Demon Sword Maiden

Volume 8 - Higanbana: Chapter 28 – Lily’s Intense Battle in Yomi

Lily could only continue to run as several more demon hounds had come chasing after the Throned Saint demon hound that she had killed just now and fled while fending the hounds off.

“I need to figure out where I am first!”

Lily used a series of massive stone pillars to her advantage and detoured around them to put some distance from the demon hounds after killing two Throned Monarch hounds and leaped onto a boulder before looking around.

The place was covered in a dense, dark red mist which made it difficult to see past a few kilometers and had countless gigantic rocks glowing with a magmatic glow floating all around. The land underneath was also covered in intermittent cracks which had lava flowing underneath them, black mist rising from the fissures endlessly.

The landscape made it extremely difficult for Lily to tell the path.

Lily had tried to explore the surroundings using her domain, hoping to find the spot where she had fallen, but a terrifying aura appeared a few kilometers away from her the moment she spread her domain widely.

“An archdemon of the Big Dipper stage!” Lily’s heart filled with alarm.

The Big Dipper stage archdemon did not possess a massive figure and looked like a fierce, lizard-like creature. It discovered Lily the moment she had probed the surroundings with her domain.

The archdemon rushed towards Lily’s direction with lightning-fast speed the next moment.

Lily dispelled her domain immediately from the fear she felt and stopped probing her surroundings, choosing to flee in a random direction with all her strength immediately.

Although Lily had not gotten a clear look of the lizard-like archdemon because she had dispelled her domain immediately, she could tell that it was at least an extremely violent monster of Yomi which was three to four meters tall in size.

Even though Lily could withstand the attack of an archdemon in the Big Dipper stage if she placed her life on the life, she was still bound to get severely injured even if she were to get away with her life, and suffering such an injury was quite fatal in such a place where dangers lurked everywhere.

The only choice she had right now was to flee with all her might.

Lily did not dare to spread her domain far after that and only planned to use it within the range of her sight.

Fortunately, there were many powerful demon gods here, and every monster was either a predator or prey of some other creature. Most monsters in this region did not dare to probe areas far from them or use domains over a wide range as that was equivalent to exposing their strength as well as location to predators that were far more powerful than them.

The only ones who dared to spread their domains over a wide range in this valley were the ancient demon gods who reigned at the top of the pyramid in this region, so even the lizard-like archdemon which possessed strength of the ordinary Big Dipper level did not dare to probe its surroundings carelessly.

Even if those powerful demon gods were to discover Lily within their domain, they were bound to discover countless monsters of differing strengths at the same time and would not really bother to attack her in particular as the monsters here only cared about devouring their opponents and had no interest towards women.

Lily had no idea whether the lizard-like archdemon was still chasing her as she still did not dare to use her spirit power or domain, but she could not sense the counterpart’s aura.

Lily did not lower her guard, though, and changed directions multiple times during her escape, all while suffering the pursuit of the demon hounds.

Whoosh! Lily turned around to fight arduously with a Throned Monarch demon hound that had almost caught up with her and slew it after a few moves.

“Haahh… Haahh…” Lily sighed in relief after realizing that she had thrown off the Big Dipper level archdemon. If not, it would have long caught up with her with how fast it was.

Dangers lurked in every corner in this place, and death was just one step away if one was not careful enough, so Lily needed to act with utmost caution.

The demon hounds were still chasing Lily, but they were smart enough to chase her slowly after sensing that she was pretty strong and pursued her from a distance.

Lily also slowed down. The place was quite hot, so she was drenched in sweat right now. It was quite fortunate that the demons here had no interest in women. If not for that, she would have ended up in a worse situation.

However, she still could not lower her guard completely as the demons might pounce on her the moment she stopped to take a breath.

A faint shadow appeared from the mist ahead suddenly. The shadow had a long neck which extended out of the mist, revealing it to be the owner of a bizarre demonic face.

A majestic body followed behind the long, thick neck.

The shadow was quite close to Lily when it came out from behind the boulder.

It revealed its fangs outside when it spotted Lily and smiled at her in a bizarre fashion, extending its hand towards her, aiming at her with the light blue egg that had grass hanging from it.

Bzzt!

The light blue egg shot several thundering blue lightning bolts towards Lily in the next moment

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This really startled Lily. The lightning bolts were so fast that she had no time to dodge them, so she blocked them with Yasutsuna instead.

Although Yasutsuna had blocked most of the destructive lightning bolts, some still ended up striking her, inflicting her with a sharp pain.

“Argh!” Lily screamed in pain and jumped back quickly.

The strength of the lightning attack was in the Throned Saint level.

Although Lily’s body had the protection of the spirit armor, she still ended up receiving light wounds from the lightning attack and felt incredible pain. She narrowed her eyes and jumped up, spinning around in midair as she released a crimson sword beam towards the long-necked Throned Saint demon.

Shatter!

A thin barrier flashed across the long-necked demon’s skin, but the sword beam shattered it and struck the demon, leaving a deep wound on it, causing blood to splatter in all directions.

The injured demon fled back to the boulder immediately, but Lily refused to let it escape.

“Do you think you can escape after injuring me?!”

Lily reacted fiercely because of the deadly encounters she had experienced until now and rushed behind the boulder swiftly the moment she landed on the ground.

A blue lightning bolt came rushing at her, but she leaned aside to dodge it, causing the bolt to strike the demon hound trying to pounce at her.

Lily borrowed her momentum to slide forward and pierced the demon’s long neck with her blade, pushing her blade deeper by pushing its hilt with her palm and twisted it around after that.

Splatter!

The demon’s neck got severed as a result and fell to the ground with a thud.

Lily turned her blade over and slashed down the next moment, bisecting the demon’s body into two halves, cutting it through its heart in the process.

“What?! It has no soul?!” Lily exclaimed in shock.

Whoosh! The severed neck connected to the demonic face bounced up from the ground and spat a terrifying lightning bolt at Lily’s thigh from behind.

Lily felt a sharp pain from her thigh, which was then followed by a numbing feeling, and the electric current then devastated her skirt armor, shin guards and Lady Shizuka’s armor, causing them to shatter one after the other.

The electric shock had also made Lily expend almost two percent of her spirit power to defend against it. Fortunately, her spirit reserves were practically unlimited thanks to her ability to replenish it using souls.

“B̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲!” Lily’s eyes flashed with a fierce glint as she turned around and witnessed the demon flee like an insect.

As her thigh was still numb from the shock, Lily hurled Yasutsuna at the demon, causing its blade to shoot through the demon’s head with a splat.

The demon’s soul, as well as spiritual sea was actually situated within his demonic face,

A burst of electricity shot out from the head and neck of the demon nailed to the ground before it finally breathed its last breath.

Lily retrieved Yasutsuna with a small-scale domain and turned around to execute a horizontal slash the moment it landed in her hand, cleaving an average-sized Throned Monarch demon hound which was attempting to ambush her vainly in the process.

Lily discovered that the pack of demon hounds had surrounded her again at this time.

It was not just the demon hounds. Massive figures emerged from the mist behind them one by one.

The demons that had come from the mist were all three to four meters tall and wore loincloths made from animal fur around their waists. They had small horns on their heads and possessed unsightly appearances, each possessing a formidable body and the strength of peak-stage Throned Monarchs, some even in the Throned Saint level.

“Haahh… Haahh… Haahh…”

Lily supported her thigh with one hand and held her blade in the other as she still had not regained control of her numbed thigh.

“There’s simply no end to them… Haahh…”

Although Lily was much more powerful than these monsters, even she could not withstand fighting them continuously with no chance to catch her breath.

Physical and mental fatigue was bound to pile up even if she had access to near unlimited spirit power.

The stamina consumption in this harsh environment, in particular, was much worse than that in the mortal world.

Lily lowered her head and looked at her massive knockers propped up by the armor. They were drenched in sweat and heaved intensely. A third of her chest armor had shattered, revealing the skin underneath it, but thankfully, the demons of Yomi had no interest in a woman’s body.

Even if the demons had an interest in a woman’s body, there was little Lily could do about it. She understood that the only choice she had right now was to kill them and snatch their anima, or death was all that awaited her.

“I’m a bit tired and need to take a break, but these demons probably won’t allow me to do that. I bet they will keep attacking me without end!” Lily concluded.

She raised her hand and shot a few spells at the demon hounds near her. However, the low-ranked fireball and ice arrow spells did little damage to the demons. The ice arrows melted under the heat and vanished before they even reached the hounds while the fireballs were simply ineffective against them.

No matter how powerful Lily’s mind was, low-ranked spells simply could not injure monsters of the peak Throned Monarch stage.

“This won’t do. I thought using spells would allow me to save stamina, but these low-ranked spells are simply useless against these demons. I never learned arcane artes properly in the first place…” Lily strengthened her grip on her blade, “It’s better to slay them with my blade instead!”

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Three demon hounds pounced towards Lily simultaneously while she was distracted with her thoughts.

Although Lily was standing right now, her leg was still numb and had not recovered yet.

Lily leaned forward while holding Yasutsuna and a purple spirit flame manifested on its blade. She then stood still and waved her blade suddenly.

Bzzt!

A poignant, purple sword beam shot out from Yasutsuna, and shot through the three demon hounds.

Splurt! Splurt! Splurt!

The spirit jades of two demon hounds shattered immediately, killing them on the spot, while the last had its body severed into two halves, leaving it seriously injured.

The remaining demon hounds pounced forward immediately and devoured their kin right in front of Lily.

“The demons of Yomi are really savage.”

Fortunately, Lily had already snatched the anima of the dead demon hounds.

Lily flung the starlight ribbon which had remained after weaving the Sakura Parasol forward, making it twist around a hundred meter tall stone pillar. She then pulled on the ribbon and leaped up by stomping on the ground with one leg, jumping towards the summit of the stone pillar.

A long, chain-linked, metallic whip emerged out of nowhere the next moment and twisted around Lily’s feet, though, and pulled her, as well as the starlight ribbon down at the same time with the force of a Throned Saint.

“Aah!” Lily could not help but scream as she got flung aside and crashed against the stone wall opposite to her. The impact she suffered to her abdomen from the crash sent a tremor through her spirit palace and made her let go of the ribbon, causing her to fall down in front of the stone pillar

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References

Robinxen: Lily is catching no breaks, even the demon dinos are after her.

Robinxen: Very dramatic.