Muzan Was So Impressed by His Own Brilliance

The Eternal Paradise Cult's main hall lay in disarray, covered in signs of earthquake damage. Only one master bedroom remained intact.

Inside that bedroom, a pair of rainbow-colored eyes, like gleaming glass, gazed with keen interest at the object held in his hands.

It was a young woman's head. Her long black hair was still smooth, but her frozen expression held nothing except utter terror. Tears had washed through her carefully applied makeup, leaving several wretched streaks across her deathly pale face.

"Oh my, oh my..." Doma tilted his head, his eyes filled with pure, innocent confusion.

"Why is that? Whenever my little followers kneel before me, their eyes are always so devout, their words so sincere..."

"'Lord Doma, I would offer you everything~ My life, my soul, all belong to you~'... They sound so lovely, so certain."

His fingertips gently brushed stray hairs from the head, and his lips curved in puzzlement.

"But why, when I really take their 'everything,' do their faces all end up like this?... How contradictory~ It makes me so mad~"

As though responding to his "anger," the ground suddenly shook violently!

"Oh dear!"

Doma gave a soft cry, and the severed head slipped out of his hands before he could react.

Rumble, rumble-

It rolled away and only stopped when it struck a vermilion corridor pillar with peeling paint, still wearing that horrifying expression of terror.

"..."

Doma looked down at his "collection" rolling away, a trace of frustration appearing on his face as he sighed deeply.

"Ahh-! How annoying. That big fellow over at Mount Dayue..."

"Still throwing a tantrum after all these days?" he complained, though his voice carried unmistakable curiosity.

"That presence... It smelled of shattering stone... So ridiculously powerful. Though I haven't felt it since a few days ago, these little gifts we've been getting must all be its handiwork, right?"

His gaze returned to the hall. The once-splendid main hall of the Eternal Paradise Cult now resembled a ruin. Precious offerings lay askew on the shrine, expensive porcelain vases had shattered, and days of shaking had left fine cracks in the murals.

Doma's devoted followers had been working day and night to rearrange everything and repair the damage.

But each time they nearly finished cleaning up, another, stronger tremor struck.

"What are my followers even doing? So stupid~" Doma's face showed undisguised, innocent contempt.

"They come running to me with those miserable faces, saying 'the gods are angry' and 'divine punishment'~ Divine punishment?" He burst into another laugh.

"It's obviously just that big monster inside Mount Dayue turning over or yawning! What does it have to do with gods in heaven or bodhisattvas on earth?"

"Hmm... But if the being causing mountains to roar, seas to surge, and the earth to shake is itself a 'god'..." Doma tilted his head, seemingly considering the possibility in earnest, and a brilliant gleam flashed through his eyes.

"Haha, that sounds pretty interesting too! It actually makes a lot of sense!"

He raised a finger and pointed idly into the air. "Hmm, compared with that big fellow... I really am as insignificant as a mortal right now~ Hahaha..." He rocked with laughter. "A mortal! How funny!"

"If someday I could casually cause an earth-shattering quake in my sleep like that..." He licked his lips. "Wouldn't that be fun? The 'worshippers' would practically trample my doorstep, wouldn't they?... Oh my, just thinking about it makes me tremble with excitement..."

"...Huh?"

Just as he lost himself in that chaotic fantasy, the familiar surroundings of his cult's sanctuary abruptly warped.

In their place appeared endless broken wooden lattices and paper doors, collapsed stairways and platforms-the bizarre space of Infinity Castle, though it was now as dilapidated as his own palace.

Doma landed lightly on a floating wooden platform and looked around. Nothing but deathly silence surrounded him.

A sudden, unannounced transport like this... usually had only one explanation.

"Oh? Summoned here so suddenly... Has Miss Nakime been missing me? Or..."

"...Has some unfortunate Upper Rank gentleman... or lady... finally died?"

No sooner had he spoken than an icy presence stabbed toward him from behind.

"Oh my! If it isn't Lord Akaza!" Doma turned in delight. "You always walk so quietly, I didn't even hear..."

Crack-!

"Fuck off, you moron, Doma!" Akaza swung a backhanded slap at him.

Akaza knocked Doma's entire lower jaw clean off!

Clatter, clatter...

The jawbone tumbled onto Infinity Castle's wooden floor, making hollow knocking sounds.

"Akaza! Outside a rank replacement blood battle, do not provoke pointless conflict!" A stern voice came from the shadows above. Kokushibo's six uncanny eyes stared coldly down from the darkness.

"Our lord summoned us because he has urgent business!"

Akaza withdrew his hand and spat, his blood-red eyes filled with undisguised contempt and hostility toward Doma.

Doma's head tilted at a grotesque angle, yet he kept chuckling. "It's... fine... It's fine... Lord Akaza's... greeting... was so warm... Hehehe..."

Space rippled faintly in a dark corner of the platform. Then a pale, cold figure emerged clearly against a blood-red glow.

Muzan Kibutsuji stood on a relatively intact platform above all the Upper Ranks. It was already the best-looking platform left in Infinity Castle.

After the successive earthquakes and aftershocks of the past few days, Nakime had been repairing Infinity Castle day and night. But the damage was so severe that she felt she might become the first demon to die from overwork...

Especially after Nameless Hundred Faces had shown their lord a projection of Xeno'jiiva a few days earlier.

Their lord had thought Nameless Hundred Faces could summon Xeno'jiiva directly, allowing him to embark on eternal evolution.

But Nameless Hundred Faces had only cackled and said he couldn't do it. Their lord had been so furious that he smashed the Infinity Castle she had painstakingly repaired into rubble again...

Nakime could even feel a bald patch on top of her head.

"I did not summon you because a seat among the Upper Ranks has become vacant, though those two useless fools, Daki and Gyutaro, were indeed killed with a single slash..."

Muzan delivered this remark casually. Behind him, the darkness seemed to come alive. Dark-red, barbed thorns formed out of thin air, piercing a withered body and suspending it in view-

It was Nameless Hundred Faces. The thorns dug deep into his limbs, leaving him hanging like a tattered rag.

"Akaza, this thing is the 'work' created from those 'materials' you so painstakingly gathered." There was little praise in Muzan's voice, only a faint, underlying agitation.

"But this worthless fool! All he does is speak in fucking riddles! Or spout useless nonsense! Even now, I still haven't fully understood what the hell his Blood Demon Art actually is!"

Every Upper Rank shuddered. They had never seen Lord Muzan lose his composure like this. Clearly, Nameless Hundred Faces had truly struck a nerve.

Muzan pointed a bloodied claw at the twisted figure hanging there. "This worthless fool summoned some kind of being just a few days ago! He caused the upheaval at Mount Dayue!" Muzan was positively seething.

"All those earthquakes you felt were his 'handiwork'! Then he told me Xeno'jiiva was true eternity, and I actually thought he could summon Xeno'jiiva directly so I could take a couple of sips! But all he fucking does is show projections! What am I supposed to do with all those projections?"

"Cough... cough..." Nameless Hundred Faces, impaled on the thorns, suddenly let out a series of nearly suffocating coughs. Dried, blackened blood trickled down his shriveled skin.

He struggled to raise his head. His bloodshot eyes turned toward the raging Muzan, filled with regret that bordered on pity.

That regretful look from Nameless Hundred Faces set Muzan off completely. Those eyes wounded him!

Hundred Faces seemed to accuse him silently: My lord, do you know what you've missed? What you've rejected?

"You fucking bastard!" Muzan roared, making Infinity Castle hum. His bloodied claw clenched at empty air, frightening Hantengu into clutching his own head.

Rrrip-!

The flesh wrapped around the thorns exploded into a spray of black blood and scraps, leaving only a mangled remnant of a body that was hurled away.

Bang-!

The lump crashed onto the floor before the Upper Ranks, and filthy blood spread across the boards.

Muzan's voice carried a devastating chill. "And ever since he summoned that damned giant, his power has been rapidly drying up! He grows weaker every day!" He stared at the thing writhing on the ground. "In a few more days, those ants in the Demon Slayer Corps won't even need to lift a finger. He'll dry up completely on his own and crumble into a heap of rotten ash!"

Nameless Hundred Faces convulsed in agony on the floor. Every spasm squeezed out more thick, dark-brown fluid.

He coughed up several mouthfuls of filthy blood and struggled to prop himself up.

"My... my lord..." Broken breaths squeezed through his shattered throat. "I... will perish in the end... That is my fate..." He seemed to expend every ounce of strength before continuing between gasps.

"But if I could... draw close to Miss Sapphire Star... Xeno... ji... iva... would surely show favor again... and descend..."

"Shut up-!!!" Muzan's fury peaked, and blood-red fighting spirit erupted from him.

"Miss Sapphire Star this! Miss Sapphire Star that! Is that the only name your brain can hold? Today, in front of all the Upper Ranks, you will explain your Blood Demon Art! Clearly!"

The body on the floor jolted violently. Black blood gushed from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. After a brief, deathlike silence, Nameless Hundred Faces actually stopped convulsing.

Lying facedown in the filthy blood, he began to speak.

"I can see... see the stories... of warriors' slain opponents..."

"Some opponents... were unyielding... some could not accept their fate... some held obsessions that kept them from fading away... And I can... tear open a narrow doorway... for them... within the void..." He suddenly coughed up a pool of black blood, but his speech never stopped.

"Allowing their lingering wills to reappear for an instant... following the same deeds they performed in life... playing them out again..."

"Hehehe..." He laughed eerily. "So... sometimes... a few wandering souls from other worlds slip through the doorway... That is hardly strange. A presence in a world where it does not belong must eventually return... to where it came from... Cough, cough..."

"As for commanding them?... Why would those powerful lingering wills obey a guide's orders? They can only repeat actions they have already performed... As for the rest..."

He left the sentence unfinished, but its meaning was clear-he had neither the authority nor the ability to force those powerful beings to descend.

Muzan's face turned livid. He had thought he had created a trump card, only to discover he had created a clown.

"Then why don't you summon the dead demons? Those Lower Ranks, Daki! Gyutaro! An endless army of demons! That is fucking power! That is the value you should have!"

In the end, Nameless Hundred Faces only sighed. "My lord... Only souls powerful enough, with obsessions deep enough that they all but refuse to fade... can answer the doorway's call... How long can they remain? Even I cannot know... Those demons who died, their souls... were ultimately too weak and scattered..."

"Hmph!" Muzan let out a piercing, cold laugh, murderous intent filling his eyes.

"Are you saying the Upper Ranks of the Twelve Kizuki are inferior to a mere Hand Demon?! Even his paltry, worthless resentment could return?! Is that your excuse for brushing me off?!"

"My lord, that was because another world..." Hundred Faces had not finished speaking.

Hiss-

A beam of demon blood power shot from Muzan's fingertip and instantly pierced Nameless Hundred Faces's skull!

Nameless Hundred Faces's body jerked backward, slammed onto the floor, and went completely still.

Muzan's chest heaved several times. Struggling to suppress his anger, he turned toward the figure who had been standing silently in the shadows of a corner, holding a huge porcelain pot.

"Gyokko! Have you located the Swordsmith Village?"

Gyokko's pot trembled slightly in fright. Before he had fully recovered, he bowed and answered, "My lord, its location has been confirmed!"

"Excellent!" Muzan's blood-red gaze swept over every Upper Rank demon. "All of you will accompany Gyokko! Your target is the Swordsmith Village!"

His voice was absolute. "Completely erase that place where the Demon Slayer Corps hides its lifeline! Leave no one alive! Take this worthless body with you..." His icy gaze passed over Nameless Hundred Faces's mangled, blackened body on the floor.

"Perhaps he still has some final use..."

Kokushibo's six eyes narrowed slightly. "As you command, my lord!"

Gyokko was the first to disappear into the darkness. Akaza snorted coldly and strode forward. Without ceremony, he grabbed the back of Nameless Hundred Faces's neck and slung the ruined body over his shoulder like a dead dog. Following Gyokko's path, he stepped into the voidlike ripples of the teleportation.

Doma chuckled softly and turned, his sleeves fluttering. Taking Hantengu with him, he vanished like a fleeting illusion.

Kokushibo cast a long look at Muzan, seated on the platform above, then silently merged into the warped light and shadow.

The presence of the Upper Rank demons vanished completely.

Muzan Kibutsuji stood alone on the silent, empty platform, looking down into Infinity Castle's chaotic void.

"Hmph. That idiot Hundred Faces is ultimately nothing but an utterly obstinate fool... Strange powers, yet no adaptability... How could his dull mind ever approach even half of mine?"

He gently closed his blood-red eyes, as though admiring the next move in his exquisite game.

The Swordsmith Village... that lifeline of those ants. Once it was erased...

The Demon Slayer Corps's central command would surely fall into paralysis, panic, and chaos...

That would be the perfect opportunity!

"Hehehe!..." His low, chilling laughter slowly echoed through the empty Infinity Castle, brimming with satisfaction.

"Only someone as practical as I am, as intelligent as I am... can find the true path to eternal, undying life..."

"Xeno'jiiva, Elder Dragons-weren't they all killed by Sapphire Star anyway? Only I... can forge the most correct, most reliable path!"