Book 5: Chapter 170: Drenched
Book 5: Chapter 170: Drenched
Ayaka silently cast a spell and summoned a crystalline, blooming snow lotus in front of her. Lily remembered this snow lotus as it had sucked in Minamoto no Yoshitada and Taira no Mori’s powers before.
The blooming snow lotus flew towards Tamamo-no-Mae.
“Hahaha. I never imagined that the majestic Chief Advisor still likes playing with flowers. I guess you’re still a little girl at heart,” Tamamo-no-Mae waved her hand and summoned a silver-blue soul fragment that exuded a primordial aura.
“It’s an anima?” Lily unleashed her domain to defend against the aftereffects of the clashes in the battle between these two exceptional female powerhouses. Although it was quite difficult to achieve this with her current strength, Lily had somehow managed to remain safe until now. It was only possible because experts at their level had their misgivings when battling and they also didn’t intend to let the other party’s attacks harm Lily.
“No, this aura is much stronger than an anima! It’s much purer!” Lily remarked internally.
Ayaka was also stunned when she saw this soul fragment.
“Tamamo-no-Mae… I-Is that…”
“Oh, yes. It’s what you think it is.”
“You’re crazy!” Ayaka ordered her snow lotus to spin, and it then released rays of white light which transformed into silk threads as they flew towards Tamamo-no-Mae, each thread packing a terrifying power within them.
Tamamo-no-Mae lengthened the soul fragment forcefully by using her eldritch power and molded the grudge-powered mystic soul fragment into the shape of a hilt with her hands’ caress.
“Celestial Spirit Blade! Dammit! She’s turned the Celestial Spirit Blade into something like that… The Empire is really in imminent danger now. Hahahaha!” The Cloistered Emperor laughed behind the curtain.
The Reigning Emperor looked at the battle worriedly like a scared girl, “Those who rebel against the way of heaven are the three archdemons… Can our Empire really fight back against such terrifying existences?”
Although the name Celestial Spirit Blade sounded quite domineering, Lily didn’t believe it was anything special at all. However, she couldn’t understand why everyone viewed it with such importance and even expressed fear towards it.
The soul fragment in Tamamo-no-Mae’s hand transformed into a silver-blue blade that shot out thin, cicada-wing-like sword beams from it that severed the white silk threads into pieces, making them dissipate.
Lily concluded that the Celestial Spirit Blade had terrifying powers, and these powers seemed to originate from a higher realm instead of this world.
“Hah!” Tamamo-no-Mae moved suddenly, and she was so fast that Lily saw her blip to her destination in the next second. Tamamo-no-Mae arrived before the snow lotus and stabbed toward it with the Celestial Spirit Blade.
Bzzt! A white light flashed, following which the snow lotus transformed into countless crystalline, swirling petals that returned inside Ayaka’s sleeves.
“Is that the immortal magic artifact of the legends that’s famed to sever everything in its path? You really don’t hold back on obtaining a treasure you want, do you, woman?!” A bright light flashed in Ayaka’s hand as she said this, and a white-poled naginata revealed itself when the light faded. Ayaka gripped the naginata with both her hands raised it up to perform a nebulous dance with her vorticial spirit power to unleash an incredibly powerful spiritual pressure.
Ayaka stepped on the translucent stream and flew forward, brandishing her naginata towards Tamamo-no-Mae.
“Huh? You’ve even brought out Izumomaru! Is there a need for you to try so hard now?” Tamamo-no-Mae chuckled while covering her mouth, “Isn’t it the legacy gem passed down among the women of the Fujiwara clan? So it was in your hands. You must’ve paid a considerable price for it, right?”
“So what?” Ayaka leaped and slashed forward, the blade releasing a silver thread-like light that streaked across the skies towards Tamamo-no-Mae.
Tamamo-no-Mae used the Immortal Force within the Celestial Spirit Blade to sever this silver light.
However, Izumomaru softened the moment the Celestial Spirit Blade touched it and became a ball of silvery threads that wound around the blade and neutralized the massive Penetration Force behind it.
“It looks like your blade arts haven’t improved much. What use is a good blade without that?” Tamamo-no-Mae held the Celestial Spirit Blade entangled in one hand while she summoned a big-handled massive mirror treasure in her other hand. This mirror treasure’s appearance was completely different from the Ancient Mirror’s appearance. It had a lavish golden frame that was embedded with gems, one of which was an onyx with a mystical vortex inside it.
Bam! Tamamo-no-Mae slammed this heavy mirror treasure on Ayaka’s shoulder.
“Argh!” Ayaka moaned faintly in pain as she got blown away by the slam and manipulated the streams underneath her feet to reduce the terrifying strength behind the blow.
Lily wasn’t aware that this heavy mirror treasure just looked like a magic treasure and didn’t actually possess any magical powers at all. Its sole characteristic was its weight, and it was pretty much a blunt weapon that could be used to attack someone.
At the viewing platform, Minamoto no Yoshitada, who sat among the Genji officials in the row below where Yoritomo and the other imperials were seated, voiced out his questions, “Just what is Tamamo-no-Mae’s main weapon? She used the Celestial Spirit Blade at first and switched to a heavy mirror next.”
The Cloistered Emperor chuckled, “Hahahahahaha. Tamamo-no-Mae has lived for a thousand years already, so she owns a lot of treasures. I’m afraid there’s no weapon that she can’t use.”
Yoritomo shook his head faintly after hearing this though and soliloquized internally, “No, I believe she’s the scariest when she isn’t using any weapon.”
“Lady Ayaka!” Lily called out in worry after seeing Ayaka receive a blow.
However, Ayaka just grabbed her shoulder and feigned a calm smile, “I might not be the match of a 1000-year-old archdemon like you in terms of brute strength, Tamamo-no-Mae. Nevertheless, even though you mentioned that I’ve failed to bring out Izumomaru’s strength, I’d like to ask you whether it’s my main weapon.”
“Oh? What is it if it isn’t your main weapon? Do you use it to engage in some unspeakable actions?” Tamamo-no-Mae chuckled charmingly.
“Shut up!” Ayaka threw Izumomaru to the skies and summoned her staff in her hand once again, performing seals quickly to execute a spell.
The silver spirit power surrounding Ayaka’s body turned into a bright light and formed a massive samurai priestess’ avatar behind her which looked somewhat similar to her.
The samurai priestess wielded Izumomaru and brandished it, executing a more exquisite blade art using it than Ayaka!
Although Lily felt that Ayaka’s blade arts were many times stronger than hers, this ancient priestess’ blade arts had reached an invulnerable stage, almost as if she were the incarnation of all blade arts in the world!
“A Guardian Spirit?” Tamamo-no-Mae did away with the heavy mirror and faced the spirit while holding the Celestial Spirit Blade in her hands!
Bzzt! The Guardian Spirit blitzed towards Tamamo-no-Mae fluidly and launched an unrelenting charge of spiral attacks at her, causing her to parry them with a sword-dance.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The Guardian Spirit used exquisite blade arts and each of her strikes packed more punch than Ayaka’s attacks. The earth quaked each time the blades clashed, and the resulting wind wreaked havoc in the surroundings.
Ayaka also didn’t just sit by and do nothing and released countless lotus petals from her sleeves that combined to form a crystalline paper crane. These paper cranes fluttered their wings as they shot towards Tamamo-no-Mae and began pecking her all over.
Ayaka continued casting a spell while all this occurred and unleashed a powerful, radiant magic that illuminated the sky as it attacked Tamamo-no-Mae from all directions.
“Sheesh! It looks like you’re really peeved, Lil’ Ayaka1! So much that you’ve even brought out your Guardian Spirit which has specialized skills. There’s no need to be so serious, you know?” Tamamo-no-Mae’s eyes flashed with a red glow, and she then retreated suddenly.
The fox tails behind her spread out and transformed into huge nine-tails that bombarded the Guardian Spirit and the incoming paper cranes with powerful blows.
Bzzt! The nine-tails had a form similar to that of a flower bud as they covered most of the arena. The spirit power under their influence dispersed and when the fox tails withdrew, there were no signs of the Guardian Spirit or paper cranes left on the area as they had perished, leaving only Izumomaru behind on the floor.
“Do you have anything else left?” Tamamo-no-Mae brandished her Celestial Spirit Blade towards Ayaka.
Ayaka revealed an incredible amount of pride in her eyes as her body unleashed a purple charm intent which changed the color and taste of the surroundings.
“What?!” Even Tamamo-no-Mae was stunned by this and slashed towards Ayaka.
The staff in Ayaka’s hand transformed into a crystalline tachi that had lotus petal-like sword runes on its blade that were powered by the purple charm intent.
The two incredible powers clashed against each other and produced a deep, resounding noise.
Ayaka opened her lips to breathe out a white cloud of breath, yet her eyes were still as prideful as ever. The omniscient, regal aura she carried as well as each and every single strike and movement of hers was refined to the highest power level!
“Ah…” Lily’s eyes narrowed when she saw this appearance of Ayaka from the platform and she recalled how she had seen her perform an erotic dance with an aloof expression while dressed sexily in that dark dream2.
The current Ayaka looked the exact same as her dark dream!
“Ladu Ayaka…” Lily worried.
Ayaka’s sword skills surpassed Tamamo-no-Mae right now and she also had the advantage in terms of height and arm length. With equally matched weapons, it left her locked in battle with Tamamo-no-Mae.
Tamamo-no-Mae saw her chance to attack and aimed for Ayaka’s neck!
Ayaka also seized the chance to stab towards Tamamo-no-Mae’s heart!
Bzzt! The spectators felt their souls quiver under the influence of the shockwaves.
However, the two parties withdrew their hands when they were just a hair’s breadth away from hitting their opponents’ vitals.
They had to ensure that they didn’t take the duel too far! Although they had fought so fiercely and used incredible methods to attack each other, they hadn’t actually gone all out. The two experts withdrew their blades at the most crucial moment!
“Ah!” The judge saw the battle’s conclusion and dazed out for a good while before wondering whether to declare the outcome of a draw.
Just as Sasaki hesitated to make the call, Tamamo-no-Mae smiled bewitchingly and said, “It looks like I’ve lost.”
“Huh?” Ayaka was taken aback.
Kimiko’s dress tore underneath the area where Ayaka’s crystalline sword grazed it, leading to the opening of a hole that almost exposed her body.
However, Kimiko put away her Celestial Spirit Blade and stroked the back of Ayaka’s blade with her slim fingers while covering her breasts with her other hand as she floated behind Ayaka and placed her chin on the latter’s shoulder3, “Look how desperate you are. It looks like you’re really fond of that little lass. Just forget it. I won’t fight you over her then. You can have her, okay?”
Ayaka remained unmoved against Kimiko’s seduction, but she didn’t show disgust towards it.
Kimiko waved her hand and her dress changed into a saffron-colored kimono patterned with white flowers, following which she stepped on eldritch clouds and flew to the platform’s side, “Lil’ Lily. I’m handing you to the Chief Advisor this time. Do come over to have some fun with me when you have time though!”
Kimiko’s seductive gaze filled with slight disdain as her eyes swept past the Heian Empire’s Emperor and the court councilors. She then turned away and summoned the lantern she held at the beginning, setting foot on the floating bridge that ran across the imperial palace as she sashayed away.
The cat monster Natsu also followed behind her while shaking her tail.
“Lady Kimiko…” Lily looked at Tamamo-no-Mae’s back as she walked on the floating bridge that had the imperial palace beneath it and black clouds behind. The crescent moon looked like a half-concealed eye in the sky on this night and fierce demon apparitions of differing heights appeared behind her, following her as she walked off on the rainbow-black floating bridge, the scene looking just like a demon parade.
- Robinxen: Whew. She’s really going at it. Both of them.
- Robinxen: Oho-
- Robinxen: Author I forgive you this once.