Demon Sword Maiden

Volume 13 - Takamagahara: Chapter 74 - The Army of the Human Realm Confronts Herikaku City!

Lily stood alone atop Herikaku City, gazing out over the beautiful Lake Biwa. After a rare, tranquil dusk had faded, the long night arrived once more.

Under the curtain of darkness, the lake shimmered faintly with starlight. Yet far off among the forested mountains, flames flickered here and there. Thick plumes of smoke billowed upward, and from the fissures of Yomi seeped a sinister aura. To Lily, such sights had already become familiar. It was nothing more than Eldritch Energy leaking from the shallow layers of Yomi. But for the ordinary people of the Heian Dynasty, it would have been enough to herald the end of the world.

Behind Lily, the slender silhouette of a woman appeared. It was Yanagihada.

“Lyn-hime, Herikaku City has been hovering here for several days now. Our reconnaissance outposts have discovered that a great army has already departed from Heian-kyo and is advancing toward Lake Biwa. What should we do next? Of course, according to our intelligence, those troops would not be able to shake Herikaku City in the slightest,” Yanagihada reported.

Although Shimizu was technically the leader of the Dark Celestial Maidens, her temperament made her utterly uninterested in managing affairs. Even if someone reported to her, she would simply say to ask Lily instead.

Thus, Yanagihada, the de facto leader of the Dark Celestial Maidens, now reported directly to Lily.

Standing in the night wind, Lily’s long hair fluttered softly. The great army of the Heian Dynasty? She did not regard it as a threat at all, even though she had deliberately refrained from extending her divine power across Lake Biwa.

There was only one matter that truly concerned her.

“I do not wish for the flames of war to mar the beauty of Lake Biwa. Have Herikaku City fly across the lake and meet those armies on the plains of Yamashiro Province instead,” Lily said.

“Yes.” Yanagihada accepted the order and prepared to carry it out, though a trace of hesitation lingered.

“What is it?”

“Lyn-hime, forgive my frankness. To deal with those so-called human armies, a mere hundred Celestial Maidens would be enough to wipe them out.”

Lily fell silent for a moment, deep in thought. “There is someone I wish to meet in person. Besides… I have a feeling things may not be as simple as you imagine.”

Lake Biwa stretched endlessly for thousands of kilometers. Lily still remembered the first time she had crossed it. Traveling by boat had taken nearly a month, and during that journey she had been ambushed by the Imperial Guards and by Ui and the others. Now, however, even without unleashing its full, world-shaking power, Herikaku City needed only an hour or two to fly across it.

That night, while the human army was still discussing how to bypass Lake Biwa and confront the enormous floating fortress visible across the water, the fortress itself had already arrived before their encampment.

Only then did the human soldiers truly grasp the sheer enormity of the castle. It was as though Heian-kyo itself had risen into the sky and hovered above them.

The army hurriedly formed ranks through the night. Countless torches flickered like scattered stars, covering the plains east of Yamashiro Province.

At the center of the army’s main formation stood a white command pavilion. Upon its banners was a new clan crest. It no longer belonged to the Ashikaga clan. The emblem looked sinister and uncanny.

It retained the circular outline of the original Ashikaga crest, but inside the circle coiled a serpent with eight heads. Each head of the Yamata no Orochi curved outward along the ring, as though some legendary calamity-beast had returned to the mortal world to wreak havoc once more.

“General! That massive fortress which conquered the Kanto has arrived before our army!” a black-armored samurai reported.

Within the command pavilion, illuminated by roaring bonfires on either side, sat a man clad in black armor set with crimson plates. His handsome face carried an indescribable air of age and gravity. It was Ashikaga Kiyoshi. Yet the depth in his gaze had become so dark that it seemed almost abyssal.

“Is that so… She has finally come,” Kiyoshi said, his tone tinged with complicated emotions.

“Your Highness! Kagami Lily killed everyone important to me! I will kill her! The me of today can definitely take her life!” A young girl in black and crimson hunting robe, her gray twin-tails swaying, glared with blazing fury in her eyes.

“No, Ui. If Miss Lily has returned from Yomi-no-kuni, then her realm must already be beyond our imagination. You are no match for her. Return to Iyo Island immediately and carry out that plan,” Kiyoshi said calmly.

“Yes!” Ui did not argue. She simply accepted the command with quiet resolve.

Across the vast plains of Yamashiro Province, hundreds of thousands of troops stood assembled. Most of them were the formidable Black-Armored Army, alongside vast hordes of demons from Yomi.

Some among those black-armored soldiers were human adepts who had risen from Yomi’s depths. But many more were warriors resurrected from the corpses of samurai who had died in battle long ago. Under Kiyoshi’s command, the art of corpse-refinement had far surpassed that of Minamoto no Yoritomo. These soldiers were stronger and more ferocious than they had ever been in life.

And now, they no longer feared death at all.

Meanwhile, the immense Herikaku City hovered before the army like an immovable mountain. For the moment, it made no move.

At the front ranks of the army, numerous generals and powerful demons stared up at the colossal city with grave expressions.

Unfortunately for them, most of the demons who had come to the human realm were only creatures from the shallow layers of Yomi. In Yomi-no-kuni, they had never had the chance to learn what Herikaku City truly was.

Otherwise, at this very moment, they might have chosen to flee back to that scorching, dark, and barren world without hesitation.

A general of the Ashikaga forces wiped the sweat from his brow. Samurai were not afraid of death, but the sight of such a colossal fortress floating in the sky was enough to stir unease in even the bravest among them.

The army had already formed its battle lines. There was no room for retreat now. After a moment’s thought, the general drew his katana and pointed it toward the immense city.

“Fire!”

Tens of thousands of elite black-armored soldiers raised their powerful bows high. Each arrow had been forged from tamahagane of at least the sixth grade, and every shaft bore inscribed runes.

In an instant, a vast storm of arrows shot toward Herikaku City, filling the sky like a rain of flaming meteors.

These archers were all black-armored corpse soldiers of formidable strength. From over ten kilometers away, their arrows were capable of reaching the floating city.

Yet when the blazing arrowstorm that could have destroyed any city of the Heian Dynasty approached Herikaku City, the entire barrage struck something unseen. The arrows clattered as if hitting an invisible sheet of ice, ricocheting away with sharp crackling sounds before falling weakly to the ground like ashes.

Not a single arrow could even approach within a thousand meters of the city.

“What…?” The black-armored commander was stunned. “What kind of defensive formation is this? Even a Septuple-soul Big Dipper master would not be able to sustain such an enormous barrier against so many arrows. Their energy would have been exhausted long ago!”

At that moment, the army formation shifted. Large numbers of black-robed wraith stepped forward. Long talismans were pasted across their faces, concealing their features entirely.

More than ten thousand wraiths formed combined grand formations. Their spells manifested the phantom images of the four ancient divine beasts: Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise.

These spectral beasts formed by the grand formations were far more powerful than the sacrificial hound technique once used against Tamamo-no-Mae. After all, this was the full combined formation of over ten thousand wraiths.

However, when the four divine beast phantoms charged toward Herikaku City, they too crashed against the same invisible barrier surrounding it. The beasts began frantically biting and ramming against the shield, yet they could not shake it in the slightest.

At that moment, atop Herikaku City, something rose into the air.

It was a rooster carved from agate.

The rooster stood about half a meter tall, slightly larger than an ordinary chicken, its polished form faintly intimidating. Facing the four divine beast phantoms, the agate rooster opened its beak and spat out four tiny beams of light, each of a different color.

The four divine beast phantoms were struck and instantly exploded into drifting ashes.

Within the great formation, countless wraiths coughed up green blood, collapsing onto the ground as their bodies convulsed violently.

“What? A technique so small it was barely visible destroyed our strongest combined spell formation?” said Abe no Yuzo.

He was the nephew of Abe no Seimei. After the great chaos in Heian-kyo, Seimei had vanished without a trace. Among the Abe clan’s younger generation, Yuzo possessed the greatest talent. Promoted by Kiyoshi and taught Onmyoji arts originating beyond the human realm, his strength had increased dramatically. He had already reached the Triple-soul Big Dipper stage and now served as the chief onmyoji of the Ashikaga army.

“This won’t do. It seems long-range attacks cannot harm this giant city,” the black-armored commander said grimly.

“My lord,” a demon said beside him. The creature was entirely crimson, six meters tall, clad in crude black armor, and possessed the aura of a Sextuple-soul Big Dipper demon. Naturally, it had come from Yomi.

“In truth, this floating city only looks terrifying from the outside. I hear it is guarded inside by nothing but women. If we could break into the city, we could easily seize it. And we could capture all those female soldiers as prisoners. Heh heh heh!”

In terms of power, the demon surpassed even the commander of the black-armored corpse warriors. However, out of fear of the woman who stood beside Ashikaga Kiyoshi, it still had no choice but to obey.

“The problem is that the city floats several thousand meters above the ground. How would our army reach it? If we only send a small number of Big Dipper masters capable of flight through domain power, or those with flying artifacts, our forces may be insufficient,” Yuzo said with a troubled expression.

At that moment, someone flew out from Herikaku City.

“Look, my lord! Someone has come out!”

“What? Only one person? Could it be an envoy? Are they trying to surrender?”

“It looks like a female envoy. Quite a nice figure too. Heh heh!”

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers turned their eyes toward the sky.

A Dark Celestial Maiden dressed in revealing yet flowing garments emerged from Herikaku City. She hovered alone in midair, standing a hundred meters above the ground between the city and the army.

The woman was none other than Yanagihada.

“By the order of Lyn-hime, Ashikaga Kiyoshi is to come forward and pay his respects,” Yanagihada said. Her voice was light and clear. It was not particularly loud, yet within a thousand kilometers, every person heard her words as though she were speaking directly beside them.

“What!?” The six-meter red demon widened its eyes in disbelief.

The black-armored commander, wearing a terrifying mask, exhaled dark purple mist from his mouth. Using spirit power to amplify his voice, he shouted toward Yanagihada.

“Where did this ignorant and reckless woman come from? Lord Ashikaga is the Shogun of this era, the chosen one blessed by the Heavenly Path! You rebels are nothing but traitors clinging to that castle in desperate resistance. What right do you have to demand that Lord Ashikaga come and see you?”

“That’s right!” the six-meter red demon roared, its voice booming like thunder. “If you want to see the Shogun, we heard Ashikaga once had a thing with your Lyn-hime. But that shameless woman betrayed him! Tell your Lyn-hime to strip naked, tie herself up properly, kneel before me, and beg for forgiveness with her head on the ground. Maybe then Lord Ashikaga will remember old feelings and summon that promiscuous s̲l̲u̲t̲!”

Facing the crude and obscene insults of the crowd, Yanagihada remained completely unmoved.

After a thousand years of fighting in Yomi, she had long grown accustomed to words a hundred times more vulgar and explicit than these. And in the end, how many of the demons who had once spoken such words to her were still alive?

“I see. If that is the case…” Yanagihada said calmly. “Then I will carry out Lyn-hime’s second order.”

“The second order? What order?” the black-armored soldiers and demons asked in confusion.

“The second order?” Yanagihada said indifferently. “Lyn-hime told me to handle the situation as I see fit. I couldn’t think of any better method for the moment… so I suppose I’ll simply fight until Ashikaga Kiyoshi comes out to pay his respects.”

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