Demon Sword Maiden

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At the edge of the deep mountains in the Toraochi Domain, two green demons arrived at the cavern's entrance, dragging a pale, dazed woman behind them.

"We found a woman," one of them said.

"I've never seen anyone like her. She didn't resist, didn't show fear, and hasn't spoken once. We just brought her straight here."

"Is she insane?" the other muttered.

All three demons, including the gatekeeper, stared intently at Shimizu in silence.

"The Lord is occupied. Take her inside and hold her for now," the gate guard instructed.

"Move!" The two demons prodded her forward with clawed hands and spears. Shimizu did not resist, so they made no effort to bind her. They assumed she was merely a broken, deranged woman.

Even the weakest women in Hekiraku Realm were often at the Awakened Stage, but to the green demons, that level was laughably weak.

Suddenly, a faint scream echoed in her mind.

"Lily? Was that you?" She immediately unleashed her spiritual senses and located Lily without hesitation.

"Ah…!" Shimizu cried out. She saw Lily, veiled and surrounded by demons, exactly like the woman in the illusion she had just witnessed.

Although the veil concealed her face, the woman's eyes and demeanor matched the memory. She could not say for certain, but the resemblance was unsettlingly close. Yet the woman in the illusion had felt far more detached, her presence steeped in cold killing intent.

"Agh…!" Shimizu collapsed to her knees, clutching her head as a wave of pain surged through her skull.

"What's happening to her?"

"Is she ill?"

"No, I think she's lost her mind!"

The two demons grew uneasy. Something in Shimizu's aura made them instinctively cautious. Not daring to take chances, they bound her arms with rope and dragged her deeper into the cave.

As the world spun around her, Shimizu barely noticed being dragged. The ancient vision returned, overwhelming her once more.

To her, the face behind Lily's veil merged with the face of the goddess in white. Her vision hurtled toward the woman again, filled with inner conflict and a desire to kill.

"You gave everything for her. Centuries, lifetimes, all thrown away for her sake. And yet, she never truly cared."

"To her, you're nothing more than a shadow. Something that follows, something that can be trampled without a second thought."

"You love her with your whole being, but to her, you are hollow. You are a passing flicker, here one moment and forgotten the next."

The voice curled through her mind like smoke, wrapping around her soul and squeezing. Every word pierced deeper than the last.

"Who are you, really?"

"You are no one. Not to her."

"You were never a woman in her eyes. Only a blade. Only a tool to strike down her enemies."

"A shadow. That is all you have ever been. She is the light, and you will always live in her darkness. She will never see you."

"Enough. Be quiet! Aaah…!" Shimizu screamed. Her soul felt as if it were being ripped apart, unraveling under the weight of a truth she didn't want to accept.

At that moment, a battle unlike any before raged across the land. Colossal demon gods, towering like mountains, surged forward with a tide of darkness behind them. The endless army stretched to the horizon, crashing in like a storm meant to end the world.

Against this overwhelming force, a lone figure clad in white stood motionless, barring their path. With a single stroke of her blade, the tide of darkness was split apart, cutting through legions of demons in an instant.

Blasts of demonic and divine power crashed against her, yet her blade, glowing with pure lunar energy, dispersed them all. It defied belief.

The Celestial Maiden forces had been all but annihilated, their numbers crushed. Still, the enemy forces poured in without end. And yet, in that moment, it felt as if this goddess in white alone could hold back the inevitable destruction of the world. No matter how many enemies rushed her, she remained untouchable.

Shimizu realized she no longer had control over the body in this vision. Her gaze was fixed on the vulnerable back of the goddess in white, who stood against the endless horde.

The hands of the body she inhabited gripped a sword… ancient, unassuming, but radiating sacred power. Its pitch-black blade pulsed with a force that could shake the heavens.

In a blur too fast to comprehend, the blade thrust forward toward the goddess in white.

"No!" Shimizu cried in horror. But this was only a memory, or perhaps an illusion of something that had occurred in an age long past. What could she possibly change?

The divine blade pierced into the goddess' lower back, striking with precision and destroying the core of her strength, the Spirit Palace. The strike landed like a meteor colliding with the moon, sudden and cataclysmic.

Focused entirely on the battlefield ahead, the goddess in white could never have imagined that the most devastating blow would come from behind. The strike came from the one she trusted more than anyone, a woman who had followed her like a silent shadow. The blade itself was no ordinary weapon, but one of the rare divine swords capable of ending her life.

Despite the fatal wound, the goddess in white did not turn around. She drew upon the last reserves of power from her broken Spirit Palace, gathering all she had left. With a single, final swing, she unleashed her remaining strength into the darkness ahead.

The attack cleaved the battlefield so powerfully that it felt as if the three realms themselves had been divided. A massive rift carved into the land radiated with Resentment Energy and sharp blade intent, halting the advancing army of darkness.

Any being that dared to step beyond that scar would meet instant death.

She could have used a portion of her strength to strike down the one who betrayed her, but she chose not to. Every ounce of her energy and fury went into that single blow. Her final act stopped an army that spanned the horizon. It tore open the fabric of the realms themselves, forcing a separation that could not be undone.

Only after everything was done did the goddess slowly turn her head.

"No… no… it wasn't me. I didn't do it," screamed the woman whose memories Shimizu was witnessing, her voice filled with desperation and denial.

The goddess' once pristine white robes were now soaked in red, the stain spreading from the wound that pierced her soul. Even with her face pale from blood loss, her eyes locked onto the woman with a haunting clarity.

Shimizu saw tears on her cheeks, crystal clear and silent, and for the first time in what felt like eternity, she noticed a touch of gentleness in her gaze.

A fierce wind surged from the demonic skies, tearing away the goddess' veil. Beneath the veil was a face Shimizu could never mistake. It was burned into her soul.

"No!" Everything faded into black. Shimizu felt her soul rip itself apart, shattered by the weight of sorrow and regret. Darkness swallowed everything.

Shimizu's screams tore through the silence of the cavern. She thrashed wildly, her hands clawing at the air, as if trying to grasp something that had already slipped away.

"I didn't!" she cried out. "It wasn't me! I didn't kill you!" Her voice cracked with desperation. Her eyes, wide and glassy, stared into nothing. She couldn't see the stone walls around her. She couldn't feel the demons watching her.

One of the green demons guarding her stepped forward. "What's wrong with this one?"

Another snorted. "Maybe she's finally gone mad."

"Strip her down. Let's see if she still dares to scream like that."

The two demons shoved her to the ground and began tearing at her clothes.

"Get away from me!" A surge of violent energy suddenly erupted from her body. With a concussive blast, both demons were blown apart, their bodies reduced to bloodied remains that splattered against the cavern walls.

But Shimizu didn't even flinch. She dropped to her knees, her garments in tatters, her hands gripping her face. Tears streamed from her eyes, and her chest rose and fell with each anguished breath.

"Who was she…?" she whispered. "That goddess in white… Why did she look exactly like Lily?" Her memories rushed back like a flood. That cliff… That moment years ago… When she pushed Lily away. Hadn't she muttered the same words then? "It wasn't me… I didn't do it."

"Lily…" Her voice trembled. "I never meant to hurt you. I never meant to kill you. If you stayed with me, you would've suffered. That's why I pushed you away. I don't deserve to be with you. I never have."

Her sobs echoed through the cavern. "Why? Why didn't you hate me? Why didn't you let me fall into the dark alone?" Overwhelmed, Shimizu collapsed again into unconsciousness.

In the space between memory and illusion, silence reigned.

Stars of white light drifted gently through the vast darkness. They were remnants of powerful beings long since gone. Some floated downward and crystallized on the blackened ground. Others vanished into the wind.

Shimizu found herself observing again, her consciousness suspended inside another's memory.

The woman whose vision she now shared hovered in the air, motionless. A soft speck of light landed on her shoulder. It pulsed faintly, a reminder of the moonlit image of the goddess in white.

The woman raised the same blade that had once pierced the back of that goddess. With trembling hands, she turned it inward.

Another presence stirred within the memory. A separate will tried to stop her, filled with grief and resistance. But the woman, now drowned in guilt and despair, could not be swayed.

She lowered the blade to her stomach. No grief in this world could match hers. No voice could reach her now. She drove the blade into herself.

That strike was meant to end everything, but at the final moment, a force pushed the blade slightly aside. The sword missed the center of her Spirit Palace by the smallest margin.

The woman blinked in confusion.

"Who stopped me?" she whispered. "Why?"

Blood dripped from the wound. Her soul trembled on the edge of departure. As she looked toward the figure who had intervened, she saw someone descending gently in a veil of lunar light.

It was a woman dressed in black Celestial Maiden robes. She looked exactly like her.

"You…" the wounded woman whispered. "I betrayed you. I destroyed you. Why would you still come to save me?"

The vision flickered. The woman's body, still bleeding, fell into the abyss below. Shimizu watched it happen, unable to intervene.

The position of the wound… it matched the one she had seen before. The wound on the Boundless Imperial Princess.

Shimizu's eyes snapped open. She sat up slowly and stared into the darkness of the real cavern. Her body was cold, her heart hollow. Now, she understood.

"This body…" she murmured. "It was mine. And I… I was the one who killed her."