Vertical pupils appeared in Yoizumi's blue eyes, finally revealing the true form of a demon. The consumption of Blood Demon Art was too immense, and faint blue cracks appeared on Yoizumi's face.
On Tanjirou's side, Nezuko caught him just as he was about to fall to the ground. Inosuke, being thick-skinned, was still alive, but probably unable to move for a while.
Zenitsu was in a somewhat bad state, but the blood loss wasn't enough to kill him.
Uzui Tengen... Yoizumi couldn't ascertain his current condition. Although his heart had stopped beating, he didn't believe Uzui was dead.
Shinobu was currently tending to the injured, so he had to handle this alone.
He couldn't use Blood Demon Art too much more, otherwise he wouldn't be able to move. He could only use Breath of Snow to deal with Douma.
Using snow against an ice demon... challenging.
Sharp sapphire eyes met smiling rainbow eyes.
Breath of Snow Second Form: Snow Concealment!
Yoizumi's figure vanished from Douma's eyes, and his form appeared in four directions.
The golden fan covered half his face, his eyes scanning each of the four illusory figures. Is only one of them real~?
Blood Demon Art: Scattering Lotuses!
Waving his paired fans, he scattered large amounts of tiny ice petals in a 360-degree, all-encompassing attack.
Let me see which one is real~!
The sound of sharp ice petals cutting through skin rang out simultaneously from all four directions. The four-directional slashes instantly cut Douma in half at the waist.
He actually disregarded the risk of injury, accelerating to his fastest speed when he finally got close, launching four attacks at him!
Douma never imagined there would be a day when he, who used ice Blood Demon Art, would be pierced by the cold temperature of snow. The numbness from the severed parts felt incredibly novel to Douma.
Blood Demon Art: Freezing Cloud!
A large amount of ice crystals flew into Yoizumi's eyes, causing him to lose his vision as his eyes necrotized. Taking advantage of this opening, Douma reattached his torso and quickly moved out of Yoizumi's attack range.
"You're Yoizumi, right?"
"You're truly amazing~"
"To possess such powerful strength without ever having eaten a single human~"
"Why don't you eat humans? They're delicious~ especially the taste of women."
Douma licked his lips, smiling.
"You... talk too much," Yoizumi's necrotized eyeballs recovered, only to see Douma's irritatingly smiling face. He frowned in disgust, as if he had glimpsed something dirty.
"You always use words to express emotions, to conceal your utterly unruffled inner self."
"Disgusting."
Yoizumi and Douma were two extremes.
In the past, Yoizumi couldn't understand the emotions that brought about certain feelings, acting solely based on his own thoughts. But he was changing, gradually being imbued with life from a puppet pulled by strings.
He began to understand, he began to make judgments based on this.
That vacant inner self was gradually filling and throbbing.
Douma, he was born without a heart. From childhood, he had never felt joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness.
Even when his mother killed his father and then committed suicide, he only thought:
Blood is hard to clean up.
Unable to compensate for his innate defect, he used words and exaggerated expressions to disguise himself.
Hearing this, the smile vanished from Douma's face, returning to his most original state, his indifferent gaze sweeping towards Yoizumi.
"You, have a very mean heart."
Blood Demon Art: Frigid White Princesses!
He once again created those maiden-like ice lotuses. They exhaled vast amounts of icy mist from their mouths, and the ground froze inch by inch.
Slippery ice covered the ground beneath Yoizumi's feet. He shattered the ice spreading up to his ankles. Did he intend to suppress his speed with this method?
Then he was truly underestimated.
Thanks to Douma, Yoizumi thought, the bottleneck in his Breath of Snow that had troubled him for so long, it was time to break through it!
Douma noticed Yoizumi raising his left hand. Was he going to use that invisible Blood Demon Art?
He prepared himself, but found no attack coming.
What was he planning?
He wouldn't sit idly by either. His golden fan lifted slightly.
Blood Demon Art: Winter Ice Pillars!
Sharp icicles hung high above Yoizumi's head. A large area of icicles was enough to skewer a person like a beehive.
Just as they were about to pierce Yoizumi, all the icicles shattered into dust without warning.
Snowflakes appeared out of nowhere, intensifying, and in an instant, covered the entire battlefield.
Using Blood Demon Art: Air Raid to drain the surrounding air, the chill of the snow condensed the moisture in the air, forming ice shards of various sizes.
Frost-white sword light, at an invisible speed, rapidly slashed and shattered these ice shards. Dense ice needles rained down, sweeping towards Douma.
Breath of Snow Fifth Form: Ice Sleet Shower!
You want to use ice against me?
Ridiculous!
Douma snorted disdainfully, casually waving his twin fans, merely batting away the ice needles that appeared before him.
He ignored the pain of the ice needles piercing parts of his body.
Breath of Snow First Form: Falling Snow!
Snowflakes overflowing from his nichirin blade scattered rapidly, rushing towards Douma. Falling Snow was blocked by Douma's Blood Demon Art: Lotus Leaf Ice.
He slashed sideways, cutting down the ice lotus. The shattered ice fragments still cut Yoizumi's cheeks and torso. Changing his breathing, he swung his nichirin blade at high speed. Countless frost-white sword lights transformed into white flying feathers, mixed with Yoizumi's blood, becoming stained red.
Snow Breathing Third Form: Thousand Feathered Crane Snow!
"This move is useless against me!"
Blood Demon Art: Withered Garden Hanging Snow!
He crossed his hands and swung his golden fans, causing a large amount of icy mist and blood-stained feathers to collide, their chill invading.
Douma smiled confidently, but in the next instant, he stiffly looked at his suddenly fractured right wrist bone. His hand and golden fan fell together.
His hand hit the ground, instantly shattering into fine dust, just like ice falling to the ground.
What?!
Most of Douma's body shattered. He raised his hand to cover his broken face. What was happening?!
The places injured by Yoizumi's Third Form earlier were all like ice, without pain. He couldn't even regenerate.
It was those ice needles!
Douma suddenly realized that those ice needles had silently frozen his cells. Because his own Blood Demon Art worked by freezing blood and then spreading it with his fans, he hadn't noticed this abnormality at all!
How could I be defeated by ice!
With his remaining arm, he repeatedly knocked away Yoizumi's nichirin blade as he aimed for his neck. Ice shards splattered from his body, and the fine cracks in his torso grew wider and wider.
He frantically activated Blood Demon Art, trying to impede Yoizumi's progress. Ice vines continuously swept towards Yoizumi, piercing his body, then being shattered and regenerating.
Yoizumi never stopped his slashing movements.
His body was nearing its limit, he couldn't stop!
The Fifth Form had almost exhausted all his strength, he had to hold on!
He would die!
He would die!
The sharp golden fan, while severing Yoizumi's arm, was shattered by a punch from Yoizumi. He instantly regenerated his hand, caught the nichirin blade in mid-air, and frost-white sword energy, enveloped in endless fine snow, faced the close-range snow blade.
For the first time, Douma felt fear.
The fear of death.
The powerful desire to live for this reason prompted Douma to unleash all the power within him.
Blood Demon Art: Freezing Mist: Sleeping Lotus Bodhisattva!
"Boom!"
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