A cloud of smoke rose up at two of the dungeon cell’s dark corners, which was then followed by the quick passage of orbital red lights, and two black-dressed demon kunoichi donned in red demon masks made their appearance inside the smoke.
This was a short-distance application of the earth-escape art and one of the ninja arts available to Awakened Stage ninja.
The two demon kunoichi liberated the girl’s bindings and held her up since she was almost unable to stay on her feet. They then brought her to Lily’s front.
“The girl is yours. How about you take her away now?” said Momiji.
Lily’s vision blurred, causing her to see overlapping images of Momiji, which she assumed was because of the sake she drank from the spring wine jar1. However, her body hadn’t actually been harmed, so she wondered if the sake had an effect similar to aphrodisiacs. At the same time though, she didn’t feel sleepy, either.
Although Lily didn’t know what kind of scheme Momiji had cooked up, she didn’t believe such a hallucinogenic sake that fired up her body had much of an effect on her. Although she could feel that her senses had weakened, she still had enough strength to fight.
In any case, Lily decided to rescue the girl first.
Lily looked at the girl donned in blood-stained white yukata who had her head down, her hair cascading down to the dungeon cell’s floor. It seemed that she had been tortured quite brutally and possessed a drastically weakened breath because of it. Lily felt anguished when she saw her condition and wondered just why these people treated mirror girls like this.
The girl raised her head slightly, revealing her beautiful yet pale countenance, “W-Who are you and what do you plan to do with me?”
The girl groaned weakly.
“It’s all good now. I’m the same as you and have come to rescue you.”
“R-Rescue me?” The girl didn’t seem to believe Lily yet.
“Release her and fall back now!” Lily stated coldly.
The two demon-masked kunoichis released the girl and fell back, allowing the girl’s body to stagger forward weakly and fall into Lily’s embrace. Lily held the girl immediately with her hands and was welcomed by a cold scent, unlike a musky scent that the girl should’ve possessed.
The girl raised her head and transformed into a grotesque monster in the next moment, her hand revealing a dagger blade seeped in highly toxic venom that corroded the air and diffused sizzling green smoke as she stabbed it towards Lily.
The girl possessed exceptional strength and executed a full-blown attack at the 7th-stage Awakened level and the dagger she wielded was also a precious item that could only be used once. Although it wasn’t comparable to a grade 8 weapon, it contained a relentless poison and was an extremely vicious hidden weapon.
The dagger, however, wasn’t aimed at Lily’s heart and actually stabbed towards Lily’s underbody where the spirit palace lied. The monster’s objective was to pierce the spirit palace and take away Lily’s life with one blow by destroying her spirit jade instantly!
Even though Lily was in a half-dazed state, she felt the hand of death reaching out to her at this moment! However, it was too late for her to react as the dagger had stabbed into her already.
“Crack!”
A massive hole burnt open on Lily’s sash as the poisoned dagger’s blade knocked into a highly tough item situated at Lily’s underbody and broke into pieces2.
“What?!” Even Momiji was stunned by this development.
The burnt section below the sash revealed a part of the simple, flat and dull ancient mirror engraved with Jōmon characters.
Lily didn’t wear armor usually and just wore a kimono on top of her undergarments. There was no doubt that she would’ve been stabbed by this vicious dagger after getting attacked suddenly at such close proximity. However…
The ancient mirror was hidden in front of her underbody at all times, and though unintentional, it was situated right above the spirit palace and managed to act as its protector.
Even Lily wasn’t sure how tough this ancient mirror actually was. Yumi had been able to shatter Shimizu’s mirror with a single stomp, yet Lily’s mirror hadn’t suffered even a single scratch after getting stabbed by a sharp dagger wielded by a monster much stronger than Yumi!
The venom splashing onto Lily melted most of her kimono’s bottom and exposed her fair skin outside, but the venom was completely ineffective on the ancient mirror.
The black-haired, buck-toothed and mummy-faced monster donned in white yukata opened its grotesque glowing eyes wide in shock and dashed towards Lily with a howl as she bared her sharp claws towards Lily.
Lily’s dark eyes filled with overwhelming rage in this instant.
“Spurt!” A lunar glow intertwined with red as a spark of lightning flashed forward and the monster was left beheaded!
Lily’s hand now held a tachi clad in powerful lightning.
Evil Slayer Yasutsuna had finally made its first kill!
The headless monster collapsed to the floor, her wound still sizzling with sparks that released a bluish smoke as they corroded its body.
Evil Slayer Yasutsuna was a supreme grade 9 blade and also possessed the innate ability to slay evil in addition to the power it contained!
It was really too much of a waste to use this blade to kill a mere 7th-stage Awakened monster.
However, Lily was overcome by rage right now!
There was no mirror girl who fled to Mino from Kansai!
The public display of the corpses, the rogues, the two elders and the villagers in the hidden mirror girl village, all of it, yes, all of it, was just an act, a big, whole scam!
It was a progressive trap set for Lily by Mino’s Viper, Ouchi Koreyoshi, to use her sympathy for the mirror girls and her kindhearted nature against her!
Lily recalled how Sakiko had warned her that her kindhearted nature might land her in danger one day, and this wasn’t the first time it had happened.
The banshee this time had been really vicious by stabbing the dagger blade towards her spirit palace in order to kill her instantly by shattering her spirit jade. If it weren’t for it striking the ancient mirror coincidently, Lily knew she would’ve died at that very moment.
Her senior sister and the sisters who she resolved to protect would’ve all been doomed as well once she died!
This was especially true for her senior sister, who was just a pitiful, lonely soul now. Lily couldn’t even imagine her soul falling into other’s hands!
“Boom!” A burst of crimson spirit power exploded out from Lily as she swung the tachi in her hand to cut the trembling air in silent rage.
“Spurt!” A terrifying blade cut appeared on the two kunoichi’s bodies as they screamed and collapsed to the floor, their blood spattering across Momiji’s table.
Lily’s eyes were cold and determined as she glared at Momiji with her hair floating behind her.
“Bzzt!” Lily slashed forward deeply with Evil Slayer, making it appear like a lightning-clad crescent blood moon!
“Boom!!!” About half the dungeon cell got smashed into pieces as a result of the slash, causing the stony roof and the massive wooden pillar to fall down, even mistakenly killing the prisoner in the adjacent cell, but Lily didn’t give a damn about it!
“Gee!” Momiji leaped back and stood on a broken wooden block, “You needn’t rage so much! It’s quite surprising to see the exceptional good luck you possess, woman. The ancient mirror you kept at your underbelly’s vital spot allowed you to survive such a lethal attack, so shouldn’t you be feeling glad about it?”
Stab! Lily tried to attack Momiji, but her body staggered momentarily. She saw multiple images of Momiji in front of her in the next moment and was forced to support her body with one knee against the stone floor by stabbing her tachi into it.
“Hehehehehehe. I advise you to maintain a cool head, Lil’ Sis Lily. The angrier you get, the faster your blood flows, and the fiercer the effects of the spring sake will flare out in that youthful and luscious body of yours3. You can have fun with the Mino Triumvirate in this Gifu Castle now—” Momiji leaped across to the other side via the massive hole in the dungeon cell and darted across the collapsed wooden blocks with elusive movements, dragging the trails of her kimono behind her gracefully as she fled into the passageway.
Lily tried to follow after her, but she felt her head spin the moment she attempted to get up and kneed the floor again with a stagger.
Her body was covered in sweat now, and it wasn’t just sweat.
Her body was fired up and her breathing had turned rough. All she could see now with her eyes was a blurry view and her auditory senses had also become fainter.
“J-Just what kind of sake is this… Didn’t you say this sake is harmless, Kagura?” “Kagura…?” “Kagura!”
Lily discovered that there was no response from Kagura!
Although she could clearly sense Kagura and Yuki-Onna’s presence within the mirror, she was unable to communicate with them telepathically. Lily even tried to summon Yuki-Onna, but the Art of No-Thought which she was well-versed in originally failed to activate because of the tumultuous state of her mind.
This meant that she was unable to summon Yuki-Onna.
“Damn it!”
Her secret advantage, the Record of One Hundred Demons, was inside the mirror, too, and she was unable to summon it as well. Fortunately, Lily was able to summon Evil Slayer before the hallucinogen had begun showing its effects clearly.
Although Lily really wanted to kill everyone in this Gifu Castle, she knew she had to escape from this location before the hallucinogen’s effects swallowed her completely.
She exited the dungeon cell with unstable footsteps despite possessing blurred vision.
“Momiji’s clearly quite strong, so why didn’t she fight with me? She should’ve had the upper hand with me in such a condition. Does Evil Slayer hold too much of a threat to her? Or did she leave me alone because she thinks that there’s no need to risk a battle since I’ll fall to the hallucinogen’s effects? Hmph! I’ll have you disappoint you, then! I-I’m not scared of this trivial spring sake’s effects! I won’t lose to them!”
Lily’s fair thighs peeked outside of her kimono while she walked after exiting the dungeon cell as her dress’ bottom had become damaged from the venom and were covered in sparkling beads of crystalline sweat drops. However, her legs staggered with every few steps she took and resulted in her resting her body against the cool and damp stone wall.
Lily had stored Crescent Moon inside the mirror prior to infiltrating the castle, so she was unable to take it out now and her sandals were inside as well. However, Lily still didn’t feel cold despite walking past the ice-cold stone floor barefoot and emitted a womanly heat along with a rich musky scent periodically.
Her face sweated ceaselessly as she held onto the wall and tears flowed out of her eyes uncontrollably despite the fact that she wasn’t feeling sad. Her breathing quickened, and drool ran down the corner of Lily’s lips as she parted her lips to draw in a long breath, all of which looked quite indecent.
“J-Just what’s wrong with me? It’s getting harder to control my body… but I won’t lose to this sake’s effects! It doesn’t have a harmful effect on the body and just induces strange reactions in it, that’s all. Such trivial effects will never defeat me!”
Lily heard some movements from ahead, which were then followed by savage screams.
A group of samurai had rushed into the dungeon’s passageway within Lily’s blurred sight, but she was unable to determine their exact number because of her shaky vision.
The samurai grew vigilant when they discovered Lily and pulled out their metal blades and spears before charging towards her while shouting something.
However, Lily was unable to hear what they were shouting about clearly.
“Hah!” A samurai lunged his spear forward towards Lily, but she relied on her superior intuition to lean against the wall fully and dodged it. Lily spun against the wall while pressing her body against it and moved towards the samurai while slashing at him after reaching beside him!
“Spurt!” The black-armored samurai who lunged at Lily had his torso cleaved obliquely by her!
Although Lily was in a disoriented state, the power behind her blade attacks hadn’t diminished at all in reality. However, she ended up kneeling on the floor and panted for breaths after executing just a single slash.
Her fair thighs were exposed outside her tattered kimono from the side because of it, also exposing most of her rounded butt’s side curves.
A duo of samurai came slashing at Lily’s slim waist at this moment!
Lily rolled back to dodge the first samurai’s attack, but this messed up her balance and prevented her from standing up shortly. Therefore, she used her waist as a pivot to raise her thighs up high and parted her legs to confront the blade aimed at her, using her spotless legs4 to sandwich the second samurai’s blade between them, and snap it off into two pieces by twisting her powerful thighs5!
Lily pushed her blade forward in response to the samurai that fell towards her after losing his balance and pressed it against his throat, but it ended up piercing it little by little because of his body momentum until it impaled his neck thoroughly.
