Chapter 3: Roar of the Sword Demon - VS Lower Moon 3
Huh?
Onui blinked, dumbfounded. A foul odor pervaded her senses as chunks of rotten flesh covered her face. She stared at a loss at the disfigured remains of the corpses that once held her down.
W-what just happened?
A cacophony of grunts and growls filled the air. The horde of reanimated corpses cried out as the ground beneath them trembled. Clouds of dust filled the air, obscuring Onui's vision. She could only hear the relentless swishing sound of steel ripping through flesh.
Chaos broke out as a whirlwind of swords tore through the forest. Onui watched in stunned confusion as a shadowy figure rammed through the horde of corpses, cutting down body after body with an arsenal of swords on its back.
The figure was hopelessly outnumbered, surrounded from all sides, but it forcibly carved out a path of destruction through the sea of corpses, sending severed limbs and smashed body parts flying into the air.
"GRAAAGHH!"
Like a feral beast, the figure released a primal roar as it rampaged through the forest.
The figure fought with the full force of its arsenal of blades. Never limiting itself to just one or two swords like a conventional swordsman, it cycled through an endless supply of rotating blades. It would fight with reckless abandon with one pair of swords and would then easily discard that pair for another whenever the situation called for it. The discarded swords would explode upon impact and the replacement swords would come flying from its back, sliding into its hands like clockwork.
It was a mesmerizing sight to behold. Both Onui and Enmi stood baffled. The two of them silently watched the figure ruthlessly demolish the parade of corpses with devastating efficiency. Their eyes zipped through the forest. The figure was constantly in motion, running from one spot in the forest to the next, mercilessly destroying everything unlucky enough to cross its path.
"What is this? What manner of absurdity is this?" the Third Lower Moon asked impatiently, finally out of his stupor. He approached the interloper decimating his test subjects at breakneck speed. The growing frown on his face worsened.
Enmi's reanimated corpses were programmed to violently attack anything that stood in the way of their mission objectives. Normally, they were an unstoppable force of nature. Even against a platoon of seasoned demon slayers, they would at least pose a challenge.
But now, in this present scenario, Enmi's corpse army was as good as worthless. Their instinctual animalistic responses were met with pure savagery. They all folded like paper, crushed under the weight of a monster's endless barrage of swords.
"A demon?" Enmi realized, perplexed. A few veins visibly protruded on his pale face as he glared at one of his own. "What are you doing? Can't you see I'm in the middle of an important experiment here?" he demanded, furious.
But the demon didn't respond. It just continued cutting down more and more of Enmi's experiments. It kept its back turned towards Enmi, as though it didn't even consider the Lower Moon Three demon to be a real threat.
"Hey, answer me!" Enmi screeched. His calm façade evaporated. "What do you think you're doing to my precious test subjects?"
Enmi's face darkened considerably as locks of his black hair began to writhe like snakes. "You dare ignore a demon of the Twelve Moons? You lowly, no-name demon!"
Enmi swung his hand and tendrils of blood shot out from his fingers. They lashed at the figure, cutting down all the unlucky corpses in the way. But in the last moment, the swords on the demon's back flew out, clashing violently with Enmi's attack. A high-pitch whine pierced through the air as pressurized whips of blood fought against blades of reinforced steel.
Onui covered her ears, shutting her eyes in fright. She felt her heart leap out of her chest as the shrill noise grew louder and louder. But somehow, she managed to open her eyes back, shuddering. She slowly backed away from the two demons fighting each other. She leaned against the trunk of a nearby tree for support.
The remainder of Enmi's corpses also stood back. They were ordered to stand back and watch as their Master had his fun with the sudden demon intruder.
"UWAAGGH!"
The sword demon bellowed angrily. In an explosive burst of energy, it released a mad frenzy of sword swings. The sheer force of his swings was powerful enough to repel Enmi's tendrils of blood and clear away the collection of corpses and vegetation around its vicinity.
With all the obstructions out of the way, and the timely arrival of moonlight from the cleared forest canopy, Onui could now finally manage a good look at the crazy swordsman who'd saved her. She shuddered instinctively.
Like Enmi had said, the person who'd saved her was also a demon. So, her first initial response was fear. But overtime, as Onui observed the demon longer, something else gradually took root in her heart.
Unlike Enmi who only held heartless malice and unhinged curiosity for her, this demon seemed wholly uninterested in her. Onui's instincts even suggested that the sword demon was instead consumed in hatred for Enmi and his monstrous creations.
In a weird way, Onui found this trait in the demon to be endearing. Perhaps as a result of the sudden manic highs and lows of her emotions, Onui felt a strange mix of relief, apprehension, and even, familiarity at the sight of the sword demon.
The sword demon wore only a pair of torn-up black pants, leaving his well-toned abdomen in full view. His skin was somehow even paler than Enmi's, looking like it'd been bleached of all life or color. But the upper half of his body was covered in intricate lines of vivid blue. The complex network of lines ran up his neck, stopping just below his eyes.
The sword demon's eyes blazed with a vicious red light. His fiery red hair was unkempt and spiked like the flames of a great and terrible fire.
A demon like that had demonstrated himself to be powerful enough to destroy an army of undead monsters on his own. However, unlike the cold unfeeling monster that was Enmi, this demon covered in swords was undoubtedly warm. The core of his being was like a blazing furnace, burning with unbridled rage, seething in ceaseless anger.
Onui just couldn't understand. They were both obviously demons. But the feelings Enmi and the sword demon gave off were polar opposites.
Also on the same page as Onui, Enmi was similarly baffled. He could not fathom why another demon he'd never met before was directing so much animosity towards him and his creations.
Relations between fellow demons were always faint. Lord Muzan prohibited close ties and necessitated independent action, with only rare exceptions. Sometimes this meant a few demons would occasionally butt heads out in the wild. But even with all this considered, the sheer amount of contempt this random demon held for Enmi was still incomprehensible.
"SLAY. EVIL. KILL. DEMONS," the demon swordsman growled each word slowly through gritted teeth. "YOU! TOO! DEMON'S SMELL! KILL!"
Enmi's original bewildered frustration soured into complete disgust.
"Ignorant fool," he dismissed, his face twisting in disdain. He swung his hands and wove together several more tendrils of blood from his fingers. The whips of blood wove together to form a crude shield in front of him.
Just as the shield had formed, a dozen or so of the demon's swords came flying in Enmi's direction with no warning. The shield of blood violently collided against the strange demon's spinning swords, sparks flying.
The sword demon jumped at Enmi himself, slamming down another pair of swords to pile on Enmi's shield. A large thud sound rang across the forest as the two demons became locked in a battle of strength. The sword demon repeatedly banged his swords against Enmi's shield and Enmi refused to budge and held his ground, hardening his shield.
"How boorish," Enmi clicked his tongue, narrowing his eyes at the sword demon.
Up against a random demon of unknown origin, Enmi thought it was beneath him to mirror his style of fighting, bashing the weight of his swords like a barbarian. So, he was adamant about standing his ground, and simply letting the overwhelming difference in power between them to speak for itself.
However, much to his surprise, Enmi could feel the ground beneath him begin to shift. Veins visibly popped up on the side of his face as he felt his feet slide against the dirt.
Impossible! I'm being pushed back? Me? A Lower Moon? By some random demon? In a contest of strength?
"Agh! You dare!" Enmi screamed in utter disgust.
He redoubled his efforts in the shield, but at the same time, the markings on the sword demon's torso changed from blue to red. The swords he swung tripled in size, with their blades growing jagged feathers. The revamped swords crashed against Enmi's shield, breaking them altogether in a snap.
"Impossi-"
Enmi's bewildered words were cut short when the sword demon shoved his swords into his chest. He saw the red markings on the sword demon's body spread to the swords themselves, creating crack-like patterns.
The sword demon snarled at Enmi and jumped back. His hulking body of swords sailed safely up into the sky as the ground around Enmi was devoured in a fiery explosion. The dozen or so blades the sword demon had left behind collectively detonated in a vicious storm of dust and shrapnel.
Onui swallowed down a lump of fear at Enmi's sudden devastating destruction. She slowly regarded the surviving demon with a cautious face. Even though she held no ill feelings for the sword demon, she was still wary of him. Although the sword demon had showed no interest in her thus far that could change in any moment.
She nervously eyed the crowd of corpses left standing idly by. She was confused. If Enmi were really dead, wouldn't they powerlessly fall to the ground?
Likewise, the sword demon wasn't busying himself with destroying them either. He was instead focused intently on the smoking crater Enmi had left behind. He sniffed repeatedly with his nose raised in the air like a hunting dog.
"Filthy Mongrel!"
Onui winced at the sudden disembodied voice. She immediately recognized it to be Enmi's. She looked around nervously. She didn't understand. Hadn't he been killed?
"At least you know your place. Sniffing with that nose like the filthy animal you are." Enmi's angry voice reverberated across the entire forest. The leaves on the tree branches rustled with his voice. "Did you think your crude swords would be enough to cut my neck?"
The sword demon growled. He willed another pair of swords into his hands. He rushed up to the nearest tree and diced the poor thing into bits. Splintery pieces of wood and leaves fell slowly to the ground, and the demon further cut those into smaller pieces as they slowly rained down to the ground.
"That indiscriminate rage and beastlike behavior. Are you a newborn demon?! Still blindly attacking every living thing in sight!?" Enmi's voice carried with it a thick tone of mockery.
"Then as your senior, let me educate you, fool!" Enmi screamed and the sea of trees began to shift. The entire mountain began to shake. "I am one of the Twelve Demon Moons! One of the demons personally recognized by Lord Muzan himself! The Demon Doctor! Enmi of the Third Lower Moon!"
Onui cried out in a panic. She frantically held onto the tree beside her for support. But it was futile, she felt the tree and the ground it stood shake along with Enmi's screams. The earth itself began to quake, but it wasn't like a mindless rumbling. It felt like the earth had come to life. Like a great beast roused from slumber, it was shaking itself awake.
However, in spite of this, the sword demon did not buckle. Instead, he held his ground, and his body began to tremble with even greater rage. His mind was utterly lost to wrath. His breath lost in a howl of hatred.
"MUZAN! MUST! KILL! MUZAN!" the sword demon roared violently. "MUUUZAAAN!"
A new pair of swords appeared in the sword demon's hands. They formed from the blood that burst out of his hands after clenching his fists too tightly. The new blades were a pair of black and white curved swords of exotic design. A blood red hexagonal pattern shone on the two blades.
"Ignorant fool! You dare bare your fangs at our esteemed Lord?!" Enmi screamed back at the sword demon.
The forest itself seemed to grumble along with Enmi's emotions. Onui could hear the chaotic smattering of a litany of wild animals. Birds flew out of the trees and wild boars squealed as they ran away.
Onui could hear the familiar ring of fear and panic in the animals' cries. She understood their feelings because she shared them herself. She wanted to get as far away as possible from here, but it was hopeless. The best she could do was cling to the tree beside her for dear life.
The sword demon ignored the animal sounds. He stood in place intimidatingly. His livid gaze scanning his surroundings, searching for the source of the demon's smell he detected.
He raised his head and snarled, sniffing the air agitatedly. He narrowed his eyes and turned towards his back. He raised his swords in a ready stance.
Onui wondered what the demon was looking at before she heard it. A deafening roar of primal rage rocked the entire forest. The ground reverberated the thunderous footsteps of a beast fast approaching their direction.
The line of trees around them was swept aside, demolished by a large hulking behemoth of a wild boar. The beast was the size of a small house and was covered in thick black bristly fur, with two massive tusks jutting up its snout. The creature charged at the sword demon, prepared to trample it to death.
Onui looked away, convinced both she and the sword demon were doomed. The two of them would be trampled to death by the giant beast.
But contrary to her expectations, Onui did not die.
Just as the beast's tusks were inches away from the sword demon's face, he leaped into the air. His body twisted skillfully. His blades glinted a sinister red light. The demon screamed and released a furious flurry of slashes, swinging his swords with wild abandon.
Once his attack was done, the sword demon landed back on the ground expertly, snorting.
The giant boar could only groan in confusion before its life was extinguished. Its enormous body now cut up into large chunks of flesh. Its blood burst out, spilling all over the forest floor.
"Eh...?" Onui muttered blankly.
She couldn't believe her eyes. Even a creature five times its size was no match to the demon swordsman. She stood absolutely gobsmacked at the demon's overwhelming power.
But the sword demon didn't relax. His face twisted into an even angrier frown as he glared menacingly at the blood spilled on the ground.
"There's more where that came from~" Enmi's disembodied sing-song voice mocked. "We're just getting started!"
The demon swordsman watched as the blood seeped into the ground extremely quickly. His nose twitched incessantly. He turned its head around, back and forth, searching wildly.
A crunching noise came from behind the demon. He swung his swords in a flash and cut down what appeared to be a slew of tree branches rushing at him. He jumped out of the way as another string of tree branches rushed at him like a swarm of snakes. He raised his blades and cut down the branches, but another group of branches lunged at his blindside, sending him rolling to the side.
"W-what...?" Onui muttered in fear. She watched as the demon swordsman began to fight the sea of trees around them.
"KILL! DEMONS!" the sword demon growled defiantly to the entire forest.
The sword demon began to play a vicious game of tit-for-tat with the tree branches. He would cut down five, but another seven would spring out from the ground and attack him. His blades began to burn a sinister red color again. He used them in the same way he did before, casually discarding them when the situation called for it and then producing another pair of copies on the fly.
The demon's body was covered with wounds, but they didn't seem to slow him down at all. In fact, he would forge blades out of the blood that spilled from his wounds, allowing him to somehow keep pace with the constant onslaught of attacks from the trees around him.
Onui felt the tree she'd been holding onto squirm under her touch. She squeaked out of fear and quickly backed away from the tree. She looked around her nervously, worrying which trees Enmi had managed to take control of. She could only tremble quietly in the corner, constantly preparing herself to run in any direction to avoid getting caught up in the demons' fight.
"KILL!" the demon swordsman screamed as it cut down another swath of tree branches.
But no matter how relentlessly the sword demon fought, it seemed like Enmi had complete control of the fight. The sword demon was just barely managing to put up a decent resistance. He was slowly being backed into the corner.
The number of times it had to leap into the air to attack increased over time. The ground itself was unsafe as roots were constantly squirming underneath and sprouting out for coordinated attacks with the branches aboveground.
"Had enough yet, little demon? Have you learned to respect your elders?" Enmi asked condescendingly.
As the demon swordsman landed on the ground prepared to slash at another approaching tree branch, he felt something pull at his legs. A collection of severed hands sprang up from the ground to root him in place. He tried to just pull himself free, but this time, the corpse hands were strengthened with Enmi's blood to be sturdier.
The demon swordsman quickly cut himself loose, but he was a hair too late, and he was slammed in the left shoulder. The demon screamed in rage as he lost an arm but continued to cut down the tree branches with his remaining arm.
"SLAY. THE. EVIL," the sword demon screamed himself hoarse. "NO! MATTER! WHAT!"
A string of blood dripped out of his empty left shoulder socket. But still, the sword demon fought. The intensity of his swings with his remaining right hand simply doubled now with the loss of his left.
"Pitiful newborn demon. You know not of your own limits and yet still dare challenge a Lower Moon," Enmi pitied. "You're a hundred years too early to be challenging me for my seat!"
In response, the sword demon seemed to grow even angrier as it felt the other demon looking down on him. He doubled the amount of force into his swings and moved even faster than before. His screams resounded across the entire mountain.
But just as he fought more fiercely, so too did Enmi, using more and more familiars.
A cut spread open beneath the sword demon's left eye. He narrowed his eyes at the new enemies he'd smelled coming from the sky.
The originally dark night sky was now reduced to an indistinguishable black mass. A massive flock of birds circled around him like ominous clouds of death. Their once tiny bodies were now grotesquely enlarged with thick veiny protrusions all over them. Their talons and beaks all sharp like knives.
"Hehe... How do you like my experiments?" Enmi laughed gleefully.
These were the birds that Onui had heard flying away earlier. The poor creatures had failed to escape. And just like the plants and the wild boar, they were now under the complete domination of Enmi.
"Feast, my demons!" Enmi ordered gloriously. "Leave not even a scrap of meat on his bones! I want his skeleton stripped clean for my study!"
The horde of demon-birds shrieked. Like the shadow of death of itself, they descended as one great and terrible swarm. Their blood-curdling cry shook the earth.
Onui swallowed one last feeble breath, as she awaited her demise.
But the sword demon just growled, unbothered.
He kicked aside the incoming tree branch from his side and stood at the tallest possible vantage point he could find. He detonated his remaining white sword to clear away the shrubbery in the area. His hand now empty, he began to gather his strength.
Blood burst out of the demon's open palm, taking the shape of a katana of absurd length. The blade was unwieldy. Its length more reminiscent to that of a pole's rather than a sword's.
With only one hand left, the sword demon gripped the sword's hilt with everything he had. Veins bulged out on his hand and arm. His biceps swelled until they looked ready to burst.
As the swarm of death swooped down from the sky, the demon glared at his prey, flying eagerly into his sword's embrace. They numbered in the hundreds, but in the end, they were all birds, and they flew like any common bird would.
"TSUBAME! GAESHI!" the sword demon screamed at the top of his lungs and the blade in his hand radiated a wicked red light.
"What's this?" Enmi's disembodied voice blurted out, feeling the sudden distortion in space.
The sword demon growled until his voice was hoarse. His sword sliced through the heavens, dividing into three separate blades of sinister crimson light. The blades spun like the wind, tearing through the swarm of birds like the petals of an elegant blooming flower.
A chorus of shrill squeals filled the air. The birds dropped like flies, torn to pieces one after the other. The birds deeper in the swarm tried to escape the attack, but the red bands of light seemed to predict their movements and adjusted their courses, killing the fleeing birds like the rest.
Demonized bird corpses rained down from the sky. But those birds in the very back still continued their charge, unafraid of their own deaths.
However, the sword demon did not waver. He braced his sole remaining arm and charged his sword back up.
"TSUBAME GAESHI! TSUBAME GAESHI! TSUBAME GAESHI!" the sword demon screamed again and again, repeating his attack as many times as it took. Each of his swings divided into three that cut down more chunks of the swarm.
Onui stood in awe as she watched the demon slaughter the entire flock of birds. Blood dripped down his neck as he tore his throat from all his screaming.
In the process of killing all the birds, the demon swordsman had also cleared all the greenery around him. The ground close to him was now shaved barren. Everything alive or organic in his perimeter was cut down, eliminating all of Enmi's avenues of attack.
The sword demon fell to his knees. The lengthy katana in his hands disappeared. His breathing obviously ragged.
"That was an impressive feat, I must admit," Enmi's disembodied voice filled the area. His voice almost sounded a little winded. "I don't understand the Blood Demon Arts you use. Such a strange technique warrants further study."
The sword demon coughed roughly. His head bent down. His body fell slack.
"That would have been the case, had you not so rudely interrupted my experiments," Enmi said angrily, materializing from a black wisp from the bird corpses.
Enmi looked down on the sword demon on his knees before him. The poor demon was too exhausted to even crane his neck up. He simply stood there quietly with his head down.
"As your better, let me educate you," Enmi mocked with relish. "Demons have limitless energy. But newborn demons like you aren't fully developed yet. If you release your Demon Blood Arts like that consecutively, this is the obvious result."
The sword demon coughed, trying and failing to squeeze out another irreverent scream at Enmi.
"Heh," Enmi grinned. "I can feel your disdain for me from where I stand. I don't understand. We are of the same kind, so why attack me? You are truly a strange specimen."
Enmi drew back and cocked his head to the side. He locked eyes with the stunned Onui. The false veneer of amiability he once wore was now gone, replaced by a morbid sense of humor.
"Let me show you, sword brat," Enmi laughed. "This is how a demon replenishes their strength on the fly."
Onui yelped. Her arms were suddenly grasped with tendrils of blood from Enmi's hands. She was pulled towards him in an instant. Her body hung upside down before his gaping mouth.
"No-"
Onui tried to resist before she felt the demon's fangs sink into her chest. She thrashed about violently, screaming crazily. But it was pointless, she eventually fell slack. She felt her flesh be mauled by Enmi.
Fresh blood filled Enmi's mouth. He glugged it down hungrily. He licked his lips, satisfied. A rush of profound energy filled him.
"See? Simple," Enmi teased, chuckling. He enjoyed the pained look on Onui's face. "Sorry, girl. This is what you get for resisting my earlier polite offer. Now you're my snack. You can be my test subject again later when I'm back to full strength."
Enmi had no plan of killing the girl outright. He'd endured the embarrassment of having a newborn demon "killing him" just to get her. He would be studying her at his leisure.
Onui could feel her mind slip away into the void. Her blood leaked out of her chest. Her vision grew blurry. But still, she was alive, painfully alive.
As the last of her consciousness began to fade, her eyes lingered on the sword demon on his knees, still frozen.
"Please... help... me..." Onui whispered softly, closing her eyes.
Enmi laughed loudly. He shook the little girl's body around, enjoying her powerless little form in his grasp.
"Asking a demon to save her," Enmi cackled excessively. His shoulders trembled. "Such an absurd premise. It doesn't even count as a joke!"'
Enmi's cruel voice filled the devastated forest. He looked around, taking a moment to appreciate the destruction he and the sword demon had wrought.
"That's enough fun," Enmi snorted. He raised his arms and tendrils of blood wrapped around the sword demon's neck. "I'll be having your head!"
The sword demon's head was raised up as Enmi's tendrils tightened. His eyes bore down at Onui's unconscious body, dangling helplessly in Enmi's tendrils.
He grunted in stubborn rebellion. Anger welled up from the pit of his stomach. His entire body shook. He hardened his throat muscles.
Enmi knitted his eyebrows, frustrated. Even as he squeezed his tendrils, the sword demon's neck refused to break. The blood tendril tightened tenfold, but the sword demon's persisted. It felt like Enmi was squeezing a pillar of steel.
"What's this now?" Enmi asked, taken aback.
A growl escaped the sword demon's mouth. His teeth grinded against each other as he glared at Enmi with pure unbridled hatred. Blood began to foam out of his mouth.
"DEMON. SLAY. EVIL. SAVE. MUST. KILL. MUST. SAVE. ILLYA!" the sword demon muttered each word slowly through the pain of Enmi trying to choke him.
"Enough of this farce!" Enmi lost his temper and shot out several tendrils of blood, aiming for the petulant demon's head.
But before the tendrils of blood could reach him, the sword demon spat at Enmi. He fired a splash of his own blood through the air. The stream of red liquid shone and crystallized into a throwing knife. The makeshift blade pierced through Enmi's forehead dead-center.
"What the-"
Caught off-guard by the sudden attack, Enmi loosened his grip on the sword demon's neck for only a brief moment.
But that brief moment was enough, the sword demon gathered all the strength he had left into his remaining right arm. He tore the tendril around his neck to pieces and broke himself free.
Without a moment's hesitation, the sword demon lunged at Enmi. His entire right arm glowing red.
"NINE LIVES. BLADEWORKS. LIMITED!" he screamed with his entire being.
A small axe-sword crudely carved out of stone manifested in the sword demon's right hand. The jagged blade was bulky but compact enough that swinging it wouldn't hurt the little girl in Enmi's hold.
In a brief moment of absolute clarity, the sword demon's eyes narrowed. He placed one hundred percent of his focus into his body. In that moment, his body truly became a sword, a tool to execute a modified rendition of the technique once said to have slain a hundred-headed hydra.
The sword demon once again destroyed Enmi's body, this time, chopping it up into pieces through a quick sequence of nine perfectly executed movements. He meticulously segmented Enmi to bits, while also protecting the little girl from any harm.
Her restraints now cut. The little girl fell into the sword demon's embrace. Her small body caught between the stub of his missing left arm and his chest.
Once the sword demon secured the little girl, he instantly drew back to a safe distance away from Enmi's chopped up remains. But he didn't dare relax. He growled warily at the bloody chunks of meat left on the ground.
"Insolent low-born!" Enmi's disembodied voice trembled from his remains. "Haven't you realized yet? It doesn't matter how many times you kill me! So long as there exists even a single corpse on this mountain, I am immortal!"
Eternal Elixir of Blood. That was the name of Enmi's Blood Demon Art as Lower Moon Three. Unlike the offensive Blood Demon Arts of the other Twelve Demon Moons, Enmi's Blood Demon Art was unique in that it was an auxiliary technique constantly in activation.
Put simply, Enmi's existence was tied to his blood. Even if his body were destroyed repeatedly, he could survive so long as his blood transferred to another organic system, dead or alive, plant or animal. When his blood was transferred to another body, he could freely manipulate that body as his own. He could even restart organic systems that had long been deceased.
This was the secret to his stubborn survivability. It was the reason so many demon slayers had failed to "cut his neck". It was the reason that Enmi was able to climb the ranks to Lower Moon Three.
The only way to kill Enmi would be to destroy every trace of his blood cells in existence along with every single organic system in his vicinity.
Countless Pillars from the Demon Slayer Corps in the past had failed to do so. They all could only kill him a few handful of times before they inevitably ran out of energy and became his nourishment.
So, what chance did some no-name newborn deviant demon have at killing Enmi?
Absolutely zero.
This fact was the source of Enmi's confidence, his pride. It was why he willingly revealed his secret to the sword demon.
However...
"What are you doing?" Enmi's disembodied voice asked, suddenly taken aback.
Every single one of his instincts as a demon was ringing. It was the same as the time he lost his swarm of demon-birds from earlier. Enmi felt something amiss in the air. It was that peculiar Blood Demon Arts again.
The sword demon produced a coffin of swords from the blood dripping out of his arm-stump. He placed Onui in the coffin and carefully sealed the chamber shut. He proceeded to growl menacingly at the entire mountain around him, surveying the far-away uncut trees that had escaped his sword's destructive reach.
He measured the size of the land, getting a feel of everything in terms of distance. He began to muster all his remaining strength into his right hand again. His arm glowed into a hot red color at an alarming rate.
Enmi couldn't believe it. Demons were powerhouses of unlimited strength in theory. But in reality, even demons had limits. Lower demons and newborn demons especially, were prone to burnout. There was just no way a no name newborn demon's energy could compare with a Lower Moon's.
And yet, Enmi could not deny that something almost akin to fear began to take shape in his heart.
"It's pointless!" Enmi insisted furiously. "Other than an Upper Moon or Lord Muzan himself, no one can defeat me!"
Lower Moon Three screamed and a tangle of roots shot up from the ground, piercing through the sword demon and encasing him in a wooden cage.
However, the sword demon remained unfazed. He stopped caring about the damage on his body. He simply eyed the coffin of swords he'd conjured. It was still intact, even after Enmi's attack.
It was fine then. The little girl would definitely survive. The sword demon could rest assured.
"SPIRAL READY," he whispered in a coarse, painful voice.
The sword demon's brief moment of rationality had already vanished. His wrath once again took hold of him. Except this time, his madness was given focus, fueled with a brilliant flame of purpose.
"TRUE. RAINBOW. SHINE!" he coughed out, bleeding.
Pure unfiltered red light gathered around the sword demon's right palm once more. Floating drops of his blood coalesced, swirling into the form of a great spiral sword. The blade was twisted like a swirling drill. Red cracks of energy ran along the sword. Space once again distorted around the sword demon's blade.
"Futile! Absolutely futile!" Enmi insisted in a rage. His voice shook instinctively. "I am immortal! I am the Demon Doctor! I am Enmi, of the Third Lower Moon! I am the demon who tramples the border between life and death!"
The sword demon broke into a bloody cough as his chest was ravaged by Enmi's desperate onslaught of attacks. He jerked in pain as his ribcage was pried open by an angry tangle of roots. His lungs were squeezed of all its air. His innards twisted into incongruent knots.
His body was on the verge of collapse. But he didn't care. He just roared relentlessly into the night.
"CALADBOOOLG!"
The sword demon plunged the spiral sword into the ground. A gut-curdling spinning noise roared, and wicked red light consumed the entire mountain. The earth was torn asunder, and the heavens cried in fear of one demon's single-minded tenacity.
If the enemy demon could transfer his consciousness into all life forms, then the sword demon's solution was simple. He just had to destroy everything, dead or alive, on the mountain, period.
"DIE DEMOOON!" the sword demon raged as he too was swallowed up in the destruction.
"Impossible. This is impossible...!" Enmi screamed as his voice was lost to the sound of the sword demon's deafening roar.
Demon Slayer Corps Records
Enmi (魘魅): the present Third Lower Moon of the 12 Demon Moons. Possesses the Blood Demon Art "Eternal Elixir of Blood". This ability turns his blood into a literal elixir of life that allows him to revitalize the corpse of any organism. However, he cannot bring back the subject's soul and instead places a diminished version of his own will into them. This had made "cutting his neck" to be nearly impossible. To kill him, the demon slayer would have to somehow deliver a blow capable of destroying everything organic. Perhaps a Breathing Style based on using explosives would be a good match?
Sword Demon (剣の鬼): the demon anomaly recently rumored to be wandering the countryside. The few reports claiming its existence state that the demon was spotted killing other demons. All locations in these reports were found to be cut up or burned. If the demon does truly exist, it may be using a sharp weapon or some fire-based Blood Demon Art. If encountered, all demon slayers are ordered to proceed with caution. Communication is recommended, but one's own safety should be the top priority. Eliminate the target if deemed dangerous to human society.
Author's Note:
It's done. I can't edit this any further. Not because it's perfect or anything. I just can't stomach another read. This chapter is only a little longer than my average chapter length (6k words instead of 4k words), but it feels way too long.
But when I wrote it out, I was thinking, "this is Lower Moon 3, right?". So, I had to make the fight long and hard. In the future, I should be able to write more easily when I can actually write "Shirou" instead of "sword demon". I made the early decision of writing everything from Onui's perspective, so I stuck it out until the end.
I wanted to write it like Shirou were some incomprehensible force of nature that suddenly interrupted Enmi's fun.
I actually wrote the first half of this chapter a long time ago. But I only recently got around to finishing it on the night I was at the onset of my Covid-19 fever. I wrote the final moments as my head was aching and my body was burning. It felt like I was one of the demon slayers getting their "marks". You know, they get those when they're in a really intense, feverish state. I had to focus really hard through the pain and imagine the battle between a one-arm demon Shirou against a forest of demons. It was actually fun.
The fever peaked in the following morning after my evening writing session though. I wanted to die so badly. Would not recommend the experience.
Anyway, hope you at least enjoyed reading.
If you're feeling generous and can afford the trouble, would you buy me a cup of coffee please? (ko-fi dot com slash dhaturas).
Thank you for reading!