Volume 8 - Higanbana: Chapter 29 – Dangers Everywhere

Lily felt as if her waist was about to shatter as she landed at the foot of the stone pillar.

The pack of demon hounds sped up their sprint, leaving afterimages behind as they shot towards her.

Lily swung Yasutsuna and severed the metallic whip twisted around her foot, and to her surprise, golden fluid gushed out from the severed orifice.

She then rolled to the side promptly to dodge the bites of the pack of demon hounds.

A bald, ugly, hunchbacked monster which was about six to seven meters tall and exuded an extremely strong aura emerged from the mist and pressed towards Lily with bizarre, unstable steps in the next moment.

The hunchbacked monster had over a dozen metallic tentacles flailing around on its back, and just seeing the monster made Lily feel a cold chill.

“An elite Throned Saint archdemon!” Lily exclaimed in shock. Although she was not afraid of this elite Throned Saint archdemon, it was quite dangerous to engage in battle with it in her current situation.

Although the monsters were devouring one another, it was quite clear that most of them considered Lily as the anomaly and prioritized attacking her first.

“Damn it. There’s not much of the purple moon’s power left within me. The best I can do is attack with all my strength just one more time! If this goes on….”

Lily’s eyes flashed with an icy glint, and she took an unexpected action the next moment, dashing towards the hunchbacked monster at once.

This monster is good at long-range attacks, so it’ll probably pull me back again if I try to escape.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! The hunchbacked monster’s metallic tentacles shot towards Lily one after the other.

Lily dodged left and right as she approached the hunchbacked monster while the other monsters maintained their distance from it since they feared the elite Throned Saint archdemon.

Snap! One of the metallic tentacles whipped at Lily’s back, causing her to feel sharp pain.

A dark red mark appeared on Lily’s fair-skinned back, and her body stumbled forward along with a decrease in her spirit power. Several metallic tentacles shot towards her the next moment in an attempt to capture her.

Although it looked as if Lily had stumbled to the ground, she had actually rolled forward on purpose to dodge the metallic tentacles and reach all the way to the foot of the hunchbacked monster.

Lily then kicked the ground and flew forward through the gap in between the archdemon’s legs, spinning her body while doing so, releasing a sword beam from the blade in her hand to attack the archdemon’s legs.

Splurt! Splurt!

The sword beam left several deep cuts on the archdemon’s legs, cutting most of its nerves and muscles, causing it to fall to its knees.

Lily also tumbled across the ground and stopped not far away from losing control of her spinning body.

The pack of demon hounds swarmed around the hunchbacked monster immediately when they saw it sustain injuries and tore at it, engaging in a fierce battle with it.

It seemed that they prioritized whatever opportunities that came by as long as Lily did not show up in their vision and would focus on killing one other instead. However, a massive shadow carrying a powerful aura attacked Lily before she could even get up from the ground.

Lily rolled aside immediately to dodge the attack, and saw an over ten meter long black foot stomp the region where she was previously.

“A Big Dipper archdemon?!” Lily had the daylights scared out of her.

It was hard to tell what lay outside of one’s vision and within the mist without using spirit power to probe the surroundings. It was just too late for Lily to muster her full strength and prepare for the unexpected when surrounded by killing intent in all directions.

The massive demon god had an almost ten meter thick ancient brass ring around its foot while its torso was hidden in the mist.

Lily turned around and ran immediately, but a huge hand emerged from the mist with lightning-fast speed and caught her, the power behind its grip almost crushing her bones.

“Aaarggh!” Lily screamed miserably.

“A woman?” The Big Dipper level demon god seemed to possess intelligence. Even though it was just a one-soul Big Dipper archdemon, it possessed incredible power because it was an ancient demon god.

The hand raised Lily up high and brought her in front of a fearsome, gigantic, demonic face which had two long, golden horns on its head.

The demon opened its abyssal jaws to devour Lily.

“Urgh!” Lily moaned in pain as she witnessed the jaws approach her.

She never thought that she would get caught by a demon god and wondered if she would perish here today.

No! I cannot die here!

Lily’s eyes flashed with obsession.

The demon god loosened his grip on Lily when he was almost about to devour her, so Lily seized this chance to unleash all of the purple moon’s power remaining inside her, spinning the blades in her suddenly.

“Celestial Maiden Path—Scythe!”

Slash!

“Arrggghhhh!”

The ancient demon howled in pain and opened his hand, finding deep cuts on his branch-like fingers. Demonic blood kept gushing out from the wounds, revealing the rune-engraved dark gold bones beneath the skin.

Lily had used both her hands to unleash her most powerful attack, the Celestial Maiden Path’s Scythe, in desperation, and somehow managed to injure the demon god’s hand. However, the wounds on his hand began to heal almost immediately.

Lily bore the pain she felt when she landed on the ground and ran with all her might, but as she was much slower than the demon god, his hand reached out to grab her again quickly.

Lily changed directions suddenly, though, and rushed towards the region where the pack of demon hounds and the Throned Saint hunchbacked archdemon were battling each other.

The demon god’s hand ended up grabbing the most high leveled Throned Saint archdemon instead and pulled it into the mist despite its desperate yet futile struggle.

Crunch…

The horrifying sound of consumption echoed out from the mist, following which the Throned Saint archdemon’s cries ceased.

Lily, on the other hand, had fled far amidst this chaos.

The pack of demon hounds had also begun fleeing the moment they saw the demon god’s descend and stopped pursuing Lily. However, a stone staff struck the back of Lily’s head while she was running for her life, causing her head to spin and tumble forward.

Another stone staff aimed at her face the next moment, but Lily raised her blades to block it instinctively when she saw it in her blurry vision.

Bam! Although the stone staff shattered, Lily got flung far away as a result of the clash and fell into the crack between several boulders.

“Haahh… Haahh…” Lily felt as if her lungs were on fire and felt sharp pain all over from the severe injuries she had suffered.

She ignored the pain, and took out the Yukusa Grass that she had obtained in the boundary world, stuffing it inside her mouth and gobbling it down along with the flower.

After all, the Yukusa Grass had better healing properties than a life-recovery magatama.

Loud footsteps echoed inside Lily’s earbuds. She knew that this was the side effect of consuming the Yukusa Grass, so she closed her eyes and manifested her soul in Rinne’s room within the mirror space.

Lily was willing to do anything for Rinne when she woke. As long as Rinne willed it, that was. As such, looking at Rinne after experiencing the side effects of the Yukusa Grass was equivalent to nullifying its side effects.

Lily’s body recovered quickly because of the Yukusa Grass’ healing properties, and her consciousness returned to the outside world immediately after she saw Rinne.

Lily caught sight of several obese, peak-stage Throned Monarch demons standing above the rocks after regaining her vision. However, they were unable to reach her because the crack between the boulders was too small.

A few demons began smashing the rocks with their staffs, causing crumbled rock to fall down and bury Lily in the process. The falling rocks could not suppress her though.

Lily held Yasutsuna firmly before mustering her strength. She then rushed through the falling rocks and leaped out of the crack between the boulders.

One of the demons smashed his staff at her immediately, but Lily had already made ample preparations, unlike how she had gotten ambushed a few moments ago. She rolled forward and stepped on the staff aiming at her, borrowing its momentum to jump up to the demon’s head. She then stepped on the demon’s shoulders and stabbed his spine.

Crack!

The demon’s spine broke, and even though regenerating it was possible, it required a long time. The demon was practically immobile until then.

Lily stepped on the back of the demon which had fallen down and stabbed into his chest immediately, shattering his spirit jade.

She snatched his anima and arched back the moment she felt a gust of wind hit her from front, laying down on the demon’s back to dodge the attack of another demon. Lily then twisted her legs around the demon’s wrist and turned her body over to sit atop its arm.

Stab! After stabbing the demon’s arm, Lily jumped up high by stepping on Yasutsuna’s hilt and flipped over the demon’s head, taking Crescent Moon out to behead the demon underneath it.

Unable to pull the stuck Yasutsuna to her side using her domain, Lily flipped back to the demon’s arm by stepping on its shoulder and severed its arm, grabbing Yasutsuna’s hilt as she kicked away the severed arm.

The severed arm flew out while still holding the stone staff and smashed the head of a smaller demon which was in the early Throned Monarch stage.

The fourth demon, which was the final one among this group and was in the late Throned Monarch stage, turned around to flee the moment it witnessed Lily’s power.

Lily flung the stardust ribbon forward and made it twist around the demon’s neck, forcing it to kneel on the ground immediately, wrestling against the weight of the demon with her physical strength.

She pulled hard on the ribbon and shot forward towards the demon using the pulling force, flipping over the demon’s head, unleashing a crimson tornado with her blades as she descended to the ground.

The late stage Throned Monarch demon got severed into eight pieces, resulting in blood and flesh flying in all directions.

Whoosh! Lily landed on the ground and gasped for breath while supporting her body up with her blade. Her body ached from the pain she felt from her injuries, and she had expended almost all her stamina by now.

She collected the demon’s anima immediately, all while thanking the fact that there were no other monsters nearby. She then suppressed her aura and slid down the rock quietly.

Lily spotted a pack of robust six-legged, eyeless, slimy-skinned beasts wandering the lands not far from her and hoped that they really could not see while she stayed out of their path by taking cover behind the stone pillars. Fortunately, the wind was blowing from the front, so even though the stink of the beasts reached her, the beasts could not smell her scent.

Lily spotted a formation of boulders one kilometer ahead of her which had a crevice in it, so she thought of hiding there. She checked her surroundings vigilantly and walked towards the crevice with a stagger once she had confirmed that there were no monsters nearby.

She did not dare to use spirit power since she was afraid of getting discovered. She was so badly injured that she could not even run normally without the help of spirit power. Her legs, waist and back were covered in red marks right now. Although the spirit armor could shield her from attacks, it could not nullify the impact of the attacks completely, especially so when the force behind the attack was beyond its defensive threshold. If it were not for the fact that her current physique was twice as powerful as the celestial maiden’s physique, Lily was afraid that she would have ended up with several broken bones and torn ligaments from the severe injuries that she had suffered. Even if she had access to near unlimited spirit power, her strength was bound to reduce greatly.

Fortunately, Lily managed to reach the rocks without getting discovered this time and even though the space inside the crevice was hot, she could still hide here temporarily.

Lily surmised that she would not get discovered unless a Big Dipper archdemon approached her or if a monster entered this crevice.

Lily rested her back against the rock behind her and gasped for breath repeatedly.

“This place is too dangerous… I almost lost my life today. The Big Dipper archdemons are the biggest danger in the end… Although I can’t defeat Big Dipper archdemons with the purple moon’s power, I can at least use it to flee with my life intact if I run across one of them. Death is all that awaits me without it…”

Lily had already expended the purple moon’s power inside her, though.

Her life was on the line right now, and even Ayaka was in imminent danger, but there was little she could do about it.

Lily’s eyes turned listless and she lowered her head powerlessly and looked at the palm-sized triangular armor piece protecting the region between her legs.

References

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   Robinxen: Was this really needed as part of the story?