Moonlight streamed into the bedroom.
Ubuyashiki lay quietly there, with only his wife kneeling beside him.
In Muzan's eyes, a monster who had lived for a thousand years, Ubuyashiki in his current state looked like a broken lantern that could go out at any moment.
"So ignorant of your own limits. For a thousand years you've been ruining my plans," Muzan said coldly, yet he realized he was not as furious as he had expected to be.
Perhaps it was because the head of the Ubuyashiki family had already fallen to such a miserable state that it felt pointless to get angry with a dying man.
Or perhaps the thousand-year feud was finally ending tonight, leaving him strangely calm.
"Ubuyashiki, you're already starting to smell like a corpse. It looks like you're about to rot completely."
"Heh... of course..." Kagaya forced himself upright. The rotting wounds across his body tore open with the movement, foul blood seeping continuously through the bandages. "Half a year ago... the doctors already said I would die... the only reason I've lasted until today... was to see you walk toward your death, Muzan..."
"What nonsense. The one dying is you, not me."
'...As long as I kill you... Ubuyashiki... the curse of our family... will finally end...'
"I'm understanding less and less of what you're saying. What does your so-called curse have to do with me?"
"It's precisely because... because a monster like you was born... that our Ubuyashiki family... has suffered early deaths generation after generation...
Sickly lives... only able to balance the curse through the bloodline of shrine maidens..."
Kagaya gasped for breath as he spoke, his words broken and uneven, causing Muzan's brows to knit tightly together.
He looked impatiently at Kagaya's decaying body and tapped his own temple, uncertain whether the man could even see the gesture.
"Incomprehensible. Disgusting."
"Has your illness infected your brain as well?"
"None of what you're saying has any causal relationship."
Muzan sighed. It might have been the first time in a thousand years that he had heard such a ridiculous accusation.
"There are no gods or Buddhas in this world. Where would punishment or curses come from?"
"I've killed hundreds, thousands of people, and I have never encountered any kind of retribution. Doesn't that prove you're just spouting nonsense?"
He quietly watched the head of the Ubuyashiki family coughing up blood, yet felt only an inexplicable emptiness.
Strange.
Everything should be ending now.
The leader of the Demon Slayer Corps, whom he had despised for centuries, was right in front of him.
Yet he felt nothing.
"Heh... Muzan... you don't know this... but there are gods in this world..."
"Speaking of which... your dream is eternal immortality, isn't it..."
"Unfortunately... that dream ends tonight. True immortality is not the body, but the continuation of spirit..."
"As long as you die... all demons will die as well... right..."
What?
Muzan snapped back to attention just as he saw Kagaya's lips curl into a triumphant smile.
And the dazzling, scorching fire rising from beneath his feet.
"CAW!! CAW!! EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY!"
The shrill cries of crows tore apart the solemn silence of the night.
Dozens of crows, as if prepared in advance, rushed toward training grounds, forest paths, and the routes the Hashira would pass.
Their hoarse voices carried unprecedented urgency.
"Headquarters under attack! Kibutsuji Muzan has appeared! All Hashira assemble immediately! Head to the Ubuyashiki estate at once!"
"Encircle the target! Full speed!"
So it's finally here.
Asuka's figure flashed across the ground, his gray-white haori whipping violently in the wind.
His speed was extreme. Every step he took was accompanied by a faint burst of spiritual pressure beneath his toes.
He became a black bolt of lightning, weaving frantically through dense forest and jagged rocks.
In the distance, several powerful presences were also converging toward the same center with equally terrifying speed.
"Muzan, that bastard! He's finally shown himself!" Sanemi Shinazugawa roared through the forest.
The plan that Kiriya had relayed during the previous meeting echoed in his mind: false intelligence used to lure the enemy.
"Master must not come to harm... As long as we complete the encirclement, that bastard won't escape!"
On another path, Giyu Tomioka remained as silent as a dead branch, but the deep blue of his eyes burned with unprecedented intensity.
His hand gripped the hilt of his sword, his breathing already adjusted to its absolute peak.
He was ready to awaken the mark and burn through his own life if necessary.
Gyomei Himejima. Kyojuro Rengoku. Obanai Iguro. Mitsuri Kanroji. Muichiro Tokito.
Every Hashira capable of fighting was casting aside all distractions at the summons of that crow and racing toward the estate.
Their motivations differed.
Some sought revenge.
Some sought to protect.
Others carried the mission passed down for a thousand years.
But at this moment, their goal was the same.
To cut off the head of the Demon King.
Just as the Hashira closed to within two hundred meters of the estate, when the outer walls were finally coming into view—
BOOM—!!!
A golden sphere of destruction erupted violently from the very heart of the estate.
It was an explosion powerful enough to shake the entire valley.
Asuka, who was running at the front, was forced to stop, raising his arms to shield himself.
A wave of scorching heat slammed into him. It felt as though his skin might ignite.
Before the stunned eyes of all the Hashira, the Ubuyashiki estate—home to the century-old heart of the Demon Slayer Corps, filled with the fragrance of wisteria blossoms—was instantly blown into countless fragments.
Flames shot into the sky, painting half the night red.
"No! Master!!"
Mitsuri Kanroji cried out in despair, stumbling as her legs nearly gave way.
At that moment, the presence of Kagaya Ubuyashiki in the world of the living vanished completely.
Along with his wife Amane.
And the two children who had always stood by their side, Hinaki and Nichika.
They had become the sacrifice that opened the gates of hell.
That man had used his own flesh and blood, the lives of his family, and the mission that had endured for a thousand years.
With his own hands he had detonated the massive explosives hidden beneath the tatami mats, all to deliver a devastating blow to Muzan on this night of destiny's end.
Within the sea of fire, smoke and dust filled the air.
"Cough... ah... damn it!! UBUYASHIKI—!!!"
A twisted, hoarse voice filled with extreme fury rose from the center of the ruins.
Muzan's once elegant human body was now in a horrifying state.
Half of his head had been blown away.
All four of his limbs were severed.
New flesh sprouted in the flames, writhing like maggots.
To his shock, the explosives had been packed with countless specially made caltrops and wisteria poison.
In the moment of the explosion, these tiny objects had invaded his bloodstream, greatly slowing his regeneration.
He had expected Ubuyashiki to prepare a trap.
But he had never imagined it would reach this level.
"Wait... these toxins are meant to slow my regeneration... he knew he couldn't kill me? He has a second plan!"
"He used his own life and his family's lives as bait... Did his family know? Did they willingly cooperate in this act?"
"To hide such murderous intent at such a young age without even me noticing! What a sinister family!"
No.
Calm down.
Now isn't the time to think about that.
"Muzan—!! So this day has finally come for you!!"
From the shadow of the shattered rubble, a woman's voice suddenly rang out.
It was Tamayo.
Once a close attendant of Kibutsuji Muzan, she had escaped his control and spent centuries searching for a way to defeat him.
So Ubuyashiki had been working with that woman!
Using the shockwave of the explosion and her concealment Blood Demon Art, she had approached Muzan unnoticed.
Her fist plunged violently into the writhing flesh of his abdomen.
"This is the medicine that turns demons back into humans!"
Tamayo's face, illuminated by the firelight, was filled with unwavering resolve.
Her once graceful beauty had twisted into something almost demonic.
"For this moment... I have waited four hundred years! Muzan, come to hell with me!!"