Chapter 165 — Memory Palace
Above the dark clouds, thunder roared.
A gigantic creature slowly glided through the mist.
Below the clouds, violent winds howled across an endless void.
The sight before Enmu, the environment surrounding him—everything he was seeing completely overturned his understanding of the world.
"No!"
Enmu suddenly came to his senses.
"How did you leave my dream?!"
[Dream?]
Ren let out a cold laugh.
It would have been better if Enmu hadn't mentioned that.
Just thinking about it made him angry.
"You actually thought you could fool me with such a ridiculous trick?" Ren snapped furiously. "How could Shinobu possibly dress like that and say those things to me?! You deserve to die!"
Enmu was stunned.
"But I created everything according to the desires buried deep within your heart!"
Ren: "...?"
Silence briefly descended over the entire space.
Ren remained quiet for a moment.
"No. You're lying. Which means you deserve to die even more!"
What a ridiculous accusation.
How could Ren possibly have thoughts like that?
It seemed this Enmu wasn't merely disgusting. He also enjoyed slandering people!
The killing intent Ren directed at Enmu was instantly ignited.
And then, something completely unexpected happened.
The moment the Thunder Dragon sensed Ren's killing intent, it suddenly burst out of the thunderclouds with a deafening roar of thunder and charged viciously toward Enmu.
Enmu's suspended heart seemed to stop beating altogether.
Terrifying pressure descended upon him, making it impossible to breathe.
He saw the Thunder Dragon's true form.
It was exactly the same creature depicted on the pillar—but the real thing was far more terrifying and far more lifelike than the carving could ever convey.
Its enormous body was like a golden rod piercing through the heavens, while the thunder-filled sky itself seemed to be its playground.
And its speed was astonishing.
In practically the blink of an eye, the Thunder Dragon had already opened its enormous jaws and appeared directly before Enmu!
"Escape!"
Enmu's thoughts raced like lightning.
He immediately decided to use his power to leave the dream.
But in the very next moment—
Enmu's body was frozen in place!
How was this possible?!
Enmu was horrified.
How could his Blood Demon Art, which had always worked without fail, suddenly become useless?
Wasn't this dream itself a part of his own Blood Demon Art?
Why couldn't he leave?!
What Enmu didn't know was that ever since Ren had taken control of the Memory Palace, Enmu had already fallen under Ren's control.
In other words, Enmu had willingly entered Ren's consciousness, while Ren was using the Memory Palace to trap him.
At this moment, the Thunder Dragon was merely acting upon its instinctive response to an outsider.
It had detected a foreign presence and wanted to eliminate that invading force—to remove a threat to its territory.
As the Thunder Dragon tore through the sky, Enmu let out a desperate wail.
"No! ヽ(꒦ິд꒦ິ)ﾉ!!!"
The next instant, his voice abruptly fell silent.
Enmu's already weakened body instantly melted within the Thunder Dragon's jaws, directly reduced to a wisp of ash.
The powerful Lower Rank One had actually died directly within Ren's dream!
With Enmu's death, Ren discovered that his dream was also beginning to slowly collapse.
However, the Memory Palace itself remained completely intact.
In any case, Lower Rank One was already dead, and there was nothing else Ren needed to do outside for the moment.
So he simply wandered around for a while.
About fifteen minutes later, Ren had roughly summarized what he had discovered.
First, the Memory Palace existed to allow him to conveniently store his memories. This could effectively improve his Regression State.
Second, this was his spiritual core.
After entering meditation, he could arrive here.
At present, Ren had only discovered these two functions. He had yet to uncover any others.
Slowly, Ren also exited the dream.
When Ren opened his eyes again, he found that Tanjiro and Nezuko had already awakened.
Ren nodded when he saw them.
It seemed Tanjiro was much more alert than he had imagined.
Of course, Enmu had already been killed by him, so the Tanjiro Ren was seeing now was merely dealing with a few lesser demons that had taken advantage of the chaos to cause trouble.
Ren turned his head and looked toward Kyojuro and the others.
Kyojuro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke were still dreaming, most likely because they were overly exhausted.
Although Enmu was already dead, if no one woke them, they might sleep all the way until tomorrow morning.
"Oh! Lord Ren, you're awake?"
Tanjiro's voice suddenly came from nearby.
Ren turned around and found that Tanjiro and Nezuko had finished killing the demons and were now walking toward him.
Faced with Tanjiro's question, Ren smiled and nodded.
"Yes. I woke up a while ago."
Ren then pretended to survey their surroundings before speaking admiringly.
"Tanjiro, you did a good job. You've practically dealt with all the demons around here."
"It's nothing."
Tanjiro scratched his head shyly, looking rather embarrassed.
Nezuko also shook her head, her face slightly flushed, as though she understood what Ren meant.
After smiling, Tanjiro said to Ren,
"Lord Ren, the intensity of that dream just now definitely wasn't caused by these ordinary demons. So I suspect there must still be a very powerful demon nearby!"
"Oh?"
Ren smiled faintly.
"How do you know?"
"I smelled it!"
Tanjiro spoke with a hint of excitement.
"I smelled the demon earlier!"
[That demon's ability was to make everyone fall asleep and dream. I just woke up from that dream!]
Hearing Tanjiro's words, Ren nodded slightly.
He knew that the scarred young man standing before him had abandoned his dream by choosing suicide.
That act required an enormous amount of courage.
And that was one of the qualities Ren admired most about Tanjiro.
He was kind and tolerant toward his comrades and the people around him, yet toward himself and his enemies, he could be extraordinarily ruthless.
Tanjiro continued,
"The smell I sensed earlier was extremely strong and unpleasant. But I could also tell that our opponent was incredibly powerful. He was the strongest demon I've ever encountered!"
[Lord Ren, we have to be careful. Otherwise, everyone on the train could be in danger!]
"There really was one."
Ren nodded with a trace of admiration.
"But there's no need to worry too much."
Ren looked at Tanjiro again.
He hadn't expected Tanjiro's sense of smell to be this sharp.
Just as Demon Slayer portrayed, this Demon Slayer Corps member's nose was extraordinarily sensitive.
Tanjiro could even use his sense of smell to distinguish the strength of demons.
There was no denying that such an ability had tremendous potential.
"But it's all right."
Ren reassured him.
"That demon has already been dealt with by me. You don't need to worry."
"Eh? Dealt with?"
Tanjiro stared at him in surprise.
"But Lord Ren has been here the entire time. How did you defeat it?"
Nezuko, standing beside him, also tilted her head and murmured in confusion.
Ren smiled.
Then he pointed to his own head.
"In my dream!"