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The Slayer punched the sewer lid into the air to allow himself access to the outside world. As the warrior climbed out, he reached inside to pull Tanjiro out alongside him. On the boy's waist hung three weapons: Xernex's argent axe, Yorichii's blade, and the Slayer's Super Shotgun which the warrior bestowed upon him during their venture through the sewers as a secondary source of protection. The warrior looked around to assess their surroundings before stating, "We're close to the torch. Let's go."
They were inside of an abandoned sentinel town that had been ravaged by the civil war just like all the rest. Moss covered the tall structures of the Sentinel town and the grass was unkempt. Tanjiro frowned upon seeing the state of the village, it was just a constant reminder of the Maykr's treachery. He would've loved to see Argent D'nur in it's prime before the civil war happened.
The Slayer whipped around once he heard something shuffle nearby as he cautioned, "We might have company." Tanjiro nodded, not questioning the Slayer's words as he drew Xernex's argent axe but didn't ignite it. The boy had to be extra cautious, he was in unknown territory in every sense of the word. He didn't know what he was about to fight nor did he know where he was. It was as if he was shrouded in darkness and the Doom Slayer was his guiding light. The Slayer walked forward, motioning for the boy behind him to follow closely. He couldn't risk Tanjiro getting hurt during battle and though he trusts Tanjiro, he doesn't trust him enough to be handling a group of demons by himself. The Slayer stopped once they approached a large wall blocking off a section of the town they were in. The Hellwalker nudged his elbow against Tanjiro to grab his attention to point towards the top of the wall, indicating where they were going to go next.
The World Spear by Andrew Hulshult
An unknown entity smashed through the walls of a nearby house and began angrily charging towards them. Tanjiro and Flynn turned their heads towards the approaching target which was a creature that neither of them had seen before. It was a tall, muscular creature donning metallic, blue armor which looked similar in appearance to a Baron of Hell minus the fact that the creature's right arm is replaced with a flail. The armored baron brought it's flail down upon the Doom Slayer in an attempt to pulverize him but the Slayer brought his fist upwards in an uppercut that blasted the creature's head off.
Without delay, the baron's head regenerated itself instantaneously, catching Tanjiro and the Doom Slayer off-guard as the demon smashed its flail into the Hellwalker with enough force to send him flying into the nearby houses. Tanjiro's eyes widened once he saw the Slayer get blown back but he couldn't waste a second worrying about his comrade due to the Armored Baron now shifting its attention towards Tanjiro and began swinging wildly. Tanjiro channeled his breathing and leapt back as far as he could away from the creature to gain some distance. The boy decided to pull out the Super Shotgun and point it towards the incoming Baron. However, as the boy fired the weapon in his hand, the shotgun blasted itself out of Tanjiro's grip due to the boy never having fired a gun in his life. Tanjiro panicked once he saw the Super Shotgun leave his sights and blew itself back several meters away.
By then, it was too late as the Armored Baron snatched the boy with its left arm and prepared to slam him into the ground. Tanjiro was quick to react as he activated Xernex's argent axe and hacked off the left arm of the armored baron to free himself. Upon doing this, Tanjiro fell to the floor, on his back, and quickly rolled backwards to gain some distance. The creature stood, confused, as it was trying to regenerate it's left arm but the creature's arm sizzled profusely as it was unable to regenerate. The boy gave the creature a perplexed look until he remembered what Xernex had told Muzan before. Tanjiro relayed to the Doom Slayer, "This demon has muzan's regeneration! You need an argent weapon to take it down!"
The Baron continued it's assault with it's right flail arm as he swung repeatedly towards Tanjiro. The boy kept his distance as he tried to acclimate to the baron's speed and movements. They were much faster than he was so he had to keep his distance if he didn't want to die. The baron suddenly smashed it's arm into the floor with enough force to make it shake hard enough for the boy to lose his balance. The armored baron attempted to take advantage of Tanjiro's staggered state by raising his flail arm before bringing it down upon Tanjiro.
The Doom Slayer zoomed past the Armored Baron with a fully-ignited demonic crucible in-hand as he decapitated the demon, causing its body to collapse to the floor in front of Tanjiro. The Slayer turned towards Tanjiro to see the boy was without the Super Shotgun only to find the weapon a few meters away from them both. The Hellwalker pointed his left wrist towards the weapon and shot out his grappling hook which latched onto the Super Shotgun and pulled it back to its rightful owner. Without saying a word, the Slayer tossed the weapon towards Tanjiro who carefully caught it and stood back up as they were surrounded by more demons.
Several grey and purple-colored imps revealed themselves in a pack as a yellow aura erupted from within their bodies and they began hovering above the ground, repeatedly spinning forward while curled up into a ball. The Stone Imps shot themselves towards the Doom Slayer and Tanjiro. The two allies looked towards each other, quickly nodding before slashing with their argent weapons to cut through the approaching stone imps. Barreling down from above were large balls of radiation fired from incoming Cyber Mancubi that were marching towards the two. Tanjiro and the Doom Slayer split up as the boy found himself face to face with a Pinky charging towards him.
The boy barely managed to twirl above the creature and sliced its body in half with a single motion before landing on the floor and allowing the two halves of the pinky's body to collapse behind him. Tanjiro rolled out of the way of the approaching missile barrage from a Revenant that was hovering in the air, attempting to blow the boy to smithereens. The boy ran as fast as he could while maintaining his focus on the hovering demon. Tanjiro pointed the Super Shotgun towards the creature and pressed the secondary trigger on the weapon to release the meathook. As expected, the meat hook shot itself towards the Revenant, lodging itself in the demon's ribcage as the creature gasped in pain. Tanjiro let out a small grin once he figured out how to work the Super Shotgun and released the trigger button of the Super Shotgun which began reeling the meathook back towards the weapon. However, the boy didn't have enough strength to resist the pull of the Super Shotgun as he was thrown forwards by the weapon and was quickly dragged through the air, towards the Revenant. Instead of panicking, the boy seized the opportunity to strike as he decapitated the Revenant with Xernex's argent axe and allowed the meat hook of the Super Shotgun to reel itself back.
Tanjiro was soon surrounded by various demons he's never seen before as he tried to quickly formulate his escape strategy but before he could ponder it, the Slayer shouted towards Tanjiro, "Get out of the way!" The boy heard the Slayer's voice above him which made his eyes widen once he saw what the warrior was going to do and jumped as high as he could to get away from the center.
The Doom Slayer descended to the ground with Valen's argent hammer raised above his head and with one motion, the Slayer struck the argent hammer into the floor with all of his might. The floor caved in as a large crater formed around the impact area, submerging all of the demons with dirt as the crater soon revealed the sewer system underneath them, causing the creatures to fall in while being crushed underneath the debris.
Tanjiro saw a group of demons lined up perfectly for him. As a result, he fired the meat hook into a nearby building and began arching around the area towards them. Tanjiro channeled his breathing as he approached the targets and stated the name of his attack, "Sun Breathing: Dragon Sun Halo Head Dance." The flames of his father's hinokami kagura dance burst from Xernex's argent axe, now taking on a crimson color that's reflective of the argent weapon, as the boy effortlessly decapitated the lined up group of demons he passed by. Tanjiro stared at the argent axe which was still emitting it's flames, it was strange because it was unlike the usual flame that he produced. Perhaps the argent energy was enhancing his attacks in a way, further experimentation is required.
The Doom Slayer switched the argent hammer to his left side as he ignited the demonic crucible in his right, dual-wielding both weapons. The Slayer charged forward as he danced around the demons, pummeling the creature's with the argent hammer to disintegrate them as he sliced them apart with the demonic crucible. He soon heard the distinct cry of a Blood Maykr as the corrupted angel took to the skies to hurl it's spear. The Hellwalker decided to follow Tanjiro's lead as he channeled his breathing and stated the name of his attack, "Blood Breathing: Second Form, Flash Blood." before swiping with the demonic crucible which unleashed a large, crimson projectile that cut through the Blood Maykr's body.
They didn't have time to waste with these demons. If they get caught up now, they're just going to be fending off an endless horde of demons. They need to get moving before it's too late. The Slayer yelled towards Tanjiro, "We need to get over the wall!" before the warrior began sprinting towards it. Tanjiro nodded in acknowledgement as he followed behind the warrior and fired the meathook towards the top of the wall to pull himself over. As he did this, the Doom Slayer swung his argent hammer into the wall to blow a hole in to grant him passage to the other side.
Tanjiro descended from the other side of the wall, laughing as he had never felt so much momentum in his life nor has he ever been this high in the air. Swinging with the meat hook was exhilarating for Tanjiro but the boy needed to swing himself to safety or else he would splatter like a pancake on the hard ground below. The boy frantically looked around, trying to figure out the best way to slow his descent and in a rush, he pointed the meathook towards a nearby building and began reeling himself in. However, that only sped the boy's descent and he lacked the proper experience and control to utilize the meathook effectively. Tanjiro let out a prolonged and worried, "uhhhh…!" as he rapidly approached the building.
The Slayer jumped into the air to catch Tanjiro and stop the boy from killing himself by accident. He put the boy down before they continued running forward. They ran through the various streets of the sentinel town they were in, jumping over water wells and sliding under other obstacles that got in their way. The Slayer was looking around to assess which part of the village they were in and found the main streat up ahead. The Slayer ordered, "We're going left." before forcibly turning himself in the indicated direction. Tanjiro tried his best to keep up with the Slayer, he knew the warrior wasn't running at his maximum speed or else the boy would've been left behind ages ago. He knows he's slowing down the Doom Slayer so Tanjiro knew he couldn't allow himself to be any more of a hindrance, he has to be useful!
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Valen approached the tall gates of Taras Nabad with his men behind him. As they approached the capital city of Argent D'nur, The sentinel guards who were at the gates drew their weapons as soon as they recognized the man in front of them as they barked, "Halt! Don't move, traitor! How ridiculous, first, you turn your back on Argent D'nur, then you betray your own comrades, and now you have the audacity to come crawling back to us?!"
Valen answered, "I did betray my brothers, yes, an act I wish to atone for. I would like an audience with the high council, or what's left of it."
"We're not letting you past these walls, traitor!"
"Who do you still serve? The Khan Maykr or Argent D'nur?"
"Argent D'nur, ofcourse!" Valen raised the Sentinel Crucible, bestowed upon him by the Doom Slayer, for all to see. He presented the bladeless hilt to the guards who were left speechless as they commented:
"That's- not possible… You shouldn't have that…!"
"The Doom Slayer's one and only order as king was for me to reunite our kingdom. Our war has left us broken and stranded. For our survival, we must band together and unite as one."
The Guards remained silent while looking at one another. After pondering for a moment, they answered, "Fine, we'll alert the high council but we cannot guarantee their treatment will be favorable."
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Tanjiro looked behind him to see several pinkies stampeding after them as well as several Barons who weren't far behind. The Slayer told the boy, "Just keep running, I have a plan." The boy placed his faith in the Doom Slayer as he always had, following the man's lead as they ran through the main street that curved in various directions. They were soon approaching the exit of the town as they raced towards a gargantuan gate connected to the walls of the town. The Slayer ordered the boy, "Get to the other side." before firing his grappling hook onto the top of the gate and pulling himself on top. Tanjiro didn't question what the man said as he passed through the large gate and onto a large bridge. The bridge led towards another gate, however, the bridge was partially destroyed with half of it remaining and leaving a large gap between the other half and the opposing gate. Tanjiro skidded to a stop as he looked down from the bridge which hung over an emptied-out sewer drain. He could see the various tubes and metal fences filtering the water that was supposed to be there but there was no water at the bottom, just the hard concrete below him. Tanjiro took a deep breath as he knew he wouldn't survive a drop from this height.
He turned behind him to see the demons hot in-pursuit as they continued running towards him. Their numbers had multiplied exponentially as they chased after the boy through the same street. Tanjiro's fight-or-flight instincts kicked in and they immediately chose flight upon seeing the large number of demons as the boy closed his eyes and leapt across the gap towards the gate. The boy opened his eyes once more to see he made it but he had not braced himself properly as he tumbled on the floor underneath the gate before picking himself up to see if the demons would still follow after him.
The demons continued charging forward as the army of pinkies, barons, and various other large demons swarmed through the large gate without stopping. He realized that the demons would be able to cross the gap effortlessly if they maintained their current momentum. Tanjiro prepared to keep on running but stopped once he saw the Slayer jump off the gate from the other side towards the demons that had piled up on the bridge with his argent hammer raised. The Slayer muttered the name of his attack, "Blood Breathing: Fourth Form, Blood Fang." as flaming, crimson blood fangs formed around the Doom Slayer as he smashed the hammer into the bridge, causing the entire structure to collapse as he fell down the steep drop along with the horde of demons on the bridge. Many of the creatures fell to their deaths, splattering on the hard pavement as their organs spilled on the ground while many others miraculously managed to survive the fall.
It didn't take long for the Slayer to clean up the rest of the demons by himself as all Tanjiro heard from the bottom of the drainage system was the slashes of the Slayer's argent weapons and the screams of pain from the demons he slayed. After a minute of slaughtering demons, the Slayer fired his grappling hook towards the gate Tanjiro was standing under and pulled himself back towards his comrade. Tanjiro couldn't help but smirk as he commented, "I'd expect no less from you." The boy let out a deep breath as the adrenaline started to flush out of the boy's body, causing the boy's knees to shake wildly. The Slayer looked towards Tanjiro and made a "hmm?" sound when he noticed the boy's knees were shaking. Tanjiro commented, "Don't mind me, it's just that I've never been pushed this much before. All that adrenaline, the fact that I was able to get killed any moment back there, all the mistakes I was making… It was scary… I was worried that I might've bitten off more than I can chew, I thought I would've broken my promise to Kanao so that also made me worry. I'm really lucky that you were there, that baron alone would've killed me!"
The Slayer listened intently before answering, "You did better than I thought you would but don't get reckless. Keep a cool head and just focus, even a small mistake can get you killed, you understand?"
Dragon ride by David Levy
"Yes, sir." Tanjiro responded before following the Slayer who was walking towards a large torch up ahead, guarded by numerous night sentinel guards who stood at attention. Tanjiro asked, "Wait, is that the Torch of the Kings?" The warrior said nothing as he walked up to a cauldron in front of the torch that carried a smaller hand-held torch. Once the Hellwalker grabbed the stick and removed it from the cauldron, a bright blue fire exploded with life at the very tip of the torch. Tanjiro watched in awe as he followed behind the Doom Slayer who walked up towards a bowl of oil with the torch in-hand. The nearby sentinel guards said nothing, simply saluting as they watched the Slayer dip the torch into the well of oil that connected to the Torch of the Kings and set it on fire.
The Torch of the Kings rumbled to life as the fire quickly rose to the very top of the structure and erupted into a large, concentrated beam of wraith fire that shot into the sky. Everyone looked towards the sky, watching as a large creature began rapidly approaching them from a distance. The Slayer recognized it right away as he stepped away from the Torch into the open where he anticipated the creature would land. Tanjiro fixed his gaze upon the creature, marvelling at it as he had never seen such a large creature fly before. After a few moments, the Sentinel Dragon touched down in front of the Doom Slayer, roaring intensely at the warrior. Tanjiro raised his arms up instinctively in self-defense but lowered them upon realizing that the creature wasn't hostile.
The Sentinel Dragon lowered itself on all fours once the Doom Slayer approached. Tanjiro slowly walked up to the creature, uncertain if the creature was going to bite or not. That's when he noticed the Mark of the Slayer branded onto the forehead of the creature, now it all made sense. Night Sentinel Kings received their own Sentinel Dragon. The Slayer noticed Tanjiro's hesitance and commented, "It won't hurt you, it knows you're with me." Tanjiro raised his hand towards the creature and gently caressed it's forehead, receiving no reaction from the creature who simply stared at the boy in front of him.
The Doom Slayer hopped onto the creature's back, raising Tanjiro onto the creature's back in front of him. The saddle they sat on only had a single strap for a handle so the warrior wrapped one arm around Tanjiro to keep him safe while grabbing the handle tightly with the other arm. No words needed to be exchanged to the dragon as it flapped its wings with enough force to lift it off the ground. With several more flaps, the creature took to the sky as it rocketed into the atmosphere, ascending at a steep angle as they flew past the clouds. Tanjiro felt the forces of gravity slam into his body as he felt his insides push into his back. He felt fuzzy and he winced as the wind harshly blew into him. Once the sentinel dragon broke past the clouds and began soaring above them, Tanjiro was left in a laughing fit as the constant shifting of blood and adrenaline in his body caused a hilarious tingly sensation for him which made him laugh.
They were now flying towards the gigantic, blue ice mountain that Tanjiro noticed immediately upon arriving in Argent D'nur. The Slayer informed, "That's the World Spear." Tanjiro's pupils expanded greatly upon realizing this, he also felt stupid for not making the connection until now. It made so much sense now that he realized it. It was amazing! There were so many different worlds and landscapes he's never seen before! Despite their situation, this was all so exciting for tanjiro. He just wished he could experience it with Kanao.
Once they were close enough, the dragon sharply swooped down towards the ground as they re-entered the clouds and rapidly approached a forest. As the dragon was about to make impact with the floor, it suddenly arched upwards and flapped its wings to halt its momentum before slowly landing. The Dragon lowered itself on all fours once more as it allowed Tanjiro and the Doom Slayer to get off its back. Tanjiro ran up to the dragon, petting it once more as he thanked it. The Doom Slayer, however, nonchalantly shoved the creature's head away from him due to its protruding horns blocking his way. With its mission complete, the dragon took to the skies once more and retreated back to the World Spear.
Tanjiro watched as the creature flew directly towards the World Spear and questioned, "Wait, how come it didn't just drop us off at the World Spear?"
The Slayer simply answered, "You'll see why. Come on, we're almost there."
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"Your actions are inexcusable! You dare present yourself in front of us after all you've done?!" One of the elders who has acted as a substitute to the Sentinel Priests in their absence cried out angrily. Valen stood within the council room of Taras Nabad, a large but circular room that was similarly shaped to the gladiatorial arenas of Sentinel Prime. Valen stood in front of a podium while the substitute priests stood on large pedestals that towered above the former Betrayer.
"I am not discarding my past. In fact, that is the reason that I am here. I will not ask for forgiveness until I have forgiven myself, but until then, I come with a plea: a plea to reunite our people! The Maykrs divided us, they manipulated us for centuries and made us stray away from our true gods: the wraiths! Though we have advanced tremendously thanks to their technology, we have lost our culture to these abominations! The Khan Maykr is dead, the loyal hell priests that followed her are also dead. We are left without leadership, we are left without a unified cause! Our kingdom has fallen but we can rebuild if we work together! Ask yourselves this: Are your true loyalties towards the Khan Maykr or Argent D'nur?"
The Sentinel Priests looked towards each other, nodding occasionally as if they spoke a non-verbal language before speaking, "Argent D'nur is where our true loyalties lie. But reuniting our broken kingdom will not be an easy task, how do you intend to rally us all? You are no king, you are nothing but a betrayer in the eyes of the people."
"Because the Doom Slayer has given us a chance at independence. As we speak, he and his comrade are making their way towards the demon's home world to end this conflict! They'll light the Torch of the Kings to signify that they seek passage to the World Spear."
As if on cue, a bright blue light reflected into the room through one of the large mirrors, catching their attention. Their eyes were glued to the large beam of light that shot up into the sky, penetrating the clouds. Valen smirked, realizing that the Doom Slayer had done it and remarked, "That is our call, our call to battle. Do you wish to retreat and shrivel like a coward before the demons or fight for our independence and win back our honor?"
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Tanjiro and the Doom Slayer had hiked up a mountain and found themselves inside a small ravine with a waterfall in the center creating a gentle stream of water that flowed through the middle. They had been ambushed by more demons as they were surrounded on all sides. Although the Doom Slayer was able to effortlessly plow through the lot, Tanjiro had to be more evasive as he invaded the incoming projectiles from all the various far-ranged demons. It was starting to become overwhelming for Tanjiro as his adrenaline kept on rising and he slashed through the demons whenever possible with his argent axe. However, it wasn't enough, he needed more strength! Tanjiro closed his eyes and channeled his spiritual energy into his heartbeat. He had to remember what the Doom Slayer had told him in the sewers, he had to get this right!
The boy's heartbeat sped up significantly as the mark on Tanjiro's forehead greatly expanded and covered up more of his forehead. Tanjiro felt his senses heighten immensely and his body heated up to extreme levels. Tanjiro was moving several times faster than he was before as he was better able to dodge the projectiles coming towards him. Several stone imps barreled towards Tanjiro but the boy channeled his next attack as he named, "Sun Breathing: Fake Rainbow" before performing several high-speed twists and rotations with his body to create afterimages which threw off the aim of the Stone Imps. As they passed by, they were sliced apart by Tanjiro's argent axe.
An Arachnotron, a large mechanical demon who's body mostly consisted of it's brain, began unleashing several projectiles from it's head turret while scaling the walls of the ravine they were in. Tanjiro pointed the meat hook at the Arachnotron, shooting it at the demon to hook onto it's skin and pull himself in. The boy dug his axe into the flesh of the Arachnotron as it's body fell to the floor, cushioning the impact for Tanjiro. Without a second of delay, Tanjiro launched himself from the Arachnotron towards a Dread Knight and muttered, "Sun Breathing: Solar Heat Haze." before performing a horizontal slash that is covered in an argent-tinted haze that seemingly missed the Dread Knight, only for the creature to be sliced in two.
Tanjiro locked onto his next opponent, tuning out everything else as he hacked and slashed through the demons. He was focused on killing them all, he wanted to impress the Doom Slayer with his abilities that he never got to show off! He kept fighting, he kept slashing until he was sure every demon was done for. He was starting to lose sight of everything as he began attacking anything that remotely moved and lunged towards a creature that was within his peripheral vision.
The Doom Slayer caught Tanjiro's axe, holding it still while grabbing the boy by the collar and bringing him close, stating, "The fight's over, kid, get a hold of yourself." Tanjiro blinked and gasped once he saw the Doom Slayer directly in front of him. The mark on the boy's forehead began to shrink back to it's normal size and the cold temperature of the mountain began to sink into Tanjiro once more. The boy apologized profusely:
"I'm sorry, I just got too caught up in the moment. I just wanted to kill the demons and impress you so I tried tapping into that power from before."
The warrior put Tanjiro down, ruffling the kid's hair as he stated, "You already have, just don't get ahead of yourself, runt." before removing his hand from Tanjiro's hair and looking towards a ledge that hung off the ravine. They could see a broken bridge at the very top. The two understood what to do without communicating as Tanjiro pointed the meathook upwards while the Slayer fired his grappling hook into the same spot. They reeled themselves out of the ravine and onto the broken bridge. After picking themselves up, they were now standing on top of a hill and in front of them was the World Spear quite a distance away. There, Tanjiro couldn't even see the peak of the superstructure anymore due to how close they were. The only thing between them and the World Spear now was the vast and boundless sea in front of them, obscured by an intense fog that hindered their sight.