More precisely, the boss had entered its second phase.
Muzan's nerves tightened all over again.
That thing wearing Tanjirou Kamado's face was no longer Tanjirou Kamado.
"Who exactly are you…?"
No answer ca.
At the center of Mount Natagumo, Alex settled into Tanjirou's body and flexed his fingers once, testing the unfamiliar weight of flesh and bone.
A subtle smile rose at the corner of his mouth.
So this is the Hinokami Kagura.
Tanjirou had finally awakened it.
Then it was his turn to use it.
He held Asuramaru in one hand. Flas burst to life along the sword, burning hot and fierce, like a rising sun tearing through the pitch-black forest.
At that mont, the familiar system notification sounded in his mind.
[Ding! Detected intense negative emotion from Lower Moon Five, Rui, before death. Obtained 3,500 Emotion Points!]
[Obtained 2,000 Demon Power. Thirty percent will automatically be fed back to the Sword Master!]
The notification faded.
Demon Power surged inside Alex, while Tanjirou's body received the Feedback like a baptism. His aura climbed sharply, growing heavier and fiercer by the second.
The three remaining demons were not fools.
Rokuro, the oldest among them and the one with the most experience, noticed the change imdiately. His cracked face darkened.
"Your appearance has not changed," he said, voice low, "but my senses tell you are no longer that Demon Slayer."
His eyes narrowed.
"Who are you?"
Mukago stood beside him, her cute face clouded with confusion. She did not understand what had happened, but instinct told her the person before her had beco far more dangerous.
Wakuraba, still hidden among the shadows, reached the sa conclusion even faster.
In his past life as a ninja, he had learned how to judge people by their posture, breathing, gaze, and killing intent.
The Demon Slayer before him had changed completely.
The way he stood, the way he held the sword, the way his eyes asured the battlefield—it was like another soul had taken the stage.
Wakuraba said nothing. Instead, he concealed his presence even deeper, waiting for the chance to strike.
Rokuro received no answer.
His patience snapped.
He crossed his hands and ford a seal.
"Blood Demon Art—Chaotic Surface Piercing!"
The surrounding trees answered him.
Branches twisted, hardened, and sharpened into spear-like points. Then they shot toward Alex from every direction, ripping through the air with shrill whistles.
Alex did not move imdiately.
He only lifted Asuramaru in one hand.
The first branch arrived.
He cut it down.
Then the second.
The third.
The fourth.
His movents were neither frantic nor wasteful. He stepped between attacks with effortless precision, the flaming sword flashing again and again. In just a few breaths, every branch aid at him had been severed and left burning on the forest floor.
Then he stopped, calm as ever.
This combat ability far surpassed what Tanjirou could currently display.
Even Alex himself was not entirely sure why. Since becoming a Demonic Sword, his understanding of battle, swordsmanship, and Breathing Styles had risen to an absurd degree. Perhaps it was simply one of the talents that ca with his current existence.
Or perhaps a sword was always ant to understand killing better than a human did.
By then, the Feedback had ended.
Tanjirou's body had been strengthened again. With its current foundation, and with Alex's Demon Power reserves behind it, these three demons were no longer enough to overwhelm him even without Demonization.
Alex moved.
His figure blurred forward, his footwork flowing like a rushing tide as he went straight for Rokuro.
"So I'm your target?" Rokuro's face twisted. The black cracks across his skin spread rapidly as his hands ford another seal. "Naive!"
"Blood Demon Art—Wood Human Technique!"
Nearby trees bent and groaned, as though pulled by invisible hands. Their trunks gathered together, intertwining into a massive wooden form.
Mukago also reacted.
If she killed this Demon Slayer, Lord Muzan would forgive her.
He had to forgive her.
"Go to hell!" she scread, tears still clinging to her lashes. "You damned Demon Slayer!"
"Blood Demon Art—Boundless Falling Roots!"
The vines behind her rooted into the earth. Smaller flower buds sprouted from both sides of the largest bloom. Three buds opened at the sa ti, revealing clusters of round fruit packed inside.
The roots below split apart and grew new branches, slithering over the ground like living snakes.
The fruit shot out like bullets.
The vines struck from below.
Alex dodged the barrage ahead of him, his body rising into the air for a brief instant. The vines imdiately seized that opening and lunged.
He changed his grip, holding the sword first forward, then reversed.
"Hinokami Kagura—Burning Bones, Sumr Sun."
The sword spun.
A ring of fla erupted outward, its heat so fierce it seed to warp the night air. The vines attacking from below were severed at once, and the incoming fruit burned to ash before reaching him.
Alex landed and continued forward.
Mukago could only keep forcing the remaining vines between them, but the exchange was growing worse for her with every second.
Each vine cut away was difficult to regenerate.
Each burst of fruit failed to stop his advance.
She watched him draw closer and closer, and fear swallowed her again.
But Muzan was watching.
She had no chance to run.
She could only continue attacking while tears poured down her face.
"It's your fault…" Mukago sobbed. "Why won't you just die already? I don't want to die… I don't want to die yet…"
Rokuro snapped at her.
"Stop losing your head! Calm down and kill him with !"
Behind him, the several-ter-tall wooden figure had fully ford.
It resembled a giant tree, but the thick trunk was covered in demonic faces. Its roots had torn themselves free of the earth and now acted like legs, dragging the monstrous body forward step by step.
"Wrap your remaining vines around my Treant!" Rokuro ordered.
Mukago wiped her tears and obeyed.
Her remaining vines, along with the rooted main body, coiled around the massive Treant. The flowers embedded themselves into its bark, their buds opening across its shoulders and arms.
The two Blood Demon Arts fused into one.
A moving fortress of wood, vines, thorns, and poisonous fruit stood before Alex.
He raised an eyebrow.
Then smiled.
"Sowhat interesting."
The Treant advanced.
Its branches beca piercing thorns. Its vine-wrapped arms swept outward. Flower buds blooming across its body fired fruit in dense volleys, turning the entire forest ahead into a killing field.
It could attack.
It could defend.
It could pressure from every angle.
For an ordinary Demon Slayer, this thing would have been a nightmare.
Alex stepped forward instead.
Flas surged with every swing of his sword, painting burning arcs through the darkness. Each slash scorched the air and carved through the Treant's assaults, reducing vines, branches, and fruit alike to drifting embers.
The firelight made the forest look almost beautiful.
Rokuro did not feel beauty.
He felt despair.
"Why…" His voice trembled. "Why are you so strong? You're not even a Hashira…"
It was not rely strength that broke him.
It was the sheer unfairness of it.
This Demon Slayer could heal faster than a demon. His sword could prevent their regeneration. His power kept increasing as if battle itself fed him.
Everything that should have belonged to demons—their endurance, their recovery, their terrifying persistence—was being used against them.
What kind of monster were they fighting?
Even Muzan, watching from afar, felt his heart sink.
Unless sothing changed, this ambush would fail again.
On the battlefield, Alex slashed into the Treant again and again. Scorching sword marks cut across the massive trunk, leaving deep wounds and charred patches that refused to close.
He clicked his tongue softly.
"To finish this quickly… it's still a little troubleso, after all."
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
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