In an instant, an overwhelming power rushed through him. El's body felt like it was filled with boiling magma. 'This is it, I can feel it,' El thought with a serious expression.
Every one of his muscles tensed with renewed vigor, as if his body could barely contain the immense energy exploding within it.
His heartbeat was racing, as the blood flowed hotter and hotter, pumping power through his limbs like an unstoppable ocean.
On the other hand, seeing all this, Akaza smiled even more enthusiastically. "Adrian, you're amazing! Your fighting spirit is getting stronger! Is that going to be your best move? Well, don't let me down, Adrian!"
Akaza smiled widely, but there was a hint of tension in the muscles of his normally relaxed face. The hot wind blown by El's power stung his skin.
But instead of backing down, Akaza would keep fighting and feel the adrenaline burning in every pore of his body.
Akaza stood tall, his fist raised high, positioning his initial fighting stance. The dark aura of the Demon Blood Art surrounded Akaza's body, radiating a cruel and life-destroying power.
Shwoosh!
With a single step, the ground he was standing on shattered instantly, El shot forward like lightning. The blade of the sword in his hand caught fire and glided in a perfect arc, splitting the air with air-blasting speed.
"Nichiun no Ryū Kaburimai." The slashing flames formed a spinning sun dragon, devouring the darkness in its path, while its heat burned the atmosphere around it.
At the same time, Akaza lunged forward with a right fist engulfed in the purest demonic power. "Messhiki!"
A blast of demonic energy erupted from his fist, shattering the ground around him, creating a shockwave of his attack, slamming straight towards El with an unimaginably terrifying force.
Boom!
The two forces collided in a ground-shaking boom. The fire dragon of Nichiun no Ryū Kaburimai collided head-on with the demonic blast wave of Akaza's best punch, Messhiki.
Rumble!
A sharp rumble of fire pierced through the air, like a dragon rumbling in anger. The rumble of the burning atmosphere hit the ears, occasionally screeching like hot coals and destroying everything in its path without mercy.
Bright light exploded into the night sky landscape. Flashes of fire mixed with the dark aura, resulting in an extremely terrifying vortex of energy radiating in all directions.
The ground trembled violently, cracks began to form under their feet, and the sound of explosions echoed throughout the battlefield, like a boom that could be heard in the distance.
Some of the victims of the derailed train had woken up. Once they witnessed this terrible battle, they were so shocked they were unable to speak.
Inosuke and Tanjiro could only remain silent watching all this. They felt a sensation of heat around them as they were quite close to the battle arena.
They couldn't move, helping El because of orders. But, even if they didn't receive orders not to help, they couldn't do anything.
They could only gulp and hope for the victory of El's fierce battle against Akaza, the upper moon three.
Akaza laughed, "this is great! Adrian, you've almost reached the peak realm in such a short time. Be a demon, and let's fight for eternity, Adrian!"
"That's fine," El said with a hint of sarcasm. "I'm not interested in becoming a demon. I told you I might, didn't I? Stop pushing me."
"Ahahaha," Akaza's laughter grew wider and more enthusiastic. "Your achievements will be wasted because of old age and death, do you understand that? Adrian! I feel sick looking at it."
"Go see a doctor." El said coldly, but sounded a little sarcastic.
As if in a ferocious blaze, El occasionally exchanged attacks with Akaza, making the visual roar of the fire even louder.
At the moment of exchanging attacks, El suddenly smiled with a lot of mystery. "Akaza, you win!" El swung her sword, slashing Akaza's shoulder rather than aiming for his neck to kill him.
Craat!
Akaza's fist managed to hit her solar plexus through. Instantly El spewed a lot of blood from her mouth, blood slowly seeping out, soaking her clothes.
Akaza was shocked, his glassy eyes tightened, and his enthusiastic smile disappeared like an ice flower that had melted in the summer.
For a moment, the silence was like a stopped second, as if time had frozen, erasing all signs of life created after a fierce battle.
Tanjiro shouted frantically, "Uncle Adrian! Let's move, my body!" His voice was full of desperation, but his body felt stiff, as if shackled from overusing Kagura's Hinokami.
Tanjiro's eyes immediately turned to Inosuke next to him. "Inosuke, please help Uncle Adrian! I can't move!"
Without thinking, Inosuke was ready to act. From the beginning, the urge to help El had been stirring within him. However, when he saw the awesomeness of El's fight against Akaza and heard El's strict orders earlier, Inosuke suppressed his intention reluctantly.
But now, the urge was almost unbearable. Just a little more push, he would move.
"Nobody move! That's an order!" El shouted, his voice hoarse and full of stress.
"What are you doing, Adrian!" said Akaza with disappointment. "You could have just cut my throat, but why didn't you? Are you underestimating me?"
El chuckled and endured the pain, "I've never... Underestimated you, Akaza... You're very strong... But, what is your goal in becoming stronger? What... To be a useful tool for Muzan? You're lost, Akaza- No, Hakuji."
"Hakuji?" said Akaza with a question mark in mind.
A sudden flash of light flashed in his normally sharp eyes, but now they seemed to be caught in a haze of memories.
The memory faintly appeared. Like shards of glass flying in the wind, the memory suddenly struck his, sharp and bringing out a hidden pain, then gone again in an instant.
Akaza remembered a name, Hakuji. That was his real name. Hakuji was a young man who was once full of twists and turns in life.
Then the face of Koyuki, his fiancée whom he used to love so much, appeared in his mind. Her smile, her cheerful laughter, and her face full of love seemed to dance in front of his eyes that were now getting blurry.
Before becoming a demon, Akaza was a human named Hakuji. He lost his loved ones, including his father, who committed suicide because he didn't want to be a burden to Hakuji. This loss left Hakuji devastated.
However, one day Hakuji had a fiancée, Koyuki and Koyuki's father, as his teacher, but died from being poisoned by the enemy. After that, Hakuji became full of anger and vengeance.
The guilt of not being able to protect those he loved drove him to constantly become stronger, so that he would never fail again in protecting what was precious to him.
After becoming a demon, Akaza's goal of becoming strong transformed into an obsession to find a worthy opponent. For him, life and death battles are the way to prove true strength.
Akaza views strength as the only thing that lasts, and he has great respect for strong fighters.
Moreover, Akaza also values the "purity" of strength that does not depend on weapons or tools, as shown in his views on sword users and breathing styles.
Akaza deeply despises weakness and timidity, both in oneself and others. This is one of the reasons why he constantly seeks out strong enemies to face, as he feels only those who are strong deserve respect and protection.
"Did you... remember it, your name?" asked El in a hoarse and very tired voice.
(A/N: For some reason, in this chapter something is a little wrong. But what can I do? Because El was forced not to kill Akaza for now, El tried to make Akaza remember his past. El intends for Akaza to accept his fate and die as a form of remorse)