Doma crumbled completely into ash.
At the same time, a soft note of amazement echoed through Sui's mind.
"This one… actually carried a trace of divinity within him," the god said. "Which rank was he?"
"Upper Rank Two," Sui replied.
"Two, hm… No wonder his bloodline was so rich. Even I feel refreshed after taking it in," the god said with a faint laugh. "Tell me—after consuming Upper Rank Two, do you feel anything?"
"Feel what?" Sui asked, puzzled.
"Your adaptability is absurdly good," the god said.
Sui lifted her head.
The eerie crimson in her eyes began to fade, revealing once more those hollow, glass-like pupils. But at the moment the god devoured what remained of Doma, her eyes briefly gleamed with shifting rainbow motes, as if the finest crystal had caught the sun.
Then the colors dimmed, and they returned to normal.
The Blood of Orochi within her gradually fell silent. The sun-disc mark on her forehead faded with it. All the heat seemed to drain from her blood at once, and the winter wind turned knife-cold. Her body lost all support, and she could only drop to one knee, bracing herself on the demon blade as meltwater from the collapsing ice bodhisattva soaked her haori and skirt.
"Wait… did you use something besides Orochi?" the god suddenly asked.
"Besides Orochi?" Sui echoed.
"A mark. Something that drastically enhances physical ability."
"The mark…" The god paused. "It's a kind of sign. You could call it a curse, or perhaps a blessing. In any case, anyone who awakens it will be claimed by this world's gods after the age of twenty-five. Something like Odin's Valhalla—taking away those they have chosen, rewarding them for the good they have done."
"But what about me?" the god muttered, sounding troubled. "Isn't this stealing what's mine?"
"There was one swordsman in Lady Crimson Moon's notes who lived a very long time despite bearing the mark," Sui said.
"I know of him," the god replied. "His name was Yoriichi Tsugikuni."
"Not him. I mean Michikatsu Tsugikuni—now Upper Rank One among the Twelve Kizuki. He knew the mark would shorten his life, so he surrendered himself to the Demon King and became a demon, using that transformation to resist the mark's curse and survive until now."
"You're not suggesting you become a demon?" the god said. "Though… if your body held enough of Orochi's blood permanently, it might be able to counterbalance the mark's curse. But there's a problem—I can't squeeze any more out right now. At present, Orochi's power can only be used as a consumable. It can't fundamentally alter your body. Once it fades, you'll still be human."
"It'll be fine," Sui said gently.
The god seemed even more anxious about the mark's shortened lifespan than she was.
"I'm only seventeen," she added. "There's still plenty of time."
No answer came after that. Whether the god had fallen silent or slipped back into slumber, she could not tell.
High above Swordsmith Village, messenger crows cried shrilly.
"Stone Hashira Gyomei Himejima has been defeated! Stone Hashira Gyomei Himejima has been defeated! Upper Rank One has appeared! Upper Rank One has appeared!"
"Gyomei Himejima is being turned into a demon! Gyomei Himejima is being turned into a demon!"
"Stop him! Stop him!"
Gyomei…?
Sui lowered her head and tried to push herself upright with the demon blade, but her legs were numb, as if they no longer belonged to her.
Her crow, Chihana, landed on the hilt of the sword, tears streaming from her eyes. "Lady Sui, please protect yourself first. The other Hashira are already on their way."
"If even Gyomei couldn't win, then the others arriving won't change anything," Sui said. Her lips were cracked; her voice came out harsh and ragged. Her throat felt as though it were burning from the aftereffects of both Orochi's blood and the mark.
After great power came overwhelming weakness.
"Boil, primordial blood of heaven and earth…"
"The Blood of Orochi is gone," the god said, sounding helpless.
"Devouring a demon doesn't automatically replenish it. In truth, the one percent I gave you was everything I had accumulated over centuries of slumber—my own embryonic blood. Given my current state of recovery, it'll take time before I can produce more. After all, I still have to refine it to suit your body."
"Do you realize how enormous that improvement already is? If any ordinary creature touched Orochi's blood, the best possible outcome would be becoming a monster. Yet when you use it, your body doesn't even mutate."
Sui rose to her feet and pulled the demon blade free of the ground.
"Hey. Girl. Are you even listening?"
"Thank you," she said simply.
"You're welcome. We're partners, after all. A girl like you is hard to come by…"
"Stop!"
A sharp rebuke from the god rang out in her mind.
Sui inhaled.
The motion ripped pain through her lungs, but her expression did not change.
The mark of the sun reappeared on her forehead.
She lowered her stance—then kicked off the ground. In an instant, a vast burst of violet lightning split the night and shot toward the deep mountains beyond Swordsmith Village like a blade.
The mountains shook. Trees toppled. Sword scars tore through the earth.
Black Dead Mou held the giant man aloft on the tip of his sword, the blade thrust clean through his chest.
Gyomei Himejima's monk's robes had been shredded into strips. His body looked as if it had been hauled from a pool of blood. Every inch of that rock-like flesh was split and ruined, blood pouring from the wounds. He had already lost consciousness. He was on the very brink of death.
"Since Akaza's death, no one remains with whom I may discuss the sword. You can take his place—perhaps even surpass him with ease."
"I think very highly of you… Himejima. That a human could reach such heights through flesh alone… it is something not seen in centuries…"
Black Dead Mou's blade remained lodged in Gyomei's body, and from it dark demonic blood flowed unceasingly into him. Blood-red webbing spread from the wound in his chest. Gyomei's body convulsed violently, a hoarse roar spilling from his throat.
Muscle, organ, bone—everything that had been broken began to regenerate at astonishing speed beneath the infusion of demon blood.
The mark of a demon surfaced across his bronze skin in black patterns.
"Excellent," Black Dead Mou murmured in praise.
"Even after taking in this much demon blood, you've still not reached your limit… Himejima. I knew I had not misjudged you."
Then he paused.
"…Doma's presence has vanished. So he died? To think that fool could actually die…"
Before his eyes, scenes from Doma's final memories appeared: fierce golden fire, a radiant sun-disc, the Sleeping Lotus Bodhisattva melting away.
"Yoriichi?"
Black Dead Mou turned—
and found that golden sun-disc from Doma's memories now standing behind him, almost perfectly overlapping with the image in his mind.
"Amaterasu no Mikoto."
Doma's final words echoed within him.
And the woman at the heart of that golden radiance truly did carry the majesty of a sun goddess.
On her brow burned a solar mark. She raised her sword, her steps flowing like a ritual dance, and struck for Black Dead Mou's neck.
He reacted instantly, tearing his sword from Gyomei's body and meeting her blow.
The force numbed Sui's hands. It was like slamming into an impregnable wall.
She landed, and in the state granted by the mark, she could lift even a giant like Gyomei one-handed. In the blink of an eye, she dragged him away, setting him far behind her. Black Dead Mou stepped forward to pursue, and Sui rose slowly, blocking his advance with her own body.
"Moon Breathing, Second Form: Pearl Flower Moongazing."
Black Dead Mou swung calmly. Crescent-shaped blades of moonlight burst from the sword in a storm, blanketing the entire area like heavy rain.
"Sun Breathing…" Sui murmured.
Blazing fire roared up. She swung, her blade carving golden arcs through the air, coalescing into a great solar halo.
Every crescent blade was swallowed by that halo.
What unfolded was, at its core, a battle of extreme-speed offense and defense. Sui's sword movements had long since surpassed what the naked eye could follow. To an observer, it looked as if the radiant halo surrounding her had devoured all the incoming moon-blades.
The crescent slashes rolled in like tides.
The halo of the sun flowed with pale gold light, and Sui stood at its center, her crystal eyes reflecting the dawn.
All six of Black Dead Mou's eyes tightened at once.
It was not because Sui's strength had exceeded his expectations.
Rather, the Demon King's voice sounded in his mind.
"Fifteen minutes until sunrise. Black Dead Mou, withdraw."
He looked up. The horizon had already begun to pale. Purple dawnlight stained the east, and the outline of the mountains had become visible in the growing light.
"So much time has passed already…" he said quietly. "Forgive me, my lord. I failed to kill this swordswoman."
"Doma's death was his own failure!" Muzan roared. Then his anger subsided. "Turning the strongest swordsman of the Corps into a demon—that alone was enough. No matter what choice they make now, they will lose the Stone Hashira. I no longer need more demons. It matters little whether he can truly serve me."
"The blue spider lily's whereabouts have been determined. Withdraw."
"If you continue, dawn will catch you."
"As you command."
Black Dead Mou lowered his gaze to the woman at the center of the halo. Some half-forgotten memory stirred.
"We will meet again," he said, "swordswoman who has awakened the primal breathing."
Then he turned and vanished into the night.
Sui's serpent-sense told her at once: he was gone.
Upper Rank One, Black Dead Mou—strongest of all demons save the Demon King himself. Once, in the Warring States era, he had been a Hashira, wielding Moon Breathing, the closest breathing style to the original Sun Breathing. The sheer scale of the slashes he unleashed was already beyond anything human.
Sui had now experienced that for herself.
It belonged to a realm utterly inhuman.
Behind her came a savage roar.
Sui turned and struck with all her speed—but the next instant a fist smashed into her left shoulder, sending her flying. The bones of the entire arm nearly shattered from that single blow.
The mountainside caved inward. Sui slumped within the crater, coughing up blood.
Then the sweet scent hit her.
She looked up and saw Gyomei Himejima staggering to his feet in the distance, his body covered in black demonic markings. He had no remaining sense of self. After striking Sui, he simply stood there, immobilized by the lure of her rare blood, unable to press the attack.
He was less a demon than a beast driven mad.
Even Muzan had not had time to exert full control over the newly transformed Gyomei. For now, he remained outside the Demon King's network of command.
Or perhaps—
he had already been abandoned.
At dawn, he would turn to ash.
"Rare blood…" the giant muttered.
Then he turned.
Toward Sui.
But just then, another figure stepped into his line of sight.
"Grrr!"
Gyomei lunged like a wild beast, howling, his clawed hand slamming down—
"Water Breathing, Eleventh Form: Dead Calm."
A cold, emotionless voice answered.
Ripples spread outward like the surface of a vast sea. Within that still water, he intercepted the demonized Gyomei's blow. The monstrous strength driving the attack was dissolved and neutralized—but his brow tightened. Even for him, it was clearly no easy task.
With his final movement he halted Gyomei's advance.
Then he shouted:
"Sanemi!"
"Wind Breathing, Ninth Form: Idaten Typhoon!"
A hoarse roar split the air. The sword in his hand howled like a storm itself. Fierce winds ripped up stone, flung broken trees into the air, and in the time of a single breath dozens of wind-blades crashed toward the demonized Gyomei's neck.
Boom!
Two Hashira attacked at once—opening with the strongest forms in their respective styles.
There was no time for questions on a battlefield this savage. No time to speak. Only the fight in front of them.
They truly had been stationed far from Swordsmith Village. They had raced through the night to make it here in time.
The night's carnage had already been relayed to them by the crows. The Hashira could only answer with their blades, venting fear, fury, and unrest into each strike.
The demonized Stone Hashira had been given only one fate:
death.
It was the kindest ending possible for him—before he could consume human flesh, before he could commit irreversible sin. He had to be put down now. With Gyomei's overwhelming physique, if he were left alive past tonight, he would become a top-tier demon beyond imagination.
The one mercy was that dawn was close. They did not need to defeat him by force. They only needed to hold him until sunrise.
"Stone Hashira Gyomei Himejima has become a demon! Stone Hashira Gyomei Himejima has become a demon!"
"Protect the Thunder Hashira! Protect the Thunder Hashira!"
"Kill Gyomei Himejima! Kill Gyomei Himejima!" the messenger crows cried, weeping.
Then the sky split open.
The sun rose.
"He's trying to run!" Sanemi shouted.
Giyu moved first, intercepting the demonized Gyomei before he could flee.
The instant sunlight touched Gyomei's body, his skin began to burn. Flesh carbonized and turned black. The pain drove him into even greater frenzy. Even Giyu, master of defense, struggled to hold him. In one clash, the sheer force nearly tore the blade from his grip.
"Rest now, Himejima," Giyu said in a low voice.
Sanemi stood atop a slab of broken stone, his sword hanging at his side. His face was twisted. He could barely bear to watch.
Then—
thunder.
Neither Giyu nor Sanemi reacted in time.
That heavily wounded woman, already at her limit, had launched another form.
And not just any form—Thunder Breathing's First Form, a technique that consumed tremendous stamina.
A streak of dark violet lightning tore across the sunlit earth and plunged straight into the body of the burning Gyomei Himejima.
Sui drove her blade into the giant.
Seeing this, Giyu was stunned.
Why?
If they waited for dawn, it would all be over.
The lightning wrapped itself around both Sui and Gyomei, hurling them together down into the mountain forest, out of the direct reach of the sun.
"After them!" Sanemi roared, leaping down.
Following the scorched trail torn across the ground, Giyu and Sanemi quickly found them.
And then—
Giyu's pupils shook violently.
Sanemi froze outright.
Sunlight spilled through a gap in the forest canopy and fell upon the giant man. Tears streamed down his face. One hand was raised in prayer, quietly reciting a Buddhist chant. With the other, he gently smoothed Sui's haori, tidying the rumpled fabric. At his feet, she lay curled against him, wearing a smile at once tired and gentle.
The black demon markings were gone.
What remained was only human skin.
There was no trace of demonic presence at all.
"He's… human? Right?" Sanemi asked blankly.
Giyu said nothing.
He only nodded.
Beneath Sui's lowered lashes, the icy blue glow had only just faded.
She had succeeded.
She had killed—
the very concept of "demon"—
within Gyomei Himejima.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
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Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 147)
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TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
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I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter215)
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Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 185
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 170
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/1
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 206
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 190
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/23
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 106
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 125
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 105
I Can Copy Unique Skills 90
Summoning an Evil God, but the 70
Supernatural Multiverse 90
My Harem Is Indescribable 80
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 86
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 68
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 81
Still playing traditional Honk 65
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 65
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 57
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 45
Transmigrated as Sukuna 59
Checking In in Demon Slayer 59
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 73
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 45
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 36
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 40
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 60
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 30
Why did they assign me to Uma 35
MYGO Beauties 43
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 30
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 31
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