Chapter Seventy-Seven: One Down, Five Remaining...
3000 word's
Enjoy~~~
At the main headquarters of the Ubuyashiki Clan, the mansion was unusually silent. According to the plan, most of the guards had been withdrawn to reduce casualties and stationed around the outer surveillance points.
Inside, on the wooden veranda overlooking the calm rock garden, Kagaya Ubuyashiki sat quietly gazing at the full moon in the sky. Beside him sat his wife, Amane, close enough to hold his hand tightly in silent support.
Despite his miraculous physical recovery thanks to Ren's medicine, Kagaya felt a heaviness in his chest, a dreadful pressure squeezing his heart. It was that familiar feeling he often experienced as the Corps leader whenever a massacre was approaching. It felt as though Muzan was doing something unexpected, something several steps ahead of their plan.
On the other side of the veranda, his daughters, Hinaki and Nichika, were playing with a colorful temari ball while singing an old folk song in soft, calm, beautiful voices that sharply contrasted with the tension gripping their father's heart.
Kagaya let out a deep sigh and tightened his grip on Amane's hand as he whispered inwardly:
"I hope what I'm thinking won't happen... Please protect them."
. . .
Elsewhere beneath the same moon, the Hashira and their companions were conducting intense patrols around the headquarters and nearby villages, prepared for any attack according to Ren and Kagaya's instructions.
Sanemi Shinazugawa, the Wind Hashira, leapt across rooftops while his younger brother Genya followed beside him carrying his shotgun and sword.
"Why are you following me around like a puppy? Didn't I tell you to stay back and use that junk from afar?" Sanemi grumbled in his usual harsh tone.
Genya swallowed the insult and stubbornly replied:
"I'm here to back you up, brother! Besides, Yukihara-san told me to stay with you and make sure you don't rush in like an idiot and die alone!"
"That damn brat... who does he think he is?!" Sanemi shouted angrily.
Biiiiing!
Before he could continue raging, a wooden gate opened directly beneath their feet. Sanemi fell while cursing everything in existence, while Genya screamed as he fell after him into the darkness.
In a nearby forest, Rengoku walked confidently with his usual blazing spirit lighting up his face, while Tanjiro walked beside him breathing steadily.
"Tanjiro-shounen! Your breathing has become excellent! Ren-shounen's hellish training truly bore fruit! Our hearts are burning!" Rengoku laughed loudly.
"Yes, Rengoku-san! I nearly died during that training, but I feel strangely powerful now!" Tanjiro smiled, but suddenly froze as his expression changed. "A scent... an incredibly strong demon scent from below!"
Biiiiing!
The ground split beneath them, and both fell into a bottomless abyss.
Gyomei Himejima walked while praying, his prayer beads rolling between his fingers. Behind him, Inosuke ran on all fours like a wild beast.
"You giant blind man! When are we gonna find demons?! I wanna kill demons!" Inosuke shouted while waving his serrated swords.
"Be patient, child... demons dwell in darkness, and they shall appear when the time of their destruction comes... Namu Amida Butsu."
Biiiiing!
Inosuke fell first while screaming, "The ground ate me! I'll rip its guts out!" while Gyomei calmly fell behind him, continuing his prayers.
Muichiro Tokito stared at the sky absentmindedly while Zenichiro (Ren's assistant) walked beside him nervously.
"What shape is that cloud? It looks like a fish... or maybe a cat?" Muichiro murmured.
"Tokito-sama, we should focus... we might be attacke—"
Biiiiing!
The two silently disappeared into the darkness.
"Young man, your movements need more flamboyance! Look at these muscles! This is true art!" Tengen boasted in front of Sakurai (Ren's disciple), who stared at him with half-lidded eyes.
"I prefer speed over showmanship, Uzui-sama. That's how Yukihara-sama taught me."
"That child understands nothing about flamboyance!"
Biiiiing!
Tengen fell while screaming, "This fall isn't flamboyant at aaaall!" while Sakurai sighed and fell after him.
...
The two were jumping through the trees together.
"Mitsuri, are you cold? I can lend you my haori." Obanai said shyly beneath his bandages.
"Oh, you're so kind, Iguro-san! I'm fi—"
Biiiiing!
A gate opened directly inside the tree trunk itself, swallowing both of them amidst Mitsuri's startled scream.
The two walked in deadly silence. Giyu with his expressionless face, while Zenitsu trembled in terror clutching his sword.
"Tomioka-san... please say something... this silence scares me more than demons! Am I just a burden? Why does nobody talk to me?!" Zenitsu cried.
"Nobody hates me." Giyu replied simply.
"That's not what I asked!"
Biiiiing!
Giyu silently fell, while Zenitsu let out a scream loud enough to wake the dead.
Shinobu and Kanao were running toward the main headquarters after sensing danger.
"I have to reach Oyakata-sama!"
"This feeling... damn it."
Biiiiing!
The Insect Hashira vanished into the darkness of the Infinity Castle.
...
At that same moment, completely unaware that all the Hashira and the others had fallen into the same synchronized trap, Ren stood in the center of the massive plaza inside the Infinity Castle.
He looked in only one direction.
There, seated upon a throne-like chair, sat Kibutsuji Muzan with his tall frame and perfectly muscular body. His features were beautiful and devilishly handsome despite his deathly pale skin. The overwhelming terrifying aura radiating from him was enough to paralyze any ordinary human.
Rina spoke to Ren inside his mind, her voice carrying a rare tone of warning:
[It seems Muzan in this timeline is far stronger than expected... far stronger than the version 'Ron' crushed with Domain Expansion inside Yoriichi's simulation world. He absorbed the blood of hundreds in preparation for tonight.]
"Far stronger than expected..." Ren thought coldly as his eyes swept across the arena. "And not just him."
Ren looked around himself. He was surrounded by the elite of hell itself. Seven demons stood there like terrifying honor guards:
Kokushibo (Upper Moon One) with his deadly calmness and six eyes.
Ryuga (Upper Moon Two) with his mysterious smile.
Zohakuten (Upper Moon Three, Hatred from Hantengu); Hantengu had already completely fused and hidden his cowardly original body, appearing instead as this demonic young boy carrying drums behind his back and radiating pure hatred.
Gyokko (Upper Moon Four) stood inside one of his vases, grinning wickedly.
(Note: I confirmed that the original story's Upper Moon Five is named Gyokko, not Gyuki. Sorry about that mistake.)
Gyutaro (Upper Moon Five, alone without Daki) held his poisoned sickles with a savage grin.
And in a distant isolated area, Nakime sat playing the biwa while controlling the castle.
The moment Ren noticed Daki's absence, he frowned. At that instant, someone dropped nearby from one of the gates and landed gracefully on the wooden floor.
It was Hakuji.
He had been patrolling alone, and the moment the Infinity Castle gate appeared, he jumped in without hesitation. Using his awareness and familiarity with the place, he sensed Ren and headed directly toward him.
Ren smiled without turning toward him, addressing Muzan instead:
"So this is your plan... drag all of us here, separate the Hashira, and surround them to slowly kill them one by one?"
Muzan silently stared back, but Ren could feel that unlike in the anime, Muzan actually possessed terrifying tactical intelligence when forced to use it.
Seeing Daki absent, Ren instantly guessed that Muzan had hidden her somewhere safe near Nakime so she could constantly relocate.
With this vicious tactic, Gyutaro had overcome his fatal weakness. He would no longer die from decapitation as long as Daki remained safe.
"Did Muzan just make one of the fan theories from my old world come true?" Ren mocked inwardly. "This bastard learns fast."
Meanwhile, Kokushibo looked down from his elevated position toward Hakuji. Their eyes met, and both frowned simultaneously.
Hakuji wore the standard Demon Slayer uniform except he left the shirt partially open, revealing his chest and tattooed abdominal muscles. On his hands were spiked Nichirin metal gauntlets, while two short swords hung at his waist.
Hakuji did not immediately attack. He simply stood there firmly. Ren nodded in approval. Hakuji usually acted foolish and carefree outside combat due to Ren's direct orders to behave more naturally around humans, but in real battle?
Hakuji stood seriously, coldly, with all the pride and strength of a legendary warrior.
Kokushibo spoke in his deep arrogant voice while placing his hand on the hilt of his flesh sword:
"What a pitiful sight... the demon who once sought the peak now kneels before humans... Akaza... you disappoint me."
Hakuji answered with a savage grin, releasing killing intent no less terrifying than Upper Moon One's aura:
"My name is Hakuji, you rotten six-eyed old man! And I didn't kneel to humans... I rose above the trash you stand among! I'll shatter your sword, then crush that gloomy face of yours!"
Their auras collided, making the air itself grow heavy. Ren admired the fact that Hakuji's killing intent hadn't disappeared after becoming human; if anything, it had become purer and more terrifying.
"Well," Ren thought, "it seems the training and power injections my disciples gave him, combined with his superhuman human body, were very effective."
"Yukihara Ren..." Muzan's calm voice interrupted them while he remained seated proudly on his throne. "You will regret the day you were born... I promise you that."
Normally, Ren would have happily rushed forward immediately to test his abilities by attempting to sever Muzan's head just to provoke him. But with Eri still trembling on his back, he had to think differently.
Ren sighed softly.
"Eri... close your eyes and cover your ears... and don't open them no matter what happens."
Eri tightened her grip on his kimono and obeyed immediately.
Ren's thoughts accelerated rapidly. There was no escape from this arena, and Nakime was still playing the biwa and altering the castle's frequencies in the background. Ren closed his eyes briefly and focused completely on his hearing.
Within those few seconds, thanks to his superhuman perception, he could hear the heartbeat of every living being inside the vast Infinity Castle. Using the system's mini-map as assistance, he identified the locations of all the Hashira.
He realized Muzan had only targeted the Hashira and their few companions; the ordinary trainees hadn't been pulled into the castle.
"If he's separating them like this..." Ren thought, "he wants to kill them individually and quickly."
Ren opened his eyes and looked at Muzan with a charming smile, though the killing intent leaking from him nearly suffocated the entire area.
"Muzan... your plan is almost perfect. You isolated us, and you even created several demons like Kaigaku with strength approaching the Upper Moons and surpassing ordinary Lower Moons to set traps. Tell me... did that idiot Kaigaku ask to kill Zenitsu personally, and you granted Nakime permission for it? How kind of her to help her friends."
Ren's terrifying killing intent spilled out heavily. Luckily for the Upper Moons, Hantengu had already fused into this furious young form. If the cowardly original Hantengu had still been present, he likely would have fainted from sensing such killing intent alone.
"Y-you fool?!" Gyokko screamed angrily after being ignored by Ren. In an instant, he moved at such incredible speed that he appeared directly behind Ren in his final form, raising his scaled deadly hand. "Do you think you can frighten us with words?! Muzan-sama... allow me to kill these insects—!"
At that moment, Gyokko felt the entire world freeze.
Everything stopped.
Within that horrifying stillness, Gyokko heard Zohakuten's slow whisper:
"Beee... carefuuul..."
Gyokko saw the Hashira standing before him slowly turning his head backward. And when Ren fully turned around...
His eyes had changed.
They were terrifying beyond the limits of humanity.
"Dangerous... run... run or you'll die!"
Every cell, every drop of demon blood inside Gyokko screamed at him to flee. Not hide inside his pots—absolute escape. This human must never touch him!
The pure white around Ren's eyes had turned into pitch-black darkness like a bottomless abyss. His beautiful emerald-green eyes transformed into sharp slit-pupiled amber-yellow eyes belonging to a predator, to something not meant for this world. Sharp. Cold. Deadly.
In that gray world, within the frozen line of vision, Ren turned toward him and their eyes met for a single moment.
Then Gyokko saw a crimson flash.
The next instant, he could see nothing except darkness before his consciousness crumbled into ash.
From Hakuji and Muzan's perspective, everything appeared normal for a moment. Gyokko rushed forward at tremendous speed and appeared behind Ren. Seeing the small girl on Ren's back, Hakuji panicked briefly and attempted to intervene.
But in the next second, Hakuji froze.
He saw a crimson flash rising upward. Scarlet flames made the demons tremble. It was not a single slash, but dozens of precise cuts executed in less than a second at speeds impossible for the naked eye to follow.
In the following instant, Gyokko's enormous body exploded into scattered pieces and began disintegrating before even hitting the ground. Upper Moon Five didn't even get to scream.
Ren slowly turned back around. The amber eyes faded, returning to emerald green though bloodshot. He looked at Muzan coldly.
Muzan stared at those eyes and frowned deeply while thinking:
"Is this some new power? Something like the Demon Slayer Mark? Or is he simply using breathing techniques and extreme concentration on his eyes to shatter the limits of speed? But... his eyes will go blind, and his brain will collapse if he keeps using breathing like this for long."
Looking at Gyokko, who died within seconds, the remaining Upper Moons such as Kokushibo and Ryuga showed no visible panic. After all, they already understood the true difference in strength between themselves and Akaza and Doma, whom this human monster had killed before.
"A suicidal method of using breathing, boy..." Kokushibo said calmly while turning and walking backward into the darkness. "You'll die in battle this way even before we cut you down, Demon Slayer."
The Upper Moons retreated. At that moment, Nakime resumed playing the biwa intensely.
In an instant, Ren vanished from his position and appeared before Nakime's elevated platform, his crimson blade aimed directly at her neck with a single purpose:
"This woman must die! No Upper Moon must escape from here, and the Hashira must not remain isolated!"
But he was a fraction of a second too late.
Nakime vanished with the sound of the biwa, and her platform transformed into a solid wooden wall struck by Ren's sword.
When Ren looked back, he saw the Upper Moons disappearing one after another into separate rooms through different gates, causing his fury to surge.
Muzan looked toward Ren and leapt toward one of the elevated gates after kicking off the wall. Ren shot after him like lightning, but the Demon King blocked Ren's slash using one of the sharp flesh tentacles erupting from his back, then used the impact to propel himself inside the gate.
Muzan smiled mockingly before vanishing and said:
"Let's hope you save your Hashira friends before losing consciousness from your suicidal technique... or before you and that little girl on your back die."
Muzan disappeared alongside the biwa's sound, and the gate closed.
Ren landed in the middle of the now-empty arena.
During that rapid exchange, Hakuji had been dodging multiple gates and walls Nakime manipulated in attempts to separate him from Ren. Thanks to his speed and experience, he managed to remain in the same arena.
While airborne, Hakuji shouted in shock and horror:
"Ren! What is this terrifying technique you're using?! Don't tell me it's one of those forbidden or secret arts I've heard about!"
Forbidden arts...
Ancient breathing techniques banned long ago within the Corps because using them inevitably killed the user. Though they massively enhanced destructive power, speed, and perception, they also ruptured blood vessels in the brain and destroyed the heart. If your body wasn't strong enough, you could simply die before even finishing your attack.
Ren sighed and wiped a thin line of blood flowing from his left eye.
"Don't worry about it, Hakuji... my body can withstand far more than this. Let's go find the others immediately."
Ren added seriously while staring at the shifting walls:
"It seems Muzan gathered enormous information about every Hashira and their abilities. I wouldn't be surprised if he ordered the Upper Moons to use vicious tactics and specially designed traps exploiting each Hashira's weaknesses to kill them quickly."
Ren and Hakuji rushed together through the castle's complex corridors.
As he ran, Ren quietly spoke to Eri, trying to calm her down. The little girl trembled like a soaked bird; sensing all that killing intent from Muzan and the Upper Moons was terrifying even for adult Hashira, let alone a small child.
"I'm okay, big brother... I'm not scared," Eri whispered while burying her face into his back.
Ren smiled faintly, but his mind worked like a hive of bees.
"What exactly is your plan... Kibutsuji Muzan? Do you think separating us will weaken us? Do you think the Upper Moons can defeat Hashira trained by me?"
Ren looked toward the system map filled with scattered red dots, his eyes glowing with cold killing intent.
"Well then... your information is incomplete, Demon King."
The Infinity Castle could manipulate senses and perception, which was meant to prevent Ren from locating the Hashira...
But Ren possessed the system.
Unfortunately for Muzan, he never anticipated that.
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