61. The Final Battle

Hana had lost all sense of time inside the Infinity Castle. They had been running for what felt like ages, the rooms kept shifting and rotating around them but they made sure stay together. But no matter how far they ran, the castle never seemed to end.

Her legs burned from exhaustion, but she forced herself forward anyway. The architecture of this place was a nightmare. But then, the sliding doors ahead shattered, and the world seemed to go still.

There he was. The one who caused all their sufferings. Standing in the center of the chamber as calmly as if he had been expecting them all along.

He looked back at them with those slit-pupil eyes, eyes that had watched centuries of human suffering without a single blink of regret. To him, they weren't humans, they were just pests that had finally been cornered.

No one should have suffered. No one, Hana thought. Her grip on her Nichirin sword was so tight that her knuckles turned white. Her blood felt like it was boiling in her veins. She wanted to scream, to lunge forward and tear him apart with her bare hands.

This was the monster who had murdered her family in cold blood. This was the creature who had turned her sister into a demon and forced her brother to carry a burden no one should ever have to bear.

Images flashed through her mind like a broken film. She saw Rengoku's smile before he fell at the train. She saw Shinobu's strength, Muichiro's vacant but kind eyes, and Genya's desperate struggle to be acknowledged by his older brother. They were all gone because of the man standing before them. They were so young. None of them should have suffered. No one.

Beside her, Tanjiro trembled violently with fury. Hana could practically feel the hatred from him.

​"Calm down, you two." Giyu muttered. He reached out and gently her held Hana's hand in his.

The touch pulled her out of her thoughts. She looked at Giyu's hand. It was shivering. Even the Water Hashira was shivering with a suppressed, violent anger. He wasn't just telling her to be calm, he was trying to convince himself.

"Persistent," Muzan said, his eyes narrowing with an annoyed expression. "You are all seriously persistent. And it bores me. It sickens me from the bottom of my heart."

​He looked at then as if they were insects crawling on his floor. ​"Whenever you open your mouths, you only talk about that one dumb notion avenging your parents, your kids, or your siblings. It sickens me. You survived. That should be enough for you. So what if your family got slaughtered? What's the problem here? Think of yourself as lucky and go back to the way you lived life before."

​Hana's breath hitched. Her glare darkened. She felt a cold, sharp pain in her chest that quickly turned into rage.

​"What are you saying?" Tanjiro spat, his voice trembling with pure rage.

​"Look at it this way," Muzan continued, sounding bored. "Being killed by me is the same as encountering a natural disaster. You don't need to think so hard about it. Rain, wind, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes... nobody tries to take revenge on a calamity, no matter how many lives it takes. You can't bring dead humans back to life. Why not just stop fussing over it and live quietly to earn your daily wages?"

​Hana seethed. Every word felt like a physical slap to the memory of her fallen friends.

​"Most humans live that life," Muzan said. "Why can't you? There is only one reason. The Demon Hunters are an assembly of deviants. And I'm tired of dealing with deviants. I'm the one who really wants to put an end to all this."

​The audacity of his words made Hana's blood boil. He spoke as if he was the victim. He spoke as if their grief was an inconvenience to his schedule.

​"Muzan," Hana said, her voice low and dangerously filled with rage. "You are a being that should not be allowed to exist. When facing a living being, I have never felt so cold. I have never felt this much rage in my stomach. This is the first time I've ever felt this way, Kibutsuji."

​"You will die today! This will be your end, MUZAN!" Tanjiro shouted.

​Hana looked around for an opening. She couldn't lose herself to anger right now. Muzan could not be killed by beheading. They already knew that. The only way to destroy him...was sunlight.

​I need to stay calm. she thought, carefully inspecting her surroundings.
We have to wait for everyone to arrive. We need to find a way to draw out this fight until sunrise...I need to get any information I can and tell the others. That's when the real battle starts. I have to survive until then.

The air suddenly screamed as whips made of Muzan's own flesh darted toward the three of them. The movements were so fast they were nearly invisible.

​"His arm!" Hana gasped, her heart hammering against her ribs.

It was only by inches that Hana and the others managed to stay alive, leaping and twisting through the air.

​"My eyes can't follow it!" Tanjiro thought, his pupils dilating in terror. "I'm only dodging his attacks by pure instinct!"

​The range of the attack was unbelievable. The flesh-whips acted like jagged, stretching swords that could reach across the entire room in a heartbeat.

​"Don't get any closer!" Giyuu shouted, his voice strained as he parried a strike but the force behind it shoved him backward several feet.

"You don't have to slash at him yet! An Upper Moon's strength is nothing compared to Muzan's!"

​Hana's eyes widened as she saw Tanjiro trying to close the distance, desperate to land a hit.

​"Tanjiro!" Hana screamed.

​It was too late. A whip lashed across the right side of Tanjiro's face, slicing deeply across his eye. Blood sprayed into the air.

​"Tanjiro, get back!" Hana shouted, her voice breaking.

​Muzan watched them with a cold, bored expression. "Stalling for time until dawn? No light can penetrate this fortress. Can you really do it with just three Hashiras?"

​"Three...Hashiras?" Hana gasped, her blood running cold.

​No.

​"The Pillar with the striped haori and the female Pillar were already killed by my subordinate," Muzan said calmly. "Don't you know?"

​Hana felt a wave of crushing sadness hit her. Iguro and Mitsuri...were they really gone? For a moment, grief threatened to crush her entirely. But she clenched her fists so hard her nails dug into her palms. Not now. She couldn't break now.

​She looked at Giyuu and then back at the monster in front of them. She couldn't let the grief take over. If she stopped now, they were all dead. She took a sharp, shaky breath and forced her emotions into a cold, dark corner of her mind. She shook her head violently, clearing the tears before they could fall.

She watched in horror as Tanjiro kept pushing forward. Blood streamed down his face from his ruined eye, but he didn't stop.

"Tanjiro, no!" she screamed, her heart leaping into her throat.

"So what if I lost an eye!" Tanjiro's thoughts were racing, his breathing ragged. "I can still see things through smell! Smell your way through! The See-Through World... the attacks are so fast that I can't smell them! I can't breathe!"

"No, no, Tanjiro! Wait! Stop it!" Hana cried out, rushing forward to reach for him.

Suddenly, the wall behind Muzan exploded. A flash of vibrant green and pink hair blurred through the dust as Mitsuri burst into the room.

"Hold it right there!" She shouted, immediately unleashing her whip-like blade.

She's alive. Hana gasped, a massive wave of relief washing over her.

"Love Breathing, Sixth Form" Mitsuri yelled, her blade flickering like a ribbon of light, shredding through Muzan's flesh-whips to create an opening.

At the same moment, Obanai lunged forward. He caught Tanjiro just as the younger boy was about to collapse from exhaustion and blood loss. He pulled him back swiftly, his mismatched eyes sharp and focused.

"Okay, you annoying little burden," Obanai muttered, though his grip was firm and protective. "Fall back right now."

"Iguro-san... thank the gods..." Tanjiro wheezed, looking up at him with his one good eye. "You're alive... and so is Kanroji-san..."

"You should worry about yourself first instead of others!" Obanai scolded, his voice harsh but tinged with suppressed worry.

Hana rushed to their side, her face pale. "Tanjiro!" she scolded, matching Obanai's tone. "Stop trying to do this alone! You're going to get yourself killed!"

Muzan's face contorted. Veins bulged from his forehead and neck, pulsing with fury. He looked up at the ceiling, his eyes wide with confusion and rage.

"What are you doing?! Nakime!!" Muzan bellowed.

"What is she doing, you ask? This woman's sight is being manipulated by me." It was Yushiro he had nakime in his grasp and was controlling all of her movements. The news of Lady Tamayo's death had completely shattered Tushiro
He was no longer a helpful assistant but a demon that had nothing to loose.

"Muzan, you have committed the gravest sin in the world," Yushiro spat, his voice trembling. "You have taken away Lady Tamayo from me. Now get on your knees and repent!"

The Infinity Castle began to groan and shift violently. The rooms flipped and rotated as Yushiro seized total control of the environment through Nakime.

"Right now," Yushiro roared, his eyes bloodshot, "I am going to erase you from the face of this earth!"

"The whole fortress is shaking!" Mitsuri screeched, her voice echoing off the shifting walls. "No, it's warping!"

The ground beneath Hana's feet suddenly vanished. She felt herself slipping into the dark void of a trapdoor, but a hand shot out and caught her wrist. Giyuu pulled her back up yanking her upward hard enough to nearly pull her against him.

"You okay?" he asked quickly.

Hana nodded breathlessly.

Together Hana, Giyuu, and Obanai rushed forward.

"Water Breathing, Fourth Form: Striking Tide!" Giyuu roared.

"Snake Breathing, First Form: Twisting Snake Slice!" Obanai's blade curved like a living thing.

Hana joined them, her movements blurred. "Hinokami Kagura: Fake Rainbow!"

Muzan didn't flinch. His arms transformed into a whirlwind of flesh-whips, lashing out to intercept all three of them at once. But before the blades could connect, the floor gave way again. Everyone began to fall through the shifting levels of the Infinity Castle.

Hana hit the ground hard. As she scrambled to her feet, she looked around and felt a cold horror wash over her. The floor was slick with blood. Severed limbs and broken swords were scattered everywhere..Dead Demon Slayers lay scattered across the floor like broken discarded dolls.

"The corpses... of my allies..." she whispered, her voice trembling.

The floor began to surge upward, moving at a violent speed as the fortress started to crumble.

She twisted her body mid-air, the air whistling as Muzan's whips narrowly missed her. She was closing in, ready to strike, when she felt a sudden force shove her backward.

A group of lower-ranked Demon Slayers had rushed in front of her, forming a human shield.

"We were saved by the Hashira so many times!" one of them shouted. "If it wasn't for them, we would've died long ago! Don't lose courage! Fight!"

"No! Stay back!" Hana screamed, her eyes wide with distraught. "Everyone, stop it! Please!"

But they didn't listen. They sprinted toward Muzan, throwing their bodies into the path of the whips to protect her and the Pillars. They were torn apart in seconds.

"Those who die quickly are fortunate," Muzan said, his voice cold and devoid of any humanity. "Even if they don't die right away, those who attack me are done for."

Hana felt her blood boiling, her heart hammering against her chest as she tried to recover from the sight of the slaughter.

"Look that way." Muzan directed calmly.

Fear crawled down Hana's spine.
Slowly she turned her head, and her heart stopped. Tanjiro was lying among the dead bodies, clutching his throat. The wound over his eye was swelling into a horrific, mutated growth, pulsing with dark energy. He was hacking up thick, dark blood, his body jerking in agony..

Suddenly, he stopped moving.

"Tanjiro..." she whispered brokenly.

Hana felt the hot sting of tears rolling down her face. She couldn't hold them back anymore, the wall she had built around her emotions shattered.

"He was soaked in my blood during the attack," Muzan stated, watching Tanjiro's still form. "The amount of my blood is too much. It won't turn him into a demon. Like a fatal poison, it will destroy his cells and he will perish."

"Kamado Tanjiro is dead."