Chapter 223: You Wouldn't Want...
Even in the suffocating grip of absolute defeat, Oda Nobuna actually laughed.
She genuinely found the situation amusing. Her current state was nothing short of wretched—her armor shattered, her clothes soaked in freezing seawater and caked in mud. Yet, the fierce light burning within her golden eyes blazed even brighter than when her karmic fire had been fully unleashed.
"Interesting," she murmured, the word rolling off her tongue with a defiant lilt.
Shibata Katsuie immediately stepped in front of her lord. The fierce warrior held her massive iron axe horizontally, her amber eyes locked onto the gray-clad figure standing opposite them. Every muscle in Katsuie's body coiled tight as a drawn bowstring. Behind her broad back, Maeda Toshiie cowered, clutching a short sword tight against her chest. The blade's tip trembled violently in the cold sea breeze.
Across the muddy shallows, the remnants of the Oda army—barely three or four hundred Ashigaru—lay scattered like broken driftwood. Some were still dragging their battered bodies out of the freezing surf, while others simply slumped into the wet sand, hacking up seawater and gasping for air. None dared to move a muscle. They lacked the strength to even lift their heads to watch the confrontation unfolding before them.
Off to the side, the Great Kappa knelt in the surf. Its towering two-meter-tall, dark green body remained bowed in absolute reverence to its master.
At the very edge of the wooden pier stood Kobe Hikaru. His right hand rested casually on the hilt of Banryu, while Kikyo stood quietly at his side.
The disparity in power was suffocating. An absolute, crushing advantage.
On one side stood an Eighth Transformation high-level demon, a Ninth Transformation demon whose actual combat prowess rivaled a top-tier Twelfth Transformation, and one of the most terrifyingly powerful shrine maidens of the entire Sengoku period.
Opposing them were a few hundred half-drowned stragglers, an incarnation of a Demon King entirely drained of her karmic fire, and a Divine Artifact Princess Warrior who couldn't even defeat a Great Kappa in a one-on-one brawl.
There was zero suspense remaining in this battle.
Yet, in this hopeless moment, Nobuna took a deliberate step forward.
Katsuie immediately threw out an arm to block her path. "My Lord—"
"Step aside," Nobuna commanded, her tone leaving no room for argument.
She roughly brushed Katsuie's arm away. Her bare feet sank into the freezing, wet sand as she walked toward Hikaru, step by measured step. The ruined hem of her kimono dragged heavily through the muck, soaking up more freezing seawater and grit with every movement. She possessed no karmic fire, carried no weapons, and her leather armor hung in useless, shattered strips.
Still, she walked forward without a single ounce of hesitation.
She finally halted just a few paces away from the undead samurai. The biting sea breeze swept between the demon and the human, wildly whipping Hikaru's pale hair and Nobuna's golden locks into the air.
"Kishin Hikaru," she stated, addressing him by his full title.
Hikaru merely lowered his gaze, his expression deadpan. He offered no verbal response. Since her physical vessel couldn't be permanently killed anyway, he felt absolutely no rush to strike her down. He was mildly curious to see what she intended to do. It wasn't as if she could magically pull a desperate comeback out of thin air, right?
Nobuna stared intently into his face, searching his crimson eyes. When she finally spoke, her pace was slow, ensuring every single syllable landed with absolute clarity.
"What exactly is your relationship with Imagawa Yoshimoto?"
"Cooperation," Hikaru replied dryly.
"Just cooperation?"
"What do you think?"
Nobuna tilted her head. A heavy clump of wet golden hair slid off her shoulder, exposing the sharp, clean curve of her jawline. "If it is merely cooperation, then... I think you deserve a far better partner than Imagawa Yoshimoto."
This time, Hikaru didn't bother replying. Kikyo remained perfectly still, her longbow resting casually by her side. The shrine maiden's cold, crystal-clear gaze settled calmly upon the arrogant blonde girl.
Unfazed by the silence, Nobuna pressed on. "Imagawa Yoshimoto commands seven thousand men, holds the wealth of three entire provinces, and bears the title of the number one archer in the Tokaido. On paper, she looks incredibly strong." A mocking smirk tugged at her lips. "But she is terrified of death. She only dared to step out of hiding after Katsuie hacked a bloody path straight to her main tent. If you hadn't arrived exactly when you did, she would already be a headless corpse. Someone who fears death that much can never go very far in this world."
She delivered the assessment bluntly, her tone dripping with mean-spirited venom.
Yet, Hikaru noticed a subtle nuance in her voice. When Nobuna spoke those words, she wasn't merely trying to belittle Yoshimoto out of petty spite. She was coldly presenting a tactical fact, setting up a direct comparison.
"I, however, am not afraid of death." Nobuna boldly patted her own chest, right over the spot where a fatal wound had just miraculously closed. Through the torn, soaked fabric of her kimono, a patch of tender, pink new skin was clearly visible just below her collarbone. "You cleaved me in half with a blade, and I came back to life. You blasted me to ash with lightning, and I came back to life."
She spread her arms slightly, a manic confidence radiating from her battered form. "The physical vessel of the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven simply will not die. Imagawa Yoshimoto will die. Not to mention that arrogant archer, even someone as brilliant in military strategy as Uesugi Kenshin will eventually die and be replaced by a successor. Someone as powerful and valiant as Takeda Shingen will suffer the exact same fate. And after they are replaced, their successors might not possess a fraction of their original glory."
She took another step closer. "But I won't. If you cooperate with a mortal who is destined to rot, what will you do when she inevitably perishes? Cooperate with me instead." Her golden, slit-like pupils stared fiercely straight into his Crimson Demon Eyes. "Only I can elevate you to become the true guardian deity of this world. Besides, a Demon King and a Demon God are naturally meant to stand side by side!"
As an incarnation of a god or demon descended into the mortal realm, Nobuna naturally understood the cycle of replacement among the divine and the demonic. Although her current intelligence network hadn't yet informed her that the current Uesugi Kenshin was already a second-generation successor, that minor detail did nothing to lessen her absolute disdain for those of her own kind who required mortal replacement to continue their legacy.
As her bold declaration faded into the cold air, a heavy silence descended over the muddy shoal. The rhythmic crashing of the ocean waves against the shoreline seemed violently magnified in the quiet.
Behind her, Katsuie stood rigid, her knuckles white around the haft of her axe, her amber eyes wide and unblinking. Toshiie shrank even further back into the shadows, her large eyes darting around nervously as she mentally groaned, realizing her lord was attempting one of her insane gambles yet again.
The Great Kappa remained kneeling in the surf, showing absolutely no reaction to the dramatic speech. The yokai's mind was delightfully simple. Having been thoroughly broken and subdued by Hikaru through a calculated mix of brutal violence and rewarding kindness, it now existed solely to obey its master's commands.
Kikyo also remained perfectly quiet. Her beautiful features showed zero emotional fluctuation, looking completely detached from the political drama playing out before her. She would silently support whatever decision Hikaru chose to make.
Hikaru quietly observed the fifteen-or-sixteen-year-old girl standing before him. Her golden hair was plastered to her skull by seawater, her kimono was shredded, and her pale skin was smeared with filthy mud and sand. Her entire army had just been systematically decimated. Every single one of her grand tactical plans had crumbled to dust. She was physically trapped on a freezing shoal, utterly unable to advance or retreat.
Any other Sengoku daimyo placed in this exact scenario would have long since dropped to their knees to beg for mercy, or drawn a blade to commit seppuku to preserve their honor.
Yet, she was entirely different. Instead of crying, she immediately attempted to recruit the monster who had just slaughtered her forces. And she did so with an aura of absolute, righteous confidence.
Hikaru silently admitted that this bizarre woman possessed a spark he had never seen in Yoshimoto.
Yoshimoto was undeniably smart. She possessed courage and a grand vision for the future. But at her very core, Yoshimoto was deeply conservative. What the Imagawa leader truly craved was stability, an unshakable sense of security, and the absolute minimization of all tactical risks. Her plan was methodical: secure the Tokaido first, slowly absorb the Kanto region, carefully march on Kyoto, and only then, claim the world. Every single step had to be perfectly calculated.
Nobuna was a different beast entirely. She wanted the entire world, right from the very beginning.
Armed with nothing but the territory of half a province and a meager force of twelve hundred men, she had possessed the sheer audacity to launch two consecutive surprise attacks. The second strike had even used a treacherous water route to ambush the vulnerable rear of a massive three-province daimyo. This wasn't mere military madness; it was a high-stakes gamble with her life on the line. If she won the bet, she would flip the entire board and claim ultimate victory. If she lost, her entire army would be wiped from the face of the earth.
Beyond her insane temperament, there were other aspects about her that seemed truly... special. Even when compared to legendary figures like Takeda Shingen or Uesugi Kenshin, she stood out.
As he analyzed her, Hikaru suddenly noticed something else. The passive "Truth-Seeing" talent of the Black Pearl Agate secured on his person hummed to life, pulsing with a faint, mystical energy.
His crimson gaze effortlessly pierced through the mundane illusions visible to the naked eye, locking onto the empty space directly behind Nobuna. There, hovering in the ethereal plane, were the massive phantom images of her guardian spirits.
Even though the province of Owari was pitifully small, and Nobuna was still lightyears away from actually claiming the title of 'ruler of the world,' she already possessed guardian spirits. And she didn't just have one.
There were two.
Hovering to her left was a magnificent golden peacock, possessing three glowing eyes upon its head. Hikaru recognized it instantly: the Heavenly Eye Peacock, a legendary spirit beast from Esoteric Buddhism that symbolized divine insight and absolute foresight.
To her right prowled a terrifying black beast. It boasted the muscular body of a tiger, a long, sinuous tail resembling a venomous snake, and four heavy paws that tread upon dark, swirling clouds. The kanji for 'Martial' was boldly branded across its forehead. This was the Hyōbi-shin—the absolute guardian of the military, a brutal entity symbolizing endless conquest and utter destruction.
Dual guardian spirits. Hikaru, who had only ever witnessed a single majestic white elephant guarding Yoshimoto, now stared at two distinct divine entities bound to Nobuna.
However, as his Crimson Demon Eyes narrowed, he realized something was horribly wrong with the phantom images.
The radiant wings of the Heavenly Eye Peacock were tightly bound by thick, dark red chains. The sinister texture and heat radiating from those chains perfectly matched the vile Red Lotus Karmic Fire burning deep inside Nobuna's soul.
Similarly, the four cloud-treading paws of the Hyōbi-shin were violently entangled by the exact same dark red flames, searing the beast's flesh as if branding it with a slave's mark.
These spirits were not free. They were nothing like the naturally condensed guardian spirits born from the pure convergence of a ruler's destiny and the faith of their people. Nor were they divine gifts willingly bestowed by a higher entity.
Instead, they were being forcibly, brutally controlled. They were locked in a spiritual cage forged by the karmic fire of the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven. They hadn't been earned; they had been occupied. Plundered.
This horrifying revelation seemed to expose the true, insidious characteristic of the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven's descent. It wasn't merely about physical immortality; it was the terrifying ability to violently devour the fortune of others and steal their guardian spirits for herself.
Who did these two majestic spirits originally belong to? Hikaru had no way of knowing. Perhaps they belonged to powerful opponents Nobuna had slain on the battlefield. Perhaps they were stripped from the leaders of factions she had ruthlessly annexed. Or perhaps... they had been plundered directly from her own flesh-and-blood brother when she murdered him to usurp the Oda clan's throne.
Regardless of their original source, only one logical conclusion remained.
The true terror of the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven extended far, far beyond the simple concept of immortality. She was a parasite of destiny. She could actively plunder the fate, luck, and popular support that others had spent their entire lives accumulating, forcefully twisting it for her own use. The more enemies she slaughtered, the stronger her destiny became. The more wars she waged, the more her personal fortune prospered.
This was the true, terrifying essence of Papiyas—the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven of the Desire Realm. She existed to consume the desires, ambitions, and fortunes of all living beings, hoarding them as her own.
In the original historical trajectory, she would eventually use the ruthless slogan 'Tenka Fubu'—Rule the Empire by Force—to dominate all of Japan. Looking at her now, that slogan seemed entirely literal: violently stepping on everything in the world and devouring it all to feed her own ascension.
Countless thoughts surged rapidly through Hikaru's pragmatic mind. Finally, he broke the silence.
"You claim to be immortal?" he asked, his tone laced with dry amusement. "If you ask me, that's actually highly debatable."
Nobuna's confident smile instantly froze on her face.
Because in the very next instant, Kikyo moved.
The shrine maiden wasted no time with unnecessary gestures. She gave no verbal cues, required no spoken orders, and didn't even bother to glance in Hikaru's direction. Their tacit coordination was flawless, born of absolute trust. Kikyo simply pressed her pale palms together, and a terrifying wave of pure spiritual power violently surged from her hands.
This energy was not meant to dispel evil, nor was it forming a defensive barrier. It was a far purer, far more dangerous application of her immense spiritual power—a Seal.
The blinding energy instantly transformed into countless white threads of light, each one as thin and delicate as spider silk. The threads shot out rapidly from between Kikyo's palms, crisscrossing and weaving themselves into a dense, inescapable net in the cold air.
The glowing net wasn't particularly large, covering an area of no more than ten paces. Yet, every single thread vibrated with the shrine maiden's suffocating spiritual pressure. It carried no killing intent. It wasn't designed to harm flesh, nor was it meant to purify demonic taint.
Its sole purpose was absolute sealing. It was designed to violently lock away all of a target's power, freeze all physical changes, and crush all future possibilities inside an inescapable 'container.' Once trapped inside, the victim would never, ever come out again.
Nobuna couldn't maintain her arrogant smile. She stumbled two steps backward, her bare feet slipping wildly in the wet mud, nearly sending her crashing to the ground.
Immortal? Yes, she would not die. The physical vessel of the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven could be brutally destroyed ten thousand times, and it would flawlessly regenerate ten thousand times.
But if she were sealed by this magic... then dying wouldn't even be an option. It would mean being trapped alive inside a suffocating cage she could never escape from. She would be locked in the dark forever, forever, and forever.
Hikaru mentally compared her to the other immortal entity he had encountered in his past.
The Progenitor of Demons, Kibutsuji Muzan, did not fear sealing techniques because he possessed the cowardly ability to infinitely divide his flesh. He kept biological backups scattered all over the world; if one piece was sealed away, thousands more remained free. Muzan could only be completely annihilated by overwhelming and breaking his monstrous regeneration.
But Nobuna was entirely different. The divine power of the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven was absolutely bound to this singular physical body. She possessed no flesh clones, no hidden backups. Once she was sealed, it was game over.
Nobuna's composed facade completely shattered.
Ultimately, the so-called 'great figures' destined to pass their legendary names down through the annals of history were still fundamentally human. And as humans, they harbored glaring weaknesses, desperate dependencies, and deep-seated fears. Hikaru knew better than to overestimate the high-ranking elites, just as he knew never to despise the low-ranking peasants. At its core, human nature remained exactly the same across all classes. People utterly devoid of fear or surprise certainly existed, but that emptiness usually signified a complete lack of worldly desire and hope. Such hollow individuals were the least likely to ever step onto the grand stage of history.
Hikaru had always firmly believed in this pragmatic philosophy.
Meanwhile, the glowing net of sealing continued its relentless advance, closing in on the terrified warlord. Kikyo's beautiful features remained as cold as ice, completely devoid of any killing intent. She looked as though she were merely sweeping the shrine courtyard—a mundane daily chore.
Nobuna scrambled backward desperately. Seeing her lord in peril, Katsuie roared and raised her massive axe to block the front. The latent power of her divine artifact exploded from the heavy blade, radiating a fierce grey-iron light. The delicate white threads hissed violently as they collided with the artifact's aura, but they refused to break.
Like phantoms, the spiritual threads simply phased right through the solid iron axe blade, continuing their terrifying descent toward Nobuna. Divine artifacts possessed the innate ability to suppress extraordinary powers, but the sheer, terrifying purity of Kikyo's spiritual energy was simply too overwhelming. Even Uesugi Kenshin, the literal avatar of the war god Bishamonten, would struggle to suppress this level of power, let alone a brute-force warrior like Shibata Katsuie.
True, unadulterated panic finally shattered the arrogance in Nobuna's golden eyes.
Fortunately for the Demon King, the sealing process abruptly halted.
Kikyo smoothly withdrew her hands, and the glowing white threads instantly froze a mere three feet away from Nobuna's face. They remained suspended in the cold air, refusing to advance a single inch further.
Hikaru remained standing exactly where he was, his Crimson Demon Eyes calmly observing Nobuna's stiff, trembling body. He had never intended to let Kikyo actually complete the seal. He had understood from the very beginning that the battered girl standing before him was no longer a threat. In fact, if he could successfully break her spirit and subdue her here, she would provide him with an incredibly valuable bargaining chip for his eventual 'march on Kyoto'.
Therefore, he offered a lesson instead of a cage.
"Consider this a warning," Hikaru stated, his voice cutting through the sound of the crashing waves. "Immortality is indeed a fantastic bargaining chip. But simply not dying does not make you invincible."
He tilted his head slightly, his tone mocking. "You are absolutely right. Imagawa will die. The Takeda Clan will die. The Uesugi Clan will die. But you? You will be locked inside a dark box for all eternity. I suggest you think very carefully about which fate is worse."
Nobuna stood frozen, completely surrounded by the terrifying web of sealing threads. Her chest he heave violently as she gasped for breath, the cold reality of her situation finally crashing down upon her. The defiant flames burning within her golden eyes flickered uncertainly for a long, tense moment.
Finally, she spoke. Her voice was significantly lower, stripped of its former arrogant bravado.
"...What exactly do you want from me?"
Hikaru didn't bother answering her question. Instead, he simply turned his back on the defeated warlord and began walking casually back toward the wooden jetty.
Taking the cue, Kikyo withdrew her spiritual power. The terrifying white threads instantly dissolved into the sea breeze, vanishing like morning mist. The shrine maiden shot one final, indifferent glance at Nobuna before turning to follow her master.
The unspoken message was blatantly self-evident: You are not in a position to demand answers.
Soon, only the battered remnants of the Oda army and the kneeling Great Kappa remained on the muddy shoal. Nobuna stood exactly where she was, her bare feet sinking deeper into the freezing mud and sand. The biting sea breeze whipped at the tattered fragments of her ruined kimono, the fabric snapping loudly in the quiet air.
Katsuie slowly approached her side, her voice low and filled with concern. "My lord..."
"Shut up," Nobuna snapped, her voice muffled and strained. She lowered her head, allowing her wet golden hair to fall forward and obscure half of her face. "Just... let me think."
But in reality, there was nothing left to think about. She was completely, utterly helpless.
At some unknown point during their confrontation, a thick, unnatural fog had silently rolled in from the sea. Within the swirling gray mist, hundreds of shadowy, monstrous figures lurked—all of them bloodthirsty yokai. They were the minor demons under the direct command of the Great Kappa, serving as the terrifying Hyakki Yagyo escorting Hikaru's forces.
Now that the demonic encirclement was complete, there was absolutely no avenue of escape left for the mortal army.
It was truly over.
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