Twin Demons, Red

Gyutaro's arrival made the atmosphere on the battlefield instantly colder and more oppressive. His back was hunched like a corpse crawling out of its grave, and his deathly yellow eyes locked onto Moyu, their malice and killing intent almost palpable. The pair of Blood Scythes in his hands, curved at their tips like sickles, gleamed an ominous dark red.

"What's the point of crying? If your head falls off, just put it back on yourself," Gyutaro said to the still-sobbing Daki in a voice as hoarse as a broken bellows, his tone filled with a twisted mixture of indulgence and exasperation. "You really are stupid."

With that, he reached out a skeletal hand, snatched the head Daki was cradling, and pressed it back onto the neck of her headless body with a little force. Flesh writhed wildly around the wound, healing it almost instantly and leaving only a faint red line.

Daki touched her neck, seeming to finally recover from her fright and sense of grievance. Then she pointed at Moyu, even angrier than before. "Brother! It was him! He cut off my head! He called me ugly! He called me old! Kill him! You have to kill him!" she shrieked, her sashes whipping wildly around her once more, though there was more reliance and confidence in her eyes now!

Gyutaro twisted his neck, producing a grating crack, crack, and fixed his dead-fish eyes on Moyu. "Heh... anyone who bullies my sister... has to die... pretty boys like you... piss me off the most!"

Before he finished speaking, his figure vanished like a ghost! It wasn't High-Speed Movement, but an extremely bizarre, contorted footwork technique that brought him close to Moyu in an instant, like a venomous snake gliding along the ground! His two Blood Scythes crossed from left and right, shrieking through the air as they slashed at Moyu's waist and abdomen! They were blindingly fast and struck from devious angles!

At the same time, Daki shrieked and swung her sashes, cutting off Moyu's escape routes from the side and above! Brother and sister worked together flawlessly, their attacks forming an inescapable net!

"Come on, then." Moyu's gaze sharpened, light flickering in his azure pupils. In an instant, the Six Eyes analyzed every trajectory and flow of power in their attacks, right down to the fluctuations of the deadly poison clinging to the Blood Scythes!

Instead of retreating, he advanced. Pushing Flowing Cloud Step to its limits, he swayed like willow fluff in a gale, dodging Gyutaro's lethal crossing slash by a hair's breadth! At the same time, Azure Star left its sheath, its blade instantly covered in a steady, restrained crimson glow—the Red Nichirin Blade, activated!

"Azure Flow Breathing, Second Form: Mirror Dissection!"

Rather than meeting the attacks head-on, the blade traced a series of exquisitely intricate arcs, precisely "reflecting" and deflecting Daki's incoming sashes like a mirror! The instant their razor-sharp edges touched the Red Nichirin Blade's flashing light, their structure was undone by a subtle force. They went limp and were easily swept aside!

"What?!" Daki stared in shock. Her sashes seemed to have lost all their resilience before the Red Nichirin Blade!

The instant Moyu parried the sashes, his blade continued onward. He flicked his wrist, and its crimson tip darted like a viper's tongue toward the opening beneath Gyutaro's ribs, exposed when both scythes missed! The strike was as fast as lightning and carried Mirror Dissection's disassembling force!

Gyutaro reacted at once, twisting his waist at an inhuman angle to narrowly evade the tip. At the same time, he swept the Blood Scythe in his left hand back up, its curved tip reaching for Moyu's blade like a poisoned hook! His Blood Scythes were special: once they caught a weapon, they could lock it in place, while their deadly poison would cling to it and corrode it!

"Trying to lock my blade?" Moyu saw through him at once. The crimson glow on his blade flared slightly, and just before the hook caught it, a scorching aura erupted as the blade vibrated subtly at an extremely high frequency!

"Sizzle!"

When the hooked tip of the Blood Scythe touched the Red Nichirin Blade, the intense heat and high-frequency vibrations knocked it away before it could lock the blade! A flicker of surprise crossed Gyutaro's eyes.

His attack having missed, Gyutaro immediately changed tactics. His scythes whirled like the wind, unleashing a storm of attacks, each vicious and ruthless, aimed at Moyu's lower body and vital joints! At the same time, he spat something from his mouth!

"Blood Demon Art: Flying Blood Sickles!"

Several crescent-shaped slashes, thin as cicada wings and made entirely of compressed blood, flew at Moyu from different directions along bizarre curves, as though they were alive! Not only were these blood blades sharp, but they also carried a powerful corrosive poison, and their flight paths were impossible to predict!

"Good job, Brother! Kill him! Kill him!" Seeing this, Daki controlled her sashes to wrap and slash at Moyu from every direction, supporting the blood blades' assault!

Faced with this deadly attack from all sides, Moyu combined Azure Flow Breathing with the insight of his Six Eyes.

"Azure Flow Breathing, First Form: Vortex Slash, chain!"

He darted and spun at extreme speed within the confined space, the crimson Azure Star tracing spiraling arcs of light! Rather than relying on brute force alone, those flashing arcs carried a powerful pulling and deflecting force. Like a whirlpool in water, they drew the incoming blood blades and sashes off course, threw them into disarray, and even sent them crashing into one another! The occasional attack that slipped through was likewise avoided with his exquisite footwork, while the Red Nichirin Blade's suppressive effect on Demons made it hard for these attacks to get close.

"Azure Flow Breathing, Third Form: Myriad Forms Mimicry!"

From time to time, Moyu's swordsmanship changed abruptly, no longer bound to fixed forms. At one moment he defended with the seamless flow of water, the next he thrust as suddenly as lightning, and then became as elusive and unpredictable as mist! He seemed to mimic the changing forms of all things in the world, his blade moving as he willed, his techniques without fixed patterns, adjusting entirely to the battlefield's ever-changing demands! His unpredictable swordsmanship left Gyutaro and Daki, who were accustomed to finding a fixed rhythm, struggling to adapt. Their full-strength attacks often struck empty air, leaving them so frustrated they wanted to cough up blood.

"Damn it! Why is this guy's swordsmanship so weird?!" Gyutaro grew more agitated the longer they fought, unconsciously scratching his gray, ashen skin with his nails and leaving bloody marks. He envied everything "perfect," and Moyu's calm, composed, effortless bearing undoubtedly struck deeply at his twisted pride.

"Blood Demon Art: Circular Slashes: Flying Blood Sickles!" In a fury, Gyutaro wrapped spiral slashes of blood around his arms and scythes and lunged forward, attempting to fight Moyu at close quarters and use his Blood Scythes' properties to lock down the sword!

"Close combat? Just what I wanted." Moyu's gaze turned cold, and the crimson glow of the Red Nichirin Blade blazed brighter! He fearlessly met the charge, and sword and scythes clashed dozens of times in an instant! Sparks flew amid a clangor, and with every collision, the Red Nichirin Blade's heat and purifying power made Gyutaro's Blood Scythes wail in pain, while the poisonous energy on them rapidly evaporated!

"Brother! Watch out for his sword!" Daki shouted anxiously from the side, constantly manipulating her sashes to interfere, but Moyu easily neutralized them with his exquisite Mirror Dissection and footwork.

Unable to prevail after attacking for so long, Gyutaro flew into a complete frenzy. "Why can't I hit you?! Why can't I kill you?! Someone like you... what gives you the right to fight so easily?! Die! Just die!" he roared, his attacks growing ever more frenzied as openings began to multiply.

Moyu seized an opportunity. The instant Gyutaro struck with both scythes and left his center wide open, a flash of crimson shot straight for his heart like lightning tearing through the night sky!

"Pfft!"

The Red Nichirin Blade pierced Gyutaro's chest without resistance! The agony drew a piercing scream from him!

"Brother!" Daki's eyes widened in fury, and she recklessly sent all her sashes stabbing toward Moyu's back!

But as though he had eyes in the back of his head, Moyu pulled away the instant his blade pierced Gyutaro. At the same time, he swung a backhanded Vortex Slash, shredding every incoming sash!

Gyutaro staggered backward, blood pouring from the gaping hole in his chest, though his powerful regeneration had already begun repairing the wound. He stared at Moyu, his eyes full of malice and a trace of... fear. This swordsman was too strong! His Red Nichirin Blade completely suppressed their regeneration, and his swordsmanship was bizarre and unpredictable. If they kept fighting...

Just then, Moyu's Six Eyes keenly sensed a familiar, powerful presence rapidly approaching from several miles away—it was Tengen Uzui! He was almost there.

"I've played enough," Moyu murmured. The last trace of probing intent vanished from his azure eyes, leaving only cold resolve. He knew he had to cut off both siblings' heads at the same time to kill them for good, and as it happened, he also wanted to test Red's power.

He looked at Daki, who was attacking even more wildly because her brother had been wounded, and at Gyutaro, who had lunged at him again despite his injury, regenerating at incredible speed. Brother and sister came at him from either side in a final burst of madness, Blood Scythes and sashes weaving together into a storm of destruction that threatened to swallow Moyu whole.

Moyu stood quietly where he was and slowly raised his left hand, aiming it in the direction the siblings were charging from. The aura around him suddenly became unfathomably deep and terrifying.

"Your experiences as humans were pitiful," Moyu said calmly, his voice reaching the frenzied siblings' ears clearly, "but that's no excuse for passing your suffering on to even more innocent people. The lives you devoured—who could they turn to with their suffering?"

Hearing Moyu's words, the two faltered for a moment.

"Goodbye."

The instant the word left his lips, space twisted and compressed violently before Moyu's palm! A fist-sized dark red sphere appeared, so deep in color that it seemed capable of swallowing all light! It was no longer the gravitational singularity of Blue, but something filled with extreme repulsion, destruction, and an ominous aura—Cursed Technique Reversal: Red!

The surface of the dark red sphere seemed to flow with magma, radiating a pressure that made the soul tremble! The surrounding air was violently pushed away, forming a ring-shaped shock wave visible to the naked eye!

Gyutaro's and Daki's pupils contracted to pinpricks! Their beastlike instincts warned them of an unprecedented threat of death! They wanted to flee, but it was already too late!

"Red."

Moyu softly uttered the word.

The dark red sphere shot forward without a sound, moving faster than the eye could follow! Wherever it passed, space itself seemed to be crushed and twisted by the extreme repulsive force!

Gyutaro only had time to cross his Blood Scythes in front of him and frantically activate his Blood Demon Art. "Blood Demon Art: Rotating Circular Slashes!" A circular barrier of blood sprang up in an instant, attempting to defend him!

Daki also pulled back all her sashes, wrapping them around herself layer upon layer to form a massive cocoon!

Yet before Red's absolute power of annihilation, all those defenses were as fragile as paper!

The instant the dark red sphere touched the blood barrier, it shattered and dissipated like a bubble, unable to hold for even a tenth of a second! Next came Daki's cocoon of sashes, which vaporized instantly like snow and ice thrown into a steel furnace!

Then the sphere struck precisely where the siblings stood.

There was no earth-shattering explosion.

Only a more unnerving, eerie sound, as matter and energy were forcibly erased from the level of existence itself.

Dark red light expanded in an instant, completely engulfing Gyutaro and Daki! At the center of the light, it was as though a miniature black hole had been born, wildly repelling, crushing, and disintegrating everything within its range!

When the dark red light faded, all that remained was an enormous charred crater over ten meters across and several meters deep! Its inner walls were smooth as a mirror, vitrified by intense heat followed by rapid cooling! The pungent smell of burning and sulfur filled the air.

Gyutaro and Daki... along with the Blood Scythes in their hands and the sashes that had been dancing around them... had vanished without a trace, not even a speck of ash left behind. It was as though they had never existed.

A system notification sounded in Moyu's mind.

[Upper Rank Six: Gyutaro and Daki killed. Coins obtained: +45000.]

Moyu slowly lowered his left hand and panted slightly. Using Red still consumed a tremendous amount of energy, especially at that level of output. But its effect was beyond doubt.

He glanced at the crater and put Azure Star away. The crimson blade returned to azure as it slid into its sheath.

Just then, a flamboyant figure crashed down like a meteor at the edge of the crater. It was Tengen Uzui, who had finally arrived. He looked at the scene before him, especially the charred crater radiating terrifying residual energy, then at the unscathed Moyu, whose breathing was steady. Beneath his flamboyant diamond headpiece, his face was filled with shock.

"This... this is... Eye Hashira, you... already dealt with the Demons?!" Tengen Uzui's voice was full of disbelief. He had sensed the Upper Rank Demon aura vanish and rushed over at full speed, but he hadn't expected the battle to end so quickly, much less in such a... nearly destructive manner.

"Yeah, I dealt with them. Upper Rank Six was a brother and sister pair of Demons. Their abilities complemented each other, and they had to be beheaded at the same time to kill them. I used just a tiny bit of unconventional means." Moyu gave a concise explanation, skipping the specifics of Red.

Tengen Uzui took a deep breath and suppressed his shock. His gaze toward Moyu grew more serious, with... a barely perceptible trace of awe. He had originally intended to come provide support, but instead... it seemed this newly appointed Eye Hashira's strength was far more unfathomable than he had imagined.

"What about Tanjiro and the others? Were the hostages rescued?" Moyu was more concerned about that.

"Oh! Don't worry!" Tengen Uzui came back to himself, a flamboyant smile returning to his face. "The three boys did well! Everyone was rescued! They're helping my wives get the other hostages settled. This mission was a complete success! What a flamboyant ending!"

Moyu nodded, relieved. They had finally made it through the Entertainment District arc without serious mishap. And after this battle, he had a clearer understanding of where his own strength stood, as well as Red's power.

"Let's go back." Moyu turned and walked toward the Entertainment District. The eastern horizon was already beginning to pale.

Tengen Uzui watched him go, then looked back at the shocking charred crater. Rubbing his chin, he murmured, "Simultaneous beheading... unconventional means... wow, that Eye Hashira really is... flamboyantly, ridiculously strong."