Chapter 394

"The ghost activity rate has obviously decreased recently."

"To be precise, there are no ghosts out there anymore."

It was another night after the night column training ended, and everyone gathered in the courtyard of the headquarters to discuss the situation.

"Even the traces of the mini-Shin, who was mixed with the elements of a demon, disappeared." Prince Nobunaga crossed his arms and leaned against the tree to avoid the sight of Oda Nobunaga who was sitting on the branch. "It's as if all the demons have left the real world and hidden in an unknown space. Is it because of the death of Upper Rank 2 that they are alarmed?"

"This will only make the situation on the battlefield more troublesome." Sitting under the eaves, Okita-kun sighed helplessly, "Although the initial preparation direction was to break into Muzan Muzan's base camp for a decisive battle, that was based on the assumption that the other demons would stay outside and the Demon Slayer Corps would handle it."

"The current development means that we need to deal with more demons - or bring the Demon Slayer Corps into the battle."

"But, speaking of which, Lord Haruaki should have some information about Muzan Muzan's hiding place, right?" Shinobu Kocho, who could be considered a member of Chaldea in a sense, asked Ms. Okita while doing some simple maintenance on her Nichirin sword. "Although Mr. Tomioka has not participated in the training of the pillars, we are ready for the decisive battle——"

"This is not enough." Abe Haruaki walked behind the two Okitas with his sleeves tucked in, and looked around at the people present. "Who will bring the water column over? It's not good to get Mr. Uzumaki in a fight at this time. I will tell you about the latest situation first, and we can talk about the rest in the formal meeting in the daytime."

"Have you found Muzan Kibutsuji Muzan?" Oda Nobunaga jumped down from the tree and asked Abe Haruaki.

"Ah, we found it." Roman, who was on duty in the control room tonight, answered them using the communication projection. "To be honest, the specific coordinates are a little unexpected, but it is still within the expected range."

"What do you mean?" asked Yakugen Toshiro, who was disinfecting the wounds of Yamatomori Yasunari and Kashuu Kiyomitsu.

"Because it's a space that exists in theory but cannot exist in reality." Abe Haruaki lazily raised his eyelids and answered them, "It's possible that we will never come back, and the Demon Slayer Corps also needs extra preparations, so most of the problems can only be discussed and solved tomorrow morning."

"…So, what are you going to say now?" Uzui Tengen, who had just dragged Tomioka Giyuu from the patrol route into the headquarters, asked Abe Haruaki.

"I'll give you some basic knowledge - to reduce the extra time spent on tomorrow's formal meeting." Abe Haruaki made way and pulled out a map projection of the flat moon using the communicator. "'Space that exists in theory but does not exist in reality' - in our concept, it is called imaginary space."

"If the real space we exist in is the positive numbers on the number axis, then the imaginary space is the negative numbers on the number axis - or you can say it's the inside of the world." Roman, who was in charge of the explanation, frowned and continued, "But because of its 'actually non-existent' characteristics, it is a completely different space from the 'actually existing' inside of the world, the 'Star Inland Sea'."

"Is there any obvious difference between these two spaces?" asked Shinobu Kocho, who is very studious in this area because she has become a guardian.

"There is no life in the imaginary space, and it cannot be observed by conventional means. It can only be observed using the specially made imaginary compass, the Plane Moon." Roman glanced at the map projection of the imaginary space. "And in the inner sea of ​​stars, there live various fantasy creatures that are no longer suitable for activities in the real world. Occasionally, they can be directly observed by humans with the naked eye. There have even been cases where humans have fallen into the 'fairyland' of the inner sea of ​​stars."

"What Lord Haruaki said before about the possibility of never returning is that we might get lost in the imaginary space without navigation - we won't even be able to reach Muzan Muzuru's base."

“However, although it is a compass needle that can be used in imaginary space, the Plane Moon actually only matches the coordinates of imaginary space with the coordinates of the real world.” Roman sighed and marked a certain coordinate point in red on the map projection, “Because in imaginary space, time and space are meaningless - our technology can only guarantee that the time flow rate on both sides will not deviate too much, and that we can get in and out alive.”

"Since it is generally possible to use spirit particle transfer, does that mean that the technology of Virtual Submarine will not be further expanded at all?" Abe Haruaki asked Roman with a frown.

"Look at the current technology of transferring spirit particles. It has reached the point where it does not need a frame and can even be carried around. You should know that we really haven't studied virtual flight." Roman replied to Abe Haruaki and shrugged helplessly. "However, you will definitely not launch a decisive battle against Muzan Muzan right away. If you give the alchemists a little time to work hard with the determination to die... maybe you can superimpose the technology of virtual flight?"

"Let's talk about Muzan Kibutsuji's base." Abe Haruaki cleared his throat and looked at the people gathered in the courtyard. "Although his traces can be found in the real world, there are no obvious signs of other demons around, so I speculate that his real base is not in the real world."

"Then you applied for the right to use Trismegistus - really, you still need to use Trismegistus to maintain the proof of your existence." Roman sighed while holding the mug, and confirmed to Abe Harumi, "Later, it seems that you also dragged Taigongwang and the others to occupy the coordinates?"

"They all helped when we exorcised the curse from the Umayashiki family. Is there any problem with them continuing to help now?" Abe Haruaki raised an eyebrow and glanced at Roman. "But the direction of their speculation is quite strange... Who else besides you would build a base outside the timeline?"

“Did they all look for him according to the magician camp’s criteria?” Roman scratched his ponytail in annoyance. “Muzan Muzan doesn’t look like a magician at all—if he does, he should be a True Ancestor.”

"...Indeed, they are very similar in many ways." Abe Haruaki stroked his chin and gave his evaluation, "But most True Ancestors will suppress their blood-sucking impulses. Those who suck human blood indiscriminately are called Fallen True Ancestors, right? They have been excluded from the ranks of intelligent creatures and are considered unconscious monsters."

"True Ancestor?" The Pillars asked after noticing that the two mentioned that the True Ancestor was similar to Muzan Muzan.

“Ah, strictly speaking, the structure and birth method of the entire vampire species are similar to those of demons.” Roman put down the mug and replaced the projection of the world map with a data file. “The vast majority of vampires are the same type as demons that cannot move in the sun, but the True Ancestors are different - because they themselves are considered to be the tentacles of the planet…”

"Ms. Butterfly should know more about this than the others." Abe Haruaki looked at Shinobu Kocho, "For example, Gaia, who doesn't care what happens to humans as long as the planet continues to exist, and Alaya, who wants humans to continue to exist even if it means destroying the planet."

"The True Ancestors can be considered as the original mechanism created by the planet to prevent humans from destroying the planet. They are like elves, so they are not afraid of sunlight." Roman touched his chin and supplemented Abe Haruaki's statement, "But they are indeed regarded as the top of the vampires, the origin of the vampires."

"The guys who really create vampires on a large scale are the emergency food of the True Ancestors - the Dead Apostles." Abe Haruaki blinked and gave a simple and easy-to-understand example to the Demon Slayer Corps. "Simply speaking, if the True Ancestor is Muzan Kibutsuji Muzuru, then the Dead Apostles are the Twelve Kizuki."

"It's so long ago that we don't have exact data. But for some unknown reason, some of the Dead Apostles escaped the control of the True Ancestors and began to create Dhampir species on a large scale." Roman continued, "We say that Dhampir species are similar to Oni in that their birth is also similar."

"Demons are transformed from the blood of Muzan Kibutsuji Muzan - and although Dhampir species do not need the blood of the True Ancestor to transform, the prerequisite for humans to transform into Dhampir species is that they are injected with blood belonging to Dhampir species while being sucked."

"Humans who are transformed into Dhampir species by Dead Apostles are just like humans who are transformed into Oni. They cannot escape from the control of the blood relatives who gave them their blood."

"Come to think of it, the person who suggested that these coordinates might be in the imaginary space must be the True Ancestor, right?" Roman asked Abe Haruaki.

"It seems that it is not the spirit base of the True Ancestor, but the spirit base of the reference prototype." Abe Haruaki blinked and answered Roman, "But the original True Ancestor Princess and the Star Soul are too similar for me to tell them apart - I can only be sure that it is definitely not the lively True Ancestor Princess. In short, I got the advice to look for it in the virtual space if you can't find it in reality."

"Then, we found Muzan Muzan's base in the imaginary space—" Abe Haruaki looked at the Demon Slayer Corps with a smile, "There were quite a lot of hostile reactions from the demons. Based on the magical reactions of the Upper Six and Upper Two who were killed before, it can be roughly judged that Muzan Muzan should have recalled all the Twelve Moons."

"Although we don't know what Muzan Muzan will do next, we can be sure that the final battle will not be resolved alone."

“However, according to the records of the Demon Slayer Corps, Muzan Muzan is the type who will do anything to survive.” Roman turned off the document projection, leaving only his own projection standing next to Abe Haruaki. “So he is probably hiding deep in the base camp, trembling in fear. Even if he had ten times the courage, he wouldn’t dare to suddenly rise up and fight the Demon Slayer Corps head-on.”

"I've lived for a thousand years, and I've become a creature that will do anything as long as it can survive."

“Well, we also made some plans for future development.” Abe Haruaki nodded to Roman. “These are safe and beautiful days. After all, we can’t rely solely on my Noble Phantasm to smuggle servants to increase our combat power. It’s also a good thing to have some peaceful days to improve the strength of the Demon Slayer Corps.”

"By the way, Ritsuka said she's very interested in the preparations for the duel, so she'll probably be staying in the control room from now on." Roman smiled and touched his chin, saying goodbye to Abe Haruaki, "See you during the day."