The forest finally thinned, revealing an open stretch of cracked land. The ground was dry like something had swallowed all its life. Tanjiro slowed his steps and looked ahead with a deep frown.
"It smells strange," he whispered. "Like damp soil mixed with something rotten."
Giyu stepped forward quietly. "Lower Moon Three is here."
A pressure spread across the wasteland. At first, it was silent. Then the ground itself began to rise. A figure emerged from the earth like it had always been part of the soil.
Her body was covered in a tough, stone-like shell. Her hair was long, deep brown, and her eyes glowed with a warm golden tint that contrasted her cold expression.
"I am Karuna," she said. Her voice was calm but heavy with judgment. "Do you wish to know my dream?"
Neither Giyu nor Tanjiro replied. She took their silence as agreement.
"I want a world where no one dies. A world where humans do not grow sick, weak, or broken. Muzan gave me this path. If everyone becomes a demon, suffering will disappear forever."
Tanjiro shook his head. "That is not saving the world. That is destroying it."
Karuna's gentle expression sharpened with irritation. "You are one of those. A stubborn human who cannot understand peace."
Her footsteps cracked the earth. The soil around Tanjiro suddenly swirled like a whirlpool, pulling him under.
"Tanjir–"
Before Giyu finished, the ground swallowed Tanjiro up to his chest. A thick mud pit formed around him, tightening like a hungry creature.
"Stay still," Karuna said with a cold smile. "Struggle and it will pull you deeper."
Tanjiro felt the pressure pushing down on him and the pit slowly rising up his torso.
Giyu moved forward to cut the mud open, but Karuna raised her hand.
"Clay Guard."
The ground transformed into a solid wall between Giyu and Tanjiro. Giyu tried to slice through, but the wall reinforced itself instantly like it was alive.
"Do not take another step," Karuna said. "You will fight me. He will die slowly."
Tanjiro clenched his jaw. "No... I am not done yet."
He focused, letting the spiritual energy around him ignite like sparks. His feet pressed lightly against the mud as he drew in a sharp breath.
Reishi gathered beneath him.
Then he leaped upward, using invisible footholds created from condensed energy. The mud pit stretched after him, trying to drag him back down, but he escaped skyward in a burst of speed.
Karuna lifted her face toward him with annoyance. "Predictable."
From the earth beside her, another Karuna emerged. Then another. Then another. They sprinted after Tanjiro, climbing the air with pillars of rising soil.
Tanjiro cut them down. Their bodies crumbled into dirt.
New ones formed. Again and again.
"Giyu," Tanjiro shouted, "she keeps splitting herself."
"I know," Giyu replied. "The real one is mine."
Karuna tilted her head and smiled. "You look familiar. Are you Giyu Tomioka? The Water Hashira once called a disgrace by his own companions?"
Giyu said nothing.
Karuna continued in a pleasant tone. "You lived for centuries because Muzan wanted you to. Did it hurt? Watching humans die while you remained unchanging? You could not save a single generation. You are a failure in both life and death."
Giyu's grip tightened on his sword.
"You talk too much," he said quietly.
Karuna's smile vanished. "I hate people like you."
The ground erupted beneath her feet. Huge soil claws burst upward, swinging at Giyu with crushing force. Giyu dodged, his movements sharp and cold.
"Water Surface Slash."
The first claw shattered, dirt exploding like dark sand. But a second claw rose behind him, cutting from the side. He blocked it. A third claw shot from below toward his leg. He twisted away in midair and countered.
Karuna closed in. Her fists were covered in stone armor, each punch heavier than steel.
Giyu parried, but Karuna's strength was overwhelming. Her last strike sent him sliding backward across the ground.
"Your blade is useless here," she said.
"There is nothing useless," Giyu replied. His voice was calm and cold. "Not even me."
Karuna clicked her tongue and slammed her palm on the ground. The soil around Giyu quivered.
A massive spike shot up toward his chest.
Giyu breathed in.
His body shifted.
His stance softened like flowing water.
"Eleventh Form. Dead Calm."
Silence filled the battlefield. The spike shattered before it even touched him. The storm of claws and blades of soil Karuna summoned all crumbled like dust meeting the ocean.
For a second, Karuna froze.
She had not expected this.
"You are still a Hashira," Tanjiro shouted from above.
Giyu said nothing. His eyes remained locked on Karuna.
Karuna snarled. "I will not lose to a relic."
Her shell thickened. Her arms expanded with layers of stone. She rushed forward with brutal strength.
Giyu stepped once.
Just once.
His sword swung.
A clean arc of water cut forward.
Karuna's shell cracked. A line split down her torso.
She gasped.
"That… should not be possible."
"You made one mistake," Giyu said. "You believed living too long made me weaker. But I never forgot what it means to protect people."
Karuna tried to regenerate but the crack spread too quickly. Her soil armor collapsed into dust.
"You humans… cling to suffering," she whispered. "Why choose pain over eternity?"
Tanjiro descended beside them, panting. The clones around him were gone.
"Because living means moving forward," Tanjiro answered. "Even if it hurts."
Karuna's golden eyes dimmed. "I wanted to save someone once. I do not remember who anymore."
She crumbled into soft soil, carried away by the wind.
Tanjiro looked at Giyu. "You saved me."
"You would have escaped eventually."
"That does not matter. You still saved me."
A faint smile touched Giyu's lips. "I am still a Demon Slayer. That will never change."
Tanjiro nodded firmly.
"Then let's keep going. Only five Lower Moons remain."
They stepped forward together, the broken battlefield left behind them.
The hunt continued.