Chapter 21

Ali picked up the spear from the ground. His holster had been torn apart during the fight, so he had to carry the spear in his hand as he followed the eagle towards his next target.

In a massive room with a large table, four people were waiting for someone. The door to the room opened, and a man in a modern black suit with a white suitcase entered. He took a seat at the head of the table.

"This will be a routine mission," the man in the suit began. "The goddess has informed me that the world will be 'Demon Slayer! As for the objective, it will be the final battle between the demon's leader and the demon slayers. The goddess wants at least one demon art or breathing style as a reward, so I decided we will side with the demon slayers and ensure we contribute enough to secure such a prize." As he finished speaking, the four people nodded in agreement without any complaints.

Seeing everyone in agreement, the man in the suit stood up from his seat and walked toward the door. Before leaving, he looked back and said, "Be ready. We will enter the transportation link soon."

Meanwhile, back at the Butterfly Mansion, Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke were training hard in the training hall. They had all agreed that they didn't want to experience what happened with the Flame Hashira again. Additionally, they had heard from the sisters about what Ali had accomplished in his last mission, which only fuelled them to train harder so they could get back to hunting demons.

Two days passed, and Ali could be seen lying on the roof of a house in a remote town. He was wearing a brand-new black kimono he had bought from the town, as his previous clothes were half-burned from his encounter with Akaza.

Ali looked up at the moon with his spear right by his side. He was waiting for his prey to reveal itself on this beautiful night. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a silver eagle flying high in the sky. He had instructed the bird to keep monitoring the area until it saw anyone matching the profile Ali had described.

'The main target tonight is a male demon. The victims are all women, three of them to be exact. All three were renowned in the town as the beauties of the town. The demon left their bodies scattered around the town after he was finished with them. From my experience with crime scenes, these were all cases of revenge, rape, and murder. The demon would assault the women and eat them at the same time', Ali thought as he sat up.

From high above, Ali could see a cute girl walking alone on the street at night. No matter how much she tried to act confident, it was clear she was nervous from the way she walked and kept glancing over her shoulder.

'And this here is my bait', Ali thought. 'A terrible bait, to be honest, but for this demon, it's good enough. Man, this is boring', Ali thought, annoyed, as he was pretty sure the demon was a weakling just based on the stupidity he'd shown Ali with the three dead girls.

He was pulled from his thoughts as the eagle suddenly swooped down fast to the west, signalling to Ali that a suspect was approaching from that direction.

Ali sighed and picked up his spear. He looked to the west and saw a young man running frantically toward Ali's bait. The woman didn't even have a chance to turn around before the man covered her mouth with his demonic hand and roughly picked her up using his superhuman strength.

"UMMMMMMMMM-UM-UMMM," the girl tried to scream, but her pleas were muffled by the demon's hand as he ran with her to a quiet back alley away from the open streets.

The demon threw the woman to the ground and pounced on her, tearing her kimono and underwear, revealing her bare chest. He kept his hand covering her mouth.

He got his ugly face close to hers and said, "What, am I not good enough? На?

Do I not deserve you? But I love you; I love you so much," he said in a crazed tone as he opened his mouth, showing his sharp canines.

Seeing this, the woman cried frantically, regretting ever agreeing to the handsome man's proposal of acting as bait.

Just as the demon was about to bite her right breast off—

BANG

The demon disappeared and smashed into the wall of the alley, crumbling it. Ali was standing while lowering his leg from the kicking position. He looked at the crying girl with her breasts exposed.

"You can start running now," Ali told the girl as she covered herself with her hands and started running out of the alley.

Ali looked at the back of the fleeing girl and thought, 'One and a half out of ten for the tits, and that's me being generous. Now then!' He turned his attention back to the grotesque demon on the ground.

The demon tried to get back up on its feet quickly, but-SLASH.

One second its legs were there, the next they were gone. Ali had sliced off the demon's legs with his spear, using a small amount of his breathing style to ensure the demon couldn't regenerate anymore.

"AAAAAAAH-" the demon's scream was abruptly cut off as Ali placed the tip of his spear in its mouth and crouched down.

"A rapist demon? Well, that's a nasty combination right there. Don't get me wrong, I'm not judging. Believe it or not, my deceased best friend was actually a rapist, and he killed the girls just like you. But at least he didn't eat them, you know," Ali said.

Ali stood up and raised his spear before impaling the demon's head into the ground, killing it.

He lifted the spear and shook it to get rid of the blood from the demon's head and legs. Then, he jumped high over the alley and left the town by leaping from one roof to another. Ali then landed in a grassy field and made his way back to a nearby forest where there was a small pond he had come across earlier.

Ali entered the forest and reached the clear pond, where he took off his clothes and stepped into the water until it was up to his chest. Ali looked at his forearm, where Veska's tattoo was. The rectangle had filled up even more with red; it was now nearly forty percent filled.

'I've got to start filling it up soon. Muzan will help me with that', Ali thought as he got out of the water and started putting on his clothes.

After donning his black kimono, Ali looked up at the bright moon. Suddenly, his eyes widened, and his hair stood on end. Black veins instantly appeared all across his body as he went into danger mode. All of that happened because Ali sensed something two meters behind him suddenly appear out of nowhere.

Something had snuck up on him without him noticing, which was a massive warning sign to someone like Ali.

In an instant, Ali turned around and punched forward with all the power he could muster in that short amount of time using his breathing style. The black smoke exploded outward as that punch tore through the forest, obliterating everything in its path and completely destroying the area in the direction of his fist.

Ali jumped back and scanned the area with his enhanced senses to try and detect anything amid the destruction. Then he noticed it—a medium-sized rock was moving among the rubble.

Ali waited until the rock tumbled over, and from underneath came a demon the size of Ali's hand. It was brown in colour and crying its eyes out. 'Upper Moon rank four', Ali thought as he looked into its small eyes.

The demon looked up at Ali in fear and saw the black smoke growing thicker and swirling faster around the demon slayer's hand, terrifying it.

"No, wait, please wait. I, uh, I'm only here to deliver an invitation from Lord Muzan, as you requested to speak with him. Please, have mercy on me," the demon stammered as it began to cry even harder at the end of its sentence.

Ali didn't stop his breathing style and walked over to his spear on his right side.

He picked up the spear and then asked the tiny demon, "An invitation to where?"

The demon calmed down slightly, sensing a sliver of mercy from Ali. "Lord Muzan invites you to his Infinity Castle, where you can speak with him. He also said that he was fascinated by your fight with Akaza and is very excited to meet you," the demon explained, delivering its message with a trembling voice.

"And where is this Infinity Castle?" Ali asked coldly.

The demon didn't answer directly but instead clapped its hands, and the ground behind it vanished, replaced by a bright yellow entrance that looked like a spiral of wooden rooms with bright lights all around.

"So that's how you bypassed me, you little rat," Ali said, surprised by the magical entrance. Ali's last words caused the demon to start apologising frantically.

Ali suddenly whistled, startling the demon, who became even more frightened as it saw the massive silver eagle fly down to Ali's arm.

"Wait for me here. You don't want to know what will happen to you if I come back and don't find you. Are we clear?" Ali said in a commanding voice. The eagle took off back into the sky, following his orders.

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