Demon Sword Maiden

Volume 13 - Takamagahara: Chapter 19 - Rescuing the Courtesans in Passing

Lily crashed into a casino, shattering the entire place into ruins.

“Damn… this man’s strength is unbelievable…” Lily’s body was drenched in fragrant sweat. Her already scant garments had been torn apart, and her snow-white chest heaved violently with every heavy breath.

“Lynne! Do not clash head-on with the generals of the Yuten Army! They are Heroic Gods, the strongest among the ranks of Takamagahara.” Asazora warned. At this moment, she regarded Lily entirely as a comrade-in-arms. Whatever her origin or purpose, none of that mattered in this life-and-death struggle.

“Heroic Gods… As I thought, no matter how much a woman advances, she can never match a man’s raw strength.” Lily’s expression faltered, her face shadowed with helplessness and humiliation.

Lily was being suppressed, and in that opening a large number of Heroic God soldiers surged into the courtesan district. The Celestial Maidens there were utterly unable to resist.

A mournful wail rose. Suddenly, a blizzard swept across the sky.

From within the courtesan district emerged an enormous white figure, towering dozens of meters high. She was a woman clad in flowing white robes, descending with the storm itself. She was none other than the incarnation of snow and ice.

“What in the world!?” Seeing such a monster attack from the rear, Asazora was alarmed. She thought it an enemy, the aura of this demoness was overwhelming, suffused with profound fluctuations of the Ice Heavenly Path. If they were struck from behind and their retreat cut off, they would be doomed.

“Do not fear! She is one of the allies I arranged.” Lily shouted.

“Allies? Who… who exactly are you? Why would you take a demoness as your ally?”

“Yuki-onna! Save as many of the innocent women in the courtesan district as you can!” Lily commanded.

“Understood, my master.”

“Master? Then… a shikigami?” Asazora realized in surprise.

Yet this Yuki-onna’s aura was formidable, ranking among the upper tiers of the Celestial Stage. Asazora had never imagined Lily would command such a powerful shikigami.

Yuki-onna had once been at the Big Dipper Stage. But as Lily’s shikigami, she possessed resources beyond the dreams of others, with Blood Spirit Magatamas in abundance. Among the treasures Lily seized from slain Supreme Gods, there were several perfectly suited for the cultivation of ice and snow.

Yuki-onna, born as the favored child of frost, could train only the Heavenly Path of Ice. But that limitation also made her strength boundless. Unlike humans, she required no comprehension of the Heavenly Law to progress. She was the embodiment of the Ice Heavenly Path itself, why would she need to “understand” it?

Yet it was precisely for this reason that few adepts at higher levels kept shikigami. They were simply too expensive to raise.

When even one’s own wealth was insufficient, how could one afford to nurture a shikigami? To raise one to the level of a Supreme God required at least the combined fortunes of ten ordinary Supreme Gods. Who could ever bear such a cost?

But shikigami were not gods, nor were they adepts. They required no divinity to reach Supreme God strength. Of course, though they needed no divinity, the treasures required to cultivate them often exceeded the value of a god’s divinity itself.

Lily, however, lacked for nothing. Her Mirror Dimension warehouse overflowed with treasures she had no use for. Yuki-onna was free to devour them at will.

Now, Yuki-onna had grown into a formidable being even among the Celestial Stage.

The snowstorm she conjured soon blanketed the ground. From the drifts arose white-armored snow warrior women. Though their strength was not overwhelming, they began driving away the monsters of the courtesan district, each rushing to save the unfortunate women within.

“What is that?” A Yuten general was shaken. “A spirit of the Ice Heavenly Path? Attack it! Use lightning talismans and thunder-charged arrows!”

Lightning restrained ice to some extent. Yet elemental restraint was never absolute. Water could quench fire, but fire could also boil water away. Attributes provided only slight advantage, true dominance always depended on the disparity in power.

“General Hirotake! Those snow warrior women are raiding the courtesan district! They are trying to carry the women away!” one honest Yuten soldier cried out in panic.

General Hirotake roared, “To hell with them! Capture that green-clad naginata woman and those rebel Celestial Maidens! Forget the w̲h̲o̲r̲e̲s̲!”

If the mighty Yuten Army, with over a thousand divine soldiers deployed, allowed a dozen insurgent Celestial Maidens to escape, their reputation would be in shambles. Courtesans were shameful business to begin with. As a general, how could he divide his focus to protect them?

Losing rebel Celestial Maidens while saving prostitutes would be the true disgrace.

Yuki-onna’s storm made it difficult for even Big Dipper-level Yuten soldiers to advance. The snow could not kill them, but it greatly hindered their movements.

“Sister Asazora, hurry!” Lily shouted.

“You… your methods are impressive indeed!” Asazora swung her katana to deflect arrows and spears while casting astonished glances at Lily. This woman not only wielded the naginata with unparalleled mastery, but even commanded such a mighty shikigami.

“To raise a shikigami stronger than oneself… how much fortune would that even take…?”

Zzzt! Zzzt! Zzzt!

Bolts of lightning crackled as thunder-wreathed arrows and spears rained toward Yuki-onna. Her frost barrier shattered beneath the onslaught, and under the relentless storm of lightning, she struggled to endure.

The snow warrior women collapsed in heaps of snow the moment they were struck by arrows.

“Yuki-onna! Do not linger in battle! Take the courtesans and flee to the ship!” Lily commanded.

“Hmph!” Yuki-onna conjured countless ice-crystal arrows within the storm and unleashed them in retaliation. Many of the weaker Yuten soldiers were wounded.

“Demoness!” Three Celestial Stage warriors of the Yuten Army charged straight at her.

Yuki-onna fought while shielding the retreat. Their group fought while retreating, until at last they fell back into the massive underground drainage cavern. The ship was waiting there. At its prow stood Uesugi Rei.

“Get aboard quickly!” Rei shouted.

“You go first! We three will cover the rear!” Asazora, together with two Celestial Maidens, stood at the base of the ship.

The other Celestial Maidens began boarding in droves, along with many courtesans. Any woman who had survived in this district was at least at Spirit Jade strength. Climbing onto the ship was no challenge for them.

Yuki-onna also conjured several stairways of ice and snow, allowing some of the unfortunate women who could barely move to climb aboard the ship.

Meanwhile, the black tide of Yuten soldiers surged into the cavern, roaring as they charged toward the Celestial Maidens.

“Sister Asazora, you must get on the ship too!” Lily and Asazora, along with the others, were still locked in combat against dozens of Yuten soldiers in the open space of the cavern.

“Lynne! What nonsense are you spouting? You go first!” Asazora shouted.

“No! Asazora, you go first! Do not forget, you still have your mission! How can you afford to hesitate here?” For once, the usually gentle Lily spoke with eyes burning in fierce resolve.

“Lynne…” Though they had only crossed paths by chance, at this moment of peril, this wealthy young lady was sacrificing herself for others. Asazora’s eyes welled up.

“Master, my divine power is running low.” The snowstorm surrounding Yuki-onna had already grown dim.

“You board the ship as well! Guard it, do not let the Yuten Army destroy it!” Lily commanded.

“As you wish!” Yuki-onna withdrew to the ship. Together with the Celestial Maidens and snow warriors, she defended its deck. Any Yuten soldier daring to climb aboard was immediately cut down by blades of frost and ice.

The hail of arrows against the ship was mostly deflected, but not all. Parts of the vessel were being damaged.

“Set sail now!” Lily cried. “Asazora, why are you still dawdling? Must you wait until Yuki-onna collapses? Get aboard!”

“But…”

“Do not forget! If you are captured, then who will rescue Lady Bishamonten? Would you have the goddess bear the shame of a lifetime!?” Lily’s voice rang with unyielding determination.

Asazora’s eyes hardened. This concerned the spiritual leader of the Celestial Battle Maidens, the very heart of their cause. How could she hesitate like any ordinary woman?

“Go!” With that, Asazora and two Celestial Maidens leapt onto the ship.

The Kunado tribesmen who trafficked the courtesans had already been slain by Uesugi Rei.

The Celestial Maiden resistance fighters, well trained, swiftly took control of the ship. The vessel rumbled to life, slowly rising and beginning to retreat.

“Hahaha! Sailing off? What a joke!” Hirotake, the Yuten general, watched the ship ascend without panic. Instead, he eyed it with amusement. “Do you think you can break through the godsteel grating of this drainage cavern?”

The grate was massive, its gaps wide enough for elephants to pass through, yet too narrow for a giant ship. If the Celestial Maidens tried to fly directly out through the bars, that would be troublesome indeed.

“These foolish rebels, blinded by their so-called ideals, even thought they could flee with hundreds of courtesans in tow. But they are only marching to their doom! That godsteel grating—its bars each several meters thick—would take even a Celestial Stage powerhouse an entire day to leave a single mark. And you think you can cut through it!?”

Clang!

A chilling flash of blue light slashed across. One enormous iron bar, thick as a pillar, was severed cleanly in half. Its cut was smooth as a mirror.

“What!?!” Hirotake’s eyes bulged in disbelief.

With a casual kick, Rei sent the broken column tumbling into the endless sea of clouds. She then continued, effortlessly severing several more bars in succession. Soon, a wide enough gap was carved out for the ship to retreat through.

“This… what in the world!?” Hirotake trembled. That silver-haired, statuesque woman had cleaved through the godsteel as though it were nothing. Even Supreme Gods could not always accomplish such a feat.

Silver hair… tall and slender…

“Could it be… Bishamonten has escaped!?” Hirotake nearly wet himself in terror. He had seen Bishamonten before, and from a distance, this woman looked strikingly similar.

“My lord, that woman only possesses Pinnacle Big Dipper strength!” one composed Yuten spellcaster shouted.

Only then did Hirotake come back to his senses. Probing carefully, he realized it was true.

“As long as she isn’t Bishamonten, what is there to fear? Just a Big Dipper woman with a fancy blade! Destroy that ship!” Hirotake ordered.

The Yuten soldiers launched their full assault on the vessel. Yuki-onna, her divine power nearly exhausted, had no choice but to swallow a handful of Blood Spirit Magatamas. Her strength surged anew. Though the cost-effectiveness of such an act was appallingly low, there was no time to worry. Reinvigorated, her ice barrier flared once more, blocking the barrage from afar.

Asazora, who had just boarded, was left dumbfounded. Who in the world consumed Blood Spirit Magatamas like food?

“You will not escape!” Hirotake roared. In his hand appeared a terrifying spear, gleaming with golden light and immense divine power.

“Go!” He hurled it forth. The spear shot through the air like a golden meteor, roaring toward the ship. It was the full might of a Pinnacle Celestial Stage warrior. If it struck, the vessel would be obliterated.

“No!” Asazora gasped in horror.

At that instant, a girl with flowing long hair leapt high into the air, placing herself between the blazing golden light and the ship.

Amid the dazzling brilliance, Lily turned her head back serenely. “Sister Asazora… never forget… your mission.”

“Lynne… no!”

The colossal golden explosion shook the cavern to its core.