Book 3: Chapter 104: Permanence Stage Great Demon

Lily’s power had achieved a tenfold boost after perfecting the First Path of Tsukuyomi Swordstyle’s Six Paths.

Her blade maiden spirit power doubled the density of spirit power originally and her base physique gave her a threefold boost in strength.

Even though Lily is still a 7th-stage Awakened as before, the amount of total strength she is able to muster is sixty times that of an average 7th-stage Awakened because of the cardinality and multiplicity involved between the following trinity of elements—Base Physique, Spirit Power Density and Power.

The strength of a middle-stage Spirit Jade powerhouse is six times that of a 7th-stage Awakened powerhouse while a late-stage Spirit Jade powerhouse is ten times stronger.

It wasn’t common for monsters to learn Esoteric Power Arts but unlike humans, they had innately powerful bodies.

Kokurin, who was a late middle-stage Spirit Jade Great Demon, possessed an innate strength thrice as powerful as human samurai while Ookado and Kama-Oni were a little stronger than that.

Although Kama-Oni’s raw strength was ten times stronger than human powerhouses on the same level, his speed was much slower, and he wasn’t gifted in handling spirit power. Thus, his total strength was just thrice as strong as a human powerhouse who didn’t possess an Esoteric Power Art.

Thus, the actual strength of the chiefs was between only twenty to thirty times that of a 7th-stage Awakened, which left a clear gap between their strengths and Lily’s strength as she was sixty times stronger!

Lily was also a domain user, and since these chiefs underestimated her a little, it allowed her to kill three of them in an extremely short duration.

A large number of monsters had rushed over and surrounded the temple outside at this moment. As they were unclear about the situation inside, the only choice they had was to barge in forcefully.

A cl.u.s.ter of snowflakes joined the raindrops pouring down outside the temple and the rainstorm became a snowstorm gradually as the white and purple-robed shikigami, Yuki-Onna, descended.

“This road is blocked,” Yuki-Onna waved her long-sleeves, and a freezing wind blew by, freezing the weaker monsters into ice before they even realized it while getting engulfed by the snowstorm.

Meanwhile, Amanojaku raged violently inside the main hall, “Just who in the world are you?!”

“She’s Kagami Lily!” The sole remaining chief, Genga, also got up as the spiders around him transmitted some information to him.

“My subordinates have seen her once, Lord Amanojaku. She’s the Mirror Girl we’ve been hunting all along, Kagami Lily!” Genga looked at Lily with his two pairs of sinister eyes.

“What?!” Amanojaku couldn’t believe it, “W-Why is Kagami Lily so strong then? Didn’t Haihime defeat her and take her captive previously? Kagami Lily, just what method did you use to obtain such strength?”

“Perhaps she was hiding her strength all along!” Genga commented.

The temple was in a mess and many lanterns had collapsed, leaving the surroundings aflame.

Lily’s eyes reflected the flickering flames and blood dripped down from Crescent Moon within her hands as she stated coldly, “The powerless get crushed and humiliated by willful monsters like you, and their bodies, as well as their hearts also get toyed with because of your perverse interests! However, all of you shall fall under my blade on this day. You may be a peerless Great Demon who rampaged in this Heian World and oppressed the weak in these dark times, but your atrocities will come to an end today, Amanojaku. The kind and staunch Keiko was forced into such desperate straits all because of a vile and brutal demon like you and this has angered me deeply!”

“Hahahahahaha! Hahahahahahahaha! What bold words!” Amanojaku laughed heartily with his hands on his hips, “I concur with your statement about the powerless as well, Mirror Girl. However, do you think you’re strong enough to threaten me just because you’ve managed to kill a few of my subordinates? You’re really strong, there’s no doubt about it, and also bear a grudge of carnage within you. Although I don’t know why you want to help Haihime out, did you intentionally kill my uncle, Ookado, in front of me to seek justice for her? Unfortunately, my Golden-Horned Tribe and the One-Horned Tribe don’t have a strong concept of relatives like you humans, so you’ve simply failed to land a blow to me and have only made me wrathful, very wrathful!”

Amanojaku pointed at Lily, “However, you still don’t know how fearsome I really am, Mirror Girl. Although it’s an easy feat for me to kill you, it’s my first time seeing such a pretty, powerful and vicious woman like you. How about you become my woman in Haihime’s stead? I’m willing to spare your life as long as you allow me to break your limbs and chain you eternally to give birth to my progeny with that excellent bloodline of yours, how about it? This is the last chance you are going to get…”

Lily responded to Amanojaku with a slash from her odachi, sending a crimson sword beam streaking across the floor towards him.

Amanojaku intended to block it, but he sensed danger instinctively and rolled aside to dodge the sword beam, but a deep cut was still left behind on his arm.

“How dare you do something like this, you insignificant human woman?! How dare a lowborn creature like you make a n.o.ble member of the Golden-Horned Tribe bleed?!” Amanojaku got furious and his flame-like mauve hair floated up as he grabbed his weapon, the ma.s.sive jagged-edged scythe, and brandished it, causing gusts of air to rise up.

Genga had long hidden behind Lily as Amanojaku’s exaggerated scythe movements grabbed Lily’s attention. He extended his arms and pincered Lily’s head with his sharp claw weapons from both sides.

Lily didn’t even give him a look as she knew everything about her enemies inside her domain. She kneeled down on one knee and raised Crescent Moon up to block Genga’s steel claws with a clang!

The clash between Crescent Moon and the steel claws gave rise to sparks and the strength produced by the spirit power unleashed by Lily shocked even the late-stage Spirit Jade Great Demon Genga greatly. The blade clashed against the steel claws that Genga was pushing down with force from the front to the back and the half-crouched Lily borrowed the downward momentum to spin around axially and delivered a heavy strike back to the claws.

Genga’s steel claws were pried open, and her blade sliced his chest open.

However, Genga possessed a very strong vitality and raised his claws once again to strike down at Lily’s back despite the fact that he was bleeding buckets from his chest.

Lily, however, seized this chance to roll between the ma.s.sive Genga’s legs and executed a backslash via Crescent Moon to cut Genga’s Achilles tendons, causing him to fall to his knees, and once she had finished turning around, she raised her Crescent Moon and stabbed into Genga’s chest, its sharp blade stabbing straightly into his spirit jade.

“Bam!” Genga’s spirit jade quivered violently, and a huge amount of spirit power diffused from his spiritual ocean, his vitality also dropping subsequently.

There was no guarantee that a Spirit Jade powerhouse would die as soon as their spirit jade got shattered. The body still possesses its own functions even after the spirit jade gets shattered, so Genga’s heart was still beating because of his tenacious vitality. Thus, eight several-meter-long bladed spider legs shot out from his back suddenly the moment he fell to the floor and stabbed towards Lily. However, with no spirit jade core, Genga could only rely on his monstrous body’s strength, which was in the Awakened Stage at best, so Lily just sliced through all of them with a horizontal slash.

Genga’s face hit the floor powerlessly as the final bit of strength left his body and he queried with large amounts of blood flowing out of him, “Why is a woman like you able to react so calmly to spontaneous developments under the influence of wrath and carnage…”

Lily was taken aback by the question, but she still responded, “How would I know? It’s always been like this.”

“I… see…” Genga’s eyes gradually lost light and it was a wonder whether his last look was filled with remorse or hopelessness…

Lily stepped forward and stabbed Genga’s heart.

All five of Amanojaku’s chiefs were dead now.

“It seems like I’ll have to deal with you personally! I was planning to entrap you, but it seems like you’re much smarter than that Haihime.”

“You’re mistaken, Amanojaku. I’m not really smarter than Haihime. It’s just that I never believed that monsters like you have concepts of reputation and righteousness.”

“You demoness! It’s an insult to call you human when you’re so strong and bold! I believe it’s proper to call you a demoness!”

“Amanojaku, do you think all humans are as naïve and weak as you believe them to be? You’ll get immolated by the flames of fury that you’ve set aflame by trampling down on the kind in the end. However, I guess you won’t get it even if I explain it to someone like you who has lived the life of livestock until now, would you? Nay, saying that you’ve lived the life of livestock is actually an insult to livestock now, isn’t it?” Lily grinned.

“B̲i̲t̲c̲h̲! No one has insulted me like this ever since I was born!!! Die!”

The spirit power shrouding Amanojaku increased sharply and the golden horn of his spirit jade, which is in the shape of a Golden-Horned Statue, began shining and caused the whole spiritual ocean to billow.

Permanence Spirit’s True Intent!

The overwhelming might of the explosive power packed within a Permanence Stage powerhouse’s spirit power was enough to shake the whole temple.

“Whoosh!” Amanojaku’s speed shot up so high that he almost warped in front of Lily instantaneously.

However, Lily’s footwork was otherworldly in nature, just like the lithe and ethereal tempo of a celestial maiden’s dance. Tsukuyomi Swordstyle wasn’t just an esoteric power advancement method. Lily had also acquired the tempo of this Tsukuyomi’s dance subconsciously while practicing the whole set of sword-dance several times.

This was an enigmatic tempo. Although Amanojaku excelled in terms of absolute power no matter which stage he was in, and even though his full strength was over a hundred times stronger than an Awakened powerhouse and much greater than Lily’s, he still failed to land a hit on her.

It was simply impossible for a mere subterranean minor evil spirit to see through Tsukuyomi’s dance steps.

Amanojaku’s speed might’ve exceeded Lily’s if he raised it to the maximum, but Lily’s footwork, turns and movements were too unpredictable. It was as if G.o.ddess Tsukuyomi was personally instructing the dance of a celestial maiden, which made Amanojaku feel as if Lily was far away at the horizon even though she was clearly right in front of his eyes, preventing him from landing even a single blow.

Amanojaku brandished his scythe madly while Lily responded with elusive movements, leaving behind fierce and vicious sword beams in midair along with some afterimages following behind the tempo of her dance. On the other hand, Amanojaku’s strikes just left behind a series of rippling distortions.

“Don’t run, b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲! Stop hiding if you have any guts!”

The flames had intensified a lot by now and the whole temple had begun collapsing with some pillars, beams and tiles falling one after the other and catching fire, but they had no effect on Lily and Amanojaku.

Lily naturally pushed the debris falling towards her away with her domain while Amanojaku was a victim to the wooden debris’ strikes, but he just didn’t care about it since he was unharmed.

Lily and Amanojaku stood opposite of each other inside the ruins of the temple within the heavy snowstorm.

The ma.s.sive Thousand-Armed Buddha’s statue tilted to one side, but it hadn’t collapsed yet and the eyes of the statue were as calm as ever, transcendent even, as if Buddha was experiencing enlightenment and overlooking this unprecedented decisive battle quietly with the all-saving gaze of Buddha!

A battle between the blade maiden, Lily, who was just a 7th-stage Awakened, and the Permanence Stage Great Demon, Amanojaku!