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The demon spirit arts¹ Dijon used was much stronger than the low-grade arcane spirit arts he had access to while in the Hojo family, and now, by selling his soul to the Hundred Demons, Dijon had obtained power that transcended that of the Six Swords of the East!

The spirit power of the monsters and the like was referred to as eldritch energy by humans while grudge, spectral and undead spirit powers were collectively known as fiendish energy.

Shimizu leaped forward and broke through the sound barrier, coming to a quick stop before Dijon’s towering dark body in a half turned stance which enabled her to draw her blade at any moment.

Dijon looked down on her condescendingly, his hair flying around wildly in the spirit energy storm as he heaved his broken tachi down.

“Shimizu! If you’re in that much of a hurry to die, I’ll gladly help you welcome it! Your strength is much weaker than the rumors! You don’t deserve your reputation, woman! In my opinion, you are just a useless, talentless b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲, so why don’t you just give up! Hahahahahaha!”

Dijon’s tachi heaved down towards Shimizu with force.

“Hmph—Just because my strength is lacking, it doesn’t mean I can’t defeat you!”

Shimizu didn’t stake it all in a frontal confrontation emotionally like before and dodged his attack and delivered a fluid yet extremely swift strike to Dijon’ face.

“Swish!” Shimizu’s blade slashed Dijon’s eyes with matchless accuracy.

“ARGH—!” Dijon screamed in pain.

“Well done, Sister!” Lily praised internally and charged ahead towards the lot of demon soldiers who were planning to ambush Shimizu from behind and killed them one by one.

“MY EYES! MY EYES! I CAN’T SEE—!” Dijon’s closely shut eyes bled heavily as he brandished his tachi recklessly in a craze. Naturally, he failed to land a blow on Shimizu while she seized the chance to blitz across him multiple times, leaving behind afterimages as she delivered a series of flesh wounds to him.

“Spurt—!” Multiple streams of blood jetted out from Dijon’s body in the next moment.

Shimizu’s sheathed her blade and retreated a few meters back quickly with a cold gaze in her eyes and stated, “Dijon, I may not be your match in terms of brute strength and might have underestimated you before. However, the one who’s standing in the end is the victor.”

“Minamoto no Shimizu, you shameless b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲! How dare you injure my eyes! I’m going to kill you, you b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲!” Dijon waved his tachi recklessly to vent his fury.

“Die!” Shimizu broke into a sprint suddenly and dodged Dijon’s haphazard attack with ease when she neared him. Then, she leaped up and released a sword beam from her Tranquil Bamboo!

However, Lily felt restless all of a sudden at this moment, “Dammit! Watch out, Sister! It’s a trap!”

Dijon opened his demonic flaming eyes suddenly and revealed a vicious smirk before clutching onto Shimizu’s neck with his humongous hand.

Dijon’s grip packed a lot of strength and this made Shimizu release gruff groans from her mouth.

“Grrgh—!” Shimizu’s face turned pale and she began to tremble all over. However, as a spirit power user, being unable to breathe didn’t affect her that much. Shimizu drew her blade tenaciously and delivered a flesh wound to Dijon’s waist.

However, even such an attack wasn’t able to inflict a heavy injury to Dijon. Even more astonishingly, the bleeding wound actually healed at a pace visible to the naked eye!

“Hahahahahaha! You fool! The demon spirit art has already reconstructed my body! I can recover from an injury of this level by myself! To think you didn’t even know this, you’re really a vain woman, Shimizu!” Dijon squeezed Shimizu’s throat harder while laughing his head off.

Shimizu slashed at Dijon powerlessly with the hand wielding her blade, but he blocked her attacks with his blade. Her other hand attempted to pull at Dijon’s grip futilely, but it was simply an impossible task. She had even begun kicking with her legs subconsciously, but that was useless as well.

“Sis!” Lily dashed towards Dijon in desperation.

“Hahahahahaha! Kagami Lily, lay down your blade or else I’ll snap her neck off!” Dijon yelled out with a cruel and twisted expression on his face.

Lily’s gaze turned cold, “Lay down my blade? Hmph!”

Lily leaped up and heaved her Crescent Moon towards Dijon, sending a bewitching crimson beam of sword light towards his arm that dug into his bones!

“If I were to lay down my blade, me, my sister, Nanako and Senior will all die for sure! Dijon, do you think I’m as weak as you imagine me to be?” Lily stated coldly with a resolute look in her eyes.

Although she wasn’t able to chop off Dijon’s arm, her attack had sliced through his muscles and cut into his bone. Thus, Dijon’s grip loosened, and Shimizu fell to the ground subsequently. Lily also landed on the ground and jumped back after picking up Shimizu and rolled on the ground to dodge the attack from the tachi in Dijon’s right hand.

“Kagami Lily! To think you were actually such a heartless woman who places her own life above the bond of sisterhood!” Dijon taunted.

“Hojo Dijon, do you even have the qualifications to talk about affection with me? As a human who committed patricide, no, you can’t even be called a human anymore, right?” Lily corrected herself after seeing Dijon’s wound that was healing visibly.

Shimizu landed on the ground and gasped for huge mouthfuls of breaths, coughing incessantly. She found it hard to stand up momentarily and the hand which held onto Tranquil Bamboo was still trembling, her gaze full of unwillingness to give up.

This time, it was Lily’s turn to deliver a horizontal slash with her Crescent Moon while she stood in front of Shimizu.

The hundreds of demon soldiers had half-encircled Lily and Shimizu while Dijon and Lily faced each other with only 10 meters between them.

Lily realized Dijon’s strength far exceeded her own, but she had no way out of this predicament.

Thus, she could only fight!

“Kagami Lily. Although I want to kill you slowly by torturing you, it would be too disappointing if you can’t even take this single blow of mine! You’re just a b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲ who has managed to survive by relying on the rescue of other women! Everyone who is together with you is doomed to meet misfortune! You and your sisters will all experience miserable deaths today! Oh, yeah. Turning your sisters into demon samurai women and making them accompany my subordinates sounds like a good plan! Hahahahahaha!”

Dijon grinned maliciously while charging towards Lily.

“Dijon, perhaps you are correct that the sisters who accompany me always face danger. However, you’ve only got half of it right. None of those who have tried to injure them have managed to come out alive till now!”

Lily countered his claim and turned the blade in her hand in the other direction. A powerful flower-like spirit power blossomed on the blade as she transformed into a crimson phantom, charging towards Dijon with a whooshing sound!

Dijon’s pitch-black sword slash forward in response, emitting a sword beam. Meanwhile, Lily side-stepped diagonally to Dijon’s side as she didn’t dare to face Dijon’s powerful strike head-on. She directed her weight to her feet to come to a sliding stop and slashed at Dijon while turning around.

“Clang—!” However, Dijon managed to block it with the blunt side of the blade.

Dijon’s reaction was so fast that it didn’t match with his bulky figure.

Dijon’s sword swung down and struck the ground with a momentum so huge that it sent Lily flying back, sword and all. Lily flipped her body mid-air and landed on the ground then rolled into a kneeling stance before swinging her blade, not even taking a look with her eyes, utterly decimating the tottering demon soldiers behind her.

Lily then launched forward again and charged towards Dijon, and he too welcomed her from the front, raising his tachi with both hands to heave it down towards Lily fiercely!

Lily side-stepped to dodge the attack and danced across his body swiftly without pausing for a single moment, slashing at his wrist and giving it a flesh wound. However, this level of injury was almost nothing to Dijon.

Dijon then delivered a upper diagonal slash towards Lily, but she crouched down suddenly to dodge it, resulting in the tachi flitting across the top of her head. She supported her body with her hand on the ground and kicked hard towards Dijon’s knee while propelling up.

“Snap!”

Lily’s penetration force amounted to 60,000 kan and the amount of force packed into her kicks were much stronger than her punches. As such, this kick packed a penetration force of over 100,000 kan²!

Tall, heavy and strong as Dijon was, even he had been forced to kneel due to the kick from Lily to his knee, which was a weak point of the legs. Even the sounds of the bone fracturing could be heard following her kick.

To the side, Shimizu sighed internally when she witnessed this scene after catching her breath. Lily is really quite ruthless!

Naturally, she was gleefully willing to be ruthless towards her enemies.

Lily had no intention of stopping at this point. She leaped up and swung her blade towards the back of Dijon’s head with all her strength.

Dijon, however, borrowed the momentum and forced his body to fall sideways and countered with a reverse strike even though he hadn’t found his footing yet.

“Wham—!”

It was obviously a favorable position to Lily in comparison to Dijon, yet she got blown away because he was too strong.

Lily barely managed to land on the ground safely, her hands still feeling numb from the attack.

“It was just a reverse strike, yet it packed so much strength!” Lily’s forehead was covered in sweat. Even though her footwork and swordplay were better than his, Dijon’s absolute strength prevented Lily from bringing out her entire skill in the battle.

Lily still had her ultimate move, Sakura-Clad Moon, that allowed her to deliver an attack that was thrice as powerful as an all-out blow of hers!

Lily’s spirit power converged within her tachi, making it shine with a poignant crimson glow. Lily’s surroundings also seemed to have taken a slightly crimson shade and cherry blossoms began falling down gently before anyone realized it.

Although the demon soldiers nearby didn’t possess consciousness, even they were a bit mesmerized by the sudden change in their surroundings.

Dijon furrowed his thick brows after seeing this transformation and stated, “Kagami Lily, although you’re my enemy, I must say that you aren’t a simple woman. Your attacks are ruthless, and you’ve even managed to comprehend such an intent! However, it’s indeed a pity. So what if you are a genius? Today is the day you fall.”

Lily remained silent and charged towards Dijon with Crescent Moon that was clad in spirit power. However, she jumped up high into the sky with all her strength when she neared him.

Lily remained above Dijon’s head with a void of at least 10 meters between them momentarily.

Dijon grinned when he saw this, “You have nowhere to run even if you jump up to the sky!”

“Whoosh—!” Dijon sent a dark purple beam of sword light flying towards Lily that was packed with impressive strength.

As for Lily, she descended slowly and showed no signs of dodging that dark purple sword beam which was aimed at her. Her weapon, Crescent Moon, trembled within her hands as the spirit power gathered in it reached the critical point and a faint pink shade bled out of the long blade of her weapon.

“Sakura-Clad Moon—!”

Lily’s crimson kimono fluttered along with long hair within the wind as she heaved the tachi clad in the color of sakura down with all her strength!

“Boom—!” Followed by an ear-splitting tremor, a humongous sakura-colored moon that was much more magnificent and gorgeous than Dijon’s dark purple sword beam swiveled towards him!

The sakura-colored moon smashed through Dijon’s sword beam, yet its momentum only decreased by a little. It proceeded to fly towards Dijon with a force so powerful and speed so swift that Dijon didn’t even have the time to dodge it and could only raise his sword to block it!

Lily, however, grinned when she saw this.

“Boom—!” The explosion driven by the spirit power of a blade maiden spawned flames in the color of hell flowers, following which crimson light broke out in all directions! The sakura-shaped energy projectiles also dug into Dijon’s body simultaneously and ravaged his entire body!

This move simply wasn’t something that a katana could block.

“ARRRGGGHHHH!” Dijon howled in fury amidst the crimson light of destruction.

Lily landed on the ground subsequently and even though she possessed the physique of a blade maiden, she was nearing the brink of collapse as well. Her entire body was drenched in sweat and her chest heaved up and down continuously as she gasped for huge mouthfuls of breaths.

The crimson spirit power and the dust scattered gradually, which revealed Dijon’s figure. His cloth armor was broken beyond repair and he bled from multiple wounds while emitting smoke from his blackened body. It was hard to say whether he was still alive.

Lily looked at Dijon who was within the scorched pit in the ground and her heart quivered, “Did it work?³”

The tall, scorched Dijon within the pit…

Opened his demonic flaming eyes suddenly and revealed his eerie white teeth as a mocking grin cropped up on his face.⁴

1. Robinxen: I have my cheat sheet back! That’s a proper art! No more manually typing insert codes!
2. Silva: How does that work? I know legs are usually stronger than arms, but that’s still a HUGE boost.
   https://www.quora.com/Which-is-more-powerful-a-kick-or-a-punch
   Aoi: Kicks can be 3-5 times stronger than a punch, so the boost here isn’t exactly that huge.
3. Silva: That’s the one word you should never say in battle. It’s a flag! If you’re in doubt, keep attacking!
4. Robinxen: Could be worse?