Countless sharp ice crystal petals poured down like a torrential rainstorm.
Each one flashed with a deadly cold light, filling the air with the shrill, piercing whistle of ice slicing through wind.
"Flower Breathing · Third Form · Honorable Shadow Plum!"
Kanae's figure wove through the rain of ice, her pink Nichirin Sword dancing like the wind.
The light glinting off the blade formed a barrier of layered plum blossom petals around her.
The clash between the plum blossom sword lights and the lotus ice crystals created a dense, crisp sound of shattering, like falling rain.
However, the ice crystals were simply too numerous, too dense, and too fast!
Although Kanae was giving it her all, a few stray crystals slipped through the barrier, grazing her arms and calves.
They sliced open bloody wounds, and a freezing chill instantly invaded her body.
This caused Kanae's movements to stagnate slightly, exposing even more gaps in her defense.
"Nee-san!" Shinobu's purple figure appeared at Kanae's side like a phantom. "Insect Breathing · Dance of the Bee Wing · Rapid Vibration Sheath!"
The slender, needle-like Nichirin Sword thrust out continuously in Shinobu's hand.
It was clearly a thrusting sword technique, but the frequency was unimaginably fast.
Every thrust precisely shattered several ice crystals aiming for her and Kanae!
But helping her sister block attacks wasn't enough.
After shattering the last ice crystal, Shinobu's entire figure transformed into a streak of purple lightning!
"Insect Breathing · Dance of the Bee Sting · True Flutter!"
The tip of her Nichirin Sword, coated in potent Wisteria poison, traced a tricky purple trajectory, stabbing toward the figure standing leisurely not far away.
Upper Rank Two—Doma.
At this moment, he stood atop a massive lotus throne made of ice.
His rainbow-colored eyes watched the struggling sisters below with great interest.
He gently waved the golden fans in his hands, stirring up biting cold winds and even more ice crystals.
The expression on Doma's face was compassionate and gentle, as if he were watching a wonderful play that had nothing to do with him.
During her thrust, Shinobu's heart felt heavy.
Although she had anticipated that her concocted poisons might have little effect on an Upper Rank demon, she hadn't expected the results to be this poor.
At the start of the battle, she had taken advantage of Doma's carelessness to inject several potent toxins into his body.
Yet, in just a short moment, Doma had recovered to his lively, energetic self.
Facing the purple lightning thrusting straight at him, Doma didn't panic.
On the contrary, he seemed very interested and quite satisfied with this battle.
"You really are working hard, you two lovely ladies," Doma's voice was gentle yet hollow.
As he spoke, he raised a golden fan and gave a light wave!
Whoosh!
A massive storm carrying countless ice crystals blocked Shinobu's path, forcing her to abandon the frontal thrust unless she wanted to forcibly pass through the ice storm that would shred flesh and blood.
"Although I hate to admit it, if this goes on, you two ladies will only suffer more and more. You see, your breathing is becoming more difficult, isn't it? In a little while, your lungs will freeze into blocks of ice, and then this battle will be over. I don't want to make friends with two temperature-less ice block ladies in the end, so you should just stop resisting~" Doma spoke in an extremely regretful tone, if one didn't know better, they might actually think he cared about the Kocho sisters.
However, just as Doma said, both Kanae and Shinobu's breathing had become somewhat disordered.
The surrounding freezing environment was Doma's domain.
After several rounds of combat, the air was already floating with countless particles of ice dust.
Although these ice dust particles—formed from shattered ice crystals—had lost their original sharpness, once inhaled into the lungs in large quantities, they not only caused difficulty breathing but would also cause severe frostbite necrosis to the lungs as they accumulated.
Shinobu was faring slightly better, as her Insect Breathing focused on speed, so her stamina consumption wasn't severe.
But the burden on Kanae was much heavier; in the frontal confrontation, it was almost entirely Kanae facing Doma's attacks head-on.
After some time, a dull ache began in her chest. Every deep breath brought a needle-like stinging pain.
Flower Breathing, which emphasized agility and endurance, was now continuously weakening in power due to physical exhaustion and environmental suppression.
Even worse, as the surrounding temperature dropped lower and lower, the circulation of the sisters' Breathing Styles became increasingly sluggish.
"Blood Demon Art · Frigid White Princesses~"
Doma seemed to have grown tired of long-range attrition.
Chuckling lightly, he waved his twin fans.
Two lotus ice crystals made of frost emerged.
Atop the lotuses, lifelike upper bodies of maidens materialized, carrying bone-chilling killing intent as they lunged separately at Kanae and Shinobu.
"Flower Breathing-Second Form · Honorable Shadow Plum!" Kanae forced down her discomfort, her blade light once again forming the protective plum blossoms to parry the attack of the White Princess.
However, the immense force knocked her back repeatedly, and the ice forming beneath her feet nearly caused her to slip.
"Insect Breathing-Dance of the Dragonfly · Compound Eye Hexagon!" Shinobu's figure flashed rapidly, leaving six afterimages in the air. Her stinging sword thrust at the White Princess attacking her from different angles.
However, the White Princess opened its small mouth, and a large cloud of freezing air, almost visible to the naked eye, spewed out.
It merely grazed Shinobu's Nichirin Sword, instantly condensing a thick layer of heavy frost upon the blade!
At this temperature, contact with the human body would likely freeze a person into a block of ice in an instant!
Seeing that just two of his White Princesses had put the Butterfly sisters in a desperate situation, Doma rested his chin on his hand and tilted his head.
A trace of boredom flashed through his rainbow eyes. "Ara, is this all? I thought I'd get to see a more exciting performance. After all, I look forward to getting a sufficient show before my meal."
As he spoke, Doma's gaze focused heavily on Kanae.
The "interest" in his eyes sent a chill down Kanae's spine.
"It looks like it's time to bring this pre-meal ritual to its final stage." Doma slowly stood up from his ice lotus throne.
He brought the golden fans together in front of his chest, and a mass of freezing demon aura, several times more powerful than before, began to condense.
"Blood Demon Art · Rime · Water Lily Bodhisattva."
The temperature of the entire room plummeted below freezing!
The moisture in the air instantly crystallized into a dense ice fog. The ground, walls, and ceiling were rapidly covered in thick layers of ice.
Behind Doma, the massive ice fog began to condense and take shape.
A gigantic ice Bodhisattva, sitting cross-legged on an ice lotus—solemn yet inexplicably eerie—slowly manifested!
The ice Bodhisattva lowered its eyelids, palms pressed together in prayer, radiating a terrifying pressure that froze the soul!
Kanae and Shinobu's faces turned pale from the sudden drop in temperature.
They could feel that once this massive ice Bodhisattva behind Doma launched an attack, it would be a terrifying area-of-effect strike!
"Shinobu!" Kanae looked at her sister, a trace of resolve flashing in her eyes.
If they truly fell into a hopeless situation, she would absolutely use everything she had to protect her sister and ensure her escape!
The light in Shinobu's purple eyes flickered rapidly.
She was hesitating.
Under normal circumstances, she and her sister could absolutely not defeat Doma at this moment, unless...
What should she do?
The massive ice Bodhisattva slowly raised its arm.
Its face, void of joy or sorrow, opened its mouth. Terrifying cold energy gathered, ready to erupt the moment the golden fan in Doma's hand dropped!
A glint of finality flashed in her eyes.
Shinobu reached her hand into a hidden pocket at her waist. But in that split second of imminent peril!
"Gaaah!!!"
A loud, screeching, almost voice-cracking caw of a Kasugai Crow rang out.
It pierced through the overlapping structures of the Infinity Castle and the bone-chilling cold, exploding suddenly within this frozen Buddha Hall!
An agile black shadow darted like lightning, precisely threading through gap after gap to enter the battlefield.
Shinobu recognized it at a glance—it was the Wind Hashira, Sanemi Shinazugawa's crow: Sorai!
Sorai's feathers were covered in frost, and his flight posture was somewhat ragged, but those sharp black eyes were locked dead on the center of the battlefield.
He shouted with all his remaining strength.
"Reinforcements! Reinforcements arrived!!"
Accompanying Sorai's shout, a clear and bright roar abruptly pierced into this frozen hell!
"You damn sissy! Stretch out your neck and wait to die!"
Sanemi's furious shout dispersed the chill within the Buddha Hall.
Doma tilted his head, looking in confusion at the rugged figure rudely charging into the battlefield.
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