As Dôma's voice faded into the air, the massive demon with hundreds of eyes leaped eagerly into the arena.
All its eyes locked onto its target, a mischievous smile spreading across its face.
Dôma, too, fixed his gaze on the creature he inwardly nicknamed Argos. He didn't need a sixth sense to know this opponent harbored sinister intentions toward him.
Rising gracefully from his kneeling position, he stepped toward the center and greeted the other party with a polite smile.
"Delighted to meet you, senpai. I'm Dôma~"
As usual, his soft voice carried no genuine emotion: everything was calculated. His excitement had dwindled since his time in the Infinity Castle.
"I lost my name long ago, but they call me Hundred Eyes," the creature replied. Its deep voice echoed as dozens of its eyes took an eager step forward. Lower Moon One already stood in the center of the arena, confident, striking an offensive stance.
"Your eyes are truly beautiful," it suddenly remarked after a brief pause.
"Really? I think so too~ But people get used to their presence far too quickly, alas," Dôma said with a feigned sigh, as if the world adapted too easily to such a rare sight.
"I can understand your frustration. I myself… experience something similar."
Dôma's rainbow-reflecting irises sparkled with amusement. He let out a clear, almost childlike laugh.
"Haha, it sounds like we'll get along splendidly. If it weren't for this occasion, I think we'd be friends."
He gave a slight shrug, a hint of regret in his voice, his face adopting a falsely pitiful expression, as if he were about to do something he'd "regret" soon.
Then, he unfurled his golden fan.
"No matter. I'll devour you, and your eyes will be mine."
Hundred Eyes raised its left arm after its declaration of Dôma's demise. A blue eye opened in its palm, fixed on its target.
"Blood Demon Art: Hundred Eyes — Pierce."
The eye glimmered, and a rain of sharp spears shot through the air.
"Oh—"
Dôma let out a feigned exclamation, though the speed had caught him off guard.
Yet, his fan swept upward, summoning ice: a crystalline wall rose, adorned with magnificent frozen lotuses.
The spears embedded themselves with a sharp clink, some curving through the air to pursue their target.
'I see… precise projectile control.'
Adopting the same tactic he used against the horned demon in the alley, Dôma shifted into observation mode, minimizing his attacks to study his opponent.
He stepped back with a soft laugh, erecting a second ice wall.
"You want to keep my eyes as a souvenir? Hmm, greedy idea, senpai~"
While speaking in a playful tone, he conjured myriad frozen crystals that burst into delicate petals.
"Blood Demon Art: Lotus Petal."
Across from him, Hundred Eyes raised its right hand; a purple eye opened.
"Blood Demon Art: Hundred Eyes — Illusion."
Dôma's vision blurred… and he found himself sitting cross-legged in the Temple of *The Eternal Paradise Faith*, surrounded by weeping disciples.
"Ugh… this boring?"
He tilted his head. An illusion, of course. Even without Jay's otaku knowledge, Dôma knew such an art was predictable.
Devoid of true emotion, he offered no openings. Illusions based on feelings were useless against him.
'Blood Demon Art: Vanity Paradise,' he thought.
The illusion shattered like a pierced bubble.
"Looks like that doesn't work too well on me. Such a shame, senpai~"
He reopened his fan and resumed his assault: the lotus petals continued to slash at Hundred Eyes, who couldn't counter effectively.
But the demon didn't panic; a massive green eye opened on its chest.
"Blood Demon Art: Thousand Eyes — Divert."
The petals parted gently, flowing around its body like a rock in a river.
'Limited vector manipulation? Annoying, but it's localized to a specific area,' Dôma concluded.
Yet, the icy powder lingered, and the cold gnawed at the enemy. Crystals embedded themselves in some of its eyes, while the temperature plummeted.
Muscle stiffness, hypothermia, numbness, frostbite…
The longer the fight dragged on, the more certain Dôma's victory became due to the cumulative effects of cold exposure.
Soon, frost appeared on Hundred Eyes' skin; its breathing grew ragged. Tiny crystals even formed inside several of its pupils.
"You're awfully quiet now… have you lost your arrogance?"
Dôma's multicolored eyes gleamed with amusement. He waved his fan again.
"Blood Demon Art: White Priestess of Winter."
Two icy vines sprouted, blooming into twin frost lotuses before blossoming with a priestess inside each.
The priestesses exhaled a breath of frigid air, coating the ground in thick frost. White mist spread relentlessly across the arena.
"Aren't they magnificent?"
Dôma smiled, erecting more ice walls as the mist expanded.
Unfortunately, the demon failed to notice the growing number of icy berries in the arena.
Hundred Eyes retreated, frowning. But the freezing air engulfed everything. Realizing the danger, it opened its left eye; a faint glow pulsed in the black pupil.
"Blood Demon Art: Hundred Eyes — Grasp."
"Huh—?"
Dôma suddenly felt his perspective shift: he saw through his opponent's eyes, observing his own motionless body.
"What a strange ability…" he mused, intrigued.
Hundred Eyes' frontal eye opened, its demon rank etched in the scarlet pupil.
"Blood Demon Art: Hundred Eyes — Die!"
A red beam shot forth, tracking its target like Itachi's Amaterasu.
But before it could connect, Dôma vanished, cloaked by the thickening cold mist in the arena.
From Hundred Eyes' perspective, Dôma's speed suddenly surged.
Around him, the ice walls reflected the silhouette of the golden-fan-wielding demon, a perfect mirror reminiscent of Haku's technique from the Naruto universe.
"Are your eyes playing tricks on you, senpai~?"
The ice walls Dôma created during the fight weren't merely defensive.
Dôma had crafted them as a failsafe, having witnessed the wide array of Hundred Eyes' techniques.
He also noticed a common thread in all of his opponent's abilities.
They required sight (or locating) the target.
This was a troublesome factor in an arena duel, but Dôma had the confidence to counter this complex challenge in an open fight.
'If I can't ambush you because of the terrain, then I'll change the terrain itself~.'
A bold idea few could wield against Hundred Eyes as Dôma did.
In the misty, ice-fogged environment, Hundred Eyes couldn't distinguish what was real from what was false.
"You already used that move, and I found its weakness~," he said, referring to the unfortunate demon Hundred Eyes had devoured before facing Dôma.
The remark stunned the spectators in the Infinity Castle, as Dôma implied he had planned everything from the start.
The silhouette on the ice wall raised its folding fan and brought it down, satisfied with the demon's troubled expression.
"Blood Demon Art: Winter's Ice Pillars."
Dense, sharp ice pillars descended rapidly from an aerial position, thanks to Nakime's random configuration of the Infinity Castle.
The giant Hundred Eyes hurriedly tried to move away, only to discover its feet were frozen to the ground without realizing it.
It opened the eye on its chest, about to use its Blood Demon Art to alter the trajectory of the falling ice pillars, but suddenly felt a terrifying sense of danger emanating from beneath its feet.
Dôma wasn't attacking from one direction but two simultaneously.
This act shocked all the spectators, as it meant the ice pillar attack was a ruse in itself.
Hundred Eyes should never have wasted time being stunned by the mirrors or the ice pillars, as it had already lost enough time and mobility to escape in time.
And the worst wasn't the reduced mobility from the ice and frostbite, but the neutralization of its vector-based defensive power.
It could no longer dodge or provide proper defense.
A cluster of sharp ice pillars suddenly erupted from the frozen ground, piercing Hundred Eyes' body. The cold and stiffness prevented it from reacting in time, even as it blocked the aerial ice pillar attack with vector manipulation.
'Well, Vlad Dracula would be proud,'Dôma thought, observing the scene from afar, hidden in an ice-covered crevice.
Yes, Dôma wasn't truly in a mirror.
To be precise, he had entered a mirror and dug a hole beneath the arena from within the mirror (ice wall).
All the reflections Hundred Eyes saw were fake, from the moment it lost sight of Dôma in the icy mist.
No matter what Hundred Eyes chose, it could never have outmaneuvered Dôma without a large-scale attack.
An ability this demon didn't possess, as Dôma had deduced through observation.
A "satisfied" smile spread across his face.
Dôma summoned more ice pillars from the air to further immobilize and inflict damage.
The extreme cold froze the flesh around the wounds the demon tried to regenerate.
White priestesses were summoned again, as Dôma aimed to utterly destroy his opponent.
After ten minutes of enduring relentless icy power, Hundred Eyes' body began to reach its limits.
"It's over…"
Hundred Eyes was desperate, but it could only stand helplessly before its impending death.
Strangely, long-forgotten memories quietly resurfaced in its mind.
Since its birth, its vision had been nothing but darkness.
It could never see the dazzling sun, the summer flowers, or its family that never abandoned it.
It had so desperately wanted to see, to be useful, to see more… It froze for a moment as an important memory flashed in its mind.
It even overshadowed its agony.
"What have I done all these years…? P-please… forgive me…" *tear* "
Before being fully engulfed by the ice, a tear fell from Hundred Eyes' purple left eye.
This situation halted Dôma in his tracks, as Jay's memories reminded him of something important.
The blood of Muzan in the target and the logic behind demonic powers in the KNY universe.
"Damn, you're making me look like the villain here. Fine, okay." Dôma approached the fallen demon.
It was slowly turning to icy dust due to the extreme cold exerted upon it.
Dôma leaned down and tore out the only intact eye of Hundred Eyes before swallowing it.
According to Jay's memories, it was possible to use a demon's power without being its true owner.
However, there were two conditions.
First, the target had to be alive, and second, the target needed to use an element to activate its power.
Much like Nakime and her biwa.
Dôma didn't devour Hundred Eyes' eye, but he intended to assimilate it through the biological manipulation unique to demons.
It's worth noting that the original Dôma was highly skilled in the art of biological manipulation.
Dôma had devoured Shinobu while facing Inosuke and Kanao.
Thus, he was confident in his ability to deceive Hundred Eyes' body and claim its power as his own using Muzan's blood within.
"You can die in peace now. Your eye will still see this world," he said in a gentle tone, as he would to his suicidal followers.
Dôma glanced at the skin of his hand, where the eye bearing the Lower One mark was now visible.
The empty socket of Hundred Eyes' eye shed more tears, but it left Two final word before fading.
"T… thank you."
***
Author's note: …damn, I feel sorry for Argos (Hundred Eyes).
I didn't have the strength to include his entire prepared backstory, lol (I just summarized it in a few sentences).
But if you haven't guessed it from the information provided, I'll make it simple.
Hundred Eyes was a kid born blind, but he wasn't entirely miserable, because he had a good family.
Then Muzan came and did something similar to what he did with Tanjiro and Nezuko (or even Rui).
Hundred Eyes' family was devoured by him under the effect of Muzan's blood.
Like Akaza and other demons, he forgot…