“What?!?!?!?” Ibaraki Doji’s frenzied roar echoed from the temple, “My Biwa! Where’s my biwa?!!”
Boom!!! Ibaraki Doji shattered the wooden wall with his claws and pierced the roof on the other side. He looked around, glaring at the horrified women in the corner, “Who took my biwa?! You b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲e̲s̲, take it out for me or I will give you a fate worse than death!”
Ibaraki Doji furiously smashed the beams and pillars, causing a large part of the roof to collapse onto himself. He turned around madly and continued to rampage inside the roof. Smoke and dust billowed inside the room for a while, but only a few women reacted to Ibaraki’s threat as they had already suffered crippling tortures.
“If you don’t hand over the biwa, I will kill you all!” Ibaraki Doji’s eyes flashed menacingly in the mist, overcome by rage.
Clang— Dang—
Suddenly, a wave of penetrating music swept over from afar. It was not from Seimei’s ancient zither, but from an older, more captivating instrument.
“Biwa!” Ibaraki Doji stopped slaughtering the innocent women and climbed onto the roof.
Not far away, Lily was sitting on the doorstep of an old house and holding the biwa in her arms. Her long, jade fingers thrummed the strings occasionally while Kagura stood quietly by the side, holding the parasol for her.
“What?!” Ibaraki Doji was stunned for a moment. Of course, he wasn’t afraid to retrieve the biwa from Lily, but this scene…he seemed to have seen it somewhere before.
It was like, a long, long time ago when he was still a small demon being bullied by people, there was a gentle and elegant goddess who walked amidst the ancient wilderness with a girl holding a parasol1.
At that time, the small Ibaraki who was not even as strong as an ordinary human was not qualified to know the name of the goddess, but he watched her kill powerful demons with the zither in her hands. Even now, he still recalled the palpitations he felt when she slaughtered the fierce, ancient demons!
“Why, this feels so similar…to that woman…but also seems to be different…” Ibaraki Doji looked at Lily blankly.
“What?!” At this time, Hoshi Murasaki had already recovered most of her strength and walked out of the ruins, “The biwa unexpectedly fell into the hands of that woman! B̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲!”
However, right now, everyone’s opponent was undoubtedly Ibaraki Doji. Even though Hoshi Murasaki was upset, she could only put aside her feelings for the time being.
At this time–
The sound of horse hooves and murderous shouts came from the distance. Three or four long dragons composed of countless torches danced in the night, gradually encircling the area around the ruined temple. It was the reinforcements sent by the various clans of the Heian Dynasty.
“Look, there’s the demon!”
The ugly figure of Ibaraki Doji who squatted on the roof of the ruined temple was easily recognizable. The armies of the various clans immediately identified the enemy they were fighting against without needing much confirmation.
From the banners of the armies, it could be seen that the Genji, Taira, and Fujiwara clans were all here! There were also some other martial clans of various sizes.
A man clad in red armor and a white fur helmet shouted, “I am the General of the Right from Konoe Prefecture, Minamoto no Honoka! Rashomon spirit, come forth and die!”
The Genji military general was followed by dozens of tall cavalrymen and hundreds of infantry.
A stalwart samurai in green and gray uniform hurried over with dozens of soldiers under his command, “Makoto Kujo! Rashomon spirit, you have nowhere to run!”
“Fujiwara no Tadafumi!”
“Taira no Mitsutake!”
“I am Taira no Hachiro; I have also come for your life! Demon, do you dare to receive a blow from me?!” Among the hundreds of people from the Taira Clan, there was a lean man with flaming red hair and a long spear on his shoulder. His face was familiar to Lily.
For some reason, this Taira no Hachiro also came to Heian-kyō and joined the samurai army of the Taira Clan.
“Seimei!” An old man arrived with several black-clothed onmyoji masters. It was Kamo Tadayuki.
“Teacher!” Seimei, who was on the roof, saw his teacher who had just arrived.
“Look! Our men from the Bureau of Justice are here too!” Hiromasa pointed to a group of approaching people not far away who were being led by the Minister of Justice, Kimura Saburo, himself!
“B̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲s̲— you human ants! Do you think you can defeat me just because there are many of you?” Ibaraki Doji gritted his teeth and looked around.
However, he knew in his heart that the human forces in Heian-kyō were powerful and it wouldn’t be easy to kill them. He looked at Lily and thought, No matter who you look like, I have to kill you first no matter what! Otherwise, I won’t be reconciled!
Kamo Tadayuki used a levitation spell to float up to the roof and came to Seimei’s side, “The Rashomon spirit’s arm was actually cut off. Who did it? Seimei, was it you or Hiromasa?”
“Lord Kamo, it wasn’t me or Seimei,” Hiromasa replied.
“What?! Then who was it? Who else has this ability?” Kamo asked.
“I guess it’s Kagami Lily.” Seimei grinned.
“What?! Her?”
Just then, Ibaraki Doji’s angry shout answered Kamo’s doubts.
“You, a mere Spirit Jade woman dared to cut off my arm and steal my biwa! Watch me tear you into pieces!” Ibaraki Doji’s speed soared as he rushed towards Lily.
Lily plucked the strings of the biwa with her fingers, her eyes extremely cold.
Clang— Dang— Dang—
The sound of the biwa plucked with endless resentment invaded Ibaraki Doji’s head and directly shook his soul.
“Ahh– ah…” Ibaraki Doji covered his head with one hand, “My head, my head hurts! This, what is this sound?!”
“Rashomon spirit, can you hear it? This is the cry of the countless maiden souls you have killed!” Although Lily could not play the biwa, she thrummed the strings with all her strength, sending strong sound waves towards Ibaraki Doji, “Their resentment accumulated into this biwa over time in order to take revenge on you one day!”
“Weak things! Those defenseless and weak women, even if they die, they are still weak and powerless souls. Taking revenge on me is only a dream!”
“It is precisely because of their weakness and inability to change their tragic fates that the resentment is stronger!”
The biwa in Lily’s hands emitted piercing sound waves, and one by one, the aggrieved souls within the biwa flew out and headed towards Ibaraki Doji, twisting and tearing at him.
“WEAK!!! Powerless women!!!” Ibaraki Doji was an ancient archdemon. How could he get intimidated by these vengeful spirits alone? He brandished his sharp claws with strong hatred and tyranny, ripping the vengeful spirits one after another while shouting everywhere.
“Rashomon spirit!” Seimei also played his demon-subduing ancient zither!
“Ahh!!!” The sound of the two treasured instruments caused Ibaraki Doji even more severe pain.
“Release the arrows!” The samurai generals on all sides ordered.
The powerful bows shot countless arrows infused with evil slaying power towards Ibaraki Doji. Although these bows and arrows were not too dangerous to Ibaraki Doji, they could still hurt him in large numbers.
“Ahhhhhh! You ants!” Ibaraki Doji drove the orb towards a group of samurai and it discharged several bolts of purple lightning. Only the leader of the samurai could barely block it with his sword, but a large number of the warriors behind him were struck by the purple bolts and were instantly reduced to scorched earth.
The onmyoji masters brought by Kamo also began to attack with spells.
The arrows and spells were overwhelming. Even though Ibaraki’s defense was strong, the continuous attacks from all directions weren’t easy for him to handle.
He once again found Lily’s position amidst the rain of arrows and jumped over, slashing at her with his claw.
Boom!!! Lily avoided the claw in the nick of time and before it smashed the doorway.
However, as soon as Ibaraki Doji landed, dozens of samurai rushed over with their swords and spears. These samurai were not afraid of death and howled ferociously as they attacked Ibaraki.
In the crowd, there even appeared another group of women who looked like mirror girl sisters. There were three people in this group and they attacked Ibaraki from behind, looking well-coordinated.
“Get lost!” Ibaraki minced a dozen samurai with a single wave of his claw!
However, the swordswoman among the three sisters launched an attack that glowed with eerie blue power.
Pfft! A shallow knife mark was left on Ibaraki’s intact arm, but it felt very painful. He cherished his remaining arm very much and furiously grabbed at the swordswoman with his claw. Before he could catch her, another woman threw out a mirror that emitted silver light, making it impossible for Ibaraki to open his eyes. The third woman was extremely fast and instantly got under Ibaraki, swiftly stabbing her straight sword into his leg.
Bam! Ibaraki fiercely stomped, stepping on the third woman and splashing blood everywhere.
“Sister2!!! The mirror girl who saw her sister being trampled to death screamed miserably. The swordswoman also went crazy, performing harsh maneuvers with her sword to slash Ibaraki Doji.
Thump! The treasure orb flew back and hit the swordswoman directly in the waist, ravaging her with electricity. She was then sent flying and it was unknown whether she was dead or alive3.
Ibaraki slapped the mirror with his claw.
Crack! The mirror shattered.
“What…” The mirror girl couldn’t help but fall to her knees in panic.
At this time, more warriors charged over from behind and a cavalryman among them picked up the listless mirror girl to escape. Ibaraki Doji furiously clawed, bit, kicked, and stomped at the crowd, causing the samurai to suffer heavy casualties. However, not even he knew how many swords and spears had stabbed his body.
These samurai were all prepared and their weapons were empowered with evil slaying power. Even if their levels weren’t high, their attacks could severely injure Ibaraki.
After all, many people were currently searching for Miss Amako’s whereabouts in Heian-kyō. When they sensed a battle here, Seimei, Hiromasa and their parties were the first to arrive. After that, the news soon spread and many people began to arrive one after another!
At this time, Lily returned after escaping from Ibaraki’s previous attack. She saw the cavalryman put the rescued mirror girl in the rear and rush towards Ibaraki again, only for him and his horse to be crushed under Ibaraki’s claws.
Lily’s heart couldn’t help but palpitate. Fortunately, she had cut off Ibaraki’s stronger right hand, otherwise, the casualties of the samurai would have multiplied. Lily retrieved the two mirror sisters, one dead and the other wounded, and brought them over to the inert mirror girl whose mirror was shattered.
“Girl, you are clearly not as strong as that demon. Why do you try so hard to fight?” Lily asked.
“Even if we don’t fight, we will be assassinated and killed sooner or later. Do we have a choice? Only by completing the mission of the mirror girls can we gain the refuge of the gods!” The mirror girl said with some fervor.
“The refuge of the gods?” Lily didn’t quite understand what the mirror girl said.
“Every mirror girl has a different path. This is my path, but sadly, I didn’t make it to the end.” The mirror girl knelt on the ground weakly and sobbed.
Although Lily still had doubts, she couldn’t bear to dig into the root of the matter when she saw the girl’s state. She looked at Ibaraki Doji who was being besieged by the warriors and onmyojis and used the celestial maiden ribbon to tie the biwa to her back. She then pulled out Yasutsuna which shone with evil-slaying power.
“Girl, although we don’t know each other, allow me to avenge your sister’s death.”
“Eh? You, what are you talking about…?” The mirror girl raised her tear-stained face, looking confused.
“Because, I am also a mirror girl.” Lily rushed towards the fierce demonic shadow that was killing in the darkness.
