"So Muzan Kibutsuji has run away again? Then I guess I'll just have to deal with you lot first!"
Standing in the center of the dark cavern, surrounded by the strongest monsters in the world, Goku assessed his situation with a calm that bordered on indifference. He wasn't particularly worried; as long as he had the magical owl, he could track Muzan down again before the night was over. Besides, a deathmatch against the Upper Moons was the perfect form of training.
"Actually, wait a second," Goku said, shifting out of his fighting stance just as quickly as he'd entered it. "I should go deal with the other annoying one first."
Before the demons could even register his words, Goku vanished with a sharp *crack*.
He reappeared instantly back within the shifting wooden halls of the Infinity Castle. While his sensory range for ki was limited to fifteen kilometers, his Apparition was not. His magical teleportation could bridge entire nations in a single leap. Being sent to a distant cavern was merely a minor detour.
Once back inside the fortress, he immediately locked onto the specific ki signature in the center of the castle—the source of the spatial distortions.
*Crack!*
"What?!" Nakime, the Biwa Demon, gasped as Goku materialized directly in front of her. Panic surged through her as she reached for the strings of her biwa to warp him away again.
But she was far too slow.
"Wind Breathing, Eighth Form: Primary Gale Slash!"
Using the Wind Breathing style, Goku's already god-like speed reached a new, terrifying plateau. Using the edge of his hand as a blade and coating it in sharp, pressurized ki, he unleashed a thousand slashes in a single heartbeat.
Before Nakime's fingers could even brush the strings, her body was meticulously dissected into a thousand tiny cubes of flesh.
Even though she wasn't technically an Upper Moon, Nakime possessed the resilience of one. The fragments of her body began to quiver and crawl toward each other, attempting to reform. It would take her minutes to recover, but Goku wasn't interested in waiting. He raised a single hand, firing a point-blank burst of energy that vaporized every single piece of her until not a cell remained.
With the spatial anchor destroyed, Muzan could no longer hop around the country like a coward.
"Now for the warm-up with the Upper Ranks," Goku muttered. "Then, the main event with Muzan."
*Crack!* He returned to the underground cavern.
"Alright," Goku said, facing the seven demons again. "Now we can really start."
"Kill him now! Don't give him a chance to use that spatial ability again!" Muzan's voice shrieked inside the minds of the Upper Moons, his composure completely shattered.
The seven demons lunged. Just moments ago, they had been overwhelming the nine Hashira, driving them to the brink of death. Their confidence was absolute; they believed that as long as they prevented Goku from charging up his "big beam," they could surely tear him apart in a melee.
But Goku had no intention of using the Kamehameha. It was too slow for a 7-on-1 scrap, and it was a drain on his stamina. The correct way to use it was as a finisher once the enemy was pinned down.
However, even without his ultimate move, the Upper Moons found themselves hitting a wall of absolute power.
Kokushibo's crescent moon blades rained down on Goku, but they didn't even scratch his skin; they simply shattered against his natural durability. When the Upper Rank One swung his eye-covered blade, Goku met it with a punch, snapping the demonic steel in half like a dry twig.
Doma's freezing ice clouds only hit the afterimages Goku left behind. When the massive Ice Bodhisattva tried to crush him, Goku punched the statue once, and the entire structure detonated into a fine powder of frost.
Akaza unleashed a hundred vacuum-shell punches, but Goku parried every single one with surgical precision. Hantengu's wood dragons were obliterated one by one with casual strikes. Gyutaro's poison blades and Daki's sashes couldn't even penetrate Goku's protective ki shroud.
Only Gyokko managed to land a "hit."
"Hahaha! You've been touched by my God Hand! No matter how strong you are, you're turning into a pile of seafood!"
Gyokko, whose arms had been crushed by Goku's defense, laughed hysterically as he regenerated. He had baited Goku into striking his hands. His Blood Demon Art was absolute: anything his hands touched would be transmuted into fish.
Goku looked down at his arm, which was beginning to warp and sprout scales. His ki was naturally resisting the transformation, creating a localized stalemate.
"Finite Incantatem!"
Goku chanted, and a flash of blue light washed over him, instantly purging the demonic mutation.
"Okay, my turn. I want to try a new move I just came up with!"
Goku took a massive, whale-like breath, drawing in a mountain of oxygen and fusing it with the ki circulating in his meridians. His muscles expanded slightly, and a golden-blue aura began to flicker around his body.
"Breath of Ki, First Form: Flowing Impact!"
Goku's movement became fluid, like a stream of water that was impossible to grasp. He circled the seven demons in a blur that surpassed the speed of sound. As he passed each Upper Moon, he delivered a single punch.
These weren't ordinary strikes. They were infused with the dual-system power of Breathing and ki. Each hit created a thunderous sonic boom and left a massive, glowing fist-print of energy embedded in the air.
*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!*
Goku returned to his starting position and exhaled a puff of white steam. Seven simultaneous explosions rocked the cavern. The strongest demons in existence were blown apart, their bodies reduced to heaps of shredded meat and bone.
"Still not quite perfect," Goku noted. He pulled out the collection needles Tanjiro had given him and quickly drew blood samples from the regenerating fragments. Then, he raised his hand and fired several rapid-fire energy pulses, incinerating the remains before they could reform.
He had been working on this style since learning Water Breathing from Mita. By combining the fluid footwork of the Water style with the explosive physical boost of ki, he had created a technique that bypassed the enemy's defense and detonated the ki inside their own bodies. Even with their immortality, the Upper Moons had been utterly erased.
"Now," Goku said, his eyes turning toward the distant surface. "Only Muzan is left."