Dead silence.
Every sound on the battlefield was swallowed completely the instant that enormous black sword appeared.
Five hundred meters away, Tengen Uzui, Tanjiro, Inosuke, and Zenitsu had even stopped breathing.
They simply tilted their heads back, gazing with almost pilgrim-like reverence at the towering purple deity and the ominous weapon in its hand, burning with a "black sun."
"Wh... what is that..."
Tanjiro's lips trembled.
His nose detected no scent of burning.
That mass of black fire seemed not to exist in this world, yet it radiated an air of absolute, deathly silence that would bring all things to their end.
At the center of the battlefield, Daki had been utterly broken by fear.
She lay limp atop the rubble, staring at the enormous black sword aimed at her. A burning shudder rising from the depths of her soul left her unable to move even a finger.
"Aaaaaah-!"
Her instinct to survive finally overwhelmed her fear, and Daki let out a shriek sharp enough to tear eardrums.
Holding nothing back, she poured every last bit of power in her body into her Blood Demon Art.
Dozens upon dozens of sashes surged from behind her. Instead of scattering, they converged into an immensely thick torrent that seemed capable of tearing heaven and earth apart, crashing straight toward the purple demon god!
This was her strongest attack, and her final struggle.
Yet, faced with this desperate strike.
Inside Susanoo, Sasuke's gaze did not waver in the slightest.
The enormous purple skeleton merely swung its giant, black-flame-wreathed sword slowly, as though brushing away an irritating insect.
There was no earth-shattering collision.
No thunderous explosion of energy.
Before everyone's incredulous eyes, the enormous black sword traced a path so elegant it seemed almost slow, passing gently and soundlessly through the raging torrent of