The night lay deep, like a heavy black curtain draped over the rolling mountains.
Clouds hid the moon and stars. Only a few faint shafts of light spilled through the gaps, barely outlining the silhouettes of the undulating peaks. Amid this utterly silent darkness, a vast, brightly lit temple complex stood out starkly, like a lone island adrift in a pitch-black sea.
This was the headquarters of the Eternal Paradise Cult-the lair of Upper Rank Two, Doma, the nightmare the Demon Slayer Corps had long pursued.
On a concealed cliff several miles from the temple, four figures silently looked down upon that false "paradise," like phantoms merged with the night.
At their head stood the Thunder Hashira, Uesugi Sasuke. Beside him were the Insect Hashira, Shinobu Kocho, her entire body radiating the flames of vengeance; Kanao Tsuyuri, her expression resolute; and Inosuke Hashibira, who seemed somewhat restless.
For tonight's hunt, they had spent two full days moving stealthily through these remote mountain forests, bringing themselves to peak condition.
"The intelligence is accurate. The guard deployment here is exactly what I saw in that believer's mind."
Sasuke's voice rang out in the still night breeze, cold and clear, without a trace of emotion. At some point, his eyes had transformed into scarlet six-pointed stars. The terrifying perceptiveness of his Mangekyō Sharingan allowed him to easily see through the flow of energy and distribution of people several kilometers away.
In his vision, the entire temple resembled an enormous anthill with a complex structure. Countless glimmers representing "life" moved within it. Most were dim, belonging to ordinary mortals who had been deceived. But scattered through this sea of mortal light were dozens of clusters with evil presences and energy fluctuations far beyond those of ordinary people. These were the demons Doma had transformed