Transparent World Has Its Limits!

Kujo Tachibana's eyes flashed with lightning, blue bolts crackling around him.

He gripped a scarlet Nichirin Sword wreathed in lightning and charged straight at Kokushibo!

With his Demon Slayer Mark activated, Kujo Tachibana had no reason to fear Kokushibo.

Of course, Kokushibo was currently the strongest fighter in the world!

Kujo Tachibana's appearance was certainly intimidating, but it wasn't enough to scare him.

Neither man took a step back. They simply gripped their swords and clashed like two planets colliding!

Their blades met hundreds of times in a very short span!

One shower of sparks had barely faded before another followed!

Before long, sparks from the two men's blades filled the air around them.

But after that first exchange, Kokushibo's expression had grown extremely grim!

Without using his Blood Demon Art to attack, he seemed to have fallen slightly behind. He could only struggle to keep up with Kujo Tachibana's offense, remaining on the defensive the entire time!

Why was that?

Well!

Every time Kujo Tachibana's Nichirin Sword clashed with Hollow Cry Divine Departure, the blade formed by Kokushibo's Blood Demon Art,

the blow struck the weakest point along Hollow Cry Divine Departure's blade.

As everyone knew, when a sword was swung, its force wasn't distributed evenly along the blade. The force shifted from moment to moment depending on the angle of the swing.

And yet, in those circumstances,

Kujo Tachibana managed to hit that "not-quite-a-weakness" with every strike, using the weak to overcome the strong and a few ounces to move a thousand pounds.

Why call it a "not-quite-a-weakness"?

Because it was a physical phenomenon, not a weakness created by human error.

That left Kokushibo feeling as if he had all this strength but couldn't put it to use!

In Kokushibo's mind, the two of them had both mastered the Transparent World. They should both be able to see through each other's bodies and spot the openings in each other's techniques.

So the outcome should have been decided by their reflexes and strength in the moment.

And he was no worse than Kujo Tachibana in either regard!

In sheer strength, he even had a clear advantage!

So why was this happening?

Kokushibo was utterly baffled.

At that moment, he thought of Yoriichi, that man who was so adept at defying expectations...

If Kujo Tachibana knew what Kokushibo was thinking, he would have told him:

"Even champions have their limits..." No, wait, that wasn't it!

"Even the Transparent World has its limits!"

Just as Kokushibo could never match Yoriichi, even if the two of them used the same techniques, the same strength, and the same speed in a fight,

Yoriichi would still be the one to emerge victorious!

Many in this world called the Transparent World the Supreme Territory.

But Kujo Tachibana knew it absolutely wasn't the endpoint!

His horizons and imagination had never been constrained by this world. That was an advantage that came with being a transmigrator.

(So my lovely readers will surely accept this perfectly logical idea, right?)

As for why the Transparent World differed between Kokushibo and Kujo Tachibana,

there were actually many reasons for the situation they were in.

Part of it came down to Kujo Tachibana's innate talent: his soul was naturally stronger than other people's.

A stronger soul meant a stronger mind, which was also why Kujo Tachibana had been born with such formidable senses.

Kujo Tachibana's mental strength surpassed Kokushibo's, so he naturally had an easier time controlling the Transparent World.

And with the sixth sense of Sword Heart Clarity, which granted even deeper powers of observation, the two abilities complemented each other.

Compared to Kokushibo, Kujo Tachibana could naturally achieve more.

In numerical terms, if Kokushibo's observational ability was ten, Kujo Tachibana's might be twenty.

This was also why Kujo Tachibana couldn't keep the Transparent World active and his powers of observation fully engaged all the time, as Kokushibo could. The reason had already been explained earlier.

(It was also explained in Chapter 14.)

To Kujo Tachibana's senses, the world was like a movie playing in slow motion.

Ordinary people and Kujo Tachibana seemed like beings from different dimensions.

If he kept himself in that state, his mind would inevitably be affected by his surroundings.

The feeling was unmistakable!

Kujo Tachibana believed this was happening because he still couldn't fully control that power.

Watching the battle between two "monsters" in the distance,

Akaza gently touched his neck.

The vicious wound had come within a hair's breadth of severing it.

A pain like his heart being torn apart surged through him like a tide!

Even though several hours had passed, Akaza's wound still showed no sign of healing.

His gaze was complicated as he looked at the human swordsman fighting Kokushibo.

"I almost died!"

"What kind of power does that human possess?"

Akaza didn't interfere in the battle between the man and the demon. He had already lost.

A strong warrior's pride wouldn't let him gang up on someone!

That was something only the weak would do. Even if he, Akaza, was still no match for those two monsters, he had the heart of a strong warrior.

Besides, in his eyes, Lord Kokushibo hadn't fallen behind either.

For now, the battle between them still seemed evenly matched.

But against a demon, even that could be considered an advantage.

After all, demons weren't human. Their stamina and ability to recover from wounds far surpassed those of humans!

If Kujo Tachibana couldn't break this stalemate, he was sure to die tonight!

After several hours of fierce fighting, Kokushibo was now bare-chested, with only scraps covering his lower body.

Blades had sprouted all over him, growing outward from his flesh!

In his hand, he still gripped a misshapen sword like a branching tree: Hollow Cry Divine Departure!

Kokushibo's strongest form had arrived!

Kujo Tachibana, however, was in a bit of trouble.

Panting heavily, he tightened his grip on his Nichirin Sword and prepared for the next burst of action.

Kokushibo hadn't managed to land a single blow on Kujo Tachibana, but Kujo Tachibana had already burned through far too much stamina!

Without the Transparent World helping him avoid a great deal of needless exertion, he would have been exhausted long ago in a fight this intense.

He knew he couldn't keep fighting Kokushibo like this. He had been searching for an opportunity to cut off Kokushibo's head the entire time.

But Kokushibo was no weaker than him. Strictly speaking, Kokushibo's raw strength was still a little greater than his, even with his Demon Slayer Mark activated!

Kokushibo might not match him in the Transparent World, but the endless variety of flashy Blood Demon Arts kept Kujo Tachibana on the back foot.

Thanks to the explosive power of Thunder Breathing, Kujo Tachibana could temporarily suppress Kokushibo, but not kill him!

And Kujo Tachibana's approach was like dancing at the edge of a cliff. One misstep,

and he would plunge into the bottomless abyss, shattered to pieces!