Asuka approached Irisviel step by step.
Her silver hair fluttered in the wind, her face twisted in agony yet bearing an eerily peaceful expression.
The phantom of a golden chalice materialized before her chest, black mud spilling over its brim.
Asuka raised his blade. Spiritual Pressure condensed along the steel as blackish-red flames began to burn fiercely.
However.
He held Nugata high, the violent Spiritual Pressure surging at the edge of the blade, but it never fell.
Seeing Asuka's prolonged inaction, the black-haired youth's tone grew agitated.
He floated in front of Asuka, his voice rising a few pitches.
"The world is on the verge of destruction, yet you hesitate here over a homunculus destined to die, over a few insignificant lives?"
Asuka took a deep breath.
He lowered his head, his bangs obscuring his eyes, making his current expression unreadable.
Yet, he still made no move.
"......What exactly are you doing?" the black-haired youth suddenly realized something, his voice turning a few degrees colder.
After a few seconds of silence.
"Heh..."
A soft chuckle escaped Asuka's throat.
The laughter carried the relief of sudden realization, along with... undisguised mockery.
"You really are alike."
Asuka slowly turned around, shifting the direction of his blade. It no longer pointed at Irisviel, but hung toward the ground.
He lifted his head. Where was there even a trace of confusion in those pitch-black eyes?
The black-haired youth feigned ignorance, urging him, "What do you mean? Hurry up and do it! There isn't much time left!!"
"Whether it's the sound of your voice, the details of your appearance, or that pretentious attitude... you are exactly like him."
The youth frowned, his eyes flickering. "What nonsense are you spouting? Asuka, I am you, of course I..."
"No, you're not."
Asuka cut him off coldly.
"You put on a very good act, truly... If it weren't for your overly eager preaching just now, I might have actually been fooled, even if only for a split second."
"I didn't expect you to be so relentless."
Asuka surveyed the suffocatingly realistic plaza of black mud around them. "To think you would weave another layer of 'lucid' illusion within this dream just to deceive me."
The black-haired youth's face darkened, but he still tried to maintain a look of disappointed frustration. "Has your mind been corrupted by the black mud? I am trying to save you!"
He roared anxiously, even reaching out to grab Asuka's wrist in an attempt to force him to swing the blade.
But the moment his hand was about to touch Asuka, a sharp flash of the blade swept past.
Slash!
The black-haired youth's hand was cleanly severed, but no blood flowed out. Instead, it turned into a puddle of black sludge and dropped to the ground.
"Are you still going to pretend?"
Asuka flicked the black mud off his blade, his tone flat and devoid of emotion.
"Do you know where your biggest flaw lies?"
He looked at the imposter before him, who had lost a hand yet felt no pain, his tone filled with a strange sort of trust in that certain someone.
"That guy... even though he lounges around all day, acts all high and mighty, ignores me when I speak, and makes sarcastic remarks whenever something happens..."
"Deep down, he is more arrogant than anyone else."
An image surfaced in Asuka's mind—the figure who always slept in the trees, constantly mocking him...
Yet, at the crucial moments, he would lend his power without reservation.
"If it were him facing this situation orchestrated by this broken cup..."
"He would never suggest that I kill a defenseless woman."
Asuka let out a disdainful laugh, as if picturing the real black-haired youth's expression at this very moment.
"He would just tell me to run away first and save myself. And even if there truly was no other way..."
"He would never calculate some bullshit arithmetic about sacrificing the few to save the many!"
His voice grew louder and louder, ultimately turning into thunderous roars that made the surrounding black mud tremble.
Cracks began to form in the surrounding space once more. The people who had just been kneeling on the ground now opened their eyes, staring blankly in his direction.
"He would only use the most direct method to shatter all of this, regardless of the cost!"
"Instead of acting like a calculating, submissive coward, urging me to sacrifice others just to cling to life!"
He pointed Nugata right at the imposter's nose, murderous intent erupting from his eyes.
"You don't understand him at all! And you don't understand me either!!"
"You are nothing but a pile of rotting mud that can read memories but completely fails to comprehend the essence of things!"
As Asuka's words fell, the "black-haired youth's" disguise finally collapsed completely.
That familiar face began to twist and melt, and the pitch-black kimono turned into foul, murky sludge.
It was no longer the youth's clear voice, but a cacophony of overlapping, ear-piercing shrieks, like nails scratching across a chalkboard.
"Since you refuse to wake up, then cling to your ridiculous stubbornness and drown in my embrace along with this world!!"
Boom!
With the tearing of the disguise, the entire space completely shattered.
The illusion of Ryuudou Temple vanished entirely, and Irisviel's figure popped like a fragile bubble.
There was no temple, nor was there any plaza.
Asuka found himself suspended deep within a boundless black ocean.
Churning, malicious black mud surrounded him on all sides.
Countless giant black hands reached out from the void, grabbing his limbs in an attempt to drag him down into eternal darkness.
An unbearable sense of suffocation washed over him—a mental corruption a hundred times stronger than before.
"Hmph, flying into a rage out of humiliation?"
Faced with this overwhelming despair, Asuka's face showed not a hint of fear.
Since he had already seen through this illusion, and since he knew this was still a nightmare manufactured by that damn cup, then...
"Unfortunately for you, I have quite a bit of experience when it comes to having nightmares!"
Asuka didn't swing his sword to cut the black hands grabbing him, nor did he try to attack the non-existent enemy.
He made a move that left even the will of this space stunned.
He flipped his wrist, reversing the tip of his Zanpakuto to point directly at his own chest.
"The fastest, and most effective way to wake up from this kind of deep dream..."
Asuka smiled confidently.
"...is to die once."
A terrified shriek from that will echoed through the void.
It seemed to anticipate what Asuka was about to do. The black hands frantically sped up, desperate to snatch the blade from his grasp.
But it was too late.
"Don't underestimate the Storm Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps, you bastard!!"
Squelch---!!!
Without the slightest hesitation, nor a hint of mercy.
Gripping the sword with both hands, Asuka viciously plunged it into his own heart!