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Chapter 155: Crushing Defeat, The Deal
"Alright, playtime's over. Bring out the big guy."
After a few more swings, the lightning blade in Suyan's hand sputtered and died. Whether it was because it had been separated from Sekido for too long, or because Suyan had simply exhausted its stored energy, the weapon lost its elemental properties and reverted to an ordinary, albeit well-made, metal sword.
Losing interest, Suyan casually tossed it aside. It hit the ground with a dull metallic clatter. He turned his attention back to the decapitated clones.
By now, their heads had fully regenerated. Urogi, Aizetsu, and Karaku slowly backed away, converging on Sekido's position. The arrogant confidence was completely gone from their eyes, replaced by a profound, unmistakable dread.
Moments ago, it had been a four-on-one with them holding the overwhelming advantage. In the blink of an eye, the human had stolen their weapons and casually slaughtered them all. If it weren't for their unique status as clones—which granted them infinite regeneration so long as the main body survived—they would have been permanently dead several times over by now.
They didn't need Suyan's prompting to realize they were entirely outmatched. They had to summon their strongest form.
The four clones exchanged a grim look and nodded.
Instantly, the atmosphere shifted. The air grew heavy, and the world seemed to dim. The bodies of Urogi, Aizetsu, and Karaku violently detonated, reducing themselves to clouds of thick, crimson mist. The bloody mist swirled and rushed into Sekido's body.
The blood boiled. The ground fractured beneath the intense pressure, deep fissures spider-webbing outward as nearby trees splintered under the invisible weight. The distinct personalities, weapons, and powers of the four clones were violently crushed and forged together by a single, overwhelming will.
All the noise of the battlefield coalesced into one singular, infinitely twisted emotion: Hatred.
From the crimson mist, a terrifying silhouette emerged. It took the form of a muscular youth with deep, crimson skin and prominent horns jutting from his forehead. Engraved on his tongue, mirroring the other clones, was the Kanji for "Hatred". Floating in a semi-circle behind his back were five Raijin drums, and in his hands, he gripped a pair of bone-white drumsticks.
This was the ultimate culmination of the emotion clones. This was Hantengu's absolute trump card as Upper Rank 4.
Zohakuten!
"Hmph!" Zohakuten shot a glare at the cowering main body before turning his piercing, venomous gaze onto Suyan. His voice was cold, echoing with a sinister resonance. "Bullying the weak… it makes me sick to my stomach. It is the height of unpleasantness!"
He pointed a drumstick at Suyan. "I order you to release that frail, innocent creature at once. If you refuse, I will drown you in the deepest despair, and force you to repent for your heinous sins!"
To be fair, Zohakuten's presentation was incredibly intimidating. His design and aura were heavily reminiscent of Enel, the Lightning God from One Piece. If placed side-by-side with Muzan, the cowardly Demon King, nine out of ten people would probably guess that Zohakuten was the final boss. Unlike Muzan, who practically ran for his life the first time he met Tanjiro, Zohakuten's mere presence had nearly suffocated Tanjiro with its oppressive weight.
"Is that so?" Suyan replied, his tone light and mocking. "You want to judge me? By all means, try."
Suyan's eyes were locked onto the five Raijin drums floating behind the demon. Those drums were the conduits for the enhanced versions of the four base clones' abilities, as well as Zohakuten's own unique Wood Dragon art. A single strike on the drums could summon massive dragons, and those same dragons could breathe lightning, wind, and sonic blasts.
Zohakuten's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Foolish human. You have successfully provoked my wrath. Prepare to receive your final judgment!"
He viciously struck one of the drums behind him.
"Blood Demon Art: Avici!"
Without a single moment of warning, the ground beneath Suyan's feet shattered like frail glass. Colossal, grotesque wooden trunks exploded from the earth, twisting and braiding together to form multiple massive, serpentine wood dragons. Without a moment's hesitation, the monstrous constructs unhinged their jaws and lunged at Suyan, intent on tearing him to shreds.
It was a spectacular, awe-inspiring display of raw power. But to Suyan's highly trained eyes, it was a hollow shell. All flash, no substance.
Frankly, compared to Hashirama Senju casually pinning down the Nine-Tails with one hand, this was child's play. Hell, the speeding truck that had originally isekai'd him probably hit harder than these things.
In the original timeline, Mitsuri Kanroji had single-handedly stalled Zohakuten until sunrise. Every single dragon attack had been sliced apart by her whip-like sword. Even when she was on the verge of total exhaustion, she was able to physically swat the dragons away without even using a Breathing technique. If Zohakuten hadn't possessed infinite stamina and the immortality of a clone, Mitsuri might have genuinely beaten him in a straight fight.
Hopefully, after I steal this ability, my Nen can evolve it into something actually useful, Suyan mused.
He lifted Hantengu's main body by the chains and looked up at Zohakuten. Since the ultimate clone was finally out, it was time to plunge him into the despair he had just threatened, and reap the rewards.
Suyan enveloped his body in a dense shroud of Ten. As the massive, terrifying wood dragons lunged at him, he reacted exactly as he had to Sekido's lightning: he raised a hand and slapped them.
CRACK! Wood splinters exploded into the air like shrapnel. The gargantuan dragon head, the size of a small house, was instantly pulverized into kindling by a single, casual backhand.
"Wha— What?!"
Zohakuten's arm froze mid-swing, the drumstick hovering awkwardly in the air. A dissonant, strained thrum echoed from the drums. His cold, calculating eyes widened until they nearly tore, his pupils shrinking to pinpricks. He stared at the shattered wood, convinced he was hallucinating.
The terrifying, overwhelming aura he had been projecting stuttered and vanished.
Refusing to believe what he just saw, he frantically hammered the drums behind his back. The earth tore open as even more wood dragons erupted, swarming Suyan in a frenzied, chaotic mass.
Suyan's expression didn't change. He took a step forward, raised his hand, and slapped the closest dragon into sawdust. He took another step, and slapped another.
Despite his footsteps making no sound, to Zohakuten, every single step sounded like a death knell tolling directly inside his mind.
The frantic beating of the Raijin drums escalated into a hysterical, chaotic rhythm. Zohakuten abandoned trying to crush Suyan with the wood alone. Lightning, wind blasts, and sonic shockwaves erupted simultaneously from the maws of the dragons, raining down on Suyan in an apocalyptic barrage.
It washed over Suyan like a gentle spring rain. He didn't even bother raising his hands to block anymore. He just kept walking, step by inevitable step, closing the distance between them.
Zohakuten had never encountered an enemy like this. Not even Upper Rank 1, Kokushibo, projected this kind of absolute, incomprehensible invincibility.
Perhaps even Lord Muzan—No! How could I think such a thing?! Zohakuten mentally berated himself. Lord Muzan is the strongest. Absolutely! Yet, despite his fanatic loyalty, watching the unstoppable human arrive directly in front of him forced Zohakuten to involuntarily take a half-step back. For the very first time, the ultimate embodiment of hatred felt an emotion that supposedly only belonged to the cowardly main body: the desperate, overriding urge to flee.
But he couldn't. The main body was still dangling from Suyan's hand. Even if Suyan couldn't pierce the main body's durability, all he had to do was hold onto him until the sun rose. The sun would incinerate him regardless of how tough his neck was.
He was out of time. Suyan raised a hand. Zohakuten knew the strike was coming.
"Blood Demon Art: Kyōatsu Meiba!"
Zohakuten opened his mouth, unleashing a devastating, point-blank sonic blast capable of rupturing eardrums and crushing organs.
But Suyan was faster. Mid-swing, he opened his palm and clamped his fingers directly over Zohakuten's face, entirely muffling the blast. It was a scene highly reminiscent of the Scarlet Witch silencing Black Bolt in The Multiverse of Madness.
Only much, much more brutal.
The next second, Suyan squeezed. Zohakuten's head popped like an overripe watermelon, spraying blood and brain matter into the dirt. The headless body collapsed.
However, since he wasn't the main body, the death wasn't permanent. The bloody mist at the stump of his neck writhed, rapidly knitting bone and flesh together to form a new head.
Before the new eyes could even fully open, the head exploded again—this time, not from Suyan's grip, but from a merciless stomp of his boot the exact moment regeneration completed.
And so, a grotesque, infinite loop began. Zohakuten regenerated; Suyan stomped his head into paste. Regenerate. Stomp. Regenerate. Stomp.
As time dragged on, whether it was due to a limit on the clone's stamina or the complete, utter shattering of Zohakuten's will to live, the regeneration process began to slow. Eventually, after one final, wet crunch beneath Suyan's boot, the head simply stopped growing back.
Suyan finally lowered his gaze to the main body still dangling from his grip.
"Well, little rat," Suyan asked casually. "Do you have any other tricks up your sleeve?"
"Don't kill me! Please, don't kill me!" Hantengu shrieked, his voice trembling with absolute terror. Even his strongest incarnation, Zohakuten, had been casually dismantled. What else could he possibly do?
He had wanted to manifest his final clone, Urami, and hide within its heart to escape, but he had been bound by those terrifying chains from the very beginning. He couldn't use the ability even if he tried. All he could do now was beg.
"I suppose you don't," Suyan said, shaking his head. His voice grew frighteningly cold. "So… do you want to live?"
"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Hantengu nodded frantically, looking at Suyan with eyes full of desperate pleading.
Staring at the man holding him, Hantengu hallucinated. He saw the overlapping image of the magistrate who had condemned him to death back when he was still human, right before Muzan had saved him. It was that very magistrate, combined with his own idealized youth, that had formed the basis for Zohakuten. And now, this man had effortlessly crushed that ideal.
Satisfied, Suyan casually wiped the blood and brain matter from his hand onto Hantengu's clothes.
With a thought, a worn piece of parchment materialized in his hand—the physical medium for his Equivalent Exchange Nen ability. He unrolled it in front of Hantengu's face.
A warm, gentle, and utterly terrifying smile spread across Suyan's face. He spoke slowly, articulating every word with meticulous care.
"That's wonderful. Now, read the contents of this parchment carefully, and repeat after me…"
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