"Where on earth… is this place?" Eugen looked up at the sky to see 8 large, red moons hovering above her. The night was still and there were absolutely no stars present – only the black of the sky. She brought her left hand up to her head, trying to tame her pounding headache, when she noticed that her glove was missing and the seal which held Akuma inside her was gone. In its place was another seal that was a character written in her own blood. "What… happened to me?"

Beside her, she heard the groaning of a familiar boy and recognized his attractive voice almost immediately. "Taka!" she squealed, bending down into the dirt to help him sit up. He had serious injuries, but they appeared to be healing incredibly fast. "Taka, are you alright? Where are we… no hold on, what happened? Weren't we in the Labyrinth realm?"

He opened his sharp green eyes and stared into her own confused ones and sighed, shaking his head. She doesn't remember anything… with a smirk, he winced in pain. It's a good thing… saves me the trouble of having to talk about petty things like my feelings. "Don't worry about it," he assured her. "I'm sure while we were fighting Ryoga, someone managed to open the Portal Door." He looked up and counted the moons. "Just as I thought, look Eugen, there are 8 moons. We're in the 8th Dimension."

"But what about my seal?" she pointed to her bare left hand. "And…" she suddenly felt a pang in her heart as the memory of Sekuchiroshi sensei's death came back to her. "Sekuchiroshi sensei… did we ever avenge her?"

Taka shook his head and stood up from the dusty, hard ground. "I'll try to explain everything to you later, alright?" he anxiously grabbed a pistol from his long black coat and frowned. "But right now we're in enemy territory. This is the place where Devourers are created… which means we need to get out of here now."

"Alright," she groaned, rolling her eyes. "But promise me you'll be honest with me."

"Yeah, yeah," he waved a hand at her and turned towards the dark mountains up ahead. "It's incredible… it's like we were brought back to full health…"

"I swear, I'll make him pay for what he did!" Kin punched the bark of a tall, black oak tree until his knuckles bled. "How dare he kill us!"

"Watch it, pretty boy." Ghini growled. "I'm just as mad as you are, but you don't see me sacrificing myself as bait!"

"What are you on about now?" Kin shook his fist in the air.

"Devourers have a sharp sense of smell… especially for human blood," Luca grinned, stretching her arms and cracking her neck. "I'm personally proud to say that I've crossed the other world and back!"

"Dying once is nothing to be proud of," Ghini rolled his eyes and growled. "All it does is reinforce how weak we actually are! And speaking of which, where's Raist?" he searched for his black cat frantically.

"And come to think of it," Kin raised a perfect brow up. "Where did Karasu go? Does anyone know what happened to him after that scum Urufu killed us?"

"Think about that question again…" Ghini laughed.

"Stop your bickering this instant!" a strong, husky voice came from behind them. Immediately, the three slayers turned around to see the face of their Combat sensei, Gintojin. And on his arm was Karasu with his eyes tightly shut and a frown marring his handsome face.

"Sensei…" Ghini breathed, standing up straight and noticing Otakii and the Elder appear shortly after. He noticed a strange looking girl standing beside the elder with long red hair, an eye patch and a solemn look across her face. Her visible eye burned into an empty abyss until it caught sight of Ghini's puzzled face. She glared at him, turning her pale cheek to the side and continuing to stay in her own world. "What is going on here? Karasu, what happened to you? What happened to us? Where is this place?" He frowned at the 8 large red moons.

"You children have done well," Kyousai slowly nodded, her shoulders remaining tense. "But not well enough."

"Karasu tells me that it was your lack of teamwork that led to your deaths back there in the Labyrinth realm," Gintojin growled. "That is completely unacceptable! Do you hear me? If it weren't for the opening of the portal, your bodies would have been left there to decay for decades!"

Kin gulped, holding his delicate face in his hands and shaking with fear. "Not my beautiful body…" he whispered to himself. "Wait a second…" he pressed an inquisitive hand to his sharp chin and frowned. "If the Portal was opened, does that mean we're in the 8th Demon Dimension?"

"Precisely," Otakii sighed and helped Gintojin seat Karasu on the ground. "We came with the Elder to help you and to forcefully open the Portal door… but it looks like someone found the natural key to it before the Elder could even try."

Luca laughed hysterically, holding her stomach as she did so violently. "Finally, the 8th Demon Dimension!"

"Who's the girl?" Ghini asked again, never taking his eyes off of Ouka who ignored him once more. "She doesn't look too happy to be here."

"Never mind her," the Elder replied sharply. "Now that we are actually in this Dimension, there are things you must know in order to survive and help Himeji fulfill the prophecy."

"It's a load of rubbish!" Kin exclaimed, throwing his arms into the air with an exasperated sigh. "This was supposed to be the year that I graduate and become an esteemed Demon Slayer! I never signed up for this Prophecy nonsense! In fact, I don't think I've ever spoken to Himeji in my life. Why should I risk my precious life to help some ungrateful brat—"

"Be quiet," Karasu hissed with clenched fists.

Kin's mouth snapped closed as he stared down at the strange boy. "I beg your pardon?"

"I said to shut that useless mouth of yours," Karasu replied back, more coldly than before.

"Why don't you look me in the eyes and say that again, tough guy?" Kin started.

"Because I can't!" Karasu screamed, his entire body shaking with rage. "He took my eye! The only one I had left… he chose not to kill me…"

"Enough!" The Elder commanded, her chest rising slowly with frustration. "The Devourers are bound to find us soon unless we find adequate shelter for the night. Otakii, lead the way. Ouka, help Gintojin carry Karasu."

"I don't need help," Karasu slapped Gintojin's hand away and struggled to stand, as he tripped on his own feet and tumbled backwards.

Ouka instinctively leaned in and grabbed him, wrapping her arms around his hard chest and pushing him forward. "Be careful," she muttered, dusting off her hands and watching his body grow stiff. With that, she turned away from him and bitterly pulled a bandana from her pocket and wrapped it around her head. "I can sense them getting nearer. Let's move."

Just who is she anyways? Ghini crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at her, watching her walk closely behind Otakii sensei.

"There's been a disturbance in the Dimensional fabric…" Ojiru slowly pulled the hood over his face and bit his lower lip, watching Devourers float past him behind the invisible glass. He ran his cold fingers across the glass, curling them into a fist. "Someone must have opened the Portal… which means they're all here in this Dimension now." That fool, Ryoga. His mercenaries couldn't even completely destroy a handful of beginner brats? Come to think of it… that must mean he is here in the 8th Dimension as well…

"What's going on?" Himeji suddenly rose from her bed with a pained look across her face. "Why does everything feel so… different?"

Ojiru narrowed his eyes at her, understanding her question. So she feels it too then? She's a lot stronger than I anticipated. Grandmother must have trained her well. "Go back to sleep, Himeji. This is no time for you to be bothering me." Despite his orders, he could hear the gentle patting of her bare feet approach him from behind. "What do you think you're doing?" He watched her touch every surface of the glass wall and hissed. "Don't touch it!"

"I need to get out of here!" she started to panic, searching for an exit. "I know what this feels like… My friends are here! Let me go Ojiru, I'm warning you. I'll—" she held out her hand defensively before her and aimed it directly at her brother. "I'll kill you if I have to."

"Fool," Ojiru briskly walked towards her and grabbed her wrist, mercilessly forcing it down. "Even if you wanted to, you wouldn't be able to harness your spiritual powers here! I injected a drug into you that prohibits the flow of your crystal energy." Angrily, he pushed her back and watched her fall to the floor. "Under this roof, you will listen to me, obey me and do as I say."

"You're a monster," she whispered, hugging her knees to her chest. And as she looked up with teary eyes at one face of a bright red moon, she couldn't help but to feel a strange longing for her sensei, Teru. He's here too… I just know it.

"Fools!" Ryoga threw his swords down against and kicked the blade with his large, steel-toed boot. "You let them live?"

"You're the only fool here, Ryoga," Arisu glared behind her soft purple, silk veil. "They were resurrected from the dead once the Portal opened!"

"You're full of yourself," Urufu barked at her, clenching his metal gloves open and closed. "You were the one who failed to kill three puny girls before one of them found the Key Stone."

"Don't get on my nerves right now, mutt," she gritted her teeth and defensively pulled out two jewelled daggers.

"Everyone just needs to calm down," Kado light-heartedly laughed, fondling the edge of his black top hat. With ease, he pulled it off and took out a deck of cards from his pocket, shuffling them nonchalantly in his white gloved hands. "Ryoga ran away like a sissy, Urufu found a soft spot for the boy, Karasu, and Arisu got a little ahead of herself again. Tell me, what else is new?"

The three villains turned their heads towards the green haired young man with scowls of hatred and violence. "And just where were you this whole time?" Arisu crossed her dark arms and flicked her blood-red ponytail aside.

"Taking care of… personal matters," Kado raised a brow slyly. "It's too late to sulk around now. The little slayers are running around in this Dimension like rats. Why don't we exterminate them while we have the chance?"

"Don't be absurd," Ryoga snapped. "The Elder is with them. Not to mention Rani of the Forest, Otakii, Gintojin and that other child, Teru."

Kado's cards stopped moving for a moment as his gaze completely changed. "Teru, you say? You mean, the Legendary Slayer… Himeji's mentor?"

Ryoga nodded, grabbing Arisu and playing with the curves of her neck and shoulders. "What do you have in mind?"

"Tell me what you plan on doing with Himeji though first," Kado smiled. "And I will gladly reveal the information I found on Ojiru."

Arisu stroked Ryoga's handsome face and licked her lips. "Don't trust him, Ryoga. He's just a trouble maker…"

"Silence," he tore himself away from her lustful gaze and faced Kado. "I already told you. I'm going to use her to get to the Prophecy and free It from its previous sealing. It will finally be able to rule the Dimensions once again and I will be the one who gets the luxury of It's limitless power."

"So all you need… is Himeji then?" Kado asked. He looked at his cards and grinned quietly to himself. "What if I told you… that I know exactly where she is right now?"

Urufu scoffed and shook his head. "We should have just killed her when we had the chance."

Ryoga's dark eyes studied Kado's proud face as he stepped back and crossed his arms. "What do you want from me, Kado? This must be a gamble of some sort for you."

"I'll bring her here tonight," the villain chuckled. "And in return, you let me have my fun."

"What kind of fun are you talking about now?" Arisu rolled her eyes and stared down at her perfect nails. "Ryoga, be careful. He's nothing but a liar!"

"Fine," Ryoga held out his hand towards him and waited. "I want her here before tomorrow morning. Understood?"

Excellent, Kado's fingers went back to stroking his smooth plastic cards. This is exactly what I needed. I have all my pawns set in place… now all that's left is to sit back and watch how things unravel in my favour.