Demon Sword Maiden

Book 6: Chapter 48: Ancient Izumo Battleground

Lily followed Rika into the depths of the forest.

Passing through layer after layer of ancient trees, she discovered that in front of her, there was a sea of clouds covering the ground. Looking closely, there seemed to be a deep pit, and the clouds were rolling throughout the entire pit.

“Why are there clouds underground?” Lily could only look at the magnificent scenery with suspicion.

“Those aren’t clouds, it is fog. This place is filled with misty fog all year round, from the top it looks like a sea of clouds.” Rika responded, “Sister Lily, follow me.”

Rika was in the form of a raccoon, perhaps she felt it easier to traverse the forest like this.

Lily followed Rika to the edge of the pit, the terrain here was steep and mostly covered in vegetation. Only a few collapsed areas unveiled stone, there were also a few streams merging into waterfalls.

The two entered the fog, blindly groping for firm holds while descending, and entering the dense forest at the bottom of the pit. The scenery here was very wondrous, many of the ancient trees had grown into the clouds of fog and mist, and the flow of fog would sometimes twirl into a void letting golden sunlight to pour into the area.

Within the golden sunlight, there seemed to be golden stars floating. It was unbelievably beautiful and the artistic conception was wonderful.

“Sister Lily, come, that Izumo vine is at the bottom of this lake of clouds.”

Exiting the dense forest, golden light seemed to originate from in front of them.

Stepping forward and pushing aside bushes, Lily saw a passage formed out of countless twined trees and vines. At the end of the passage was a huge, ancient, twined vine covered in golden sunlight.

From a distance, Lily could see gigantic roots spreading all over, a few even stretched to the exit of the passage.

“That is the Izumo vine.” Rika announced.

In truth, even if Rika hadn’t named the vine, Lily would have known. Where in this world would there be a second vine like this?

Taking a cautious step into the passage, suddenly Lily was assaulted with an immense ancient surging oppression. Involuntarily, Lily withdrew her foot and retreated from the passage.

“This, what is this sensation?”

“Sister Lily, we’ve come here to play in the past, but we didn’t dare enter that passage.”

Lily nodded, indeed it wasn’t difficult to find the Izumo vine. With Rika leading the way, finding the vine was easy, but truely getting close to the vine? Just as grandpa Mita said, hard!

Only… Lily sensed the charred broken remains of the sakura parasol in her mirror space and settled her determination. She must move forward!

Taking a deep breath, she adjusted herself and took a step forward.

“Sister, be careful…” In awe of the passageway, Rika had hidden behind an ancient tree.

The sense of oppression struck again and increased with each step Lily took, but no matter how heavy her steps were now, Lily continued forward.

She had wanted to speed up, but increasing her speed the pressure increased at an alarming rate. She could only maintain her pace and travel forward step by step despite the increasing pressure.

Somehow the surroundings seemed to be getting darker and she could hear some sound, some whistle sound that seemed to have traveled through the ages.

Gradually, two images appeared within the darkness. Two little girls, one glowing silver, and the other glowing gold.

“Sister, if we plant the seed here, will it really grow into a sky towering tree?”

“I don’t know, but let’s try…”

The two little girls were so beautiful, and pure, their voices like the sounds of nature, it had a natural soul attracting effect. Wanting to get a closer look, Lily walked forward, but the two little girls disappeared leaving an empty tunnel.

Lily could only keep moving.

The tunnel was getting darker and darker, even the bright golden light at the exit could no longer be seen. This tunnel was much longer than she had thought it would be.

Within the dark tunnel, a spotlight suddenly appeared. Within that light was a jade-like young lady, she was standing beside a towering sakura tree.

The young lady was slender and beautiful, she glowed a misty silver and her face was blurred.

“How can I make sister happy…sister, she seems to dislike getting wet the most, I’ll use the branches of this tree to make her a parasol.”

“Parasol? Is this…” Lily continued forward and the young lady and towering tree disappeared.

Further ahead, the young lady appeared, this time cradling a wooden log.

“Forest gods, can you help me make a parasol out of this log?”

A huge, transparent hand radiating a diffuse life force stretched out towards the log.

And then, nothing but blackness.

Lily continued to move forward, but the suppression on her was so great she had no choice but to use her blade as a walking stick.

A young lady holding a roll of paper appeared, she was in a beautiful garden filled with clouds and mist, “What colors should I give this parasol? Though I like white, sister prefers red?”

Lily already somewhat understood, though she didn’t know the identity of the young lady glowing silver, she was sure she was watching the creation of that legendary parasol.

This was the birth of her sakura parasol and the memories contained within the artifact spirit.

Who was this young lady? Was she the creator of the sakura parasol?

Suzuhiko-hime1?

But she was speaking of gifting the parasol to her sister, Suzuhiko-hime’s little sister?

Then, this lady was sakura parasol’s first master?

Lily didn’t know, but watching the birth of her sakura parasol made her feel all the more bitter. Such an incredible parasol had been destroyed to protect her…

Lily moved on.

Continuing to stagger forward, a large column of wind came blowing at her. Lily shut her eyes involuntarily, her hair and skirt wildly dancing within the wind, each step she took became more difficult.

Suddenly, a vine came stabbing at her from the darkness, the power was terrifying and the speed was extreme!

But Lily’s reflexes were top notch and she quickly attempted to roll away. With the nameless force suppressing her, her movements were dull, but she still barely managed to evade.

“Fuu…” Sweat trickled down her neck.

And then, from the front, back, left and right, vine after vine came whipping at her!

Lily hastily evaded, but no matter how good her movement technique was, to continuously dodge under this suppression was impossible. After dodging six swipes, the seventh landed on her back.

“Ah—” Lily let out a shrill cry, this pain surpassed what she had ever experienced. Though she had the celestial maiden garment and would suffer a hundred times the pain when being injured2, it could not be compared to this single vine whip.

The terrifying vine whip also had a soul attack component, but thanks to the golden shield surrounding her violet moon, the soul attack was useless.

This soul attack was powerful enough to kill a throned sovereign but still had no effect when faced with Lily’s soul defense. Then all Lily had to deal with was the pain.

Though the pain was beyond what she had ever felt, the whip had only left a light red mark on her back. This vine was probably one that could only cause pain and soul injury.

She didn’t fear the soul attack, but the terrifying pain was something she must endure!

“Crack! —crack —crack!”

More vines appeared, and though she evaded, she had to endure a few strikes.

“Ah—!” A vine came down on her thigh3, the pain caused her to stumble and fall.

When she raised her head, the scenery in front of her eyes had become a vast battlefield. Terrifying wildfire scorched the earth as black smoke filled the skies. This was not an ordinary battlefield!

Lily felt that her body wasn’t under her control, her vision was higher than normal and was moving at an incredible speed.

Looking down, she saw the head of a tall, mature woman holding a rib of an umbrella frame in her hand. This woman was wearing a set of sensual, elegant celestial clothes.

“Master!” A girl’s voice came from behind the woman.

Lily’s head involuntarily turned.

Kagura!?

She saw Kagura, wearing a short skirted red hunting outfit holding a koi carp in one hand, swiftly running behind.

“This is…Sakura’s memories!”

Lily now understood. What she was seeing was her sakura parasol’s memories.

Kagura’s white face was covered in soot, her clothes torn and ripped, and she was covered in wounds, “Master! We’re surrounded by Yomi’s army!”

Then, the hand holding the sakura parasol should be Suzuhiko-hime.

“How…how could this be…” Suzuhiko-hime’s voice came from below Lily. Thankfully Lily was now just a parasol, if it were Lily in the flesh, then the voice would cause an indescribable reaction in her body, she would not be able to walk.

However, that enchanting voice was rushed and sounded a bit anxious.

“Master, what should we do? We’re surrounded by Yomi’s demon gods! Our sisters…”

Before Kagura had finished speaking a violent displacement appeared in front and Lily felt the world spin.

“Roar—!” A huge pitch black demon god rushed out from the ground. It had ghostly scarlet eyes, its body was tattered and ruined, and yet it radiated an ancient enormous vicious and ferocious aura Lily had never felt before. Within one hand it held a blunt, blood-stained machete filled with endless resentment, the machete must have bathed in the blood of countless innocents. With a roar, the machete came slashing down at Lily.

But Lily didn’t dodge, instead she was sent flying up with a movement of Suzuhiko-hime’s hand.

Boom—! That terrifying black machete came slashing down, and she could only feel the world tremble as blackness covered her vision.

1. Yuki: No… most likely her sister…
2. Yuki: Huh..? Did that garment have this sort of negative side effect?

   Silva: mhm, it increases spirit defense and prevent fatal injury but increases the pain sensitivity.

3. Robinxen: Is this the legendary vine tentacle attack?!