The word bleak could barely capture the essence of the atmosphere within the Demon Slayer timeline of Overall Grade C+.
The scenery of pure passion and confidence that Moraine had met after arriving in this timeline had vanished. The Demon Slayers she had hoped to train with had disappeared off the face of the earth. The Hashiras she had begged to train her to advance in her Elegant Breathing Style, which used her Claymore Inheritance as its foundation, had also… ceased to exist.
No.
It wasn't because of the Demons.
Not only the Lower Moons, but the Upper Moons had also succumbed to the wrath that should have only fallen upon her.
Only two remained now.
Moraine the Elegant, who should not have remained alive by this point.
And — the man whose existence this world had abhorred for generations.
Ironically, it was this man on whom the entire world of Demon Slayer was counting at this moment. It was for this man that this world was praying to win… to surpass his limits and avenge the deaths of both Demon Slayers and Demons… to stand up to his title of…
"I AM DEMON KING MUZAN!"
Under the blood moon, Muzan's roar echoed far and wide.
He didn't look anything like his human self at this moment.
Hundreds of fleshly tendrils, carrying steely points and hooks, were lashing out of him, his entire body towering at a height of 9 ft. There were hundreds of tiny, fanged mouths on his body, too, that kept snapping as he fought, devouring corpses left and right to keep himself regenerating.
Behind him, carrying a broken, claymore sword in her hand, was Moraine in her Demon Slayer uniform.
The large, multicolored Wings of Grim Butterfly on her back were also broken, flakes of them chipping off now and then.
And, around the two of them, lay corpses — thousands in number.
Covered in blood, Moraine gasped for air as she looked to her left, her gaze landing on the mutilated bodies of Hashiras. She looked to her right then, spying the torn flesh of Upper Moons, not even capable of regenerating anymore.
ROAR!!!
The roar made Moraine involuntarily step back, tightening her grip on her sword.
BOOMS and BANGS rang out as Demon King Muzan fought a massive beast… losing.
It was a lion-like creature, hundreds of feet large, with an old man's face. Its body was jet black, oozing red fumes, making the beast look demonic to the extreme. There were two bony wings on its back as well, bolts of lightning crackling across them.
"Attack its legs!" Demon King roared.
Moraine bit her lip. "… Yes!"
Letting out a breath, straining her ruptured lungs, and flapping her torn wings, she blurred across the space, petals raining down in her wake.
Putting her all into the attack, Moraine attacked the beast's legs as Muzan fended off the creature above.
"Haaaaaaaaaa!" Letting out a shout, she hacked.
The broken blade lodged itself into the beast's massive leg and… got stuck.
Moraine's heart gave out.
No.
No!
Not here!
Not like this!!!
Going beyond her limits and coughing out a mouthful of blood, Moraine pushed the sword deeper, the corners of her bloody eyes splitting apart.
In a beautiful, flowery arc, Moraine's sword hacked right through the beast's leg before disintegrating into pieces.
Overhead, a grunt escaped the beast's bearded, old-man-like mouth.
Muzan's eyes lit up.
As if time had stagnated, all the fleshly tendrils shooting out from his body contracted, fusing back into his body.
Instantly, his right arm lengthened, becoming a twelve-meter-long sword.
Putting everything on the line, Muzan hacked at the beast's head, slicing through the air itself.
The massive blade struck right on top of the beast's head and went down, parting its entire face in half.
A smile bloomed on Moraine's bloody lips.
Then, as soon as it had appeared, the smile vanished, shock and dread replacing the elation on her face.
"RUN!" she screamed out her lungs.
Muzan's eyes snapped up.
Between the beast's massive, bony wings, a ball of thunder, as large as a castle, had condensed.
It was so packed with lightning that Muzan could even see the plasma within.
Sun…
It was the Sun he was looking at.
Then, even as the dying beast dropped the Sun-Lightning ball on Muzan, a fleshly tendril shot out of him, grabbed Moraine, and flung her into the distance.
A smile danced on Muzan's face, accepting the fate he had been running away for long.
In the next moment, the ball of annihilation drowned him, disintegrating every last strand of muscles and bones, ending the Demon King for good and… for worse.
Moraine rolled over the corpses, her head ringing with the rumbling sound.
A pure, sun-like brightness had blinded her vision, with a disintegrating dark spot representing Muzan's last remains.
As the blinding whiteness disappeared, the beast fell, too.
Moraine coughed out a mouthful of blood as she tried to get up, but failed, her hands slipping off the blood. Her eyes suddenly landed on Shinobu's wide-open eyes, the Hashira's butchered head embedded deep into the bloody mud.
Then, as her mind went black, steps rang out in Moraine's ears, like bloody squelches.
Moraine's head turned to her left frame by frame and looked at the figure that had appeared.
It was a man, wearing a dark red robe.
He had dark brown hair and black eyes with no pupils.
"You…" Moraine hissed through her teeth. "… I… should have realized…"
If the presence of beastly doom wasn't enough of a sign, then it surely was the beasts' nature itself.
Only one man could summon so many Aragami beasts from the God Eater Bubble.
Only one man could summon a Divine Aragami like Dyaus Pita, who had singlehandedly killed all Hashiras and Demons, including the Demon King.
Deacon of Temple of Amon-Gorloth, Contestant Heavenly Father!
"You really didn't think that you could get away with betraying the Temple, did you?" The Deacon asked. "Did you really think that being a resurrected Storyline Character would be enough for the Temple to close its eyes against your actions?"
"Spare me the bullshit…" Moraine spat a mouthful of blood, grinning, as she got up. "… Asshole…"
The Deacon observed her, rocking his head left and right.
Then, slowly, the corners of his lips arched up with an unsightly, ugly grin.
Summoning Jutsu —
"Not so elegant now, are you?" He asked, a blurry image of a humongous, hundreds-of-meters-tall Altar appearing behind him. "No. You cannot die so fast. First… I will make sure that you will be remembered as—"
With a flash of bright, purple light, another, and even larger, beast appeared, its skull-like face getting reflected in Moraine's hopeless pupils.
— Deusphage Aragami: Susano'o!
"— Moraine the Inelegant! Hahaha!!"
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AN: Original Cinematic Image of Demon King Muzan landing the final blow on Divine Aragami Dyaus Pita is available
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