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“Cough… cough… cough…” Kiyoshi coughed up a mouthful of blood. His blood-soaked hand trembled as it grasped the blade Lily had driven into his chest.

“Kiyoshi!” Lily cried out. “Why?”

Had they both staked their lives on that final sword strike, there would have been nothing to say. Yet at the very last moment, Kiyoshi had abandoned his attack and willingly allowed Lily’s blade to pierce his heart.

Kiyoshi’s face had turned deathly pale. “I told you before… I only wished to have Miss Kagami. I never wished to harm you… If I could achieve that, I would stop at nothing… But if the only outcome was mutual destruction… then I would rather bear… all of those sins… alone.”

“Why… did it have to come to this…?”

“I already died once. Having returned from death… allow me… to be selfish… just this once.” His trembling hand drew the wakizashi from his waist. It was a supreme Oboro Tamahagane wakizashi forged from the essence of several hundred Oborozuki souls. Kiyoshi’s divine power shattered the seal placed upon the blade.

One after another, exquisitely beautiful and bewildering Oborozuki souls drifted free, scattering through the fading darkness. They circled high above before every last one of them merged into Lily’s Oborozuki Muramasa, causing the blade’s Lunar Force to surge even further.

The process only deepened Kiyoshi’s agony. Lily tried to pull her sword free, but Kiyoshi seized it with both hands, gripping it with unbelievable strength.

“Kiyoshi, what are you doing!?”

“Heh… hehehe…” At death’s door, his eyes shone with a crystal-clear light. “At a time like this… I only wanted… to stay close to you… just a little longer…”

The darkness surrounding them had already dispersed. Though he had attained overwhelming power overnight, his foundation had been unstable. Even if his strength had approached Lily’s, in actual combat he had never truly been her equal. Perhaps only now did he realize how naive he had been. But everything was already beyond redemption.

“Kiyoshi…” Sorrow welled up in Lily’s eyes as well. “Why did we have to end up like this?”

At that moment, after absorbing Kiyoshi’s three hundred Oborozuki souls, Lily’s Oborozuki Muramasa released an extraordinary pulse of lunar soul energy.

Moonlight flowed across the blade as its might soared. A hazy wave of radiance spread from the sword, blanketing countless miles in every direction.

Suddenly, throughout the battlefield, the Oborozuki souls still held by the million gods and demons, along with every faction present, broke free from their owners’ control. One after another, they flew into the sky with wild, untamed freedom.

“What!?”
“What’s happening?”

The million gods and demons were thrown into panic.

“Come back! My Oborozuki soul!” Powerful beings leaped into the air, desperately trying to seize the fleeing souls. But the Oborozuki souls were formless. No matter how they reached for them, they could not grasp a single one.

Even the greatest Supreme Gods were left helpless. Every secret art they could devise, every divine restraint they could employ, even attempting to seize them with their own hands, all proved utterly futile. Not a single Oborozuki soul could be reclaimed.

Within Lily’s Oborozuki Muramasa, the gathered Oborozuki souls had already surpassed half of the total. The hazy waves it emitted now began attracting every remaining Oborozuki soul throughout the Celestial Demon Path, drawing them toward her.

Streams of Oborozuki souls moved of their own accord, completely ignoring every attempt by their former owners to stop them. One after another, they flew into Lily’s blade and merged with the Oborozuki Muramasa.

“What!? What’s going on!?”

The million gods and demons were utterly stunned.

Kujaku Myōō, Kuroyoku Tateo-no-Kami, and the other foremost Supreme Gods immediately shot into the sky, charging straight toward Lily. Since they could not stop the Oborozuki souls, they would stop Lily instead!

“Don’t let Lily seize the Oborozuki souls!” Kuroyoku roared together with several Abyssal Demon Gods.

“Stay back!” Kiyoshi’s voice thundered across heaven and earth. “If anyone comes any closer, I will detonate the Divinity within my body!”

“What!?” Even the greatest Demon Gods were shocked. Kiyoshi’s Supreme God power was no weaker than theirs. If he self-destructed at such close range, even they could be caught in the blast. None of them dared advance.

During that brief moment of hesitation, the countless Oborozuki souls filling the heavens all seemed to return to their true origin. Driven by unwavering obsession, nothing could stop them as they poured into a single Oborozuki Muramasa.

At that instant, every Oborozuki soul scattered throughout the outside world had entered the blade.

The brilliant sword radiated an unimaginable aura, as though it were the incarnation of the moon itself. Its frigid, tragic beauty sent tremors through the souls of even the Supreme Gods.

The Oborozuki Muramasa in Lily’s hands seemed to be undergoing its final transformation.

“Heh… hehehe…” Kiyoshi smiled weakly. “Trying to flatter you now… would only make me look foolish… Miss Kagami. I won’t speak of my regrets… I only wish to tell you… that I… have always loved you… Within the Heavenly Path lies an unimaginable darkness… hidden deep inside Takamagahara. If you ever set foot there again… the danger will be beyond anything you’ve faced before… You must… be extremely… careful…”

“I’ll remember your warning, Kiyoshi. The battle is over. That’s enough. Let it end here. I won’t kill you. After all, you once risked your life for my sake.” Lily tightened her grip on the Oborozuki Muramasa, intending to pull it free, but Kiyoshi stopped her with unbelievable strength.

“No… you must kill me. There is still one Oborozuki soul left. The very last one… has been devoured by the Aramitama within my Divinity. Only by destroying that Aramitama can it… cough… cough…”

Kiyoshi convulsed violently, blood pouring from his mouth. Suddenly, his eyes widened. They burned with passion, yet remained as pure as ever. “Lily! This… is the final gift… I shall leave you!!!”

Burning away every last ounce of his Supreme God power, driven by an obsession nothing could resist, Kiyoshi tightly grasped Lily’s blade with both hands and violently thrust it into his own Divinity.

**Pshhk!**

The Oborozuki Muramasa, whose power had reached an inconceivable level, pierced straight through the Supreme God’s Divinity. Its unparalleled Silver Lunar Force instantly annihilated the Aramitama within, and the final Oborozuki soul it had consumed finally returned home.

“Kiyoshi!!!”

Kiyoshi’s life faded away. His battered, charred armor only made his deathly pale face appear even paler. With one final smile of complete satisfaction, he whispered, “…Now… this… is enough…”

His body collapsed, sliding from the blade. Trailing a stream of scorching crimson blood, he fell from the sky. At the very last moment, Ashikaga Kiyoshi died as a human.

“Kiyoshi! Kiyoshi!!!” Tears streamed down Lily’s face, reflecting the brilliant gleam of the sword’s edge.

The moment they saw Kiyoshi’s death, the assembled Supreme Gods prepared to swarm Lily. But suddenly, the Oborozuki Muramasa in her hand erupted with a silver moonlight that illuminated heaven and earth.

A tragic yet majestic phantom of a Silver Moon appeared above the Celestial Demon Path, causing the entire realm to tremble. The moon’s phantom possessed power rivaling the true moon itself. At the sight of it, the Supreme Gods were overcome with instinctive terror, none daring to approach.

Its illusory radiance was incomparably cold. Above the Celestial Demon Path, a solitary night sky unfolded. Heaven and earth fell utterly silent. Even the howls of the million gods and demons could no longer be heard.

In that boundless stillness, only a few sorrowfully beautiful flower petals drifted slowly past the sword’s tip. The night remained. The moon faded. The flowers were gone.

At some unknown moment, the sword in Lily’s hand had been reborn. It had transformed into a peerless divine blade whose mere gleam of cold steel was enough to make the entire Celestial Demon Path tremble in fear and fall into silence.

As for whether this sword or the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi was stronger, even that could no longer be determined.

Its hilt was pure white, its blade gleamed silver. Its appearance was so astonishingly simple that it seemed almost unbelievable, yet its beauty was utterly intoxicating. There was not a single unnecessary ornament. Through the purest curvature of a sword and the very essence of the blade itself, it radiated the sublime beauty of the ultimate instrument of slaughter.

…It felt strangely familiar.

Within Lily’s memories, the figure of Tsukuyomi no Mikoto dressed in flowing white, cleaving through the night sky with a divine sword while slaughtering countless gods and demons, once again appeared vividly before her eyes.

The divine sword held in Tsukuyomi’s hand within those hazy memories was almost identical to the one Lily now wielded.

The countless Oborozuki souls contained Tsukuyomi’s boundless sword intent, endless resentment, and that lingering trace of sorrowful, fragrant longing. Together, they had reforged the very foundation of the Oborozuki Muramasa.

This… was the very divine sword once wielded by Tsukuyomi no Mikoto. The divine sword had returned!

Heaven and earth were stripped of all light. The myriad demons trembled. At that moment, it seemed that throughout heaven and earth, only the sword remained eternal. Only the sword embodied truth itself.

“How could this happen… How could this happen…” Mudobozu muttered through clenched teeth, utterly unwilling to accept reality. “Those countless Oborozuki souls… she actually managed to seize every one of them!”

“Damn it!” Even Kujaku Myōō flew into a rage, clenching his fist so fiercely that space itself nearly shattered.

“Kagami Lily! Don’t think you can monopolize the Oborozuki souls! Spit them back out!”

Once the terrifying aura of the newborn Oborozuki Sword subsided, Kuroyoku led the assembled Demon Gods into the sky, surrounding Lily from every direction.

From the opposite side came Kujaku Myōō, Mudobozu, and the other powers of Takamagahara, completing the encirclement. At least seven or eight Supreme Gods now surrounded Lily. Countless experts of the Empyrean Stages, along with the million gods and demons, all glared at her with burning hatred. None of them would allow Lily to claim every Oborozuki soul for herself, walk away with the divine sword, and leave after slaughtering so many of their comrades.

“Kagami Lily!” Kujaku Myōō declared. His blue-skinned face was strikingly handsome, yet utterly stern. “You’re always saying that we Heroic Gods bully a lone woman. I, Kujaku Myōō, am no hypocrite.”

“The vast number of Oborozuki souls you obtained earlier, including those from Ashikaga Kiyoshi, we acknowledge as yours. Although you once again resorted to your usual cunning tricks, trickery is also a form of strength. We have nothing to complain about.

“But those Oborozuki souls you seized afterward, without exchanging for them or winning them through battle… I cannot acknowledge those! You must return that portion to everyone. Naturally, that also includes the more than three hundred and fifty souls that belonged to me!” As Kujaku Myōō spoke, divine power poured from his body, and the oppressive pressure he radiated was terrifying.

Lily acted as though she had heard nothing. Ignoring him entirely, she slowly descended onto the great wooden platform.

“Kagami Lily! Are you deaf? Didn’t you hear what Lord Kujaku Myōō said?”
“Kagami Lily, why won’t you answer?”
“Speak! What right do you have to monopolize the Oborozuki souls!?” The other Supreme Gods also shouted, threatening and berating her from every side.

A chill settled deep within Lily’s heart. As the wind swept through her long hair, she spoke softly, “At least… let me bury Kiyoshi first.”

“……” The moment those words left her lips, even the million gods and demons fell silent. Regardless of everything else, the origin of Kiyoshi’s Aramitama was extraordinary. Although he had only become a Supreme God a few days earlier, his status was already exceptional. Even Kujaku Myōō and the others found themselves unable to refute Lily’s request.

“That Kagami Lily truly is a woman of loyalty and devotion,” Kawara sighed as he watched from the sidelines. “Kiyoshi has only just died. His body isn’t even cold yet. His own followers and subordinates are already scrambling to seize treasures, but only Lily still remembers the man himself.”