Volume 13 - Takamagahara: Chapter 121 - The Lost Sky

“Urgh!” Kunhiza staggered backward involuntarily. Half of one shoulder, along with the entire arm, had been severed away, leaving behind a gruesome sight. Under the annihilating power of the Silver Lunar Force, his body bled uncontrollably. He had been gravely wounded.

After only a few exchanges, aside from Kunhiza… Kuroyoku, wounded. Kujaku Myōō, wounded. Kuralan-Chiyu, wounded. The Silver-Armored Supreme God, dead. Mudobozu, mute.

Although most of the Supreme Gods had suffered only minor injuries, their fighting spirit had already begun to waver.

Figures like Kujaku Myōō bore no irreconcilable hatred toward Lily. As for the Abyssal Demon Gods, while they certainly had grievances against her, it was far from the kind of hatred that demanded one side’s complete destruction.

At the end of the day, they had simply coveted her beauty and the peerless divine sword in her hands. They wanted to possess her and seize her treasures.

No matter how precious a treasure was, one still needed to stay alive to enjoy it. No matter how beautiful a woman was, one still needed to survive to claim her.

The gathered Supreme Gods hesitated. After only a handful of exchanges, every one of them had been wounded, yet Lily, aside from the tattered state of her clothing, remained completely uninjured. Not a single mark could be found upon her exquisite skin.

The sword in her hand felt like an extension of her own body, elevating her already divine swordsmanship to an utterly unfathomable realm. How was anyone supposed to fight that?

Even Kunhiza’s injuries were far from enough to prevent him from continuing the battle. If all the Supreme Gods and the million gods and demons fought desperately, they could certainly inflict devastating wounds upon Lily. Yet even then, killing her was far from guaranteed, and some of them would likely perish in the process.

Likewise, even if Lily exhausted all of her divine power, she could never slaughter the entire million-strong host. But with that peerless divine sword in her possession, even if every Supreme God and every god and demon fought to the death, after suffering catastrophic losses, they still might not be able to stop her.

The Supreme Gods hesitated. In a battle between experts of such a supreme level, a single moment of hesitation was decisive. Lily did not hesitate. Nor did she intend to prolong the fight. She immediately turned and retreated into the distance together with Nanako.

“Damn you! Stop right there!” Kujaku Myōō and the others were unwilling to let her escape. The countless gods and demons were equally unwilling.

They continued pursuing her for a time, hurling several treasures at her while the surrounding gods and demons unleashed wave after wave of attacks. Most of the ordinary gods’ and demons’ attacks were effortlessly evaded, and even those that landed only consumed a portion of Lily’s divine power. The treasures wielded by the Supreme Gods caused her some inconvenience, but because none of them were determined enough to risk their lives and engage her in close combat, the only result was further damage to her clothing. They failed to inflict any truly meaningful injuries.

As the pursuit continued, the distance between Lily and the Supreme Gods only grew wider until, in the end, they finally gave up. There was simply nothing they could do to stop her.

They could only watch helplessly as Lily disappeared into the distance, taking with her the divine sword forged from every Oborozuki soul, along with the treasures she had seized from the powerful foes she had slain.

The Supreme Gods and the million gods and demons had journeyed all the way to the Celestial Demon Path, enduring countless brutal battles. In the end, it had all been for nothing. Not only had they gained absolutely nothing, they had suffered tremendous losses.

“Damn it all!” Kuroyoku roared as he smashed a gigantic mountain peak into pieces with a single punch.

After using a Miracle Treasure, Kujaku Myōō had only barely managed to heal his wounds. Even then, he still had to wrap bandages tightly around his waist to stop the bleeding. Shaking his head helplessly, he sighed. “What kind of battle was this? We did nothing but humiliate ourselves. Let’s go. Let’s all go home.”

Mudobozu muttered, “Awoo… Iwahao…”

The remaining Supreme Gods and demon gods all wore expressions as lifeless as ashes. Even the million gods and demons had completely lost their earlier arrogance.

A million gods and demons joining forces to threaten, surround, and intimidate a single woman had already been disgraceful enough. Yet that very woman had proceeded to kill them, seize their treasures, and walk away completely unscathed, as though the million gods and demons existed solely to serve as her personal treasure vault. It was a humiliation beyond words.

The remaining million gods and demons, despite belonging to the factions of High Heaven and Yomi, and despite many of them still harboring grudges against one another, had all seen their morale sink to rock bottom. None had any desire to continue fighting. Slowly, the massive host dispersed and withdrew in every direction.

This expedition to the Celestial Demon Path in search of treasure had been nothing but an unbearable humiliation.

“Kagami Lily! Even if I can’t beat you, I’ll damn well humiliate you in my imagination! Hahaha! What are you gonna do about that? Hahahahahaha!” one burly powerhouse laughed with near-insane madness.

“I’m going to write a book about Lily being defeated and punished by our million gods and demons! I’ll spread it throughout the Three Realms and make that woman furious!” shouted a scholarly Kegaretsu Fortune God as he wildly brandished his enormous writing brush.

Yet such voices only made the atmosphere of the retreating million gods and demons seem even more pitiful.

Several days later, in an inconceivable corner of the Celestial Demon Path… Nanako and Lily finally discovered the last remaining Corona Force.

“So it was here?” Even Lily found it difficult to believe. “No wonder we never found it before. This place seems so obvious, yet at the same time it’s unbelievably easy to overlook.”

Indeed, the final Corona Force was located only about a thousand miles beyond the corner behind the entrance to the Human Realm.

Psychologically speaking, after emerging from the Human Realm’s exit, Lily and the others would never have thought to return and search the area so carefully. As a result, this location had become a blind spot in their search.

Now, with the struggle over the Oborozuki souls finally behind them, they were able to calm themselves and conduct a thorough search. At last, they had found it.

Nanako activated her secret art. Her short skirt fluttered gently, while beneath her white stockings, her tiny wooden sandals lightly tapped the air. Her twintails swayed behind her, and her expression was solemn and sacred.

Above her head, the Sakura Parasol slowly revolved, drawing the Corona Force into itself. Once the absorption was complete, Nanako lowered the parasol, her heart overflowing with joy.

“Wonderful.” Lily smiled brightly as well. “We’ve finally obtained the twelfth Corona Force, and I’ve finally acquired the Sword of Tsukuyomi no Mikoto. This journey through the Celestial Demon Path has been long, arduous, and full of danger, but in the end… it has reached a perfect conclusion.”

“Yes, Sister…” Nanako replied with a smile as she lowered the Sakura Parasol. But before her words had fully faded…

Vmmmm!

An unimaginable surge of golden power violently erupted within the Sakura Parasol. The entire parasol suddenly shot upward like an untamed beast breaking free of its reins.

“Ah!” Nanako gasped. Instinctively, she gripped the parasol with both hands and poured all her strength into suppressing it, but she was still dragged skyward, as though being carried away by an unimaginably powerful arrow.

“Nanako!?” Startled, Lily had no idea what was happening. She instantly leaped after her, wrapped an arm around Nanako’s waist, and asked anxiously, “What’s going on?”

“I-I don’t know!” Nanako’s twintails whipped about wildly. “The… the twelve Corona Forces inside the parasol have fused together, but… but they don’t seem stable. Those powers are erupting inside it! I… I can’t hold them back anymore!”

“Nanako, hang on! Stay calm! Think back to Senior Sister’s secret art!” Lily had no way to control the Corona Force herself and could only encourage Nanako.

“Y-Yes… I… I can’t… I can’t hold it anymore! It’s… it’s going to… Ahhh!!!”

Boom!

The Sakura Parasol burst open against Nanako’s will and rapidly expanded into a colossal umbrella that blotted out the heavens. Beneath it, a strange gravitational force erupted. The pull was irresistible, drawing Nanako helplessly toward it.

There was no way Lily could abandon her. She grabbed Nanako with all her strength, but instead of pulling her back, both of them were dragged into the parasol together.

After swallowing Lily and Nanako, the Sakura Parasol’s radiance faded. It quietly folded itself shut once more and dropped onto an inconspicuous pile of rocks somewhere upon the Celestial Demon Battlefield.

No one knew how much time had passed.

Lily slowly opened her eyes. Ordinarily, lying on her back, she would have expected to see either the open sky or the ceiling of a cavern. Instead, what greeted her was an unimaginably enormous parasol, its surface appearing faintly crimson through the surrounding mist.

The parasol was so vast that it nearly covered the entire sky. It was as though, in this world, the parasol itself was the heavens.

Nanako lay beside Lily and slowly stirred awake as well. The two of them found themselves seated beside an ancient stone well amid an overgrown field of weeds behind a cluster of dilapidated old houses.

“W-Where… are we?” Lily asked, utterly bewildered.

Nanako shook her head. “I… I remember us being pulled into the Sakura Parasol. Could… could this be the world inside the Sakura Parasol?”

Within Herikaku City lay the entrance to the Hekiraku Realm. The Sakura Parasol was likewise a peerless Miracle Treasure, so it was entirely possible that it too connected to a separate pocket world.

Looking up at the gigantic parasol spanning the heavens, Lily nodded blankly. “This should be the world inside the Sakura Parasol. I’m certain of it.”

“How could something like this happen?” Nanako asked in disbelief.

“It seemed you couldn’t fully control the complete fusion of the twelve Corona Forces… and then we were drawn in here.”

“I’m sorry, Sister Lily…”

Lily answered with a gentle smile. “It’s alright. We’ll find a way out. The Sakura Parasol has been my treasure for many years. Even if it drew us inside itself, it wouldn’t deliberately harm us, would it?”

“…Sister…” A warm feeling welled up within Nanako’s heart.

“At the very least,” Lily chuckled, “we probably won’t have to worry about rain here.”

“Mhm.” Nanako nodded. Yet before her words had even settled… Misty vapor suddenly began rising from the ground. Droplets of water emerged from the grass like morning dew, then shot straight upward from the earth toward the sky.

Within moments, it formed a torrential rain that flowed in reverse, as though time itself had been rewound, pouring from below upward. Lily and Nanako were instantly drenched from beneath their skirts.

“……”

“W-What kind of place is this? The rain… falls upward?”

The rain stopped after only a short while.

Lily stood there blankly, her cheeks flushed scarlet with embarrassment as streams of water continued to drip between her legs. More astonishingly, the water did not trickle downward along her thighs. Instead, it soaked into her panties before flowing upward across her lower abdomen, continuing over her chest until droplets carrying the faint fragrance of the young maiden streamed from her bosom and drifted toward the sky.

Nanako was equally flustered and could only shake her head. “I… I don’t understand either…”

Splash… Splash…

The sound of rushing water echoed from the distance.

Lily and Nanako walked forward. Beyond the overgrown field behind the ruined houses lay a canyon shrouded in mist. They peered into its depths.

“Eh? Nanako, look! The torrent inside the canyon is flowing from the low ground… up toward the higher ground!”

“How strange!”

Following the rushing current with their eyes, they saw that its destination was a waterfall deep within the mountains. Even the waterfall flowed in reverse. White torrents roared thunderously as they surged upward toward the mountaintop.

Lily was completely dumbfounded.

After thinking for a moment, she slipped one finger into her mouth. Her glossy, moist cherry lips gently enveloped it before she slowly withdrew her finger, drawing out a delicate crystalline strand of saliva.

Yet to her astonishment, the saliva clinging to her fingertip trembled, rolled onto the back of her finger, gathered into a tiny droplet, and then flowed upward.

“Eh!?”

“How is that possible?”

Both girls stared in utter amazement.

Just then, a crow flew across the sky, narrowly avoiding the droplet of Lily’s saliva as it shot upward. The crow flapped its wings and actually spoke in human language. “Hey! What are you doing!? Why are you spitting everywhere, woman? That’s disgusting!”

“Eh!?” Lily’s entire body shuddered as the words struck her with overwhelming shock.

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