Demon Sword Maiden

Volume 13 - Takamagahara: Chapter 118 - Moonfrost Floranima (Part 1)

“Cough… cough… cough…” Kiyoshi coughed up a mouthful of blood. His blood-soaked hand trembled as it grasped the blade Lily had driven into his chest.

“Kiyoshi!” Lily cried out. “Why?”

Had they both staked their lives on that final sword strike, there would have been nothing to say. Yet at the very last moment, Kiyoshi had abandoned his attack and willingly allowed Lily’s blade to pierce his heart.

Kiyoshi’s face had turned deathly pale. “I told you before… I only wished to have Miss Kagami. I never wished to harm you… If I could achieve that, I would stop at nothing… But if the only outcome was mutual destruction… then I would rather bear… all of those sins… alone.”

“Why… did it have to come to this…?”

“I already died once. Having returned from death… allow me… to be selfish… just this once.” His trembling hand drew the wakizashi from his waist. It was a supreme Oboro Tamahagane wakizashi forged from the essence of several hundred Oborozuki souls. Kiyoshi’s divine power shattered the seal placed upon the blade.

One after another, exquisitely beautiful and bewildering Oborozuki souls drifted free, scattering through the fading darkness. They circled high above before every last one of them merged into Lily’s Oborozuki Muramasa, causing the blade’s Lunar Force to surge even further.

The process only deepened Kiyoshi’s agony. Lily tried to pull her sword free, but Kiyoshi seized it with both hands, gripping it with unbelievable strength.

“Kiyoshi, what are you doing!?”

“Heh… hehehe…” At death’s door, his eyes shone with a crystal-clear light. “At a time like this… I only wanted… to stay close to you… just a little longer…”

The darkness surrounding them had already dispersed. Though he had attained overwhelming power overnight, his foundation had been unstable. Even if his strength had approached Lily’s, in actual combat he had never truly been her equal. Perhaps only now did he realize how naive he had been. But everything was already beyond redemption.

“Kiyoshi…” Sorrow welled up in Lily’s eyes as well. “Why did we have to end up like this?”

At that moment, after absorbing Kiyoshi’s three hundred Oborozuki souls, Lily’s Oborozuki Muramasa released an extraordinary pulse of lunar soul energy.

Moonlight flowed across the blade as its might soared. A hazy wave of radiance spread from the sword, blanketing countless miles in every direction.

Suddenly, throughout the battlefield, the Oborozuki souls still held by the million gods and demons, along with every faction present, broke free from their owners’ control. One after another, they flew into the sky with wild, untamed freedom.

“What!?”

“What’s happening?”

The million gods and demons were thrown into panic.

“Come back! My Oborozuki soul!” Powerful beings leaped into the air, desperately trying to seize the fleeing souls. But the Oborozuki souls were formless. No matter how they reached for them, they could not grasp a single one.

Even the greatest Supreme Gods were left helpless. Every secret art they could devise, every divine restraint they could employ, even attempting to seize them with their own hands, all proved utterly futile. Not a single Oborozuki soul could be reclaimed.

Within Lily’s Oborozuki Muramasa, the gathered Oborozuki souls had already surpassed half of the total. The hazy waves it emitted now began attracting every remaining Oborozuki soul throughout the Celestial Demon Path, drawing them toward her.

Streams of Oborozuki souls moved of their own accord, completely ignoring every attempt by their former owners to stop them. One after another, they flew into Lily’s blade and merged with the Oborozuki Muramasa.

“What!? What’s going on!?”

The million gods and demons were utterly stunned.

Kujaku Myōō, Kuroyoku Tateo-no-Kami, and the other foremost Supreme Gods immediately shot into the sky, charging straight toward Lily. Since they could not stop the Oborozuki souls, they would stop Lily instead!

“Don’t let Lily seize the Oborozuki souls!” Kuroyoku roared together with several Abyssal Demon Gods.

“Stay back!” Kiyoshi’s voice thundered across heaven and earth. “If anyone comes any closer, I will detonate the Divinity within my body!”

“What!?” Even the greatest Demon Gods were shocked. Kiyoshi’s Supreme God power was no weaker than theirs. If he self-destructed at such close range, even they could be caught in the blast. None of them dared advance.