Book 7: Chapter 23: Breaking Out of the Encirclement

Book 7: Chapter 23: Breaking Out of the Encirclement

Although the prince’s kindheartedness made Lily feel that there was still some hope for the imperial court in the future, she now worried that his benevolence would turn him into a puppet even if he were to become the next emperor during these chaotic times.

“Pardon, Prince.”

Lily infused the life-recovery magatama with spirit power and turned into a stream which flew towards the prince under her will and assimilated with his body slowly.

The prince’s wound thus recovered fully.

“You can use the remaining half to treat the wounded girls, Ms. Ijuin.” Lily opened her palm, showing the remaining half of the green life-recovery magatama to her.

“Sister Kagami...”

“We’re going to break out of the encirclement before dawn tomorrow. Please prepare for it, Prince.” Lily turned around to leave after saying her piece.

“Sister Kagami, I...” The blushing prince opened his mouth to say something to her, but she had left the room by then.

“Sister Kagami...” Prince Narinaga felt a sense of loss when he looked at Lily’s back and wondered internally, “Why is she so indifferent to me? Did I infuriate her?”

...

...

In a deep, dark cave on Mt. Ooe.

The creatures standing on top of the ten demon god statues all oozed terrifying auras.

“Hayabusa died.” Ibaraki Doji’s sharp voice reverberated through the spacious cave.

“Although Hayabusa ranks last among us in terms of strength, his strength isn’t that different from his brother, Aokiba. How could he die so simply? Does the court’s army have an expert within it?” A two-headed devil said.

“I already warned you that we mustn’t underestimate the court! Although Hayabusa died, it looks like he took a lot of generals and soldiers to the grave with him.” Ibaraki continued.

“Who was it?! Tell me. Who killed him?!” The blue haired Aokiba’s avatar appeared on the previously empty hand of a demon god statue. He looked outraged, as Hayabusa was someone who he had grown up with from childhood.

“Who else? It was Kagami Lily.” Ibaraki said.

“What?! It’s that woman again?!” Akahime also looked surprised. Aall newest chapters on n.o./velbi/n/(.)com

Ibaraki raised his crippled arm and continued, “This woman has ruined our plans several times ever since she had made an appearance. She was also the one who hindered us from getting our hands on Ayaka’s weakness. It’s the same this time as well. The human army would have suffered greater losses and retreated in defeat if it weren’t for her.”

“No wonder Lord Shuten attaches so much importance to her. I’m afraid she will continue creating trouble for us unless we kill or capture her!” Akahime said.

“I’m going to kill that woman! I swear on it!” Aokiba said in rage1. “Please tell me where she is, Lord Ibaraki! I must kill her at all costs!”

“You and Touko haven’t been able to capture a mere sword miko like Uesugi Rei even though you’ve been pursuing her for so long now and you want to go kill Kagami Lily?” Ibaraki said icily.

“Well... she’s craftier than we imagined. Please let Touko continue the pursuit. I wish to avenge my brother!”

“Shut up!” Ibaraki said fiercely, “Lord Shuten has ordered us to consolidate our forces and capture Uesugi Rei first since she escaped in our direction!”

“Hah? Consolidate our forces?” Lord of Mt. Hiei asked in doubt, “Is it necessary for us demon enforcers to consolidate our forces just to deal with a mere sword miko? One of us should be enough to deal with her.”

“Although one of us is enough to deal with her, Lord Shuten wants to make sure there are no mistakes this time because she’s crucial to the lord’s plans! We can’t tarry any longer and must capture her at once!” Ibaraki looked at the other demons and said, “Continue pursuing her with Touko, Aokiba. I, Akahime, Lord of Mt. Hiei, Soto-no-Oni, and Pakuzan will act simultaneously to make sure we capture her once and for all this time!”

“What?! You want half of us to act just to catch her?” Soto-no-Oni voiced out in surprise, his two heads shaking at the same time.

“Lord Shuten ordered it. Wise as he is, I’m sure he must’ve had his reasons for giving such an order! Stop quibbling now!”

“Woof!” A white shadow pounced out of the shrubs and bit into the blue demon’s neck, turning him into a corpse.

The other blue demons stood up immediately and made towards the demon hound at once after hearing the noise, but Lily leaped forward and landed in front of them to bar their path.

“It’s a woman!” A blue demon yelled, but Lily had already arrived behind them after turning into a flash of crimson.

Spurt!

Blood sprayed out of the cuts that opened up on the blue demons, and their corpses collapsed to the ground powerlessly.

The clash had alarmed the entire mountain, though.

“Rawr!” The demons and monsters within the woods howled while unleashing their eldritch auras.

“Attack!” Ijuin pulled her blade out of the sheath as she commanded the Tsunaga sisters, making them speed up their descent3.

Lily used a spirit probe to detect the position of the enemies now that she did not need to hide anymore and took out the map to decide which direction to flee in. “Over here!”

Lily rushed towards a certain direction in the woods, and the Tsunaga sisters followed behind her closely.

The monsters conveyed the information about the Tsunaga sisters’ escape to their allies and gathered their forces on this side of the woods.

“Caw!” A strange shout echoed throughout the woods, followed by the appearance of a multi-tailed, two-winged monster which swayed its barbed tails over the path ahead of Lily.

Although this monster had the body of a bird, it actually had a strange, human face with indistinguishable features, and just had two glowing pupils in its pitch-black eye sockets. Its colorful features also looked like whiskers, making it look really bizarre.

Lily had never seen such a monster until now and presumed that it was a local creature of Tanba.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

The monster’s tail became longer and faster as they stabbed towards Lily while its other tails attacked the sword mikos behind her.

Swish!

Lily swung her blade and severed the monster’s barbed tail into two with a white sword beam, the lunar force running through it making it sharper at night.

She then dodged the next tail that headed towards her with swift movements.

There was still another barbed tail heading towards a sword miko, though.

The sword miko tried to block it with her blade, but the barbed tail wound around her waist and hurled her up into the sky.

“Kyah!” The sword miko cried out in fear.

The sounds of ruffling leaves arrived from beside at this moment, and gigantic spiders with glowing runes on their heads emerged from the woods to swarm the Tsunaga sisters.

The sword mikos and jade maidens were experienced in battle, so they fought their best and attacked the spiders heading towards them with their blades and spears.

Lily fired several fireballs from her fingertips4, turning the monster bird in front of her into a flaming bird. However, the fireballs failed to kill it in spite of injuring it heavily, which meant that its tail was still winded around the sword miko’s waist.

Lily willed sakura blades into the world and made them slash the same spot on the monster’s barbed tail, severing it into two. She then jumped several meters high and arrived in front of the monster.

A crimson sword beam flashed forward as Lily finished swinging her blade, and severed the monster’s feathers, flesh and spirit jade, killing it in one move.

As for the sword miko, she got wounded from dropping to the ground.

“Sis!” A mirror girl who wielded a Shinto wooden wand and was dressed in the robes of a priestess ran forward and helped the sword miko stand up before tagging along with her.

Robinxen: Is this our next midboss?Robinxen: So this is known?Robinxen: Brute force always work. Stealth is optional.Robinxen: I forget about magical arts in this setting so often.