Demon Slayer HQ – Main Grounds – Early Morning
The gates creaked open.
Four figures stepped through—silent, blood-soaked, and grim.
Kokushibo, unreadable behind that many-eyed stare.Akaza, casually swinging a blood-dripping severed head by the hair.Giyu, stiff and alert, sword still sheathed but hand close.Obanai, sharp-eyed and breathing slow, Kaburamaru hissing.
The courtyard stilled.
Slayers paused mid-training.
Hashiras turned toward them.
And from the side, Muzan stepped into the sunlight—shaded by a wide black parasol.He smirked.
"Did you bring it?"
Akaza tossed the head of the cult leader at Muzan's feet with a thud.
"Whatever you needed this freak for."
Muzan studied it quietly, then whispered something under his breath. The head twitched once… then went still.
The air shifted.
Footsteps. Heavy. Purposeful.
Doom Slayer stepped out onto the platform above the courtyard, arms crossed. His armor still scratched, stained from the last battle. No helmet this time.
Everyone turned.
"Report," he said simply.
Kokushibo stepped forward.
"The village is ash. Portal sealed. Every cultist executed."
Obanai added, "The portal was incomplete. Still, the demons it pulled through… were unlike anything we've seen."
Giyu nodded. "They didn't stop. Didn't feel pain. They fought like they couldn't die."
Akaza grinned.
"But they did."
The Slayer descended the steps.
He looked at each of them in turn.
"Those were bottom feeders," he said flatly. "Low-tier. In hell, I'd crush them with my hands."
"There are worse things. Bigger. Faster. Smarter."
Everyone grew silent.
"You all fought well," he said. Then looked around at the growing crowd. Hashiras, slayers, even the Upper Moons watching from the shadows of the wall.
"But this is not enough."
"They will open portals again. From cities. Villages. Forests. They'll use humans. Possess them. They'll send stronger units."
"You think demons were the enemy before?"
He pointed out to the horizon.
"Hell has no end. No compassion. No limits."
"You will train. You will go on missions. You will burn them out wherever they rise."
"Hashiras," he barked. "Pair your squads with demons if needed. You will move in units. You will strike like blades."
"No more lone hunts."
"Muzan," he said, turning to him, "if your demons disobey—I'll know. And I'll treat them like hellspawn."
Muzan just smirked faintly. "Understood."
"Today was the beginning," the Slayer said. "More gates will open."
"This world… is now a battlefield."
Later that night, in a locked chamber, Muzan studied the severed head again.Whispers echoed from its broken lips.
Hell had noticed Earth.
And it had begun to listen.