demon was no longer important to Shokyu.
He straightened up, discarding Maito from his thoughts as if he were trash.
His gaze returned to Shinichi, who was still struggling with the demonic power warring within him.
Shokyu's eyes burned with a naked, possessive greed.
"Now," he purred, "it's time to harvest the fruit."
Before the words were finished, Shokyu's figure blurred, a blood-red afterimage rushing straight for Shinichi.
His goal was clear: to seize the unique demonic blood that had successfully fused with the secrets of the Breath of Life.
The moment Shokyu moved, the Hashira, who had been watching him, reacted.
"Can't let you disturb the master," Kamaro chuckled from the sidelines.
The skin on his chest rippled, revealing the face of the long-dead Enmu.
"Blood Demon Art: Forced Sleep - Hypnotic Eyes!"
Instantly, countless hideous eyeballs seemed to sprout across the battlefield.
The massive, wide-range illusion wasn't strong enough to trap a Hashira, but it was enough to distract them, to delay their movements for a fatal second.
But just as Shokyu closed in on the kneeling Shinichi, three attacks erupted.
"Don't even think about it!" "Stop him!" "Stay away from Shinichi!"
Shinobu, her speed pushed to its demonic limit, was first to reach Shokyu.
Her purple Nichirin blade, carrying a deadly poison, was aimed straight at Shokyu's face.
"Sound Breathing, Fifth Form: String Performance!" Uzui Tengen's twin blades detonated a series of explosions, blocking Shokyu's path.
"Serpent Breathing, First Form: Winding Serpent Slash!" Obanai Iguro's blade struck silently from a tricky, coiling angle.
The combined attack of three Hashira was fast, ruthless, and perfectly timed.
Yet, Shokyu's body dissolved into a blood-mist.
Shinobu's blade passed harmlessly through it.
Tengen's explosions only made the mist roil.
The next moment, Shokyu reformed several meters away, completely unharmed.
He parried Tengen's follow-up blades with his bare hands and, with a vicious back-kick, sent Obanai flying.
His strength was more than a match for all three.
"Annoying insects!" Shokyu snorted, his patience gone.
Clang!
Nakime's biwa sounded.
The space around the struggling Shinichi distorted.
In an instant, he was forcibly teleported from his knees, ripped away from his comrades, and reappeared directly in front of Shokyu.
"SHINICHI!!" Shinobu screamed, her heart stopping.
It was too late.
With a satisfied smile, Shokyu raised his blood-red claws and—SHLICK!—plunged his arm straight through Shinichi's chest.
"Ugh—!" Shinichi groaned as he felt his power, his blood, the very essence of the Breath of Life, being frantically siphoned from his body into Shokyu's.
His life force was draining away, the cold of death spreading through his limbs.
"SHINICHI" Tengen and Obanai charged, only to be blasted back by a shockwave of pure power from Shokyu.
He closed his eyes, savoring the influx of energy.
A contradictory, terrifying new vitality began to radiate from him, as if a dead flower were blooming in winter.
His power was evolving at an incredible speed.
A moment later, Shokyu opened his eyes, specks of white light now flickering within his scarlet pupils.
The pressure he exuded was even deeper and more suffocating than Muzan's had been.
"Perfect power," he murmured.
He casually ripped his arm free, tossing the dying Shinichi, a horrific, bloody hole in his chest, aside like trash.
He raised his hand, a destructive crimson ripple gathering in his palm.
"Your mission is over, Shinichi Moriki. Goodbye."
He unleashed the blood-red wave.
At that critical, final moment!
"ROAR!!!"
A dying beast's roar.
Maito, who had been listless and awaiting his end, suddenly exploded with his last ounce of strength.
He broke free from Lee's grasp and shot forward like a cannonball, planting himself between Shinichi and the destructive blast.
BOOM!
The crimson wave slammed into Maito's back.
His already collapsing body disintegrated, but he had used his last moments to shield the man he had been ordered to train.
"MAITO!" Lee cried out in anguish.
With difficulty, Maito turned his head, his fading golden eyes finding Shinichi's.
There was no anger, only a complex, indescribable relief.
Then, his body dissolved into ash.
Shokyu frowned, annoyed by this final, sentimental obstruction.
"Foolish man. You threw your life away for a ghost from your past? I could have given you everything. Idiot."
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