Read Novel Full Chapter 809: Black and Blue
Chapter 809: Black and Blue
“I will not stop,” Shiina said, “unless you kill me.”
Nathan’s hand tightened around Kyomei’s black hilt.
For one brief moment, everything around them seemed to grow still.
The cries of soldiers, the clash of steel, and the thunder of horses became distant. Nathan looked at Shiina through the mask covering his face, at the familiar red eyes visible beneath her helmet.
He did not want this.
He had known it might come to this from the moment he saw her standing atop Minami Kyoto’s walls. He had known Shiina would never simply step aside and let him destroy Norihiro’s rule.
But knowing it was possible did not make it easier.
Shiina had been honest with him from the beginning. She had never promised to betray Norihiro for him. She had never pretended her loyalty was uncertain.
And Nathan had never lied to her either.
Norihiro would die.
No matter what stood in the way.
A dark aura began to spread from Nathan’s body.
At first, it was only a faint pressure in the air. Then it deepened. Black magic rose around him like smoke, twisting over the ground and curling around Kyomei’s blade.
The nearby soldiers noticed immediately.
A Minami Kyoto guard who had been raising his spear toward Nathan froze. His face became pale. Another soldier stumbled backward, suddenly unable to move closer. Even Urakami’s samurai, who had been grateful moments earlier for Nathan’s help, stepped away in alarm.
Cold ran down their spines.
It was not ordinary fear.
It was the instinct of living creatures recognizing something dangerous.
Someone whispered, “What is that?”
No one answered.
Nathan’s magic continued rising.
The earth beneath his feet began cracking.
Across from him, Shiina smiled beneath her helmet.
Then blue light flared around her.
Her magical power erupted outward in bright, rippling waves. It wrapped around her armor and her blue katana, turning the weapon into a line of cold brilliance. The pressure from her presence struck the soldiers nearby, forcing both Minami Kyoto’s defenders and Urakami’s samurai to retreat further.
Dust lifted around her boots.
Her red eyes shone through the narrow slit of her helmet.
The contrast between them was unmistakable.
Nathan’s darkness pressed against Shiina’s blue aura.
Black against blue.
Shadow against cold light.
“Destroy the walls,” Nathan said without looking back at Urakami’s soldiers. “I will handle her.”
The samurai nearest him hesitated.
They did not know who he was. They did not know why a masked mercenary carried such terrifying power. But they had seen him cut through Minami Kyoto’s defenders, and they had seen Shiina leave the battle to confront him.
That was enough.
Their commander raised his sword.
“You heard him! Break through the city!”
Shiina lifted her glowing katana toward Minami Kyoto’s troops.
“And I will handle him,” she called. “Hold your ground until then. Do not let them pass!”
The defenders answered her with raised weapons and shouted voices.
“Protect Minami Kyoto!”
The Urakami soldiers responded from the other side.
“Take the city!”
The battlefield erupted around them once more.
But Nathan and Shiina no longer moved with the soldiers.
Their magic collided first.
A violent wave of black and blue power burst between them, ripping through the air with a sharp crack. The nearest soldiers threw themselves backward, shielding their faces as dust and broken grass flew in every direction.
Then both vanished.
Nathan launched upward in a burst of dark energy.
Shiina followed in a flash of blue.
They met high above the battlefield.
Their swords swung at the same instant.
BADOOOOOM!
Kyomei collided with Shiina’s katana.
A shockwave exploded across the sky.
The wind blasted outward in a violent circle, shaking banners below and forcing soldiers to brace themselves against the ground. If Nathan and Shiina had fought at ground level, men from both armies would have been sent flying.
For a moment, they remained suspended in the air.
Their swords pressed against one another.
Dark magic ran down Nathan’s blade.
Blue magic surged from Shiina’s.
“You should give me everything you have, Ryo,” Shiina said with a smirk.
Nathan’s eyes narrowed behind his mask.
“Is there really no other way?”
Shiina’s smirk deepened.
“One night with me, and you are already this attached?” she teased. “Perhaps if we had spent another night together, you would have joined my side.”
“No,” Nathan replied.
The answer came immediately.
Shiina’s smile faded.
The teasing light in her expression disappeared, leaving something quieter and more painful behind it.
“Believe me,” she said, “I do not want to fight you either.”
Her voice had lost its playful edge.
“Then leave,” Nathan said.
Shiina’s red eyes hardened.
“I cannot.”
“Northern soldiers are attacking Minami Kyoto. Your lord is using the people of the South as pieces in a war for power. Norihiro needs to die.”
“I cannot let you kill him.”
Shiina pushed against Nathan’s blade.
Blue power surged from her body, stronger than before. The air around them crackled as the magic gathered into a violent pressure that threatened to throw Nathan away.
Nathan answered with his own magic.
Darkness rose from Kyomei and wrapped around his arm like black flame.
Their powers collided again.
The sky trembled.
Nathan stared into her eyes.
For a moment, neither gave ground.
Then he exhaled slowly.
“Not here.”
Shiina’s expression shifted.
Nathan looked toward the fighting soldiers far below them.
Their battle would destroy anyone caught near it. Already, the shockwaves from their first clash had made soldiers scatter from the center of the field.
“Let us change places,” Nathan said.
Shiina studied him.
Then a faint smile returned to her face.
“I agree.”
Darkness swallowed Nathan.
Blue light consumed Shiina.
In the next instant, both disappeared from the sky.
The soldiers below looked around in confusion, unable to understand where the two warriors had gone.
But their battle was no longer their concern.
The gates of Minami Kyoto still stood.
And Urakami’s army still waited outside them.
From a hidden position along the northern side of the field, Yukihime watched the place where Nathan and Shiina had vanished.
Her expression was cold.
She did not like Shiina.
She disliked how Nathan looked at her. She disliked the history they shared. She disliked the fact that even while fighting, Nathan had still tried to give her a chance to leave.
Yukihime knew why.
Nathan was kind to people he cared about.
It was one of the things she loved about him.
It was also one of the things that made jealousy sting.
Still, he had given her an order.
And Yukihime would obey it.
She looked toward Minami Kyoto’s main gate.
The battle outside the walls was still raging, but the city’s defenders had held their line. Shiina’s leadership had given them courage. Even without her at the front, they fought with determination, forming shields against Urakami’s advancing soldiers and striking back whenever the samurai tried to press too close.
The gates remained closed.
The walls remained intact.
For now.
Yukihime’s gaze traveled over the city.
The people nearest the gate had already been evacuated. Streets close to the walls stood empty, their doors shut and their market stalls abandoned. Farther inside Minami Kyoto, civilians were likely hiding in homes, temples, storage buildings, and any place that felt safer than open streets.
Only soldiers remained near the walls.
Norihiro had prepared for an invasion.
He had filled the city with defenders, stationed guards at the gates, and ensured that his army could keep fighting even after he marched west.
But he had not prepared for Yukihime.
A small smile appeared on her lips.
“It will be easy,” she murmured.
Her ice lance appeared in her hand.
Pale blue light ran across its length, forming delicate patterns like frost creeping over glass. The air around Yukihime became colder. Her breath turned white, even beneath the midday sun.
Then she stepped into empty air.
Rather than falling, she rose.
Her body lifted above the battlefield as though the sky itself had chosen to hold her. Soldiers below slowly noticed her presence. One after another, heads turned upward.
For a moment, they forgot the battle.
Yukihime floated high above the field.
Her long silver hair moved in the freezing wind gathering around her. Ice formed in small crystals around her sleeves, her lance, and the air itself. She looked less like a warrior and more like an ancient goddess of winter gazing down upon a world too fragile to resist her.
The defenders of Minami Kyoto stared in disbelief.
Urakami’s soldiers fell quiet.
Even the red armored commander at the front looked upward, his confident expression slowly fading.
Yukihime’s eyes settled on the enormous gates below.
“For Nathan sama,” she said.
She drew her arm back.
The magic around her lance intensified.
Cold exploded outward in every direction.
The grass below froze white. Moisture in the air became ice. Soldiers nearest the gate shivered violently as frost began spreading across their armor.
Then Yukihime threw the lance.
It tore through the sky at terrifying speed.
A streak of pale blue light crossed the battlefield.
Everything in its path froze.
BADOOOOOM!
The lance struck the gates.
For one impossible second, the entire entrance to Minami Kyoto vanished beneath a mountain of ice.
The wood froze.
The iron bands froze.
The stone around the gatehouse froze.
Then the ice shattered.
The gates exploded into countless fragments.
A shockwave tore outward from the impact, throwing soldiers from their feet on both sides of the entrance. The lower portion of the wall cracked and collapsed under the force, sending stone, dust, and frozen debris crashing into the streets within.
Minami Kyoto’s defenders near the gate were caught in the destruction.
Some fell beneath stone. Others were struck by jagged ice fragments. Those atop the walls were thrown backward as the battlements beneath them split apart.
A thick cloud of dust rose over the broken gatehouse.
For several seconds, no one moved.
Then the wind pushed the dust aside.
The great gate was gone.
A massive opening now stood where Minami Kyoto’s strongest entrance had been.
Beyond it lay the streets of the city.
Urakami’s soldiers stared.
Then their commander raised his sword high.
His face twisted into a triumphant grin.
“The gate is open!”
The samurai began shouting.
“It is open!”
“Minami Kyoto is open!”
The commander pointed toward the ruined entrance.
“Take Minami Kyoto!”
“HEYYYYY!”
The red armored army answered as one.
They surged forward.
Thousands of soldiers rushed toward the breach, their weapons raised and banners flying behind them. Their boots shook the earth as they charged past the broken remains of the gate.
Inside the city, Minami Kyoto’s soldiers stood pale and stunned.
Some stared at the destruction in disbelief.
Others looked upward, searching for the woman who had shattered their gates with a single throw.
Then the samurai charge reached them.
And the second battle for Minami Kyoto began.