The eight wooden dragons opened their jaws wide, and flashes of bluish lightning gathered inside their mouths. In an instant, the lightning bolts shot out in unison towards El, booming with tremendous force, lighting up the night.
El watched intently, his gaze focused on each flash of electricity that seemed to slow down before his eyes. His perception of time seemed distorted, making the attack seem less threatening.
El calmly said, "Gen'nichi Kō." In a single blink of an eye, El's figure suddenly disappeared, leaving only a blurry shadow where she stood before.
Rumble!
A flash of bluish lightning thundered, hitting the ground, uprooting several trees with devastating force, while creating a ten-centimeter deep depression.
Electricity still hissed through the air, while dust flew around him, but El's figure was nowhere to be seen.
Zohakuten's expression turned serious, his eyes sharply scanning the place where El should be. "Lost? No way," he muttered with unshakable conviction. "He must be around here somewhere!"
Shing!
"Hirin Kagerō." As soon as she reappeared, El was right in front of Zohakuten. The Metsu in hand swung and released a diagonal slash, aiming for Zohakuten's neck.
A fiery red flash was instantly created, burning the air along its path, leaving a trail of heat that shook the atmosphere.
With improved reflexes, Zohakuten jumped back five meters, dodging El's frontal slash that was almost on his neck.
While still hovering in the air, Zohakuten sighed, realizing how thin the distance between his neck and the blade of the sword that was glowing bright red was.
Even though he was just a clone, Zohakuten felt something different from El's attack, the slash had a deadly aura, as if it could stop his demon regeneration with a single stroke.
Sensing danger, Zohakuten knew that enduring the attack or underestimating it was the worst option. Avoiding the slash was the only best at the moment.
However, something surprising happened. Zohakuten's neck was slightly sliced, dripping with faint red blood. Although the wound seemed small, Zohakuten immediately realized that his regeneration was barely functioning as usual. A momentary panic slipped into his mind.
On the other hand, El stood still, focusing all his attention. "It's not easy to harmonize with the environment in the short term," El muttered with a focused look at Zohakuten as his target.
At that moment, El tried to harmonize herself with her surroundings, as if becoming part of nature itself. Every sound, every vibration, he felt with deep sensitivity.
"I can't use Mark for too long," El muttered in a low voice, his eyes full of concentration looking at Zohakuten. "I need to access the World of Invisibility soon before the Mark's side effects get more dire."
This was one of the main reasons why El was reluctant to use the Mark for too long, namely to maintain his strength in preparation for Infinite Castle.
El did not know when or where Muzan would summon her to enter the demon's headquarters. Therefore, El was always on guard, ready whenever and wherever the big fight happened.
With a serious look, El watched Zohakuten and said coldly, "It's been a while, but I haven't felt any signs of the Invisible World. That means, I must destroy Zohakuten as soon as possible!"
As soon as Zohakuten landed on the ground and before El could fully sharpen his focus, the eight wooden dragons moved in unison, surrounding him from all directions.
Their jaws opened, golden-yellow demonic energy concentrated.
In the next instant, deafening sound waves were blasted from all directions, mercilessly targeting El.
In a split second, El twisted his upper body rapidly, in a 360-degree spinning motion while swinging her sword horizontally.
Shing!
"Heki-ra no Ten," El said in a cold tone of voice, and the slash that split the air and space around his, producing a powerful wave of force, seemed to cut through everything mercilessly.
Flashes of rings of fire were instantly created around his, as if dispelling the cold night. Along with that, a deafening sound wave and eight wooden dragons were cut down instantly.
Zohakuten was surprised to see all these things. However, before he could react, El had appeared in front of him with a Metsu that would cut his body.
Quickly, Zohakuten extended his right hand, turning his flesh and blood into wood. In the next instant, the wood transformed into a dragon, attacking El with a powerful jaw bite.
Shing! Shing!
"Retsujitsu Kōkyo," El said coldly, swinging Metsu with tremendous force.
Two consecutive slashes were unleashed, the first slash perfectly crushing the oncoming attack, while the second slash shot out quickly, splitting Zohakuten's body from shoulder to waist, separating him into two halves.
As Metsu swung, a fiery red flash formed, burning the space and air around it. The heat of the slash damaged Zohakuten's flesh, significantly cutting off the demon's regeneration ability.
Zohakuten's demon blood splashed into the burning air, creating beautiful sparks in the darkness.
"Argh!" No doubt, Zohakuten began to scream in excruciating pain, as if he was being dried under the hot sun.
The small scratch that slashed his neck had previously hurt, but Zohakuten's pain tolerance was still strong enough to withstand it.
However, once Metsu's slash hit his body, splitting him in half from shoulder to waist, this pain had exceeded the limits of his pain tolerance.
However, El's attack didn't stop there. With quick, powerful, and highly accurate movements, El launched a slash that chopped Zohakuten into twelve pieces.
As the sword was swung, a smoldering flame appeared, creating twelve diagonal slash lines that resembled the petals of a red flower, shining beautifully in the middle of the dark forest.
El's intention in chopping Zohakuten into twelve pieces was to stop his movement, prevent regeneration, and moreover prevent Zohakuten from creating other clones.
All of this was possible thanks to Metsu's bright red blades, which were extremely effective in stopping the regeneration of creatures vulnerable to sunlight.
Zohakuten's body pieces were scattered around the ground, trying to regenerate but failing, leaving the demon to whimper in pain.
Looking at the pieces of Zohakuten's body scattered on the ground, whimpering in pain, El didn't show the slightest compassion. He just stood still, staring at the pieces like meaningless trash.
The empathy in El had faded away, like ink dissolving in water. In addition, Hatengu's nature of always pretending to be a victim, innocent despite being clearly in the wrong, managed to arouse anger in El.
Lowering his body, El took out five injections from inside the Item Storage Ring, to extract Zohakuten's blood.
"One vial of injections to make Nezuko's medicine and Four for me," El said with a faint smile inserting the five injections filled with Zohakuten's blood into the Item Storage Ring.
Suddenly, El felt a slight change in the air. El raised her head to the sky, seeing the faint rays of the sun beginning to rise.
'Oh, the sun is rising? That means it's only a matter of time before Nezuko becomes immune to sunlight.' El muttered in thought.
El then turned his attention to the pieces of Zohakuten's body scattered on the ground. In a cold and sharp tone, he said, "Zohakuten, pass this message on to Muzan. I know the whereabouts and have the blue Spider Lily flower."
"Invite me personally to your base, if you still remember the Blue Spider Lily flower." said El, his tone of voice so firm, without giving the slightest chance to hesitate.
Zohakuten's body that was scattered like dry leaves seemed to respond suddenly. The eyeballs of Zohakuten who was lying on the ground stiffened, as if in disbelief.
His eyes trembled, showing his shock. The extremely mysterious Blue Spider Lily, something that even Muzan himself had been looking for for a long time, was suddenly known by someone like El.
"How could he know...?" murmured Zohakuten in an incredulous tone, his gaze filled with a tension rarely seen from him.
A big question suddenly haunted Zohakuten's mind. How could El, a human, know about the secret orders only given by Muzan to Upper Moon?