Despair.
Like the deepest darkness before dawn, it shrouded the entire battlefield.
Everyone could only watch as Tanjiro was hoisted high, watching the greed and ecstasy on Muzan Kibutsuji's enormous, twisted face, as though he had caught the perfect prey.
They wanted to save him, but their bodies no longer obeyed.
Sanemi Shinazugawa's leg had been pierced by a bone whip, leaving him kneeling on one knee; Gyomei Himejima's chain was tightly entangled, unable to move; Giyu Tomioka's back was already a bloody ruin from protecting Sasuke, and every breath brought searing pain.
They could only watch.
Watch as Muzan's enormous maw slowly opened, aiming at Tanjiro's forehead.
Everyone knew that in the next second, the Demon King's blood, mingled with a thousand years of curses, would be injected into that kindhearted boy's body.
The Demon Slayer Corps' last hope would be corrupted, becoming the world's greatest catastrophe.
It's over... it's all over...
In that deathly silence, a roar rang out to the heavens, exploding like a thunderclap hurled into stagnant water!
"I won't allow it!!!"
Boom-!!!
An enormous, spiraling tornado of fire descended from the sky with the force to burn all things to ash!
It did not attack Muzan's main body. Instead, with unstoppable force, it slammed straight into the bone whips binding Tanjiro.
"Flame Breathing, Ninth Form: Purgatory!"
Fire was one of demons' most primal fears.
Even Muzan's flesh hissed as it burned before Kyojuro's ultimate flames, which blazed with his life and will. The bone whips blackened and curled, and in their pain, involuntarily released Tanjiro.
A fiery-red figure, like a meteor shooting upward through the sky, caught the falling Tanjiro and landed steadily a short distance away.
It was Kyojuro Rengoku.
His Flame Hashira haori was already in tatters from the fierce fighting, and his