Demon Sword Maiden

Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, glowing with star-splitting force, struck the bloated demon god’s divinity. The blow nearly ended him. He plummeted, barely clinging to life due to his thick, resilient flesh. But he was too wounded to continue fighting.

He was out of the battle!

Still, among the demon gods, his strength ranked near the bottom. His defeat didn’t ease Lily’s predicament.

“You, use weapons to pin down that divine sword! Let me handle the main assault!” roared Kuroyoku.

Though the demon gods possessed terrifying power, none of them had ever faced an opponent like Kagami Lily. At first, they charged her en masse, uncoordinated and chaotic, interfering with one another in their haste. But now, they began to adapt, discovering the key to defeating her: restrain her sword. Without it, what threat could she possibly pose?

Wakarai, Kurorai, and Kuralan-Chiyu attacked in unison. Thunder-laced spear, obsidian hammer, and eight demonic weapons struck from all sides. Lily dodged two, then used the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi to block the remaining blades. But under the combined pressure of the eight divine weapons, she was briefly pinned. In that instant, Wakarai’s thunder spear thrust forward—not toward Lily, but toward her sword—joining the others in locking it in place.

“Not good!” Lily gritted her teeth as her blade was caught fast, frozen under the sheer magnitude of divine power.

With a thunderous boom, Kuroyoku drove a brutal punch into Lily’s abdomen. Her world spun; up became down, light became shadow. The impact was monstrous. Lily nearly blacked out. Her vision blurred, consciousness wavered, and her divine power dispersed uncontrollably.

“We got her!” Kurorai seized the opportunity. With one massive hand, he clutched Lily’s neck; the other pressed down on her shoulder.

Kuroyoku, seeing Lily reeling, gathered divine might throughout his body once more. “This next strike, if it doesn’t kill you, it will break your will to fight!”

“Not good!” In a flash of shimmering space, Shimizu teleported to Lily’s side and swung toward Kuroyoku. But Kunhiza’s serpent-hair had anticipated this; they lashed out, striking her midair and hurling her away.

“Ha! You think we’d fall for the same trick again?” Kunhiza cackled as Shimizu was sent crashing back, reeling from the strike. He didn’t pursue. Instead, the demon gods regrouped around Lily. “Kagami Lily! This is your end!”

“Now behold my ultimate strike!” Kuroyoku’s fist churned with darkness, pulling shadows from every direction into a spiraling vortex. “Heaven-Rending Blow!”

This punch could hollow out the sky itself. Worse still, it wasn’t aimed at her chest, it was lower, aimed directly at the Spirit Palace, the vital region at a female adept’s core.

A sickening, muffled crack echoed out.

Lily’s delicate frame arched backward under the crushing blow. Her hair flew like silk in a storm. And yet…

“AAAHHH—!!!” The scream of agony came not from Lily, but from Kuroyoku himself.

His fist had turned into a mangled mess of shattered bone and torn flesh. The dark power pouring from his hand dispersed into steam, dissipating like smoke.

“What… what is that thing?! AAHH—!!”

Peeking out from Lily’s torn waist-wrap was the corner of an ancient bronze mirror. It bore no light, no visible power, yet it was harder than any armor Kuroyoku had ever encountered.

At that moment, Lily’s eyes snapped open.

With one hand, she drew the Oborozuki Muramasa and slashed at Wakarai’s arm, freeing herself. In a fluid motion, she wrenched Kusanagi free, leapt upward. Yet rather than fleeing, she launched herself at Kuroyoku, who was still howling in pain and confusion, and brought the sacred blade crashing down upon him in a flurry of ruthless slashes.

Though Kuroyoku was a supreme close-combatant, he barely managed to retreat by instinct. Even so, the blade carved deep into his face, slicing across the bridge of his nose. The searing Silver Lunar Force scorched his flesh like molten fire, wracking his face with unbearable pain.

Kuroyoku howled as he staggered back in retreat, rolling across the battlefield.

That single slash stunned even Kunhiza. After taking two devastating hits and still not fully recovering, Lily’s immediate and decisive counterattack shocked him to the core.