Kai's Inner World and the Hole in the Sky

AN: For the next few chapters, including this one, I will HIGHLY recommend referring the images and GIFs uploaded on Discord as you read the chapter i.e. side by side.

If you can join the Discord, but haven't, and you are a regular reader, then just use the link in Synopsis and join. DM me your WN username and get the Readers role. Its for your better reading experiene only. Anyway, read as per your comfort. No worries.

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"Ah!" Enmu moaned in sadistic pleasure. "How truly fortunate am I? A Hashira and two traitorous demons in the same room… Wonderful!" [GIF 1]

Enmu was one of the Twelve Kizuki, a demon holding the position of Lower Rank One. He was a slender young man with average height with ringed blue eyes. His left eye showcased the Kanji for "Lower One" written on its pupil, and the right eye had a horizontal line, giving it a toad-like eye appearance.

He had straight, chin-length hair of a dark black color which faded into a red-pink color near the ends. Today, he was wearing a black buttoned-up coat over a white shirt and pin-stripped gray pants.

The mouth at the back of his left hand licked its lips as Enmu ran it through his wet hair, eying the inn. The hailstorm seemed to not affect him, other than impairing his vision.

He had been tailing the blue-skinned demon and the Hashira for weeks now. However, he never got a good chance to attack. Now that the opportunity had finally presented itself to him, there was no point in delaying it anymore.

As per orders, he had already contacted the upper ranks, but why would he let them enjoy all the glory? Why indeed, when the fruits were ripened enough to be plucked anytime?

Enmu sneered, but he hadn't lost his cool. He knew to get all the targets, he must plan it meticulously. And didn't the inn serve as a brilliant stage for him?

Enmu could fuse himself into large, inanimate objects, assimilating and transforming the said objects into his main body. Yes. This ability of his was still unknown to them, and he would use it now.

Enmu had decided to fuse himself with the inn, turning the entire structure into his main body. But he would not touch the room where the targets were staying and their surrounding areas to not alert them.

Then there were the residents of the inn. Humans, over 100 of them, were stuck in the inn. The mere thought made Enmu shudder. "Mmm-hmm!" he licked his lips. "Simply exquisite! To look upon someone shattered to the absolute core by misfortunes, squirming in agony, is like sweet nectar to me."

Enmu was a very sadistic demon, who enjoyed the pain and suffering of humans, and his favorite method of torment was giving them a pleasant dream before turning it into a nightmare. He took pleasure in the suffering of others, enjoying the agonized expressions they made as he tortured them.

However, Enmu was also intelligent and cautious in his approach to anything he executed, having a complete understanding of his power's strengths and weaknesses and making sure to both exploit and avoid them respectively to succeed. Yet, his newly gained powers of sending his prey into dreams and manipulating those dreams had made him slightly arrogant, overconfident, and greedy.

It wasn't a surprise that he thought he could handle a Hashira and two other demons by himself. Though, whether it was a rash decision was yet to be seen.

Enmu cautiously approached the inn, keeping himself in the shadows. When he neared the inn, he looked at his left hand with the mouth on its back. The part above the wrist on this hand detached itself, scurrying away into pipes.

'I will first send one of them to the dreams by controlling a human,' Enmu thought, giggling to himself. 'Then I will ambush the rest of the two by instantly fusing myself into their rooms as well.'

The only issue was that it would take some time. But in this storm, time wasn't his major concern.

Enmu touched a corner of the inn, and minute by minute, melted into the inn. By the end of an hour, the Lower Rank One demon had already assimilated the entire inn into himself, turning it into his body, except for the main room occupied by the Hashira and a few rooms surrounding it.

And his left hand took control of a human child, too. 'A tender boy!' Enmu thought, his mind unraveling the things he could do to the boy making him tremble. 'So many humans! Ahh! I will become so powerful after consuming them…'

But first came the Hashira and two traitors, Enmu reminded himself. He sent the boy and his left hand, having the ability, Whispers of Forced Unconscious Hypnosis, which could send anyone to deep sleep just by saying "Go to sleep" to the room.

The moment the door opened, and the Hashira looked down, Enmu knew he had struck immense luck. Even if the Hashira recognized his hand, it was already too late. No one could defend against his ability. Not even a Hashira.

Enmu snorted in disdain, seeing the fallen, petite figure of the Demon Slayer. Then a commotion arose from the room. 'Oh, it's so going according to my plans!' Enmu thought, bringing his fused flesh closer to the room.

But then a mishap happened.

The blue-skinned traitor saw them, but just as his hand used the ability, the traitor smacked at his own ears, rupturing his eardrums.

Enmu didn't know this could counter his ability. Intense flames of anger burned inside him, making him mad. This sudden loss of bearing because of Enmu's newly found arrogance gave the blue-skinned demon ample time to counterattack. He used some kind of force to throw the boy and the hand, making them slam into the wall behind them.

Worried about his hand's safety, Enmu made it run, as he didn't want to let the traitor demon know about his assimilation. But strangely, the white-haired demon didn't pursue his hand. So once the left hand had gone a few feet away from the room, it melted, fusing into the inn as well.

Inside the room, under the focused gaze of Enmu, he saw the traitor demon running about senselessly, trying to save the Hashira. How naive!

Enmu got the chance he had been waiting for a long time ago.

The moment this blue-skinned demon crouched to lift the Hashira, Enmu rushed to assimilate the rest of the rooms.

By the time the demon, carrying the Hashira and the wooden box, made a run for the window, obviously trying to leave the inn, Enmu had already fused himself into the room.

Now the entire inn was his body.

And with this, he could use another of his abilities, Eyes of Forced Unconscious Sleep.

Before the blue-skinned demon could even know what happened, Enmu used this ability to send him into a deep sleep, as only eye contact was necessary for this.

"Haha!" the floor inside the room squirmed, and sprouts of bloody flesh sprang up, becoming Enmu's figure. Yet, his feet remained melted inside the floor, giving an impression as if he was just a branch of an entire flesh tree. [GIF 2]

Enmu slid towards the fallen figures and grabbed the Hashira before throwing her outside into the corridor.

'A Hashira has too brute survival instincts,' he thought, smiling. 'I will send a human puppet inside her Inner World to destroy the Spiritual Core unlike before. Let's see if her Sword Spirit will kill the boy or not. Haha!' [Image 1]

Enmu had learned from his past experiences. But this blue-skinned demon? He neither had Nichirin swords nor a Sword Spirit. He would personally torture this traitor and destroy his Spiritual Core, Enmu decided.

A giant flesh protrusion lifted off the floor and covered both Kai and the wooden box. Enmu melted back into the floor and brought the traitors to the roof.

A tower of flesh sprouted from there, like a mound, and at the top of his flesh mound was Kai, his entire figure surrounded by flesh up to his neck. Sheets of rain fall on Kai's face, fusing with the tears streaming down his chin, and when the thunder cracked, lighting up the darkness, one could see the faintest hint of sadness and longing on his face.

From the same flesh mound, a pillar-sized tentacle branched off. The end of the tentacle squirmed and became Enmu's head. He had already been making Kai dream joyous dreams and then nightmares. So the moment his eyes landed on Kai's expression, Enmu blushed sadistically. [Image 2]

"To be able to die while dreaming... just how lucky are you?" he said, smiling. "I must say, I like to show a nightmare after I show someone a delightful dream. I love to see the contortions of a human face! To gaze upon someone struggling with their grief and suffering—so much fun!"

At the same time, another Enmu appeared in Kai's dreams. This Enmu was the dream projection of the actual demon outside but could roam freely in the Dream World, unlike the person to whom the dream belonged.

Enmu had appeared inside a sewage system, making him frown. Now that he was inside a dream, he didn't wait anymore, his cautious nature urging him to finish the task as soon as possible.

Every dream realm had limits and boundaries. In no time, Enmu found himself facing an unseen wall, beyond which he couldn't go, no matter how much he tried. Now Enmu took out an awl made of his bones. Only this could tear this dream boundary, letting him enter the dreamer's Inner World. [Image 3]

Enmu stabbed the bone awl into the formless and unseen wall and then tore open a person-sized gash before stepping in.

The stupendous sight of Kai's Inner World shocked even this sadistic demon instantly.

It was a vast world, with no perceivable end. To the farthest point Enmu's eyes could see, he saw that a thin layer of blood had covered the ground, making it look like a blood ocean. However, when he looked down, he saw that this blood only reached his ankles.

Enmu lifted his head and marveled at the sky now. It was plain, extremely plain. Gray, cloudless, and dull. Nothing impressive, just telling an archaic tale of immense sadness, pain, and anger.

Yet, it was the silence of the world that astounded Enmu the most. It was too quiet even for the Inner Worlds.

Enmu walked forward, the bone awl in his hands flailing menacingly.

Suddenly, Enmu noticed two odd things.

First, no matter how heavy or fast he walked, the blood sheet under his feet didn't ripple at all, and no sound came out that one could expect from walking onto a water-like substance. He kicked the blood, sending several globules of blood flying far. Yet, when they fell on the blood sheet, they melted into it making no ripple or sound either.

The second was the hole in the sky. Enmu squinted his eyes at it. It was too far away, but he could tell it was a hole.

Perhaps the spiritual core was near that hole?

The more time he would spend here, the greater the chances of the Hashira bringing annoying variables into the equation. So Enmu ran into the blood field, making headway towards the tiny hole in the sky.

The nearer he got to the hole, the bigger it became.

Only when he was several hundred feet away from the hole did Enmu stop. Not because he had found the Spiritual Core, but he found something else. Something that even made the demon take a step back.

A giant waterfall of blood was coming out of the spherical hole in the sky, falling into the blood field below without causing ripples or sound. No. It was better to call this a Bloodfall.

And standing between Enmu's comparatively tiny figure and the immensely tall bloodfall was a gray pillar, around a hundred feet high and only a meter in diameter.

Enmu took another step back.

Someone was there, on the top of the pillar, standing tall and looking far towards the distant ends of the Inner World, or perhaps towards the end of times.

It was a very lean figure, over 6 ft tall, and black. Its hands were taller than the supposed proportions, and its fingers were long as well, with claws at their ends. All black. There was no face, either. No mouth. No nose and eyes. Just plain blackness, ancient and alone. The only color it had other than black was yellow, and that too belonged to the figure's knee-length hair.

There was no wind in this Inner World. Yet, those long, yellow hair were flailing left and right, giving an impression of a banner amid storm.

'How is this possible?!' Enmu thought, shocked. 'A demon having a Sword Spirit, and that too without the Nichirin Swords? This is absurd. Who is this demon?'

The only reason he hadn't entered Hashira's Inner World was that the prospect of fighting with a Sword Spirit made him uneasy.

No. He must return. Now.

Enmu spun at the spot, ready to make another run to the gash opened on the dream's boundary wall.

However, the moment he turned around, he found the same black figure standing in front of him.

Enmu's heart gave away, and he fell backward, the bone awl drowning in the shallow blood ocean. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the top of the pillar was now empty. Enmu had heard of the Sword Spirits having much greater freedom within the Inner World. But this? This was absurd, even for him.

The tall black figure had no eyes. Yet Enmu could tell that it was looking at him. Suddenly, the black figure lifted his hand and pointed at the hole in the sky.

Enmu gaped at this motion. 'Is it telling me that this hole is the Spiritual Core?' He thought. 'How can a hole be a Spiritual Core?'

Spiritual Cores were the essence of a Soul, the Spirit. Even demons had it, much less needed to be said about the humans.

Yet the truth was in front of his eyes. "Haha!" Enmu suddenly laughed, regaining his courage and sadistic personality. "So you are an empty shell. A shell formed out of obsessions and regrets. Huh! Take me to the Spiritual Core. I command you."

The faceless figure nodded.

Enmu grinned, picked up the fallen bone awl, and pushed himself to his feet. Then they started to walk towards the gray pillar.

Suddenly, Enmu looked down and saw that the figure's steps were creating ripples into the blood ocean. However, he pushed the uneasiness caused by this founding to the back of his mind.

Then, under the shocked gaze of Enmu, the tall, black figure put its left hand over his right shoulder, and in the next moment, they vanished.

They both appeared high in the sky, hovering midair in front of the hole.

It didn't shock Enmu. Now that he knew this figure was nothing to be afraid of, he had regained his composure. The hole wasn't overly big, either. Just several meters in size, big enough for two or three people to enter together. And the bloodfall coming out of it was unimpressive as well.

'Ah! Such bliss, to kill someone!' Enmu screamed in his mind, preparing to tear the hole apart with the bone awl.

Silence.

Only now did Enmu notice he had lost the command over his body. He couldn't even close his eyes, much less move his limbs.

Kekekeke!!!

The eeriest and most hideous cackling Enmu had ever heard echoed throughout the entire Inner World. Yet, somehow he knew the origin of this laugh was this figure, clutching his shoulder with its long, black fingers.

Kekekekekekeke!!!

The demonic cackle intensified, and Enmu found himself gliding towards the hole. His heart was thumping wildly, but he couldn't move or even speak.

And then the most horrific sight presented itself to the demon, which even the king of the demons couldn't have made him see. This sight brought such fear with it that Enmu pissed himself, his pupil trembling maddeningly.

There was something inside the hole.

Something more alive than both him and the black figure.

Something vile, foul, and repulsive.

Evil incarnate!!!

Outside, in the real world, an even grandeur scene was taking place, but much easier to comprehend.

Flesh after flesh kept oozing out of the inn in large globules.

And then with a bang, Enmu, now expelled out of the inn, exploded, disintegrating into the grayest particles of ash.

The Lower Rank One demon died, his hideous screams failing to penetrate the realms of dreams it had so lusted after.

The only word that could remotely attempt to describe this series of events was — Bizarre.

Yet, even this word failed to catch the essence of it, forcing the audience to just watch in silence… and move on.