Ali and Akaza exchanged glances as the soft hum of silence blared at their ears, they both shared a common hate for the Twelve Moon meetings. Ali took a step forward and a string was plucked. In less than a second, Akaza and Ali witnessed the whole maze-like spin around Ali and Akaza as if the whole place was a complicated gyroscope, the next thing they knew, the rest of the Moons were right before them. The Demon King Muzan stood silent in the darkness, his glowing red eyes filled with malice. Akaza kneeled with the Upper Moons while Ali joined the Lower Moons. The Twelve Moons kneeled on the ground as they waited for Muzan to speak.
There was a shocking difference in the two groups, Lower Moons, although strong were killed and switched out often, whether it be through challenges of position or elimination from Demon Slayers, the Lower Moons often changed. As for the Upper Moons, it had been well over a hundred years since the death of an Upper Moon, they were fierce, vicious, relentlessly violent and all extremely unique in their powers and abilities.
"Ah… Akaza you made it. You seem a little soaked." Upper Moon 2, Doma, with a slightly teaseful tone to his speech spoke to Akaza. An Upper Moon with bright rainbow eyes, who wore an interesting outfit, although Doma may seem friendly and charismatic, his nature was immensely psychopathic. Akaza despised Doma with a passion, Ali looked over to see Akaza's forehead visibly popping with veins in pure anger, his fists shaking and his jaw clenched as he kneeled next to Doma. Some Upper Moons talked amongst themselves, the disgusting villainous nature of each of them being kept no secret. The Lower Moons were much more silent with the exception of Ali, who tried to spark a conversation with the demon who kneeled beside him. Suddenly, Muzan's voice boomed.
"Lower Moons. New and Old, tell me… Why are you all so weak?" Muzan's eyes widened and his tone shook the very souls of the Lower Moons, Ali's immense fear of Muzan still crept silent in his soul. Ali's fists tightened as he tried to fight the intense fear.
"Every single month a Lower Moon dies. It is so hard to stay alive?!" Muzan's temper explodes and he emerges from the shadows, his eyes burst with an eerie glow. With a single swipe of his hand, Lower Six's head flies off. Gasps erupt amongst the Lower Moons, Ali's eyes flinched as the body of Lower Six dropped to the floor, and blood splattered the floor. Muzan's fist clenched tightly, Lower Moon Four also exploded with blood. He was able to do this through blood manipulation, every single demon here was made through his blood, he could control blood inside a demon. All except for one. Muzan's eyes glanced at Ali and his mind raged at the thought that he couldn't be killed by mere blood manipulation.
The Upper Moons were mostly quiet, Akaza's mind flared with worry that Ali might be killed here. Muzan's rage radiated towards the Lower Moons.
Without a second to spare, Lower Moon Two and Lower Moon Three blasted off the ground in an attempt to escape, their eyes full of fear. Ali's eyes darted to the two extremely swift demons as they raced into the dark abyss of the Infinity Castle. That sudden sound of a string being plucked echoed again, Ali's ears spotted the sound, there was a lady with hair that covered her face. She held some sort of instrument, as she plucked the string again, the two Lower Moons that had attempted to escape teleported right back in front of Muzan.
With no remorse, Muzan stretched out his hands and pierced through the chests of each demon. Ali's skin crawled with chills and the bodies of the demons split into two, the gruesome sound of flesh torn apart. Muzan held the heads of the two demons by the hair in his hands, their bodies slouched on the ground, lifeless. The eyes of the demons rolled backwards and their tongues fell out of their mouths, the heads served as examples of Muzan's power.
Akaza's fists tightened as Muzan slowly walked over to Ali and Lower Moon One. He looked straight at Ali, Akaza knew what was going to happen next. This wasn't the first time Muzan had gone on a rampage of Lower Moons. Akaza's whole body tense and he shut his eyes as his body overflowed with remorse for Ali.
"You two. At least you realised there's no point to run, that there's nowhere to run. I'll give you the blessing to have final words." Muzan shadowed over the two remaining demons. Ali and Lower Moon One.
"Final words? Sorry, but I don't plan to die right now." Ali's heart raced as he boldly remarked. The Upper Moons showed different emotions as Ali basically insulted Muzan. Muzan's head popped with a vein, Ali's heart dropped and every fibre of his flesh shook with fear as the crimson-coloured eyes of Muzan widened at Ali. Ali's whole body screamed at him to move as Muzan crushed the head of Lower Three in his hand. Ali's whole body dashed towards the side as Muzan's pale bloodied hand swiped the air.
Without a single second of the interval, Ali's arm dropped to the floor, however, he had dodged the fatal blow that would've sliced his neck. Akaza's eyes opened immediately as he heard the drop, Akaza's head turned towards Ali who now stood and held at his arm. The open wound slowly healed and Ali's arm slowly formed again, quite quickly and painlessly to Ali's surprise.
"Surely you're more intelligent than to kill a Lower Moon who hasn't even shown their potential. I've learnt many things under Akaza that you'd think were impressive." With this one sentence, Ali was about to form the biggest bluff of his entire life, he held a small smile on his face as he rotated his newly healed arm. Ali was well aware that Muzan could not read his mind, he was going to take advantage of that fact to make some bold claims of his ability. Muzan was also well aware of this fact, he wouldn't be able to know if Ali was actually serious, however, Muzan wasn't an idiot either. He simply looked towards Akaza and read his mind to see the achievements Ali had made.
Ali had not thought of the fact that Muzan could just look over to Akaza. His stomach turned and sweat started to form on his face, which had lost the smile he had from before.
"You have learned absorption?" Muzan's scowl on his face softened as Akaza's memories played in Muzan's head, the scene where Ali drained a demon of its energy, Muzan was indeed surprised at this, however, he was not going to let Ali go unharmed. Muzan crushed Lower Moon Two's head which was already rotten and decaying in his hand. From the mush of head, he only extracted the two eyes and looked towards Ali. All Ali saw was a blur before Muzan's hand pierced his face, his sharp nails stabbed into Ali's face, he simultaneously swapped the eyes of Ali for Lower Moon Two's and pumped his own blood into the veins of Ali's face. Ali's whole body shook and tensed as he felt the blood in his body explode with heat. The adrenaline and power that flowed through his body countered the excruciating pain that came with Muzan practically ripping out his eyes and replacing them. Muzan stepped backwards as he finished.
"Don't step out of line ever again. My word is absolute and I don't hold back on those who challenge it."
Muzan turned towards Lower Moon One. Ali's body felt weak after the emotional turmoil of that previous minute alongside the exhaustion of receiving Muzan's blood. His mind raced with relief as he felt the intense glare of Muzan move away from him, his vision was blurry for a second as his eye sockets healed around the newly implemented eyes.
Ali was Lower Moon Two now.
Muzan's blood somewhat numbed his body with a tingling sensation. In the past week, Ali had to go through that gruesome process two times, his eyes throbbed with pain just in the memory of the first time he had his eyes gouged out. Ali looked back at Akaza whose face was pale as well. All the Upper Moons stared at Ali.
"Absorption? Even Akaza himself doesn't hold that skill. Impressive indeed, I would expect no less from what Akaza has described of you." Upper Moon One, Kokoshibo, spoke while still kneeling, he titled the strange sword on his belt to gesture for Ali to come by the Upper Moon's side.
"I guess Akaza's disciples aren't as useless as him." Doma teased, which immediately resulted in his jaw being blown off by Akaza. Akaza's eyes wide as he watched Doma's face brighten with glee and laughter. Ali slowly walked over to the Upper Moons, all of them looked… weird to him. There was a woman with black hair, some monster in a vase, and a weird man with a large bump on his head. Their eyes locked on Ali, silent with a mysterious intent. Akaza's attention turned away from Ali and towards Doma's continuing comments.
"You had some nerve standing up to Lord Muzan like that." Daki, Upper Moon Six, the lady with black hair scowled at Ali as he walked towards them, her eyes sharp as if she didn't seem to like him, til a smile broke on her face.
"It's good to see something different. Keeps things from being boring." Daki still spoke with that same scowl, but this time with a smile that showcased her sinister nature. Ali felt chills as her sharp voice spoke, he had no intent in conversing with her at all, instead, he ignored her comments and walked past her, towards Akaza. Daki's forehead popped with veins and her costume broke into pieces, her blood demon art was the ability to manipulate a pink obi she wore around her waist. The belt-like clothing unravelled itself and shot towards Ali. Ali's instincts were too slow due to the after-effects of receiving Muzan's blood directly, Daki's thick pink obi attacked Ali like a python, it wrapped around Ali and tugged him viciously towards her. Ali didn't even have a second to think before his body was crushed by the sheer strength of the belt, his body slammed onto the floor in front of Daki, she slowly moved closer to him, crawling towards him on all fours, not daring to stand up as long as Muzan was present, her respect was deeply rooted for Muzan. Her belt increased the pressure on Ali, he felt as if a whole house was pushed on top of him, a sleeve of the belt wrapped around his mouth, leaving him muffled in speech if he tried to reply. Her long nails stabbed into Ali's left arm as she approached him.
"Who do you think you are? Ignoring me? You're a mere Lower Moon, show respect to your superiors." Daki glared at Ali's helpless state, tied up in her belt, his eyes winced in pain as Daki removed her nails from his arm, blood pouring out of the fresh wound. Her revealing outfit and exposed skin glowed in the dim lighting as Ali's vision began to feel dizzy, his eyes flashed and throbbed, and the pain of suffocation beat at him relentlessly.
"You're strong for a Lower Moon, being able to handle my obi's full pressure without exploding into soup." Daki's nails stabbed right into Ali's chest, his eyes winced in pain. Daki's eyes glowed with blood-thirst. The rest of the Upper Moons didn't care enough to help, Akaza was ignorant of the torture that Ali was facing due to his ongoing quarrel with Doma.
"I have an offer for you." Daki leaned down to Ali's ear, she whispered something, Ali's eyes widened.
"Daki." Muzan's very voice struck fear into everyone's hearts, Daki immediately released Ali and backed into her spot. Behind Muzan, Lower Moon One, Enmu, was alive and well with a crazed look on his usually calm face, his mouth bled and his eyes wide.
"Dismissed." Muzan turned around, it seemed as if the Upper Moons had no proper reason to be at the meeting other than to witness the massacre of the Lower Moons.
While Ali and Akaza exchanged looks, ready to leave from the Infinity Castle, their dojo on top of the mountain was broken into by a particular figure…