Demon Sword Maiden

Volume 13 - Takamagahara: Chapter 53 - A Sudden Turn

After paying their respects at Bishamonten’s shrine, Lily and Rei walked hand in hand down the mountain. The path was blessed with fair weather and tranquil scenery, and with a powerful, beautiful elder sister at her side, Lily felt both her body and spirit gently cleansed.

After returning to the courtyard, Rei was summoned away by Bishamonten, so Lily went back to her room alone.

She had barely sat down when a cold voice from the mirror reached her ears.

“Come in.”

“Huh?” Lily shuddered from head to toe.

“Senior Sister…”

Inside the Mirror Dimension, Lily did not know why, but a faint sense of guilt welled up in her heart.

“Did you have fun with your Sister Uesugi?”

“Huh? Th-this…”

“You little fool. If my soul energy were not insufficient, I would manifest right now and give you a proper spanking.”

“Senior Sister, I…” Lily’s face flushed crimson, and she found herself unable to respond. If she treated Rei poorly, would that not make the sister who had risked her life for her unbearably pitiful and heartbroken? Yet if she indulged Rei like this, she felt she had wronged Rinne. Even though Rinne was magnanimous, Lily could not rid herself of the guilt.

Rinne shook her head helplessly. “Sigh… perhaps this is just how things are. As they say, when something reaches an extreme, it rebounds. Cause and effect turn in endless cycles.”

“Senior Sister?” Lily did not quite understand. She merely lowered her head and said, “Lily does not wish to argue. Lily is willing to accept punishment, but Lily does not want Senior Sister to waste your precious spirit power. Senior Sister, where exactly is your body? How can we recover it, or help you reshape one? Even if, after that, Senior Sister punished Lily every single day, Lily would accept it willingly!”

“You really are…” Rinne sighed. “Enough. Lily, now that Bishamonten has been rescued, Takamagahara is no place to linger. You must find a way to escape Takamagahara as soon as possible, and you must take Bishamonten with you. Once you reach a safe place, I want to see her.”

Lily nodded. “It is just that we do not know how to leave Takamagahara.”

“As for the way out…” Rinne’s gaze shifted, as if she had thought of something, but she stopped short of speaking.

At that moment, a Celestial Maiden came to call for Lily, saying that Bishamonten wished to see her. Rinne did not continue and told Lily to go first.

Lily arrived at Bishamonten’s quarters, where Rei was already present.

“Lily, although this place is safe for now, the rebel army’s strength is far too thin,” Bishamonten said.

“However, now that Mother has returned, if we spread this news, surely many Celestial Maidens will come to seek refuge with us,” Rei said.

“Baby Girl, that is possible. But from now on, you must gradually take over my position. You are not only formidable in battle, you also have experience commanding troops in the mortal realm. You will surely do well.”

“Mother, just give the order.”

“What is this? Why are you still so formal when speaking to your mother?” Bishamonten looked at the two women who had vanished together for two days with a teasing smile.

“Uh, Mother. Speaking of which, the discipline and training of the internal squads must also be strengthened,” Rei said.

“That is true,” Lily smoothly followed up. “That Riyuki, although she has defected to us, committed many evils in the past under the Kunitsukami and the Kegaretsu. We agreed on public punishment, and it must be carried out as a warning to others.”

“Mhm.” Bishamonten nodded. “And how should she be punished?”

“In my view…” Lily began, then suddenly stopped.

Waves of terrifyingly powerful presence surged in from afar. Lily, Rei, and Bishamonten all felt it at once.

“What!?”

The three were shocked.

“Lady Bishamonten!” Asazora rushed in, panic-stricken. “Our alert formations set near the teleportation array detected… detected an army. Countless Takamagahara troops are pouring out of the teleportation array!”

“How is that possible!” Even Bishamonten found it hard to believe. “Such a hidden place, how could it have been exposed!”

“To let the Takamagahara army learn this location, external probing would never have found it, even after a thousand years. There is only one way… someone inside transmitted the coordinates!” Asazora said grimly.

“Riyuki? Or Furaku?” Lily cried out in shock. “I… I should never have let them come here!”

“No, Lily. I trust your judgment,” Bishamonten said. “I observed both of them carefully. They may not be good people, but their defection should have been sincere.”

“Then who could it be…”

Rei said, “There is no time to think about that now. The approaching Yuten Army carries overwhelming momentum. I can also sense the aura of Ame-no-Tajikarao. He has already recovered. And there are two other extremely powerful Supreme God auras as well. We must decide immediately how to respond!”

Lily’s expression was equally grave. “Those two Supreme Gods both seem to be female. One of their auras is no weaker than Ame-no-Tajikarao’s, and the other is also terrifyingly strong, likely not beneath me.”

A single Ame-no-Tajikarao had already pushed all their forces to the brink, and they had only barely prevailed through stratagems. Even a fool would not fall for the same trick twice. This time, he had come with an army and two Supreme God-level powerhouses. How could they possibly fight this?

“If it were a small detachment, we could quickly wipe them out and destroy the teleportation array. But now the array is occupied by the enemy army, which means more Takamagahara troops may continue to pour in endlessly. We cannot stay here any longer!” Bishamonten decided without hesitation. “Asazora, notify everyone. Abandon the mountain!”

“T-this… yes!” Asazora gritted her teeth and rushed out. This was the ancestral land and sacred ground of the Bishamonten clan, yet she knew it was impossible to defend. Abandonment was the only choice.

Thousands of kilometers away, near the teleportation array, the forests were packed with a vast, black sea of troops.

“Every blade of grass and every tree here serves as a guardian of the Bishamonten clan. No matter how we hide, it is useless,” Tennin-Mikoto said disdainfully as she surveyed the surroundings. “Move quickly and break into the Bishamonten clan’s Mount Mikokage!”

The pitch-black army advanced in unison, thunderous war drums roaring as they charged toward the colossal mountain.

“Miss Amani! Your Celestial Maiden unit is fast. Why not go ahead and intercept Bishamonten and the other key fugitives?” Ame-no-Tajikarao said.

“No need.” Tennin-Mikoto waved her fan and sneered. “Given Bishamonten’s nature and Lily’s soft-hearted foolishness, they will never abandon their clansmen and the rebels to flee on their own. We will definitely catch up. There is no need to capture them directly. As long as we seize a large number of rebel members as hostages, they will be forced to fight!”

“T-this…” Ame-no-Tajikarao hesitated.

“Ame-no-Tajikarao!” Tennin-Mikoto shouted sharply. “You have already ruined one major affair. Do you want His Highness and Amaterasu-Ōmikami to be disappointed in you again?”

“Sigh! Damn it, do whatever you want. Capturing people comes first!”

“Lady Tennin-Mikoto, wouldn’t it be enough to just use hostages to force them to surrender?” Amani asked.

“Heh, you’re still young. Kagami Lily is a real b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲. She’s far more cunning and ruthless than you imagine. She knows perfectly well that surrendering won’t save the hostages. She would never do something as pointless as sending them to their deaths. We must give her hope. She prides herself on her peerless swordsmanship. Stirring her fighting spirit works just as well as provoking her desire.”

With a flick of her fan, Tennin-Mikoto issued the order for the entire army to charge.

“They’re coming!”

“The enemy is charging in!”

At that moment, several uninhabited villages in the distance were already engulfed in towering flames.

The Kegaretsu troops from the Palace of Ritsuten, whether suspecting hidden rebel members concealing their auras within the villages or simply venting their savagery, set fire to every deserted settlement along the way.

The Celestial Maidens Rebels escorted many apprentice maidens as they retreated from village to village.

They abandoned most supplies, taking only what they could hastily stuff into storage treasures. Even so, in the chaos, many things were left behind.

From the sky, countless god-slaying arrows streaked down like a meteor shower, slamming into the villages. Houses exploded one after another, flames raging everywhere, while deafening battle cries rolled in from afar.

“Fall back! Hurry, retreat!”

Even at full speed, the young Celestial Maidens were still too slow. How could they possibly outrun elite divine troops?

“Yahahahahaha!” A squad of imposing Kegaretsu cavalry, mounted on grotesque mutant horses, burst into a village and began chasing several young Celestial Maidens at full gallop.

“Run! Hurry!” A Celestial Maiden at the Big Dipper Stage led them away.

“Teacher!” the apprentice maidens screamed as they ran for their lives.

The Kegaretsu cavalry shrieked wildly as they hurled enchanted lassos. Though the young maidens twisted and dodged with all their might, one was still ensnared and dragged backward.

“Ah!” the young Celestial Maiden screamed in despair.

“Damn, not fully grown yet, but she’ll do. A change of taste!” a Kegaretsu rider leered.

“You b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲s̲! Go on without me!” The Celestial Maiden instructor stopped, gripping a kunai in her hand, ready to fight to the death as she charged straight at the oncoming cavalry.

Suddenly, streaks of brilliant flying swords descended from the sky, plunging into the cavalry ranks and cutting them down amid howls of agony.

Meishin arrived with several Celestial Maidens from the Sakura Squad and shattered the cavalry unit.

“Take them and retreat toward the shrine on the mountain!” Meishin shouted.

“Y-yes!” The Celestial Maiden instructor scooped up the child and sprinted at full speed toward the mountains beyond the village.

All of a sudden, a crimson beam shot through the night sky.

“Leader, watch out!”

Meishin swung her long blade, intercepting the crimson light.

A violent explosion erupted, hurling Meishin backward as she skidded dozens of steps across the ground, smashing through one building after another.

Several red-clad Celestial Maidens wearing blindfolds descended from the sky. Their auras were terrifying, their expressions utterly emotionless, and their attacks decisive and merciless.

“Retreat!” Meishin did not dare linger. She threw out several talismans as a feint and withdrew with the remaining maidens.

Multiple enemy forces had already swept through the surrounding villages and were advancing toward Mount Mikokage.

The mountain rose for hundreds of kilometers, with the shrine located halfway up its slope. Aside from those who had scattered and vanished, most of the several hundred rebels and over a hundred apprentice Celestial Maidens were steadily fleeing uphill.

Within the shrine lay a teleportation array that had been abandoned for many years. It was said to have been constructed back when the ancestors of the Bishamonten clan first arrived in this land.

At that moment, inside a cavern behind the shrine, Lily and Bishamonten stood beside the teleportation array.

“It’s done!” Bishamonten said, drenched in sweat. “It’s finally repaired. From here, it leads directly to the Chrysanthemum Squad’s stronghold.”

One after another, Celestial Maidens ran into the cavern.

“You go first!” Bishamonten ordered.

“Lady Bishamonten, please go first!”

“Enough! Do you want to become a burden?” Bishamonten roared angrily. “Move it! Don’t block the way!”