Chapter 222: A Failed Plan, A Fated Defeat
The indigo lightning violently retracted back into the blade, leaving behind the sharp, metallic scent of ozone.
Raikiri rested comfortably in Hikaru's right hand. The aggressive humming of the semi-divine artifact gradually subsided, and the residual power of faith clinging to the scabbard fractured into tiny specks of light, scattering into the salty sea breeze.
He stood at the absolute highest point of the Imagawa Mansion's Tenshukaku. Beneath his boots lay the beating heart of the entire Suruga Province.
Wherever his Crimson Demon Eyes swept, the devastation was clear. Out on the sea surface toward Shimizu Port, the catastrophic aftermath of the water wall summoned by the Great Kappa still churned the tides. Broken wooden planks, splintered masts, and tattered sails rose and fell violently among the white-capped waves.
Scattered across the muddy shoal were the remnants of the Oda army—perhaps three or four hundred survivors at most. They were soaked to the bone, disheveled, and gasping for air, looking exactly like a school of dying fish washed ashore by a merciless typhoon.
"Twelve hundred people set out, and only three or four hundred are left." Hikaru sheathed his crackling blade with a smooth, practiced motion. He tilted his head, his tone dry and laced with dark amusement. "Nobuna, your waterborne raid was a bit too rough."
Of course, she couldn't hear him. Across a distance of more than ten li, the words were meant only for the wind.
He lowered his gaze to the translucent blue panel hovering in his vision.
[Raikiri · Sōza Samonji: Favorability +2. Current Favorability: 33.]
The remote summoning had consumed a hefty portion of his energy, but the spike in favorability made it worthwhile. Raikiri genuinely enjoyed being used, especially when that use involved cleaving through flesh and bone. The personality of a semi-divine artifact was refreshingly straightforward.
Hikaru tucked Raikiri back into his sash, settling it alongside Onikiri and Yomikiri. Three legendary blades now rested at his hip. His right hand still gripped the massive hilt of Banryu. The tip of the pale greatsword rested heavily against the ceramic roof tiles, emitting a faint, threatening creak under its sheer weight.
Without another word, he stepped off the edge.
He plummeted straight down from the peak of the Tenshukaku. A four-story drop ended with a completely silent landing in the central courtyard, his undead joints absorbing the kinetic impact flawlessly.
Kikyo was already waiting for him by the stone lanterns. Clad in her pristine white kosode and bright red hakama, her signature Japanese longbow was slung elegantly across her back. Her midnight-black hair fluttered slightly in the coastal breeze. She faced the direction of Shimizu Port, her refined features an unreadable mask of cold detachment.
Yet, Hikaru's sharp eyes caught the subtle tension in her posture—her right index finger rested lightly against the bowstring, ready to draw and fire at a fraction of a second's notice.
"It seems the Great Kappa under your command has halted their advance," Kikyo noted, her voice as clear and cool as spring water. "And that Oda girl... she possesses a very unique constitution. When you summoned Raikiri just now and struck her down, she resurrected."
"I know." Hikaru stepped up beside her, his gaze piercing through the distant coastal pines, locking onto the scattered figures struggling in the shallows.
"The immortality granted by the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven is even more outrageous than Muzan's," he murmured, analyzing the data. "Muzan relies on high-speed cellular regeneration. It has a strict physical basis. Sunlight can incinerate it, a Nichirin Blade to the neck can end it, and sustained, overwhelming damage can exhaust it."
He tightened his grip on Banryu. "She, however, relies on the conceptual power of the Demon King itself. As long as the lingering essence of Papiyas remains anchored within her, that body will never truly be destroyed. It will simply keep recovering, rewinding its state as if regressing time upon her flesh."
He paused, a dark, calculating glint flashing in his eyes. "But it's not completely without a solution."
Kikyo didn't bother asking what that solution entailed. She simply adjusted her grip on her bow and asked, "Shall we go?"
"Let's."
The two figures blurred, vanishing from the courtyard and darting through the shadowed treeline toward the coast.
Down on the chaotic shoal.
Nobuna was finally hauled up from the freezing mud and sand by the sheer physical strength of Katsuie. Half of her outer leather armor had been completely shattered by the lightning strike. Her golden hair was plastered to her face, soaked through with seawater, and the pleated kimono beneath her armor was shockingly heavy with wet sand.
Yet, beneath the ruined fabric, her flesh was flawless. The gruesome, charred wound left by Raikiri's strike had completely vanished in a matter of seconds—the terrifying characteristic of the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven.
It still hurt like hell, though, she thought, gritting her teeth against the phantom agony echoing in her nerves. But she couldn't die.
The moment Nobuna found her footing, she didn't bother checking her catastrophic troop losses. Instead, she snapped her head up, glaring toward the south. She stared at the distant silhouette of the Imagawa Mansion's Tenshukaku—the exact direction the indigo blade had flown back to, and the last place she had seen that terrifying gray figure.
But the roof was empty.
"Ran away?" she spat, wiping a streak of mud from her cheek.
Before the words fully left her mouth, a heavy, rhythmic thudding shook the sand behind her.
The Great Kappa emerged from the churning seawater. Its two-meter-tall, ink-green body lumbered onto the shoal, every massive footstep causing the wet sand to cave in by half a foot. The ghostly blue demonic power swirling within the dish-shaped depression on its head had fully recharged, casting an eerie, aquatic glow over the beach.
It didn't lunge. It didn't attack. It simply stood there like an impenetrable fortress wall, completely blocking the only path from the shoal to the port.
My Lord said to just keep them blocked.
Katsuie roared, raising her heavy battle-axe and stepping squarely in front of Nobuna. Her amber eyes locked onto the towering Yokai. She had engaged the beast head-on several times during the chaotic landing, but even her most devastating, full-force axe cleave had only managed to leave a shallow, white scratch against its hardened scales.
This thing... it's too tough.
"This guy is a monster," Toshiie whimpered, huddling closely behind Katsuie. She held her short sword up to her chest, the tip of the blade trembling violently in the cold wind.
The remaining three hundred Ashigaru were scattered haphazardly across the shallows. Some were still coughing up seawater, while others slumped against jagged reefs, their eyes hollow with shock. There was no formation left. Morale had been completely shattered.
An elite crack troop of twelve hundred men, reduced to a shivering, broken mess by a single demon.
The Kishin was one thing, but for a mere Kappa to possess this level of overwhelming strength?
"What kind of ungodly monsters are hiding in this godforsaken place..." Nobuna cursed under her breath, her golden vertical pupils narrowing.
She knew absolutely nothing about the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons. In reality, the Owari Oda Clan only held territory equivalent to half a province. The idea of a massive, organized, large-scale demon syndicate existing right under humanity's nose was completely foreign to her. Her intelligence network was severely limited; she had no idea that Hikaru had carefully woven a power network of nearly a hundred elite demons across the three provinces of Suruga, Musashi, and Sagami.
She only knew that Yoshimoto had marched out with all the main troops. The rear was supposed to be completely empty.
Now, the bitter truth crashed down on her.
Empty, my foot!
The human soldiers were gone, yes. But the demons had stayed behind. It was a painful, humiliating realization.
Meanwhile, the Great Kappa remained utterly silent. It stood like a wall of dark green scales, neither advancing to slaughter them nor retreating an inch.
Nobuna's eyes darted across the wreckage of the battlefield, her tactical mind racing to find an out. She couldn't defeat the Yokai in a straight fight. She couldn't bypass its massive frame. She lacked the manpower to swarm it, and her karmic fire had been completely exhausted during the lightning strike, rendering it unusable for the time being.
It was a suffocating stalemate.
She opened her mouth, preparing to swallow her pride and order a full retreat to regroup. They had sacrificed too much to get here; she couldn't just give up. She had to find another way.
Hummm.
Another vibration echoed through the air. But this time, it didn't descend from the sky. It came from behind the Great Kappa, echoing from the wooden planks of the harbor.
It came from the ground.
The wet sand and mud of the shallows began to tremble rhythmically. Fine particles of crushed shell and dirt bounced off the earth, reacting to a heavy, approaching pressure.
The Great Kappa slowly turned its massive head. The violent, ghostly blue demonic power churning in its dish-like depression instantly settled into absolute stillness.
And then—it knelt.
The two-meter-tall, terrifying apex predator of the waters dropped heavily onto one knee in the wet sand. It lowered its head, dipping its dish-like depression in a gesture of absolute, unquestioning reverence.
"My Lord," the Yokai rumbled, its voice as deep and heavy as a war drum.
Nobuna's breath hitched. My Lord? Whose Lord?
She followed the Great Kappa's bowed gaze.
At the very end of the harbor's wooden pier, two figures stood side-by-side. She hadn't even heard their approach.
On the left stood a man in gray robes, his long pale hair whipping in the wind, his Crimson Demon Eyes glowing with a chilling, predatory light. On his left hip hung Onikiri. On his right hip rested Yomikiri and the crackling Raikiri. In his right hand, he casually dragged Banryu, a pale greatsword as tall as a grown man.
On the right stood the shrine maiden. White robes, red hakama, her hair flowing like a midnight waterfall. She held her Japanese bow loosely at her side, her expression cold, refined, and untouchable.
The sea breeze howled between them, tangling strands of pale white and pitch-black hair.
It was them. The demon from Okehazama, and the terrifying shrine maiden from the intelligence reports.
Nobuna's pupils contracted to pinpricks before slowly returning to normal. The final puzzle piece clicked into place.
The towering demon that had effortlessly slaughtered nine hundred of her men and stalled her entire army for an hour had just called that gray-robed figure 'My Lord'. That meant this Great Kappa was merely a subordinate. A foot soldier belonging to Kishin Hikaru.
From the very beginning, her brilliant surprise attack had been anticipated and blocked. Not by a human general, but by a demon.
Yoshimoto had taken the human army, leaving no mortal defenders. But this demon had quietly deployed his own Night Parade of One Hundred Demons to lock down Suruga in advance. He had perfectly guarded Yoshimoto's blind spot.
Hikaru stepped off the wooden pier, his boots sinking slightly into the muddy shallows. The heavy tip of Banryu dragged behind him, carving a deep, jagged line through the wet sand.
He looked over the broken remnants of the Oda army. He looked at the drenched, bedraggled form of Nobuna, and at Katsuie, who was desperately gripping her axe to shield her lord.
The terrifying demon mask did not manifest over his face. Instead, he was smiling.
It was a cold, sinister, deeply amused smile. It looked human, yet the absolute lack of empathy behind it was purely demonic.
"Taking the waterway to circle around the rear and raid the base. Playing the time difference to wipe out the foundation while the main force is away on an expedition." Hikaru's voice carried effortlessly over the crashing waves, smooth and mocking. "This strategy is indeed excellent."
He stopped a few paces away, tilting his head slightly. "However."
His Crimson Demon Eyes locked onto Nobuna's golden ones. "Do you know when the last time a daimyo had their rear raided by a fleet was?"
Nobuna's jaw tightened. She obviously couldn't know.
Hikaru didn't mind educating her. "A few months ago."
He leaned forward slightly, resting Banryu against his shoulder. "I had Yoshimoto organize a fleet of five thousand men. We used the power of my demons as a concealment fog to sail north along the inland sea from Suruga, landing directly on the northern coast of Echigo. We caught Kenshin's home base, Kasugayama Castle, completely off guard."
He let the words sink in, his smile widening a fraction. "It forced the God of War to kneel. She had to withdraw her frontline troops overnight just to defend her home, forcing her to spit out the Musashi Province she had just swallowed, retreating in absolute panic."
He paused, letting the crushing weight of his revelation settle over the shivering Oda remnants.
"Raiding the rear by water..." Hikaru scoffed softly. "Everything you're playing with right now is a game I've already beaten."
Nobuna's expression completely froze.
A wave of bitter frustration washed over her—the stinging reality of a failed master plan. But beneath that was a deep, staggering shock.
She had thought she was a genius. She thought she had invented a brilliant, unorthodox move that would flip the entire board.
As it turned out, he had played the exact same move months ago on a much grander scale. And after he finished playing it, he had conveniently buried a wall of demons on the chessboard, specifically designed to crush any latecomers trying to walk the same path.
From start to finish, every single one of her desperate actions had fallen perfectly within his calculations.
This guy...
"Ha... haha..."
In the face of absolute, crushing defeat, Nobuna suddenly threw her head back. Mud streaked across her face, her army was in ruins, and a Kishin stood ready to execute her, but a wild, manic laugh tore from her throat.
"This really is interesting!"
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