The moon hangs atop of their head moving very slightly and in a few hours the sun will rise.
Bullets, blades, and magic keep bombarded towards the Upper Rank Two.
He couldn't find any opening to escape. Each time he almost hit the swordsman, the woman with glasses always found a way to disrupt him, and in that pause, the gunner shot right onto his head and made him vulnerable for a few seconds. And every single time, he'll stop them from approaching with exploding ice lotus around.
That was what happened for a few times. But then, the ice stopped exploding and even froze the demon in place. His own ice against him.
They were different from the prey he used to hunt. They were different from weak and stupid women he used to eat.
The mysterious power from the woman. It was like the Demon Blood Art. She can take control of the ice from Upper Rank's Demon Blood Art and make advantage of them.
Doma was pushed to the edge. The Demon can't use his Blood Art anymore or they'll use it against himself.
"I can't believe I said this, but I'm not a good fighter like Lord Akaza." The Upper Rank Two said to himself. Cold mist from his Demon Blood Art pushed away against himself.
There was no opening.
But he was an Upper Rank Two for a reason. He was considered better than Akaza for a reason.
He was a demon and that was his advantage.
Doma leaps through, ignoring Yahiko and Ethan's presence. His target was clear—the most troublesome one.
"Mei-san!" Yahiko shout.
They were not expecting it.
But Mei's reaction was not slow, a shield appeared in front of her immediately, but in that short amount of time, it was not strong enough.
Doma's raw strength destroyed the shield like a thin piece of glass. His body deformed like a huge mouth, she'll be the first.
Yahiko will not be fast enough to use any technique to stop him. Ethan is not confident enough to shoot without worrying he'll hit Mei.
But now or never.
Mei's eyes closed tight.
"Good work, Mr. Ethan."
Mei opened her eyes slowly because of that voice. Still, she's startled when a huge mouth of a body looms over her.
It's not the first time she's close to death. The first time was in Nagazora, the moment the Third Herrscher destroyed the city. But this was the closest to death.
"Kiriya-san…." She whispered to the man holding her steadily. His magic enveloped in front of them, ready to stop the demon when he breaks free from the restraint and moves again.
But it was not Mei's spell that stopped the demon and it's not Kiriya's spell.
It was Ethan using his Telekinetic Force from the Starter Pack to hold the demon in place.
Kiriya raised a hand, his magic envelope over the Upper Rank Two. Ethan lost his control and now it's in Kiriya's.
Ethan exhaled heavily. "Thanks, Kiriya."
Stopping someone with strength enough to destroy a building is still too much for Ethan's Mental Force.
With just a single pat on the shoulder, Mei shifted positions from Kiriya's side to Kanae's side.
"Take a rest, Mei." Kiriya informed.
Now was the time to take care of the demon.
"With power like this, are none of you willing to become a demon?" Doma, the Upper Rank Two, asked three of them.
"For what? You are even losing to us and we can walk under the sun!" Yahiko shot back. Although, if it weren't for Kiriya stepping in, they might have continued fighting until morning.
"That's enough, just ignore him, Yahiko." Ethan aimed his weapon right at the demon's forehead. "We just need to end him and everything is over."
For Doma, this was very strange. His instinct told him that some of them were humans and there were also those who were not human, whatever they might be.
Like Ethan, the man pointing the gun to his forehead, was not human. He didn't know what, but Doma was sure he wasn't human.
"Let me take care of it, Mr. Ethan." Kiriya patted Ethan's shoulder and entered Doma's attention.
"I see, so you are the one he was talking about. The person who sacrificed his own emotions." With a made-up smile, the demon opened a discussion with Kiriya.
"So, are you going to invite me to become a demon and tell me that I can get my emotions back if I become a demon?" Kiriya asked calmly.
"Maybe? If the one in my position right now were Lord Kokushibo or Lord Akaza, I'm sure they would invite you."
Kiriya shifted his attention from the demon to his companions. "You guys take a rest. I will take care of something with this demon."
"Be careful, Kiriya," Ethan said.
Kiriya nodded. His spatial awareness spread across the entire place. His sense caught something connected to Doma in front of him. Connected to the world behind the earth.
"So that's the way—Infinity Castle."
A plain wooden magic wand appeared in Kiriya's hand. The same wand he gets from Ethan. A blue light extended from the wand and transformed, solidifying, into a solid sword blade.
"Fortunately, I have already created a space manipulation spell," he muttered.
When the sword was swung to the ground, it wasn't the ground that split, but the neatly woven space, creating a torn hole like ripped cloth.
From the tear in space that was slowly weaving itself back together, doors, walls, stairs, and every object inside of it belonged to a Japanese style castle. A castle with infinite rooms.
Kiriya threw Doma back into the Infinity Castle and the rooms inside the castle immediately changed shape, blocking every path connecting to Doma.
"I'll be back at sunrise." Kiriya jumped in and at that exact moment, the tear in space wove itself back together and closed the only way in and out.
The castle spaces are distorted again. Stairs, walls, floors, and also wooden pillars were in strange positions. The tatami floor becomes the wall. The pillar lined horizontally. The stairs turned upside-down as if the gravity was nonexistent.
Kiriya stood in the middle of the seemingly limitless space, and almost all of the Upper Moon demons appeared and surrounded Kiriya.
Upper Moon demons one through five. And potentially, Muzan observing from a distance.
Against one person.
"You are an extraordinary human. Even I wouldn't dare step alone into the Infinity Castle and fight everyone at the same time," said a demon with the Upper Moon Three symbol in his eyes. "If you manage to survive, I will beg Master Muzan to turn you into a demon!!"
"That power… I have never seen it before," chimed in the six-eyed demon with the Upper Moon One symbol in his eyes.
"We have to thank Doma for bringing someone so interesting! Don't die right away because we are going to create a masterpiece from your flesh!!" shouted Upper Moon Five.
"One against many," said Kiriya, who had been silent this whole time listening to their chatter. "Whether I will return in one piece, or join you all as a demon…."
He was curious whether a demon created by magic could turn into a demon created biologically.
"I am the one who decides it!!" The energy sword in Kiriya's hand shone as brightly as a star, enough to blind the eyes, as if answering his will.
"This will be the first sign of my victory!"
He raised the sword, gripping the magic wand that served as the sword's hilt, and swung it with power.
A slash of light shot forth from Kiriya's energy sword, heading towards the demon carrying a biwa.
She flicked her instrument quickly. The space closed the path of the energy slash, but the slash cut through every room, wall, and also parts of the castle that blocked it. The slash didn't stop at all and kept rushing forward at a constant speed.
"You have amazing tricks! I don't understand why you didn't interfere with the fight earlier." Doma shouted as ice particles and crystals rushed toward Kiriya.
Kiriya didn't dodge, but every single ice crystal completely failed to touch even a strand of Kiriya's hair.
Rank Three, Akaza, leaped forward with his immense physical strength towards Kiriya. "Sacrificing yourself to fight all of us, a true warrior!"
Akaza's palm thrust forward, using all his power to attack Kiriya with his technique.
The mage swung the energy sword in his hand forcefully toward Akaza. Neither the demon nor the mage stopped, and when the energy sword made contact with Akaza's palm attack, the sword cut through skin, flesh, and bone like tofu.
Utilizing the barrier blocking Kiriya's body from outside attacks as a foothold, Akaza retreated and distanced himself from Kiriya's position.
"Your sword can halt regeneration to this extent?" Akaza looked at his slash wound with interest. It's not even growing new flesh even if he forced it.
Kiriya turned his head to his left side as moon sword slashes appeared, trying to tear him apart and turn him into a tender and juicy pulled pork.
The footsteps of Upper Moon One were heard approaching Kiriya calmly without hesitation.
"Your movements do not rival his, you are just an amateur with a weapon that powerful… but how can you possess such great power as a human?"
Those six eyes judged Kiriya sharply.
"You… are you the same as my younger brother?" But he then shook his head. "No, you don't have that mark. Yet, your gaze is similar to his. Very mundane and emotionless… it makes me sick to remember him."
Kokushibo swung his sword and created a crescent moon iaijutsu slash.
—First Form: Dark Moon, Evening Palace.
Yet even with all his strength, Kokushibo's attack couldn't touch Kiriya at all.
In the next breath, water enveloped Kiriya's surroundings and tried to trap him inside a vase-shaped water prison.
An interesting attempt, but Kiriya casually walked out of the water prison as if it were just a garden sprinkler.
"A futile effort," Kiriya said. His voice was calm, but at that exact moment, Upper Moon Five exploded like a balloon. Kiriya created repulsion inside him and exploded him apart into a blood mess. He didn't die because Kiriya held it back.
Before Kiriya could swing his sword, a wooden door appeared in front of him and the floor beneath Kiriya's feet disappeared, dropping him into the infinite space.
He didn't expect it, but because of that, Kiriya can't wait for what happened next. "Good!!! Don't die just yet, demons!!"
Kiriya didn't use the flight spell. He released his Distortion Barrier and took a foothold on a horizontal pillar. At the same time, Doma, Akaza, and Kokushibo descended from above, rushing toward Kiriya at high speed.
Although technically Kiriya was also a demon, his physical strength was no more than theirs, which could increase boundlessly, and with his Distortion Barrier released, Kiriya could die with a little mistake.
"Come at me—" Kiriya created an attraction force in space and shortened the distance.
Kokushibo's sword elongated and its blade branched out like a tree.
A projection of compass ice crystals appeared beneath Akaza's feet.
And ice shards and lotuses were created around Doma.
Kiriya's energy sword enlarged and elongated into dozens of meters. In one swing, Doma's bodies were cut into two parts at the waist and Akaza lost a leg, while Kokushibo used moon breathing techniques to change direction in mid-air.
"You must become sharper!" Kokushibo shouted to Kiriya as he used his technique.
—Sixteenth Form: Moonbow, Half Moon
Using his altered katana, Kokushibo swings outward, sending six curved slashes crashing down in front of him with numerous crescent moon blades. Each blade was directed at Kiriya.
Kiriya didn't move or try to dodge. He used the Photon Output spell, creating dozens of light spheres with mass moving at supersonic speed.
The two attacks collided and some missed, passing each other.
Kokushibo avoided every attack with small scratches by jumping in mid-air, while Kiriya just stood still, accepting scratches from every incoming blade.
But it was more than a mere scratch.
The bone of his right hand was exposed, his waist was torn , and part of his leg flesh disappeared.
—Pain. He feels it within his body.
Kiriya raised his left hand and blasted compressed light into a flashbang that blinded everyone with him as the exception. Kokushibo retreated just as Kiriya wanted, but the castle was manipulated once again, locking him inside a small room with doors in every direction.
"I can feel pain… I can feel my heart beating… I can feel my blood flowing and the wounded parts heating up…" Kiriya muttered. Flesh, muscle, and skin began to grow over his wounds. "... But, my head gives me no response nor does it force me to produce a psychological reaction."
The door above Kiriya opened and Akaza, who only had half his body left, thrusted a compressed air punch toward Kiriya. He dodged to the left, but the door on the left opened and mist of ices blew toward him.
The ice mist passed through Kiriya's body and froze his legs inside solid ice crystals.
The demons did not stop there. Numbers of wooden pillars appeared horizontally and vertically, confining Kiriya within multi-layered prisons until the size of the prison itself was dozens of times larger than the subject inside.
At that moment, he frowned. "... You can team up?"
When the room covering Kiriya's vision disappeared after being replaced by the artificial prison, Kiriya was able to see all directions clearly, and on his right side, the light blade he shot earlier was rushing toward him horizontally at high speed.
They lured him into a small room to deceive his perception of gravity and space, then used Kiriya's own unblockable attack to kill Kiriya.
For a moment, Kiriya widened his eyes.
"This—"
The World Cleave cuts through the prison box wrapping Kiriya like tofu.
However, Kiriya stopped the attack with just one hand.
'... Of course. They are creatures who are hundreds of years old. They cannot be underestimated. Even though they have never seen abilities like mine before, they are veterans who can adapt no matter how much, especially when their own leader is watching,' he pondered. His grip on the energy blade tightened and the object vanished, converted back into magic energy that filled Kiriya's source.
'Still can't achieve a 1 by 1 conversion, but for now, 50% of the output is enough.'
Kiriya raised his head. His eyes met those of the demon king, Kibutsuji Muzan, who was looking down at him from above.
"... Muzan."
'Finally.'
The wounds across Kiriya's body disappeared completely, leaving only his clothes torn at the parts hit by the attacks.
"I can end it now."
Magic circuits extended from beneath Kiriya's feet.
A space barrier was created around the edges of his circuits.
"Stop him!"
Kiriya could hear the command shout from Muzan. However, he only smiled faintly as his magic began to fill the infinite space of the Infinity Castle, which he had partitioned off with all the demons present inside the prison enclosure.
He didn't need to do all this.
The goal of his mission was to save Kanae and eliminate the threat that killed Kanae.
However, life and death were not Kiriya's goal from the very beginning of being here.
If he was afraid of death, he would never have removed his absolute barrier.
If he was afraid of death, he would have ended everything all by himself right away.
It was never the problem.
"...."
The sun has rise.