Chapter 201: 201 Mechanical Puppet Corps
This night was destined to be one of immense chaos.
Whether it was Reiger, the pillars, or the members of the Demon Slayer Corps, the moment Kibutsuji Muzan officially sounded the horn for the decisive battle, they were all transferred to Infinite City.
Some of them were together, while others were scattered apart.
Like Reiger, who was transferred to another place alone, completely separated from the rest.
The pillars were no different.
As they used their breath techniques to control their injuries and picked up their Sun Wheel Blades, ready to launch an attack on Kibutsuji Muzan once again, they were each transferred to different parts of Infinite City.
"Damn Kibutsuji Muzan!"
Shinazugawa Sanemi furiously punched the wall.
"I didn’t get to kill him with my own hands."
Iguro Obanai’s face was filled with gloom as well.
"Was that man Kibutsuji Muzan?"
Making her first encounter with Kibutsuji Muzan, Kanroji Mitsuri touched her wounds, still shaken.
"All nine pillars attacking together, even with a surprise attack, and we were defeated in the blink of an eye?"
Kochou Shinobu’s brows furrowed tightly.
"...Though I hate to admit it, Kibutsuji Muzan is indeed as terrifyingly strong as Yoriichi said he was."
For the first time, there was no brightness on Rengoku Kyoujurou’s face.
"Though he’s strong, he’s not splendid at all, just an ugly demon."
The voice of Uzui Tengen was also for the first time not as high-pitched as usual.
"We must quickly kill Kibutsuji Muzan, otherwise our lord will...!"
Tokitou Muichirou was unusually frantic.
"I wonder how Tanjirou is doing now, is he also here?"
However, Tomioka Giyuu was worried about his junior disciple.
The pillars were thus separated, each to different corners of Infinite City, losing contact with each other.
So were the other members of the Demon Slayer Corps.
Fortunately, the Demon Slayer Corps was not without means of contacting each other.
Because, the Kasugai Crows they carried were also transferred to Infinite City with them.
"East! To the east!"
"Regroup to the east!"
"Concentrate your forces! Concentrate your forces!"
The Kasugai Crows appeared in various corners of Infinite City, flying in mid-air while issuing commands, making the members of the Demon Slayer Corps start to act as if they had found their backbone.
But as they sprang into action, a large number of demons appeared in Infinite City.
One by one, demons transformed into bizarre shapes emerged from various corners, roaring furiously as they clashed with the Demon Slayer Corps members.
The members of the Demon Slayer Corps fought back valiantly but found that these demons all possessed incredible combat power, almost comparable to the Lower Moons.
"How can there be so many powerful demons...!?"
"No good! Run!"
"Aaaaahhhhhhhh!"
The swordsmen of the Demon Slayer Corps were suddenly assaulted by these demons, suffering significant casualties.
The pillars also encountered these demons and while slaying them one by one, couldn’t help but show expressions of hatred.
"These demons, they must be the martial artists, aggressors, and major criminals who disappeared suddenly a while ago, right?"
"Detestable Kibutsuji Muzan, for this decisive battle, he provided a large amount of his own blood to these violent and armed individuals, turning them into demons as powerful as the Lower Moons!"
"We’re in trouble now."
"This level of demonic creatures, ordinary members simply aren’t their match!"
The pillars began to worry.
Lower Moon demons, those were already immensely powerful beings just below the Upper Moons.
The Demon Slayer Corps even made slaying a Lower Moon a condition for promotion to pillar status, which shows that in the Demon Slayer Corps, usually only a pillar-level swordsman could defeat a Lower Moon.
But there were only nine pillars, and other than them, almost no one could stand a chance against a Lower Moon demon.
Now, with the sudden appearance of groups of such powerful evil demons attacking the people of the Demon Slayer Corps, a wrong move could potentially lead to the annihilation of the entire Corps.
Considering this possible fate, even Shinazugawa Sanemi and Iguro Obanai, two of the most critical of the general members’ strength and performance, could not help feeling agitated.
And all this was being watched by Kibutsuji Muzan, who was seated on his throne, recovering from his injuries.
"Do you think how many demons I prepared for this day?"
Kibutsuji Muzan sneered.
"For these demons, I gave an unimaginable amount of my blood. As long as they can withstand it, how hard is it to achieve Lower Moon-level power?"
In these two months, Kibutsuji Muzan had people bring back humans with martial prowess or violent tendencies from all over, even those major criminals locked up in prisons were targeted by him, all to select as many excellent demonic forces as possible.
And what level of combat power is considered excellent in Kibutsuji Muzan’s eyes?
That naturally has to be at least at the Lower Moon level.
You see, before this, the Lower Moons among the Twelve Moons Kizuki were disbanded by Kibutsuji Muzan in a most brutal way for their poor performance. If these forces he had sought could not even surpass the former Lower Moons, what would be the point?
Thus, Kibutsuji Muzan’s way of selecting combat power was extremely straightforward and brutal, which was to inject the blood that could grant Lower Moon-level power into their bodies.
If they could withstand it, they would instantly become demons as powerful as the Lower Moons.
If it can’t withstand the pressure, it will burst and die on the spot.
Through such means, the weakest ghosts remaining in Infinite City are at least comparable to a lower rank demon, or as Reiger would put it, equivalent to Lv.3.
Such selectively filtered ghosts obviously couldn’t be handled by ordinary members of the Demon Slayer Corps.
"No matter what, today will be the end of the Demon Slayer Corps," he said.
"From now on, there will be no more Demon Slayer Corps, no more Ubuyashiki."
"I’m truly tired of centuries of entanglement; just die all of you right here," he added.
Kibutsuji Muzan had thus allowed Nakime to transfer the entire Demon Slayer Corps into Infinite City, planning an all-out assault.
The situation was unfolding just as he had envisioned.
If things continued this way, it wouldn’t be long before, apart from the Pillars and a few elite members of the Demon Slayer Corps, no one else would survive.
Kibutsuji Muzan was confident of this.
Until... that thing appeared.
"What, what is that?" he wondered.
At one moment, Kibutsuji Muzan, through the shared vision with the demons in Infinite City, witnessed a scene that made his heart stop.
It was inevitable.
He had seen Tsukiguni Yoriichi.
Many of them.
......
"Help, help me!"
A Swordsman of the Demon Slayer Corps fell to the ground, watching a demon slowly approaching him, and screamed in agony.
"Roar!"
The demon let out a deafening roar, like a beast that had lost its sanity, and pounced.
Just as the Swordsman of the Demon Slayer Corps was about to be killed by the demon, a dark shadow appeared behind the demon.
"Puchi!"
Accompanied by a flash of the blade, the demon’s head was immediately chopped off and turned into ashes.
"...Huh?"
The terrified Swordsman awaiting death was stunned.
Before him, a Samurai holding twin blades had silently appeared and beheaded the demon.
After beheading the demon, the Samurai didn’t even glance at the fallen corps member before turning and walking away.
It wasn’t long before the corps member heard the dying shrieks of demons coming from the direction in which the Samurai had departed.
The same scene was happening in various corners of Infinite City.
As the members of the Demon Slayer Corps were being unilaterally ravaged by demons comparable to the lower ranks, these silent Samurai appeared.
They wielded twin blades, expressionless, without any communication or unnecessary talk with the demons, as if their only purpose for being there was to accomplish one thing.
That was to slay demons.
And the demons, which could have easily ravaged the Demon Slayer Corps members alone, were easily cut down by these mysterious Samurai, with hardly any managing to make a second move.
Thanks to this, the Demon Slayer Corps could finally catch their breath and watched bewilderedly as these Samurai slew demon after demon, unsure of what was happening.
Particularly since some saw two identical Samurai appear before them, and others saw three or four together slaying demons, almost scaring them out of their wits.
"What in the world is going on?" they wondered.
This was the inner scream of everyone in the Demon Slayer Corps.
"What in the world is this...!?" Kibutsuji Muzan similarly exclaimed.
These sudden mysterious Samurai were naturally the battle-ready mechanical puppets created by Reiger—named "Model One."
Ever since successfully creating Model One, Reiger had been holed up at home crafting puppets, and in just one month, he had produced hundreds of them.
Hundreds of puppets with strength comparable to the Pillars!
What did that mean?
Put it this way, as the only ghost-hunting organization in the world, the Demon Slayer Corps had only a few hundred combatants, with the rest being support staff without combat abilities or talent.
As for the Pillars, there were only nine.
Now, however, there were as many machines comparable to an entire Demon Slayer Corps, with combat abilities on par with Pillars, all mass-produced by Reiger and thrown into the battlefield.
This was a game-changing move that could totally overturn the balance of power between the ghosts and the Demon Slayer Corps, potentially determining the final outcome!
As Reiger, shining like the sun, flew swiftly across the sky, he pulled out the mechanical puppets from his storage space and deployed them into the battle while suddenly smiling.
"I wonder if you like this surprise, Kibutsuji Muzan!" he mused.
Were it not for the limited number of objects that the Magic Contract allowed him to control autonomously, even Reiger would have wanted to prepare a real army of mechanical puppets to serve Kibutsuji Muzan.
Unfortunately, Reiger’s aptitude for control-type magic was only second class, allowing him to control only a limited number of objects at the same time. Controlling hundreds of mechanical puppets in battle was already the result of his exceptionally developed "Magic Power" and "Magic" abilities.
Of course, that was already enough.
At least, in the fighting among the lower ranks, this would give them a significant advantage.
The rest...
"The rest is up to those Pillars," Reiger murmured.
The Upper Rank demons, it was time they showed up.