Chapter 261: A Pity

Though at first he’d hoped these demons could win through sheer numbers and finish Marcus off...

Now he saw that outcome was pure fantasy.

Regardless of whether he felt fear or nervousness, this was Infinity Castle: his lair, his absolute refuge.

He would never allow any problem to arise!

As much as he didn’t want to, he had no choice but to step forward and descend the stairs.

"Nakime, take us there."

Kokushibo remained standing behind him. "Muzan-sama, is there any need to let them wear him down a bit more? The demons outside are still returning. Once there are more of them..."

Muzan turned his head sharply toward him. "If we let him keep cutting, everything we did these past three months will have been for nothing."

The demons he’d taken care to feed for three months were falling before Marcus like moths to a bug zapper.

All the blood he’d granted them... what would it mean in the end?

Kokushibo didn’t argue and lowered his head.

"Nakime."

"Yes!"

TWANG! TWANG! TWANG!

The three vanished from the spot, along with more than twenty demons that remained prostrate around them.

Marcus spun in the air for a few seconds.

As he descended, his blades had returned to their original size.

Face pale, arms hanging at his sides, and fingers trembling, he muttered with a grimace, "Looks like I overdid it, using Valkyrie to pull off Crimson Curtain."

Noticing that figures had already appeared on the raised platform in front of him, he steadied his breathing.

Color began to return to his face, he lifted his arms, and stopped the trembling of his fingers.

His recovery ability sure was useful.

He rolled his shoulders, cracking his joints, and glanced sidelong at the demons led by Muzan.

"I thought you had no intention of coming out."

"You’ve got a lot of guts," Muzan’s voice came out through gritted teeth. "Barging in here alone... Should I praise you for your courage or call you an idiot?"

Marcus shrugged. "I didn’t want to, originally, but who would’ve thought you’d stir up such a huge mess. Twenty thousand people... At least twenty thousand people vanished. You really are deranged. Do you know how many people there are in this country in total?"

Muzan smiled with contempt. "I thought you weren’t a moralist like the Demon Slayer Corps. Since when does a Vampire care about the life or death of humans?"

"You’re right, I couldn’t care less." Marcus shook his head. "As long as you don’t threaten the safety of the people around me, it makes no difference to me whether the rest live or die... But the problem is that your current behavior has already put my peace of mind at risk."

Muzan narrowed his eyes, his lips curving into an "I knew it" expression.

"What’s the matter? Seeing me build up my strength just like you, did it scare you?"

"Scare me?" Marcus made a face. "Yes, I’m scared. But what I’m scared of has never been your strength."

"I’m scared you’re going to finish off eating my food!"

He pointed a sword at the hundred-plus demons still surrounding him. "In a country that doesn’t even reach fifty million people, you create this many demons... And if I hadn’t come, you’d surely have made a lot more. I’m curious—what the hell are you thinking? Do you want them to wipe out this nation by eating it, and then starve to death yourself?"

Muzan’s smile vanished.

"You people forced me into this."

"I never wanted to share my blood, and I never liked it!" He clenched his teeth hard. "But as long as I can wipe out the Demon Slayer Corps, and as long as I can devour you, what does it matter if all these people die?!"

"Humans may not have any other talents, but reproduction has never been a problem. Even if this country loses ninety percent of its population, a century will be enough to recover most of it. Why should I care?"

"A century?"

Marcus looked at him with pity.

A hundred years wouldn’t be necessary! In a little under fifty years, the atomic age would arrive. If other powers discovered the existence of demons capable of wiping out a nation, Japan wouldn’t get just two bombs.

No one would come out alive.

But it was pointless to explain it to Muzan. After a thousand years of stagnation, he’d never imagine the imminent technological explosion of humankind.

"Anyway, I don’t feel like wasting any more time with you. I came to break you of your bad habit of overeating."

Marcus rested a sword on his shoulder and smirked.

"If you don’t want to fight, sign a letter acknowledging your mistake. Promise you’ll live as a quiet demon, without devouring more than you should, and get rid of that horde. If you do that... today gets forgotten."

"..."

Silence dominated the place for a moment.

"You’re talking pure garbage!"

A shrill voice burst out from behind Muzan.

A short, chubby demon with bristly hair stepped forward, lifting his chin arrogantly with a mocking grin.

His feline eyes looked at Marcus as if he were a clown.

"And you are..."

Before Marcus could finish, the chubby demon vanished.

The next instant he appeared at Marcus’s left side, less than two steps away, extending his claws toward his neck.

Narrowing his eyes, Marcus tilted his head to dodge and turned his body to swing his sword.

But to his surprise, he only cut air.

The chubby demon reappeared thirty feet away, tilting his head sarcastically. "That’s not so impressive," he sneered contemptuously.

Marcus examined him carefully.

And far from getting angry, his eyes showed greed.

"It’s not speed... it’s teleportation." He ran his tongue over his lips. "What a unique ability."

Muzan, from up high, noticed Marcus’s expression and his pupils contracted.

"Get back here, now!"

He’d seen that look far too many times.

That bastard meant to devour him!

His greatest advantage was already an unreachable speed, and if he absorbed teleportation on top of that, there’d be no way to ever catch him.

But the chubby demon didn’t retreat, gazing at Muzan with blind fanaticism. "Rest easy, Muzan-sama! I’ll deliver him to you!"

He vanished again, planning to reappear behind Marcus and tear his head off with one swipe.

However, as he emerged behind him, he discovered with horror that a hand was already waiting in the exact spot.

Without swinging his sword or turning around, Marcus’s claw buried itself in the demon’s brain, leaving only the forearm exposed, as if it had sprouted from inside his head.

At the point of impact, not even a drop of blood welled up.

The chubby demon’s eyes flew wide open and his mouth hung agape, but he couldn’t make a single sound.

He tried to teleport away to escape, but Marcus was faster: the muscles of his forearm contracted and blew his brain apart.

!

Muzan was stunned, the demons were stunned, and even a flicker of confusion appeared on Douma’s face.

Only Kokushibo’s eyes stayed fixed on Marcus as he said slowly:

"Transparent World."

Slowly bringing the hand that held the demon forward, Marcus looked at the chubby demon convulsing, with a hint of regret.

"It’s a pity."

"Seems that when I use Transparent World, I can see the exact spot where you’re going to reappear... I thought it was a good ability, tsk."

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