Infinity Castle, middle level.
Gravity was reversed in the Inverted Labyrinth. The ceiling lay underfoot, the floor overhead, and every structure resembled a game board a god had flipped upside down.
Giyu Tomioka stood on an inverted beam, his sword hand steady, his breathing even.
Three meters behind him, Muichiro Tokito crouched with his left arm hanging at his side, his sleeve soaked in blood. The old wound an Upper Rank had inflicted at the Swordsmith Village had split its stitches when he landed. The displaced bone had temporarily rendered that arm useless in combat.
Twelve meters ahead.
Akaza stood atop an inverted corridor pillar.
Dark purple vein-like markings that had never been there before covered his crimson body, spreading from his cervical spine to his face and covering half of it. They pulsed faintly, out of sync with his heartbeat, as though another creature were living beneath his skin.
His eyes were empty.
Gone was Akaza's gaze brimming with fighting spirit, gone the excitement that instinctively curled his lips when he faced someone strong.
There was nothing.
Only two pinprick pupils remained in his yellow irises, like glass beads. No focus, no thought, nothing that belonged to "Akaza."
Giyu had confirmed that thirty seconds ago.
This creature did not speak.
Ever since they had been forcibly transported into this inverted space, Akaza had not spoken once. No invitations, no taunts, no declarations of his obsession with martial arts.
He did only one thing.
Kill.
The stone slabs exploded. Akaza moved. No warning, no stance to gather strength-the explosive force beneath his feet crushed the inverted pillar into rubble. His body became a crimson afterimage, tracing not a straight line but three angled segments.
Each change in direction corresponded precisely to the outer edge of Giyu's maximum sword reach.
It