"Is that so?" Karaku's grin widened. "Then splitting apart really was a stroke of luck!"
A maple-leaf fan condensed in his hand, its surface gleaming under the moonlight.
Tanjiro faced the two demons alone.
One held a khakkhara that crackled with lightning.
The other laughed with a fan in hand, his relaxed posture making him seem almost careless.
But neither one was harmless.
Tanjiro tightened his grip around Asuramaru. Black Demon Power spilled from the edge of the sword, crawling along the blade like living smoke.
Sekido's eyes narrowed.
"What is that?"
Karaku tilted his head, curiosity flickering across his face.
At that exact mont, Tanjiro swung.
A pitch-black crescent tore through the air.
Sekido reacted first. He raised his khakkhara to block, lightning bursting from the staff in a wild flash.
It made no difference.
The black slash passed through the khakkhara as if the weapon were paper.
Then it cut straight through Sekido's body.
The demon split cleanly in half.
Both pieces hit the ground and began regenerating almost imdiately, though their recovery was far slower than a normal Upper Rank's should have been.
Karaku stared for a mont.
Then he laughed.
"What was that? I've never seen an attack like that before." He looked down at Sekido's torn body with obvious amusent. "You look terrible, Sekido."
He raised the maple-leaf fan and gave it a casual wave.
A gale erupted.
It was only a light swing, yet the wind struck like a collapsing wall.
Tanjiro stepped into it and swung Asuramaru again.
Another black crescent slash tore forward, splitting the gale from the front. It cut through the violent wind, reached Karaku, and sliced him in half as well.
At the sa ti, the remaining force of the gale slamd into Tanjiro and blew him backward.
His feet dug into the earth as he landed in the open field, sliding several steps before regaining his balance.
He looked toward the woods.
Sekido's two halves were still regenerating.
But sothing was different.
Beside one half of the Anger demon's body, a new figure began to form.
The demon took shape with a spear in hand, his expression heavy with lancholy. The character engraved on his tongue was Sorrow.
He looked at Tanjiro with mournful eyes.
"So this is the Demon Slayer Lord Muzan wants dead," he said, voice weighed down by grief. "How sorrowful. His strength is truly sorrowful."
Sweat slid down Tanjiro's temple.
He can keep splitting?
And cutting the neck still doesn't kill him…
Inside the sword, Asuramaru's perception finally locked onto sothing.
So that is how it works.
"The main body only appears after the clones are fully ford," he muttered.
Then his voice sharpened in Tanjiro's mind.
"Tanjiro, listen carefully. The real body is hiding in the woods behind those four demons. If you kill the main body, these clones probably won't be able to regenerate."
That was easy to say.
Doing it was another matter entirely.
Four Upper Rank clones stood between him and the main body. Each one possessed a different Blood Demon Art. Each one could regenerate. Each one was powerful enough to kill an ordinary Demon Slayer in seconds.
Trying to ignore them and rush the main body would be suicide.
Then there was only one answer.
Cut them down as fast as possible, and use the window before they recovered.
Tanjiro changed to a two-handed grip.
His breathing deepened.
In the forest ahead, the four clones completed their regeneration.
Anger.
Pleasure.
Sorrow.
Joy.
The newly ford Joy demon had wings sprouting from his back, while his limbs ended in eagle-like talons. He flapped them once, rising slightly off the ground, his grin wide and gleeful.
"So this is the Demon Slayer? How delightful!"
Sekido stepped forward, khakkhara in hand, his face twisted with rage.
"This is infuriating," he spat. "We'll kill him together. Right here."
The four demons moved at once.
Lightning flared.
Wind gathered.
A spear thrust forward.
Wings beat against the air.
Tanjiro inhaled.
His breath burned.
Flas spilled from his mouth in a scorching trail as he raised Asuramaru above his head.
"Hinokami Kagura—Sun Halo Dragon Head Dance!"
Fire erupted along the sword.
The darkness around him was driven back as a massive dragon of fla ford around the blade, its burning head roaring forward with Tanjiro's charge.
Aizetsu, the Sorrow demon, stood first in his path.
He never even saw the strike clearly.
Tanjiro swept past him.
Aizetsu's head flew.
Tanjiro did not slow down.
Like a streak of burning sunlight crossing the night, he rushed toward Sekido.
Sekido slamd his khakkhara into the ground, trying to release lightning.
Too late.
The flaming sword descended.
The khakkhara was severed.
Sekido's head followed.
From behind, Karaku's eyes widened. He lifted his maple-leaf fan and swung it hard.
"Fly away, you brat!"
A violent gale surged toward Tanjiro.
Tanjiro twisted through it by a hair's breadth. The wind missed his body, but it caught the fox mask on his face and sent it spinning into the air.
Karaku saw the face beneath.
For one instant, his playful expression changed.
"It really is you—"
The rest of his sentence never left his mouth.
Tanjiro's blade swept across his neck.
The fire dragon surged past.
By the ti Tanjiro stopped, flas still trailed from Asuramaru's edge, illuminating the wilderness in a fierce red glow.
Three heads had fallen in one stroke.
But Urogi, the Joy demon, was still in the sky.
His wings beat against the night as he hovered overhead. He opened his mouth, and power gathered deep in his throat.
Then he dove.
An invisible blast of sound crashed down.
The ground around Tanjiro exploded, dust and soil flying into the air.
From within the cloud, a pitch-black crescent slash tore upward.
It ripped through the dust and struck Urogi head-on.
The Joy demon crashed from the sky.
In the span of a few breaths, all four clones had been cut down.
For the mont, they could not move.
Tanjiro did not waste that mont.
"There should still be ti before they regenerate," he said, already rushing into the dark woods. "Let's end this in one strike!"
Asuramaru guided him from within the sword.
"Straight ahead. Left. Now right—the bushes."
Tanjiro reached the spot and turned sharply.
At first, he saw nothing.
Then his nose caught it.
A demon's scent.
Small.
Foul.
Terrified.
"He's tiny," Asuramaru warned. "Look down."
Tanjiro lowered his gaze.
There, scrambling through the underbrush, was the main body.
A miniature old man no larger than a mouse.
"Found you!"
Tanjiro raised Asuramaru and swung at the tiny demon's neck.
Hantengu wailed as he fled, his voice shrill with panic.
"Don't! Don't bully !"
He was fast.
But not fast enough.
Asuramaru's edge bit into his neck.
The skin was unnaturally tough, far harder than it should have been for such a tiny body. Still, the blade cut through.
Just as Tanjiro was about to finish him, Hantengu's body suddenly swelled.
In an instant, the mouse-sized old demon expanded to more than two ters tall. Muscles bulged across his fra, and his hand shot toward Tanjiro's head.
"Why are you bullying soone as weak as ?!" Hantengu cried. "Don't you pity ?!"
Tanjiro's eyes hardened.
A demon who had devoured humans had no right to beg for pity.
He tightened both hands around the hilt.
Flas burst from the sword lodged in Hantengu's neck.
The blade flashed through.
The demon's head flew.
The headless body staggered, then collapsed heavily to the ground.
Tanjiro almost let out a breath.
Then Asuramaru's voice cut through his mind.
"That's not the main body. The real one is inside the heart!"
"What?!"
Tanjiro raised his sword without hesitation, preparing to pierce the chest.
Before he could strike, roots erupted from the ground.
They twisted and tangled together, wrapping around the headless body. The mass lifted rapidly into the air, carrying Hantengu's corpse with it like a giant dandelion made from living wood.
Tanjiro jumped back and landed several steps away.
The roots continued to writhe.
Then he saw another demon standing beyond them.
A new presence had appeared in the darkness.
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
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