Deep in the night, silence enveloped the main hall of the Eternal Paradise Cult.
The devotees had all returned to their lodgings, and only the sound of crickets filled the mountain's stillness.
But the quarters of the cult leader, Doma, were different.
A faint light seeped out, and the air was thick with a sweet yet acrid scent.
Kanae and Shinobu had completed their ritual purification bath as promised.
Kanae wore a black kimono embroidered with red butterfly patterns, while Shinobu had on a kimono with purple wisteria motifs.
Their makeup was kept light, and their hair was tied up neatly to project an innocent and delicate atmosphere.
"Are you ready, Shinobu?"
Kanae adjusted her attire one last time while looking in the mirror. Shinobu nodded.
"Good. Now… shall we begin?"
A red glint flickered deep within Kanae's eyes.
Tap, tap.
The two cautiously knocked on the door to Doma's quarters.
"Come in."
From inside, Doma's languid, soft voice called out.
Kanae and Shinobu opened the door and stepped inside.
The interior was lavishly decorated. The room was filled with blooming lotuses of various colors, smoke rising from expensive incense burners, and an altar adorned with gold and jewels.
In the midst of it all, Doma sat on a cushion, clad in ornate robes and fanning himself.
"Welcome. I've been waiting."
Doma rose from his seat, beaming as he saw the two.
"Wow~ You're truly beautiful. Seeing you purifies my heart."
He approached them with his characteristic amiable smile. But his rainbow-colored eyes greedily scanned the sisters' bodies.
"We're… honored to meet you, Master."
Kanae bowed her head demurely.
"Come, sit over here. I've prepared some tea."
Doma led them to the tea table. Fragrant lotus leaf tea steamed gently, brewed by him.
"Drinking this will soothe your mind. It's part of the preparation for reaching paradise."
Doma smiled as he offered teacups.
'It must be laced with a drug that makes you lose consciousness.'
Kanae and Shinobu inwardly scoffed.
As Akira's demons, human poisons or narcotics were useless against them.
"Thank you, Master."
The two raised the teacups to their lips without any suspicion.
As if on cue, they emptied the cups simultaneously.
"Ah, the aroma is lovely."
"My body… feels warm."
Shinobu flushed and feigned a dazed expression.
"Hehe, right? Soon, you'll have an even more pleasant experience."
Doma smiled contentedly, unfolding his fan. Two beautiful butterflies were about to fall into his grasp.
Not long after drinking the tea, the sisters began to stagger as if planned.
"Ugh, sis… I'm so sleepy…."
Shinobu closed her eyes and collapsed to the floor.
"Shinobu! Wake up…!"
Kanae also lost her balance and fell next to Shinobu.
The two lay still, as if in deep slumber.
"Hahaha! They've fallen asleep peacefully. Sorry, I'd like to talk and become one, but~ screaming can be troublesome sometimes. Who was it before? Someone ran away after seeing me eat a girl. What a pity~ I wanted to keep her by my side until she died of old age. Of course, I caught her and ate her~"
Doma looked down at the fallen pair and laughed like a child.
"You can't hear, but I should say it out of courtesy. This is the salvation ritual of our Eternal Paradise Cult. Your flesh and blood will be together forever within me."
He approached Kanae first, caressing her beautiful nape.
"This soft skin, this fresh scent…. Truly irresistible."
The air in Doma's quarters swirled with subtle fragrance and acrid desire.
Just as Doma was about to sink his sharp fangs into Kanae's smooth neck, with the fallen Kanae and Shinobu lying there.
Flash!
Countless particles of light scattered from Kanae's body. It wasn't mere light.
It was butterfly scales that induced hallucinations. The moment Doma inhaled them, the room's scenery began to distort.
Blood Demon Art, [Dream Garden]
"Huh…?"
As Doma blinked, the dim quarters vanished, replaced by a bizarrely beautiful garden in full bloom.
A dream world where reality and illusion intertwined.
"Welcome, Master. This is my garden."
Kanae slowly rose to her feet. Her eyes were not human—slit pupils glowed like gemstones expressing an otherworldly beauty.
Behind her back, massive glass wings, transparent and diamond-like, materialized.
Blood Demon Art, [Butterfly Wing·Glass Wings]
"You're… not asleep? And this scenery… a Blood Demon Art?"
Before Doma could recover, Shinobu stood up this time.
She exhaled lightly, and purple mist began to erode Doma's feet.
Blood Demon Art, [Abyssal Poison]. [Poison Mist·Purple Corrosion]
"Cough! This mist… my lungs… are melting…?"
Doma hastily covered his mouth. Just inhaling the mist made his airways and alveoli burn, blisters forming.
Even an Upper Moon's regeneration struggled to keep up.
"It's time to prepare the ingredients, Master. Since you can't do it alone, we're here to help."
A cold smile played on Shinobu's lips. Her entire body was now the ultimate bioweapon, melting anything it touched.
"Hahaha! This is fun! You two, you're the ones who killed Daki, Gyutaro, and Gyokko, right? Lord Muzan was quite angry about that~"
Doma endured the pain and swung his golden fan.
He acted relaxed, but his expression had already hardened.
"Blood Demon Art, [Lotus Leaf Ice]!"
Sharp ice fragments rained down like buckshot. For a human, touching them would freeze the lungs and slice through the body.
But Kanae didn't dodge.
Her glass wings folded forward, becoming a massive shield.
Clang! Clink!
The wings, harder than diamond, easily deflected the Upper Moon's ice attack.
"My turn."
Kanae swung her sword gracefully.
"Flower Breathing, Blood Demon Art. [Scarlet Flower·Life Bloom]."
Slice!
Kanae's slash grazed Doma's arm. It was a shallow wound.
But the result was horrifying. From the cut, a red bud sprouted, feeding on Doma's blood and growing explosively.
"Argh?! What is this?!"
"Your blood makes excellent fertilizer."
The flower roots burrowed into Doma's muscles, forcibly widening the wound.
Doma's arm was instantly covered in a grotesque flower tree, his life force rapidly drained.
Flowers that grew swiftly and explosively, fed by the overflowing life of a demon.
The drained life force turned into red particles and was absorbed by Kanae and Shinobu.
"This is… dangerous? I need to cut it off!"
Doma tried to sever the flower-engulfed arm himself. But something was faster.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Shinobu had already slipped into Doma's embrace. Her palm touched his chest.
"Blood Demon Art, [Demon·Dissolving Hand]."
Sizzle~!
As if branding butter with a hot iron, the area Shinobu touched melted into liquid. Skin, muscle, ribs—absolute corrosion that left no bone behind.
"Gaaah! It hurts! It hurts!"
Doma screamed. He hastily retreated, attempting to regenerate.
But the melted area didn't regenerate; instead, it bubbled and infected the surrounding cells.
"It's useless. My body fluids are a potent venom that dissolves everything. How could trash like you block the poison made from Akira's blood?"
Shinobu smiled and released a sweet fragrance into the air.
[Bewitching Poison Scent].
It was a scent that paralyzed Doma's nerves, slowing his movements.
"Ugh, this is terrifyingly good."
Cornered, Doma revealed his trump card.
"Blood Demon Art, [Freezing Mist·Sleeping Lotus Bodhisattva]!"
A giant ice bodhisattva statue was summoned, shattering the ceiling of the quarters. Overwhelming cold emanated, beginning to freeze the flowers of the Dream Garden.
"Now, I'll finish you off with full force. You're definitely dangerous."
As the ice bodhisattva was about to slam down its massive palm.
"Don't make a fuss. Chirp."
A blue flash cut straight through the darkness. It was Benienma, who had been concealing her presence until now.
"Flame Drawing Sword Technique. Form Zero: [Sparrow Counter·Sixfold Strike]."
Crash!
The giant Sleeping Lotus Bodhisattva's two arms and head collapsed under the six consecutive spinning slashes. Normally, she'd finish by sewing the opponent's tongue shut, but she yielded the final blow to Kanae and Shinobu.
Through the ice fragments, Kanae and Shinobu leaped simultaneously.
"Blood Demon Art, [Butterfly Dream]."
Kanae summoned a swarm of phantom butterflies. Thousands of butterflies obscured Doma's vision, and he swung ice and iron wires into the air, unable to distinguish reality from illusion.
"Full of openings."
Shinobu's body scattered into hundreds of purple poisonous butterflies.
Blood Demon Art, [Scattered Poison Butterflies].
Having evaded Doma's final flail without physical impact, she materialized within his embrace in the form of the butterfly swarm.
Her fingertips transformed into sharp syringe-like needles.
"Insect Breathing, Blood Demon Art. [Compound Eye·Centipede Injection]."
Thudthudthudthudthud!
Strikes at an invisible speed. Shinobu's fingers pierced a hundred vital points on Doma's body simultaneously.
Paralysis, pain, necrosis, frenzy, dissolution…. A hundred different potent poisons were injected into Doma's bloodstream.
"Guh… huh… ugh…."
Doma couldn't even scream. His blood vessels swelled with poison, and his eyes rolled back from the agony of his brain melting.
Helpless, Doma was bound by the man-eating flowers of the Dream Garden.
The flowers, as if savoring his poison-soaked blood, sucked him dry, turning him into a gaunt mummy.
"Finish him, sis."
As Shinobu cleared the way, Kanae walked over gracefully.
Her massive glass wings, spread behind her, sharpened into blades and converged into a single point.
"Rest in peace. To a garden called hell."
There was a flash.
Doma's head was cleanly severed and flew through the air.
His head fell to the floor, rolling and coming to a stop at Kanae's feet.
"Huh…? My regeneration… isn't working…?"
Doma's head still blinked, unable to grasp the situation.
But his torso had already completely melted in Shinobu's poison, reduced to a shapeless purple puddle.
"Excellent. Chirp. A three-minute cut. Ingredient disposal complete."
Benienma sheathed her sword and nodded in satisfaction.
The surrounding Dream Garden gradually faded, revealing the original quarters. But it was already a wasteland covered in poison and flowers.
"Let's go back. Akira is waiting."
"Right. This cult is now… ours."
Kanae and Shinobu vanished leisurely into the darkness, leaving the collapsed false paradise behind.
The power of the new demons created by Akira was absolute, overwhelming even an Upper Moon demon.
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