Demon Sword Maiden

Volume 12 - Yomi-no-kuni: Chapter 236 - Great Imperial God

Although all the great powers feared the Madam, if her appearance ended the battle like this, then Wakarai would become the laughingstock of Yomi! How could he accept that?

The losses were already immense. Whether in divine power, treasure, or reputation, both he and the others of Yomi had sacrificed heavily. If Madam simply disrupted everything and took Lily away, they would gain nothing in return!

Wakarai didn’t dare confront the Madam directly, so he turned to reason and invoked the name of the Eight Thunder Gods as leverage. The Eight Thunder Gods were not merely eight Supreme Gods on Wakarai’s level. If they united, they were said to rival even the Great Imperial God!

That was the only reason Wakarai dared to leverage his status as one of the Eight Thunder Gods to challenge her. He had no other choice. Normally, he would never dare raise his voice to the Madam.

“Hmph. No matter how powerful you are, Madam, you still owe the Eight Thunder Gods some respect! That Kagami Lily is just a foster daughter you picked up, just a pawn! Are you really going to risk offending us over a woman like her?” As he spoke, Wakarai fixed his gaze on the Madam, drawing courage from the weight behind his words.

But—

From who knows where, a shimmering blood-red whip slashed down from the sky and struck Wakarai across the body. A searing sound rang out as the whip left a crimson mark across his skin, as if his flesh had been branded with red-hot iron.

“Ahhh!” Wakarai screamed. The Madam hadn’t even lifted a hand, yet that one sudden lash burned away nearly twenty percent of his divine power!

Wakarai was no ordinary being. He was a Primeval Supreme God! And now, a fifth of his power was simply gone. Just gathering that kind of divine energy again would take time and an enormous cost. And yet, it vanished in a single strike.

“Madam!” Wakarai cried out in agony, face twisted with pain. “What is the meaning of this? Didn’t you—”

Another whip lashed down, tearing into him like it meant to shred his very form. Wakarai was sent tumbling through the air, his entire body scorched red. He was left with barely thirty percent of his divine power. One more hit might kill him outright.

Terrified, Wakarai didn’t dare fight back. He retreated as fast as he could, fleeing into the distance and clutching his wounds. “Madam! Are you truly going to kill me? We, the Eight Thunder Gods, followed you into Yomi! We fought and bled for you! Are you really going to end me like this?!”

The blood-red whip raised again, poised to strike at any moment. It didn’t move fast. It spun gracefully, even leisurely, but Wakarai simply couldn’t dodge it.

“No! Please, Madam, have mercy! I was wrong!” Wakarai, down to less than a third of his divine power, finally broke down, cowering, begging for his life.

“Madam!” Fushirai cried out in protest, stepping in for his brother. “Are you really going to kill one of the Eight Thunder Gods? We’ve been your loyal soldiers for ages! Surely my brother’s words weren’t so unreasonable? I’ve already lost my legs to that woman! I’ve got nothing left to live for, if you must strike, strike me instead!”

In despair, Fushirai charged forward and sat down mid-air.

The crimson whip struck again, blasting Fushirai away. A scorched wound marred his back, and what little divine power he had left was halved. “Aaagh! You’re actually doing it!” Fushirai screamed, tumbling through the abyss, flailing and yelping. “Big brother! Second brother! Save me! Save me!”

“Enough!” roared Kuroyodai, “This woman’s power is beyond ours. If we must die, so be it! But this sniveling, groveling display, are you still men? Still rulers of Yomi? Our alliance with you is a disgrace! What filth!”

At that moment, Lily stepped forward, her long hair sweeping behind her.

“Wakarai, do not twist the truth any further. Are you trying to frame my godmother now?” she shouted. “You dare deny the promise she gave you? There were many present at the time. They can confirm what was said.”

She swept her gaze over the gathered overlords and the hundreds of thousands of demonkind watching from afar. “Did the Madam not say, three years from that day, you were to choose a single Empyrean Stage champion to fight me? Only if they won would I be handed over to you.”

Lily’s voice rang with unwavering clarity, “So then… among you all, who dares stand and fight me now on Wakarai’s behalf?”

Even though more than a dozen Supreme Gods had besieged her, they still failed to defeat her, and she had even slain two of them. With such a fearsome record, who among the Empyrean Stage would dare challenge her now? Wouldn’t they be courting death? Even dying on that battlefield would only make them a laughingstock across the world.

No one dared to speak. Among the millions of demon spawn, not a single voice broke the silence.

“Heh heh heh… Kagami Lily, don’t you think your words are a bit too bullying?” said the Lord of Oblivion from afar, who had maintained a neutral stance throughout. “Challenge you? Unless someone brings ten Supreme Gods along, no one would dare even lift a hand. Who among the juniors of Celestial or Infernal stage would offer themselves up for slaughter?”

The many overlords who had been besieging Lily all wore expressions of utter despair.

Lily swept her gaze around and suddenly focused on a particular spot. With a wave of her hand, a sakura-hued ripple surged out, wrapping around the three-eyed ox demon leader Mauro, who had once chased her relentlessly when she first fell into Yomi, and dragged him into the air.

Mauro had been hiding among the army, biding his time for an opportunity to exploit. He had never expected to be singled out like this. Mauro appeared pale with fright. He feared Lily had come for revenge. With her current power, killing him would take nothing more than a gesture.

“Three-Eyed Ox Demon, you need not fear,” Lily said coldly. “I only ask, were you present when the agreement was made?”

“Ah? Y-yes! I was there!” Mauro immediately dropped to his knees, kowtowing as he answered.

“Then, is what I said earlier the truth?”

“Uhh…” Mauro broke out in a cold sweat. If he testified against Wakarai, his future would be bleak. But if he lied now, he might not survive the next second.

Though a massive and powerful ox demon, he now shrank like a frightened kitten, drenched in sweat. After a moment’s thought, he realized survival was his priority.

“It’s true. Everything Princess Kagami just said is accurate.”

Mauro was no major figure, but his testimony as someone from the Yomi side lent weight to Lily’s words. His confirmation had a powerful ripple effect.

The Yomi and Abyssal demons murmured among themselves. Truthfully, none of them cared much about honor or promises, but everyone had seen the Madam lash the Thunder Gods nearly to death. In front of such a force, even the fiercest monsters were forced to pay attention to decorum.

“So that’s how it was…”

“To think Lord Wakarai would stay silent after all that.”

“Right. We all thought that s̲l̲u̲t̲… ah, no, Lyn-hime herself, had wronged Wakarai. But it turns out the Thunder God was the one who broke the agreement!”

“Damn it! If we had known, we wouldn’t have joined in the attack on those women!”

“Exactly. In Yomi-no-kuni, regardless of male or female, all adepts are treated equally. We’ve always upheld fairness, haven’t we?”

Most of the Abyssal faction knew little about the Madam, but many from Yomi began cursing Wakarai and claiming they had been tricked into the siege. They all changed their tunes instantly.

Lily turned to Wakarai. “Well? Do you have anything left to say? Godmother is well aware of everything. She simply disdains arguing with someone like you.”

“Hmph… Kagami Lily… You’re vicious…” Wakarai, with less than thirty percent of his divine energy remaining and his life hanging by a thread, dared not argue, even if he had logic on his side.

The Madam of Yomi was terrifying when she was reasonable. She was even more terrifying when she wasn’t.

“I, Wakarai, have nothing more to say. Since the Madam holds no regard for us Thunder Gods, we… we’ll take our leave!” Wakarai snarled bitterly, trembling with rage, then turned into a bolt of lightning and fled.

“Brother!” Fushirai, whose legs had been severed by Lily, was burning with hatred. As one of the Thunder Gods, to be defeated so utterly was a shame he could not accept.

He glared venomously at Lily. “You wait. One day…” Then he, too, turned into golden lightning and fled after Wakarai.

With three Thunder Gods gone, the Yomi forces completely lost the will to resist and knelt en masse.

“Madam!”

“Madam, we brothers only came at the invitation of Lord Umashi. We were deceived by Wakarai. Please forgive us!” cried Gokakuzo Shushi and Masen Sonshu, dropping to their knees in apology.

The Madam waved for them to stop speaking.

She turned her gaze to Kuroyodai and flicked her sleeve. The blood-red chains that had been binding the enormous demon god instantly dissolved into glittering fragments that scattered through the air.

Kuroyodai could finally move again.

This single act stunned the surrounding abyssal gods even more.

“What? That was her doing?”

“She didn’t even show herself and still managed to bind the strongest demon god of the abyss? Just what sort of being is this so-called ruler of Yomi?”

Most abyssal demons knew little of the Madam and now stared, wide-eyed, whispering in disbelief.

“Hmph…” Kunhiza, whose lifespan rivaled the realm of Yomi itself, muttered, “We Abyssal demons always thought we were mighty, but in truth, we were frogs at the bottom of a well. We believed we could rival Yomi. What a joke…”

“Kunhiza, those so-called Supreme Gods of Yomi, the Three Thunder Gods and the rest, they’re just cowards! If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t fear Yomi in the slightest!” Kuralan-Chiyu growled.

“Sigh… Kuralan, you’re not wrong,” Kunhiza replied. “But it is precisely because of her that the ancient laws of the Abyss forbid us from leaving the Boundless Abyss so easily. Her existence alone is the reason for that decree. Now that I’ve seen her with my own eyes, I realize… our choice to remain in the Abyss all these years was wisdom beyond measure.”

Kunhiza’s serpentine hair drifted on an unseen current as his eyes flickered with reverence and resignation. He spoke in a low, almost solemn voice, “The Madam of Yomi… is none other than Izanami-no-Ōkami, the Great Imperial God.”

“What?!”

“The Great Imperial God?!”

The gathered demons of the Abyss recoiled in shock. Even among the forces of Yomi, most of the lesser spirits and monsters only knew the Madam as the sovereign of Yomi. Few had ever heard her true name, let alone realized that she was indeed capable of disregarding the authority of the Eight Thunder Gods entirely. She was one who could shroud the heavens with a single hand.

Even Lily and her companions were struck speechless. Though Lily had long harbored suspicions about the Madam’s strength, she had never imagined that her cold, severe, and unpredictable foster mother… was in truth, a Great Imperial God.

She was the supreme ruler of the Three Realms, the one known as the mother of Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi in name, Izanami-no-Ōkami.