The blades howled; the air quaked!
Lily clashed with Dijon ferociously and was able to hold her weight!
Lily was able to replenish her spirit reserves continually by killing the weaker monsters through manipulating her domain, and it could even be said that she had access to inexhaustible spirit power. Meanwhile, although Dijon possessed robust spirit power, he would run out of it sooner or later. As such, he had to spend it sparingly. Lily, on the other hand, had the leeway to expend it crazily, bar any restraints. This was also one of the reasons their strengths were equally matched. If they were to expend all their spirit power in employing a fatal blow, Dijon might’ve come out victorious. However, Lily wasn’t a fool. She just had to get away from Dijon if he were to try that and the only thing waiting for him after exhausting his strength was death.
Dijon obviously knew this. Lily had become more agile under the augmentation of the domain, so his attacks failed to land on her even though he was giving his best. If he were to continue fighting alone like this, Dijon knew he wouldn’t be able to find an opening.
Dijon’s heart filled with hate! The woman who had caused his ruin was right before him yet he wasn’t able to kill her!
“Lord Dijon! Let me help you!” Yuki Mayumi joined the battle as well and charged towards Lily’s flank.
Lily’s gaze turned icy, “Hmph! Come, then. You two!”
Lily dodged Dijon’s heavy blow while clashing with Yuki’s sword!
Although Yuki was stronger than Dijon, there wasn’t any difference between her and Dijon’s strength, so Lily was able to withstand her attack!
The crimson and blue spirit power looked like pretty fireworks within the night as the sakura and sparks made intermittent appearances.
Under the falling sakura, Dijon, who was slower than Lily originally, was suppressed by the domain, and was unable to use his entire strength. He felt as if he was swinging his sword within the depths of the sea and this made it harder for him to strike Lily.
Meanwhile, Lily was able to contend with transcendental experts like Dijon and Yuki alone concurrently by merely employing minor movements, without a single slipup in her footwork or swordplay.
Even Shimizu was shocked to the core after witnessing this, “Heavens! This little sister of mine has become so strong already! She’s able to contend with two transcendental experts alone?”
“She had long surpassed this elder sister of hers… I heard she has trained in the sword for less than six months, how did she… She’s truly the woman chosen by the Heavens while I am just a scapegoat meant to act as the bait for the Hundred Demons before she obtains overwhelming strength…”
Although Lily was able to contend with Dijon and Yuki at the same time, she couldn’t relax even for a moment. Especially so because of Yuki Mayumi. Lily felt that Yuki still hadn’t revealed her entire strength and also knew such a fearsome kunoichi was bound to have unimaginable tricks within her arsenal, unlike Dijon who only knew to use brute force. Thus, she knew she couldn’t turn this into a battle of attrition!
The range of Sakura Blizzard was roughly about 100m, and everything within this radius was under Lily’s control. She could even send her thoughts to someone else without the need of speaking.
“Senior! Can you hear me?” “Nanako, how about you?” The two replied swiftly, “Yes.”
To others, it appeared as if they were speaking to air.
“Nanako. Go pick up the Sakura Parasol at once and flee together with senior sister. There’s a cliff to the south, but I discovered a hidden, precipitous uphill trail to the north through my domain. You and senior are slow, so you better leave first. Go right now! Quickly!” Lily communicated with Nanako through the domain.
“Eh? But what about you, Sis?” Nanako inquired.
“You still have time to worry about me? You might actually distract me if you remain behind! Run for it along with the Sakura Parasol! I’ll help open up a path for you with the blades of my Sakura Blizzard! I’ll restrain these two, so flee while the monsters haven’t found you! Go now!”
“How about we take Lady Shimizu along with us?”
“No! The Sakura Parasol cannot hide three people and there might be monsters hiding within the hill too. If it’s just Shimizu, I can find a way to escape together with her! Run fast now! My domain cannot restrain these two for long! Go!1”
The tone of Lily’s thoughts was very resolute.
Nanako knew that the only way for everyone to come out safe from this ordeal was to follow Lily’s instruction.
“Stay cautious, Sis!”
Nanako sprinted towards the Sakura Parasol and though the demon soldiers tried to attack her, they were either forced back or killed by Lily’s crimson sakura blades. Nanako picked up the Sakura Parasol and then arrived at the ponytailed girl’s location, following which the two of them advanced through the blizzard of sakura under the cover of the parasol.
A crack opened up in the dome of sakura that filled the sky and a narrow hidden trail revealed itself. Nanako pulled the ponytailed girl along and dashed towards the trail.
Lily also sighed in relief when she saw Nanako and the ponytailed girl leave.
Lily didn’t clash weapons with her two opponents now and ran across the domain instead, dealing long-range sword beam attacks that prevented Dijon and Yuki from injuring Lily though they chased after her.
The monsters were unable to approach Shimizu under the protection of the domain, so she was also able to recover some of her strength gradually. At the same time, she also took out a restorative medicine that could heal and replenish her spirit power and ingested it. Although such medicines had limited effects, they were still somewhat effective. Shimizu had now regained some of her battle strength, so she was even able to dispatch a few demon soldiers as well.
Lily was overjoyed when she saw that Shimizu had recovered to such a stage, so she passed a message to her, “Sister Shimizu, I can’t defeat Dijon and Yuki, so escape first while I hold them back!”
“Absolutely not! Are you trying to humiliate your sister, Lily?! I am a samurai too, so we’ll leave together if we are leaving! If not, I’d rather die than leave!”
Shimizu’s strength had indeed recovered to a stage that allowed her to flee along with Lily.
“All right, then! Let’s use our killing blows to restrain the two of them in a moment, Sister Shimizu! We’ll then flee through that trial! They won’t be able to pursue us within the domain!” “All right!”
Lily’s sword repelled Yuki and Dijon with a beautiful rondo and found an opportunity to jump back on top of a rock.
After that, Crescent Moon condensed moonlight and a great amount of her spirit power’s essence.
The surroundings took a crimson shade and the air quaked.
Even Dijon and Yuki felt the danger of this move and stopped attacking her, employing their spirit armors instead.
Lily then bluffed, “This move is ten times more powerful inside my domain. Hmph! Yuki Mayumi, Dijon, you’ll regret coming after me today, if you manage to survive, that is.”
“Hmph! Shut up, silly woman! Do you even dare to face the two of us head-on?” Dijon hollered back.
“Stay vigilant. This woman grasped a domain suddenly and possesses unfathomable methods! It’s best for us to remain cautious,” Yuki Mayumi suggested and then performed a few hand seals to clad her body in mystical esoteric runes made of purple lightning to act as a defensive layer.
As for Lily, she had already condensed the maximum amount of spirit power she could, so she directed a cold gaze towards the demons and raised her sword up, “Sakura-Clad Moon — Cherry Blossom World!”
“Buzz!” A hundred-meter wide full moon shot out from Lily’s weapon.
“Dammit! Defend!” Yuki and Dijon were also frightened by this fearsome attack and bolstered their spirit power defense with all their strength.
However, this sword beam wasn’t stable at all and split up into dozens of huge crimson petals after traveling a few meters ahead.
“Spurt! Spurt! Spurt!” These petals seemed to have a nature of their own as they dispersed and circled within the domain to speed up before transforming into bright pink blades and striking the monsters crazily.
The power of the blades was so impressive that they made Dijon’s body spurt blood from multiple wounds.
As for Yuki, she stood motionless and used the pillar of light generated by the defensive ninja art she had employed to defend against the attack. The blades struck the pillar of light, but they only made it ripple and weren’t unable to pierce through it.
While Yuki, Dijon and the monsters faced the continued assault of these blades, Lily pulled Shimizu’s hand quietly left the range of Cherry Blossom World.
Lily even gave up on absorbing the animas of the dead to prevent her enemies from tracking her.
The two fled uphill through the trail in a swift and silent manner.
The crazed rondo of the blades also occasionally struck the trees and mountain rocks nearby and ensued in their uprooting and partial destruction of the mountain rocks.
One of these blades struck a cliff ‘accidentally’ and caused a rockslide which ‘coincidentally’ buried the route Lily and Shimizu had fled into.
A few of the other cliffs and trees had also suffered destruction, so it didn’t look anything special on the surface.
And this massacre continued for a long time…
A tremendous number of troops of the Hundred Demons and Hannya masked ninjas had lost their lives.
The blades finally dissipated after running out of power and only a few sakura remained now, which fell to the ground gradually.
This move lasted for a long time and had a huge range, or else it wouldn’t have been enough to conceal their route of escape. However, as a result, Lily had expended nearly nine-tenths of her spirit power and had given up on replenishing it.
The dust and the withered leaves that filled the sky finally settled down, following which, Yuki Mayumi stopped her defensive ninja art once she had ensured the safety of the surroundings. She took a deep breath with her forehead covered in sweat and said, “This madwoman…. What was the point in going to such lengths… Hmm?”
She and Dijon, who was currently recovering from the minor injuries he suffered, looked at each other in doubt.
““Dammit! She got us!””
The two of them exclaimed.
Yuki Mayumi jumped up high and looked the battlefield full of corpses as well as the remnant soldiers outside the now-faded domain and felt her heart ache in pain. Now that they had suffered such disastrous losses, she imagined that Lady Haihime wouldn’t forgive her easily if she failed to capture at least one of the mirror girls. However, now wasn’t the time for her to worry about these things. She surveyed the surroundings that consisted of boundless hills and trees shrouded in dense nighttime mist. Moreover, Lily’s move had created a huge mess out of the landscape, so their tracks had completely disappeared.
“Those b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲e̲s̲!” Yuki stamped down in a fit of fury, crushing the rock under her. Although she was pretty calm at all times, even she was angered right now.
Dijon was even more furious and began slashing the trees around him crazily, “Kagami Lily, you cowardly woman! Come out and fight me fair and square if you are a woman2! Do you even have any honor left as a samurai?!”
Yuki slapped her forehead after seeing her ally behave like this, “Lord Dijon, it will become harder for us to search for their tracks if you rampage here recklessly.”
Only then did Dijon stop.
And by now, Lily and Shimizu had fled a long distance and come far from the valley where they had fought a few moments ago.
However, a wide chasm appeared before them after they had advanced halfway up the hill.
This chasm spanned about a kilometer in length and separated the hill they were on from the mountain range opposite to them. The chasm had two trails to either direction that led into the dense mist of the mountains, but Lily didn’t know which route Nanako had taken.
The two stepped forward and looked down into the chasm of unseen depth and felt a cold draft blow up.
Both Lily and Shimizu had deduced intuitively that this chasm was tens of thousands of meters deep! This meant that this chasm was even deeper than the normal ground level.
Shimuzu and Lily surveyed the loftier peaks of the mountain range ahead of them that were akin to giant slumbering demons within the night who coveted the Land of Kanto.
“Those are the Endless Demon Mountains,” Shimizu’s chest heaved up and down gently under the caress of the misty breeze.
“The Endless Demon Mountains,” Lily looked down into the chasm void of mist and experienced an inexplicable shudder of fear suddenly, “Is this chasm the fissure that separates the Endless Demon Mountains and the Land of East, the Abyssal Rift?”3
