Tenacity

With the world flashing back into Faolan, he stood fast; the moonlight illuminated from his eyes.

"Be with me."

The Mother Demon's organs had already healed back. In this case, she wrapped it with more thick skin armor that constantly shifted. Suddenly, Faolan flashed in front of The Mother Demon. He held his blade with both palms, retreated to his lower right, and diagonally slashed upwards. Cutting through The Mother Demon's flesh instantly with a much deeper cut than before.

'What! Something has changed,' The Mother Demon witnesses the pure accuracy of Faolan, as well as his tenacious resolve.

The Mother Demon inspects his eyes; they were illuminating with such power she had never seen before. He had to be the one. "The Pure One," she muttered, and the thoughts of The Stranger filled her mind once more. "I can end this cruel objective, once and for all, and survive!" The Mother then recovered from the instantaneous slash delivered by Faolan.

The Mother Demon lunged at Faolan; she extended her talons from all ends and prepared to slash him. As she did, Faolan stood his ground, waiting with his blade forward. With so much momentum, The Mother Demon was too late to notice that he would completely cut off one of her talons using the force she was going to deliver in the first place. Faolan's blade slices through the thick flesh of The Mother Demon, and her blood splatters without touching Faolan. He then took in a deep breath.

"Breath of Thunder: Fifth Form: Heat Lightning,"

New waves of electrical energy flowed around Faolan to his blade. The electrifying sparkles of light infused his blade as he struck thunderously upwards across the entirety of The Mother Demon's chest. The power jolted The Mother Demon. With her innards wholly exposed, it can be seen that Faolan cut immensely through, based on the fact that the opposite side of the street can be seen. The Mother Demon instantly backed away to recover.

"This power!" she grunted.

Retreating meant nothing, as Faolan had already made another instantaneous strike of thunder across her belly. Faolan had performed Breath of Thunder: First Form: Thunderclap and Flash. The Mother Demon, unable to recover from the first powerful attack, is now vulnerable due to this new damage inflicted upon her. Her glowing organs were extremely exposed. Faolan was already preparing to throw out another attack. The Mother Demon needed to react quickly.

Faolan prepared his next series of attacks that would ultimately slice away the glowing organs from within her. The Mother Demon fell backward, causing Faolan to whiff his attack, and she melted into the snow.

Faolan focused his vision, looking for a sign of where The Mother Demon was, and he could see the faint glow of her retreating once more. He pounced over and struck the earth like lightning, sending shockwaves across the snow and melting it away as The Mother Demon re-emerged. Faolan had struck one of its vital organs, and everything paused.

The Mother Demon shrieked in terror.

"EERRRRRRRRRRRRRRHGHHHHHHHHHGH," it was a painful ear tremor, yet it was overwhelmingly unsettling.

The split second of its unsettling reaction left Faolan off-guard. It allowed The Mother Demon to slash off the front of his Demon Slayer uniform, ultimately exposing his chest and slight cuts going across them.

"I MUST BRIN– BRING THE PURE ONE!" The Mother Demon then shrieked again, holding onto her horns.

"ECLIPSE DOMAIN: METAL FLESH,"

The Mother Demon's flesh began to harden even further, and she focused her organs into one vital spot whilst being encased with heavier-looking and extremely metallic-looking skin. Faolan could feel the growing pressure in the heat of this battle, yet he kept his focus. His eyes flashed and sparkled.

The Mother Demon, with her now regenerated limb, releases blood across the dirtied snow and primes them for explosion as Faolan rushes her down.

"BLOOD DEMON ART: BLOOD ORB"

Faolan focused closely on which one she would activate first. However, he was suddenly met with the palm of her talons from her fleet. He was knocked to the ground but quickly sliced her leg before she could penetrate him by enclosing them. Faolan clawed the snow, leaving an electrifying trail due to the momentum. Then, The Mother Demon activated her explosive capabilities, but Faolan stayed in between all of the explosions. His vision and focus enabled him to perfectly avoid all the explosions. He then suddenly zapped his way to The Mother Demon as she regenerated her leg.She phased into the snow and grasped Faolan leg, causing him to flip forward, but he instantly recovered by slicing her claws clean and landed into an electrifying wave.

They were face to face, Faolan thunderously swung his blade into The Mother Demon's chest, but to protect herself, she gave way to her talons and arms. Faolan would slightly slice open her chest whilst burning away at her arms, and she constantly regenerated quickly enough before he could make another attack.

"My Domain is supposed to protect me, but if it weren't for my constant attacks, he could instantly slice through my protection. Demon Slayers have never been able to attain this level of power," The Mother Demon shrieked a dangerous cry that caused a shockwave to push the electrifying Faolan away a few feet.

The Mother Demon's appearance altered; spines were growing from her back, and the horned together a darkly lavender glow. Her eyes further darkened with the lavender glow. However, Faolan gave no chance; he quickly zapped in and cut off both arms in a clean momentum flowing down to The Mother Demon's legs; her flesh pounded against the snow as Faolan sliced her chest open with electricity encapsulating every vein of the Mother Demon.

"What power…," The Mother Demon said.

"I won't, I won't…"

"AGHHHHHHHH" The Mother Demon expands a darkly lavender aura, infesting the whole environment and darkening the snow with its energy.

"Full Eclipse Domain: Instinct,"

The Mother Demon rose slowly, instantly regenerating.

Faolan felt the environment around him; his vision felt extremely sensitive as if he could see everything and the pressure of being hunted. It was saddening, pure torture for an unfortunate soul.

'A response only someone can make when all else is lost, and all else doesn't matter.'

"I will bring you peace and deliver justice for those you've hurt," Faolan was struck.

Flashing colors of electricity wrapped around him, and the snow and earth shattered further and floated up to his neck. The sprinkles reflected the electricity.

"Its just like that day," Faolan shut his eyes, attempting to focus, but the allure of The Mother Demon began to distract him.

She attacked him with a combination of voices with each swipe she took. Her attacks ravaged the wind, causing miniature flames of lavender explosions. Faolan held his blade within his sheathe, dodging attacks and being sliced by a few not too deep cuts. Whilst attempting to dodge her barrage of attacks, she smashed into buildings, completely tearing into the architecture and burning through the material.

In a sudden, critical move, Faolan was grasped by the neck of his blade and tackled into several buildings, his Haori was virtually nonexistent, and his top uniform was mostly torn to shreds. He held both of The Mother Demon's arms from tearing into his chest.

"I–I– WONT DIIEEEEE," The Mother Demon shrieked violently and pushed with all her force, quickly bleeding through Faolan's blade. Her blood burned across Faolan's chest as he attempted to hold his ground.

Faolan decided to swipe his blade rapidly to incapacitate her talons, and her blood let out more flames onto him. He charged his fist with electricity and struck the extremely hardened chest of The Mother Demon. Faolan can feel his flesh tearing and burning with cuts from the sharp jagged edges of her hardened innards. He grasps what he believes to be one of her vital organs and crushes it. More flames erupt, burning Faolan as she retreats to recover.

Faolan stood, panting, with his arm inflamed by the blood.

He held his form once more.

"FAOOOOOOLAAAAAAAAN!!!!" voices call out to him.

Faolan recognizes the voices, which are his comrades, all arriving and creating shocked expressions.

Yukina, Kagero, Utazo, Jasumin, and Arashi have arrived with Ken and some of the government officials. Within the vicinity, the government officials were terrified and could not go any further.

"Oh my…" Ken falls to his knees as the others terrifyingly scrambled.

"Is this what we've allowed?"

————————

"DO NOT COME!" Faolan shouted out.

"YOU THINK WE"LL LET YOU FIGHT ALONE YOU STUPID CHILD!" Arashi yelled.

"Faolan-kun!" Jasumin shouted. She noticed from her peripherals Ketsueki lying on the ground.

"FAOLAAAAAAAN, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR CLOTHES MAN?" Kagero asked the important questions.

'How did he survive all this?' Utazo thought.

"Faolan, we will handle it with you from here, Jasumin, look into Ketsueki-sensei," Yukina readied her blade.

All reaching Faolan except Jasumin, who went to check on Ketsueki, stood their ground as The Mother Demon continued to recover and slowly empower herself.

"What is all this?" Kagero asked.

"I don't know, I've never seen any documentation regarding demons being able to manipulate their power to this extent," assessed Yukina.

"We don't know what any of this shit is, but we still need to kill that thing, and based on the look of this fight, this isn't some regular demon," added Utazo.

"Right, I don't think I've ever seen anything glowing or anything with this much…power," inputs Kagero.

"Well, you kids already know the obvious," Arashi rolled his eyes.

Yukina stared Arashi down with his blatantly negative feedback.

"Right, in my time, this has to mean one thing," said Arashi.

"Its a–," Yukina was stopped.

"No," Faolan interrupted, Yukina curiously looked into his eyes.

"This isn't some upper-level demon or lower-level demon. This is entirely different, nothing you all probably have ever fought," added Faolan.

Yukina smirks.

"It doesn't matter to us, or at least me, whatever level it is, we are here to slay it, and it's our purpose to make those ends meet," Yukina's eyes darkened.

"Whatever this dumb shell is, it won't stop me from ending this," Utazo readied his enormous blade.

"NO, YOU GUYS LISTEN!" Faolan shouted, electricity wrapped into his eyes.

They all looked at Faolan, jolted by his insertion. "We can't fight her just because we want her to die, its the exact reason she's survived for so long. From other Demon Slayers, this purpose of 'wanting to kill' her will only make her want to survive longer."

Yukina's eyes lightened.

"I'm with Faolan on this one," smiled Kagero.

"If he's been fighting her and surviving her this whole time, he's gotta know what to do. And so I trust that, and I don't care how new he is," Kagero looked seriously as he readied his flames.

Utazo thought deeply for a split moment. If he wants to accomplish this mission as it is intended… Yet his mind flashed back to that moment when Faolan saved him. It seemed reasonable, looking at the tired warrior pleading with them. "Egh, if that's the case, then it makes sense to follow your lead," added Utazo.

"It makes sense then. What matters is that we do things right," inputted Arashi

"That's the first smartest thing I've heard you say today, Mr. Arashi," laughed Kagero, Arashi rustled the comment off.

Yukina's ribbon blossomed in the wind, and she looked into the electrifying eyes of Faolan. She was amazed at his will and his dedication. She held her trigger closely and tilted her head with a sly smirk. Her eyes melted at his determination.

"Well then, Faolan, tell us what you know."

"The Mother Demon has internal organs, three to be exact, and I believe that they must be destroyed in order to fully destroy her," stated Faolan.

"Sounds familiar, there have been cases where demon's must be killed by several specific threads. However, those cases have been upper-level demons," added Yukina.

"The closer you are to her, the more 'her' presence infests you, I don't know how to put it, but it's extremely dangerous if you cannot focus." Faolan and the others look to The Mother Demon as it slowly regenerates one of its cores.

"She has abilities that can cause explosions when she tosses blood to the floor and causes more destruction with her blood as a whole. Ketsueki and I had to endure a 'Wring' that paralyzed us. The only way to be saved from being paralyzed is to distract her or have enough willpower to." Faolan thought of himself and Ketsueki.

All the Demon Slayers understood.

"Okay then," Yukina smirked.

"I have a plan," she pointed to Faolan.