Mountain Summit, Hand Demon

"The air seemed to have grown much heavier."

In fact, when he got within roughly five hundred meters of the summit, there were already no traces of any other demons active nearby.

In some ways, demons resembled wild beasts.

For instance, their sense of territory.

Powerful demons would deliberately mark out hunting grounds that belonged to them.

If other demons entered those hunting grounds to prey on humans, it would be seen as a provocation. In serious cases, they would fight to the death.

The Demon Slayer Corps had far fewer swordsmen than there were demons, yet they had still been able to battle demons for a thousand years. One major reason was that demons could hardly be called harmonious or friendly, whereas the swordsmen placed great importance on unity.

Kurozawa's Pupil Power was quite good. During the day, he could clearly see insects crawling on trees from several hundred meters away, but he still could not see in the dark. At night, his Pupil Power was greatly affected.

Now, from a hundred meters away, he could only vaguely make out a humanoid shadow when he looked up.

"Hand Demon."

Standing atop the mountain, the Hand Demon had emerged from its cave and was currently maintaining a human appearance.

The moment Kurozawa saw the Hand Demon, his visual perception also sensed a gaze fixed upon him.

It was a gaze filled with negative emotions—malice, hatred, and brutality. Kurozawa and the Hand Demon stared at one another, both discovering the other's presence at the same time.

With a soft laugh, the earth and rocks beneath Kurozawa's feet suddenly cracked into spiderweb-like patterns.

The next second, his figure vanished from where he stood, shooting straight toward the summit like a streak of blue.

Even on an uphill slope angled at nearly sixty degrees, Kurozawa covered the hundred-meter distance in less than ten seconds and arrived before the Hand Demon.

Yet what appeared in his sight was not that hideous Hand Demon.

A little boy in a loose gray shirt crouched there quietly with his head lowered and buried between his arms. Judging by his frail body, he was perhaps only seven or eight years old.

Kurozawa knew that many demons retained human appearances outside of combat. He did not want to waste words and intended to strike directly.

There could not possibly be such a young child on Mount Fujikasane. There was no need to think about his identity to confirm it.

But then, a weak voice full of hope sounded beside his ear.

"Uncle, c-can you take me home?"

"I got separated from my brother. I'm so cold... It's so dark around here, and I'm so scared."

"Hehe, can you help me find my brother?"

At first, the little boy's voice sounded pitiful, but toward the end, it turned eerie, mixed with giggles and venomous hatred.

At the same time, a small hand reached out toward Kurozawa, seemingly hoping that he would take it and help him find his missing brother.

Kurozawa did not take that hand.

He merely smiled gently. The moonlight shone behind him, as though a layer of pure holy light surrounded his body. In a soft voice, he said, "Sorry, I can't take you home."

"But I can send you to heaven."

A brilliant blue blade shadow emerged as Kurozawa slashed straight at the boy's lowered head.

For demons constantly trapped in chaotic desires, death was a fine release. Too many demons had long forgotten their memories from when they were human, yet remnants of obsessions within those memories continued to torment them. At the moment of death, they could recover that fragment of memory.

Clang! The sound of metal striking metal rang out as that frail-looking little hand forcibly caught the Nichirin Blade.

Scarlet blood dripped down the edge of the Nichirin Blade.

The head buried between its arms suddenly lifted, blood-red eyes filled with mad, venomous resentment staring fixedly at Kurozawa.

"Hehe, I remember you—the one wearing the fox mask."

Surprisingly, beneath that resentful, hateful gaze, the Hand Demon was still a powerful demon that retained its sanity.

The instant it raised its head, blue-black arms surged out from beneath its body, each competing to emerge like black flowers slowly blooming.

Within a few breaths, the Hand Demon's body had transformed into a monster formed from entwined arms.

The hand gripping Kurozawa's Nichirin Blade also rapidly deformed and swelled, boulder-like muscles bulging out as snake-like veins rose across it.

"May I ask what my master did to you for you to remember him for so long?" Kurozawa replied inwardly.

With a flick of his wrist, the Nichirin Blade vibrated, shredding a large mass of flesh and breaking free from the Hand Demon's restraint.

Boom! An arm like a giant python suddenly burst from underground, grabbing toward Kurozawa's legs.

But the instant he felt the ground tremble, Kurozawa had already leaped up. At the same time, he planted a foot atop the enormous arm erupting from the earth, then flew forward with a slash aimed directly at the Hand Demon's neck, guarded by layer upon layer of arms.

Water Breathing, First Form: Surface Slash! Brilliant blue blade light appeared along the Nichirin Blade and struck the guarding arms.

Clang! Another metallic ring resounded. Kurozawa felt the web between his thumb and forefinger jolt violently, as if he had struck steel.

Across from him, the Nichirin Blade had only cut halfway into the Hand Demon's arm.

Whoosh! A fierce gust came from behind him. Kurozawa stepped on the Hand Demon's enormous head, and the tremendous force made it stagger back slightly.

Borrowing the rebound, Kurozawa flipped through the air to evade the arm grasping at him from behind, landing steadily on the ground more than ten meters away.

Only then did Kurozawa have the attention to observe the Hand Demon's current appearance.

It looked bizarre and terrifying, and it was exceptionally tall. Even when it moved, the ground trembled faintly.

Four meters tall and four meters wide, it resembled a blue-black mountain of flesh.

This mountain of flesh was formed from dozens of tightly entwined arms. Arms protruded from its back, between its ribs, and beneath its feet. The palms at their ends were slightly open, like venomous snakes poised to strike.

At the top of the flesh mountain sat a millstone-sized head, with blood-red eyes embedded in it. Several thick arms shielded its neck and lower face.

The arm that had burst from the ground earlier had clearly been one hidden beneath the flesh mountain. It had burrowed underground before erupting beneath Kurozawa's feet.

"No... your voice is too young. You're not the one who captured me."

"Heehee, that's fine. Even if you aren't him, you must be close to him, right? Killing you will make him suffer."

"And I love watching people suffer in despair!"

The Hand Demon was enormous, but its voice was the opposite—shrill and piercing, like cat claws scraping glass in the dead of night, enough to make one nauseous.

Though it spoke in a light, playful tone, its blood-red eyes were filled with hatred, twisted and terrifying.

As it spoke that final sentence, ten arms surged from the Hand Demon's body, their palms opening as they grabbed for Kurozawa.

Even as they reached for him, the arms rapidly thickened, soon becoming large enough to seize an entire person in a single hand.

"Being so vengeful isn't good for you. Today, I'll help you find release."

Kurozawa took a deep breath, a sharp glint flashing through his eyes.

Water Breathing: Total Concentration! Instantly, streams of breath like white pythons emerged and flowed into Kurozawa's nose and mouth.