Book 7: Chapter 55: Late-Stage Permanence Level

Lily dodged Kamaki and distanced herself from Ibaraki Doji before she used her near-endless spirit power advantage to kill most of the weaker monsters.

Unable to catch up to Lily, Kamaki made the demon slaying battle formation his new target.

Makoto commanded the Grand Demon Extermination Formation with composure. The Genji troops had split into two, with Minamoto no Hiromasa leading 200 men to thwart Kamaki’s advance, leaving behind 500 plus men to deal with Ibaraki.

Although the demon slaying battle formation was quite powerful, its slow mobility hindered it. There was not much it could do as long as the archdemons were far from it.

As long as the opponent did not rush into demon slaying battle formation to fight with all their might, it was just impossible for it to slay an archdemon despite its powerful members.

A dozen monsters with tortoise shells for backs and devil-like heads appeared in front of Lily at this moment and formed a formation to resist her attack.

This forced Lily to employ a small-scale domain and search for vulnerabilities in the formation with her sakura blades. Although it just suppressed the monsters to a certain extent, it also created flaws within their formation.

Lily seized the chance the moment she saw it and jumped up, heaving Yasutsuna down with force.

Bam!

The formation broke apart forcibly, and the severed corpses of the tortoise-shelled monsters scattered across.

Lily then kicked a falling tortoise-shelled monster and sent it flying towards a demon fox that was aiming a fireball at her from one of the roofs, smashing it away with the roof tiles.

Although Lily ran out of breath, she did not stop for a rest and allowed the thirst for slaughter and anima absorption to take over her, the constant slaughter and anima absorption sending streams of pleasure through her.

“Oh no! It’s the red-clad samurai woman!”

Terrifying rumors of the red-clad samurai woman had long circulated within the city, so most monsters chose to flee the battlefield the moment they saw Lily. However, considering how fast she was, it was not easy for them to escape from Lily’s clutches.

Boom!

Lily rushed into the group of wandering vengeful spirits again, making even the terrifying evil spirits afraid of her and weep from encountering her.

Lily had slain a lot of enemies in this battle, killing nearly forty percent of the monsters killed by the humans on this battlefield by herself.

Her kill count had far surpassed 80001!

She absorbed the anima of all monsters regardless of their strength. Even though anima at the Permanence and lower levels had a weak effect on elevating her strength, there were more than enough monsters here to make up for the difference.

It was pretty much impossible for her to find so many monsters to kill if not for this war. The imperial army was also restricting the two major powerhouses on the enemy side, Ibaraki and Kamaki, as well as most of the demon army, giving Lily the chance to make another breakthrough by slaying the scattered foes.

Lily had earned a huge amount of anima through this bloody battle.

“Haahh!” Lily propped her body up using her katana while she kneeled on one knee atop a roof and licked the hilt of her blade instinctively.

Boom!

The intense spirit power accumulated within Lily’s body erupted out of her like a red spider lily under the curtain of the night.

Her body became much stronger, faster, and her breathing also became much sexier.

“The late-stage Permanence level…”

Even if one had endless spirit power, fatigue would still build up. Lily’s eyes just filled with further enticement and excitement, though.

The anima she had absorbed in this battle was several times the amount she had absorbed from all the previous battles during the Tanba expedition.

Her strength had risen from the middle-stage Permanence level to the late-stage Permanence level via the constant growth that she had experienced during this deadly battle.

Lily now possessed the strength to contend against a late-stage Throned Sovereign without using the purple moon force, and would not be at an disadvantage if she fought against Kamaki again.

The more she raised her strength, the more she felt that her spirit power reserves’ capacity had already surpassed most Throned Sovereigns. However, she shivered at the thought of the astronomical amount of anima she would need to raise her strength to peak-stage Permanence level when she considered how much her spirit power reserves’ capacity had increased.

Lily feared that killing all the monsters on Mt. Ooe would still not be enough for her to reach the peak-stage Permanence level.

Attaining the peak-stage Permanence level was not that difficult for others when compared to attaining the Throne level. After all, breaking through to the next major power level was the real hurdle. The Throne level, in particular.

There were a lot of late-stage and peak-stage Permanence level archdemons in Mt. Ooe, but there were very few Thrones among them. Their numbers were so scarce that just attaining the Throned General realm was enough to become one of the Ten Demon Enforcers, elevating their position from the ordinary monsters greatly.

Attaining the peak-stage Permanence level alone was a difficult task for Lily because of the incredible amount of anima involved, let alone the Throne level.

The more her strength increased, the more anima she needed, the numbers sounding simply ridiculous in the later power realms. However, such were the pros and cons of being a blade maiden.

An ordinary late-stage Permanence level expert would run out of their energy reserves after just a few moves if they could unleash an attack of the late-stage Throned Sovereign level like Lily.

“Let’s forget about the peak-stage Permanence level for now. I already have enough strength to contend against Kamaki!” Lily’s fighting spirit rose up.

Her thirst to slaughter receded after breaking through, though, so she had become much calmer now.

Lily thought of searching her surroundings for Kamaki first, but she heard the sound of a conch horn from outside the city gates at this moment.

“Someone sounded the conch horn? It’s the signal for a retreat, the opposite of drumming, right?”

Only then did Lily notice that the demon slaying battle formation had already retreated till the city gates, and that most of the surviving soldiers had already withdrawn from the city.

No matter how strong Lily was, fighting the demon army alone was just asking for death.

Although Lily felt a little disappointed, she still jumped down to the street below and retreated silently.

…

…

Ibaraki Doji looked at the demon slaying battle formation retreat from the city gates while standing atop the castle tower and said with a wave of his hand, “There’s no need to pursue them!”

He made his voice reach the leaders of the monsters within the city.

“We’ve already achieved our purpose. Heh.” Ibaraki Doji chuckled.

The demon slaying battle formation was indeed worthy of a formation created by Yoshitsune. It allowed the troops to both attack, as well as defend, and even though it had several openings in its flank, it was a pretty effective formation against a powerhouse.

Ibaraki Doji and the demon slaying battle formation had clashed for long, but none of them had come out the victor, resulting in them just wasting their spirit power in vain.

Seeing that most of the court’s army had retreated along with the demon slaying battle formation, Ibaraki predicted that the demon army would suffer major losses if they pursued the imperial army. As such, he ordered the demon army to retreat as well.

The court’s army retreated all the way to Tange River under the protection of the demon slaying battle formation. Its morale was much lower than before attacking Kameyama Castle.

Most of the soldiers were injured and had either lost their helmets or armors because of ambushes, leaving them in a sorry situation

The troops within the battle formations numbered less than half their original number now.

Fortunately, Ibaraki and the other demons had not pursued them, or else the court’s army would have faced true extinction. The demon slaying battle formation was still a considerable threat to Ibaraki, though.

The extended night still loomed over the sky as the remaining soldiers retreated to Tange River’s riverbank. There were dozens of Taira naval warships at this bank to act as the army’s support, so the situation was not that bad.

The collar of Ashikaga Makoto’s thin, white robe had opened up because of the broken buttons, and her entire body, including her thin, black stockings, were drenched in musk-scented sweat. She stood in front of the riverbank right now and watched the return of the retreating army.

“Commander Ashikaga…” Shiina Airi was still wearing the revealing armor that left her bottom half almost exposed. The armor on her torso was half-broken now, and almost exposed half her medium-sized bosom.

“Airi, huh? How many have returned alive?” Ashikaga Makoto asked while staring ahead blankly.

“A total of 15,238 troops have returned so far, Commander Ashikaga. Around 5000 of them are lightly wounded, while over 1000 are severely wounded.” Airi answered in a depressed tone.

Almost half-a-day had passed by now, so the chances of survival within these monster-infested woods were really low for the troops that had not returned yet.

A total of 40,000 troops had set out along with the rearguard, yet the army had lost more than half the troops in this single battle.

Ashikaga Makoto fell to her knees, grabbed the sand on the riverbank, and cried while shivering.

Even though she was the commander of the army, she was still a woman.

The ones who had died in this battle were the true elite of the court and were the main forces of the Ashikaga as well as its supporters.

The losses were just too disastrous this time.

“Mother Makoto…” Lily walked over from the riverbank after washing off the sweat and bloods of enemies on her face and cleavage.

Lily’s heart ached as she saw Ashikaga on her knees from behind, the stretched black stockings giving a full view of her round ***2.

She wanted to console her but could not find the words to do so.

It was not as if she could tell her not to feel sorrow as she had slain nearly 10,000 demons, making it even against the human lives lost, when the court’s army had lost this battle.

The court’s army would have actually suffered a crushing defeat if Lily had not inflicted disastrous losses on the demon army that had ambushed them.

No matter what, it was impossible for Ashikaga Makoto to escape the responsibility for losing this battle, and even Lily could not do much to help her.

Lily feared that Makoto would be subjected to severe punishment after returning to Heian-kyo, if they made it back alive, that is.

Lily had displayed a stellar performance, on the other hand, leaving her enemies in awe. However, it was impossible for her to win the war alone.

Pitter-patter.

A shower of cold rain poured down from the sky again.

Lily arrived behind Makoto and held the Sakura Parasol over her to shield her from the rain.

Makoto got up and sobbed her heart out while hugging Lily’s thighs when she saw her.

The commander’s mournful cries made the remaining troops feel a stab of pain in their hearts.

…

…

The strategy meeting took place on Taira no Iemori’s warship.

Makoto did not even bother to change into a new outfit and began the meeting in the hold of the ship, her hair still wet from the rain. Her white robe also stuck to her body and showed her body’s curves through it.

All the generals were in a downcast mood right now, though, so no one cared about Makoto’s appearance much. Their gazes were fixed on Tanba’s map on the center of the round table.

Although Makoto’s face was stained with tears from crying bitterly, she had long regained her willpower and said in a calm voice, “Our army has suffered a crushing defeat in this battle3 because of Ibaraki Doji’s nefarious scheme. The fault for this lies in me since I failed to predict it, and I shall apologize to the commander-in-chief and the Cloistered Emperor to atone. However, we have other things to discuss at the moment. Although our army has lost over half its troops, seventy percent of our elite troops are still alive, and we’re still deep within Shuten Doji’s territory right now. I wonder if any of you have a good strategy for our next move.”

1. Robinxen: Jesus christ Lily you’re the equivalent of a small army.
2. Robinxen: Author is just like… killing the mood.
3. Robinxen: That is an understatement.

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