Sasuke pressed his hand against Tanjiro's forehead.
Humm-
Everything in the real world-sound, light, shadow, touch-vanished completely in that instant, as though someone had pressed delete.
Sasuke's consciousness seemed to plunge into an endless, viscous abyss.
He had no idea how much time passed. When his senses returned, he found himself standing in a bizarre and terrifying world.
The sky was dark red, like congealed blood.
The ground was paved with countless twisted skeletons and broken Nichirin Blades. Black, foul-smelling liquid flowed through the gaps.
The air was saturated with negative emotions-hatred, resentment, jealousy, and fear-so thick that they nearly suffocated his soul.
This was Tanjiro's inner world.
A cage of despair, thoroughly polluted and eroded by Muzan Kibutsuji's will.
Sasuke's brows drew tightly together.
This hellhole was even more extreme than the darkness inside him back when he fought Naruto at the Valley of the End. Back then, at worst, he had just been an angry teenager going through an edgy, delusional turn to the dark side. This place was practically a dump of negative energy accumulated over a thousand years.
Motherfucker. I really want to burn this place clean with Amaterasu.
Too bad I can't.
His ocular power was exhausted. Right now, he was nothing more than a mental projection, without any power.
He raised his head and looked toward the center of this world.
There stood an enormous throne made of countless wailing faces and writhing flesh.
Upon the throne, a figure looked down at him with contempt.
The figure's face was handsome and sinister. It was none other than Muzan Kibutsuji.
Only this phantom of Muzan was a hundred times larger than his real-world self. The pure malice emanating from him nearly crushed the entire mental world.
At his feet, Sasuke saw another figure.
A small,