Inside the room.
Mukago, whose mouth and nose Ivan had sealed shut, suddenly twisted in pain.
A long crack split open across the right side of her face. Thick, bright red blood oozed out and dripped onto the floor in thin, sticky strands.
A stranger's voice came out of the crack.
"I am Muzan Kibutsuji. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Ivan."
"M-Muzan?!"
Torataro, perched on Murata's shoulder, nearly jumped out of its feathers. The crow flared its wings and squawked the name in pure panic.
Murata and Yushiro reacted the same way. Murata yanked out his Nichirin Blade and pointed the tip straight at Mukago. Yushiro stepped in front of Tamayo, ready to shield her.
"I thought so," Ivan said calmly.
He wasn't surprised at all. The second he noticed Mukago's heartbeat and breathing shift, he figured Muzan had taken over her body. He tested it on a whim and actually pulled the bastard out.
"You were expecting me?" Muzan sounded curious.
Ivan didn't answer. His silence was answer enough.
"Since that's the case, I won't waste time. Tell me where the blue spider lily is. I can give you anything you want. Power. Money. Women. Or anything else. How about it? Want to make a deal with me?"
Muzan's voice dripped with the same fake sweetness he had used on Tamayo all those years ago.
"My lord, don't believe a single word he says," Murata warned quickly.
"Shut up! No one asked you to speak!"
Riiip!
The crack on Mukago's face tore wider. Flesh and blood writhed as half of Muzan's face pushed through.
Muzan turned his crimson eye toward Murata, the look pure warning. Keep your mouth shut.
"My lord, you have to think carefully about this," Murata pressed on anyway. If Muzan got the blue spider lily, it would be a disaster for the Demon Slayer Corps. The entire organization could fall because of it.
"I said, no one asked you to speak!"woosh! Muzan's gaze turned ice-cold.
In the next instant, a grotesque tentacle made of blood and flesh shot out of Mukago's body in a twisted spiral, aimed straight at Murata's throat.
Murata couldn't dodge.
As a Kanoe-ranked swordsman, all he could do was watch the tentacle come for his neck.
Cold terror slammed into him.
Right before it pierced through...
Ivan moved.
Even Muzan couldn't track the speed. This wasn't Muzan's real body anyway. He was only here because of the demon blood inside Mukago, and as a Lower Rank, she barely had any of Muzan's blood in her compaired to the upper ranks.
If she hadn't been Lower Rank, Muzan probably wouldn't have been able to hijack her body this easily.
"Don't get cocky. I haven't even answered yet." Ivan grabbed the tentacle and crushed it in his fist. The thing was nowhere near as tough as his own tentacles.
"You're refusing me?!"
Muzan's expression twisted into something vicious.
"However," Ivan's tone shifted. "Telling you where the blue spider lily is… isn't completely off the table either."
"Hah.. haha.. Good! Good! Good!" Muzan's excitement exploded. His lifelong dream was finally within reach. He shouted "good" three times in a row, then leaned in eagerly. "What do you want?"
"My lord!" Murata almost lunged forward to slap a hand over Ivan's mouth. If he'd had the strength, he would have.
Even Tamayo's delicate brows furrowed. Everyone in the room, including Mukago whose body Muzan currently controlled, prayed Ivan wouldn't actually give up the flower's location.
Ivan's lips curved into a small smile. "What I want is very simple."
He stepped right up to Muzan and said softly, "I want you."
"What?" Muzan thought he'd misheard.
"You heard me right. I want you." Ivan burst out laughing. His mouth stretched ear to ear, revealing rows of sharp, dense, monstrous teeth. He reached into Mukago's face and dug Muzan's half-formed head out. Staring straight into those red spider-lily eyes, he laughed like a madman.
"Take a guess. Can you escape from me?"
Muzan's expression changed. He finally understood. "You were stalling for time!"
"Smart." Ivan pushed his electromagnetic sense to the limit. At the very edge of his range, he finally locked onto Muzan's real location.
Bang!
Ivan crushed Muzan's face in his fist.
His own body vanished from the room in the same instant.
...
"This…" Murata's hand trembled around his sword hilt. For a moment he couldn't tell which one of them was the real progenitor of all demons.
At the same time, Mukago saying Muzan's name had triggered the blood curse.
"Ugh…!" Mukago suddenly clawed at her own throat with both hands.
"Help… help me…" When Ivan left, he also pulled back the flesh and blood he'd left inside her.
Hideous black-blue veins spread from the corners of her eyes all the way down to the backs of her hands, like exposed tree roots crawling across her entire face. Her muscles writhed underneath the skin like something alive was moving inside her, trying to tear its way out.
"This is Muzan Kibutsuji's blood curse."
Tamayo immediately sliced open her own palm and used her blood to slow down the breakdown of Mukago's body.
"Quick, Yushiro. Prepare for surgery."
Tamayo had once modified her own body to break free of Muzan's curse. Yushiro had done the same. For her, removing the curse wasn't difficult. It just needed time.
And once the curse was gone, there was a bonus.
They could survive on small amounts of human blood instead of eating human flesh.
"Torataro, should we report this to the Master?" Murata had wanted to chase after Ivan, but Ivan's speed was so insane he gave up immediately. Nobody in the Demon Slayer Corps could even see his back at that pace.
"Gah! Let's just wait here instead."
Torataro scratched its head with one wing. "Muzan isn't that easy to kill. We should stay put for a bit. If Lord Ivan doesn't catch him, he'll probably come back soon anyway."
"Makes sense." Murata nodded seriously.
That was Muzan Kibutsuji they were talking about.
The entire reason the Demon Slayer Corps existed was the hope that one day someone would finally kill him.
Murata had seen Ivan's terrifying power with his own eyes, but he still didn't believe one man could accomplish what the Corps had failed to do for over a thousand years.
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Read 12 Advance Chapters—P@t- Captain69