On the coast.
A legion composed of demons was violently engulfing everything around it.
Muzan wholeheartedly believed the lie that Lu Chen had spun, convinced that someone had found the blue spider lily he yearned for.
Based on both overt and covert investigations, today was the day to intercept the target here.
But there was no one nearby, not even a single fisherman, as if they had all been evacuated.
Even the Demon Slayer Corps hadn't shown up. Logically, such a large-scale mobilization would surely attract their attention.
“Could it be…,”
“That I've been tricked? Or is there something wrong somewhere?…”
Muzan calmed down, silently hiding in the rear.
First, he would send his subordinates ahead to scout.
He began to ponder the ins and outs of the whole affair.
Suddenly.
Buzz——
A roar echoed from the sky.
“Air-Strike-Readiness”
“Air strike ready.”
Accompanied by a formidable, pure London accent.
Over 300 dive bombers and torpedo bombers, a sea of planes, flew in from the distant horizon.
SBD Dauntless, SB2C Helldiver, Stuka… those classic aircraft of WWII, empowered by the Mind Cube, were gliding at low altitude with unimaginable maneuverability.
After all, the Arsenal produced all kinds of aircraft, and the Kanmusu didn't limit themselves to their own faction’s types.
The piercing shriek of the dive bombers cutting through the air caused a stir among the demon legion.
They had never seen such flying monsters before, and they had an instinctive fear of the unknown.
Boom—Boom—
The Upper Moons hadn’t even reacted.
High-yield bombs were dropped directly onto their faces at close range.
Under the Moon Breathing technique, Kokushibo's body, capable of withstanding Nichirin blades and shotguns, was instantly blown to pieces.
Demons have powerful regenerative abilities, and as long as they aren't completely killed, they can regenerate.
But the intensity of the carpet bombing was beyond imagination.
Boom——
Bang!!!
Bombs were dropped in rapid succession at extremely close range. The shock waves alone could vaporize the smaller demons, while the few who were more robust were blown to bits.
Those body fragments were then further disintegrated into molecular states by the subsequent explosions, dissolving into flames.
The Kanmusu weren't short on ammunition and usually carried out saturation strikes against the enemy.
The Arsenal was advanced, and equipment wasn't a concern.
Boom—Boom—
The first wave of dive bombing turned the area within a few kilometers into a sea of fire.
The torpedo bombers followed closely, locking onto the few remaining survivors with anti-ship torpedoes.
Those torpedoes were capable of piercing through a battleship's hundreds of millimeters of armor, let alone demons. Even the Destroyer Kanmusu wouldn't dare to take a hit head-on.
One hit, no matter how robust the demon, was dust to dust and ashes to ashes.
Swish—
Swish——
After several rounds of air strikes.
The explosions and burning flames illuminated half the night sky. The flames reflected on the sea surface, creating a bizarre and beautiful sight.
The ground, which was once bustling, was now left with only the crackling sound of burning flames and the roar of planes coming and going.
The vast majority of the demons had turned to ashes under the bombs and torpedoes.
“Muzan, don't let him escape.”
Lu Chen reminded.
“Commander, don't worry.”
“If he keeps hiding, it might take some effort to find him…”
“But since he dared to show his face, once he's locked on, he absolutely, absolutely won't have a chance of escaping, oh?”
Taiho synced the reconnaissance plane's location with the radar interface.
You could see a large red dot on the map rapidly moving towards the distance.
The moment Muzan was scanned, several reconnaissance planes were already locking onto his movements at high altitude.
“Well, he runs pretty fast, befitting the Demon King.”
Lu Chen calculated based on the scale of the radar map.
Muzan’s running speed was already close to supersonic, even a bullet train couldn’t keep up.
“Purely in terms of speed, it’s a bit beyond imagination…”
“But well, he’s still slower than our cannons and missiles.”
Richelieu materialized her ship outfit.
She slowly adjusted the firing angle of her main guns, following the movement trajectory of the red dot on the radar interface.
Bang—Bang—Bang——
After firing, several mushroom clouds rose in the distant forest.
…
Fear, regret, bewilderment.
It was hard to imagine how complex Muzan’s expression was after being subjected to carpet bombing.
Even thousands of years ago, being cut into thousands of pieces by Yoriichi Tsugikuni hadn't brought him this much fear.
The Sun Breathing technique only restrained him, and the man was indeed skilled.
The opponent’s strength was still within his understanding.
But what was happening before him completely defied his imagination.
He didn’t understand what dive bombers and torpedo bombers were.
The bombs they dropped were dozens of times more powerful than the most powerful explosives in human society!
The Upper Moons beside him had turned to ash almost instantly.
If he hadn't been agile and reacted quickly, his fate probably wouldn’t have been much better.
“Humans… could this be the Demon Slayer Corps’ new weapon?”
“No, they definitely don’t have anything like this…”
Muzan gritted his teeth, pondering as he ran.
Almost as soon as he was attacked, he abandoned the rest of the demons and immediately concealed himself, fleeing towards the distance.
He decided not to show himself again until he had investigated the background of these people and confirmed his safety.
The psychological shadow cast by the dive bombers was probably even deeper than Yoriichi Tsugikuni’s Sun Breathing technique.
It was too exaggerated, beyond comprehension.
Swish—
Swish——
In the blink of an eye, he had already run dozens of kilometers away from the battlefield.
Under the Blood Demon Art of invisibility, Muzan was confident that no one would discover him. If he was determined to run, there was no one in this world who could catch his speed.
“Safe now?”
Muzan looked around.
Silence. The planes didn’t seem to have followed.
Neither were there any signs of the Demon Slayer Corps or others.
Suddenly.
Whiz——
A whistling sound came from behind.
“Caught up to me?! So fast?!”
He instinctively turned his head.
What met his eyes was a small missile.
Since Muzan’s relative speed with the missile wasn’t great, coupled with his excellent reflexes and dynamic vision, he even had time to see the details of the missile.
It had a logo he didn’t recognize on its head.
It was made up of a yellow background, a black circle, and three rays, with a large black exclamation mark below.
“?”
“What is this?”
Before he could even think.
Boom——
A small sun rose in front of him, accompanied by blinding sunlight.