^ Chapter 50 - Prophecy of Babel ^

Human beings are the most depraved, ugliest creatures to ever walk the face of the Earth. Compared to the mighty lion, who watches over his pride with strength and fortitude, or the graceful swan, whose beauty and grace can captivate any onlooker, the human being is utterly despicable.

Pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth, these cardinal sins that embody the human soul and make them into the monsters they are. It doesn't matter who you meet in life, every last human is capable of being consumed by their desires and showing their true colors. They can lie, they can steal, they can harm. The great monuments of old, from the pyramids in Giza to the beautiful architecture of the Greeks, all of it is nothing but a show of pride for the ingenuity of man. The Pharaohs of Egypt built statues of themselves as a constant reminder of who the person in charge was, and would preserve their memory decades to come.

Hand in hand with this supposed glory and self-preservation in the annals of history came their brutal treatment of those less fortunate. The Jewish people were prosecuted under the reign of Ramses II, being one of the many trials and tribulations the people of God faced on their journey towards Salvation, and the acquiring of their own land to call home.

Roman Caesars and their loyal legions upon legions of soldiers, who lived and breathed to execute the will of the Emperor, were no different. Poverty, famine, all of it I faced. I experienced the worst of human depravity from the youngest of ages, when my parents perished due to disease that ran rampant through the slums in which we lived in.

I was orphaned, and for a young boy living on the streets in the backwater towns of the Roman Empire, it was a fight to live every second of every day. Scrounging for food, avoiding the legionaries that patrolled the streets, and finding a warmer spot of concrete over another became a daily routine.

In that time I learned to hate humanity. I thought, well and truly, that the world deserved to be razed by hellfire for the kind of treatment that a child could get by another human being. How could someone be this ignorant of the ugly truth around them?

To this day, I believe these questions that stirred in my mind and soul were what led me to so greatly cherish the day I met him, my first savior. It was like any other dreadful day in poverty, looking around for the slightest scraps of anything edible. A commotion spread throughout the town I had lived in for most of my young life, and being the curious youth I was, I set aside my primary instincts of survival to pursue my curiosity.

What my eyes were treated to was a sight I could have only dreamed of witnessing. The man who's place in society far exceeded those around me, even more than those in charge of our town, was currently touring our humble abode on horseback, accompanied by the most finely dressed members of the legion that could be assembled. It was a jaw-dropping scene, to see the Emperor himself, in the flesh, with little to no prior warning.

Constantine I was his name, and even for a street urchin like me, I was able to gather bits of pieces of the man's impressive rise to the top as ruler of an entire nation such as the Roman Empire. Flavius Valerius Constantinus, known as Constantine the Great already by many, came from one of the four of the Tetrarchy, the four emperors who reigned over the empire equally. With his father an Emperor already and his mother a lowly Greek of low birth, Constantine I seemed to speak to me on a personal level. He had the slightest inkling of what it meant to be among the rats and mud, and for that, it drew me closer yet to him.

It was that day I saw him in person that truly made me, quite honestly, become infatuated with the man, specifically his ideals. He was the first in a long history of Roman Emperors to tolerate this new upstart religion that emerged from the Middle East.

Christianity was its name, and it wasn't long before the emperor himself too became a member of said religion, and carried its banner proudly upon his shoulder wherever he went. I myself held no interest in it, but when I saw that man go through town, it was as if a ray of sunshine from the heavens above had come down from on high to illuminate my tormented soul.

That day, when Constantine came to my town, I changed. When he and I shared gazes, and that radiant smile of his was directed towards me, I felt new emotions I had never quite felt before emerge deep within my bosom. It was thankfulness, and devotion, to an entirely new cause separate from that of survival.

I wanted to be just like the Emperor. I wanted to carry myself up high, be pious, and be kind so that I too could become a pillar for the less fortunate like myself. Because of that man, and the Christian faith, I learned to love humanity again. I gave up stealing and turned my entire life around in an attempt to redeem myself in the eyes of God.

So overjoyed was I to begin my new life as a believer in the Christian faith that I actively sought after my own encounter with God, so that I too could hope to receive even the slightest bit of grace akin to what the Emperor had gotten. It was nothing but blind devotion, however. Even though I believed myself to have had my eyes opened, I was still truly in the dark without a true purpose, until I stumbled upon that hidden cavern outside of my town.

It was not by chance that I found what I found in that cavern. It was because God had seen and witnessed my struggle that he rewarded me for my efforts at forgiveness. It was thanks to Him that I bore witness to a single, undisturbed flower of the likes which no human had ever seen before. With petals the bluest of blues and a sort of miasma that levitated around the plant, I knew that it was something of the divine. That flower would be the first catalyst that propelled me onto my new path of purpose, one that would take me to the present day.

Upon touching that flower with but a finger, I was beseeched by a vision of a perfect world, where humanity was united as one and living in harmony with our Lord in His realm. There was no conflict, no strife, and no suffering. No sickness or plague. Humanity was at eternal peace with itself and with Him and His son, our Lord Jesus Christ. It was a return to Adam and Eve, during the early years of Humanity's existence under God's care.

The vision was so extraordinarily beautiful that it made me shed tears of joy, before a strange sensation unlike any kind of feeling my body had ever experienced before overtook me. Looking back, if I had to describe what was happening, the closest possible thing I could relate it to was that my body was melting. My eyes began to shed tears of black, and it became increasingly more difficult to breath as I coughed up the strange, foreign, tar-like substance.

One of the last images that my eyes perceived before everything went black was the skin of my hands turning black before physically melting off my bones. Those few moments gave me some of the most excruciating pain imaginable, but the silver lining of my ordeal was that by the end, I felt nothing but the sweet sensation of release. The hunger and thirst that we as human beings overlook every day, due to how ingrained they are within our lives, was gone. The pain my body had accepted as part of its own existence had also vanished as well.

It was as though I had left behind the debilitating shackles of human existence, and ascended beyond into something more. Indeed, that was in fact what occurred to my body. I was reborn, created anew from the garbage that was my mortal shell. The new body that I had obtained was one that would allow me to fulfill the vision that I had been given upon touching the alien-looking flower.

Like Moses receiving the sacred task of leading the Israelites out of Egypt by the manifestation of God in the burning bush, I saw for myself His presence appear to me through the blue flower, and felt his touch. From that day forth I knew what I must do, as His servant. The vision I saw was the future of humanity, a fulfillment of the wishes of ancient humanity.

Torres opened his eyes as he walked across the street with Dōma on his left, the comatose body of Nezuko strewn over his shoulder, towards the gates to the Vatican. It was cloudy and appeared like it was going to rain soon, with the wind picking up and distant thunder echoing in the distance.

Hardly anyone was out and about in the streets of Rome surrounding Vatican City, except for the Swiss Guards that were stationed at the entrance. Before the two men could even question him on why Dōma and Nezuko were with him, he snapped their necks with nothing but his hands and kept moving forward. Dōma chortled a little at how ruthless his new partner was, and simply followed along behind him as they entered Vatican City.

In the blink of an eye, Torres' morphed his clothes into that of his Cardinal garb and smirked a tiny bit, his footsteps bouncing off the walls of the nearby buildings. Just like the city, the center for the Roman Catholic faith was also mostly empty, with just the guards out and about on their usual patrols. The two he had killed wouldn't be discovered until it was far too late, and it wouldn't be long until he reached his destination.

"Mind telling me what it is that I'll get to do, Torres-dono? I hardly imagine the reason you brought me back was to just let me kill Muzan-sama and then carry the younger Kamado sibling." Dōma asked with a smile, the cardinal glancing back at him and chuckling.

"Your concerns have been heard, and you don't have to worry. In order to prepare for the ceremony, I'll be requiring some peace and quiet, as well as no interference." Torres replied as he turned his head back to look forward when they entered the vicinity of St. Peter's Square. As the approaching storm loomed ever closer, Torres stopped and faced Dōma directly, staring him dead in the eyes. "You know what that means, yes?"

"I can make a good guess, kuku." Dōma replied with a smile as he set Nezuko down on the ground next to him, before he brandished his fans and laughed.

Torres watched him disappear into thin air, chuckling to himself at having unleashed a demonic menace on the grounds of one of the planet's most holy of places. It was at the first blood curdling scream that he then moved swiftly, going from the iconic square to the Apolistic Palace, where he was going to pay a visit to somebody he had been meaning to see one last time.

As expected, Dōma's rampage was quick to spread through the ranks of the Swiss Guard, who quickly found themselves unable to contain the former demon. Finding their weapons could do nothing to harm him, the members of the Holy See were rapidly contacted and were beginning to evacuate.

There efforts of course would be futile for someone like Dōma, but of course there was no way they could possibly know that. The only idea they had was that a rampaging killer was currently ravaging the populace of Vatican City, and they had to try and get the Pope and their most important figures to safety as soon as possible.

Torres smirked. He was about to severely hamper these plans, and he was going to enjoy every last second of it. After all, he was the true voice of God, and it was his duty to see through the vision he had to its conclusion.

Using a mask of fear to sneak his way through the Apolistic Palace, pretending that he was among those fearing for their lives, he reached his destination. The pests who got in his way were rapidly dealt with, enabling him to have no distractions that could interrupt him.

"Your Holiness…" Torres stated as he opened the door, his grin turning to a stoic scowl.

In just a mere ten minutes, the center of the Roman Catholic faith, one of the world's holiest strongholds, had fallen. The Swiss Guard was decimated, the Holy See slaughtered. And at the very top of the nightmarish cake was none other than the Pope himself, done in by Torres himself under the pretext that his service to the Church had done nothing but taint the house of God. Of course he had given thought as to whether he would allow them to see Salvation through to the end, but in the end, he decided that a glorious event such as that can only be witnessed by those truly worthy. In his eyes, the Roman Catholic Church had fallen from grace, becoming rife with corruption and scandals that had been building throughout the years. Killing the leadership was just one stepping stone along the road to Salvation. It had to be done in order to truly purify the Vatican of the corruption that had soiled its holy heart, and now that it had been accomplished, it was time to begin.

"What took you so long? I've already finished!" Dōma said with a laugh as he sat leisurely among a pile of bodies, licking his bloodied fingers with a wicked smile.

"I had some matters to attend to." Torres replied as he threw the body of the Pope onto the ground between them, the former demon snickering again. "Have you ensured that nobody can enter the city?"

"I'd like to see humans try to break through my ice now, after the little boost it's gotten, thanks to you."

Torres nodded and turned his gaze to Nezuko, who was still in the same position where Dōma had left her. Squatting down before the youth, Torres gently held her cheek and stroked it a bit as he gazed at her. During their rapid exit from Japanese waters above their secured ride, the Kamado sibling had continued to succumb to the effects of Tamayo's drug, with the final changes having occurred within minutes of arriving at Vatican City.

The touch on her skin caused Nezuko's brow to furrow and she grunted a little, the sweat on her forehead having dried somewhat. When she opened her mouth a little her demonic fangs were shown to have receded, and her nails had also returned to normal.

"Not to worry, little one...your brother may not be able to see it now, but you truly are the key to everything...you will be the catalyst that humanity needs to enter into the new age. The Prophecy of Babel will be fulfilled. But before Salvation can truly take root...let us have a little test..."

It was the scene of a disaster. Clean-up efforts were still in full swing in the port area where they had emerged from the now destroyed Infinity Fortress, and he couldn't thank the Kakushi enough for being the chief proponents of said clean up. The situation was beyond critical.

Not only had they failed in their main objective to kill Muzan, and end the reign of demons across Japan, allowing an antagonistic third party to do the deed, but Nezuko had also been kidnapped as well. What Torres planned to do was unknown to them, but anyone with a brain could figure out that it wasn't anything good.

So dire was the situation that Kiriya himself had made the trip from his safehouse to meet them, being escorted by his protectors Amai and Shinjurō. From them, the Hashira learned of Urokodaki's grievous injury which he sustained from trying to protect Nezuko. Hearing that their sensei had suffered such a brutal attack enraged not only Tanjirō, but Giyū as well.

He had been his sensei before Tanjirō's, and he wished he could go to Urokodaki's side right that second, but even he couldn't manage that. He had suffered the loss of one of his arms and was currently being treated by Shinobu, who with the assistance of some Kakushi under her direction, had managed to stem the bleeding and remove any immediate risks on his life.

It was only a small victory though, and a bittersweet one at that. And now they were all reeling from the aftershocks of the disastrous final battle that they hoped would finally save Japan.

Tanjirō's fiery spirit had been temporarily replaced by a sullen, defeated personality that was completely opposite his usual self. It was heartbreaking to see such a strong-willed, optimistic person such as him in such a state, and the Hashira, even Obanai, gave them the space he needed.

The only person that was really able to get close and console him was Shinobu, who was sitting right beside him on the piece of rock he was using as a seat, leaning against him with her head on his shoulder.

Feeling at a loss of what to do, Mitsuri remained sitting next to Obanai and Kyōjurō off to the right of the couple, wearing a saddened expression. The latter had his good eye closed and his arms crossed, taking slow and steady breaths to help calm himself because even though he didn't show it, the Flame Hashira was truly burning up inside.

When she watched Shinobu just barely brush her lips past Tanjirō's cheeks, kissing him lightly there before wiping some of his tears away, something changed inside of her. Her gaze hardened a little bit before she placed her hands on her knees and pushed down, lifting herself up and wiping a few dust grains off her haori. Taking herself forward she went right up to Tanjirō and sat herself down on his opposite side, putting a hand on top of his knee and looking at him.

Lifting his gaze up, Tanjirō turned his head and looked her in the eyes for a few moments, before Mitsuri then leaned forward and embraced him. Shinobu's eyes widened a tiny bit, but she soon smiled and giggled softly to herself, happy that at least one little ray of sunshine was glistening through the heavy grey skies that lay over their minds. Kanao witnessed the hug from the Love Hashira as well, but she didn't act, instead turning her head slightly to the side in order to hide the tiniest of blushes.

Obanai on the other hand tightened his fingers around his arms as he stared at them, arms crossed and with a venomous stare. When he saw Mitsuri's soft, caring expression though, he felt some of the ice around his heart melt and he sighed to himself.

"So that's how it is, huh…" Obanai thought, defeated, before he resigned himself to his thoughts.

"What will we do now...we've lost Genya-kun, Tokitō-san, Shinazugawa-san…" Gyōmei murmured to himself from where he sat with the recovering Giyū.

"Tamayo-sama is gone too...she was absorbed by Muzan, so when he died…" Amai also said in almost a whisper, on the verge of tears.

Yushirō dared not say a word, because like some of the other survivors of the Infinity Fortress brawl, he was angry and upset at how much of a colossal failure it had turned into. Of course, most of all, he was infuriated with Tamayo's passing, because she had been the light of his life. Without her, what purpose could there be to keep on living?

"Oyakata-sama...we have to do something. Nezuko is in great danger." Shinjurō said to the young master of the Demon Slayer Corps.

The truth was that ever since first arriving in Tokyo, Kiriya's mind had been working in overdrive, trying to figure out what they could do with their remaining resources to try and rescue Tanjirō's sister from the clutches of this new enemy. Unfortunately, even with all of his training under his father, Kiriya couldn't come up with a solution. He truly had not expected a third party to interfere in such a manner, including bringing back a thought to be dead Upper Moon seemingly from the grave.

They were dealing with a force completely foreign to them, and they were caught with their pants down. It was embarrassing, and infuriating. With no way to know where Nezuko had been taken, and no way of knowing what it is Torres planned to do with her, they were truly lost.
"Goodness me, what a terrible state of affairs we have here…"

The smooth as silk voice that cut through the doom and gloom caught everybody's attention, their eyes all turning towards a woman only three of them recognized. The long white hair, the exotic outfit of foreign origin, and the light red eyes she fixed on them.

"Níngguāng-san!" Shinobu blurted, rocketing up to her feet in surprise. The other Hashira were soon to do the same, with Tanjirō being the last as he felt a little bit uneasy because of the woman.

"Níngguāng...wait a minute…" Kiriya murmured, rubbing his chin as the name felt familiar to him. He then snapped his fingers and gasped while pointing at her. "You're one of my father's informants! The Lady of the Jade Chamber! I remember now!"

"Fufu, that is I. Though, more like the former...those ruffians under Kibutsuji destroyed my home once they forced me to tell them where your Swordsmith Village was located…"

Mitsuri audibly gasped and covered her mouth with her hands at the startling revelation, as did Shinjurō and his son. The Hashira reacted in their own ways, but the feeling was mutual. Their second most secret stronghold was discovered because Muzan's forces had gotten to an informant of Kagaya's one they hadn't even heard of before. One who wasn't even human.

"How did a demon know about the Swordsmith village?" hissed Obani as, quick as a flash, he was behind the exotic woman with his sword coiled around her neck.

"Firstly, I'm not a demon like the ones you've come to know, Iguro Obanai." Níngguāng replied calmly without even so much as a flinch, the woman puffing slightly on her smoking pipe and exhaling. "And secondly, I know everything there is to know in Japan. Information is as prized as gold or silver. When you're a businesswoman such as myself, you'd know that."

Obanai grunted a little and he glared at Shinobu, keeping his sword firmly where it was as a precaution. "Kochō, you seem to know this demon. Care to explain?"

"Allow me." Kiriya said, stepping forward away from Shinjurō and Amai's side towards Níngguāng.

He waved his hand at the Snake Hashira, who grunted again before begrudgingly complying with his master's wish and withdrew his blade from the businesswoman's neck. Exhaling another cloud of smoke, Níngguāng smiled warmly at Kiriya and created a seat for herself to rest upon out of pure crystal.

It formed out of thin air with just the wave of her fingers, surprising Shinobu and the others who had met her because this was the first time they had seen her use any sort of demon ability. Was her Blood Demon Art crystal manifestation? They could only assume that it was.

"Níngguāng was an informant of my father's. Do not doubt me when I say that she is the richest merchant in all of Japan, a self-made one at that. Because of her efforts, she established the most expansive information network across the whole country." Kiriya stated firmly and with a clear tone of voice, the Hashira and other slayers like Kanao in attendance who didn't know her utterly thrown for a loop. "If I remember correctly, you were-"

"I was transformed into a demon by another demon, one who was independent from Kibutsuji, named Tamayo. I was suffering from lung cancer and, seeing as how I didn't want to stop adding to my wealth any time soon...I received treatment from her. The very same that saved your life, Kamado Tanjirō." Níngguāng interjected, the mentioning of her name making Yushirō's ears perk up a bit and his eyes widen.

Tanjirō's eyes widened when the woman's gaze focused on him. Within his own mind, after hearing about what kind of power she truly had over the whole of Japan, he wondered if this had been the tool that Shinobu had used to be able to find him.

When he whispered this question to her, Shinobu smiled back softly and nodded her head while squeezing his hand lightly with her own. He blushed a tiny bit, and Mitsuri next to them giggling silently at the reaction.

"When I came to Tamayo for treatment, it was at the same time when Kagaya himself was there, seeking any sort of cure to his family affliction from her. He himself witnessed my transformation...and it was him who saw that maybe there could be a chance for us. For demons to live a peaceful life."

"The goal was to always kill Kibutsuji, but deep down, with women like her and Tamayo living among humanity, he wondered if there could be a time when we could coexist with them." Kiriya finished, before he motioned to Tanjirō, Shinobu and Mitsuri with a smile. "And the living proof is among us, at last."

"To think my sister's wish was shared by far more people than either one of us could have imagined…" Shinobu said softly while holding a hand over her heart, smiling a little with her own blush.

"Back to more pressing matters, however...the men who kidnapped your sister, Tanjirō. Can you describe them?" Níngguāng asked, entering business mode in the blink of an eye.

"Ah, well, one of them was an Upper Moon, but the person in charge...he looked middle-aged, on the older side…" he responded, scrambling with his memories through his still shaken-up mental state.

"Was his name Torres?"

"Y-Yes! it was! Do you know of him?"

"As a matter of fact, I do." said Níngguāng as she tapped some ash out of her smoking pipe while blowing out a perfect, circular ring of smoke. "I heard of his name when he went to treat the Emperor...he comes from Europe, as a member of the Roman Catholic Church. Apparently, he was widely known for performing medical miracles…"

"He met the Emperor? As in our nation's Emperor?!" stammered Kyōjurō as the color in his face drained a tiny bit.

"Indeed. That was a long while ago though, so I didn't think anything of it, but seeing as though he's shown his true colors now...I believe he must have returned home."

"To Europe…"

A hush fell over the crowd after Níngguāng finished speaking, the realization soon setting in. Nezuko had been taken to an entirely different continent already? How could Torres have moved that fast from Tokyo? It seemed impossible, but then again, they had witnessed Dōma's revival, so anything was possible at that point.

"Not to worry, because I've come prepared." Níngguāng said with a smile as she pointed out towards the harbor with her smoking pipe, drawing everyone's gazes to a sight they could only say was extraordinary.

Coming into the harbor was a magnificent vessel, a naval ship clearly inspired by the chinese junk built for the modern times with a smokestack in the center of the ship, rather than sails. It was smaller than whatever kind of ship Torres had made his escape from, but that would play to their advantage.

Smaller meant faster, and with the twinkle in Níngguāng's eyes, there was more to the ship than met the eye. One by one, the surviving members of the Demon Slayer Corp looked one another in the eye and knew what was going to happen. Silently they agreed, and with but a nod from Kiriya, they had their mission.

Using Níngguāng's vessel, those that could go will make the trip to Europe to find Nezuko, bring her back, and kill Torres. Kibutsuji had done enough to terrify Japan. None of them wanted another that had the potential to terrify the world. Whatever his "Salvation" was, they absolutely could not let it come to pass.

A/N Hey guys! Sorry for the unannounced hiatus, had work, that work ended, been needing to find a new job and also doing stuff IRL so have had no time to write. Plus I needed a little bit of a break too! But here I am, giving you guys this chapter! Now, this chapter not only is the 50th chapter over all, which is absolutely amazing, but its special in another way.
I would have liked to have released this on the 20th of last month, and for those of you who have been here from the start, you'll know that date as the very day I first published this story! That's right, it's been an entire YEAR since I started writing this fic. CRAZY RIGHT.

Its absolutely amazing to think how we've come this far in one year, to having the story almost breaking 500,000 words, and in that moment I've thought about it.
When I first set out writing this story, I set two goals for myself. To exceed 100,000 views, and to try and exceed the word count of my previous long fic, A Different Path, which is an Akame ga Kill fanfiction. To think that I'm nearing 250,000 views and have smashed any kind of word count goal I could have ever hoped for is amazing. I sometimes find it hard to believe myself, but its the truth. And part of this story's success is attributed to you guys, who have stuck around and waited with me, and gone along with me on this journey.

I cannot keep saying this enough guys, but I am truly honored to have had readers like you guys, even the ones that don't speak. Some of your reviews truly bring a smile to my face and reminds me again why I love doing this, why I love writing. To see how you guys react and love the story and the plot, its an incredible feeling that's hard to describe. So again, thank you so much for giving this story your time, I will never stop appreciating it and appreciating you, my readers. I know this chapter is one of the shorter ones, but I think with what's about to be going down, a little breather was necessary. Its time to recollect ourselves and get ready for the rollercoaster that's about to begin. It's gonna be awesome.

Thank you so much guys for reading this story and supporting it! Leave a favorite and a follow if you haven't already, and drop a review too! I'll see you guys in the next chapter, whenever I have the time to write it that is! haha! See you guys then! We're almost there to the end!