Akaza retracted his fist, poised to unleash his next devastating assault: "Destructive Kill: Dual Layered Demon Wic—"

However, before he could complete his attack, an interruption occurred that went beyond mere interruption—his entire arm was gone!

Akaza noticed something...

A searing sensation, on his chest, a charred gash etched across his torso.

A thin crimson fire was emitted from Heito's eyes, the fire was so hot that its temperature seemed to resemble the sun!

Akaza's body had become completely numb to pain, he had forgotten how the pain felt.

Yet that fire reminded him of the uncomfortable sensation.

Akaza suppressed a grunt as he willed his body to heal, which wasn't healing at its usual speed. Something was off, that crimson beam had slowed down his regenerative speed!

Akaza chuckled, keeping in mind to avoid those beams if possible.

"You certainly are an interesting opponent.", The stripe face demon bellowed before lunging at Arthur.

"You are an exceptional opponent as well, Akaza, but..." Arthur spoke.

Akaza really was a good opponent for Arthur to judge his close-quarters combat prowess, his strength, his speed, his reflexes, his battle judgment, and numerous other facets.

But currently, Akaza was not an opponent that Arthur could defeat alone. That's why initially Arthur planned to use Akaza only for his training and test his strength, and fly away if Akaza proved to be too difficult.

Though judging from the shocked and pained expression on Akaza's face when he got hit by it, and the slower rate of healing assured Arthur that his Blood Demon Art: Rays had catastrophic effects on other demons' bodies, somewhat similar to Nezuko's fire.

Akaza was indeed formidable, but not invincible—a realization that dawned upon Arthur.

If Arthur put his everything on it, then maybe, he'll be able to do something which he didn't deem possible a few moments ago, get Akaza infected.

"But I think it's time to end this," Arthur proclaimed, levitating gracefully above the sky just as Akaza lunged forward to strike. He remained just beyond the red-haired demon's reach, greatly frustrating his opponent and reminding him of the traitor's capability to flee at any moment.

It was finally time to end this, Arthur thought as he brought out dozens upon dozens of undeads from his inventory. Ryoma who was soundly ignored by the upper moon for the whole time also leapt out of the house and positioned himself amidst the horde of undead.

Having done the preparation, Arthur descended from above and floated a bit above the ground in front of his army of undead and the newly added infected demon.

Akaza grinned, "You expect to outnumber me? Haha, still, I wonder how you amassed this number of these obnoxious creatures. None of them give off a scent of a human or a demon. Except for that one, everyone has a putrid smell, exactly like that of a dead body..."

Akaza assumed that the creature that didn't leak the smell of the dead was the demon that Heito had freed from Muzan-sama's curse, it was obvious in a glance. But even in that one's smell, there was no semblance of a demon.

The mysteries around the traitor kept getting increasing. His powers were completely unknown and certainly dangerous, especially that crimson beam.

The Traitor possessed remarkable expertise in various martial arts disciplines and had a unique ability to free others from Muzan-sama's control. Akaza had encountered numerous peculiar demon abilities in the past, but there was something different about the water art and the sudden appearance of these repulsive creatures. They didn't resemble typical blood demon arts.

Though Akaza didn't spend too long mulling about the traitor's abilities, he just got himself a few minutes longer fight that's all, Akaza shrugged as he readied his stance.

Arthur took the initiative, launching himself toward Akaza, followed by his army. But as they approached the red-haired demon, Arthur altered his trajectory, shooting vertically into the air and firing laser beams directly at Akaza's eyes, intending to blind him.

Akaza used his arms to block the twin beams, but the crimson rays burned a hole through his arm and headed straight for his head. Akaza narrowly evaded the rays by tilting his head and leaping backward.

The demon's smile grew wider, exhilarated by the challenge.

Akaza lept towards the hoard of undeads and began his tandem of destruction there. He skillfully evaded the occasional crimson beams fired at him from above. While the beams were potentially devastating, they were easy to avoid.

Akaza found it really easy to deal with Heito's mysterious army. His punch went through the putrid humanoids like a bullet in an apple, crushing and spraying their blood and brain matter all around.

They were too brittle, their strength, speed, and even basic movements were exactly how they looked and smelled like, like dead bodies.

'The demon that the Heito freed from Muzan-sama's curse is avoiding me...', Akaza grinned seeing the 'odd one' in the hoard subtly trying to keep his distance from him.

'Seems like seeing the pathetic state of his lifeless comrades, the 'odd one' got afraid', Akaza thought as he as he lunged towards the demon aiming a punch towards his face.

Akaza was insanely fast, and naturally, so were his senses and reflexes. The moment he shot his fist towards Heito's demon's face, he saw the same calculating and intelligent light in his eyes as that in Heito's. It was as if Heito was possessing him. The demon sidestepped facing his way and opened his salivating mouth to bite off a piece of his right hand.

But Akaza didn't let him as he shoved his hand into the demon's mouth, breaking the demon's jaw completely. His fists were completely fine, just a miniscule scratch maybe, which healed in nanoseconds.

Another kick on the guts and the demon was sent flying away, rendered out of commission for a while.

"Shit", Arthur muttered as he broke off his mental connection with Ryoma, not liking the feeling of pain from the hit on the jaw.

Possessing Ryoma meant he possessed all the senses of the demon, saw everything he saw, felt everything he felt, even pain. Ryoma had a really slow regenerative speed compared to a moon or even Arthur himself and Arthur was no masochist. He instantly gave control of Ryoma's body back to whom it belonged, as soon as the pain came rushing.

Feeling a tinge of frustration at seeing a carefully and almost perfectly executed plan fail at the last moment, Arthur who was still levitating above, shot himself to Ryoma. He needed to retrieve him and then escape.

It was obvious before even Arthur brought out the undeads from his inventory that none of them would be able to scratch the upper moon's skin. Arthur planned to lure Akaza towards Ryoma and then bite him using Ryoma's body, but the plan failed at the last moment as Ryoma couldn't bite Akaza...

"Gurg!!"

'huh?'

An excruciating grunt escaped Akaza's mouth. The nerves on his arm started to bulge out and pulsate as if alive, and a dark hue crawled up on those bulged nerves.

'It's working!'

A victorious smile crept up on Arthur's face, which in an instant turned into a frown. Akaza was attempting to chop off his arm!

Arthur rushed to the red-haired demon to stop him from doing so, but it was already too late.

"Destructive Kill: Leg Style  Rings Of A Thousand Flying Planets"

=========

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