"ORAAGORRRHH!!"
The roar that erupted from Muzan wasn't human; it was a discordant harmony of a thousand dying youkai. His body, a half-finished vessel, could no longer contain the volcanic pressure of two Great Demons.
He might have survived Moroha's power. He might have endured Sesshomaru's icy devastation. But together, they were a tide that broke the shore.
SWOOSH!
SWOOSH!!
Two high-pitched whistles cut through the roar. Muzan, his vision blurred by the boiling energy in his veins, only then remembered the two priestesses had been waiting in the wings.
PU-SHIK!
PU-SHIK!!
The sacred arrows found their mark with clinical precision, burying themselves into the jagged rupture in Muzan's chest. The purifying light of the arrows acted like a match in a powder keg, igniting the unstable demonic energy within.
'This is bad!!'
In his prime, Muzan might have laughed at these arrows. But in his current shattered state, they were the final push he couldn't afford.
"HAAAGH!!"
Desperate to survive, Muzan triggered a catastrophic release of his remaining energy, a desperate "dump" designed to clear his system of the overload.
BOOM!!!
The shockwave was absolute.
Distance was no protection. Kikyo reacted instantly, manifesting a flickering violet barrier to shield Kagome and Moroha from the blast.
But for those at ground zero--Sesshomaru, Inuyasha, and the Servants--there was no escape. They were thrown aside like autumn leaves in a hurricane, bodies slamming into the jagged stone walls and distant ridges.
"Inuyasha!"
"Dad!"
Kagome and Moroha screamed in unison as they watched Inuyasha's body crumple against a distant ruin.
"Nngh..."
"Ugh..."
Further away, Rikuo and Akame were struggling to find their feet. Neither of them had avoided the blast. Rikuo was on one knee, his head swimming, his hand reaching out for the earth to steady himself.
He glanced to his side. Akame was sprawled in the dirt, her eyes closed, her breathing shallow and uneven. She had taken the brunt of the shockwave to her front; the force had been enough to knock her unconscious instantly.
Cough!
Rikuo spat a mouthful of metallic-tasting blood.
'That wasn't just physical force... that was conceptual debris.'
"Kikyo!!"
"Grandma!"
As the dust began to settle, Kagome and Moroha's joy at their survival was cut short. Kikyo was swaying, her ceramic skin looking ashen in the dim light. She slowly sank to her knees.
"Don't... don't worry about me," the priestess whispered, her voice like dry parchment. "This body... was always a temporary vessel. It matters little."
"Listen to me. He used that blast to purge the overload... but it drained him completely. He is weak... but he isn't the only threat."
"You must... beware... Naraku..."
Her strength failed her then, and she slumped forward into the dirt.
"Kikyo!!"
"Grandma!!"
Kagome caught her before she hit the ground, but her mind was already spiraling.
'Naraku...?'
The fear that had been a constant shadow in her mind suddenly flared into a bonfire.
"Ha... ha... ha..."
A ragged, wet wheezing sound drifted from the center of the crater. Both Moroha and Kagome spun around, their eyes wide.
"He's still alive?" Moroha gasped, her hand trembling on her blade.
She had poured everything into that overload. Sesshomaru had poured everything. How could he still be breathing?
As the smoke cleared, the figure of Muzan Kibutsuji emerged. He looked like a broken porcelain doll. His body was a labyrinth of deep, smoldering craters and missing limbs, but even as they watched, the flesh was twitching, knitting itself back together with a desperate, frantic energy.
"What a pity," Muzan gasped, his voice a ghost of its former arrogance.
"Your little plan... was executed perfectly."
"But I... I am the one who endures. I do not stay dead."
"Your luck has finally run out!"
He forced a deep breath into his tattered lungs, trying to stabilize his aura. He had been a fool to try and consume the energy of two Great Demons. His incomplete body had reached its limit.
But it didn't matter. He had survived the worst they had. Now, the table would turn. He just needed a moment to recover.
"You bastard!"
"Dad!"
Inuyasha was stumbling toward them, his body covered in blood and dust. He was nursing a broken arm, his face a mask of pain and fury.
"Don't... don't think you've won yet," Inuyasha snarled.
"Hmph. You can barely stand. You think you can kill me in this state?" Muzan scoffed. He wasn't worried. He was the only one on the field with a high-speed regeneration factor currently active.
PAT.
The sound of a foot hitting stone echoed through the silence.
Everyone--Inuyasha, Muzan, Kagome--turned their heads toward the source.
A figure emerged from the shadows of the ruins. It was a man, bare-chested and heavily muscled, his skin a pale, sickly grey. His energy was... wrong.
'A Servant?'
'No... that's the Shikon Jewel's essence!'
Kagome's realization was a cold spike in her chest. She recognized that aura--it was the same malignant spirit she had been fighting to purify for years.
"Ah!"
"Mom!!"
"Kagome!!"
In the heartbeat that Kagome was distracted, a grey, elongated arm shot forward like a spear. It pierced the air between Moroha and Kikyo, the sharpened fingers driving into Kagome's thigh.
Kagome cried out in pain, her hands flying to the wound. But the attacker wasn't aiming for her life. The grey fingers reached into her pocket, their touch as cold as ice, and tore out the final shard of the Shikon Jewel.
SHHH-TICK.
Kagome collapsed, gasping for air as the wound bled, watching in horror as the shard was absorbed directly into the grey man's arm, vanishing into his flesh.
"Dammit!"
Moroha swung her blade, but the man didn't even move. The edge of her sword bit into his arm, but it caught halfway through, as if she had tried to cut a block of dense rubber.
"The final piece... has finally returned to its home."
A familiar, oily voice drifted through the air. Kagome looked up to see a detached, white-fleshed head floating near the grey man's shoulder.
"Naraku!!" Inuyasha bellowed, his voice raw with hate.
"Now, now, Inuyasha. Don't be so dramatic," the head of Naraku replied, a calm, polite smile on its face.
"Rather than focusing on me, you should be worried about the mess you've made."
"Compared to what comes next... Caster's little tantrum wasn't even worth mentioning."
"What are you talking about?" Inuyasha growled, his eyes darting between the humanoid Jewel and the head of his enemy.
Naraku didn't answer him. Instead, he turned his gaze toward Muzan.
"And what the hell do you think you're doing, Naraku?" Muzan asked, his voice dripping with suspicion.
"Where were you when I was being overwhelmed? Coming out now to play the vulture, are we?"
"What am I doing?" Naraku repeated, his tone one of mild surprise. "Why, I'm here for the collection, of course."
"What--"
PU-SHIK!!
Muzan's words died in his throat. He looked down to see the grey man's arm buried up to the elbow in his own chest.
"!"
"?"
The battlefield went silent.
"Like I said... I'm here to reclaim the fragments," Naraku explained, his voice smooth and devoid of any warmth.
"And that includes the one currently powering that fragile heart of yours. Thanks to Inuyasha and the others, you've been conveniently softened up for me. I don't even need a Command Seal to put you down now."
"Your body... your essence... your very soul as a Servant. It will all be put to much better use."
"You've struggled so hard to live until this moment... and for that, I thank you, Caster."
"NARAKUUUUU!!!!"
Muzan's scream was a high, thin sound that shattered the silence of the mountain as the Shikon Jewel began to dissolve him from within.
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]