It was a deep pit.
Kokushibo fell into it without the slightest hesitation. Hundreds of razor-sharp blades waited below, each honed to pierce anyone's body with ease—even a demon's.
The blades had surely been coated with deadly poison, just like the poison now ravaging his body.
There was no time to wonder. The instant he hit the bottom, the blades pierced him.
His head, neck, chest, arms, stomach, waist, thighs, calves, ankles...
There was hardly a part of him they had not pierced.
But that was not the worst of it.
The worst came as the blades pierced him and his body struck the ground. He heard a familiar sound.
He had heard it many times tonight: mechanisms clicking, locking into place, rising, then boom!
There's gunpowder hidden down here too?
Kokushibo lay still, staring up at the sky. It was hard to tell what lay in his eyes.
In the darkness, a ring of people stood around the pit.
"That should do it, right?"
Tengen Uzui spoke without taking his eyes off Kyojuro Rengoku.
Their clash had lasted only an instant, yet that instant had left Kyojuro Rengoku in this state.
His injuries were nearly as terrible as Tetsu no Sosuke's.
Just how powerful was the demon in that pit?
This was what a merciless blade of slaughter looked like.
Tetsu no Sosuke and Kyojuro Rengoku supported each other. Tetsu no Sosuke silently watched Kokushibo lying in the pit.
Then he smiled faintly. "You can't accept an ending like this, can you?"
Kokushibo glanced at him with one of the eyes he still had. Iron nails had pierced some of the others, leaving them unable to move for now.
But he said nothing. His gaze was cold, as though everything remained within his grasp, still under his control.
"So