"Ahh, look — wanting to stay alive is a good thing! Right? Who actually wants you dead? Wanting to live is a wonderful thing!"
"You can only create value while you're alive. If you died, that value would take a massive hit... What a heartbreaking waste that would be!"
"Don't you think?"
Faced with the young man's animated, beaming expression, Kibutsuji Muzan's face went rigid. He turned to glance at Yoriichi Tsugikuni standing to the side, eyes fixed on him, then at Jonathan, who was watching him with barely-concealed disdain — and then back at the young man in front of him.
In the end, he could only manage a hollow, strained laugh in reply:
"Ah... y-yes. I suppose so?"
"See! Now that's the spirit!"
Anthony clapped Muzan on the shoulder, his face lighting up with delight:
"I knew it the moment I saw you — you've got real potential. A genuine gem in the rough!"
Looking at Kibutsuji Muzan before him, Anthony couldn't help but marvel inwardly.
And truly — what a gem he was. From the perspective of The Artificer, an absolutely perfect gem of raw material!
Where else would you find stock this good? Extraordinary regeneration, overflowing vitality — give him even the tiniest trickle of energy and he'd probably bounce back to full activity before long...
Five minutes of charging, two hours of battery life. A genuine, top-quality gem through and through!
"So... can I actually survive this?"
At last, Kibutsuji Muzan ventured the question with careful, fragile hope — and Anthony nodded like a bobblehead in a hurricane:
"Yes! Of course! Absolutely yes, without a shadow of a doubt!"
Then that familiar smile settled back onto Anthony's face:
"Though you can rest easy about one thing."
"Once you're living on... you won't even be able to die anymore, you know?"
In that instant, Muzan's eyes went wide.
Anthony watched the reaction with calm detachment, then turned his head toward Yoriichi Tsugikuni.
"Mr. Yoriichi, I'll leave what comes next to you."
"Start by taking his head."
"Understood."
Yoriichi Tsugikuni gave a single nod — and in one clean stroke, brought the blade straight down through Kibutsuji Muzan's neck.
In that moment, Muzan poured every last ounce of his will into detonating his body outward — and in the instant the explosion burst forth, countless fragments scattered in every direction, only to meet an invisible resistance, as if the air itself had turned to stone. They could not move.
Meanwhile, Anthony calmly tapped through the chat group beside them, sent a quick message that everything was fine, then turned his gaze to the countless scattered fragments of Muzan before him. [Soul Attachment] — activated.
Pinning Muzan's fragments in place was, if anything, far easier than the time he'd held DIO down under that manhole cover. Burning maybe just under a hundred points per second — with his current savings, he had more than enough to spare.
And besides — this actually saved Anthony a fair amount of trouble. He'd been mulling over how to get Muzan to split off his life force, so he could claim the fragment that held the greatest concentration of it... and now Muzan had gone and done it himself!
A warm surge of satisfaction bloomed in Anthony's chest — the joy of a bountiful harvest.
Like opening the furnace door, calling out once, and having the raw material roll itself in.
Truly, he couldn't have asked for a more cooperative subject!
"Why... why can't I move!"
Watching Muzan's futile struggle, Anthony smiled — then stepped forward, gently plucked one fragment from the air, and said quietly:
"Why, of course — because... while I said I'd let you live, I never specified how."
"Rest assured, Muzan. Your sins have not been washed away."
He murmured, his voice low: "I'll make sure you find... that living is far more agonizing than death."
With that, he waved a hand — and Yoriichi Tsugikuni swept the remaining fragments of Muzan aside without mercy. Muzan, desperate to cling to existence, had no choice but to draw all his scattered life force inward and concentrate it...
In the end, only the single fragment in Anthony's hand remained — slightly larger now, carrying more life force than it had before, and bearing within it the last dim, fading flicker of Muzan's consciousness.
"Good. That's enough."
Anthony glanced at Muzan's state and confirmed this with quiet satisfaction — and then, as if a fishing line had descended from somewhere impossibly far above, Anthony's true body cast its gaze down from the endless expanse of the Primordial River. The line of The Angler dropped — and the remnants of Muzan in his avatar's hand were reeled, directly, into the Primordial River.
And there, on the Primordial River, Anthony looked down at Kibutsuji Muzan cradled in his hands — and smiled.
What a treasure. What a magnificent little treasure... First things first — time to run a full 007 field test on this one!
Back within the Infinity Castle, Anthony gathered everything up, picked up Muzan's severed head, then turned to address both Yoriichi Tsugikuni and Jonathan:
"Alright — Nakime is already dead, so we can head straight out of the Infinity Castle now. All of the Upper and Lower Moons on this side have been eliminated."
"Next, we just need to bring this head back to Ubuyashiki Kagaya and report in. Yoriichi — you can start your new life now, can't you?"
"Yes... though—"
Yoriichi paused for a moment, brow furrowing slightly.
"My purpose here is complete..."
But Anthony only clapped him on the shoulder and said calmly: "It's fine. Just hang around and don't die. Find a way to live on into the modern era — your wife will greet you there, reborn into a new life."
In an instant, something shifted in Yoriichi's expression. Anthony caught it with a glance, and smiled:
"And besides — the chat group may well need your help again someday."
"I am at your disposal, without hesitation."
Yoriichi Tsugikuni straightened at once, his answer firm and clear. And so Anthony finally let out a quiet, long breath, head of Muzan in hand, and walked toward the exit of the Infinity Castle.
Next up — extracting as many benefits as possible from Ubuyashiki Kagaya. Honestly, Anthony was already feeling the itch of anticipation.
And at that very moment — the instant Anthony stepped out of the Infinity Castle — everything came, at last, to its end.
The era known as Muzan had come to a close. Completely.
He hadn't died outright — but having been dragged directly into the Primordial River by Anthony, in the judgment of the chat group and the world itself... Muzan, as a person, was now scarcely distinguishable from dead.
All one could say was: such is the might of the Primordial River!
And so, in the moment he stepped outside, Anthony saw a string of notifications pop up in the chat group.
[Main Quest · Resurrection of the Next Group Member: Complete]
[Exceptional performance detected during this mission. Maximum resource recovery achieved. Highest reward granted accordingly.]
[Reward received: 30,000 points total, plus the ability to designate one specific direction and receive one random material from within that category.]
[Note: Material grade is fixed and will not deviate significantly — it will generally be on par with materials suited to your current stage.]
Yes! The mission was finally complete!
Seeing the mission rewards he'd been eyeing for so long — especially that material reward at the bottom — Anthony couldn't help rubbing his hands together in gleeful anticipation.
But then he noticed — the messages weren't finished yet?
[Main Quest complete. The Chat Group is now expanding.]
[Recruiting the next group member.]
[Welcome, new member "Yellow Flash of the Leaf," to the group chat!]
The moment he saw that name, Anthony blinked.
That was... Namikaze Minato?
Holy — now that was hitting the jackpot!
____
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