The world seemed to stand still.
Tanjiro sat slumped on the ground, his mouth open, yet unable to make a sound.
He stared at the figure standing before him.
The man wearing the half-and-half haori.
He had done nothing.
He simply stood there quietly.
Rui's red threads, powerful enough to slice everything into pieces, vanished without a sound just a foot in front of him.
They had not been severed.
Nor had they been blocked.
They had simply, utterly, dissolved into nothingness out of thin air.
"Dead Calm..."
Tanjiro turned those words over.
Was this the power of a Hashira?
Was this the pinnacle of Water Breathing?
Compared to his Hinokami Kagura, which had barely severed a few threads even with every ounce of his strength.
The scene before him was like a miracle.
It was an absolute realm he could neither comprehend nor reach.
So true strength was not a thunderous eruption.
It was this absolute control that brought everything to stillness.
Elsewhere.
Both of Rui's bodies froze in place.
The expression on his face shifted from cruel mockery to pure, uncomprehending horror.
What was going on?
Where were my threads?
My strongest Blood Demon Art, infused with all my power...
Why did it disappear?
He could feel that his connection to the threads remained.
Yet they could not advance an inch.
Around that man lay what seemed to be a realm where entry was absolutely forbidden.
A realm of the gods.
Giyu Tomioka's expression had not changed at all from beginning to end.
His eyes were as calm as a deep pool undisturbed for ten thousand years.
Finish off this Lower Rank Five.
Then deal with that boy traveling with a demon.
Those were all the thoughts in his mind at that moment.
He slowly raised the Nichirin