Alex was not a gambler.
According to the plot, the next thing waiting for them should be a man eating demon. Even if the original story suggested Tanjiro would make it through, Alex had no intention of relaxing just because the script said so. Blind trust in fate was the fastest way to get killed. In a world like this, caution was never optional.
Fortunately, the thousand emotion points from the newbie gift pack were enough to unlock one basic ability from the template.
And for dealing with a demon with monstrous regeneration, there was only one choice.
"System, unlock Blood Weeping."
[Ding! One thousand emotion points consud.]
[Congratulations, Host. You have unlocked the template ability: Blood Weeping.]
[Blood Weeping: Inflicts wounds that suppress self healing and apply a continuous bleeding effect.]
The mont the ability unlocked, complete mastery poured into Alex like instinct.
As long as his blade cut the target, he could consu Demon Power to keep the wound from closing. Not only would the flesh fail to regenerate, the injury would continue to bleed without end.
Against a demon, it was practically a divine ability.
With this, Tanjiro would actually have a chance to kill that monster.
Alex checked his remaining emotion points and saw there were not even two hundred left. He let out a silent sigh.
"It really is a long road ahead. At this rate, who knows when I'll unlock everything?"
...
Carrying the bamboo basket on his back, Tanjiro pressed onward beneath the fading light of sunset. Even after night swallowed the mountain paths, he did not stop. Mount Sagiri was still ahead, and his steps never slowed.
At so point, Nezuko climbed out of the bamboo basket and began walking at his side.
Brother and sister moved together along the forest trail, the darkness deepening around them, until a faint glow appeared in the distance.
A light.
A candle, weak and flickering, but unmistakable.
Tanjiro imdiately quickened his pace.
"It's a temple," he said, taking Nezuko's hand as he hurried toward it. "There's still a light on inside, so soone should be there. Let's go see if they need help."
He stopped mid sentence.
His nose twitched.
The change in his expression was imdiate.
"There's blood."
His grip on Nezuko tightened.
"The mountain road is steep. Soone must be hurt."
Without another word, Tanjiro broke into a run and rushed up the stone steps toward the temple.
Alex did not stop him.
He had no intention of warning Tanjiro away. What he wanted was simple.
He wanted Tanjiro to kill this demon with his own hands.
The mont Tanjiro reached the entrance, he shoved the door open and called out, voice tight with concern.
"Is everyone inside all right?"
The answer was a scene from a nightmare.
Bodies lay scattered across the floor in mangled heaps. Blood had soaked into the floorboards and spread like a dark red lake. In the middle of it all sat a figure with its back to the door, crouched low, chewing on sothing wet and stringy.
Tanjiro froze.
His body went rigid. His breathing stopped.
Alex's voice cut through his mind like a blade.
"That's a man eating demon. I'll lend you my power. Draw your sword and kill it, now."
Tanjiro's face was pale with shock, but the mont he heard Alex, his body moved.
His hand shot to the hilt.
Steel slid free with a sharp tallic cry.
He gripped the sword in both hands and raised it in front of him.
Inside the temple, the demon still had not turned around. It seed to sense sothing familiar from Tanjiro's blade, and its voice ca out full of savage irritation.
"This is my territory. If you dare interrupt my al, I won't let you leave alive."
It slowly turned its head.
Blood sared its mouth and stained its hands. Its tongue slid out and licked the crimson from its fingers before it rose to its feet and stared straight at Tanjiro.
Its eyes narrowed.
"You feel strange," it muttered. "Are you really human, kid?"
Tanjiro said nothing.
His knuckles whitened around the hilt.
For a heartbeat, the air itself seed to freeze.
Then Alex sensed it.
"It's coming!"
The instant the warning left his mouth, the candle inside the temple went out.
Darkness swallowed the room.
A shadow burst forward.
The demon lunged like a beast, crossing the space between them in a blink. One hand seized Tanjiro by the shoulder and hurled him through the doorway, sending him crashing out into the courtyard. In the sa motion, its other hand shot toward his head, fingers hooked like claws, aiming to pierce straight through his skull.
But Tanjiro had already been warned.
The mont he was thrown back, he struck.
His sword carved sideways in a clean horizontal slash.
The demon bent sharply backward to evade, but it was still too late.
The blade tore across its throat.
Blood sprayed into the night.
Tanjiro stumbled back and landed hard, skidding across the dirt. The demon also retreated a few steps, one hand flying to its neck.
Its lips peeled back in a snarl.
"A sword?" it hissed. "So what? A wound like this will heal in a mont."
But it did not heal.
Not even a little.
The flesh did not close. The bleeding did not stop. Instead, the wound burst open wider, and blood began pouring from its neck in a horrifying stream.
A fountain of red gushed between its fingers.
The wet sound of it spattering onto the ground was grotesquely clear in the stillness.
The demon stared at its own blood in disbelief.
Tanjiro stared too.
"Eh...?"
The demon's expression twisted.
"Eh?! Why isn't it healing?! What is this?!"
It clamped both hands over its throat, trying desperately to stop the bleeding, but it was useless. The blood kept spilling through its fingers.
Tanjiro, however, was not looking at the demon anymore.
His gaze had shifted to Nezuko.
She was standing just outside the temple entrance, staring at the human corpses inside. Saliva hung from the corner of her mouth. Her body trembled.
Tanjiro's heart lurched.
Alex's voice ca again, calm and rciless, guiding him where hesitation could only destroy him.
"It looks like you don't have much ti, Tanjiro. The only way to stop your sister is to kill the demon in front of you first."
His tone sharpened.
"You don't want Nezuko to eat people, do you?"
A pause.
Then, like a knife twisted deeper:
"If she killed soone, what would you do? Kill her, and then commit seppuku?"
Tanjiro's eyes widened.
For a mont, his face went blank, as if the words had struck him harder than the demon's attack ever could.
Then the hesitation vanished.
What replaced it was resolve.
His jaw clenched.
His grip tightened.
"I won't let that happen!"
At the sa mont, the system notification sounded in Alex's mind again.
[Ding! Negative emotions detected from Tanjiro. Obtained 5 emotion points.]
[Ding! Intense negative emotions detected from Tanjiro. Obtained 10 emotion points.]
[Ding! Intense negative emotions detected from the man eating demon. Obtained 2 emotion points.]
...
At first, Alex was pleased.
Then he saw the number from the demon and his mood soured instantly.
Only two?
So the huge gains really ca from Tanjiro alone.
As for everyone else, the emotion points they provided were pitiful.
That realization gave Alex a headache.
"This is going to be more troubleso than I thought..."
anwhile, the demon had already figured it out.
There was sothing wrong with Tanjiro's sword.
No, not just the sword. Sothing about the slash itself. No matter how hard it tried, the wound on its neck would not close. Blood continued to gush out with frightening speed. If this kept up, even a demon would bleed out.
Its only path forward was obvious.
Kill the brat in front of it before it was too late.
Its eyes bulged with fury.
Veins throbbed along its forehead as it released one hand from its throat and roared, voice full of hatred.
"You little bastard! I'll tear you apart and devour every piece of you!"
Its body blurred.
This ti, it charged without holding anything back.
Tanjiro's eyes could barely keep up. The demon was too fast, too vicious, too sudden.
But Alex's warning arrived first.
"Swing at the front. Cut its neck!"
Tanjiro obeyed without hesitation.
He stepped in and brought the sword down with both hands in a fierce forward slash.
The demon reached him at that exact mont.
Its neck slamd straight into the path of the blade.
Only a desperate reaction saved it from decapitation. It threw both hands up at the last instant and caught the blade with its palms, forcing the strike off course.
Even so, its hands were split open on the spot.
And the wound across its neck deepened again.
Blood exploded out even harder.
Pain twisted the demon's face.
It had just sworn it would not be fooled by the sa trick twice, only to be cut the sa way all over again.
Its expression beca hideous with rage and humiliation.
With a feral snarl, it opened its bloody mouth wide, showing rows of sharp fangs, and bit down directly onto the sword. At the sa ti, its dark green hair writhed like living snakes and coiled around the sword's body, trying to trap it in place.
Alex was stunned for a second.
Then his disgust erupted imdiately.
"Are you brain dead? Why are you biting instead of Tanjiro?"
A beat later, he added with pure revulsion:
"You're not hurting , but this is disgusting!"
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