Yosuke struck first. With a beat of the blood-red wings on his back, he rose into the air.
"Blood Demon Art – Shadow Wolf!"
Dozens of wolves of living shadow materialized out of thin air, snarling with fangs bared as they lunged toward Kibutsuji Muzan.
Muzan's arms morphed into piercing whips, and with a single sweep he shattered the pack. The whips lashed against the cliff face, their force so overwhelming that half the mountainside collapsed.
The whips came snapping toward Yosuke again at blinding speed. Yosuke twisted aside in midair, narrowly avoiding the strike, then chose to close in on Muzan himself.
The blood swirling around Yosuke's body shifted shape, forming countless needle-like spikes, and shot toward Muzan.
Muzan didn't even bother to dodge. He allowed the needles to pierce his flesh—Yosuke's blood-borne toxin invading his body.
But in the same instant, Muzan's claws seized Yosuke's arms. From his back, nine segmented tendrils whipped forward, stabbing through Yosuke and injecting Muzan's own venom into him.
Their bodies convulsed as the toxins invaded, cells tearing apart at furious speed. Both plummeted together from the cliffside down into the depths of the valley.
Yet, as kings among demons, both Yosuke and Muzan possessed monstrous regenerative powers. By the time they had even hit the ground, their bodies had already neutralized the invading toxins.
Yosuke spread his wings, intending to take to the sky again for a ranged assault—but Muzan seized him by the legs and slammed him into the ground with such force that a massive crater opened beneath him.
The nine tendrils on Muzan's back lashed downward in unison, stabbing into the crater.
A thunderous boom shook the valley.
But Muzan frowned. The sensation wasn't right. He hadn't hit Yosuke at all.
When the dust cleared, the pit was empty—Yosuke had vanished.
He had activated his Blood Demon Art – Hidden Eye, concealing himself as he circled for the perfect opening.
Yet the moment he crept close behind Muzan, the demon lord's tendrils lashed backward, striking precisely where Yosuke lurked.
Muzan smirked as the concealment broke and Yosuke reappeared.
"Cloaking yourself, hm? Next time, remember this: when you vanish, hide your demonic aura as well."
Yosuke snorted coldly. "I don't need your advice."
He drew the Nichirin Blade at his hip.
Muzan's eyes narrowed. That weapon was one he knew all too well—too many of his underlings had been slain by its edge.
"Ah, the Nichirin Blade," he sneered. "Ubuyashiki Yosuke, how pitiful. A demon wielding a weapon made to slaughter demons. Surely you're not naïve enough to think a scrap of sunlight's power can kill me?"
"Pitiful? No, Muzan—the pitiful one is you. You betrayed your parents, your clan, your own kind. From the very beginning… you never should have been born!"
Memories of his slaughtered parents, the clan's curse, and humanity's suffering set Yosuke ablaze with fury.
"Betrayal?" Muzan's laughter was cold. "They were nothing more than stepping stones on my path to becoming the ultimate demon. They should have been honored to serve that purpose. And when I spared them, instead of gratitude they dared form the Demon Slayer Corps to oppose me. They all deserved death!"
He turned his gaze skyward. In the darkness above, the faintest trace of dawn began to creep. Sunrise was near.
Muzan's eyes gleamed with malice. "Ubuyashiki Yosuke, you are right about one thing—I cannot kill you. But I can make you relive the terror I inflicted on you that night!"
"Blood Demon Art – Black Blood Brambles!"
From Muzan's flesh erupted a writhing forest of black thorns, filling the entire valley.
Yosuke swung his Nichirin Blade to hack them down—but to his shock, the blade shattered instead.
The brambles pierced through him from every direction, riddling his body and spilling torrents of blood.
Muzan adjusted the gentleman's hat upon his head and looked down at Yosuke with disdain.
"You chose not to devour humans. You'll never reach my level. Ubuyashiki Yosuke, consider this a warning: do not interfere with me again. Or I will make you relive it—your arm torn from your body, humiliated as you were that night."
Yosuke coughed blood, but his lips twisted in a bitter smile.
"You think… I'm still that powerless boy?"
"Blood Demon Art – Blood Domain!"
At his roar, the blood streaming from his wounds spread across the valley floor, forming a vast, seething domain of blood.
The black thorns dissolved into it, devoured. From the liquid ground, countless weapons of pure blood surged upward.
Yosuke spread his wings and ascended. With a gesture, one of the blood-forged blades rose into his hand—a katana. He hurled it at Muzan.
Muzan's arms became whips once more, clashing against the crimson blade. The whips were driven back, but the blood katana shattered, splattering back into the domain below.
A spear of blood rose next, and Yosuke seized it. In one fluid motion he hurled it, impaling Muzan and pinning him to the earth.
In the blink of an eye, Yosuke was upon him, stomping the spear deeper into the ground to anchor Muzan fast. With his free hand he drew up a blood-forged dagger, raising it for the decapitation.
But Muzan twisted his head aside at the last instant—the dagger carved only half his skull. With half his face grotesquely dangling, Muzan looked like a monster out of nightmares.
Yet in the next instant, his head reformed, whole again. His whips, his tendrils, and the gnashing mouths that had sprouted on his arms all struck at once, piercing and seizing Yosuke, locking his arms immobile.
They were deadlocked—neither able to move. And the sky above grew steadily brighter.
For the moment, the shadows of the valley shielded them from the sun, but Muzan's composure was cracking.
He thrashed, but the spear nailed him down. His whips and tendrils, embedded in Yosuke's flesh, could not be withdrawn—the demon hunter's muscles had locked around them, trapping Muzan in place.
As the sunlight drew nearer, Muzan snarled:
"Would you throw your life away just to drag me down with you?!"
Yosuke's grip only tightened. "If I can die with you, that's a price I'm willing to pay. Kibutsuji Muzan—go to hell!"
"Madman!"
Cursing, Muzan unleashed a hidden trump card.
From his body erupted a cataclysmic shockwave, expanding outward in all directions.
The force blasted Yosuke from him, hurling him into the cliffside with bone-crushing impact.
Muzan seized the opening and fled at blinding speed.
Yosuke collapsed to the ground, forcing himself to rise. His Blood Domain had cost him a river of blood, leaving him frail and pale. With the sun now spilling into the valley, he could only retreat into the shelter of a nearby cave.
He stared after the path of Muzan's escape and let out a faint, mocking laugh.
"Kibutsuji Muzan… this time, it seems you were the one who felt fear."
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