The once-opulent Infinity Castle had been reduced to a wreckage-strewn ruin.
Ornate screens had splintered into wood chips, inverted beams and pillars sagged and snapped, and exquisite corridors twisted like braided dough.
The dull tremors underground formed an unending backdrop, a reminder of the lingering might of that destructive presence above.
Muzan Kibutsuji stood on a cracked golden platform-
This was the last spot in the Infinity Castle that still had even a shred of class...
Muzan's face contorted with rage. His magnificent clothes were tattered and coated in dust. The Demon King, who pursued absolute control and perfection, now looked like a beaten stray, utterly bedraggled.
"Hundred-Faces-you motherfucker!" Muzan shrieked.
"Look at this place! Look at the blessings your summoned masterpiece left behind!" He pointed at the collapsed wreckage around him.
"My Infinity Castle! My immortal fortress! What does it look like now? Like Yoriichi came in and chewed it up!"
Over the past few days, small tremors had followed big ones, and several of his beds had already collapsed. One had been wonderfully soft and comfortable, Muzan's favorite, yet it had shattered before he had even spent half a day lying in it. And all Nameless Hundred Faces did was cackle!
The Demon King whipped around, his blood-red gaze locking onto Nameless Hundred Faces. It had grown even more shriveled and withered, and the once-faintly recognizable features of Yoriichi Tsugikuni had almost entirely vanished. That, at least, made it considerably easier for Muzan to look at.
Muzan stepped forward. "Tell me, Nameless Hundred Faces! If you can summon a monster that shakes the world, why didn't you have it awaken in the middle of a human city?! Let it roll around there! Let it wear down the Demon Slayer Corps amid the screams of those ants! Why?! Why did it have to sleep in the wilderness? Why was the first thing it did upon waking to destroy my Infinity Castle?!"
"Hehehe..." Hundred Faces' laughter sounded especially grating amid the tremors. "My lord... how could a lowly thing like me command such a magnificent being?"
"All I did... was take a story that had already happened in some corner of the world... and let it play out here once more."
That indistinct face turned blankly toward Muzan. "Just like this shell you bestowed upon me. He tells me that I will die in the end... just as I did before... hehehe..."
Muzan's pupils abruptly contracted, a flicker of alarm and suspicion crossing his eyes.
"You... what exactly is your Blood Demon Art? Isn't it supposed to summon and control the spirits of the dead?!"
Hundred Faces slowly shook its shriveled head. "Summon? Control? Hehe... my lord, you misunderstand. How could I possibly possess such power? I'm merely a reader~" Its voice was as distant and elusive as the wind.
"A reader... who happened to open Miss Sapphire Star's extraordinarily thick 'storybook'... nothing more~"
Muzan finally lost patience with Nameless Hundred Faces' flippant attitude.
"A reader? A storybook? You seem to harbor a... laughable interest in that woman, Nameless Hundred Faces!" In a flash, the Demon King closed the distance. A huge hand of writhing flesh shot out, clamped viciously around Hundred Faces' withered neck, and lifted its entire body off the ground.
"Tell me! Do I need to cut off your head and send it to that hunter as an introductory gift?!"
Yet Nameless Hundred Faces did not struggle at all. Its desiccated body merely trembled a few times, and a wisp of murky vapor, thick as ink, came billowing out.
The murky vapor writhed in the air, gathered, and condensed, finally forming a huge, indistinct screen of light and shadow.
The images on the screen shifted rapidly, like a bloodstained album of hunts having its pages frantically flipped.
They were all scenes from Sapphire Star's past battles.
Rathalos soared through the sky... Deviljho devoured the remains of its prey... Kushala Daora commanded devastating storms... Teostra crushed the ground at the heart of the lava fields beneath its feet, a burning sky behind it... The images flashed faster and faster, until they abruptly slammed to a halt!
An enormous creature appeared in the center of the murky screen!
It crouched in a hollow studded with energy crystals as brilliant as stars. Strange armor covered its body, flowing with an eerie blue glow, and its vast wing membranes slowly unfurled.
Every heavy breath carried Elder Dragon energy so pure that it made the soul tremble!
Its form was bizarre yet majestic, radiating a primal aura that transcended life and death and reached back to the very birth of the world!
Xeno'jiiva!
A mere projection made Muzan Kibutsuji, who had looked down on the world for a thousand years and proclaimed himself perfect, feel for the first time with absolute clarity that he was as insignificant as a speck of dust!
"Holy shit, this-" Muzan sucked in a sharp breath, and the bloody hand gripping Hundred Faces involuntarily loosened.
His blood-red eyes remained riveted to the projection, filled with incredulous shock. A shadow called fear quietly crept into them, accompanied by the bewilderment of being utterly crushed by power from a higher dimension.
What the fuck was that?! That woman called Sapphire Star fought creatures like this? No wonder she'd chased me down and hacked at me like I was some helpless chump...
Nameless Hundred Faces spoke with a twisted, seductive allure. "Do you see... Lord Muzan... this is true eternity... an immortal monument built from boundless energy, with the stars as its fuel..."
"The undying existence you pursue... how paltry it is... beside this. Miss Sapphire Star... she is not your enemy... hehehe..."
"The gift she brings you... will surpass even your greediest... imaginings!"
Before you continue