In the same instant that Muzan turned to ashes,
a violent tremor, unable to be observed by the naked eye but perceivable by the soul, traveled through some evil biological connection, instantly spreading across the entire island nation.
In the mountain forest several kilometers from the Infinity Castle battlefield.
Several lower-ranking demons that had escaped from the collapsed ruins amidst the chaos of battle were hiding in the densely shaded crevices of rocks, panting heavily.
Thankful to have survived, greed flickered in their eyes as they sniffed the scent of humans in the air, preparing to gorge themselves in nearby villages once the sky darkened.
But soon, their ferocious smiles froze.
"Ugh... ah... pfft!" The leading demon suddenly clutched its own throat.
It felt every cell belonging to Muzan within its body madly self-destruct.
Without the Demon King's will to support them, the evil power that maintained their immortality turned into the most violent poison.
In that pitch-black, gloomy rock crevice, the bodies of these demons began to shatter like dried clay sculptures.
First fingers, then limbs, and finally their ugly heads.
They couldn't utter a single plea before turning into a pool of foul black ash in extreme terror.
The same scene played out synchronously in every corner where demons lurked.
Those monsters that once wielded power and bullied others relying on Muzan's blood now faced a reckoning spanning a millennium.
They coexisted with Muzan, and perished with Muzan.
The noose that had tightly bound humanity's throat finally completely snapped with Muzan's annihilation.
Similarly, in the distant Ubuyashiki command post, Kamado Nezuko also had a violent reaction.
She abruptly sat up, her back arched from the violent response.
"What's wrong with her!"
Kiriya, already anxious from losing on-site communication, felt a wave of unease at Nezuko's reaction.
Hearing this cry, Tengen flashed in like lightning, warily shielding Kiriya.
But soon, Nezuko's state calmed down.
Her cherry-pink vertical pupils began to slowly return to normal. Her complexion was no longer pale. The aura of a human began to emerge on her.
"....Muzan.... is dead....."
She removed the bamboo cylinder from her mouth, haltingly speaking human language.
Hearing these words, Kiriya's pupils contracted to pinpricks. He excitedly crawled to Nezuko's side to confirm her condition.
'Indeed! She had turned back into a human!'
Although she had taken the medicine developed by Tamayo to turn demons back into humans, the effect hadn't been very ideal.
But now, she was back.
"Waaah—!!" Nezuko suddenly burst into tears, pitifully hugging Kiriya, crying inconsolably as she shouted, her voice echoing through the entire mountain forest:
"Muzan is dead! Nezuko has turned back into a human!"
At these words, whether it was Kiriya or the two sisters behind him, their emotions were instantly ignited.
These children, only eight or nine years old, finally showed a bit of their age at this moment.
They hugged each other, wept bitterly, comforting their wounded hearts:
"Father... Mother... Sister....."
"Kibutsuji Muzan! Is dead!!"
In the center of the battlefield ruins, the clamor gradually faded.
Taka swayed, picking up the rusty, rust-covered Tonan that lay on the ground.
This miserable appearance was exactly the same as when he first saw Tonan upon arriving in this world.
He was now terribly weak, unable to mobilize a single ounce of Reiryoku.
Just as that person had said, he had closed Taka's Reiryoku Circuit.
Large patches of skin were ulcerated. One eye had lost focus, but he didn't care.
He knew this body of his wouldn't last much longer.
"Taka.... you.... cough...."
A weak voice came from nearby.
Taka turned his head and saw the Fist Hashira, Hakuji, lying collapsed in the rubble.
Hakuji's condition was now at its worst.
In the previous desperate fight, in order to hold back Muzan, he had directly endured multiple heavy blows containing the Demon King's potent poison.
Muzan's curse toxins had shredded his body. And with Muzan's death, the demon blood within Hakuji was also rapidly drying up.
Although he possessed martial will surpassing Upper Rank Three, his body was ultimately still of demonic construction.
Taka silently walked over. With every step, his wounds seeped blood.
He sat down wearily beside Hakuji: "You're going to die."
"Yeah.... I can feel it." Hakuji smiled bitterly. His makeshift tiger mask had long shattered. His face looked somewhat desolate in the gradually brightening dawn light.
Those eyes, which once only pursued the peak of martial arts, now revealed an unprecedented clarity.
".....From our first fight on the Infinity Train to today... I've always been unable to see through you."
Hakuji's voice was intermittent. The intense pain made every word an immense challenge for him. "You're like a god suspended loftily in the heavens, coldly looking down on us creatures struggling in the mud...."
He coughed up a mouthful of black blood mixed with internal organ fragments. His voice grew more and more faint: "Who exactly are you? Are you a messenger of this divine will, or a guide to hell?"
Taka looked at him and calmly replied, as always:
"I am nothing. Just an ordinary person desperately trying to live."
"An ordinary person, huh... heh..." Hakuji laughed, though the laugh pulled at his wounds, making him convulse. "If that's the case... then the 'ordinary' of this world is truly too awe-inspiring."
Sunlight had already begun to outline golden contours at the edge of the earth.
"Taka.... do me a favor."
Hakuji's voice grew fainter and fainter. He extended a hand that was already beginning to crumble, pointing at the golden line on the horizon.
"Find me a good place.... I want to be there... and see the scenery of the human world one more time."
"I've been a demon for too long..... so long that I've almost forgotten... what color sunlight really is."
Taka silently extended his ulcerated arms and steadily picked up this former martial madman, now a dying man.
His steps were slow, but steady.
When he climbed that high slope, a wisp of warm golden sunlight just slanted onto the two of them.
He leaned Hakuji against a tree.
By now, Hakuji's lower body had almost completely turned to ashes, gently scattering in the breeze.
"So beautiful...."
Hakuji gazed greedily into the distance.
The morning sky was shrouded in clouds and mist, refracting into a magnificent purple-gold in the sunlight.
It seemed he saw, within that mist, a girl with short pink hair, her smile as warm as a flower.
[Hakuji, come home.]
"Koyuki...." He murmured silently. Two streams of clear tears traced down his lined cheeks.
He turned his head and looked at Taka one last time.
"....Thank you.... If there really is a next life..... I hope we can be in a world without demons, and have a good, thorough fight."
Taka stood in the wind, letting the morning breeze ruffle his black hair.
"Hakuji." Taka's tone rarely carried a trace of gentleness:
"I wish you..... happiness, even in hell."
Hakuji, upon hearing this, revealed the most peaceful smile of his entire life.
"Thank you for your kind words...."
Then, his entire upper body, under the complete illumination of the sun, disintegrated into countless fine ashes.
Those embers circled in the wind for a moment, as if bidding farewell to Taka, then completely vanished between heaven and earth.
At the other end of this battlefield, in the shadows of those broken walls, another choice was also being made.
Yushiro knelt on the ground, tightly clutching a delicate hairpin in his hand.
It was the only keepsake left by Tamayo.
There was no sunlight around him, yet he felt worse than being burned by fire.
'Tamayo-sama was dead. I would have to endure endless loneliness.....'
He slowly stood up, his gaze turning towards the sun-drenched land.
He was a demon, yet not subject to Muzan's control, and would not perish with him.
If he wished, he could hide deep in the mountains, using his technique to continue surviving in the shadows for centuries, millennia.
But a world without Tamayo was, to him, merely a longer, colder nightmare.
"I cannot let you walk that path alone..... It's too cold there. You would surely lose your way."
Yushiro wiped away his tears. His gaze became incomparably resolute.
Sizzle—
He resolutely stepped out of the shadow and into that brilliant and holy sunlight.
"Tamayo-sama..... wait for me...."
In the interplay of light and shadow, Yushiro's figure rapidly faded, finally turning into a wisp of light smoke, disappearing into the cool morning breeze.
Thus.
On this land, there were no more demons.