The glow of the Hashira's bright red blades intertwined with the light of the other Demon Slayers' Breathing Styles above the ruins.
Even beneath the morning sun, the sight was dazzling.
More than a dozen colors converged into a raging torrent and poured toward the dark-red figure at the center.
Sanemi Shinazugawa's emerald-green tornado blade struck first, tearing viciously into Muzan's left shoulder.
Kyojuro Rengoku's Flame Tiger followed immediately after and crashed into his chest.
The attacks were so fast that by the time Muzan reacted, two enormous bursts of blood had already erupted from his body.
And they were far from finished.
Gyomei Himejima's Nichirin spiked flail and great axe smashed in from both sides.
The mountain-like force shattered nearly half of Muzan's body. Obanai Iguro's winding serpent blade slipped into Muzan's back, while Mitsuri Kanroji's Love Breathing exploded across his chest.
Muichiro Tokito's mist-shrouded blade light swallowed Muzan's vision, and Sabito and Giyu Tomioka immediately seized the opening, striking from the left and right with twin surges of Water Breathing.
In that single instant, every attack seemed to detonate against Muzan at once.
Boom!!!
A massive shockwave erupted across the ruins, hurling stones and dust high into the air until nearly half the sky disappeared behind the cloud.
Could that kill Muzan?
"No… it's not over yet!"
A dark figure suddenly burst from the smoke.
Muzan was drenched in blood.
Dozens of wounds had been carved so deep that bone was visible, torn flesh hanging open as dark-red blood poured from every gash.
His right arm and both legs had been severed completely, while his left arm hung uselessly by only a few strips of flesh and tendon.
His face had been reduced to a grotesque mass of mangled meat, barely recognizable as human.
And even then, Muzan was not dead.
Instead of immediately regenerating, he forced more than a dozen thorn whips from his body.
They thrashed wildly around him, blasting away every Demon Slayer who attempted to pursue.
Using those whips to propel himself forward, Muzan charged madly toward the part of the encirclement where the Demon Slayers were thinnest.
"He's running! Stop him!" Sanemi was the first to roar and give chase.
"We cannot let him escape!"
Gyomei's knees slammed heavily to the ground.
He could barely stand anymore, but he still gathered the last of his strength and hurled his Nichirin spiked flail toward Muzan's retreating back.
The massive iron ball smashed into him.
Pshk!
Nearly a quarter of Muzan's body was blown apart, but even that only made him stumble for a moment.
He kept moving, fleeing toward the edge of the ruins at an even greater speed.
Sabito gritted his teeth as he watched Muzan scramble away and shouted mockingly, "Muzan! So even someone as arrogant as you knows how to run? Weren't you going to rule the world?!"
Giyu's voice remained cold.
"He's afraid. He's terrified."
The Hashira had gained tremendous power through their Demon Slayer Marks, but even they could not stop Muzan once he devoted everything to escape.
Farther ahead, the ordinary Demon Slayers threw themselves into his path with everything they had, yet after another storm of blood and violence, Muzan still tore straight through their encirclement.
His mangled body raced through the ruins at terrifying speed.
Though covered in wounds, his newly perfected body was already healing rapidly. Deep cuts closed beneath the sunlight at a rate visible to the naked eye, scabbing over as his severed limbs began to grow back.
'Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!!!'
Muzan screamed inside his own mind, his crimson eyes filled with humiliation and rage.
'I'm running away? I'm actually afraid of those insects?!'
The more he thought about it, the more humiliating it became.
The humiliation only fed his fury, yet his fear of death still drove him farther and farther away.
Terror and the instinct to flee had taken control of his body, while shame, rage, and humiliation twisted his expression into something hideous.
Muzan gritted his newly regenerated teeth.
"How could I possibly be afraid of them?! I'm perfect now! I don't fear the sun! I don't fear Nichirin blades! I don't fear anyone!!"
His words were bold.
But his feet only moved faster.
As Muzan tore through a stretch of ruins piled high with shattered debris, three figures appeared ahead of him, approaching from the opposite direction.
At the front was a boy with dark-red hair. His face was covered in blood and grime, and his clothes were torn to pieces, but his eyes burned as brightly as flames.
A pair of Hanafuda earrings hung from his ears, catching the sunlight with a warm gleam.
To the red-haired boy's left stood a blond swordsman gripping his Nichirin blade.
Faint golden lightning crackled along the edge, while the eyes that had once always been filled with fear were now completely calm.
To his right, a boy wearing a boar's head crouched low like a wild beast, his twin blades crossed in front of him as feral light gleamed beneath the mask.
Tanjiro Kamado.
Zenitsu Agatsuma.
Inosuke Hashibira.
The three of them stood directly in Muzan's path.
Shock appeared on Muzan's newly regenerated face.
His gaze settled on Tanjiro, then on the Hanafuda earrings hanging from his ears.
His pupils contracted.
Of course he remembered that boy.
And he remembered those earrings even more clearly!
They had belonged to the man who haunted Muzan's nightmares for centuries.
Muzan's body trembled faintly. It was almost as though thousands of old scars had suddenly begun to ache again.
Complicated emotions churned in his crimson eyes—rage, humiliation, resentment, and a trace of fear that even he could not fully understand.
"I am the ultimate life-form now!" Muzan shouted, his voice twisted with fury. "No one can kill me!"
At the same time, Tanjiro stared at the terrifying figure rapidly closing in on them.
His grip tightened around his Nichirin blade, fierce fire blazing in his eyes.
"Muzan!!"
Tanjiro's voice rang out sharp and clear like clashing steel.
Muzan answered just as loudly, his voice filled with rage that had been suppressed to the breaking point.
"Tanjiro Kamado! You insects! GET OUT OF MY WAY!"
Dark-red thorn whips burst open behind Muzan like a nest of venomous snakes and shot forward all at once, raining down toward the three boys.
Tanjiro stepped forward.
Crimson light erupted along his Nichirin blade.
"Hinokami Kagura: Dance!!!"
A blazing crimson arc swept forward and collided violently with the dark-red thorn whips.
Sparks exploded everywhere.
At the same moment, Zenitsu and Inosuke charged from either side.
Golden lightning and silver-white blade light flared as they attacked Muzan from the left and right.
"Thunder Breathing, First Form: Thunderclap and Flash!!!"
"Beast Breathing, Third Fang: Devour!!!"
"You damn brats! You want to die?!"
And just as Muzan was unexpectedly stopped in his tracks, a streak of purple approached at full speed.
The moment Shinobu saw the enraged Muzan, she raised her slender Nichirin blade.