The blood clinging to Tanjiro's blade ignited instantly, turning into dazzling pink flames that burned away all the obstructing spider threads in front of him.
Using that terrifying explosive force, Tanjiro became like a burning meteor. He broke through Rui's defensive web in an instant and swung the broken blade fiercely toward Rui's neck.
"Get... severed!"
Ssh!
Amid Tanjiro's desperate roar, the broken blade, carrying scorching flames, sliced through Rui's neck, which was harder than steel, with great difficulty. The pale head instantly flew into the air.
"I did it..."
Tanjiro collapsed heavily onto the ground. The intense backlash caused his muscles to twitch violently, and his vision darkened.
However, just as he thought the battle was over...
"That was dangerous."
An extremely cold voice suddenly came from the direction of the headless corpse.
Tanjiro struggled to lift his head, his pupils shrinking to their limits.
He saw that Rui's headless body was still standing firmly in place. The head that had fallen to the ground was guided by several extremely thin spider threads, flying back toward the neck and eerily reconnecting.
"Did you really think you were the one who cut off my head? Foolish."
Rui reached up and touched his newly reattached neck, a violent killing intent surfacing in his eyes.
"Before your blade could reach me, I cut my own neck with my spider threads. How could the neck of one of the Twelve Kizuki be severed by trash like you using a broken blade?"
"Now, the game is over... Blood Demon Art: Murderous Eye Basket!"
Boom!
A massive spherical cage woven from countless blood-colored spider threads instantly enclosed the collapsed Tanjiro from all directions.
The cage began to contract rapidly. The razor-sharp threads, capable of shredding rock, were already less than half a meter from Tanjiro's body.
Tanjiro closed his eyes in despair.
His body could no longer move. The backlash from Hinokami Kagura had left him unable to even lift a finger.
"At least... I must protect Nezuko..." He used his last bit of strength, trying to curl his body inward.
Then, at that moment of despair,
"Chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp!"
A piercing sound like a thousand birds crying at once suddenly tore through the silent night sky of Natagumo Mountain.
A deep blue lightning flash, so brilliant it was impossible to look at directly, instantly illuminated the dim forest like daylight.
"Who is it?!" Rui snapped his head toward the sound.
Ssh!
Before he could react, a violent spear of lightning descended arrogantly from the sky, splitting the contracting blood-colored spider-thread cage in half and blasting it into charred dust that scattered through the air.
Thud.
A handsome young man wearing a pure black haori landed steadily in front of Tanjiro.
He had one hand in his pocket while the other rested casually on the hilt of the sword at his waist.
His pitch-black eyes turned into an eerie crimson in a tenth of a second. Three tomoe spun coldly within his pupils as he looked down at Lower Rank Five not far away.
"You're... Rin-san?!"
Tanjiro, who had already closed his eyes and accepted death, struggled to open them again.
When he clearly saw the familiar and domineering back standing before him, his eyes instantly grew moist, and an overwhelming sense of security filled his entire body.
The monster from Fujikasane Mountain had arrived.
"Not bad."
Rin did not even turn around. He merely offered a casual remark.
"To be able to unleash that fire technique in such a desperate situation, you've already surpassed ninety-nine percent of the trash in this batch. However, your blade is still too dull."
"Who are you?"
Rui stared at the suddenly appearing Rin. Those red eyes with three tomoe made even him, one of the Twelve Kizuki, feel an instinctive chill deep in his soul.
"You dare break my blood threads. No matter who you are, you're going to die!"
Rui let out a shrill scream, waving his hands wildly as he pushed the blood within his body to its limit.
"Blood Demon Art: Cutting Thread Spindle!"
A blood-colored spider web, twice as thick as the one used against Tanjiro earlier, swept toward Rin with a piercing whistle, like a crimson storm of shredding blades.
"Die? With nothing more than these broken spider threads of yours?"
The Three-Tomoe Sharingan emitted a cold pressure in the night.
Under its ultimate perception, Rui's terrifying full-screen attack appeared as slow as a replay in slow motion.
Clang!
The Kusanagi Sword at Rin's waist was drawn in an instant.
The black straight blade, forged from premium tamahagane and possessing innate demon-slaying properties, was instantly wrapped in violent, high-density lightning-attribute Chakra.
Purple lightning crackled wildly along the blade, releasing a heart-shaking roar.
"Chidori Katana!"
Facing the overwhelming blood-colored spider web, Rin swung his sword fiercely.
Rumble!
The purple lightning sword energy surged forward like a roaring thunder beast, crashing directly into the blood-colored web.
Rui's spider threads, claimed to be dozens of times harder than steel, were completely destroyed the moment they came into contact with the terrifying heat and cutting power of the Chidori Katana.
"Impossible! My strongest spider threads were destroyed in an instant?!"
Rui's eyes nearly popped out as overwhelming fear seized his heart.
Run. I must run.
This man is not an ordinary Demon Slayer. He is a monster wearing human skin.
Rui turned without hesitation and tried to flee at his fastest speed.
"In front of me, you do not even have the right to run."
A voice like the whisper of a Shinigami suddenly sounded in Rui's ear.
Too fast.
Rin had already appeared behind Rui like a ghost at some unknown moment. The black sword flickering with violent lightning rested coldly against Rui's neck.
"This Lower Rank head of yours is worth quite a few points."
Ssh.
A simple flick of the wrist.
A flash of purple lightning.
Rui's pale head instantly flew into the air.
This time, he had no chance to cut off his own neck with his spider threads.
Because the moment the Kusanagi Sword severed his neck, the violent lightning Chakra attached to it had already flooded into his body, turning every demon cell attempting to regenerate into charcoal.
Thump.
Rui's headless body collapsed heavily onto the ground, beginning to crumble and dissipate.
The head that had rolled to the side still held an expression of extreme terror and disbelief. Until the moment it turned to ash, he could not understand why he, the mighty Lower Rank Five, could not withstand even a single move from his opponent.
[Ding! Detected that the host has killed Twelve Kizuki · Lower Rank Five 'Rui'!]
[Forcefully intervened, changing Giyu's OP entrance and aura farmed in front of the Kamado Siblings, demonstrating absolute crushing strength!]
[Congratulations to the host for obtaining a very generous amount of Dimension Points: 6,000 points!]
The pleasant system notification echoed in his mind.
Rin sheathed the Kusanagi Sword, its blade completely spotless.
The crimson in his eyes faded, returning to their usual pitch black.
"The strength of a Lower Rank is only at this level. It does not even count as a warm-up."
Rin turned and looked at the stunned Tanjiro nearby. He walked over, took out a low-level soldier pill exchanged for 10 points from the system shop, and flicked it neatly into Tanjiro's slightly open mouth.
"Eat it. It will help your body, which is already near its limit, recover some strength."
Tanjiro instinctively swallowed the soldier pill and immediately felt a warm current spread through his limbs. His agonizing lungs and twitching muscles miraculously began to calm down.
"Rin san... just how strong have you become..."
Tanjiro sat on the ground, staring at Rin's calm profile. His voice was filled with shock and admiration.
A Lower Moon demon that he could not kill even after exhausting all his strength and trump cards had not lasted a single strike in Mr. Rin's hands.
Just then, two extremely swift figures finally arrived at the scene.
It was Water Hashira Giyu Tomioka, who had rushed over after hearing the roar of lightning, and Insect Hashira Shinobu Kocho, who had come in great anxiety.
When they saw the demon's ashes scattering across the ground and Rin standing there without even a wrinkle in his clothes, both of them stopped at the same time.
Shinobu Kocho glanced at the remains of an eyeball on the ground nearby, carved with the characters for Lower Five, and drew in a sharp breath.
"You... we were less than a minute late, and you already killed one of the Twelve Kizuki?" Shinobu Kocho glared at him in disbelief, but her purple eyes shone with a bright light.
Rin shrugged.
"Like I said, I'm in a hurry."