Demon Sword Maiden

Book 7: Chapter 48: Painting Projection Mita

“Kagura, come back.”

Kagura formed into a purple flash of light and returned to the mirror. Lily realized that she couldn’t waste any more time here, so she turned around and left from whence she came.

Suddenly, Lily felt like there was an incredibly powerful rope binding her feet. Then, an unimaginable force hung her upside down and lifted her into the air.

“Formation! Thousand Binds!”Coming out of the tattered tent, the critically injured Lord Honganji somehow released another binding formation.

Among those injured Dharma Masters, some of them could still cast spells. Many magical ropes flew towards Lily and tied her up!

For a moment, Lily was tied up by those ropes and hung upside down in the air. She couldn’t move.

Lily’s eyes flashed grimly.

A tidal wave of sakura flowers suddenly appeared in the sky. Countless sakura blades surged toward those Dharma Masters.

Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Lily initially showed mercy and spared their lives. But now, they would all die.

The rope on Lily’s body dissipated. Yet, the one that tied her leg still remained. She took out a javelin taken from Kotoban, allowed herself to be hung upside down, and tossed it towards Lord Honganji who created the formation in the tent.

After all, he was quite powerful and her domain couldn’t kill him entirely.

Wham! The javelin carried her rage and flew towards him.

“What?” Lord Honganji was mortified. He couldn’t dodge it nor defend against it.

Clack!

Suddenly, a massive phantom hand came out of nowhere. With incredible speed, it grabbed that javelin right in front of Lord Honganji.

“What?” Lily was shocked.

At this moment, an unusually powerful presence was sensed within the forests.

Its aura far surpassed the pinnacle Throned Sovereign Stage.

A Throned Monarch!

It was a level that was considered close to the pinnacle of strength in this world12.

A handsome man with purple hair stood on the slope not far away. His empty and broken sleeve swayed in the wind. Ibaraki Doji was here!

Behind Ibaraki were several powerful presences. Those figures were rumbling behind the slope.

“Oh no!” Ibaraki Doji was already here.

Lily unsheathed Yasutsuna and tried to cut the rope, but failed.

She slashed three times in a row and eventually cut off the rope tying her by the leg, and fell on the ground. However, Ibaraki Doji and his group of demons simply stood on the slope and stared at her.

After landing on the ground, Lily turned around and ran without hesitation.

Wham—! Yet, Ibaraki Doji’s ghost hand simply tossed that poisonous javelin back towards Lily!

The speed of this projectile was way faster than what Kotoban could ever manage!

Although Lily was more than 100 meters away, the javelin arrived instantly. She dodged it with a roll but that ghost hand pounced at her just as fast. Those massive claws were about to grab her.

Lily stood up after rolling and slashed behind her, towards that hand.

Bang!

Lily’s vision dimmed for a short moment. She got slapped away by that ghost hand and heavily slammed onto the mountain walls. Despite being immensely tough, the mountain walls were now cracked. The horrifying impact force and pain nearly rendered her unconscious.

This blow alone exhausted nearly 30% of a spiritual power that she used for defense.

It should be known that Lily’s spiritual power reserves were astronomical. Of course, that was relative to the Permanence Stage. But even when compared to someone on the Throned Sovereign Stage, Lily would have several times more!

If the recipient was a typical expert on the Throned Sovereign Stage, this strike alone would make them critically injured, if not killed outright!

Of course, Lily was great at offense and lacking in defense. This was never her strong suit.

Lily tumbled without a sound with the tall mountain walls behind her.

Ibaraki Doji, Kamaki, and hundreds of ferocious Blue Demons were now approaching her.

“What a surprise! I do not expect it to be you, Kagami Lily. You actually came to us. What good timing, we shall settle all our grudges today! But don’t worry, Lord Shuten wants you alive. I’ll send you to him alive and well. But still, I just feel like this is way better than just killing you!” Ibaraki Doji’s giant ghost hand flew to his side.

Lily was nearly rendered unconscious from the enormous amount of pain. She slowly stood up and a massive scroll of painting appeared in her hands, the Record of One Hundred Demons.

“What? It actually takes a hundred Magatama to activate Mita’s drawing?” Lily sensed that when she wanted to use the scroll. “Don’t care anymore! My life is at stake.”

Lily decisively merged 100 Magatama into the scroll.

Rumble~~~!

The earth itself trembled. Even Ibaraki was shocked.

A terrifying aura that even overwhelmed Ibaraki and the rest had descended on the flat area in front of the cave entrance.

An ancient formation emerged on the ground, which looked like it was formed with ethereal strokes of black paint. Then, fog manifested within the formation.

A massive raccoon that was about 10 meters tall was summoned.

This raccoon was identical to Mita. Yet, it was much larger. Its aura far surpassed anything that existed on the Throne Stage.

“What? Big… Big Dipper…A raccoon deity on the Big Dipper Stage?” Ibaraki Doji instantly became pale from fright.

Although raccoons had ominous spells, they were rarely powerful. There was only one being in this world that could possess such strength, the living divine miracle—Raccoon Mita!

The oppression that this massive raccoon imposed on Ibaraki was second only to Shuten Doji when he was fully enraged.

Ibaraki was truly scared. However, he knew trying to escape from Mita would be impossible.

Ibaraki couldn’t help but scream, “are you perhaps the racoon god, Lord Mita? This is Tanba. Are you actually willing to become enemies with my liege? Why?”

However, the massive raccoon seemed spiteful and felt great resentment towards these demons. It remained silent while tapping the walking cane that seemed like an ancient tree stem onto the ground.

Dreadful flames that could even burn through the ground surged towards Ibaraki and the demons!

“Lord Mita! You’re going to kill us?” Ibaraki was shocked. “Ghost Defense!”

Ibaraki, Kamaki, and the other demons coalesced Eldritch Energy and created the Ghost Defense Formation. Massive shadows that seemed like vengeful spirits were manifested and were erected in front of the demons like shields.

However, Ibaraki still felt despair in his heart. If this was truly the real Mita, their Ghost Defense Formation wouldn’t have stood a chance against it, despite being able to defend against the demonic flames. Mita was an ancient existence with experience beyond comprehension. When it came to the art of breaking formations, he feared that even Shuten couldn’t hold a candle to it.

However, Lily didn’t stay around to watch Ibaraki and the rest being steamrolled by Mita. She took out a Life-Recovery Magatama and healed herself. Then, she didn’t even care to watch the demonic flame’s aftermath. She simply ran towards the forest like a flash of red light.

Although she had to go past the demons, none of them were bothered by her at this moment.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Waves of demonic flames slammed onto the formation and sputtered fire everywhere. It burned all the camp installations and forests around them. Under the night sky, a massive ocean of flames was seen.

The other demons who weren’t protected by the formation were instantly scorched into ashes.

However…

“Huh?” Ibaraki Doji was stunned. Despite being powerful, these demonic flames were only on the strength of a middle Throne Monarch at most! Much weaker than him! “This… How could this be! This is the living legend, Raccoon Mita! It clearly exudes the horrifying aura of a Big Dipper Stage!”

Ibaraki Doji and the demons’ Ghost Defense Formation blocked all those demonic flames.

“This isn’t right! This… This may be a peculiar method used by Kagami Lily!” Ibaraki was shocked.

He thought he had made it in time and would capture Lily. Yet, she actually had such a trick up her sleeve!

“B?a?s?t?a?r?d?!” Ibaraki used his ghost hand to grab Racoon Mita’s projection. It waved its wooden staff and battled the hand ferociously. Soon, Racoon Mita’s projection seemed to be beaten and was pushed back by the ghost hand. A dark straight sword with a purplish glow appeared in Ibaraki’s hand, and with a leap, he slashed at the projection.

Whoom!

The pitch-black straight sword was surrounded by purple flames. There seemed to be many wailing and distorted souls within those flames, like vengeful spirits. This strike was filled with the ominous stench of hell.

Stab! The raccoon projection was struck in the shoulder and spiritual energy that seemed like ink poured out. It had now weakened greatly.

“We got tricked!”

Ibaraki Doji continuously swung his purple sword in mid-air and slashed towards the projection. His ghost hand also attacked ferociously.

Although Racoon Mita’s projection was weaker than Ibaraki Doji, it didn’t fear death. It still hung onto Ibaraki after receiving several blows and only dissipated into black smoke after exhausting all its spiritual energy.

“Phew. This thing isn’t that strong, but it’s massive and has lots of spiritual energy! What is it really? It can’t be a Shikigami. Could it be Mita’s projection?” Ibaraki Doji had haggard breathing since he exerted a lot of effort in killing the projection quickly.

“Oh no!” Ibaraki Doji now noticed that there was nothing below the mountain wall.

Kagami Lily had already escaped long ago!

“B?a?s?t?a?r?d?! After her! We must capture Kagami Lily!” Ibaraki was enraged. Dark purple Eldritch Energy surged into the skies and rolled like thunder clouds.

“Rashōmon!”

Ibaraki used his own Domain. The world itself was instantly stained crimson red. The dark forests seem like a visage of hell. A massive ghost gate rose from the void, and Ibaraki was standing right on top of it.

The ancient and tattered ethereal ghost gate that had an ominous aura opened. Countless vengeful spirits poured out and flew in all directions!

“Kagami Lily! You can’t escape me! You cut off my arm. I swear, this time when I catch you, I’ll definitely make you taste all the cruelest tortures hell has to offer before handing you over to Lord Shuten!” Lily had evaded him once again, and that enraged him.

At this moment, Lily was running through the forest. She turned around and saw the sky changing color, churning demonic clouds, and countless vengeful spirits flying out into all directions.

Lily was very nervous deep down. Despite having enough Magatama, she couldn’t summon another Mita’s projection for the time being. She had to wait for the drawing in the Record of One Hundred Demons to fully recover.

Meanwhile, Ibaraki was much faster than she was. Despite having run for tens of miles already, Ibaraki would still catch up to her if she was discovered by those spirits. Hence, she could only suppress her presence to run, lest Ibaraki Doji discover her within an instant.

A Throned Monarch Archdemon’s spiritual sense range was enormous. Lily would never take the risk!

Robinxen: Until the next power creep arc.Robinxen: Actually the author just specified this world, watch the plot twist be there’s other worlds with even stronger people.