Chapter 584: A Special Demon God?

Leraje, Agares, Amon, Paimon?

Listening to the blonde girl's words, Katsura Kotonoha's mind went completely blank. According to the records in that tome, every one of these was a Demon God's name!

Leraje especially.

Katsura Kotonoha had come to this place precisely because the tome recorded Leraje's location as being here. But what was the deal with those other names? Was this, again, some kind of fusion-type Demon God?

And besides, how did this girl know of the Demon God's existence? And from her tone, she seemed rather familiar with it? "It's been a long time" is not something an ordinary relationship could produce.

Katsura Kotonoha's eyes fixed hard on the blonde girl, her curiosity about the girl's identity burning.

"What's going on right now? Why has the Demon God stopped moving?" Janet asked, utterly puzzled.

She lacked Kotonoha's unreasonable night-vision, so she could neither see the blonde girl nor hear her exchange with the Demon God.

"It's run into an acquaintance," Katsura Kotonoha explained softly.

An acquaintance?

Janet froze, dumbfounded. She thought her friend was trying to make her laugh. A deranged Demon God like this had acquaintances?!

"Stay hidden right here. I'm about to make my move." Paying no mind to the stupefaction on Janet's face, Katsura Kotonoha said it plainly.

From what she could see, this human-arm-like "Demon God" showed none of the joy of meeting an acquaintance, or perhaps the joy had simply overflowed. Beneath its eye, a horrific gash had already split open, slowly widening like a mouth.

It clearly intended to swallow the "acquaintance" before it.

The blonde girl showed no panic or fear, her pale cheeks holding neither sorrow nor joy. "I always knew this day would come. Very well. This human self of mine has lived long enough, in truth."

The palm's shadow gradually descended, its gaping mouth moments from touching her skull.

Shlk.

But at that moment, a thread of cold light flashed into being.

The sword qi punched clean through the right side of the great palm, leaving behind a horrific wound. Blackish-red blood sprayed high, spattering everywhere like a fountain.

Shff.

Katsura Kotonoha's figure appeared, long blade in hand, her brow faintly knitted. She hadn't expected this Demon God to be so durable, a single strike of hers had failed to sever its wrist.

"Anbani!"

"Gonglaga!"

The Demon God's wounding spread terror across the faces of the natives present, and they screamed as they charged at Katsura Kotonoha, the culprit.

So noisy.

Katsura Kotonoha showed these disgusting headhunters no courtesy, either. Her index finger extended toward their onrushing direction, and her lips parted lightly. "Hadō #4. Byakurai!"

CRUNCH-BOOM.

Dazzling, blazing-white lightning burst forth, its radiance lighting the entire region bright as day.

When the white light faded, the natives who had been charging at Katsura Kotonoha were mostly dead, and the survivors lay prostrate on the ground, trembling.

To these remaining natives, this black-haired rice-meat was no meat at all, she was a demon! No wonder she could wound the great god. This was war between god and devil! Little ants like them should never have meddled in it.

"Well. At least you have some discernment." A cold smile touched Katsura Kotonoha's lips as she regarded the terrified headhunters.

These worshippers of the Demon God were clearly no innocents, and killing them weighed not the slightest on Katsura Kotonoha's conscience.

"To think a being like you existed among humans. How surprising." The blonde girl spoke up suddenly, gazing at Katsura Kotonoha. "It seems that even after a thousand years, you are still sheltered by the Father."

"Father?" Katsura Kotonoha tilted her head, bewildered.

"You don't know?" The blonde girl's brow creased, her tone still devoid of sorrow or joy. "How strange. Did your power not come from the Father?"

Katsura Kotonoha arched a brow and was about to answer when the dark clouds overhead suddenly bore down. The colossal palm, as if it could blot out the very sky, came pressing down upon her head.

Without dodging or evading, Katsura Kotonoha caressed her blade with one hand and spoke, her voice cold and clear: "Bankai. Mirror Void."

Crreeak, crreeak.

The blade in her hand dissolved, and a teeth-grating sound of distortion rang through all of space. Hummm, hummm, the sky overhead began to drone. An invisible, formless field clamped down over the great black hand in an instant.

Freeze.

The entire world, as if frozen solid in that instant. The great palm's descending motion hung suspended in midair, like a picture paused on command. Time, in this moment, seemed to lose its meaning; every law seemed stripped of its proper shape.

No one knew how long it lasted.

Perhaps seconds. Perhaps days.

By the time the great hand moved again, its body had already begun to disintegrate. Disintegrate was no figure of speech here, but the literal truth.

Its entire body, arm, wrist, and palm, sprouted crack after crack, like a shattered mirror. Skin, flesh, and bone flaked away from the fissures, drifting up into the air and dissolving into dust.

Hoo.

Katsura Kotonoha let out a breath and slowly extended her hand. The Zanpakuto formed once more in her grip, returned to its unreleased state.

Hummm.

The great palm, utterly dispersed, lost its form and scattered into four different objects: a teacup, a leaf, a stone, and an oil painting.

Then,

Like the Demon Gods destroyed before in the snowy Yamanaka, these objects crumbled into dust.

The blonde girl watched the scene with calm eyes, and at last a thread of grief flickered through them. "Seeking to break free of fate, only to remain shrouded in fate to the very end."

Katsura Kotonoha paid her lament no mind. She turned at once and leveled her long blade at the girl's brow. "Now tell me. Who, or what, are you?"

"Haven't you already guessed?" The blonde girl tilted her head, her face placid as ever. "My name is Lilith. I am what you humans call a Demon God."

A Demon God after all, then?

Katsura Kotonoha wasn't surprised by the answer, yet her brow still knitted deep. Because this blonde girl before her looked nothing like her understanding of what a Demon God should be.

The Demon Gods she had destroyed, hammers, shovels, and the like, or the fused monsters they became, all shared one trait: they possessed no intellect, and they certainly didn't converse with humans.

But this blonde girl was a different creature entirely.

She not only loved to yammer on, her expressions were absurdly rich. This is a Demon God? Was she an exception among Demon Gods, or had this Demon God's personality simply rebelled and awakened?

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