CHAPTER 68 – THE IMPERIAL COURT

Ibaraki Doji and Kamaki jumped down from the hillside they were on the moment they heard Shuten’s voice.

Ibaraki stepped on a spectral hand and flew towards Honganji Temple immediately while Kamaki sprinted towards it with full power, his speed as fast as Ibaraki on his spectral hand. After all, flying via an artifact was not at all that fast when compared to the speed of a Throned Monarch.

“He’s here!” Lily had already employed her domain to be vigilant of her surroundings at all times and was in a pretty excited state right now, so she was quite sensitive to any changes on the battlefield.

“Ibaraki Doji’s here!”

Lily jumped back to the temple’s steps and ordered, “Signal the court’s army to provide aid using the lanterns!”

The court’s army had already noticed the grand battle taking place at Honganji Temple, so she believed that they would dispatch the demon slaying battle formation now that Ibaraki had come out.

Lily presumed that the court’s army must have already dispatched a unit of elite soldiers to launch an attack at any time.

Even if it took some time for them to arrive, Lily could still hinder Ibaraki for a while by summoning the avatar of Mita, the Racoon Dog Deity.

Lily’s plan was quite thorough and had no loopholes.

Ibaraki approached closer and closer, with Kamaki following behind him at an equal speed.

Although Lily did not fear Kamaki, she still was not Ibaraki’s opponent.

“Why hasn’t the court dispatched a unit yet?”

The army encampment was a bit far from Honganji Temple, so they should have already dispatched a unit by now. If not, the reinforcements would not make it in time.

“Signal the army again and ask for emergency aid! Tell the commander to dispatch reinforcements!” Lily shouted.

The female soldier standing on the tallest spot of the temple signaled the camp with the lanterns desperately, but there was no answer from both the encampment on the riverbank and the many warships on the river behind them.

There was not much mist over the land because it had not rained tonight, so it was impossible for them to have not noticed the signal for aid.

Lily believed that the army must already have a unit on standby since the battle had blown out so much, yet there was no response from the encampment.

“What’s going on? Don’t tell me I’ll have to resist Ibaraki using Mita’s avatar?” Lily felt anxious.

Even summoning Mita’s avatar would not buy Lily much time, so summoning it when there was still no sign of the army’s reinforcements was not the best move.

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“What’s going on?” Lily looked at Airi, “Why hasn’t the court’s army moved yet? Your subordinate passed on the message, right?”

Lily sounded irritated, which was quite rare.

A cavalrywoman stepped forward and said, “I swear on my life that I passed on the message to Commander Ashikaga in person, Ms. Kagami! She promised that she’ll send reinforcements if Ibaraki appears!”

“Why hasn’t the court’s army moved yet, then?!”

Boom! Boom!

Two incredibly powerful auras approached the temple.

Kamaki strode towards the mountain cliff with large strides, the arrows and spells of the female soldiers having little to no effect on the late stage Throned Sovereign level archdemon.

Kamaki opened his mouth and roared loudly after arriving at the cliff, sending dozens of archers, mirror girls, and onmyōji flying from the resulting shockwaves, toppling down the fence at the same time.

Lily was about to step forward and block Kamaki, but she stopped in her tracks when she saw Ibaraki float in front of the temple on his spectral hand.

“You’ve had enough fun, Kagami Lily, but it’s all over now.”

Lily looked at the distant encampment and saw that there was still no movement from it.

Ibaraki swung the longsword in his hand at this moment and slashed towards Airi casually.

“Watch out!” Lily charged to Airi’s side when she noticed Ibaraki’s movements and knocked her away before cladding Yasutsuna in the power of the Purple Moon to block the casual attack from Ibaraki.

Bam!

The incredible impact from the collision of forces caused Lily to cough blood, sent her crashing back through the old trees, and made her smash into a boulder in the temple’s garden, making her collapse in the rubble formed from the smashed rock.

A casual attack from Ibaraki had already delivered considerable injuries to Lily.

“Lily!” Airi and Ijuin called out her name in worry.

Lily shuddered all over amid the rubble and raised her head with much difficulty to look at the nearby Ibaraki.

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She could not block a Throned Monarch’s casual attack even if she used her full strength and the Purple Moon Force.

Ibaraki levitated in the sky on top of the spectral hand and said in a casual tone while looking down at Lily, “You aren’t waiting for the court’s reinforcements, are you, Kagami Lily?”

“Huh?”

“I might as well tell you that the court’s reinforcements won’t be arriving no matter how long you wait for them.”

“What?!” Lily asked in shock, “H-How is that possible?”

“I wouldn’t have wasted time speaking to you if my job was just to kill you, but Lord Shuten ordered me to catch you alive, so I thought it would be better to shatter your hopes first. Mt. Ooe has already negotiated peace with the court while you were guarding this Honganji Temple.”

“What?! Negotiated peace, you say?”

It was not just Lily who was surprised by this revelation. Ijuin, Airi, and everyone else was also equally surprised, making them shiver.

Ibaraki continued, “The condition for the armistice is that the court must not dispatch reinforcements to aid Honganji Temple when Mt. Ooe besieges it. Mt. Ooe promised that it would not pursue the court’s army and will let it withdraw safely as long as they accept this condition.”

“Hahahahahaha!” Kamaki laughed out loudly and said, “The court has already sold you out, woman, yet you’re still risking your life for them here. It’s best if you just surrender to us. Lord Shuten said that he is willing to make you his demon queen, a position higher than the fiendish kings under him, as long as you surrender to him! The demon queen’s position is much higher than Lord Ibaraki’s position, you know!”

“Yeah.” Ibaraki said in a wicked tone, “Even I would feel tempted by such an offer if I were a woman. Why don’t you take this chance to surrender since the court which you offered your loyalty to has already abandoned you? If not, I’ll make a move. You must know that I’m only giving you this chance because I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Lily!” Airi and Ijuin sprinted towards Lily and helped her up.

Ijuin whispered into Lily’s ears at this moment, “We’ve found a tunnel leading to the back mountain in the back garden of the temple, Lily, so we should be able to slip out of the demon army’s encirclement using it. However, it will be difficult for us to do so with how things are right now…”

“What do you say, Lily? Are you going to surrender? The court has already betrayed you, so there’s no point in risking your life for them,” Ibaraki said.

Airi and Ijuin helped Lily walk to the front of the temple after helping her up.

Lily supported her body using her blade at first and gradually recovered her senses, standing on her feet in time. The attack she had received just now was really too fearsome.

It was quite clear that Ibaraki wanted to catch her alive. If not, she would have suffered worse injuries from the previous attack.

Lily looked at the encampment again, but there was still no movement from it.

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Lily was not foolish enough to reject the reality in front of her. However, she did not believe that Ashikaga Makoto would abandon her to die even if the court really sold her out. She had full confidence in this, so she suspected that Makoto might have already lost control of the army.

…
…

The chained Rei’s expression morphed when she saw Lily’s current situation via the transmission orb in Mt. Ooe. “How could the court do such a thing…”

“How is it, Uesugi Rei? Are you enjoying the wonderful show I’ve prepared for you?” Shuten took another chug from the wine pot and waved his hand.

The shouts of the demons resounded throughout the cave immediately afterward, and the demons returned into the flame-lit cave from the darkness once again.

…
…

Lily stared at the silent encampment blankly. Although she did not know what had happened, since the court had made her cover their army’s retreat, selling her out in exchange for their army’s safety sounded entirely plausible to her.

“Hmph…”

Lily never regarded the court as some kind of savior or patron. Lily only believed in herself and her sisters. Lily’s last remaining hopes towards the court had shattered now that they had sold her out for their own safety. She supposed that even summoning Mita’s avatar was of no use now.

“It looks like I’ll have to use that card now.”

Lily took out a fox-shaped protective charm and infused it with spirit power.

“Save me, Ms. Kimiko!”

“Hmm?” Ibaraki looked at the protective charm in Lily’s hand vigilantly as it exuded an extraordinary aura. However, nothing happened even after waiting for a while.

This protective charm was one of the cards that Lily had always kept hidden up her sleeve. She did not intend to use this protective charm here originally since she had the court’s reinforcements and the Mita avatar to rely on, but she had been forced to use it now that they had been rendered ineffective. Kimiko had told her that she would rush to her side immediately as long as she used this charm in the bounds of Heian-kyo, but she was deep within Tanba right now.

Lily did not know whether Kimiko would be able to rush here after receiving her call for help as she was deep within Shuten’s territory right now and did not wish to use the charm as she would have wasted it in vain if her call for help did not reach Kimiko. However, she had no choice but to test it out since the court had betrayed her.

As expected, Kimiko did not appear beside Lily immediately. The distance between them was just too far.

A commotion rose in the encampment at this moment, though.

“What?!” Ibaraki’s expression morphed as well.

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A unit of troops rushed out of the camp.

“Is it reinforcements?!” Lily rejoiced and looked at the reinforcements approaching the temple.

The unit just consisted of bare-armed young samurai, with the highest leveled one among them being at just the Spirit Jade level, and the person leading them was none other than Ashikaga Kiyoshi.

Kiyoshi had his chest bared at the moment, so his adequately built muscles glistened under the illumination of the light from the torches right now. He wore a white headband on his forehead and rode a warhorse while raising his tachi up high with a wakizashi at his waist, leading a suicide squad of thirty six Ashikaga samurai towards the demon army.

“Don’t worry, Ms. Kagami! I’m coming to save you!”
“Lord Kiyoshi…” Lily shed tears.

A suicide squad of young samurai who had not even passed the Spirit Jade level was of no use as a few archdemons were enough to decimate them. However, Kiyoshi had still fulfilled his promise.

Even if the court had abandoned Lily, even if the black-armored Genji soldiers from the armored ships had taken his mother away and put her under arrest, Kiyoshi refused to board the court’s ships as long as Lily was not with them.

“Attack!”
“Yah!”

The weak samurai rushed into the ten thousands strong demon army fearlessly. Their valor intimidated the demon army so much that a few demons even stepped back in fear and wavered. However, valor was of no use when the difference in numbers and strength was so large.

The young samurai rushed into the massive demon army and got gobbled by them quickly.

“Lord Kiyoshi…” Lily turned her face away as she did not wish to see the sight of Kiyoshi dying. She was powerless to save him right now as she could not even save her own hide now.