Demon Slayer : The Silent Journey

[Seiji's POV]

We talked...

I had so much to say and he was the same.

And violence was the language we were using.

*BOOOOOMM!!!*

Disgustingly fast. I had never encountered such speed in all my life. To be completely honest, I had not even imagined an entity moving that fast.

And this was coming from a man who slayed the Upper Moon 2.

Yet my body moved without command. My mind was simply not fast enough to intend for any action in that gap between milliseconds.

My eyes glazed over with mystic purple as I took in action Muzan made. The sudden tightening of his back leg, the lag of regeneration in his arm and the gritting of teeth, as we locked in a clash, told me that he never expected me to be able to react to his attack.

His body language told me that he charged at me with the only intention of running through me. He never expected to be pushed back.

To be frank, I couldn't blame him because I never expected to be able to react to him as well. I had simply never encountered this kind of speed before so I was just as surprised as he was.

I was never tested to my limit again after my fight with Douma. I guess you never knew how strong you are until being strong is your only option.

Muzan clicked his tongue and pushed himself against my sword, sending us both flying away. My feet sank on the snow and I slid a long distance until I came to a stop.

The ground was slippery, I observed, that could be a problem.

Muzan started a new chain of action immediately. His shoes exploded, unable to bear the force of his sudden burst of speed as he shot at me like a bullet train. His speed was so ridiculous that I could see his body puncturing the atmosphere and the air screamed while filling the vacuum.

But although Muzan was so ferociously fast, he still moved in slow motion in my eyes and that was my comfort. My body and mind were just still lagging behind, but with the help of my eyes, I could keep up with Muzan.

It was as if my perception was already at its maximum level, waiting for my physique and mind to catch up.

And so even as Muzan came at me with his ungodly speed, I could comfortably raise my sword and swing an arc that completely halted his approach.

A shockwave erupted, revealing the earth under the snow. His hand wrapped in crimson blood to form claws clashed perfectly with my purple blade.

"So it was not a fluke," he said.

It was a strange situation even for me. He was incredibly fast and slow at the same time. I could barely keep up with his attacks, but there was no danger all the same.

I released the tight grasp I had on my sword and allowed it to bend under his demonic weight. He was caught off guard as his body sailed in the trajectory it was supposed had I not stopped him.

I gripped my sword in reverse and my body knew to attack at his weakness even without wasting a moment to think. The hilt of my sword was long since it was meant for a two-handed grip. So I slammed the end of my sword at one of Muzan's hearts located in his abdomen.

The momentum of his body combined with all the force my body could exert. Muzan literally folded like paper when the hilt of my sword stabbed his abdomen.

A shower of blood erupted from his mouth as his heart ruptured inside his body.

"Stone Breathing : Rupture,"

There was a beat of silence before a shockwave exploded from the point of contact. Muzan was sent flying away like a bullet and he crashed into the forest.

If you remember, Stone Breathing had no proper form. The Stone Hashira of each generation used varying weapons like a mace or hammer so although Stone Breathing was rigid, it was also quite flexible.

I was able to create my own forms because of this. The forms of my Stone Breathing ranged from unorthodox styles of sword-fighting to barehanded attacks.

"You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this," I spoke while getting into a stance.

"Let me tell you how much I hate you,"

My reply came in the form of a bulldozer made of flesh. Muzan emerged from the forest at a much tamer pace but not because he was slowing down. It was because his arms had elongated to a preposterous degree and they were dragging the snow as he crossed the distance.

He was hidden behind a shower of snow in an attempt to disrupt my sight. He had seen me fight many times from the memories so he knew what my main strength was.

But he did not know the extent of my abilities, or else he would realize the futility of his effort. I saw different layers of the world constantly when I activated my eyes, I simultaneously saw what the normal eyes were supposed to see, then I saw Muzan clearly while looking through the snow, then I saw him without his first layer of skin, and I saw him without the first layer of his flesh and so on.

They were like different layers of vision overlapping with each other. His strategy was utterly pointless.

I told him just that with my next attack.

"Water Breathing : Sixth form," I pushed my sword forward in a quick stabbing motion.

"Drop Ripple Thrust,"

I skewered the Demon Lord in his chest. My long sword allowed me to stab through him without getting into his attack range even with his long arms. I stabbed right through another heart and a brain.

!!!!

I noticed almost immediately how my attack never disrupted his flow of action even when it landed. This told me that he was expecting this, it was all part of his plan.

Muzan's hand grabbed my blade and he did not let go even when his palm started burning from the touch. A crimson layer of blood covered his hand and then with enlarging muscles, he lifted me off my feet.

It was a strategy hidden in a smaller strategy. He displayed in full his experience that spanned over a thousand years.

Releasing my sword was not an option so Muzan was able to fling me towards the forest. My body sailed across the sky and even before I started falling, Muzan was already running below me.

"Wind Breathing : Third form," I spun my body, entering a Beyblade state when I began falling from the sky.

When I was in a state of rapid rotation, it synched with Muzan who jumped up and connected both his feet with the trunk of a tree. His body contracted like spring and he remained horizontal on the tree.

When I finally fell into the forest and fell past the top of the trees, Muzan burst into action and so did I.

"Clear Storm Wind Tree!!"

My body spun rapidly, a green arc of wind blades surrounded my body and I blocked the barrage of attacks that came from all directions. Muzan exploded from tree to tree, quickly changing direction and attacking me from everywhere.

He didn't bother searching for opponents and attacked every possible inch of me. But he was met with the chilling fact that I had no openings even while in the air. When you achieve as close to perfection as I did in the art of fighting, openings cease to exist.

My feet touched the ground and I was unharmed. Our surroundings were not so much as the trees either turned apart or exploded from the sheer force they withstood from Muzan launching himself off them.

There was no pause in battle. Muzan launched himself from one place to another, rapidly changing directions using the trees as a foothold. His speed was unlike anything I had ever dealt with and coupled with the impossible change in trajectories, my instincts screamed at me to run.

Muzan knew beforehand exactly what my style of fighting was. His unimaginable experience backed up those facts and he was fully exploiting my weakness from the start.

'Fear me, I know your weakness,' his action seemed to say as his bulletin body brushed past my blind spot more than once yet he did not attack immediately.

He was poking for a reaction. I was fast in my own right so I could block an attack from a blind spot if I went from inaction to action. But if I were to make a move or leave an opening while taking another action, he would have a certain victory.

Unfortunately for him, this was not the first time someone had taken advantage of my limited sight. Douma did too and he did it better.

So I blurred into action as well, using the trees as a foothold to shoot around just like Muzan was. The only way to deal with my blind spot was by constantly moving it.

'No, fear me, I know my weakness,' was my reply as I blurred, even faster than he did with my perfect footwork and movement.

He had no fitness, he never found the need to acquire such skills because he could power through every weakness. That was the curse of being too strong, you never learned to utilize it properly.

While he blurred in different directions in the forest, the trees he used as a foothold exploded from the force but mine did not because I was applying the right amount of strength and I did not move in opposite directions. It was almost like I was slipping off the trees just enough to change trajectory instead.

Physics might as well have died there as we moved around each other like unstable forces of nature. But in this situation, I had the advantage because I memorized the forest like the back of my hand. I knew the exact location of each tree from the countless hunting I did in the past week.

My eyes also saw the world in slow motion and I could predict actions. Muzan put me into this situation, threw me into this forest to put me at a disadvantage,

But I turned it into an advantage.

The dark forest began lighting up with different explosions of light and shockwaves when we started meeting in a clash. All the animals in the forest fled as we destroyed the forest in our battle.

Trees were uprooted, the earth scarred with craters and everything else ripped apart from our clash.

Our battle imitated a natural disaster at that point and that was only the beginning.

Fighting was a conversation and we were only just about done with our respective introductions.

In the next moment, it was like we both agreed simultaneously to start fighting seriously. Muzan was completely naked, his clothes had long been cut into a million pieces by my blade.

Therefore, I saw it so very clearly when red marks started appearing on his body. They seemed to creep out from his pores and his red eyes burned with demonic power.

I reply, a demonic mark starts appearing on my body as well. It started from half my face and went down to my neck. They were purple lines that imitate the pattern of computer circuits.

Time slowed down to a slow crawl and I felt my strength go many folds. I was in a different realm of power entirely.

The moment was so intoxicating that I nearly forgot to hate my opponent. It felt like I was going through another enlightenment.

If my eyes were not playing with me, I also saw the purple of my sword dull. It looked like the shallowest layer of red was on my blade.

But I no longer kept that on my mind because a tendril made of blood came my way. In a world that looked like it had stopped completely, the tendril moved fast.

I took in a deep breath.

'Not yet,' I told myself. I needed the right time to use Sun Breathing. If I used it now, Muzan could be wary of it and I would find no openings.

But that's okay.

Because what I used was not light stuff anymore either.

"Thunder Wind Breathing,"

The introduction was done.

Now let's talk.

..

..

[IMAGE]

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Author : I just woke up and then saw 1000 stones. bruh