Demon Sword Maiden

Book 5: Chapter 48: The Sounds Of Vengeful Spirits In The Arcane Biwa

“What?!?!?!?” Ibaraki Doji’s frenzied roar echoed from the temple, “My Biwa! Where’s my biwa?!!”

Boom!!! Ibaraki Doji shattered the wooden wall with his claws and pierced the roof on the other side. He looked around, glaring at the horrified women in the corner, “Who took my biwa?! You b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲e̲s̲, take it out for me or I will give you a fate worse than death!”

Ibaraki Doji furiously smashed the beams and pillars, causing a large part of the roof to collapse onto himself. He turned around madly and continued to rampage inside the roof. Smoke and dust billowed inside the room for a while, but only a few women reacted to Ibaraki’s threat as they had already suffered crippling tortures.

“If you don’t hand over the biwa, I will kill you all!” Ibaraki Doji’s eyes flashed menacingly in the mist, overcome by rage.

Clang— Dang—

Suddenly, a wave of penetrating music swept over from afar. It was not from Seimei’s ancient zither, but from an older, more captivating instrument.

“Biwa!” Ibaraki Doji stopped slaughtering the innocent women and climbed onto the roof.

Not far away, Lily was sitting on the doorstep of an old house and holding the biwa in her arms. Her long, jade fingers thrummed the strings occasionally while Kagura stood quietly by the side, holding the parasol for her.

“What?!” Ibaraki Doji was stunned for a moment. Of course, he wasn’t afraid to retrieve the biwa from Lily, but this scene…he seemed to have seen it somewhere before.

It was like, a long, long time ago when he was still a small demon being bullied by people, there was a gentle and elegant goddess who walked amidst the ancient wilderness with a girl holding a parasol1.

At that time, the small Ibaraki who was not even as strong as an ordinary human was not qualified to know the name of the goddess, but he watched her kill powerful demons with the zither in her hands. Even now, he still recalled the palpitations he felt when she slaughtered the fierce, ancient demons!

“Why, this feels so similar…to that woman…but also seems to be different…” Ibaraki Doji looked at Lily blankly.

“What?!” At this time, Hoshi Murasaki had already recovered most of her strength and walked out of the ruins, “The biwa unexpectedly fell into the hands of that woman! B̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲!”

However, right now, everyone’s opponent was undoubtedly Ibaraki Doji. Even though Hoshi Murasaki was upset, she could only put aside her feelings for the time being.

At this time–

The sound of horse hooves and murderous shouts came from the distance. Three or four long dragons composed of countless torches danced in the night, gradually encircling the area around the ruined temple. It was the reinforcements sent by the various clans of the Heian Dynasty.

“Look, there’s the demon!”

The ugly figure of Ibaraki Doji who squatted on the roof of the ruined temple was easily recognizable. The armies of the various clans immediately identified the enemy they were fighting against without needing much confirmation.

From the banners of the armies, it could be seen that the Genji, Taira, and Fujiwara clans were all here! There were also some other martial clans of various sizes.

A man clad in red armor and a white fur helmet shouted, “I am the General of the Right from Konoe Prefecture, Minamoto no Honoka! Rashomon spirit, come forth and die!”

The Genji military general was followed by dozens of tall cavalrymen and hundreds of infantry.

A stalwart samurai in green and gray uniform hurried over with dozens of soldiers under his command, “Makoto Kujo! Rashomon spirit, you have nowhere to run!”

“Fujiwara no Tadafumi!”

“Taira no Mitsutake!”

“I am Taira no Hachiro; I have also come for your life! Demon, do you dare to receive a blow from me?!” Among the hundreds of people from the Taira Clan, there was a lean man with flaming red hair and a long spear on his shoulder. His face was familiar to Lily.

For some reason, this Taira no Hachiro also came to Heian-kyō and joined the samurai army of the Taira Clan.

“Seimei!” An old man arrived with several black-clothed onmyoji masters. It was Kamo Tadayuki.

“Teacher!” Seimei, who was on the roof, saw his teacher who had just arrived.

“Look! Our men from the Bureau of Justice are here too!” Hiromasa pointed to a group of approaching people not far away who were being led by the Minister of Justice, Kimura Saburo, himself!