The night had thickened into a suffocating presence, each street of the Entertainment District trembling under the weight of Daki's full awakening. Lanterns flickered wildly, casting chaotic shadows that danced with the rhythm of battle. Karina's violet eyes remained steady, scanning every movement, every subtle fluctuation in the air. Pain lanced through her side, the wound from Daki's prior strike burning sharply, but her posture was unbroken, every motion deliberate and precise.
Daki hovered above, crimson kimono flowing like liquid fire, eyes glittering with both amusement and predatory calculation. "You survive, foreign slayer," she murmured, voice echoing unnaturally across the streets. "But can you survive this?"
Karina's grip on her blade tightened. Every minor demon and twisted shadow was already neutralized; the battlefield had been reduced to the core confrontation. Her senses sharpened beyond instinct. The variable had to act decisively.
Tengen, Tanjiro, and Inosuke positioned themselves strategically, drawing Daki's attention while leaving small, deliberate openings. Karina's mind moved faster than the eye could follow, calculating angles, anticipating reactions, weighing probabilities. Now, she thought. The variable strikes.
A subtle flick of her wrist, a faint pulse of Arcane energy—the air itself seemed to fracture. Arcane – Reality Deflection.
The effect was instantaneous and catastrophic. Daki's confident strike, aimed to decapitate Karina with lethal precision, collided with fractured reality. The Upper Rank's perception bent violently, her vision doubling, tripling, twisting in impossible directions. The streets themselves seemed to fold, and the attack that had been meant to end Karina instead struck empty air.
Karina moved with spectral grace, her blade slicing through the warped perception as though reality itself obeyed her command. In the blink of an eye, she positioned herself perfectly, eyes fixed on Daki. With a precise, unstoppable arc of her Mirage Blade, she struck—her movement harmonized with the fractured dimensions she had created, striking from angles Daki could not anticipate.
Daki's crimson eyes widened, a flicker of alarm breaking her composure. The Upper Rank had underestimated the foreign slayer's capacity to manipulate reality itself. Her attack—meant to be decisive—was now her vulnerability.
The blade cut through the illusions and flesh with equal precision, striking a controlled yet devastating blow that left Daki reeling. Sparks of energy scattered across the alley, the fabric of perception snapping back to its normal alignment as Karina's control stabilized.
Inosuke roared beside her, charging forward in feral triumph, while Tanjiro's Water Breathing flowed in perfect rhythm, amplifying the combined assault. Tengen, ever strategic, exploited the disruption to press Daki from above, hammering the Upper Rank with calculated strikes.
Daki faltered, the weight of miscalculation pressing heavily. For the first time, the predator hesitated. The foreign slayer—the variable she had dismissed—had rewritten the rules of engagement. Her arrogance, her assumption of dominance, had become a weakness.
Karina's violet eyes did not waver. Every movement, every strike, every thought was deliberate, honed by years of discipline, observation, and the sharp edge of necessity. The battlefield had shifted irreversibly.
Above, the lanterns swayed, the shadows lengthened, and the night seemed to hold its breath. Karina had demonstrated what no one else had: the ability to bend perception, fracture reality, and turn even the most confident strike into vulnerability. Daki's mistake had been monumental, and the consequences would echo through the district like a silent, terrifying drumbeat.
Karina's wound throbbed, yet she stood unbroken, violet eyes gleaming with precision and resolve. The Upper Rank demon had misjudged the variable, and the tides of battle had irrevocably turned.