Opening: Distortion by BABYMETAL

The Doom Slayer followed the trio of kids across the landscape with Tanjiro leading the way to Mount Natagumo. Inosuke would get furious for being left behind and race forward to get the lead on Tanjiro and Zenitsu lagged behind due to laziness. The Hellwalker grew weary of following these children. The moment he knew where the demons were at, he was going to leave them in a heartbeat.

Tanjiro had taken an interest in the large man as he would occasionally look back every few minutes to see if the strange, green-armored man was still following him. The boy had a heightened sense of smell which allowed him to pick up many things, even emotions. However, the only scent Tanjiro was able to pick up radiating off the armored man was the distinct smell of blood and everlasting rage. The rage intimidated Tanjiro, at first, but it put him at ease knowing it wasn't directed towards him (or so he thought). He decided to break up the silence as he called out to the man behind him, "So.. are you from around here?"

Silence, that was the only answer Tanjiro received from the Doom Slayer. A bead of sweat formed on the boy's forehead, unsure of what to make of the silence. Inosuke barked from behind, "Dammit! This guy's annoying! Let's just kick his ass and go!"

Zenitsu ran up next to Inosuke as he reminded the boar-headed boy, "If memory serves, he was the one that bodied you."

"SHUT UP!" Inosuke tackled Zenitsu to the ground as the two boys began wrestling then and there. Tanjiro stopped and tried to separate his two friends who were engaged in intense wrestling. The Slayer stopped to look at the sunset and glared at Tanjiro who quickly looked back to see the warrior staring directly at him. The warrior's rage had not settled down one bit, it was kind of unnerving. Just what was this man upset about? Perhaps he lost someone close to him? Maybe. Tanjiro understood very well how it feels to lose people close to him. He had lost most of his family overnight while he wasn't home and he returned to see their corpses strewn across their floor boards, blood covering their walls. It was a traumatizing sight Tanjiro won't soon forget.

Tanjiro told the Slayer, "We're almost there, sorry, sir." Tanjiro pried his two friends apart and settled them down before they continued on. It wasn't long before the moon captured the sky and cast its light upon the landscape below. The temperature dropped significantly and the wind picked up into a chilling breeze that was not gentle to the boys' skin. Tanjiro pointed ahead as he announced, "There it is! Mount Natagumo."

Without hesitation, the Slayer bolted forward at full speed as he left the boys in the dust. The boy's jaws dropped when they saw the giant man blaze across the pathway leading into the forest of Mount Natagumo. It took no time for him to get sucked into the darkness of the forest, escaping the boy's sight as they looked towards each other, wide-eyed with shock as Zenitsu pointed out, "Holy crap, that guy's fast!"

"I've never seen someone move so quickly before, it's unreal!"

Inosuke started to growl and grew louder by the second before screeching, "DAMMIT! HE'S GONNA KILL ALL THE DEMONS BEFORE ME! NOT FAIR!" Inosuke ran as fast as he possibly could down the path but he was nowhere near as quick as the Doom Slayer who left him in the dust. Tanjiro cried out to the boar boy and stepped forward until he noticed Zenitsu had not moved an inch. He turned around to ask his friend:

"What's wrong, Zenitsu?"

Zenitsu started to shake as he cried out, "I got a bad feeling about this place, man! I'm getting scared thinking about what could be in that forest! It's so dark and scary, we could easily get lost and killed!" Tanjiro looked to the ground as he pondered what to say to his frightened comrade. As he did so, he felt a strong scent of blood blast into him which alerted him to the threat inside the forest. He looked back at the mountain and realized he couldn't sit around. He told Zenitsu before drawing his blade:

"I'm going in, Zenitsu." Tanjiro rushed toward Mount Natagumo, leaving Zenitsu all by himself in the open.

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The Slayer rushed through the forest at blinding speeds, he weaved around the trees that threatened to smash into him but his reflexes were lightning quick. He could feel the excitement grow within his body as he couldn't help but anticipate demonic slaughter. He slid to a stop once he passed by a young boy crawling across the ground. The boy wore the same uniform that Tanjiro and Zenitsu did underneath their haoris and had short, black hair. He was bloodied and bruised as he used his sword to drag himself forward. The Slayer crouched down next to the child to catch his attention. The boy was intimidated by the Slayer's appearance but he managed to mutter, "A-a-are you a demon slayer…?"

The warrior said nothing in response as he assessed the boy's injuries. Whatever is in this forest nearly killed him. The boy continued, "Please, you gotta help me! I was sent along with several other boys and once we got here, we-" The boy was cut off by something that tried to yank him away. The Doom Slayer could see several white lines as thin as a string form before going taut and ripping the boy back. The Slayer was fast enough to grab the boy before he was taken away and extend his doom blade to sever the thin strings and release the boy. "I-it's no use. The strings will reattach anyways, you need to get out of here before they take you too! That's how the demons killed us, they used these strings to manipulate our bodies and make us turn against each other!"

A demon manipulating strings? That's new but this didn't concern the Slayer as he looked into the forest and used his suit to give him a visual outline of everything surrounding him. As he looked around, he was able to detect a system of webs above him, covering the tree branches above. The webs were angled as if they were stemming from a focal point. His suit quickly calculated the angle of the webs and was able to pinpoint a focal point quite a distance away from where he was at. No matter, he was going to get to the bottom of this as he stood up and bolted towards the direction of the focal point with his doom blade extended.

Deep within the forest was the demon manipulating the strings. Unlike the demons the Slayer has encountered in the past, this one was more feminine in nature. She has a human-like physique but possesses pale-white skin with long hair and matching robes. Dotting her body were red circles connected in a pattern. Sitting atop a rock, wide-eyed from what she just sensed from her strings, she looked towards the origin of the disturbance and wondered what could be approaching her at such ridiculous speeds. She quickly got to work, doing her best to manipulate as many puppets as she could to prevent herself from being discovered. However, it was too late.

She heard rapid footsteps from the direction she was facing and with no time to react, emerged a large being clad in green armor. It was fast, too fast, and before she knew it, her face was pummeled in by the man as it was launched into a nearby tree and exploded like a tomato.

The Slayer stood tall, turning behind him to see the remaining lower half of the demon collapse to the floor. To say the slayer was underwhelmed would be an understatement. This is what constitutes a demon in this dimension? It was weaker than your average imp. His thoughts wandered back to the Dark Lord as he questioned why he would bother sending the Slayer to a dimension with weaker demons. Even worse, if this one demon was able to kill so many humans without trouble, it would only take a couple imps to wipe out the human population on this planet.

He began walking away, satisfied with his work for the day until he heard a woman's voice call out from behind him, "You bastard, how dare you desecrate me like that!" The warrior whipped around to see the demon with a newly-regenerated head. "I'll unleash my strongest puppet on you, you don't stand a chance!" She began manipulating the strings tied around her fingers but she was a fool to think that the warrior would sit idly by and allow her to do this. She couldn't process the Doom Slayer lunging towards her and smashing his fist into her body, blasting it apart as her blood sprayed all over the fresh, green grass.

He whipped around and noticed the demon start to regenerate right away. Before the Slayer had a chance to react, Inosuke emerged from the darkness while shouting, "THERE YOU ARE! THIS ONE'S ALL MINE!" Inosuke leapt towards the demon who had finished regenerating by then and scrambled to get out of the way. However, the Slayer was significantly faster than her as he grabbed her by the head and forced it into the rock she proudly sat on, destroying both it and her head. He planted his foot on her torso before ripping out her legs with ease and disintegrating the rest of her body with a single blow.

Inosuke landed on the ground, disgusted by what he just witnessed the Slayer do before cursing him out, "What the hell are you doing?! You're supposed to decapitate her, jackass!" The warrior gave the boar-headed boy a bewildered expression as he was confused how decapitation does the trick but destroying every part of the body doesn't. The demon began regenerating once more which forced Inosuke to take initiative as he charged forward and exclaimed to the Doom Slayer, "Let me show you how to kill a demon! Beast Breathing: Second Fang, Slice!" The second the head had regenerated, Inosuke sliced it off with his twin serrated blades. With the head removed, the demon began disintegrating like a vampire in the sun. It's body was reduced to dust and blew away once the wind kicked in.

Inosuke got up and angrily jabbed his finger at the Doom Slayer as he scolded, "Some demon slayer you are! You don't even know how to kill a demon! Don't try to act all tough around me when you don't even have one of these!" Inosuke showcased his twin serrated blades, weapons he was very proud of and treasured for their ability to kill demons.

So, the demons of this dimension had a specific immunity to swords? Interesting, if that's the case, he'll just adapt to the threat as he always has. He grabbed one of Inosuke's blades before walking off in a different direction. Inosuke was frozen due to shock, he looked as if he had just received the biggest insult in his life. He exploded with rage as he threw himself at the Slayer, wrapping himself around the warrior's arm as he tried to pry the Doom Slayer's hand open. However, the warrior paid the boy no attention as he inspected the craftsmanship of the blade. Just what about it allowed the sword to kill the demons of this dimension when his doom blade couldn't?

"LET GO, ASSHOLE! I NEED MY SWORD TO KILL THE OTHER DEMONS HERE!" The Slayer stopped and looked at Inosuke who began pointlessly clawing at the warrior's visor like a child. There were more demons in this forest? Then it seems the Slayer's work was not done here, it was time to rip and tear in this new dimension.

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Tanjiro carefully walked around the forest, blade drawn as he was left by himself. Inosuke and the mysterious stranger had already run ahead which left the entire group separated. He was concerned but he wasn't sure if he was fearful of his life or the others. He continued walking around until he stumbled upon an open area with a small, pale demon standing in the center of it, gazing up at the sky. The demon took notice of Tanjiro's presence and turned to face him. The demon was a child with curly, yet pointy, white hair and similar covered robes. He had red dots covering parts of his body. The demon pointed his hand towards Tanjiro before muttering, "Another pathetic demon slayer's come to invade my family's territory. Don't worry, I'll make this quick."

Tanjiro was flabbergasted by the child's comment, it was inconceivable for a demon to have a family. However, none of that mattered now as he assumed his fighting stance and called out to the demon in front of him, "I'm going to stop you from killing more of my comrades!" before leaping towards the demon and engaging in combat.