Demon Sword Maiden

Book 6: Chapter 32: Toyama Atsushi

Dozens of monsters, big and small, howled and charged at Uesugi Rei.

But Uesugi Rei’s gaze was focused on Arayama. The demons only saw the long blade in her hand swing out and a bright blue blade light before all the charging monsters were beheaded!

Holding up her tachi high, icy cold spirit energy entangled around her blade as more monsters closed in.

“Hah—!” An ice blue moon arc tens of meters long cut down and slaughtered monster after monster!

Arayama was covered in blood, its eyes glowed with ferocious rage. It crawled towards Rei and bared its fangs howling, “Human—you puny things only fit for food actually hurt me—Gack—how dare you hurt me! Die!!!”

Demonic clouds surrounded it as it leapt at Rei, its last remaining claw slid through the clouds and fog at her!

Uesugi Rei’s eyes remained on the large sharp ice spike speared through the arch-demon. That was an ice spike formed from the energy of her domain, completely under the control of her will.

With a thought— the entire ice spike violently blew up!

Roar—! The explosion of the ice spike piercing it interrupted its leap, Uesugi Rei seeing the opening, ran forward, evading the descending claw and then launching off it towards the arch-demon’s chest.

Then out of nowhere, an early-stage permanence monster threw a long whip at Uesugi Rei.

The whip twirled around her foot and held her down!

With a ferocious glare, Arayama opened its bloody mouth and bit at her.

Boom—!!! The big mouth slammed into the wooden house with Uesugi Rei.

“Sister Uesugi—!”

“Miss Uesugi!!”

Her comrades shouted in horror as they saw the scene.

“Noooo—!” Hatano cried out holding her mouth1, but the giant head of Arayama was gradually forced back.

Uesugi Rei was revealed, holding the handle of her tachi in one hand and the blade in the other, blocking the fangs with her blade. She strode forward with strong legs, pushing back the huge head.

Uesugi Rei’s ancient tachi was pressed against two rows of column like foul smelling fangs, both sides pressing with full force. The arch-demon’s gigantic teeth rattled, the muscles all over its body bulged with force, and the terrifying hole in its chest continued to spew blood all over. Its pair of wide gold eyes stared at Uesugi Rei with hatred!

Hatano stared wide eyed at the scene.

Uesugi Rei’s eyes glowed with violet light as she gritted her teeth. There was no fear in her despite the fanged mouth as big as a castle gate.

Crack—Crack— The ground beneath her feet kept fracturing.

Her arms trembled from the exertion, ice spiritual energy continued to swirl around her as if evaporating!

From between gritted teeth, the arch-demon growled, “Human! You’re finished! You lose—!”

Not ten meters away, monsters rushed at Uesugi!

Behind Uesugi, the Nioh phantom appeared, surrounded by an icy aura, it swung its fist, punching those monsters into the air!

But the Nioh phantom was too sluggish, there were still many monsters rushing Uesugi!

A ferocious ghost faced hound with big jaws bit down on her calf.

“Ugh—!” Still in a contest of strength with the arch-demon, she could only take the bite as her slender legs trembled!

“Sister Uesugi!” Hatano abandoned everything and desperately rushed to her aid, battling those monsters surrounding her!

“Human! You’re finished!” Its remaining intact claw lifted and slashed toward Uesugi Rei’s side!

Bang! The Nioh phantom erupted with power, its thick powerful arms rose to meet the claw and held it back, they were equal in power!

“What!??” Arayama could only continue to concentrate and exert strength.

“Master! Let me!” That early-stage permanence monster who had kept hidden shouted and rushed out, lashing towards Uesugi with a thorny whip!

The horns of the whip emitted disgusting black aura, when lashing through the rain and fog, it corroded the water as it splashed down, melting holes into the ground.

The whip condensed with the full strength of a permanence monster whipped at Uesugi Rei’s heart!

Rei tilted her head to look at the incoming ambush, her eyes narrowing, but there was nothing she could do!

However— a big figure rushed in front of her!

It was the hermit Toyama Atsushi!

His one arm raised the staff to block the ambush, but how could the full powered blow of a permanence monster be that easy to block?

The poisonous whip broke the staff and though its power had decreased, it still pierced through Toyama. Blood spurted out and splashed over Uesugi Rei’s face.

“Kachk, ah…” Blood came out of Toyama’s mouth as a corrosive aura appeared around the hole in his chest.

“Brother Toyama!”

“Toyama!” His companions cried out mournfully.

Uesugi Rei stared dazed at Toyama’s back, “Brother Toyama…”

“Uggg…Ue, Miss Uesugi, I’ve troubled you the entire trip, this time, it’s my turn to protect you…” Toyama turned his head to look at her, smiling as his eyes dimmed.

“Toyama…” Rei’s eyes turned as icy clear as mirrors, as if she had lost consciousness.

Boom—!!! Sky crushing aura erupted, Uesugi Rei pressed her lips together, her body trembling with endless power as she pressed her tachi harder against the arch-demon’s fangs.

Suddenly, her wrist seemed to bend and flex, and her blade slid along the fangs towards the gap between.

Pfft! A heavy stab followed, piercing through the jaws of Arayama, nailing it to the ground.

The arch-demon howled furiously and lifted the top of its jaws to bite at Uesugi Rei!

But Uesugi Rei narrowed her eyes and concentrated, a Bishamonten glow emerged within her eyes and suddenly time and space stagnated and the world froze over! Uesugi Rei tightly clenched her tachi, and gathered up all of her strength and silent fury…

Pfft!!! She tore her tachi up high——ripping a line out of the middle of the arch-demon’s head, from bottom to the forehead, slashing it in two!

No matter how vigorous its lifeforce was, once the brain was split in two, all regeneration was useless.

The arch-demon’s consciousness had been destroyed by Uesugi Rei with one blow.

The huge body and split in half head collapsed onto the floor powerlessly and a huge flowerlike splatter was formed.

A huge golden eyeball rolled down drawing a long tentacle like bloodline. It stared at Rei resentfully and mockingly as if it had the last remaining consciousness of the arch-demon within.

A weak strand of spirit energy formed into a low spine chilling voice, “I might have failed…but Lord Shuten, won’t let you escape…won’t…because, you are that sword miko…you won’t be able to escape from Lord Shuten’s grasp, sword miko, ehehehehe…”

Bam—! Uesugi Rei stomped down with a foot and smashed the Peak-staged permanence entity, Arayama, dead.

The world fell silent, as if the rain outside was soundless.

The mob of monsters stared at Uesugi Rei who stood there like a war goddess, one by one they lost their fighting spirit and fled, yelping the entire way.

Uesugi Rei couldn’t be bothered with these small fries, but there was one she could not let go!

She kept her eye on the back of that early-staged permanence monster trying to escape within the crowd of monsters.

Her eyes were unhurried as she lifted her hand and flung several ice spears.

Pft! Pft! Pft! Pft! Spear after spear pierced through the body of that monster as it howled and twitched.

With a jerk of her hand, she manifested and grabbed several ropes of water. She lassoed the monster and gave it a powerful tug, pulling it back to her.

She lowered her body and tightly gripped her tachi. A bright silver blade light split the monster in two pieces!

Before the pieces of corpse landed, Uesugi Rei sent out another wave of silver blade light, dismantling the demon into pieces! Lump after lump of meat landed on the ground.

“Hu…hu…hu…” Uesugi Rei stabbed her sword into the ground supporting herself, her silver hair scattered around, and her head hung low, panting.

There was already no living monster anywhere near.

Turning around, she saw Toyama still standing there, in the rain and fog…

“Brother Toyama…”

The wound on his chest passed through both his heart and spirit jade. The corrosion had spread and he finally fell.

“Brother Toyama!!!” Hatano ran over, knelt down and started crying.

Minamoto no Kenki shook his head helplessly, sheathing his blade.

Raindrops fell all over Toyama. He had endured so long with one remaining arm and a leg broken, but in the end he fell here, and would be unable to return home.

Uesugi Rei raised her head with eyes closed, and let the rain fall on her beautiful face. From the corners of her eyes, near invisible crystalline drops fell.

Ever since they had been trapped in this Tanbo Province, Uesugi Rei had not shed a single tear.

She walked to Toyama and sat silently beside him. Her back straight without saying a word, as if she was silently performing rites for him.

She pulled out the infinitely valuable life recovery magatama she had just gained and handed it to Hatano, “Hatano, take this and use it on Nakajou.”

Toyama had died, a life recovery magatama would do nothing for him, but Nakajou was different. Nakajou had suffered serious injuries, if a life recovery magatama was used on him, it was very possible he would recover.

“Sister Uesugi, but…this is the only life recovery magatama we have. You can use this to save your life in an emergency!” Hatano said hesitantly.

“Take it.” Uesugi softly, but resolutely placed the life recovery magatama in Hatano’s hand.

Hatano nodded and grasped that vibrantly glowing turquoise magatama and ran to the heavily injured and unconscious Nakajou.

A portion of the villagers had fled into the forests, and another portion had hid within their houses and peeked through ruined doors and windows to stare at them with ugly and pathetic eyes.

Uesugi Rei did not blame these people, for them to survive in this place, they had no choice but to submit to monsters.

Uesugi Rei could slaughter monsters, but she could not help these people escape from Tanbo.

That night, they buried Toyama on the hillside, and placed his beloved staff as his gravemarker.

Instead of reentering the village, they chose to stay on the hillside for the night.

On the second day, through the miracle of the life recovery magatama, Nakajou had recovered a bit of his strength, and could once again stand up.

They worshiped Toyama on that hill before grouping up on the hillside.

“Where should we go? Minamoto no Kenki held the map, “Besides this village, there are no other villages marked here.”

Looking into the distance, for some reason she could feel that the eldritch energy in that direction was denser.

“Forward.” She sheathed her tachi on her back, and walked on the mountain road leading to an unknown place, her companions looked on in a daze before following.

The road from Oyashirazu, where did it lead?

1. Yuki: Instead of crying and staring, how about go bash up that demon with the whip?