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To everyone watching, the gap between Lily and her challengers seemed to be nothing more than the slightest margin. Yet that tiny difference felt as though it were separated by the entire galaxy itself. It was right before their eyes, yet utterly impossible to cross.

The millions of gods and demons were furious. They refused to accept it. While mocking others for foolishly throwing away their lives, they were equally unwilling to let such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity slip through their fingers.

One after another, as though driven by some unseen force, they stepped forward to challenge Lily.

Yet their persistence was not without reason. If they gave up now and allowed Lily a chance to recover, then all their previous sacrifices would truly have been for nothing. This was a gamble, a desperate wager where they staked their very lives for the sake of an unparalleled beauty and priceless treasures. Only by gambling until the very end could they possibly turn the tables.

As for Lily, although she had initially been putting on an act, she had underestimated just how insane the assembled gods and demons truly were. They genuinely rushed forward one after another without the slightest hesitation, willingly sacrificing themselves.

After slaying over a hundred gods and demons, Lily’s stamina had genuinely reached its limits. The act had become reality. Now, she no longer needed to pretend.

By the time she reached her one hundred and twentieth opponent, Lily truly felt that she had reached her absolute limit.

To make matters worse, her opponent specialized in speed and technique. It was a mere four-foot-tall komainu wielding a monk’s staff. Yet this komainu was himself a god, the savage mountain deity of a remote peak in Takamagahara, renowned for his brutality in battle. His speed was astonishing. He dodged Lily’s attacks again and again before exploiting her exhausted state to bring his staff crashing into her lower back.

“Ah!” For the first time, Lily was struck head-on and collapsed onto the ground.

“Roar! I’ve fought this long for exactly this moment! This fine woman is mine!”

Lily’s peerless beauty and her heaven-bewitching aura, amplified by the ferocity of over a hundred consecutive battles, had driven the millions of gods and demons completely mad. They had even begun to ignore treasures like the Oborozuki Soul altogether. All they wanted now was to defeat Lily and claim the woman herself.

A treasure could still be weighed against its risks and rewards, but savage desire had robbed the gods and demons of all reason. They had fallen into a frenzied state where nothing mattered anymore.

The komainu was overjoyed. Unable to wait another second to subdue Lily, he leaped into the air and pounced toward her back.

In a flash of lightning, Lily suddenly spun around and drove her blade forward. With flawless precision, she shattered the komainu’s Amatsukami Divinity.

A moment earlier, Lily truly had been unable to endure any longer and had indeed been struck by his blow. However, the komainu had severely underestimated the resilience of her body.

Being hit had been real. Falling to the ground, however, had been partly exaggerated. The mixture of truth and deception successfully fooled even the cunning and vicious komainu.

But Lily’s stamina truly was nearly exhausted. Supporting herself with her sword, she slowly rose to her feet, intending to claim the komainu’s Oborozuki Soul.

The surrounding gods and demons naturally refused to give her the chance. Several of them charged onto the arena at once, all hoping to become the final challenger. Since they rushed out simultaneously and refused to yield to one another, they actually began fighting beneath the stage first, each struggling for the right to challenge Lily.

“Idiots! Aren’t you just giving that woman time to catch her breath?” growled the Abyssal Supreme God Kuralan-Chiyu as he rose to his feet. At this moment, if he entered the arena, he felt certain Lily would be captured.

“Heh heh… Beautiful Lady Kagami… the Three Realms are all fighting over you. It seems fate has destined you to become my wife. At this point, qualifying to propose is simple enough. All I need to do is defeat you, plant my foot on your body, point my blade at those snowy breasts of yours… then how could you possibly refuse?”

Kuralan-Chiyu’s aura erupted as he prepared to leap onto the stage. Only to discover that another figure had already beaten him there. She, too, wore flowing crimson robes, though hers formed an elegant floor-length gown befitting a noble lady.

“What!?” Kuralan-Chiyu nearly choked with rage. But those were the rules. Even as a Supreme God, he could not simply ignore them before so many powerful spectators.

“Damn it! So many of us gods and demons threw ourselves forward one after another and finally drained that b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲’s stamina! What the hell are you doing up there, woman?!” the gods and demons beneath the stage roared furiously.

However, no one had ever stated that women were forbidden from issuing challenges.

Standing before Lily, who had only just managed to struggle back onto her feet and could barely remain standing, was none other than Shizuka Gozen.

“Miss Kagami,” Kiyoshi said, “your oath was to accept challenges from the gods and demons of the world, with the victor earning the right to propose marriage to you. Madam Shizuka Gozen is a woman. You have every right to refuse her challenge and wait for the next male challenger.”

His reasoning was perfectly sound. Since the rules had never clearly addressed such a situation, the choice belonged to Lily.

“No. I accept.” Looking at Shizuka Gozen, Lily already had many questions she wished to have answered.

Besides, Lily reasoned that among these millions of gods and demons, there might well be a handful of women who possessed Oborozuki Souls. If she refused this challenge now, then how would she obtain all the Oborozuki Souls later? Resorting to some other method would only give the six factions an excuse to obstruct her.

The scorching wind carried endless resentment as it swept between the two women in crimson whose fates had long been intertwined. Their equally beautiful black hair fluttered gracefully in the wind, yet all of that boundless resentment converged upon Lily alone.

She had already accumulated so much resentment that she could barely keep her hair tied back. After battle upon battle, the surging power within her had become even more violent. Under such circumstances, how could she possibly release it?

Kagami Lily and Shizuka Gozen.

Although the difference in their current strength was like heaven and earth, the two women nevertheless shared countless bonds. One had been the greatest beauty of the previous Heian Dynasty. The other was the peerless divine beauty of the Three Realms.

Both shared deep and inseparable ties with Minamoto no Yoshitsune. Both had also become the true bearers of the Ancient Mirror across two successive generations. Who could have imagined that they would meet again under such circumstances?

Nor had Shizuka Gozen come without support. With the assistance of Takamagahara, she had also broken through into the Celestial Stage and had even been granted a Divinity by Takamagahara.

That Divinity bore an astonishing name. Shizuka Gozen.

For reasons unknown, within a mysterious place in Takamagahara where heaven and earth intertwined with miraculous fortune, two entirely new Divinities had recently come into existence.

One was called Shizuka Gozen. The other was called Minamoto no Yoshitsune.

Both Divinities now belonged to Shizuka Gozen. With Yoshitsune’s Divinity in her possession, all it would take was a single decree from Takamagahara’s Soul Administrator to release Yoshitsune’s heroic spirit.

Then the man she loved most could truly be resurrected. Shizuka Gozen had sacrificed everything. She had even abandoned the moral principles she once upheld, all to secure this genuine opportunity for the man she loved.

Yet her only wish was Yoshitsune’s resurrection. She had no interest whatsoever in the Oborozuki Soul. So why had she chosen this moment to challenge Lily?

The wind continued to howl. The two long-haired women in crimson, the old and new generations of unrivaled beauties, simply gazed silently into each other’s eyes. Neither spoke for a long time.

“Hey! Damn it! You woman in red! If you’re going to challenge her, then hurry up and fight already!” a one-horned demon wrapped in beast hide bellowed impatiently.

“If you don’t make your move soon, that woman’s stamina is going to recover!” the anxious gods and demons below the stage shouted as they stared fixedly at Lily.

Yet no rule had ever specified how a challenge had to begin, or when the first move must be made.

“Shizuka Gozen… what are you trying to do?” Even Kiyoshi had never expected Shizuka Gozen to step onto the stage.

“Shizuka Gozen, you bitter old widow! If you’re going to fight, then hurry up! Otherwise, get off the stage!” Amanozako finally cursed impatiently. Just what was this woman under Kiyoshi trying to do?

Amid the deafening uproar and endless curses from the crowd, Shizuka Gozen finally spoke. “Miss Lily… it has been a long time.”

“Madam Shizuka, why are you…”

“I know what you want to ask. There’s no need to say it. I have reasons I cannot avoid, just as you, Lily, have convictions you can never abandon, don’t you?”

Those words left Lily unable to refute her. To awaken her senior sister, she would have done anything. And now, she had to recover Rinne’s body so she could truly live a healthy life beneath the sunlight and, in every sense, be together with her.

As women, although Shizuka Gozen’s obsession centered on a man, Lily could still understand that unwavering resolve to sacrifice everything for the one she loved.

“Madam Shizuka Gozen, isn’t there anything you can tell us? Anything you can let your sisters help you with? I promise I…”

“No. You can’t help me.” Shizuka Gozen gently shook her head, her expression both beautiful and sorrowful. “Lily, although I have challenged you, I have no desire to cross blades with you. I fight this battle for two reasons. First, for your sake. Second, to repay the immense kindness Ashikaga Kiyoshi has shown me.”

A large black folding fan appeared in Shizuka Gozen’s hand. “Lily, shall we settle this with more elegant weapons instead?”

Lily’s eyes flickered. With a wave of her hand, she dismissed her sword. Two white silk ribbons coiled around her arms, the very ribbons woven beneath the stars and moon.

“Fight already!”
“Damn it! Hurry up! Kagami Lily’s stamina is recovering!”

The millions of gods and demons were going frantic.

“Let us begin.” Shizuka Gozen snapped open her paper fan with a crisp flourish and looked at Lily. “Lily, if I win, I want you to accept Ashikaga Kiyoshi’s proposal.”

Such a condition technically fell outside the promise Lily had made. She had only declared that whoever defeated her would earn the right to propose marriage. She had never said someone else could fight on another’s behalf, nor had she ever promised that she would actually accept.

Even so…

“Very well.” Lily nodded.

Even Kiyoshi was visibly taken aback. With a sweep of her long sleeve, the white silk ribbons floated through the air like drifting clouds. Her willow brows and star-like eyes met Shizuka Gozen’s gaze.

“If I win, I want you to come back to your sisters.”

“What!?” Shizuka Gozen gasped. Even Kiyoshi was stunned. Not because Lily’s condition was excessive, but because it was utterly beyond anything they had expected.

“Lily… I betrayed you time and time again. I nearly caused the death of your dear sister, Minamoto no Shimizu. You… why would you still want me to come back?” Shizuka Gozen’s entire body trembled as disbelief filled her eyes.

“The grudges between sisters can wait until we get home.” Lily’s long hair flowed behind her as she replied with graceful confidence.

“Lily…” Shizuka Gozen’s chest rose and fell noticeably. “Are… you…”

To say her heart remained unmoved would have been impossible. Yet sorrow still lingered in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Lily. I can’t promise you that. I’m demanding that you go against your heart and marry a man, yet I cannot even agree to your condition. It’s not because I fail to understand the difference in weight between the two. It’s because I owe Ashikaga Kiyoshi an immeasurable debt. Without him, I would have had no hope at all…”

Shizuka Gozen rested a hand upon the storage pouch at her waist. Inside it lay Minamoto no Yoshitsune’s Divinity.

“For that reason, I have already sworn my loyalty to him. I have no right to decide where I belong anymore. That choice is no longer mine to make, so I cannot use it as a wager against you.”

Lily did not hesitate in the slightest. With unwavering determination, she looked straight at Shizuka Gozen. “I only want to know how you truly feel, Madam Shizuka Gozen. As long as your heart wants to come back, then even if circumstances leave you with no choice, I’ll still bring you back by force!”

The gods and demons erupted into another deafening frenzy.

“Lily…” Shizuka Gozen looked at her with uncertainty and confusion.

“Miss Kagami…” Kiyoshi called from behind her, his expression grave. Yet Lily never once turned around to look at him.