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In front of the Great Immoran Wall, Kokushibo was still battling the remaining Hashira who were aided by Valen and the Night Sentinels. Near their location was a large Sentinel Atlan battling a demonic titan, the two giants were locked in combat as they threw sluggish and heavy punches towards each other. Kokushibo was surrounded by Valen, Rengoku, and Uzui who were keeping him preoccupied for the time being with their relentless attacks. The two Hashira tapped into one breathing form after the other to give Kokushibo no room to breathe. Despite their best efforts, the man seemed unphased by their added efforts as he maintained his poker face. As they all swung their swords, Kokushibo extended his limbs outwards to catch each of them by the wrist as he held them in place. Kokushibo explained in a monotone yet stern voice, "The only reason I have allowed you to live is in the hopes that you'll entertain me. If you maintain this pathetic display, I'll get this over with instead of wasting any more of my time."
Rengoku turned his head in a different direction as he called out to his remaining peers, "Kanroji, Iguro, do it now!" Both the love and snake hashiras revealed themselves as they leapt from a nearby rock and advanced on Kokushibo's position. They jumped into the air towards the Upper Moon and swung their blades like a whip. Their nichirin blades were crafted to be like sword whips, having the ability to bend and change its shape. The two lovers channeled their spiritual energy into their breathing techniques as they went for a decapitation with both of their blades.
Kokushibo's upper body spun while his legs remained planted to the ground. With this maneuver, he threw Valen, Rengoku, and Uzui aside before shifting his body back into its normal position and extended separate blades for each arm. He sliced at Iguro and Kanroji, cutting through their blades with a single slash. Iguro's snake, that was wrapped around him, Kaburamaru, acted as a secondary pair of eyes for the snake hashira as he was partially blind, himself. Kaburamaru alerted Obanai of the incoming attack, allowing him to narrow roll out of the way of the slash, but not without having a chunk of his arm skin be shaved off in the process. Mitsuri, however, was not so fortunate as she was sliced in two when she was preparing to evade.
Once Iguro landed on the floor, his eyes widened in horror at the sight of his partner being sliced in half by the demon in front of him. Her corpse dropped lifelessly to the ground, pouring blood from her open wounds and coating the floor red with her blood. Iguro's pupils dilated from fury as he lost all his senses, his primal instincts of rage causing him to lunge at Kokushibo. However, Uzui zoomed over to Obanai, holding him still as he held the snake pillar back from getting himself killed. Iguro yelled at the top of his lungs, "I'LL KILL HIM, I'M GONNA FUCKING KILLING HIM!"
Uzui struggled to hold his comrade back as he barked at Obanai to calm down, "Obanai, stay with me, man! I get how you feel but we still need you with us! Don't let Mitsuri's death go to waste like the rest of our comrades, try to stay alive with us, please!"
Kokushibo swung his blade in the air to shake off the blood that was staining his sword. He turned towards the two Hashira and nonchalantly stated, "You know, I wasn't even trying with that swing. Frankly, I'm surprised the girl couldn't dodge. Perhaps I wasn't holding back enough. But by all means, I'm in no hurry. If you wish to rush towards your inevitable demise, feel free. It doesn't matter in which order I slaughter you Hashira. By the end of this, you will all die by my hands. So do try to make this entertaining for me in the meantime, I haven't had a proper challenge since receiving Master Muzan's blood." The statement caused the blood of all the remaining Hashira and Valen to boil considerably, their resolve to murder this demon grew by the second.
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Davoth by Andrew Hulshult (first half)
The Slayer let out a low-pitched growl as he stood up, assuming a fighting stance to continue his battle with the Dark Lord. However, the warrior was cut off by the Dark Lord stating, "Despite your best efforts, you will not be able to best me in combat. It was predestined, like you."
The Slayer's brows furrowed out of confusion as he demanded, "Elaborate."
"You believe that, by resurrecting me and finishing me off, you will cease the demonic threat. That is what you think compelled you to restore my physical form, but you would be wrong. I was the one that influenced you to resurrect me as well as the various other decisions you have made up until this moment." The Slayer remained still, listening as the Dark Lord continued with his explanation, "Every decision you have made in your life, every thought you've had was never your own. I planted them into your psyche, compelling you to do what I want. When I was betrayed by the Maykrs, I had devised a long and elaborate plan for my resurrection to take place. A plan that would span many years and take time to fulfill. You were the one that I chose to resurrect me. I needed to motivate you, fill you with a resolve unlike any other, to see your mission through until the end. I influenced the death of your family, I implanted seeds of doubt within the foolish Samur to bestow my strength onto you, the strength to resurrect me. Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design." The Dark Lord observed the Slayer's expression through his visor, his expression not shifting whatsoever at the revelation brought to him by the Dark Lord. Davoth mocked, "Every choice you believe you made has been nothing more than a lie, a deception to disguise my influence over you until you have resurrected me. How does it feel knowing your entire life is a lie? To know that you have never made a choice in your life, you were nothing more than a puppet. Do you feel humiliated? Devastated?"
The Doom Slayer stood still for a period of time in silence, seemingly unphased by the news he had just received as he simply retorted, "You never chose my successor, I did."
Davoth scoffed upon hearing the Slayer's response as he answered, "There was never a need. You served your purpose the moment you resurrected me. All that's left is to eradicate you like the pest you are." The Dark Lord ignited his blade once more, taking up a fighting stance along with the Doom Slayer as the two warriors prepared to resume their fateful battle. They stared at each other intensely, their gazes not shifting from one another as their arms twitched in anticipation of the fight.
The Slayer vanished from his position, kicking from the ground with enough force to send the debris around him flying into the air. The Dark Lord whipped around with his shield raised, blocking the Slayer who swung his crucible at Davoth from behind. The Hellwalker twirled back before landing on his feet and vanishing once more. He seemingly teleported around the Dark Lord, striking blow after blow against the Dark Lord's sword and shield which he struck his weapons against. The Dark Lord slammed his shield into the ground, generating a shockwave that rapidly expanded in every direction, forcing the Doom Slayer to retreat back as he slid against the jagged floor of the area until he came to a grinding halt.
The thrusters of Davoth's suit ignited all at once, generating enough thrust to lift the suit off the ground and make him rapidly ascend into the air. The Slayer bent his knees before springing into the air in pursuit of the God. Davoth was able to catch the Doom Slayer as the warrior lept towards him, spinning around before hurling the Doom Slayer into one of the nearby buildings that had survived the crash of the Dark Lord's tower. The Slayer was thrown with enough force to send him crashing through several buildings, tearing through the hard Immoran metal as it caved in underneath the force. The Slayer quickly stabilized himself as he fired both of his grappling hooks towards the building he was just blown out of to stop his backward momentum. The warrior felt the G-forces slam into his body as he stopped flying backwards and began reeling himself forward. He used his suit's thrusters to boost himself towards the Dark Lord before extending his argent hammer and slamming into one of the buildings, holding back enough not to destroy it but had enough force to launch it from it's position at the Dark Lord.
Davoth dashed towards the building, slicing through the structure before passing through it only to find the Doom Slayer in front of him. Both warriors swung their blades at each other, clashing swords as the two energy blades grinded against each other in a struggle for dominance. They were now evenly matched, neither of them were able to dominate the other in this battle of strength. The reaction caused by their energy blades pressing against one another created a constant sparking reaction that drizzled onto their armors. Davoth ceased the struggle by spinning in place to throw the Doom Slayer off. However, the warrior reacted quickly by firing one of his grappling hooks towards the Dark Lord's leg while he fired the other towards the ground. The hook that was shot at the Dark Lord wrapped around his leg before pulling the god downwards. The Slayer reeled himself into the ground, gathering momentum as he made the Dark Lord descend at a faster rate than him. With a single maneuver, the Slayer hurled the Dark Lord into the ground with enough force to shake it, obscuring the mechanical red suit in dust.
The Slayer rolled forward in the air to stabilize himself before shooting his grappling hook towards one of the nearby buildings to ascend higher into the air. He looked behind him to check on Davoth and watched as the God lifted himself from the pile of rubble before thrusting into the air in hot pursuit of the Doom Slayer. The hellwalker used his grappling hooks to swing around the building, attempting to swing back around to the God without losing his momentum. However, Davoth had already caught up to the Doom Slayer as he closed in on the warrior's position quickly, preparing to swing his blade at the Doom Slayer.
The Slayer reeled himself upwards before releasing his grappling hook as he twirled above the Dark Lord's passing blade and ended up right behind the God. The Slayer channeled his spiritual energy as he stated the name of his attack, "Blood Breathing: Second Form, Flash Blood." Before swinging the Crucible at the Dark Lord. The slash created an argent-infused blood projectile that left a mark against the plating of the Dark Lord's armor. The God spun around to face the Doom Slayer before raising his shield in front of him and dashed forward with the maximum amount of thrust his suit was able to provide.
The Slayer had no time to dodge as the shield bashed into him in an instant, blasting him back across the area. The Slayer flew back uncontrollably while holding onto his weapons tightly. Before the warrior crashed into the floor, he threw his entire body upwards to stabilize himself as his feet began skidding across the land. Despite this, his momentum still carried him backwards but the warrior was able to stand on his feet while sliding in the other direction. He watched as the Dark Lord dashed towards him while firing an array of projectiles at the Doom Slayer with his shoulder cannons. The warrior reacted by slashing through each projectile that came his way with the demonic crucible, slicing the projectiles to pieces until the warrior had finally come to a halt and the Dark Lord was rapidly accelerating towards him. The Slayer brought his hammer back in anticipation of the Dark Lord's arrival. Once the God was in front of him, the warrior swung his hammer.
The Argent Hammer collided against the Dark Lord's shield, creating an explosive reaction that caused the ground they stood on to collapse at places and wreck the nearby buildings. Entire chunks of the ground crumbled as geysers of lava shot up in response to the explosive reaction. The shockwave generated enough force to blow both combatants back several dozen feet. They simultaneously dug their blades into the ground to slow themselves down before leaping towards each other to continue their battle. Their weapons furiously clashed against each other at blinding speeds the human eye would not be able to process. Their strikes created individual, smaller shockwaves that continued to deteriorate the foundation of the nearby buildings and cause them to crumble as the ground they stood on collapsed even more.
The Slayer slammed his hammer into the ground, destroying the foundation they stood on as they plummeted towards the lava below. The warrior used his grappling hooks to fling himself out of the pit while dashed into the air to give himself a boost. The Dark Lord slowed down until he was just above the lava before using his suit's jets to push him even higher into the air at maximum speed. He zoomed towards the Doom Slayer who was within his line of sights and once he was close enough, he uppercutted the Doom Slayer into the sky.
The Slayer was hurled past the clouds as he spun uncontrollably from the force of the punch. Before he was given a moment to collect himself, the Dark Lord ascended above him very quickly, stopping quite a distance away from the Doom Slayer before propelling himself down towards the warrior. He grabbed onto the Hellwalker, thrusting towards the ground as fast as he could with the Slayer in his grasp, extended in front of him. The Slayer desperately clawed at the Dark Lord's grip, attempting to rip himself free of God's grasp but it was a futile effort as he watched the nearest skyscraper accelerate towards him.
Davoth crashed into an Immoran skyscraper, Slayer-first, as he passed through the various floors of the superstructure. All the while, he proceeded to slam the warrior into the hard immortan metal, continuously forcing him through the building as they descended towards the bottom floor. The windows of each floor they passed through shattered from the force of their impact as the stability of each floor collapsed underneath the pressure, devastating the building as it began to cave in.
Soon, Davoth rammed the Doom Slayer into the ground, creating a humongous crater around the point of impact as it expanded to engulf the numerous nearby buildings. The Skyscraper they crashed through collapsed on top of them along with the multitude of nearby buildings that fell into the crater they created. The Doom Slayer was buried underneath several dozen meters worth of immoran metal, enough weight to squish anyone to death besides the Doom Slayer.
The warrior fought his way through the debris, digging his way out with the help of his demonic crucible as he broke free from his constraints. However, the moment the Slayer revealed himself from the pile of rubble underneath him, the Dark Lord swooped down low and scooped up the Doom Slayer. Davoth dashed forward before forcing the Slayer into the ground, grinding him against Immoran metal as they zoomed forward for several seconds and scraping the Slayer's armor.
The warrior had enough as he swung his argent hammer at full force into the arm of the Dark Lord's suit, denting the metallic plating which caused the God to release the warrior from his grasp. The Slayer relentlessly rolled along the ground before stopping himself by planting his sword into the ground. Davoth continued dashing forward for several seconds before decelerating and coming to a halt. The God spun around, facing the Doom Slayer and waiting for the Hellwalker to lunge at him once more. Without hesitation, the Doom Slayer did just that as he leapt towards Davoth to continue their fight.
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The Night Sentinel and ARC officers were still gathered around the table that generated a holographic display of the battlefield to them. They were currently monitoring the battles between their Atlans and the demonic Titans they fought against. It was an evenly matched battle that showed no signs of a clear winner. The men furrowed their brows out of concern as they needed their Atlans to pass through the walls and wreak havoc across the city beyond the walls. However, the Titans were in their way. As they began discussing a possible strategy, Inosuke exclaimed while making his presence known to the officers, "Hey! I heard one of you assholes can get me one of those Atlans! Tell me how to ride one, immediately!"
The officers looked towards each other, perplexed and not amused by the boy's brashness as they coldly denied, "Son, I'm not sure who told you we can give you the authorization to get your own Atlan, let alone ride one, but you won't be able to either way. You aren't a Night Sentinel, and there's no way for us to board the Atlans from here."
"So I have to become a Night Sentinel to ride an Atlan? Fine! I'll show you, I'll become the ultimate beast tamer of you lot and then you'll have to acknowledge me as Lord Inosuke, master of the Atlans!"
The officers gave the boy a "What the fuck is this kid talking about?!" Type of expression as they formulated their response to the boy's claims. However, Inosuke was faster to respond than they were as he continued:
"Anyways, you guys suck at commanding those beasts! Ofcourse they aren't beating those other demons because you're using those Atlans wrong."
The officers asked, "Really? Where does a child such as yourself get off with such a statement? In what way are we misusing our Atlans?"
"You should be going for the legs, numbnuts. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Come on, even the boars that raised me knew that!"
"Is that so?"
"Yeah. Don't believe me? Try it, prove me right."
The officers gave Inosuke a skeptical look before relaying their orders to the nearby Sentinel Atlans to test Inosuke's claim.
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The Sentinel Atlans that battled the demonic titans began focusing their attention on their opponent's legs in an attempt to knock them to the ground. One of the atlans raised its knee before dashing forward with it's thrusters, driving it's knee into the stomach of the titan demon with enough force to make the demon lose balance and lean backwards. The constant shifting of positions from the array of Atlans and Titans caused the ground to shake considerably. Once the Atlan's other foot pressed against the ground and regained its footing, the Atlan proceeded to shove the demonic to the floor with a powerful push.
Obanai was watching the nearby clash of titans as it was difficult not to notice the constant metallic clangs and thuds generated by the sentinel atlans and the damage they took. The ground shook considerably which drew his attention towards a nearby Titan which had been pushed to the floor and was quickly descending. There was no time to waste, Obanai had a plan with no time to explain it to the others. Only he could do this, he was the only one he'd allow to follow through on this plan.
Kokushibo was effortlessly evading the barrage of Sentinel energy beams fired towards him, constantly hopping around the area until he found someone to kill. Suddenly, the area he was in was cast in darkness, catching Kokushibo's attention as he looked up towards the sky to see it was blocked out by the falling Titan demon that was above him. Kokushibo seemed unphased as he knew he could easily outpace the creature's descent. However, as he prepared to zoom away from the threat, the snake pillar, Obanai, quickly closed in on his position. Kokushibo wasn't oblivious as he swung his blades at the snake pillar who was narrowly able to dodge thanks to the assistance of his snake. Without hesitation or fear, Obanai wrapped himself around the Upper Moon demon, locking him in-place as he prevented the demon from moving.
Kokushibo gave the Hashira a perplexed look, shrugging his shoulders as several blades shot out from Kokushibo's back and impaled Obanai whose eyes widened in pain. Kokushibo mocked out of confusion and irritation, "Why would you bother tackling a demon that can manipulate his body at will? I was under the assumption that you were the intelligent one of the bunch."
Obanai tried his best to speak, barely muttering with a raspy voice, "I made you look… Now you'll be joining me…" Kokushibo's eyes widened in panic as he completely forgot about the still-descending Titan that was about to crash to the ground. Obanai closed his eyes peacefully as he muttered, "I'll be back with you shortly, my love…" in reference to Mitsuri. In a split second, the two swordsmen were flattened like a pancake underneath the immense weight of the titan demon which crashed to the ground, generating an earthquake that caused many to stumble to their knees.
Uzui watched as his comrade sacrificed himself to kill the Upper Moon demon as he cried out, "IGURO!" but it was pointless, he could barely hear his own voice in the midst of the chaos, not that Obanai would be able to hear him anyways. Rengoku ran over to Uzui, helping the man stand on his knees as the flame hashira assessed the health of his only remaining comrade besides Valen. Uzui was left with a sour and defeated expression on his face as he pointed out, "All of our comrades… gone, just like that. We couldn't do a damn thing to that demon."
Rengoku didn't have much he could say about the situation, he simply gazed upon the battlefield field with the corpses of their fallen allies. The flame hashira stated, "They might be gone but we'll carry on their wills. We can't allow ourselves to fall in battle here, Tengen. We both have families we need to return to, they're expecting us. They sacrificed themselves so everyone here, everyone in the universe, can see their families again. We can't let their sacrifice be in vain."
Uzui nodded in agreement before gritting his teeth and claiming, "I swear on my life, I'm going to kill that son of a bitch, Muzan! I refuse to let him get away with what he's done to us!"
A voice, unfamiliar to the two Hashira, called out, "Then go ahead, try to rectify things, you pathetic demon slayer." Uzui and Rengoku turned their heads towards a nearby cliff edge to see the demon king, Muzan, standing on top of it with his arms crossed. The man had a partially somber and annoyed look on his face as he said, "All of my underlings have been defeated and I'm all that's left. I didn't think it would come to this, I figured my slaves would be more than a match for your kind but you've proven me wrong. It appears I'll have to step in after all and do what they won't, which is to fully eradicate your kind and prove once and for all that demons are meant to rule this plane of existence, not you vermin! So tell me: Where's the boy with the hanafuda earrings?"