Book 2: Chapter 95: Shimizu vs Dijon

Akira was clad in a damaged full-body heavy armor and his luxurious monk robes from when he was still prestigious were now blotted with stains and dragged behind him like rags. He wielded a heavily rusted bloodstained bronze staff and tottered over towards Lily’s direction with a slow pace.

As for Hojo Motoshige, he wielded a pair of ashen black sickle-chains that swiveled in his hands like the limbs of a praying mantis, rotating in circular motions with extremely rapid speed while he issued a guttural sneer from his long withered vocal cords.

“Hahahahahaha! Hahahahahaha! Die, Kagami Lily—”

Although they were foes, Lily couldn’t muster even an iota of hatred towards them because they had long met their death as humans. However, someone had used forbidden techniques to raise them as zombie-like demon samurai. Although they could move their jaws, they had long lost their consciousnesses and the only thing left behind were the grudges confined in the depths of their souls.

Although they were irredeemable villains, Lily felt some pity for them who had to go through such an experience after dying once.

“Akira. Hojo Motoshige. I wasn’t wrong in killing you. Allow me to end the pain of your souls today,” Lily stated apathetically.

However, the commotion from the woods didn’t stop with the appearance of Akira and Motoshige.

Demon samurais and demon soldiers tottered out from the depths of the woods in succession and in a blink, a few hundred of them had appeared.

It looked like Hojo Dijon had no humanity left in him anymore. He had summoned the dead Hojo soldiers back from the underworld and was making them fight for his ambitions even after death.

However, for him to have achieved this, it was clear that Dijon had the backing of a power that possessed the techniques to summon souls and manipulate corpses.

After Dijon’s demon soldier army made its appearance, it was the turn of the towering monsters to make their appearance one after the other.

Snake women who seemed to resemble those that had appeared the previous night emerged within the misty woods along with even more powerful tough-looking monsters.

Faced with such a huge ambush of monsters and demon samurai, even Lily and Shimizu had realized how perilous their current situation was.

“Lily, I’ll handle that Dijon. You deal with the other monsters and demon samurai,” Shimizu arrived before Lily and stood in between her and Dijon.

“Sis…” Sister Shimizu’s strength has increased by a lot while I’m good at dealing with huge mobs of weaker opponents. Although I have a grudge with Dijon, Sister Shimizu’s decision is the right one.

“What? Are you in that much of a rush to throw away your life, Minamoto no Shimizu?” Dijon questioned.

Shimizu smirked in response to his taunt, “Hojo Dijon. I wonder where you got the courage to speak such words from. You’re just a stray dog who has become subservient to the Hundred Demons and have lost your pride as a samurai long ago. Allow me to truly send you over to the Land of Death!”

“Hahahahahaha! Minamoto no Shimizu, you ambitious yet talentless woman. You couldn’t even receive a single move from Uesugi Rei, yet you still have the face to boast shamelessly again! Die now!” A fiendish energy shrouded Hojo Dijon’s imposing figure and even the earth trembled with each of his steps as he shot over towards Shimizu with rapid momentum! The dark energies beaming around him made him appear just like a fierce ogre emerging from the darkness!

However, Shimizu remained calm as ever. Her realm of strength had far surpa.s.sed those of ordinary samurai, so Dijon’s fiendish energy failed to intimidate her. She stood motionless with her stance ready to draw at any moment with a cold gaze in her starry eyes and waited for the giant before her to dash over.

Shimizu’s figure turned ephemeral suddenly and the air around her also rippled in succession as her lithe figure broke the sound barrier.

“Tranquil Style — White!” Shimizu had finally executed her certain-kill technique!

A bright blue sword beam emerged from the sheath of Shimizu’s sword and sliced through the air!

Dijon also swung his huge sword that was clad in fiendish dark purple energy towards Shimuzu!

“Clang—!” The clash between the attacks gave rise to an ear-splitting tremor that uprooted the vegetation around them and sent the leaves flying!

Shimizu and Dijon’s weapons contested with each other momentarily, yet they were stuck in a deadlock because they were evenly matched!

Lily had also acted at the same time as Shimizu and her attacks were as sudden as always.

By the time the tremor from the clash between experts of the Six Swords had given rise to a gale that wreaked havoc everywhere, Lily had already reached before Daidouji Akira. Akira raised the heavy bronze staff up slowly the moment he saw Lily!

However, Lily had no intention of giving him a chance to make a move irrespective of whether he was an old foe or a new enemy.

As such, Lily delivered a swift strike with her sword and a crimson crescent sword beam sliced through the damaged armor of Akira fortified by fiendish energy and bisected him into two halves with a single strike!

Akira wasn’t even able to deliver a single strike to Lily, a foe he resented with his all, before being incapacitated by Lily’s attack!

“GRRAHHH—” Akira’s torso slid sideways while issuing an unreconciled howl.

Lily stepped on him and stated the following words, “You better not return from the underworld again,” before stabbing into Akira’s heart with a somewhat poignant expression on her beautiful face. The runes on Crescent Moon flashed with a crimson light and following that, Akira’s vengeful spirit was absorbed into Lily’s cursed katana.

“Hahahahahaha! Kagami Lily, I’ve come! I will make mincemeat out of you—!” Hojo Motoshige leaped over towards Lily at this moment while baring his fists just like a jumping clown!

Lily turned her face towards him, her crimson amaryllis-like eyes twinkling with a starry light.

“Spurt!” Lily didn’t hesitate to use all the soul force she had obtained from Akira’s body to deliver a powerful killing blow filled with abundant spirit power to Motoshige which sent his withered body flying back several hundred meters, disappearing into the dense mist. However, Lily’s cursed katana had sucked out the red anima from the corpse and absorbed it after giving the fatal blow.

“Return to where you came from.”

Hojo Motoshige had been blown away in the direction of Odawara, which was the former territory of the Hojo family. However, this was perhaps just a coincidence.

Although Akira and Motoshige had been resurrected as demon samurai and had experienced a boost in strength, they were only as strong as late-stage sword masters at most. Now that each blow of Lily packed the strength of a late-stage sword saint, facing her with their strengths was akin to throwing their lives again even if they had returned from the underworld. Lily had exterminated their animas this time, so it was impossible for them to resurrect again and they had even lost the chance to enter the cycle of samsara as they had been thoroughly erased from this world along with the destruction of their souls.

“GRRRAAH—!” “GRROOWL—!”

A mult.i.tude of demon samurais and demon soldiers with mummified faces charged towards Lily from within the woods while wielding rusted weapons.

“Nanako, use the Sakura Parasol to protect yourself and senior sister!” Lily yelled.

Nanako and the pony-tailed senior hid behind a huge rock at once and opened the Sakura Parasol.

The Sakura Parasol’s protective force was the strongest during a full moon night and although its performance was average on moonlit nights with a debilitating performance during the day, the perceptive powers of these demon soldiers was even lower than that of weak monsters. Thus, as long as they weren’t too close to the demon soldiers, the chances of them getting discovered were close to nil even if they were under the protection of the parasol during the day.

Naturally, the powers of the Sakura Parasol weren’t effective towards humans like Dijon and Yuki Mayumi who had joined the ranks of the Hundred Demons.

After seeing the girls were safe under the protection of the Sakura Parasol, Lily’s gaze brimmed with determination as she killed her way into the mob of demon soldiers now that she was free of worries.

The long, red sleeves of Lily’s kimono fluttered in the air just like a crimson flower blooming in an ashen world as mesmerizing sword beams blossomed from Crescent Moon in her hands. Although these Hojo soldiers had received the empowerment of demon arts, they possessed little to no resistance to Crescent Moon’s attacks and perished one after the other under her blade.

It was quite difficult to kill demon samurai with the average weapon and required the attacker to behead them, and even that didn’t guarantee their death. However, Lily’s cursed katana reaped their vengeful spirits the moment she struck them down, which utterly decimated the undead spirits of these demon samurai.

Lily charged across the battlefield with ease and had become an unstoppable force!

Under the parasol, Nanako’s face flushed up as she witnessed all of this. Sister Lily, you were just able to contend with me a while ago, yet you’ve become so unbelievably strong now. You look pretty dashing!

And now, Shimizu and Dijon’s battle had also reached the climax!

Dijon’s blows were rough and robust while Shimizu’s movements were nimble and paired with sharp strikes. As such, the confrontation between them had reached a deadlock since none had managed to take the upper hand.

However, Dijon’s body was too tough, and Shimizu was unable to attack his vitals. Although she had managed to inflict some wounds on him, they were so minor that they almost had no effect on him.

“This scoundrel Dijon has unexpectedly become so strong! He’s no longer the same Dijon who ranked at the bottom of the Six Swords! He originally had a tough innate physique and practicing the demon spirit arts have empowered him to such a degree that even I need to proceed with caution!” Shimizu was actually feeling pretty embarra.s.sed.

Although it looked like they were evenly matched, the situation was pretty unfavorable for Shimizu if the confrontation were to turn into a prolonged battle. Not only did she lack the huge reserves of spirit power that the inhuman Dijon possessed, but she also had a weak innate const.i.tution. Although the medicine she had received from Lord Kamakura allowed her to maintain an optimal state for the past few days, she could feel that she was nearing her limits soon. Shimizu’s entire body was drenched in sweat currently and even her sword-wielding hand also begun to tremble slightly.

“Hahahahahaha! Minamoto no Shimizu, it seems like this is all that you amount to in the end! Allow me to use my entire strength and send you on your way!” Dijon yelled.

“What?!” Shimizu was shocked by this statement. *I’ve already responded with all my strength and barely managed to fight to a draw, yet this Dijon hasn’t even used his entire strength till now?!

No! That’s impossible!

“I’m the number one in the Land of East! It’s impossible for a mere Dijon to be stronger than me!” Shimizu’s eyes filled with fury.

Dijon’s crazed scream echoed across the entire mountain range just like the wild howl of a fierce ogre.

A dark purple flame shrouded Dijon’s body and empowered his fiendish energy by another notch, resulting in the fiendish energy almost engulfing Shimizu.

“Die! Resplendent Demon Strike!”

A coiling snake-like purple fiendish energy gathered on Dijon’s broken and rusted blade!

“Boom—!”

An energy wave seemingly formed of a hundred snakes charged towards Shimizu in the next moment!

Shimizu could have chosen to evade it, but her stubborn heart made her face it upfront, “Hojo Dijon! How could I be weaker than a vulgar brute like you!”

“Tranquil Water — Iai!”

“Whoosh!” Shimizu unsheathed her blade in a flash and released a rippling water-like sword beam that sliced through the air!

“Boom!” The two blades clashed against each other!

The earth quaked from the powerful tremors and the dark and powerful fiendish energy scattered in all directions.

“Ugh!” Shimizu moaned in pain and spewed out a mouthful of blood, following which her pet.i.te body was blown out from the dark energy waves. A few of the purple snakes formed from the fiendish energy refused to release Shimizu and coiled around her body, biting and pulling onto her, ripping her black kimono apart!

Shimizu got blown about a hundred meters away and crashed onto the mountain walls of Mt. Inda, creating a depression on the rocky walls! The snakes formed from the fiendish energy also dissipated following that.

And then, Shimizu dropped to the ground.

“Sister Shimizu!” Lily was stupefied when she witnessed this and turned around to charge towards Dijon after killing the demon samurai near her.

“Stop!” Shimizu kneeled up with the support of Tranquil Bamboo after dropping to the ground. Her frail body shuddered as she stated, “Fall back, Lily! Hojo Dijon’s opponent is me, Shimizu! I absolutely won’t lose to this guy who relies on evil arts!”

However, Shimizu felt pain in her chest after saying these words and began coughing, which dyed the inner white sleeves of her kimono red with blood.

“Sister Shimizu… let me deal with him!” Lily had also become worried after seeing Shimizu’s condition.

“No! Dijon’s opponent is me! I have to end him personally! As the leader of the Six Swords, I’m obliged to—eliminate this heretic!” Shimizu glared at Dijon persistently even though she was still trembling.

“I-I cannot lose again… not to this guy who’s ranked sixth!” Such was Shimizu’s pride that denied anyone crushing it ever again!