The micro-bombs produced by World Serpent unleashed a terror unimaginable to the people of the Taisho era.
A chain of horrific explosions tore Muzan apart!
Bones shattered, limbs like crushed tomatoes or overripe watermelons violently split, white bones mingling with scarlet flesh and milky-white fluids splattering.
Muzan's entire body resembled cheese on a baking tray, gradually turning a scorched yellow.
Muscles and tendons ripped and curled, flesh and bone collapsing in the blast, charring to coal, bloodstains and ash spraying with the shockwave.
"Sun Breathing, Eleventh Form: Solar Halo Dragon, Head Dance!"
Kochou Kanae brandished her crimson Nichirin Blade.
Solar flames surged, forming a scarlet fire dragon, its ferocious maw snapping at Muzan's neck.
Normally, this move would inflict searing pain as if burned by flames, temporarily halting regeneration.
That was for ordinary demons.
But this was the Demon King, the progenitor of demons!
Forget bombs lacking the 'sun's' power—even beheading him with a Nichirin Blade wouldn't kill him!
He was one step from true immortality, the perfect ultimate lifeform!
The sun!
The only thing in this world that could destroy Muzan was sunlight's touch!
Nothing else, no matter how much his body was ravaged, could kill him.
His terrifying regeneration had already begun.
His scarred husk shed its surface skin, flesh knitting, weaving new tissue ceaselessly.
This was his recovery speed suppressed by Sun Breathing.
At his peak, Muzan's regeneration was unimaginable!
Kochou Kanae sensed the chilling glare from Muzan's regenerated head, brimming with bone-deep hatred.
That look!
This was the moment Kanae had awaited!
To avenge her parents, slain by demons!
Even with Shiraki's memories restored, she genuinely saw this world's parents as family.
The sun-wreathed Nichirin Blade severed a tentacle spinning from Muzan's back, its bone-spiked tip flying.
The instant Muzan's body was cleaved, as the blade moved, the wound's flesh began healing.
It looked less like the blade cut him and more like it swam through his body.
"Useless. I am immortal."
His slightly curled hair lengthened, disheveled over his shoulders.
"That the Demon Slayer Corps has Pillars using Sun Breathing truly surprises me."
His angular muscles formed a near-flawless body, black-red veins layering like some exotic material, writhing slowly.
"Especially your strength. You haven't even awakened your Mark, yet you far surpass the Marked swordsmen I've killed."
Fanged, white-toothed maws roamed Muzan's body, like sharks prowling the sea.
Perhaps seeing only Kanae and Reverie facing him, Muzan suddenly shed his cowardice, no longer eager to flee.
Sunrise was at least three hours away!
Why run?
Her stunning face icy with resolve, Kanae gazed calmly at the monstrous Muzan.
Eight thick, powerful tentacles waved behind him, tiny ice flowers blooming and shattering as they writhed, drifting.
They formed a dense, chilling mist spreading toward Kanae, ice crystals glinting within.
"This is…" Her delicate brows furrowed, a trace of doubt in her gaze.
"Heh~ Exactly! This is the Blood Demon Art of Douma, whom you killed!"
Scarlet ferocity gleamed amid sprouting fangs as Muzan laughed maniacally.
"Every dead demon's Blood Demon Art becomes mine!"
Every demon's power stemmed from Muzan's blood.
When a demon developed their Blood Demon Art, Muzan's blood within them memorized it, feeding it back to him.
This mechanism was akin to Muzan controlling his blood within demons.
Kanae, expressionless, swung her blade, the red sun wheel leaping like solar flames, vaporizing the ice crystals in the mist.
Muzan possessing other demons' Blood Demon Arts wasn't in Demon Slayer's canon.
It was unexpected but logical.
This was a real world, not a manga's creation.
Muscle-tipped bone spikes, like daggers, twisted like snakes, piercing the air with sharp shrieks, stabbing at Kanae.
"That laughter… Mr. Muzan might as well change his surname to Uchiha."
Kanae moved nimbly, dodging and weaving through the writhing muscle tentacles, like a butterfly flitting through flowers.
"On second thought, while the Four Elites each have their 'talents,' they're not something Mr. Muzan can match."
Her Nichirin Blade danced, meeting fanged tentacles, solar flames surging forward, reducing approaching tentacles to ash.
"Hmph!"
Those tentacles were a feint. Muzan's true attack was hidden scarlet tentacles, their venomous needle tips glinting, springing forth.
"Well done!"
Kanae dodged by a hair's breadth, a cocktail of Blood Demon Art toxins grazing her forehead, a few black strands drifting down.
Thanks to the Authority of Void's heightened spatial awareness, she narrowly escaped Muzan's trap!
"All your efforts are futile. No matter how many times you cut me, you're only forging a stronger body and aiding my fusion of all Blood Demon Arts!"
Muzan's arms extended, thicker tentacles morphing into massive, hardened blood-red blades.
Blood Demon Art: Merciless Blood Blade!
Five-meter-long solid blood blades struck the Nichirin Blade from above, notching it, the wild force hurling Kanae back.
"Soon, I'll have the blue Spider Lily!"
Flesh bloomed like a flower, revealing the fake ancient book within, Muzan fixating on the blue Spider Lily illustration. "Immortality is just the start—I want… invincible eternity!!!"
"Pfft! Hahahahaha!"
Kanae, flung back, landed in a soft, comforting embrace, caught steadily by Reverie, landing lightly. But hearing Muzan's words, she couldn't hold it in, bursting into bell-like laughter.
She laughed until tears formed, Reverie stifling a chuckle, her slender fingers wiping Kanae's tear-streaked eyes.
"Invincible eternity?"
"You?"
"A coward who only dared act after Master Yoriichi's death, dreaming of invincibility?"
Across myriad worlds, countless dimensions, which invincible being didn't carry conviction?
Kochou Kanae's cherry lips parted, spitting words laced with mockery and disdain.
"Don't make people laugh their teeth off."
Under Muzan's enraged glare, Kanae gripped Reverie's hand.
Slender fingers intertwined with delicate ones, locked tightly, seamless.
"Let you witness again the power of dimensional domination!"
The moment her words fell, a wind rose!
"Graceful starry night, guide my path, threads of fate, hearts entwined, in the celestial plain, brimming with light, born of trust, united as one."
A timeless, melodious chant flowed from Reverie's lips, the union aria.
Emerald winds swirled around Reverie and Kanae, both enveloped in a gentle, ethereal tornado.
Holy Azure Divine Gale, soaring skyward, earth bearing clouds below, heavens raising clouds above!
Reverie's hair ribbon drifted down, as if unsealing a lock, revealing the radiant emerald core stone on her forehead.
Lustrous light arcs rippled, green specks danced, refracting crystalline splendor.
Carried by the gentle breeze, Reverie's body floated, sky-blue hair fluttering, two snow-white hands clasped tightly.
Kanae's butterfly-wing lashes trembled softly.
She could hear the wind's voice, feel its warmth—a serene, ancient sound.
Under Muzan's uncomprehending stare, Reverie's form faded, replaced by a crystal-like emerald mark on Kanae's smooth forehead, symbolizing 'wind' in ancient tongues.
The emerald tornado dissipated, Kanae lifted by tender winds, Reverie's soul phantom appearing behind her, flawless jade hands overlapping slowly.
The whirlwind swirled, and when all winds vanished, a sky-blue blade appeared in Kanae's right hand.
No hilt—her hand seemed fused with the blade, wrapped in blue-green ribbons, a bone-like extension reaching up her arm.
The blade, shaped like feathers, shimmered with flowing light like a spirit snake, tracing ancient totem marks.
The pristine sword bore a fist-sized green gem at its tip, flanked by two smaller, eye-like gems.
Within lay vast power, quietly awaiting awakening.
"What… is that!?"
Muzan's scarlet slit-pupils brimmed with incomprehension and shock.
A thousand-year-old Demon King, what hadn't Muzan seen?
This, he truly hadn't!
A person… turned into a sword?
Even Blood Demon Arts couldn't pull off something this absurd!
Are you the demon, or am I!?
Less shocked, more like his worldview shattered.
The Emerald Wind Blade's length exceeded Kanae's height, yet in her hand, it was weightless, feather-light.
Light as a feather, sharp as the wind—this was the Seven Glittering Jewels: Reverie Metherlence of the Emerald Wind!
Floating midair on buoyant winds, Kanae merely raised the Emerald Wind Blade, casually slicing toward Muzan.
A tempest erupted!
Like the gale stirred by a roc soaring ninety thousand miles, it instantly peeled hundreds of meters of earth, ferocious and razor-sharp currents lifting Muzan.
The divine gale was a blade, its edge glinting coldly in the storm, shredding Muzan's body, the unearthed soil, and stones into dust fused into the wind wall.
Faintly, stone-cracking roars and Muzan's screams echoed.
If bonded with another, the Emerald Wind Blade could still slay Muzan, but not this effortlessly.
Leaving aside the legendary Miracle Power, if Reverie fully tapped the Seven Glittering Jewel's true might, she could blow away continents!
Now, Reverie was bonded with 'herself'!
Her baseline was others' limit!
Even if not yet at true continent-level, it was at least island-busting power.
Muzan had no chance to resist!
Kanae, wielding the Emerald Wind Blade, was borne by breezes as she strolled the void, her eyes glowing with serene mist, gazing at Muzan, torn to pieces in the storm.
"Invincible?"
Her delicate fingers twirled a lock of dark hair, Kanae tilting her face, her tone calm.
"Who claims invincibility? Who dares speak of being undefeated?"