[3rd POV]
The Infinity Castle was a realm of controlled chaos, where reality folded and twisted under Naki's control. The walls shifted endlessly, corridors stretched into infinity, and the oppressive darkness pressed down on everything.
The rooms were cubes of a bigger structure, the dinsion was like a never-ending shifting rubics cube that searched for the perfect pattern that did not exist.
But the dinsion seed to halt for a mont as he arrived.
*Thud!!*
A heavy impact echoed through the castle.
Akaza.
The second strongest among the Twelve Moon demons, after a full year of training and having access to Muzan's blood, he had grown strong enough to rival the dead Upper Two Douma.
He landed with a deafening crash, the floor beneath him cracking from the force. His bare torso glistened under the dim light of yellow lanterns, it was a body built for war.
"Tch." Akaza stood, brushing off the imaginary dust on his arms as he scanned his surroundings. "Sa damn entrance..."
It had been a year since Muzan's command.
A command to grow stronger, and find more demons suited for the Twelve Moon. A year had passed as the demons prepared and strengthened their forces for a looming war against the humans.
Humans whom Akaza could not take seriously yet because he had never encountered a worthy one.
But then again, the sa could be said for the demons. Akaza could count on one hand the beings that were his equal or more that road this world. The passing year had not increased that number.
He had hoped that he would find at least one worthy candidate but...
"Not one," Akaza muttered under his breath. His jaw clenched as mories of failed Demon Festivals flashed through his mind.
But then, as if to prove his own thoughts wrong, he appeared.
"Still brooding over the weaklings?"
A wave of heat pulsed through the space.
Daiyo.
His arrival was marked by a molten shimr that distorted the air. Obsidian-like skin pulsed with glowing veins of molten lava, a living furnace in human form. His steps were slow and deliberate, and every movent left faint scorch marks on the wooden floor.
'Ah..perhaps not all have failed,' Akaza thought in his mind before he turned to the new demon.
"You're late..." Akaza said.
"And you're impatient," Daiyo replied and stopped right beside Akaza, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the older demon.
Akaza's gaze hardened.
Daiyo had gotten so much stronger since the last ti he had seen him.
Daiyo had been the sole survivor of Akaza's first Demon Festival a year ago. Daiyo was the only one who had impressed Akaza enough to receive more of Muzan's blood - a gift that had turned him into sothing... monstrous.
Now, they stood as equals.
But equality did not erase the undercurrent of respect Daiyo held for Akaza.
It was subtle, buried beneath layers of molten arrogance, but it was there. Daiyo had seen Akaza's strength firsthand, had endured the brutality of his fists and erged stronger because of it.
But Daiyo never voiced that respect. Not aloud.
Because acknowledging it would be admitting that Akaza was still above him. And Daiyo believed that he was already equal if not stronger than the demon Akaza.
The two of them stood side by side for a while, a living weapon and a living furnace, their energies clashed without a single blow being exchanged.
Eventually, Akaza smiled and amused chuckles vibrated in the tense air.
"You really think you can take ? That's hilarious," Akaza laughed, but he didn't hate it. It was utter foolishness that Daiyo believed he could catch up to Akaza in a year when the demon in question had studied the art of war for over a century.
"I would love to see what makes you so confident in the upcoming fights. Perhaps if you impress enough, I will give you the honour of defeating you," Akaza said with a battle-lust smile.
The sound of a heavy string vibrating in the air and space distorted as a figure materialized out of thin air.
Enmu.
His arrival was graceful as if he floated rather than walked. One lookk at his eyes and you could tell he has few- no many screws lose.
"Ahhh... the tension." Enmu's voice was a soft, eerie hum. "It's intoxicating."
Or perhaps he had no screws at all in his head.
Akaza ignored him.
Daiyo barely spared him a glance.
He was not worthy in their eyes. They both called themselves warriors even as demons but Enmu was not. The dream manipulator was the type of person they least respected.
"Aww...this is sad. Why not include in your little gas, promise I won't play rough~" Enmu said as he got in between Akaza and Daiyo.
Another pulse appeared in the fabric of space.
Rui.
The child-like demon materialized as if walking in through an invisible door, his porcelain skin glowing faintly under the castle's dim light. His crimson eyes scanned the gathering, filled with quiet disdain.
Alone.
His family was not with him this ti and when his family was not there, Rui was in a perpetual bad mood.
"No family today?" Enmu cooed, feigning surprise.
"Shut up," Rui said, his voice detached but in a way that no sane mind wouldn't want to push him.
"A.. does the little spider miss mommy spider?" Enmu whispered, proving insanity.
And then....
Red strings wrapped around his body, faster than he could react. When his eyes widened in alert, his demonic body was already minced apart by the strings, cutting him into thin sheets of flesh.
.....
"You are such a rude boy aren't you," the sudden voice of Enmu behind his ears spooked Rui.
Rui lashed his claws out but he struck air. He blinked once, then twice, before he grabbed his own neck and ripped off his flesh. A sudden flash of pain and then...
He opened his eyes.
Rui found himself standing in front of the other demons, Akaza and Daiyo looked at him with curious eyes while Enmu had an amused smile on his face.
'That was a dream,' Rui thought to himself and then his face dropped further, 'He has gotten stronger,'
Perhaps Rui shouldn't spend most of his ti with his family. He was a prodigy but talent could only take him so far. If he wanted to live his perfect family life, he needed power.
"You know, instead of pretending, why not just give yourself to ?" Enmu said in a suggestive tone, "I promise to make you dream the perfect dream, where you have a mother, father, sister, brother, everything you ever wished you had,"
Rui just stayed silent.
Enmu smiled even wider.
Just then, another voice sounded in the dinsion. This ti, it was a pitiful whimper.
"Nononononono..." his words and tone project raw fear and nervousness.
Hantengu.
The frail, trembling demon stumbled through a distortion. His eyes darted around, wide with paranoia and terror.
"They'll find ... they'll hurt ..."
"The weakling is here." Daiyo barely glanced at him.
"Why does he still exist?" Akaza muttered his honest thoughts.
Hantengu crawled away from the other demons and hid sowhere between the moving stairs. He felt safe when he was unseen, he couldn't bear to stay with all those evil powerful demons.
He was just an innocent man pulled into this cursed situation. He had done nothing wrong and yet everyone was out to kill him.
It was not fair.
...
Ombura ca in the most civilized. He wore a pleasant smile on his face that had stitches around to show that it was actually a skin mask.
His footsteps echoed through the shifting dinsion and everywhere he went, he brought an eerie chill with him.
No one wanted to talk to him. They just acknowledge his existence and nothing else.
But Kaigaku was the opposite. He ca in from the distorted space with a blinding flash of blue lightning. Thunder erupted through the shifting corridors of the Infinity Castle, illuminating the space for an instant.
He stood at the centre of the disturbance, crackling with residual electricity that danced across his skin. His arms were crossed, and his lips curled into a smug, arrogant grin.
"Tch." He scoffed, his narrowed eyes sweeping over the assembled demons. "I don't know what I was expecting but I expected more,"
Kaigaku's presence was like a storm that refused to be ignored. His eyes... they glead with overconfidence.
"Hello, I'm the new guy,"
Akaza blinked with a straight face while Daiyo shimred with boiling annoyance. Even Rui, who had been brooding quietly after his encounter with Enmu, turned his crimson eyes toward Kaigaku with barely concealed annoyance.
"Is this new blood serious?" Omburo asked with a friendly smile.
Kaigaku just laughed, one that sounded like a demon drunk on new powers which he was. He felt like he could beat anyone in the world except Muzan.
"No need to pretend, none of you can handle Lord Muzan's blood the way I can. I've surpassed you all. I can kill you with the limitation of a human, imagine what I can do to you now demons," Kaigaku said with a grin.
"But no need to trouble yourselves, I won't disturb whatever hierarchy you guys had. I will just slide myself to the top and-"
He didn't complete his sentence, he just died.
Or at least that's what he thought. At least that's what they saw.
His presence stole the air from their lungs. Kaigaku was completely froze, the only thing on his mind was how he felt sorry for himself.
Weird. Why would he feel that way?
"Be silent,"
It was not shouted. It wasn't spoken out loud. But it beca a rule.
Even though there was no longer a ranking among the Twelve Moon demons, the strongest remained the sa.
Kokushibo.
After a year of aticipation that led to training, he had gotten even more stronger, his rusted bones were back to his pri, as if he was ready to fight Yorrichi himself. His re presence was as shap as any blade.
Kaigaku's fists clenched at his sides, but he dared not speak.
'Be quiet'
His previous arrogance was just a show, a way to probe at the demons to see their reaction and learn about them. It was a way to probe the new envoronemnet he had gotten himself into .
'Be quiet'
He never knew it would lead to sothing like this.
'Be quiet'
He wanted to cry out.
'Be quiet'
But then all tension leave the room as if the previous bloodlust was just a phantom, a dream as fickle as Enmu's powers.
That was because their Lord was finally here.
"There is only nine of you," Muzan said, his voice pressed opon everything inside the dinsion.
"It seems that even after all this ti, this was the best you could do," Muzan said, his voice unimpressed, borderline upset.
But how could the Twelve Moon be completed when he did not allow them to be completed?
Muzan did not need to appear for them to feel his presence. His voice alone was enough to command obedience.
The air grew heavier, and denser. An invisible malice poured into the Infinity Castle.
"The Buttefly Mansion, destroy it and kill everyone there, simple as that," Muzan said.
The demons smiled, Akaza could barely contain his lust for battle as he cracked his knuckles.
"And don't co back with failure. Suceed or die trying,"
Then doors appeared that lead every single demon to a different location around the Butterfly Mansion, effectively surrounding them.
..
..
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