Book 3: Chapter 108: Flames of Mt. Fuji

The eternal Mt. Fuji towered thousands of meters high on the land where the Heian Empire reigned—right above the Land of Ashihara.

Lily and Haihime were climbing this vast, scorching, demonic mountain right now.

Although Mt. Fuji looked quite beautiful from afar, climbing it felt the same as advancing into a sloping h.e.l.l with no end.

The scorching mountain surface was barren and only had pitch-black rocks and ashes wherever the eyes went, blazing with flames that were hot enough to melt katanas.

The temperature in this location was hot enough to roast a wild boar into perfection if it were to run inside accidentally even in winter and the mountain had no humans living on it usually.

Lily and Haihime protected their bodies with spirit defense so that they could keep climbing up.

This expended a considerable amount of spirit power and the average samurai needed to be in the Spirit Jade Stage at the very least to ensure that they’re able to return back from the mountaintop safely. There were also a lot of treasures that allowed recovery of spirit power along the climb. A Yellow Magatama, for example, could be used to recover spirit power rapidly if it weren’t used for advancing the strength, but this was really wasteful as Yellow Magatamas were a lot rarer and pricier than common magatama. Even Spirit Jade powerhouses who didn’t have much use for it treated it as an emergency item.

Although the spirit defense protected them, it was still pretty hot, and this left Lily and Haihime utterly drenched in sweat.

As such, Lily and Haihime made earlier preparations and wore a white yukata minidress as a tunic instead of a complex formal kimono.

Lily and Haihime had also donned a white headband on their foreheads to prevent the sweat from their foreheads from affecting their vision.

Naturally, their chests were significantly exposed, and they hadn’t worn anything except white women’s underwear below.

Although it was quite immodest to dress like this, the duo didn’t mind it that much since it was just the two of them girls in the group, just as it didn’t matter if girls stripped each other in the bathhouse.

Anyhow, it was practically impossible for anyone to climb this exceptionally hot Mt. Fuji.

However, the route was pretty difficult to traverse and the two were walking in the front and the back instead of walking side-by-side, so things became a little awkward when they needed to climb over some steep rocks.

Haihime also seemed to prefer climbing behind Lily, which made Lily a little embarra.s.sed.

The rock was hot and slippery, too. The mountain was thousands of meters tall, so when Lily’s hand slipped, it ended up planting her generous, sweat-drenched b.u.t.tocks across Haihime’s face accidentally.

It was so dangerous that Haihime was forced to receive it with her face and use her hands to support Lily’s b.u.t.t so that she could regain her balance.

Lily could feel Haihime’s nose and mouth and well as her breath hit her and this made her blush fully as she turned her head back to apologize, “I-I’m sorry.”

Haihime, however, looked quite pleased and wore a smile beneath her bewitching eyes, “It’s fine…”

The duo continued climbing, but it was really too hot.

A little while later, the two of them stood on the rock surrounding one of the secondary vents of Mt. Fuji and Haihime allowed the wind to air out the wide cleavage of her bountiful, sweat-drenched and scented chest, prompting Lily to look at her own pair subsequently.

Although impulsive, the thought of how it would feel if their b.r.e.a.s.t.s rubbed against each other pa.s.sed through Lily’s mind.

This caused Lily’s breathing to turn rough and made her cheeks turn hot.

She then saw that Haihime seemed to have noticed her gaze, so she pretended to observe the surroundings to cover up her actions anxiously and chastised herself firmly in her mind. Is this because of the heatstroke? Just what was I even thinking?!

Haihime, however, revealed a sweet, knowing smile and whispered into Lily’s ear, “It seems like Lil’ Master’s gaze is pretty dishonest, huh?”

She then slapped Lily’s b.u.t.t coyly with a playful pout.

As the yukata minidress reached just below the waist, it naturally made it easy to slap the b.u.t.t.

Lily skipped to the side with blushing cheeks, “H-How could you slap my b.u.t.t when you call me your master?”

“Hehe. Isn’t it because you’re naughty, Master? You peeped at me and even tried to cover it up. Actually, can’t you just order me if you want to look, Lil’ Master? After all, I belong to you now, don’t I? Is there a need to act so sneaky? Or could it be that you find this more interesting?”

“Alright! Enough chatter now!” Lily stated gloomily, “Let’s climb the mountain, come on!”

Lily went to climb the steep mountain surface alone.

Haihime, on the other hand, continued teasing her from behind, “Your b.u.t.t is exposed, Lil’ Master.”

“Eh?!” Lily covered her b.u.t.t anxiously and checked the position of the underwear before giving a sullen look to Haihime with blushing cheeks.

As the mountain was extremely hot, it was simply impossible to lie down on the surface. Thus, the duo was forced to traverse forward day and night.

They lent each other an arm whenever they got tired and stopped minding the skin contact after a while. The side of Lily’s chest rubbed against Haihime’s as they walked forward while lending each other an arm and they were drenched in each other’s sweat. Their faces were quite close to each other’s whenever they conversed sometimes, and it was just impossible for Lily to show no bodily reaction to such actions, her heart pounding each time.

However, Lily really wasn’t that kind of a promiscuous woman and she was against committing such actions as well. She possessed incredible willpower and didn’t want to let her senior sister down! At the very least, she believed that she absolutely shouldn’t take any actions that would let her senior sister down willingly.

All they saw was the vast expanse over the past few days, even when it was daytime, and after walking for an unknown number of days, they seemed to have finally approached the mountaintop.

A bunch of monsters donned in pitch-black, metal armor hovered in front of them at this moment and these armors were actually filled with blazing flames instead of flesh!

“Haihime. Do you recognize these monsters?”

Haihime shook her head, “To be frank, I’ve never really climbed to the mountaintop of Mt. Fuji until now, so these monsters might be hostile to us.”

They were a bunch of 7th-stage Awakened monsters.

However, these monsters didn’t possess a flesh body or a core. They were a certain type of mythical creature that wasn’t even alive and was actually a wraith.

Lily and Haihime’s skin pressed against each other firmly as the two exhaled a white cloud of air, both accustomed to the other’s scent.

The two parted and drew out their cursed katana.

The armored wraiths accelerated suddenly and a.s.sailed the duo at the same time.

Lily and Haihime stepped forward and struck with their cursed katana at the perfect timing while dodging the flame swords and flame spears in their opponents’ hands.

“Crack!” Lily and Haihime’s blades cleaved the armored wraith open, and their spirit power contended with the flames of the armored wraith.

A normal strike was ineffective towards such formless grudge, so Lily and Haihime packed their strikes with intense spirit power which neutralized the wraith’s energy and annihilated it.

However, this neutralization wasn’t an issue of quant.i.ty and actually depended on the strength unleashed by the spirit power.

Lily’s and Haihime’s attacks were pretty sharp and only contained an iota of spirit power, but they packed a ma.s.sive amount of strength that was more than enough to annihilate a 7th-stage Awakened armored wraith.

The duo finished dealing with these wraiths in a few exchanges and Lily discovered that although the main body of these armored wraiths, that is, the wraiths, didn’t leave behind any anima to collect, all of them had grade 6 armor that could withstand extreme heat. Thus, Lily dispatched some of the wraiths by attacking the flames directly via the gaps in their armor to avoid damaging them and collected all the armors. Even if they were damaged, she could simply request Master Ehiro to repair them anew into a decent treasure.

The mountaintop of Mt. Fuji had Great Demons and some treasures as well, but there were few people who had the ability to reach it, and even fewer had the willpower to explore it by persevering. In truth, even Lily didn’t believe she would be able to last much longer, and even she wouldn’t have climbed to the top if it weren’t to fetch the flames.