Stage of Carnage, Shimousa

All I want for Christmas is powerstones. And reviews. And comments. And praise. And a PS5. And Money. Lots of Money. 

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I can assure you, to have the carnal Holy Grail snatched from you at the very moment your lips were about to touch it's rim is something that will torture your mind forever. Your wild imaginings about what you were just about to experience will haunt you until death.

- Mark Romel, The Mistletoe Murders: A Nietzschean Murder Mystery

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 "Mother, I am going to be gone for a while." I stated simply, pulling on my coat. I was back in my apartment, while my mother was reading a magazine. She blinked, looking up at me. She looked slightly concerned and worried. 

 She was sitting on the couch, with a figure standing in the shadows a little bit away. "Are you sure? Where are you going? What about earlier?" She worriedly asked. I smiled slightly, thankful for her concern. I really didn't deserve my mother. 

 "I am going to stay with a friend for a little while. I can't tell you where, but I will be back in about a week." I stated simply, lowering my voice to a kinder tone. She frowned and looked even more worried. 

 "Are you getting involved with underground fighting again? You swore you would never go back there." She angrily stated. I sighed, knowing this was coming. In my youth, I was much more carefree and happier, fresh from reincarnation, I had journeyed out into the world, abandoning my mother and seeking adventure, thinking myself to be a Hero. 

 I had gotten involved with a lot of bad things, such as underground fighting. I thought it was cool at the time, fighting powerful opponents and learning to fight, but I left after I got into some trouble. Mainly because I pissed off an underground fighter from the Russian Mafia, who was out for blood. 

 "No, I am going out with a girl to help her with a few things for a few days." I bullshitted. I knew the insinuation was there, but that was purposeful, to distract her. She blinked before her eyes widened. 

 "A girl? Really? After all this time? You have to tell me more!" She jumped up, rushing to me. "I thought you may have been born without hormones, the amount of interest you show in the other gender." She joked. 

 Well? Why are you still here? Go!" She exclaimed, overly excited at the prospect of me getting a girlfriend. I idly imagined bringing Serafall home, to see my mother's reaction to her personality and clothing. I could only imagine the devastation at realizing she was as crazy as I was in my youth. 

 I blinked, as I found myself shoved out the door before it slammed shut behind me, a duffle bag in my hand. Maybe my plan worked a bit too well. Either way, I shook it off, before exiting our apartment complex, to find Serafall waiting outside, several people surrounding her and asking for photos, like some sort of costumed mascot. 

 She spotted me through the crowd, before vanishing and reappearing next to me. The crowd became confused, as she grabbed my hand and pulled me away. "Took you long enough! I was starting to wonder if I needed to barge in and help convince your mother!" She exclaimed happily. I winced as I thought of how such a situation would go down. 

 "Either way! We should start to head out as soon as we can!" She exclaimed, excited at the prospect. 

 I blinked, before asking. "And where exactly are we going?" I asked, not really expecting a straight response. She had reassured me she would help me enter the supernatural world, but I wasn't exactly sure how. 

 "First! We need to see a few people and build some connections! I know where the Leader of the Grigori lives, so let's pay him a visit!" She explained. I blinked. Was it really a good idea to visit what sounded like such an important person so soon?

 She pulled me into a dark alley, before letting go of my hand. She then waved her wand, a complex symbol glowing blue manifesting on the ground. I considered my life choices, before stepping on the circle as she smiled at me happily, carefree, and relaxed. 

 As I stepped into the circle, I felt myself being whisked away to another place. The last thing I saw was Serafall's panicked expression, as I wondered if something was wrong. 

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[Counter-Force Heroic Summoning Ritual Activated]

Let Iron and Blood be the Essence. 

[Temporary Contract Created]

Let the King who Stands at World's End grant his knight sanction. Let the Archdeamon fill you with desire. 

[Quantum Lock Integrity Failed. Akashic Record - Human Order Unstable]

Let the First Man grant his descendant pardon. 

[Summoning Target found. Temporary Designation - [Cao Cao (False)] ]

Raise the wall of Humanity's final bastion. 

[Error: Secondary Target Summoned. Response: Temporary Counter Guardian Status Given]

Let the Angels who hold back the Four Winds let go.

[Error: Secondary Target Designation Contains Traits to Designate [Evil of Humanity] ]

Be coronated with 9 crowns.

[Secondary Target Saint Graph Designated. Temporary Saint Graph Designation - [Beast I/S] ]

Rotate the road leading to the Promised Kingdom.

[Secondary Target Temporary Designation - [Leviathan (False)] ]

The world declares, let us use the Gods for our benefit. 

[Primary Target Saint Graph Designated. Temporary Saint Graph Designation - [Saver] ]

The Fate of the World shall be your Spear of Destiny. 

[Error: Saint Graph Designation Insufficient. Error: Restriction Unavailable due to lack of Akashic Record] 

Submit to the Call of the Sephiroth Graal. 

[Temporary Saint Graph Created: [Grand Saver] ]

Hero, if your will and reason be subsumed…. Then answer!

[Singularity Detected. Fantasy World Detected.]

Let an oath carved into the Hollow Tree of Life be spoken, unbroken until the End of Time. 

[Singularity Designated: [Shimousa - Stage of Carnage] ]

You shall subjugate all the virtues of heaven. 

[Seven Duels of Seven Swordmasters]

You shall dominate all the Evils of Hell

[Humanity Foundation Value - Undetermined]

From the 9th Heaven, attended by 7 words of Truth, 

[Summoning Complete]

Come Forth from the Throne of God, Spear of Heaven!

[Save the world.]

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 I woke up face-first in the dirt. Now, this is normally the start of a bad joke, but hear me out, I swear it's a good one. 

 I groaned, feeling odd. My brain was hurting, my body feeling strange. I slowly pushed myself up, looking around. I was in the middle of a forest, the sun beating down on me. I looked at myself. I was wearing a blue suit, strangely clean and nice despite lying in the dirt. 

 I flexed my hands. I felt… strong. Energetic. I felt a flow of energy, a connection flooding me with power. I rolled my shoulders, standing up. Was this where the leader of the Grigori was located? He must have been quite the isolationist to live in the middle of nowhere like this. 

 I hopped up. I felt … strong. My limbs felt looser, my body lighter. I looked around finding Serafall a bit away, staring blankly at the ground. I blinked at her strange expression. She looked lost and confused. 

 "Serafall?" I asked carefully. She looked up at me, her eyes vacant and clouded. "Are you okay..?" I asked.

 "I really want to kill some humans right now." She spoke randomly, causing me to blink. That was mildly concerning. 

 "Uh, is this a Devil thing?" I asked in a concerned tone. 

 She blinked, before shaking her head. "No. And that's a problem." She spoke dangerously. 

 "So… you want to kill me?" I asked reluctantly.

 "No. You are not a human. You are a Servant." She spoke factually, causing me to blink at the unfamiliar term. That didn't sound like she meant a normal servant either. 

 "Sooo, where are we?" I asked. She shook her head before she seemed to regain her composure. She stood up, before almost stumbling to the ground again. I instinctively caught her, and she blinked, her eyes refocusing. 

 She growled, before taking a few deep breaths. "Thank you." She seemed to calm down a bit before she regained her composure. "I don't know where we are. All I know is before we teleported, I felt a summoning spell of some kind taking effect." She stated dangerously. 

 "They were trying to summon a Demon?" I asked blankly. That was some inconvenient timing if so. But, she surprised me by shaking her head in response. 

 "No. The spell was undoubtedly targeting you." She spoke dangerously. Well, that was majorly concerning. Was there a summoning spell for humans? Did Devils summon Humans to make contracts? That image made me chuckle in my mind. 

 I winced as information flooded my brain, through the connection I felt before. Terms and concepts I had no knowledge of suddenly made sense. Servant. Noble Phantasm. Classes. Saint Graph. Sephiroth Graal.

 I blinked as the information became clearer. Serafall showed no response, but she blinked as Information flooded her brain as well. She blinked several more times, confused and at a loss at the crazy situation they were in. 

 "Sephiroth Graal?" I questioned out loud, causing Serafall to frown a bit. 

 "A Longinus-Class Sacred Gear, and one of the Holy Artifacts. It hasn't been seen for quite some time, but this situation is not something I have heard of happening before." She explained. I frowned. 

 "A summoning to a 'Parallel World' has never been heard of before. Neither has the Graal somehow communicated with sentient life." She speculated out loud. I nodded in response. The message was clear in my mind. Find the Grail. And we would return home. It was something that was a fact, engraved in my mind. 

 "This idea of servants, however, is not that far-fetched. The Grail is known to have the ability to resurrect the dead. However, this idea of 'Servants' is strange, even to me." She revealed. Resurrecting the dead? Now that was something that caught my attention. 

 She began to speculate out loud, her genius as a mage causing her to analyze the information given. He caught the word 'Saint Graph' along with many others as she muttered under her breath. 

 "Does this have something to do with the Sacred Gear System evolving?" I questioned out loud. Serafall blinked, before nodding her head absentmindedly. 

 "That makes the most logical sense, but the timing is odd, along with this situation. The power to manipulate parallel worlds is something unheard of, even in the supernatural world. If such a power or function existed, why haven't we heard of it? Such a power couldn't evolve spontaneously." She muttered, obviously frustrated. 

 I recognized her anger and decided to reassure her. "Calm down, we can speculate all we want, but it probably won't do us any good. We need to find someplace to rest for the night before it gets dark." I advised. I was not confident in our ability to find a single golden cup in an entirely unknown world in half a day.

 After all, this was not a surprising event for me. Traveling to parallel worlds was common in fanfiction, and the ability was usually held by the protagonist as he visited various fictional worlds. I had already been reincarnated once and had lived an entire second life in a new world. This idea of being transported to a new world was not all that surprising for me, as the Hero. 

 "We have a goal, so let's plan around it once we assess our situation and gain more information. Think of it like a vacation!" I encouraged her. The situation didn't seem dire or dangerous, at least not yet. "The Sephiroth Graal even told us we have time." I reassured. The grail, at least that's what I assumed was giving us information, had no sense of urgency or time constraint. 

Instead, it seemed to imply that we needed to retrieve the grail and that nothing else mattered. Time was not an issue. That we just needed to retrieve it, and the state in which we left this world or how we retrieved it was unimportant. 

A quest for the Holy Grail. Like King Arthur, like my favorite book, the Da Vinci Code.

I silently looked at the sky, tired and wondering how the heck we ended up in this situation. Parallel worlds? It was a cliche troupe, but something like this was still out of the ordinary. Still, the grail warned me of danger and that terrible things would happen if I abandoned its goal for me. And as a Hero, when someone is in danger, is it not my job to save the day? 

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 Tanjiro Kamado looked up at the towering buildings. Living his life in a small house with his family, isolated even from the small village near them, he had never seen such a sight.

 The lights and sounds of Asakusa were foreign to him. The dozens of people walking around at night, partying and laughing without a care in the world were strange compared to the careful and reserved people of his village. 

 Still, he had a mission here, and it was his duty as a Demon Slayer to protect people and destroy demons. He sighed, lamenting the immediate mission after he had defeated the Swamp Demon in the town a few miles away. Sure, he knew from his mentor Sakonji that the Demon Slayers rarely had time to rest, but he still wished for a day for Nezuko to recover after her fight with the Swamp Demon.

 He took a bit out of his udon, which he had bought from a small vendor, and was now sitting in front of on a bench. He reflected, relaxing for a few moments before he was going to begin searching for the demon. He turned to his backpack, resting his hand against the lid, listening to the quiet breathing of his sister as she slept. 

 Currently, he was struggling with the revelation of other people's loss. After the fight with the Swamp Demon, he gave the hairpin of one of the victims to Kazumi, a man whose fiancée was devoured by the demon. The sight of him thanking him after he had insulted Tanjiro, overwhelmed by loss, was not leaving his mind. 

 He had become a Demon Slayer for one reason. To find the demon that slaughtered his family. He also wished to become strong enough to protect his sister and find a way to turn her into a human once again. But the sight of the man crying and thanking him was changing his perspective on his mission

 He wanted to protect people so that no one would have to feel the same loss he and Kazumi felt. To slay demons, so no one else had to die. It was a simple goal, but one that he had neglected thinking about as he was training to become a Demon Slayer. He smiled at the image when Kazumi bowed and thanked him while crying, apologizing. Not for a vindictive reason, but because the man realized his mistake and was able to overcome his loss in such a short amount of time. 

 He was about to dig into his meal when he froze. A scent, hidden, and subtle, was reaching his nose. It was barely discernible, yet overwhelming. A familiar smell. The smell of a demon. It was the smell of blood and iron and rotten corpses. It was overwhelming to Kanjiro. It was familiar. The same smell he had engraved into his mind, lingering in his home, with the corpses of his family strewn about. He swore he would not forget the scent. He recalled it every night as he gazed upon his sleeping sister. 

 He jumped up, leaving his bowl of udon on the bench. He grabbed his sword, and rushed into the city, intent on finding the source of the scent. Leaving his sister behind, still sleeping in the box. The scent was the only thing on his mind, his hand resting on the hilt of his blade. 

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 I looked around the city, taking in the sights and appreciating the view. Serafall walked behind me, somewhat hidden in the shadows, to avoid the gaze of the people walking around. After all, in this time period, people were much less accepting of what you wore. And Serafall understood that now was not the time to make a scene. 

 We had asked a few locals to find out we were in Asakusa, a relatively large city northeast of Tokyo. Ending up in a Parallel Version of Japan was interesting, considering the similarities. 

 I half expected to end up far in the past, in the medieval era, or far into the future. Or, some world where Japan and the world we knew didn't exist, or was radically different. But, We had yet to find a single difference. 

 The year was 1914, we found out, and I was quite thankful for our landing in Japan. World War 1 was in full swing, making Europe a hotbed of War Torn land I did not want to be searching for the Grail in. 

 Japan was allied with the Entente powers at this time, and at war with Germany and Austria-Hungary. They were attacking German Leased territory in China, and German Colonies in the Pacific. It would only be a few years until the Bolshevik Revolution led to the formation of the U.S.S.R, and until America joined the war. 

 Still, it was fairly peaceful. I was also silently thanking the Gods we weren't thrown into World War 2. I marveled at the lights and buildings, which were surprisingly advanced for being 100 years before my day. People were waking and talking, with what looked like a festival taking place within the town square. 

 I looked behind me to see if Serafall wanted to perhaps join the festival and have some fun, but frowned at her serious expression. I decided to not ask and simply lead us to the outskirts of town. We entered a dark alleyway, before stopping. 

 I turned to Serafall, who was deep in thought. "Well? What do you think?" I asked her. I was unsure of what our goal should be, or what course of action we should take. "We appear to have been thrown 100 years into the past. Do you want to meet your past self and tell her anything?" I sarcastically remarked. 

 She shook her head. "No. And that's not because I don't want to." She stated ominously. 

 I blinked in confusion, and she looked at my confused face before elaborating. "I am trying to contact any of my family or people I know. But I have gotten nothing." She scowled. 

 "Which means what?" I was confused. 

 "I tried to send a message, but it has not been working. Then I tried to use a spell, and it worked fine. Except, there is a problem. There is no mana in this world." She stated.

 I blinked. "No Mana? So there's no Magic?" I was interested. 

 "I don't know. I can cast spells due to my own magical power, along with the power I am receiving from the grail. This means that I don't exist in this parallel world, or it is completely different from the one we know." She sighed. 

 "Also, do you know about your class?" She then questioned. I recalled the information, and it easily flowed into my head like a memory. 

 "Yes. I also have some knowledge about Skills, Parameters, and Noble Phantasms." I answered, the information flooding my brain. 

 "Of course, they had to give me this class, instead of [Caster]." She groaned, obviously annoyed. 

 The information about the [Caster] class was simple. A person who casts spells, or uses mainly magic. But her current class of [Beast] was much more concerning, signifying someone who is an [Evil of Humanity], and wishes to destroy it. "I suppose it must be due to your status as a Satan, and the role of Leviathan." I concluded, and she nodded. 

 She sighed dramatically, before adopting a whiny tone, seemingly becoming more relaxed and in character as we come to terms with our situation. "But it makes me so annoyed with humans, it makes me want to rip them to shreds. To drown them in an eternal sea." She complained loudly. "Help me Enuma-Kun!" She winced, falling into my arms dramatically. 

 "You must help me restrain my beastly urges to kill humans by satisfying me!" She declared seriously, as she looked up at my face as she laid in my arms. I took a few seconds to comprehend what she said before my face became flushed. 

 Come on, you aren't just some random Isekai protagonist! Don't let a woman tease me like this! Think of something cool to say in response, to make her flustered, like a cool anime character! You've been training your whole life for this moment!

 She arched her back, still in my arms, stretching her arms back, as her shirt, if it can even be called that, fell towards her face, giving me a good view of the valley between her breasts. 

 My face began to reach temperatures necessary for the formation of stars. I was an inexperienced man who had never thought he would be in such a cliche scenario before! Why does my status as a possible virgin have anything to do with this?!

 Think about something else. Anything. Not her breasts, or how good they look. Think about muscular men. Very muscular, handsome…. That wasn't working. In fact, it was getting worse. No, think of Mil-Tan. Yes. The 'thing'. My face became devoid of emotion within a second. 

 Serafall pouted at my blank gaze against the opposite alley wall, ignoring the show she was putting on for me. She then got up before leaning close to my face, but I put my hand up and pushed her away before she could continue. I only groaned as she licked my hand as I pushed her away. 

 "Let's get something to eat," I spoke, wanting to be free of this torture. Yes, gory, bloody torture. Think of that. 

 Serafall grew excited, before jumping up. "Wait a minute! I know a good place to go! There was an udon shop Yakasa told me she loved about 100 years ago before the owner died. Maybe it's still around here somewhere!" She exclaimed, and I could only compare her to a little kid during Christmas. 

 "You're drooling," I noted absentmindedly, as she turned around and sped off, as I blinked before I panicked and ran out of the alleyway to find her. 

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Tanjiro walked back quickly, sweating and his mind running a million miles an hour. 'The man..' he thought quietly, his rage nearly boiling over. He had completed his goal. He had located the man who had slaughtered his family. Yet, when he met him, he found nothing but rage and vindictiveness. 

He silently admonished himself. He understood that what he had just done was exceptionally stupid and dangerous. He had confronted the demon, in the middle of a crowd of civilians. He was shocked by the fact that the demon had a wife, along with a son. 

He had put himself in danger, along with everyone else there, because of his recklessness. When he met the demon's gaze, he saw the hatred and power behind it. The utter indifference, and disgust at his presence. As he met his gaze, his eyes widened in panic, as the demon prepared to attack. 

He panicked, realizing they were surrounded by civilians. His goal shifted, from attacking the demon to protecting the people around him. He watched wide-eyed, as the demon slashed the neck of a passersby, who then began to transform into a demon in the middle of the street. 

Without the presence of his 'family', the demon would have likely started to kill the civilians around, and then attack him in the middle of a city. He watched the demon's back as he walked away, and he screamed at the demon that he would track him down. 

He was then approached by another female demon, who offered to help him. He had been suspicious at first, but he really had no other option. He had left Nezuko alone, and he couldn't go anywhere without leaving the demon and civilians. So he took her offer, and he was to find his sister before meeting the demon lady to get answers. 

As he came around the corner, he blinked at the strange sight before him. In front of the Udon vendor, a young girl was excitedly talking to his sister, who was out of her box and watching the girl with sparkling eyes. 

Nezuko seemed to be listening intently as the woman was telling her something, making exaggerated motions as if she were fighting an invisible enemy. She was dressed in the most exotic clothing he had ever seen, being extremely scandalous and colorful. The vibrant pink was enough to make her the most strangely dressed person he had ever seen. 

He walked closer, hesitant and weary of this person. His sister seemed to be doing okay, and enthralled in the story the girl was telling. 

"And so, my fellow magical girls all suited up, as Dr. Egg prepared to unleash his tentacle monsters into the city…. Oh, the uncensored version of this episode sold like hotcakes!" She spoke in fluent Japanese, ending with a word Tanjiro had never heard before. 

"Excuse me!" He quickly intervened, bowing his head at a 90-degree angle. She turned to him, her eyes filled with curiosity at the sword at his waist and the military uniform he wore, the uniform of the Demon Slayer Corps. 

"Sorry if my sister bothered you!" He quickly apologized, worried about what Nezuko might have done unsupervised. He trusted her, but her demon instincts were something he still agonized over as he slept at night. 

She blinked, before smiling broadly. "Ah, don't be! She didn't do anything, though her muzzle is a bit odd…." She trailed off, eyeing the bamboo muzzle that Nezuko had in her mouth. "Either way, your sister was amazing! She was an avid listener! She had the true makings of a Magical Girl! I would be proud to be her brother!" She stated proudly, striking a pose with her finger pointed at Tanjiro. 

Nezuko's eyes widened, her eyes getting a bit watery. Tajiro's eyes then widened in response, before rushing over in a panic. "Nezuko! What's wrong?" He asked in a worried tone, unable to find anything immediately wrong. 

Neuzko then bowed down, a sign of thanks to the woman. Hearing that someone thought that she could be a Magical Girl, a Hero, after becoming a demon and fighting her instincts greatly, filled her with happiness. She sniffled, her eyes filled with tears of thankfulness. 

She rushed to the woman, before hugging her around her chest and crying. The woman blinked, before reciprocating the affection. "There there, no need to cry…" She comforted Nezuko, patting her back. 

Tajiro then quickly took hold of his sister, as she showed signs of sleepiness as she wobbled while standing. "I'm sorry ma'am, my sister gets tired easily, and she doesn't get to sleep very often," He made excuses for her behavior. 

The woman smiled and shook her head, "Don't be, she was a joy to tell the legacy of Magical Girls too. She will grow up to be something special, that I'm sure of." She smiled softly, Nezuko reminding her of Sona when she was young. 

Tanjro thanked the girl profusely, too worried about his sister to notice anything suspicious, before apologizing to the Vendor Owner for running off without finishing his Udon. He then set off to find the Demon Woman, waving to the woman who had named herself Serafall, as she waved back. 

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"What did you do?" I asked suspiciously. Like a parent scolding their child. She turned her head away and pouted, teasingly.

"Nothing~" She spoke happily, knowing that she sounded suspicious and like a child caught doing something wrong. I sighed, already fed up with this woman's antics. How could she be so shameless? Truly her lack of dignity was something to be admired. 

"There is no way you are this happy unless you have done something to ruin someone's day, or have done something that will be catastrophically annoying that will come back to haunt us." I groaned. I was sure that something had happened, and it was something that would come back to bite us in the behind. My senses were telling me an important event took place, and this woman was refusing to tell me what. 

"I promise I did nothing wrong." She stated, her tone becoming robotic and exaggeratedly monotone, like a child swearing they didn't raid the cookie jar. 

"You are crossing your fingers." I spoke out loud, despite rubbing my closed eyes and not even looking at her. She offered no response, smiling brightly at me. 

"Haaa…" I sighed, greatly annoyed. We were supposed to be doing this thing together. And she had run off and did something I could already tell would be either very good or very bad. And I was inclined towards the latter.

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In a dark room, a shadowed figure sat on a wooden platform. Purple candles were littered about, burning a strange glowing incense that floated around the room. The room was dark, and the wooden pillars showed similar architecture to a Shinto Shrine of some kind. The figure in the center of the room began to speak, even though no one was in attendance. 

"The dark Jesuit Sorcery I have performed here in Katori Shrine has borne luscious fruit indeed." They spoke, their voice easily distinguishable as male. 

"I now control seven knights from across time and space."

"They are the shadows of figures who have made their mark on humanity. They are neither ghosts nor evil spirits, nor vengeful spirits. Nor, of course, are they Heroic Spirits."

"They are Seven Heroic Spirit Swordmasters, each whom carries a blade made to cut this world to pieces!"

They rambled on, their tone excited and happy. As they spoke, a figure manifested mid-air, hidden by the darkness. The Sorcerer addressed the figure happily. "Caster of Limbo, your Curse of Annihilation is what allows them to become rare and exceptional beings." They praised the Caster.

The Caster bowed before the Sorcerer, before speaking. "My Curse of Annihilation has been embedded into their very beings. They shall become your hands, they shall obey every command, and cut down anything in their path. They cannot be hurt, killed, or defeated by any manner of blade. They will merely rage on, killing every living thing they can find. None in this plane of existence can stop these tempests in human form"

"The world of humans will end. There will be no salvation." The caster finished.

"Indeed." The sorcerer affirmed. 

"However… We are missing one knight." The Caster spoke, noting the absence of one of the seven servants summoned. 

"It does not matter. We have all the Knights we need. A Shinobi. An Oni. A Demigod. A Maou. The Saber of Empireo. And you, Caster of Limbo. The absence of the seventh is irrelevant." The Sorcerer scolded the Caster's doubt, the Caster offering no response in return. 

"And what of the Demons of this Age?" The Caster asked, curious. 

"I have struck a deal. The same one I have struck with the Son of Satan. We have no need of the Grail once the Curse is spread." The Sorcerer dismissed. "It is nearly time. The Counterforce will have likely moved by now. Their agents must be embedded somewhere in this world. Find them." The Sorcerer commanded. 

The Caster bowed in response, before disappearing into the shadow. 

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"An irregularity is here." The Caster spoke to the other occupants. They were now located in a small room, even darker than the one housing their master. The other 5 occupants made no response. 

The Caster smiled in response, a sadistic mirth in their gaze. "A strange person has appeared somewhere in the world. They are of no consequence but do not touch them. Our God demands it." One blinked, surprised. Their God, not their Master?

"The Devil is kind, and he will save him for another time, in another world, for another purpose. He is of little importance, but he holds a key that could spell the end if we are not careful." He commanded coldly. 

The other occupants nodded one by one, with no words spoken between them. 

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As Tanjiro snored softly beside her, Nezuko was wide awake. Her mind was fast at work, unable to sleep. The previous events of the day were still vivid in her mind, with the name of the demon who did this to her now in her mind.

'Muzan' the demon woman, now named Lady Tomayo, a doctor who promised to help her in exchange for their help in defeating the Demon. 

Yet, this was pushed to the side, as she remembered the woman from before, her words still ringing in her mind. 

'She had the true makings of a Magical Girl!' The voice is kind and supportive. She continued to replay those words in her mind, fiddling with something in her hand. It was small, with a distinctive strange red glow that mesmerized her. If a modern person were to see it, they would recognize it as a chess piece. Specifically, a pawn. 

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Finally the story moves forward a bit. I was really lazy with this because I didn't find a more natural way to transition to a new world without the use of a cliche system. And I really didn't want to pander out any more exposition, and just get into some more plot and action.

For those who are curious, this arc will be within Demon Slayer, following the plot as an interloper appears, the 'Sorcerer' from the 3rd Pseudo-Singularity from Fate Grand Order, Stage of Carnage Shimbousa. This story is based around Cao Cao, who liked to recruit people into a faction of Heroes, so maybe some will join his newly or yet-to-be-formed faction? Maybe the Travelling Geisha or Missionary if you are in the know. The Best Girl of this Singularity is a definite. 

I probably will release another chapter soon, but I haven't started yet. Either way, happy Christmas, or whatever holiday you celebrate! 

Suggestions, Comments, and Creative Criticism are always welcome. Please leave a review if you feel inclined!

And remember to feed me powerstones, as my Christmas Present.