novelnext Chapter 7 You didn't expect this, did you? This is my escape route!
Chapter 7 You didn't expect this, did you? This is my escape route!
For the first time, Akaza felt a sense of fear and retreat. He looked towards the horizon, where the first hint of dawn, a symbol of death, was beginning to appear.
As an Upper Moon demon, he absolutely cannot linger under the sun. But now, Kyojuro actually possesses the power to completely pin him down before dawn.
"I... will never let you cross this line!"
Kyojuro Rengoku fought with increasing ferocity. After activating his Demon Slayer Mark, he seemed to enter a state of "transparency."
Akaza's moves, which were originally so fast they were blurry, became, in his eyes, a harbinger of every muscle fiber twitching.
However, Akaza was, after all, a battle genius who had endured for centuries. In the face of life and death, he displayed the despicable and decisive nature of a apex predator.
In the instant of the collision, Akaza, at the cost of having his chest pierced by the Crimson Blade and his internal organs burned to ashes, suddenly unleashed the Destruction Kill - Kick Style.
Using the terrifying recoil from this heavy blow, Akaza propelled himself backward.
He twisted his body forcefully in mid-air, like a pink afterimage, and plunged into the deep, dark forest behind him without looking back.
"Didn't expect that, did you, Flame Pillar? This is my escape route!"
Akaza's hurried and furious mocking voice echoed through the forest, "I admit you're strong! But how long can you sustain this kind of life-burning battle?"
"Half an hour? Or an hour? Become a ghost! I'll wait for the day you die of old age or illness, then I'll come back and laugh at your weakness!"
Kyojuro attempted to give chase. But as soon as he took a step, his body suddenly swayed.
The extremely high body temperature and cardiac pressure caused by the markings instantly backfired. His vision blurred, and his legs felt as heavy as lead.
This man, who had never retreated on the battlefield, now had to kneel on the ground, leaning on his knife, coughing violently.
"Mr. Purgatory!"
Tanjiro and Inosuke scrambled over to catch him.
"Huff... Huff..." Kyojuro gasped for breath, blood trickling down his lips and the marks on his forehead, but he still managed a bright, sunny smile.
"I... protected everyone... that's enough..."
"That's enough. We won't charge you for the after-sales service."
Pei Qi stood up from the train chassis and casually brushed the dust off his pants.
He stepped forward amidst the stunned gazes of the crowd and took out an apple radiating a sacred golden light from thin air.
"Take it, Tanjiro."
Pei Qi handed him the golden apple. "Feed him this. This thing can not only forcibly bring his health back, but also provide a few minutes of 'damage absorption' and 'health regeneration.' It's a much more advanced thing than milk."
Tanjiro blankly accepted the heavy, fragrant golden fruit. He looked at Pei Qi, his eyes full of confusion: "Mr. Pei, aren't you going to chase after them?"
"I?"
Pei Qi grinned. "I'm an extremely efficient person. Now that I've taken this job, I need to clear out my task list."
As Pei Qi spoke, he skillfully changed out of his lower-dimensional alloy breastplate, replacing it with a pair of elytra as thin as cicada wings, radiating a translucent biological luster.
Immediately afterwards, he pulled a set of colorful firework rockets out of his pocket.
"Alright, let's begin the wrap-up work."
boom! !
Fireworks exploded beneath Pei Qi's feet, the immense force propelling him skyward. He soared like a large, black raptor, accompanied by a sharp cry.
Under the horrified gazes of the crowd, Pei Qi made an exaggerated arc and rushed straight into the depths of the dense forest, which was already several kilometers away.
……
Deep in the dense forest, Akaza was running wildly.
"As long as...as long as we reach that shadowy spot...as long as we escape the sun..."
He cursed inwardly. Tanjiro's vehement accusations on the other end of the line irritated him more than ever before.
"That samurai... that damned guy! Without his guidance, Kyojuro would never have awakened!"
"boom--!"
Akaza furiously punched an innocent tree beside him, venting his rage. "Tanjiro, and that samurai... when we meet again, I'll crush you both!"
Just as he was about to accelerate again, a sound he had never heard before came from the sky.
It wasn't the screeching of a living creature, nor the sound of a weapon cutting through the air, but a mechanical, high-frequency, ear-piercing shriek produced by extremely high-speed friction with the air.
Akaza suddenly turned his head, his pupils instantly shrinking to the size of pinpoints.
High in the sky, a pitch-black figure, carrying the terrifying kinetic energy of its dive, hurtled towards him like a meteorite falling vertically.
That was Pei Qi. With the extreme acceleration of his elytra and the combined effect of the Power II potion, his speed had reached a level that was difficult to comprehend in this plane.
"What...?"
All of this happened in the blink of an eye.
Pei Qi didn't use any fancy sword techniques. He simply gripped the lower-realm alloy sword tightly and used gravity to transform himself into the sharpest chisel.
Puff-!
The lower-dimensional alloy sword easily pierced Akaza's proud defenses, penetrating directly through his chest cavity.
The immense kinetic energy did not stop. Pei Qi, carrying Akaza's body, flew backward, crashing into three trees that were so large that it would take two people to encircle them.
Finally, guided by the longsword that shimmered with purple light, Akaza was pinned firmly to the trunk of a huge ancient cedar tree.
"I have a good habit."
Pei Qi landed steadily, making a soft rustling sound on the fallen leaves. His voice, still calm beneath his helmet, said, "Settlement is a matter of course. I'm a diligent person, and I don't want to deal with things later. So, let's get going."
"Ugh...cough cough..."
Akaza attempted to retaliate, but he discovered that the sword possessed a terrifying "enchanted logic." His regenerative abilities tried to repair his chest cavity, but every budding growth was instantly erased by the purple glow emanating from the blade.
This is the massive damage caused by the combined effects of Power II, Sharp V, and elytra dive damage.
Akaza's health points plummeted rapidly in Pei Qi's view. In a moment of dazed consciousness, the world before Akaza's eyes changed.
Those vague memories of "Master Qingzang" and "Lianxue," those warm emotions he had forgotten amidst a century of carnage, surged forth like a revolving lantern at this moment. He looked at Pei Qi, then at the sliver of morning light that had already crossed the mountain ridge on the horizon.
"So... what I've always wanted to destroy was myself."
He closed his eyes, and his hands, which had been trying to draw his sword, fell limply to his sides.
Pei Qi looked at the health bar that had finally reached zero, a hint of indifference flashing in his eyes.
A crisp breaking sound rang out.
The Upper Moon Three, who had ruled countless nights and struck fear into the hearts of the Demon Slayer Corps, ultimately transformed into countless white particles flying in the sky before Pei Qi.
They shimmered brilliantly in the morning light, then completely merged into the earth and disappeared...