Elsewhere within the castle,
Sanemi and Giyu were in the middle of cutting down a group of lower-ranked demons when the ground beneath them suddenly shook violently.
In the next moment, they watched in shock as the endless structure above their heads was flattened by a blinding streak of purple sword light.
The pressure from the slash stirred up a violent gale, scattering the surrounding demons like leaves.
"What the hell is that?!" Sanemi cut down another demon, staring toward the distant, faint outline of the towering purple figure, his eyes wide with disbelief.
Giyu tightened his grip on his Nichirin Blade, a trace of understanding flashing through his calm blue eyes.
"That's Rin dono's power."
…
At the same time,
Deep within the core control room of the Infinity Castle, Nakime was facing an unprecedented sense of despair.
Her single eye, marked with the character for "Upper Four," was bloodshot. Her hands frantically plucked at the strings of her biwa, her fingernails cracking from the force, blood staining the instrument.
"I can't stop it… I can't stop it…"
Her voice trembled, on the verge of breaking.
She tried to manipulate the surrounding structures to repair the destroyed sections. She tried to fold space to forcibly transfer that man away.
But the purple chakra was far too vast.
So vast that the moment her Blood Demon Art touched it, it collapsed instantly.
Each swing of his blade destroyed thousands of rooms, completely surpassing the limits of her ability to rebuild.
Bang!
At that moment, the wooden door beside her was violently thrown open.
Kibutsuji Muzan rushed in, his hair disheveled. His pale, handsome face was twisted with unmistakable fear and fury.
"What are you doing, Nakime?! Why haven't you teleported him away?!"
Muzan grabbed her by the collar, his plum-colored, slit pupils glaring fiercely.
Just moments earlier, the room he had been in was nearly split apart by a stray wave of sword energy.
That brush with death dragged him back to the terror he had felt centuries ago—when he was cut to pieces by Tsugikuni Yoriichi.
"Lord Muzan… I can't…"
Nakime trembled uncontrollably. "That man's power has anchored the space. My Blood Demon Art can't move him at all. The castle's structure is collapsing…"
"Useless!"
Muzan threw her to the ground.
Through a crack in the control room, he stared at the distant, hundred-meter-tall purple tengu-like Susanoo.
Those crimson eyes seemed to pierce through countless layers of obstacles, locking directly onto his position.
He had been targeted.
Muzan's heart tightened.
He could clearly feel the killing intent within that gaze, firmly fixed on where he and Nakime stood.
"Transfer the coordinates! Summon all remaining Upper Ranks immediately! Hold him off!" Muzan roared, his voice laced with hysteria.
But it was already too late.
…
Inside the crystal at the core of the Susanoo,
The hexagram pattern in Rin's eyes slowed to a halt.
Under the insight of the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, the Blood Demon Art's energy pathways hidden within the wooden structures, dense as a spider's web, all converged on a single central node.
"Found you."
A cold smile formed at the corner of Rin's lips.
The towering Susanoo dispersed the twin swords in its hands and raised its left arm.
A massive longbow instantly formed from condensed Lightning Release chakra.
Its right hand drew the bowstring back to the limit.
A gigantic arrow of energy, dozens of meters long and wrapped in raging lightning and the black flames of Amaterasu, rapidly condensed along the string.
"A simplified version of Indra's Arrow. Consider it a gift."
Twang!
The bowstring snapped forward with a deafening blast.
The purple-black arrow of thunder and flame shot forward like a meteor, tearing through everything in its path as it blasted toward the deepest core of the Infinity Castle.
Woosh!
Its speed was so great that it carved out a shrieking sonic trail through the air.
Everything in its path, whether solid rock or layer upon layer of wooden doors, was torn apart by lightning on contact, then reduced to nothing by the black flames of Amaterasu.
"No… NO!!!"
Inside the control room, Muzan watched the expanding light of destruction fill his vision and let out a shrill roar.
Without hesitation, he kicked Nakime aside and fled in the opposite direction, his body blurring into an afterimage.
The next instant..
BoOOOOOom—!!!
The thunder-flame arrow struck the control center head-on.
A deafening explosion shook the entire underground space.
Violent lightning and inextinguishable black flames swallowed the area whole.
Nakime didn't even have time to scream before she and her biwa were reduced to drifting ash under that overwhelming force.
With Nakime's death, the Blood Demon Art that sustained the Infinity Castle's spatial structure collapsed completely.
Crack… crack…
The sound of shattering glass echoed in everyone's ears.
The inverted pavilions and suspended corridors, stripped of their supernatural support, were finally subjected to the laws of the real world.
The entire Infinity Castle began to collapse.
A powerful sense of weightlessness swept over everything once more.
But this time, it wasn't a fall into darkness.
It was space itself breaking apart.
The alternate dimension shattered, and the scenery of the real world replaced the crumbling wooden structures.
Boom!
With one final, muffled thunderous sound, wood splinters and dust scattered into the air.
A cold night wind swept past.
Rin dismissed the Susanoo and steadied Shinobu as they landed on a patch of open ground covered in wild grass.
He lifted his head.
Above them stretched a vast, star-filled sky, with a bright crescent moon hanging high.
Around them lay rolling mountains and dense forests.
They had returned to the real world, arriving in a wilderness dozens of kilometers away from the Demon Slayer Corps headquarters.
Not just them.
With the forced collapse of the Infinity Castle, all the Hashira, ordinary Demon Slayer Corps members, and the hundreds of demons within it were violently expelled, scattered across the wilderness.
"We're back on the ground?!"
Tanjiro pushed himself up, taking in the night air thick with the scent of earth, his face filled with disbelief.
"We're really out! That cursed space is gone!" Sanemi Shinazugawa gripped his Nichirin Blade, his gaze sharp as he scanned the surroundings.
Less than a hundred meters away from Rin, on an open stretch of land—
Several figures radiating terrifying pressure slowly rose amidst the settling dust.
Kokushibo stood there, his six eyes fixed ahead, a flesh-and-bone katana in his grasp.
Beside him was Akaza, his expression twisted with fury, his body covered in tattoo-like patterns.
And behind them...
Kibutsuji Muzan, his clothes disheveled, his face contorted with rage.
For the first time in a thousand years, the Demon Slayer Corps and the progenitor of demons faced each other directly in the real world, with nothing separating them.
"To destroy my castle… like this."
Muzan's gaze locked onto the black-haired young man in the distance. His plum-red eyes seemed ready to bleed, his killing intent spreading like a suffocating force.
Rin released the hand that had been shielding Shinobu, stepped forward, and casually rested the Kusanagi sword on his shoulder.
He looked at the demon king before him as if he were nothing more than a stray dog, letting out a cold scoff.
"How does it feel, now that your shell's been shattered?"
Rin's gaze was filled with arrogance. The Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan gleamed with a blood-red light in the night.
"Next, it's time to settle the debts you've piled up over the past thousand years."
____
Read 12 Chapters ahead:
Patreon.com/slept01