"Found it!"
The girl let out a gasp of delight and hurriedly darted through the roaring flames toward it.
"So this is that guy's spiritual core…"
Even just standing near Kyojuro Rengoku's core, she could feel a terrifying heat pulsing from it.
She clenched her teeth.
Raising the awl high with both hands, she drove it down with all her strength.
Crack.
In the real world, Kyojuro instinctively sensed danger and suddenly shot to his feet.
His hand lashed out and closed around the girl's throat, lifting her clean off the ground before flinging her away.
Inside his spiritual world, the girl felt the same impact. Her body flew backward as if struck by a giant's hand and crashed heavily into the ground.
As Kyojuro's hand sliced through the rope tying their wrists together, the girl's form in his inner world began to blur and fade.
"No…!"
The crisis was averted, and Rengoku collapsed back into sleep.
What had just happened was nothing but his body's natural reflex.
The others, meanwhile, had already fully blended into their targets' spiritual spaces.
Another girl appeared in Inosuke's inner world, a hand clamped over her nose as she explored.
"This disgusting boar's spiritual world is just as disgusting as he is."
"Hurry up and find the spiritual core so I can have a nice dream already…"
She was muttering to herself when a figure wearing a boar mask suddenly loomed up right behind her.
"I'm gonna eat you. I'm gonna eat you!"
"Ahhhhh!"
Her shriek echoed through the burning world as she bolted at full speed.
"You filthy boar, stay away from me!"
"I'm gonna eat you! Eat you!"
"Ahhhhh!"
Somewhere else, a boy had entered Zenitsu's spiritual world.
He stared at the pitch black nothingness around him, hands groping in front of him as he stumbled blindly forward.
"What is with this guy's spiritual world? Why is there not even a single light?"
"Someone help me…"
As he fumbled through the dark, every hair on the back of his neck suddenly stood up.
"Who are you? Why are you in my spiritual world?"
A gaunt, hollow eyed Zenitsu stepped out of the darkness, looking like a deranged stalker.
The massive shears in his hands gleamed with a cold light.
"Where is Nezuko?"
The boy's legs started trembling so badly he could barely stand.
"I… I don't know who Nezuko is…"
"Only Nezuko is allowed into my world. You can die now."
Snip. Snip.
Zenitsu's shears opened and closed wildly. In a blur of motion, the boy's neatly pressed clothes turned into a sad handful of rags.
"I'm going to kill you."
Snip.
The boy was forcibly ejected from Zenitsu's spiritual world, his real body curling up into a ball on the floor, shaking uncontrollably.
At that moment, Nezuko, who had fainted earlier, finally woke up again.
Her strength had returned.
Seeing ropes tied tightly around everyone's wrists, she felt a surge of unease.
Blood Demon Art.
Pink flames erupted from her body, spreading along the ropes and reducing them to ash in an instant.
Their immediate crisis…
Well, was no longer a crisis.
For the moment it was resolved, but everyone remained trapped in sleep, with no telling when they would wake from their dreams.
Nezuko pushed Tanjiro again and again, but still could not rouse him.
Anxious, she resorted to her Blood Demon Art once more.
Soft pink flames swallowed Tanjiro's body completely.
In his dream, Tanjiro, who had been standing blankly by the riverside, suddenly found himself wrapped in flame.
When the fire faded, his clothing had changed into a Demon Slayer uniform.
"So it really is…"
Tanjiro finally understood.
At that moment, a familiar figure appeared in front of him.
"Tanjiro."
He looked up and his tears broke loose all at once.
"Father!"
Kie-slim and frail, Tanjuro placed a gentle hand on his son's head.
"Tanjiro, what you must cut down may not be what stands before your eyes, but yourself."
"Seeing how far you've come, I am proud of you. Do not continue to drown in this gentle dream. Go and do what you must."
As his voice slowly faded, the figure Tanjiro had longed for day and night dissolved into wind and snow.
"I understand."
Tanjiro wiped his face hard, drew his Nichirin sword, and pressed the blade to his own neck.
His hand trembled.
Even in a dream, this step demanded tremendous courage.
At last, he steeled himself.
The blade flashed and scorching blood splashed into the snow, melting it as it fell.
In the real world, Tanjiro's fingers twitched, then his eyes slowly opened.
At the same time, the four boys and girls tied to them also jolted awake.
The girl who had entered Kyojuro's spiritual world lifted her awl and aimed it at Tanjiro.
"This is all your fault. Because of you, we couldn't have our nice dreams!"
The other two who were still standing pointed their awls at Tanjiro as well.
Only the sickly looking boy who had entered Tanjiro's own spiritual world remained motionless, tears sliding silently down his cheeks.
Tanjiro stepped forward, his movement so fast they could not see him at all.
His hand chopped three times in quick succession, striking the backs of their necks and dropping them where they stood.
The crying boy shuffled to Tanjiro's side, his face filled with guilt.
"I'm sorry. To cure my illness, I've hurt so many people. But in your spiritual world, I felt… warmth."
"Your world was so peaceful, so comforting. The embodiment of your spirit even took me to your spiritual core."
"Maybe they felt what I was looking for and decided to lead me there. Don't they know I was supposed to destroy you…"
The boy's tears would not stop, yet he still managed to twist his lips into a faint smile as he looked up at Tanjiro.
"Please be careful."
Tanjiro froze for a heartbeat, then nodded hard.
"I will."
He grabbed Nezuko's hand, and together they left that carriage behind.
On the roof of the train, Vincent stood with his Nichirin sword in hand, facing Enmu across the rushing wind.
"I can't sense what you truly wish for," he said quietly, "but if you want, I can put you in a dream where your whole family dies in front of you."
"Want to try it?"
Enmu narrowed his eyes and slowly extended a hand toward Vincent.
"Sleep."
The spell triggered and sank straight into Vincent's mind.
A wave of drowsiness crashed over him. His knees almost buckled as his vision blurred, the world turning hazy at the edges.
Then he violently shook his head.
His eyes snapped clear.
Awake.
He moved in the same instant.
His Nichirin sword whirled, flames coiling up along the blade.
The steel turned a blazing red and came down on Enmu's outstretched hand.
The stench of roasting flesh rose as the red hot blade seared through the severed stump.
"That should stop you using your Blood Demon Art."
Vincent did not pause.
His left hand shot forward and a torrent of scorching flame erupted from his palm.
In an instant, Enmu's body was wrapped in fire, crackling and popping as it burned.
A follow up slash carved straight through his neck.
Enmu's head tumbled from his shoulders.
"There's no resistance…?"
Vincent hesitated for a brief moment.
"Lord Muzan ordered me to kill all of you," Enmu hissed, eyes wild. "And that brat with the hanafuda earrings, too. Every last one of you needs to die."
"You Demon Slayers really are so very annoying."
A mass of grotesque flesh suddenly surged out from the stump of his neck, lifting his head high into the air.
"You thought that body was my real form?" Enmu sneered, blood trickling from his lips as his expression grew ever more frenzied.
"To deal with you lot, why would I still be using that frail little body?"
"From the moment you boarded, I fused with this train. This entire locomotive is my flesh and my bones."
"In other words, the two hundred passengers on this train are already fine, fat nourishment to make me stronger."
----------------------------------------------------
The deeper he goes, the more the truth unravels. Don't wait read ahead and witness Vincent's rise before the world catches up!
[email protected]/_theon
Change @ to "a"