<h4>Volume 8 - Higanbana: Chapter 6 – Nine-Tailed Fox And The de Maiden (Part 2)</h4>


    Lily and Rei quickly retreated and fled into the distance. The nine-tailed fox wasn’t too concerned with Lily and just attacked her casually before charging towards the imperial army. With a single pounce, tens of thousands of demon soldiers were exterminated once again!


    Looking at the nine-tailed fox who was thrashing amidst the distant demonic clouds and blood mist, Lily’s chest rose and fell violently. She suddenly realized why Tamamo-no-Mae had to face the army of 500,000 alone.


    Lily probably realized it the moment she saw Tamamo’s giant, blood-colored eyes just now.


    Although Tamamo’s strength received a substantial boost to the point where she was unrivaled in the Heian Dynasty after transforming into a demon fox, her bloodthirsty state made it almost impossible to distinguish friend from foe!


    Although she could have fought in Suno, there was no telling how many of her n members and vigers would be killed or affected.


    Because Tamamo was afraid of identally hurting her own people and other innocent creatures, she chose to fight in this ancient battlefield.


    “Lily!” Rei shook Lily, “To think you would even risk your life just to acquire that anima.”


    “I’m sorry, Sister Uesugi, but I…” Lily had to do whatever it takes to improve her strength as soon as possible! It didn’t matter if she was warned in advance; even if she knew of the dangers, she would still have gone after the anima.


    The aura of the nine-tailed fox was too strong andpletely covered up Lily’s aura. Also, the surrounding demonic clouds and blood mist that billowed into the sky, coupled with the demon fox’s earth-shattering attacks made it so that the archdemons in the distance failed to notice Lily’s aura.


    Only Kato saw what happened, but he and his samurai didn’t recognize Lily.


    “What just happened? It seems that a woman appeared? Did she steal Lord Ueotsune’s anima? Was she also killed by the demon fox?”


    Just then, the demon fox lunged towards a nearby great formation, prompting Kato to shout, “Retreat! Disperse! Quickly scatter!”


    Since the great formation was unable to defend against the attack of the nine-tailed fox at all, what was the use of setting up the turtle shell formation? When Ueotsune died, Kato naturally became the chiefmander of the ck-armored army, and he had no time to think about Lily’s appearance just now.


    In fact, ording to Minamoto no Yoritomo and Daitengu’s estimates, even if Tamamo-no-Mae was not injured, the army of 500,000 should have enough power to threaten her, though they might not be able to kill her. However, if the army of 500,000 fought a reckless battle with Tamamo at the cost of heavy casualties, they may be able to kill her, or alternately, they may be able to injure and drive her back with less casualties.


    This was even more so now that Tamamo was seriously injured! This army of 500,000 was Minamoto no Yoritomo’s main fighting force, and even he himself couldn’t stand against this army.


    This army, under themand of the Big Dipper Stage powerhouse, Ueotsune Tane, had enough power to eliminate Tamamo-no-Mae.


    But who could know for sure what happened a thousand years ago?


    Tamamo, who had transformed into a demon fox, was far more powerful than Minamoto no Yoritomo and Daitengu expected!


    Kato looked at the unstoppable ancient beast that ughtered its way into the middle of the army with bloodshot eyes, “It seems that the only way of winning is to use the ultimate battle method taught by His Majesty the Cloistered Emperor!”


    Kato left the frontlines and retreated behind the army.


    He ran to the main formation and shouted to the dharma masters and onmyojis on the high tform, “This supreme archdemon cannot be exterminated unless we use the Great Blood Wish Sacrificial Technique!”


    “Use the Great Blood Wish Sacrificial Technique!”


    All the leaders of the dharma masters and onmyojis revealed hints of cruelty and madness in their eyes.


    Kato ran up to the high tform, amplified his voice with spiritual energy, and shouted to the entire army, “Arrange the formation— the blood wish formation!”


    The formations that came into shape were still made up of tens of thousands of people, but they looked unusual with no obviousyout and changed even while moving, appearing very strange.


    One of the great formations moved to the vicinity of the high tform.


    “Sacrifice!”


    “For the sake of the world!”


    “With our lives, we exchange for the power bestowed by heaven to eradicate the evil demons!”


    Unbelievably, one by one, each ck-armored soldier in the formation drew their swords and pointed them at their own necks. Their eyes hidden behind their ck oni masks shed with a certain kind of wild faith!


    Each of these demon soldiers actually cut their necks and died without hesitation.


    In just a few moments, a great formation consisting of ten thousand peoplemitted suicide


    ¹!


    The blood and souls of thousands of people flew to the high tform on which hundreds of onmyojis and dharma masters cooperated to perform a spell, causing the blood and souls to swirl over the high tform.


    Suddenly, the sky turned dark and bizarre ck lightning bolts descended from above!


    The blood gradually turned ck, and under the joint efforts of all the dharma masters and onmyojis, endless spell runes flew along with the flowing ck blood. Fueled by the stream of power from the spellcasters below, the spell began to affect the ck blood, which was gradually molded into a ck balls of blood. These floating blood balls that swayed in the air exuded an inexplicably strange aura as they flew around the thousands of souls that gathered together and emitted strong light.


    The blood balls collided with each other and converged, enveloping the thousands of souls as well. Gradually, the chaotic and fuzzy image of a giant ck hound took shape, resembling the legendary tengu who eclipsed the moon in ancient times!


    Because the hound wasposed of ck blood, the thousands of fused soul cores that constantly glowed with dark light and flowed around the vicious ck hound’s body could be seen within.


    “Blood Wish· Sacrificial Hound Technique!”


    The hundred-meter-long ck houndposed of blood let out a bizarre howl and suddenly exploded into action, moving at an incredibly fast speed. It turned into a ck evil spirit that pounced towards the nine-tailed fox in an instant.


    The thousand-meter-long body of the nine-tailed fox shook violently and was unexpectedly thrown to the ground by the hound, causing the earth to tremble!


    The hound that was formed from the blood and souls of thousands of demon soldiers threw itself at Tamamo and mauled the area between her waist and abdomen. The head of the hound became blurry due to how fast it was biting and tearing into her flesh!


    Blood gushed out from Tamamo’s body like a tidal wave!


    The nine-tailed fox also let out a terrifying wail!


    “Lady Kimiko!!!” Lily’s long hair danced wildly along with her dress. For some reason, when she saw this hound, Lily felt an uncontroble anger surging in her heart!


    It wasn’t only because the hound was cruelly biting the nine-tailed fox, but it was something more— like an ancient hatred that originated from the depths of life as if the two were natural enemies!


    Although the nine-tailed fox was frantically bitten after being suddenly attacked, the demon fox was much stronger than the hound, after all. It struggled to get up, quickly swiveled its body, and flung the hound away, but the houndtched onto the demon fox persistently, forcing it to retaliate by biting the hound’s back.


    <i>Crack!</i> The hound was bitten into two at the waist, causing its lower body to burst into ck blood that fell to the side, but the hound was still biting firmly onto the demon fox, making blood flow like a river!


    “Lady Kimiko—! This damn vicious dog!”


    “Lily, you can’t go!” Rei pulled Lily back.


    “Let go of me!” Lily forcefully swung Rei away due to the difference in strength and turned into a crimson stream of light that shot towards the hound.


    All of a sudden, the fallen half of the hound that had lost a lot of ck blood started to gather countless spell runes on its flowing surface, turning into an eerie creature with two hind legs and an indistinct,rge mouth. It was a short monster with the head of a dog!


    <i>Whoosh!</i> The demonic creature was extremely fast and dashed over to sink its fangs into Tamamo’s hind legs!


    The demon fox staggered and howled again.


    <i>Bam!</i> Just then, a crimson stream of light flew over!


    Lily’s cursed de prated the body of the strange hound with only two legs!


    The anima flowing within the ck blood seemed to have been subjected to an irresistible force from the cursed de that drew them in, causing them to be sucked into Yasutsuna.


    In just moments, the spiritual flowposed of thousands of anima was sucked dry, causing the ck blood to sag and stter onto the ground, turning into nothing.


    There weren’t many anima in that half, but just as Lily was about to kill the other one, the demon fox began to stomp in agony, almost stepping on her. Lily used the cursed de to absorb the upper half of the hound that bit onto the demon fox’s neck from a long distance, causing it to fall apart. Soon, the remaining spiritual flow and anima were sucked away by Lily’s cursed de, causing the hound to disintegrate.


    However, before that happened, Kato saw the miraculous effect of the blood sacrificial technique on the demon fox, so he ordered more blood formations to start the ritual!


    Tens of thousands of peoplemitted suicide one after another, causing blood and anima to flow endlessly towards the high tform on which the onmyojis and dharma masters cast their eerie spell.


    The nine-tailed fox had no clear consciousness at this time and was actually attracted by several great turtle shell formations. These great formations were divided into hundreds of people who began to purposely provoke the demon fox. Although they were easily dealt with, the casualties were not as great as before since they dispersed just enough to slow down the demon fox.


    And behind, a blurry head of a hound began to take shape on the high tform.


    Looking at the hound that was gradually taking form and exuding a merciless, brutal aura, the hatred deep within Lily’s body began to reach the extreme!


    Lily’s whole person was burning with a ghostly purple aura!


    Ignoring the hundreds of thousands of troops ahead, Lily turned into a purple stream of light that rushed into the vast sea of demon soldiers!


    “Die! These things must die! They must all die!” Lily’s eyes bore an ancient hatred that came from the deepest part of her heart! Even she herself didn’t understand where this hatred came from!


    Although the hundreds of thousands of troops were terrifying, they were scattered across the battlefield within a ten-mile radius, and their goal was only Tamamo.


    There were stillrge gaps between each great formation through which a small female samurai like Lily could find it unusually easy to break into the enemy’s central area. Although some scattered soldiers tried to block her, how could they stop someone like Lily?!


    Those obstacles that blocked her path were all killed.


    Even so, the army’s attention was all focused on the thousand-meter-long demon fox, and not many people noticed that a red-clothed girl had intruded.


    However, even if they noticed her, not many people paid special attention to her. After all, how much impact can a single female samurai have on an army even if she was allowed to kill all she wanted?


    Thus, Lily easily killed her way into the middle of the main formation and faced the high tforms on which hundreds of onmyojis and dharma masters were standing. On each tform, there was an extremely evil hound being condensed.


    “Kill!” Although her hatred was overflowing, Lily remained calm. Her first target was not the partially-formed hound, but the high tform.


    <i>Boom!</i> Lily’s de shed and a crimson de measuring tens of meters long shed at the foot of therge high tform. The high tform was only used to provide an elevated area for casting spells, and although sturdy, how could it stand up to the attack of a peak level Throned Monarch?


    <i>Rumble—!</i> A high tform was cut down by Lily, causing the onmyojis and dharma masters standing on it to fall down one after another.


    Without hesitation, Lily urged her domain to envelop these onmyojis and dharma masters with weak defenses, and soon, scarlet flower des condensed inside, ready to kill


    ²! <h4>References</h4>


    Robinxen: These people are nuts!


    Robinxen: Hurray for intelligently cutting off the source!