At the bottom of the enormous crater, Muzan Kibutsuji felt unprecedented humiliation and... fear.
The suppressive force of Uesugi Sasuke's final move, "Shinra Tensei," was gradually weakening as Sasuke lay unconscious. But another force, more insidious and even more unbearable, was rampaging through his body.
It was Tamayo's drug.
That dose injected into his body, the culmination of centuries of hatred, was finally unleashing its most essential, most vicious second-stage effect-Rapid Aging.
Muzan could clearly feel his life force draining away at an unbelievable speed.
Every second felt like decades passing.
His once-flawless cells, endowed with unlimited regenerative ability, began to show signs of deterioration. The skin of his handsome human form, which he took such pride in, was now uncontrollably developing deep wrinkles like a dried-up riverbed. His glossy black curls also began to lose their luster, turning gray and withered.
His movements grew sluggish, and each regeneration consumed several times more energy than before.
"My body... my perfect body... is rotting?"
That realization seared the depths of Muzan's soul like a red-hot branding iron.
He had lived for a thousand years. The very purpose of his existence was to defy death and become an eternal, perfect being.
Death.
The word he feared most, hated most, and least wished to face had now become a stark reality, screaming through every one of his cells.
Utter terror finally turned into utter rage.
"Aaaaaaah-!"
Muzan let out a soundless roar that nonetheless seemed capable of shaking the entire space.
Why? Why can you lowly, fragile insects, born in the morning only to die by nightfall, hurt me? Why can you make me experience aging and death?!
I refuse to accept this! I will never accept this!
That fury, born of his survival instinct, gave him new strength.
He felt that the