A BOOM rang out as Gyomei, the Stone Hashira, glanced over his shoulder, splitting space apart into a million pieces behind his back.
If Akaza, resurrected with a greater power, had continued to stand there nonchalantly, then he would have met the same fate as he had long ago, forcing the Demon King to resurrect him again.
However, the Upper Moon Three hadn't resurrected in name only.
Gyomei and the Hashiras behind him raised their brows in surprise as they found Akaza standing among the other Upper Moons.
That speed… already matched Shinobu, the fastest Hashira's Bankai!
"Look at me."
The words echoed, becoming a command.
All the Hashiras and the Demon Slayers behind them together turned their heads toward the Demon King.
"Give me the child, and I will let you live," Muzan repeated. This time, he had more to add, though. "I will personally turn you all into demons. True demons. With true Blood Demon Arts. Not the mockery you let course through your veins right now."
For a moment, it seemed Muzan's words had petrified the Hashiras.
For a moment, it seemed they were truly contemplating the Demon King's offer.
And just as those troubling thoughts were about to become something closer to reality, a chuckle escaped.
"Haha!" Rengoku laughed, his chuckle turning into a roar. "Hahaha!"
The Flame Hashira's laugh reached far and wide, almost blanketing the growls of hundreds of thousands of demons.
It wasn't just him, either.
The Water Hashira held a smile on his face.
The Love Hashira was hiding her laugh under a hand.
The Mist Hashira was scratching the back of his head, his face carrying a wry smile.
The Sound Hashira roared out a laugh so loud that it almost became a competition between him and Rengoku.
The Serpent Hashira carried a twisted smile under his bandages, too.
Before Gyomei could join his fellow Hashiras in letting out a smile, the Wind Hashira stepped past him, his face donning nothing but pure hatred.
Sanemi stood between the Stone Hashira and Muzan, wind brushing against his white hair.
Anger.
Disgust.
Loathing.
The Wind Hashira let the wind spread his emotions across the vast moonlit plain.
Then, slowly, he unsheathed his blade before, with a bright, bluish flash, he cut his outstretched left hand.
A geyser of blood painted the space between the Demon Slayers and Demons.
Sanemi slapped his left hand and closed the wound. Then, he pointed toward the spots of blood in front of his feet, and, finally, grinned… like a true demon.
"Here…" the Wind Hashira said, barely able to hide the mockery in his words. "I will accept your offer right here and now, bastard, if… you lick it off the ground."
Silence.
"Pfft!"
Someone laughed.
Not from the Demon Slayers' side, but from the Demons'.
It was one of the elite demons, standing just in front of the demons' army, wielding a fan in his hand.
Upper Moon Two — Doma!
"Haha…" he laughed squarely, and almost innocently, spanning his fan and waving it against his face. "I wouldn't have minded licking it off if the blood had belonged to that young lady over there…"
Standing behind the Hashiras, Kanao squinted her eyes.
Doma didn't mind that and faced to his right. "What about you?"
And, for the first time, the demon who had stood with his eyes closed all this time became the center of attention. The same demon who looked less like a demon and more like a Demon Slayer. The same demon whom the Hashiras would have easily mistaken for another of Kai's beneficiaries, if not for the six eyes on the demon's face.
Slowly, those eyes opened.
Not even all of them, but only three on one side… displaying the Kanji of One written in them.
And a chill ran down the Hashiras' spines.
The Wind Hashira, who had all but ignored everyone other than the Demon King himself, faced the full brunt of that gaze.
It was like he had been cast to some distant, black space.
In his surroundings, on him, within him, there was nothing but an immense sense of helplessness.
Sanemi remembered that helplessness.
He had experienced it before… in a similar manner… against Kai!
Slowly, but surely, just as he had failed to overcome that helplessness in that moment, the Wind Hashira failed to swim out of this darkness as well.
And it was especially concerning given how much he had trained and improved since that moment of helplessness.
Which meant, not only was the Upper Moon One strong, but he was much, much stronger than Kai — the only one who could probably take on Muzan… alone.
Or so they'd thought.
"Amitabha!"
Gyomei's hand fell like an umbrella on Sanemi's shoulder.
When the Wind Hashira could see again, he found himself kneeling on the ground, almost… almost as if he was going to lick his own blood off the ground.
It was then that Muzan stepped forward.
With his every step, the world changed color.
With his every step, he began letting the Hashiras sense his true power.
"Did you fools truly think that you… stood a chance?" the Demon King asked, the bright, silvery moon in the sky turning red. "Did you really think that you could take me on by fighting together? How dare you even think that… you would mock me and get away with it?"
A grayish undertone spread out from Muzan.
And, from Stone Hashira to the Water Hashira, all Demon Slayers, regardless of their status and power, fell into the same dark space of utter helplessness.
In that dark space, two bloody, slitted eyes manifested, looking down upon them.
The lust of blood that spewed from those demonic eyes drowned them in the unseen depths, giving them not even a chance to retaliate.
Yes.
Muzan was right.
They never stood a chance.
They had lost the war even before it had begun…
That reality never got the full time to settle in the Demon Slayers' hearts.
Because someone had unsheathed his blade and had cut right through that illusory space.
Someone, whom the Hashiras found standing right in front of a shocked Muzan, mere inches away from him.
Someone, wearing white robes, with long black hair…
Someone, with his eyes closed.
And, unlike Upper Moon One, he had vowed never to open them.
"Nothing to see here, yet," Mang Jian said, turning around to leave. "So close your eyes… Sento."
Behind him, Muzan's head slid off his neck…
… falling on the ground with an echoing thud!