"Stop the train? Heh... haha…" Despite the pain, Enmu laughed. "You think I give a damn about your sword? You don't get it! You think I'm afraid of dying!?"
He didn't give in because it was impossible for him to. In his mind, the idea of a demon and a human reaching an agreement was absurd.
While he was raving, the flesh at the base of the locomotive began to writhe.
From the joints of the iron plates sprouted fleshy spines, packed close together, that opened at the tips to reveal eyes. At the same time, several tentacles emerged from the sides.
Enmu didn't have the faintest idea why Marcus hadn't cut his head off yet, but he wasn't dumb enough to pass up the opportunity.
"Tsk."
Marcus drove the blade in a little deeper, and before Enmu's scream could even finish coming out, the sword in his other hand flashed.
!
In the blink of an eye, the eyes that had just sprouted were impaled before they could focus, and the tentacles closing in from his back ended up sliced into little pieces.
Sheathing the sword, Marcus kept his radiant expression.
"I'm going to tell you one more time. Stop."
And this time, Enmu was slammed face-first into reality. The gap in power was abysmal. Whether out of pain or pure terror, the locomotive began to tremble.
"Then kill me! If you're so strong, why don't you cut off my head and get this over with?!"
"Because you're useful to me."
"Useful?" Enmu was stunned. "What do you want me for?"
"Stop the train first."
"..."
Enmu stayed silent.
But after a few seconds, he laughed mockingly.
"Keep dreaming! I'd rather die! I'd never betray Him!"
With his words, a mass of flesh sprouted furiously from the floor of the cabin.
It was the upper half of a body with a human shape, taking form quickly.
Shoulders… chest… arms… and a pair of eyes infected with hatred.
He was going to make his last stand.
He didn't care what Marcus's plans were. He'd rather end up minced into pieces than betray Muzan or stop the train.
However...
CHIRRRRRRR!
A deafening metallic screech drilled into his ears, while the darkness of the night was suddenly lit up by a shower of sparks bursting from the locomotive's wheels.
Just as he was finishing materializing his new body, he froze, staring at Marcus's hand gripping a lever.
"Oh, my God... it really seems like I'm going senile." Marcus let out, slapping himself on the forehead. "I got so used to violence I almost forgot trains come with brakes."
Bra...? BRAKES?!
Enmu's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
'It's… It's true... I'm a locomotive now…'
This damn machine had manual brakes!
WAIT!
Suddenly the realization of a much bigger problem hit him.
If he couldn't kill this human while he was inside his cabin… did that mean right now he was at his mercy!?
His mind went blank.
… Why…?
When did everything spiral out of my control…?
His plan had nothing to do with this. The purpose for which Muzan had given him his blood wasn't to end up being some hunter's transportation.
Why...?
Puff
His eyes went empty and his body collapsed.
Just to be safe, Marcus quickly popped all of his eyes with a single motion.
Right at that moment, several silhouettes appeared, rushing in fast. Rengoku, seeing that there was still a mass of flesh writhing in front of Marcus, drew his sword.
However…
Swish!
Makomo flew out of Marcus's hand and embedded herself precisely into the ground, right in the path of the Flame Pillar.
"..."
Coming to a stop, Rengoku stared at the blade and then lifted his head toward Marcus, who had a kind of strange expression.
As optimistic as he was, this time he couldn't help feeling annoyed.
"Again?"
"Sorry…" Marcus smiled with a touch of embarrassment. "But this demon's useful to me too..."
"...."
Rengoku stayed silent.
"Don't forget who you are!"
But Marcus shrugged.
"You can relax. He's definitely going to die. It's just that before he kicks the bucket, I need to squeeze him for everything he's worth."
"Eat or experiment?"
"Experiment." Marcus lowered his gaze toward Enmu, who was now little more than a blind heap of flesh at his feet. "Out of all the Demons I've come across, this one has the highest amount of Muzan's blood… leaving aside the boss himself, of course. He'll be a huge help for the experiments."
This was a half-truth.
The fake part was, as always, his own selfish reasons. A dream he could control, one that felt real, where time moved at a snail's pace, and on top of that allowed him to drag others in with him... was literally a dream come true.
Not only Makomo—as long as he wanted, Nezuko, Tamayo, Kanao, Shinobu... which one of them couldn't he drag inside?
If in the real world they got shy or reserved, in that dream space he could go "on the attack" with everything he had.
IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO WANT AN ABILITY LIKE THAT!
Even if he couldn't devour him and make it his own, as long as Enmu was breathing, there'd always be a way to get something out of him.
However, the other half of his words was completely true.
This was Lower Moon One, a direct subordinate of Muzan who, on top of that, came with a "bonus" of blood after their last meeting.
The concentration of Muzan's essence in his body made any run-of-the-mill demon look like a joke. For Tamayo's research, the guy was a gold mine.
Rengoku slid his sword back into its sheath and pointed at what was left of Enmu. "How do you plan on taking him back?"
__________
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