A cold wind blew across the quiet night, twisting and ruffling any fallen leaves that lay in its path. Its gentle undulations sent ripples cascading down the lush green cover of the mountain.
A two meters tall bluish demon with ash gray mane was blocking Lily’s path. The demon had a ferocious look, giving off an ominous glint from its red eyes.
Lily had a grave expression and didn’t dare to loosen up her guard. This was but a two meters tall Blue Demon!1
Though it was considered the weakest among the Blue Demon, it was still quite a powerful demon in its own right. It was appropriately categorized as an Inferior Mid Ranked monster, which was about the same level as a Low-Tier Sword Master. In other words, this demon was about as strong as Lily!
Blue Demon eats people. The more they eat, the bigger they become. However, the Blue Demon don’t eat souls. As a result, the majority of the people eaten by Blue Demon end up as fiendish ghosts.
If they ate a powerful samurai, their power would grow exponentially! Blue Demon ate samurai, and in turn, samurai hunted Blue Demon.
Lily never considered who was in the right or wrong; to her, anyone who tried to prevent her from seeking out the secrets behind senior sister’s deep sleep was her enemy!
If they threatened her life and dignity, as well as those of who she cared about, the only answer was to kill!
“Mirror… girl with mirror, I eat…” This Blue Demon was actually capable of human speech. Its power level was clearly on a whole nother level!
“Mirror?” Lily had only just realized what had attracted the attention of this big guy who was lying dormant in the deep mountain. Since a moment ago, she could feel something dreadful had been following her, but now, the Blue Demon had finally blocked her path and revealed its sharp fangs!
It would seem that she should think twice before taking out the mirror in a place filled to the brim with eldritch energy.
Lily stuffed the mirror back into her obi, but it was doubtful if the Blue Demon would let her off that easily. They did possess a certain degree of wisdom.
With stern eyes, Lily looked at the powerful Blue Demon before her. She recalled that moment when Uesugi Rei cut down that five meters tall Blue Demon in Kamakura city.
Right here, right now, she was about to face the same opponent. Naturally, the power difference between this two meters tall Blue Demon and that enormous five meters tall Blue Demon was worlds apart!
Be that as it may, Lily still felt that she was getting closer to the deep end of this otherworld, one step at a time.
“Why are you attacking me? And why do you want the mirror?” Lily asked before the fight.
The Blue Demon opened its fanged mouth, “Mirror, key to everything, must get mirror! Girl with mirror, kill!”
“Key? What key?”
“Mirror, must get, kill girl with mirror!” The Blue Demon only stared at Lily with its red eyes and repeated the same words.
It seemed like she wouldn’t be able to get more information from this Blue Demon anymore.
Lily’s sword was still on fire, this was the perfect weapon to deal with these Blue Demon!
The Blue Demon’s elemental attributes were earth and darkness2, it had a chaotic attribute. As luck would have it, the flame on Lily’s sword was the perfect countermeasure against this type of attribute.
And according to Sakura, the Blade Maiden’s unworldly element was one of the top-tier attributes. Although they didn’t have strength over other attributes, they also didn’t have any weaknesses.3
However, when the Blade Maiden’s attribute reached a certain height, a newfound power would be awakened and they would gain strength over certain attributes. As for what it was and how to reach there, Sakura couldn’t remember any more of it.
“Mirror girl, eat… SHRIEEEEK!”
Without prior notice, the Blue Demon let out a loud shriek. Powerful eldritch energy burst out from its body as it rushed towards Lily with heavy steps. It was charging like an out-of-control bull, but the power behind that charge was several dozen times more powerful than that of a common bull!
In response to that, Lily stepped forward with great power to suddenly speed up. Her figure changed into a red shadow as she charged into the Blue Demon.
“Uesugi Rei! Just how big is the gap between us! If I cannot catch up to you, I will never forget about that night!”
The young girl’s eyes flashed red with killing intent. Lily’s body flew up as her foot lightly touched the ground. As Lily raised the flaming Seiwa Tamashi behind her body, it kind of resembled a burning flag in the night sky.
On the other hand, the Blue Demon spread out its claws —approximately fifteen centimeters long— and attacked Lily with its arm that was even thicker than her thigh. Lily was welcomed by a claw attack with at least a few thousand kan of force behind it!
Just by comparing the raw power, an Inferior Mid Ranked Blue Demon was much stronger than a samurai of equal rank!
As slender as Lily was, if she didn’t die from receiving that claw attack head-on, she would still suffer grave injuries even when with Spirit Armor deployed.
However, that’s the path of the samurai. In order to reach the peak, one must face an opponent worthy to be called an adversary!
Life and death were but an inch away. Every step towards the peak was a test between life and death!
“Hah!” With a cute shout from Lily, the Seiwa Tamashi in her hands formed a fiery arc! “SHRIEEEK!!!” The Blue Demon’s claw attack gave rise to a sinister black wind!
“Pfffff—!!!” The Blue Demon’s attack missed its target and brushed past Lily’s long hair. On the other hand, Seiwa Tamashi accurately penetrated the Blue Demon’s left shoulder, slashing through its heart and came out from the left side of the waist!
The blood spurted into the night sky like a geyser shooting out a tall column of water and steam into the air. Lily’s porcelain-white skin and beautiful hair were all stained by the rain of blood!
The deep wound caused the lifeless Blue Demon to twitch from head to foot while standing there. Then it let out a curse, “Cough… cough… I’m dead, but girl, your end will be more miserable than mine! Hehehehehe… hack, hack…”
With that, it fell to the ground with a loud rumble, revealing the beautiful young girl behind its body. Lily had a sharp gaze as she adeptly swung the Seiwa Tamashi a few times to shake off the bloodstain and the bits of flame that remained.
“Shing!” She then returned the katana to its scabbard.
The Inferior Mid Ranked anima with a black core and bluish surface was absorbed by the spinning Sakura Parasol.
Despite the disparity in strength between the two, just as that time Uesugi Rei cut down the five meters tall giant, she also managed to defeat this two meters tall Blue Demon in a single hit!
The anima of an Inferior Mid Ranked demon could be sold for at least a hundred kan! That was as much as Matsuda Nagahide’s salary for half a year, and she managed to earn it with just one swing of her sword!
Moneymaking was indeed a walk in the park for a powerful samurai! Naturally, those were also earned by putting their lives on the line. Just now, if Lily had a single misstep, things might have turned out differently for her. Just imagining getting hit by those powerful claws would be unthinkable!
However, the last words of the Blue Demon did bother Lily. Will the mirror bring misfortune upon me?
Lily softly touched her abdomen.4
“Hmph, if I have accepted my fate, I would already be dead during that plane crash! Without senior sister, I wouldn’t exist today! Not to mention misfortune, even if I have to cross mountains of daggers and sea of flames, I will do it without batting an eye if I can find any clues about senior sister’s condition.”
Even though she’s a weak girl, even though she was beautiful and alluring, Lily’s resolution to face senior sister’s fate was even stronger than those men with blood of iron!5
The size of the Blue Demon determines their strength. Blue Demon over the height of two meters is not a monster common soldier can handle! A four to five meter tall Blue Demon can cause devastating damage even if the entire troops stationed in one city are gathered!
So Blade Maiden is like Shielder Class in FGO, they don’t have weakness or strength over other classes ?
