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Volume 5, Chapter 169 - Incredible Magic Battle

The samurai and onmyōji who summed up the upper echelon of Heian-kyo in terms of strength were suppressed by aura and felt their souls shudder even though the imperial court’s best experts were here right now.

“W-What is this aura?” A Genji samurai from Yamato Province stuttered out while sweating profusely in fear.

The Genji and Taira samurai wore tense looks in preparation, making it seem as if they were waiting for a war to begin.

Ayaka’s expression turned incredibly solemn as she turned towards the northern direction, her hair floating from the nefarious wind generated from the clouds as her proud figure stood valiantly on the arena.

On the platform, Lily also shuddered under the pressure of the powerful eldritch aura.

Her eyes flashed as she gazed towards the red light to the north. Lily had gone through a lot of experiences from her time in Kamakura until now and faced countless perils and opponents. However, she had never come across such an eldritch aura to this day. Even auras of Demon Lords like Michizane and Shuten Doji who were the apex existences among demons paled in comparison to the boundless aura owned by the owner of the laughter.

“This laughter sounds so strange yet familiar…”

Even Yoritomo laid down the teacup in his hand and looked north grimly, “She has come too? The most powerful demon of the Heian Empire’s legends.”

The nebulous red clouds in the north skies gathered to form a rainbow bridge that extended southwards and stretched across the Heian Palace’s Purple Serenity Hall centrally, giving no regard to the imperial court as it passed over the whole Heian Palace arrogantly.

A lantern holding woman dressed in a white kimono patterned with chrysanthemums slowly walked down the rainbow bridge formed from the clouds.

The woman had long and graceful, ash-gray hair as well as seductive looks that were paired with two fox ears on the crown of her head while countless fluffy tails moved behind her.

“Lady Kimiko?” Lily was stunned by Kimiko’s appearance and wondered whether she too had to come to take part in the celebration.

Although Kimiko lived in the mountain behind Heian Palace, there were still plenty of paths that she could’ve taken to arrive at the arena. She didn’t need to construct a rainbow bridge and walk over the imperial palace at all, which was equivalent to showing complete disregard for the Heian Empire.

Lily knew Kimiko was one other than Tamamo-no-Mae, the leader of the three archdemons. However, she had never seen Kimiko truly unleash her eldritch aura until now.

“It’s so dreadful!” Although Lily knew Kimiko well and was sure that she absolutely wouldn’t hurt her, Lily still shuddered!

Throned Sovereigns were as powerful as an army, but it was an army that consisted of common soldiers, not incredible experts. However, the pressure Lily felt from Tamamo-no-Mae made her feel that she could take on the Heian Empire alone!

This was the true power of an archdemon! This was the level needed to wander Heian freely!

Although she had taken a shortcut by crossing over the imperial palace, none of the Heian Empire’s samurai and powerhouses called her actions into question! It showed her arrogance!

“Lady Kimiko… I’ve finally realized how terrifying you are… I swear I won’t speak to you casually ever again, so please tell me why you’ve come as well.”

The Cloistered Emperor seated behind the curtain also tensed up a little, “This fox demon is older than the Heian Empire itself… I never imagined she’d come as well. The event’s becoming more and more interesting now. Hahahahaha…”

The rainbow bridge connected to the arena’s edge directly.

A drop of sweat flowed down Ayaka’s forehead as she looked at the indifferent Kimiko walk over the Heian Palace in a seductive gait and arrive at the arena.

Ayaka spoke up first, “I heard that you’d also come to offer sacrifice to Yosh*tsune this time, Tamamo-no-Mae. However, it looks like you’re a bit late.”

“Hahahahaha. I’m indeed a bit fond of Yosh*tsune, that little lad. However, I love stunning beauties more,” Kimiko turned aside and glanced at Lily charmingly.

“Eh?” Lily felt her breath quicken when her eyes met with Kimiko’s, sensing the charming aura within them that could captivate the whole world.

This was a natural response as she was the owner of the Charm Intent Sacred Relic!

The spectators paled in fear when they heard Ayaka’s words, “She actually calls the world’s number one hero a little lad? Is that how powerful Tamamo-no-Mae is? As expected of a 1000-year-old archdemon!”

Only Ayaka had the courage to speak with Tamamo-no-Mae on equal terms.

“Just what have you come to do, Tamamo-no-Mae? If you’re here to offer sacrifice to Yosh*tsune, feel free to do it. If you’re here to make sarcastic remarks though, you better expect some trouble to come up,” Ayaka pointed at Tamamo-no-Mae with her paper fan.

Tamamo-no-Mae looked at Ayaka seductively, but her eyes seemed to have no effect on her, so she stroked her hair coquettishly as she intentionally cooked up a story, “How unromantic you are. I’ve come for the same reason you have. I heard that you’re conducting a marital duel here and that the winner gets to take Ms. Kagami as their bride, so I’ve come to join the fun as well.”

“Hah?” Lily was startled, “M-Ms. Kimiko, that’s not true. This is no marital duel as well. I-It’s just a…” Lily blushed, unable to overcome the embarrassment to explain it in front of everyone.

Ayaka chided her with a deadpan expression, “You needn’t explain if you feel embarrassed to say it. You’re the prize, so just wait silently for me there!”

“Eh?” Although Lily got scolded by Ayaka for no reason at all, she knew that this was a severe matter, so she lowered her head coyly.

Ayaka resumed her conversation with Kimiko, “There’s no marital duel going on here. Just where did you even hear that? This duel just relates to one of the prizes of the Yosh*tsune Memorial event.”

“Oh? I wonder what this prize is then. I wonder if you will answer me, little judge,” Kimiko turned towards Sasaki with a pink glow in her eyes.

“The prize awarded to the winner of the one-on-one duel is a kiss from Ms. Kagami,” Sasaki answered mechanically.

‘This blabbermouth,’ Ayaka commented internally.

“Hahahahaha, that sounds interesting now,” Kimiko chuckled charmingly.

“Unfortunately, you’re too late. The duel has ended already,” Ayaka stated sharply.

“Huh? Have they now? I heard that no winner has been declared yet though.”

“So what? There aren’t any new challengers anymore.”

“If there’s no human challenger…” Kimiko placed her finger on her lip, “How about a demon then?”

“Pfft!” The Martial Saint, Sakanoue no Tamuramaro, who had been drinking at a corner of the viewing platform because had missed the opportunity to take his vengeance, spouted the wine out from his mouth and looked at Lily with astonishment, “J-Just how much charm does this woman have? To think that she’d even make Tamamo-no-Mae come forward to battle for the right to kiss her. Could it be that this Nine-Tailed Demon Fox likes women as well? If so, I’ll never get a chance to take revenge… Sigh!”

Tamuramaro’s heart filled with bitterness. He had come so far only to watch on as Lily’s strength advanced greatly before he could even try to enact vengeance on her, forced to see her show off her strength! There were even a lot of incredible experts fighting over her affection right now! He really wanted to leave this place as soon as possible!

“I’m the only one left in the arena now, Tamamo-no-Mae. Do you mean that you’ll battle me?” Ayaka’s expression turned sterner.

“My dear Ayaka, there’s no need to take it that seriously now, is there? It’s just an exchange of pointers between sisters. Isn’t that so, Cloistered Emperor Go-Shirakawa?” Tamamo-no-Mae turned towards the Cloistered Emperor behind the curtain. As for the Reigning Emperor, there was no one who took him seriously.

“Well… The authority for this duel lies in the hands of Judge Sasaki. I have no intention of breaking the rules either. Haha!”

The Cloistered Emperor, who held the most authority in the Heian Empire, gave up as well.

“Eh?” Sasaki felt his legs weaken and fell to the floor when faced with Tamamo-no-Mae’s charming set of eyes that seemed to turn violent momentarily, “The rules have nothing preventing Lady Tamamo-no-Mae from taking part in the duel…”

“So, does that mean I also have the right to battle for a public kiss from Lil’ Lily now? Hahahahaha,” Tamamo-no-Mae swayed her hips seductively, her fluffy tails dancing behind her back.

“Come at me then!” Ayaka said exasperatedly.

Most of the local spectators from Heian-kyo gasped in surprise and went as far as to retreat behind a street corner far away from the area. Although the outsiders didn’t understand the reason for it, most of them imitated the local spectators’ actions.

A battle between Ayaka and Tamamo-no-Mae was not something to kid about and was bound to change the map! It was quite likely that the average adept would die horribly if they remained too close.

No one had imagined that one of the three archdemons of the Heian Empire, who hadn’t battled with an expert on her level in hundreds of years despite being the court’s enemy, and the current leader of the three archdemons—Tamamo-no-Mae—would actually battle one of the three experts of the court—Ayaka—to win a woman’s affection!

And the woman in question was none other than Kagami Lily who had arrived in Heian-kyo just months ago.

The cat demon, Natsu, jumped onto the platform where the judge stood and raised her claw as she mewled, “It’s time for the final duel to win Ms. Kagami’s kiss. Let the duel between Fujiwara no Ayaka and Sister Kimiko begin now!”

“Hey! Don’t steal my lines!” Sasaki complained to the cat demon.

“Lady Kimiko, Madam Ayaka…” Lily wore a solemn expression on the platform right now and worried for their safety instead of the treatment she’d receive when one of them wins.

The surroundings turned silent.

Ayaka threw the paper fan in her hand forward and it transformed into a Shinto staff.

At the same time, the wooden sandals she wore turned into torrential streams that spanned dozens of feet, and these streams then spiraled around Ayaka before converging above her. Crystalline flowers bloomed at the edges of these streams and aquatic plants swayed gently inside them. The streams had crystalline rocks at their edges and also had red-colored jade carps swimming within the stream water.

As for Tamamo-no-Mae, the skies behind her turned dark as she stepped on a blood-red, glowing eldritch cloud and floated up, with intermittent red-flashes blazing through the darkness!

“Let’s begin then! I’ll take the first move!” Tamamo-no-Mae stretched her fingers forward and five incredibly powerful blood streams shot out from her scarlet fingernails, moving towards Ayaka.

Ayaka waved her staff to summon a massive, rippling, aqueous light ball in front of her. This light ball was surrounded by violet lightning and even though its speed seemed slow, it flew towards Tamamo-no-Mae quite unstably.

The five blood streams struck the light ball.

Boom! A quaking tremor passed through the earth and the black clouds in the sky scattered to all sides to form a circle with the duo as the center.

Debris flew around the public area while most of the nearby people got blown away. Even the viewing platform was on the verge of getting destroyed from their clash.

The Genji, Taira, Fujiwara clans’ onmyōji unleashed their spiritual pressure to soothe the shockwave received so that the viewing platform wouldn’t collapse.

“Ladies, you better not go too far in exchanging pointers lest you destroy the Heian Palace!” The Cloistered Emperor’s anxious voice reached their ears.

The world-shaking collision of powers had caused four-and-half of the five blood streams and the light ball to vanquish each other while the remaining half of the final blood stream continued shooting towards Ayaka.

Ayaka brandished her staff and created a crystalline lotus leaf on its top to parry away the incoming blood stream and send it flying elsewhere.

Ayaka’s lotus leaf had controlled the angle so that the blood stream flew out of Heian-kyo and landed inside one of the far away mountains surrounding the city, which was then followed by a huge explosion that destroyed half-the-mountaintop.

The spectators on the viewing platform lost their minds in fear and kneeled on the floor with weak knees.

The inner palace official came forward to make a report to the Cloistered Emperor in panic, “It would be better to let the Reigning Emperor and the Empress return inside the palace. It’s too dangerous here.”

“You don’t need to worry that much. We have the Shogun over here, and he can guarantee that at least my descendants will remain safe. Isn’t that so, Yoritomo?”

“Well… I’ll do my best,” Minamoto no Yoritomo acknowledged deferentially.

“Hahahahaha! I haven’t exchanged pointers with you in a long time. It looks like you’ve leveled up quite the bit, huh?” Tamamo-no-Mae soared to the skies and chuckled once again.

“It looks like you’re still as old as ever too,” Ayaka returned the compliment.

“Sheesh, that’s rude, you know. Is this how you talk to women?” Tamamo-no-Mae threw the lantern in her hand to the skies, and it flew up while spinning.

Boom! The lantern ignited suddenly and turned into soaring flames that had a sneering demon’s face inside it. The face then opened up its mouth and released tiny, fire meteors. It was also possible to notice tiny fox fires inside the fire meteors.

These fox fires seemed as if they were animate and even squealed while wearing playful expressions as they flew towards Ayaka. From a distance, it looked as if a storm of fire meteors were heading towards the female onmyōji.

“Fox fire?” The translucent streams under Ayaka’s feet expanded by a hundred times suddenly and formed a large river which swayed within the darkness. The meteor shower shot into this river and stopped burning while some just scattered away. However, these scattered fire foxes circled back and attacked Ayaka again.

Ayaka raised her foot to step within the water, causing it to ripple as the carps leaped in and out of the stream. After the fox fires finished swallowing half-the-skies, they burned out and vanished all together. A bunch of the carps had been bit to death, but they devoured a lot of fox fire as well.

The Genji, Taira and Fujiwara clans’ samurai looked at this incredible magic battle with dumbstruck gazes. The fox fires and the carps ended up consuming each other in the end, returning silence to the surroundings.

“Hahaha. We’ve had enough warm-up, I believe,” Tamamo-no-Mae chuckled faintly.

“Fine. I don’t have much patience left either way,” Ayaka responded solemnly with a quickened breath.