Demon Capital Slayer

Chapter 40 Seven Virtues
"came back?"

Not long ago, Aizen Yurika staggered slightly.

It felt as if I had stepped from water onto land; the sudden change in environment made the whole world seem to be swaying slightly, making it difficult to stand firm.

After a few more breaths, she regained her balance.

Yurika looked around and realized that it was the same studio where the three people who entered Tokisei had been.

Behind her, however, was a very supernatural scene.

A strange scene unfolds within the ring outlined by a pale golden, transparent liquid. In the distance, two armies, seemingly straight out of a fantasy tale, are locked in fierce combat. Nearby, the Blue King, clad in armor, smiles as he observes this scene, while beside him stands the solemn-faced Yu Jianming.

"Honestly, don't always frown, it'll give you wrinkles."

Lily sighed, her face bearing her usual gentle smile, as if it were nothing more than a casual outing rather than a perilous journey into a strange and unpredictable world.

She turned around to indicate that she was fine, then went to the window and looked into the distance, where she could hear police sirens and other noises from the city.

The light from the streetlamp shone through the window onto the girl's face, creating a play of light and shadow that made Aizen Yurika exude a subtle chill.

The easel and paper from earlier when Akane Isshiki painted the shadows of the sky are still in place. The easel depicts a sun surrounded by various colors, and it looks like a crude imitation of her father's painting. The composition and color scheme are very similar, but there are subtle differences.

Once she confirmed that everything was correct, Lily turned to face the teleportation portal and made different hand gestures in the previous order to indicate her identity.

The two seemed to exchange a few words, but it was unclear what they were talking about. Yu Jianming, who had been looking serious, suddenly blushed for a moment, then coughed lightly twice and resumed his usual expressionless demeanor.

According to what's circulating among the girls at school, this is called...whale-type? Or maybe ascetic-type?

Lily wasn't familiar with these trendy terms, nor did she need to pay much attention to fashion. As for important information, the people around her would naturally share or summarize it with her.

In short, now that we've decided to return to reality, details are no longer important, but unfortunately, this mission is likely to fail.

Lily sighed and smiled as she looked at the other end of the teleportation portal.

Then, a crack appeared in her perfect expression as her vice president suddenly pushed the client, Isshiki Akane, into the teleportation portal and then drew his sword to strike the unidentified Blue King.

Yes, Yurika noticed the other party's unusual behavior early on and secretly alerted the other two. At the time, the two sides were in an alliance, and she was surrounded by the other side's people, so she usually behaved very obediently, as if she hadn't noticed anything.

Only after secretly accumulating enough troops through his art did he launch a decisive attack, bringing the situation to its current equilibrium.

Originally, the ending was already predetermined; although it wasn't perfect, it was still acceptable.

Unfortunately, my vice president is an overly gentle guy...

Through the teleportation portal, watching Yuken Akira locked in battle with the Blue King, each move aimed straight for the opponent's vitals, Aizen Yurika sighed helplessly.

"Isshiki-senpai, are you alright?" Yurika pulled Isshiki Akane up, and although she still had a smile on her face, her movements were not gentle and were even a little rough.

"What happened over there?"

"Yujian said he would bring his father back, and then, and then he fought that monster."

During the conversation, the situation on the other side of the teleportation portal suddenly changed. The sword initially had the upper hand, but then the Green King suddenly joined the battle. After a brief stalemate, the Blue King and the Green King merged into one and plunged the dragon claw scepter into their own chest.

Akane couldn't help but gasp, and Yurika quietly pushed up her glasses as well.

Once the royal blood that formed the gateway was drained, the two could no longer see what was happening on the other side.

But the ceiling painting directly above began to slowly change, like a slideshow playing one by one. The entire picture transformed from a beautiful landscape into a narrative painting with two main characters, filled with strong religious connotations.

The composition closely resembles Michelangelo's famous painting "The Creation of Adam" on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

A terrifying and ferocious black dragon coiled in the upper right corner, its neck revealing a mouthful of sharp, curved fangs, from which black venom continuously dripped.

The severely injured young swordsman lay on the lower left, with the twisted and broken Blade Extinction Three Thousand Void lying quietly beside him.

Countless other White Knights followed in their footsteps, but these insignificant warriors soon met a tragic end.

Lily instinctively pressed her hand to her sleeve, where the crucial item the boy had secretly given her before their parting was hidden.

"Isshiki-senpai, we have to do something."

"But...but..." Akane Isshiki's face turned pale, and the communication barrier that had eased considerably due to their familiarity recurred. "Think about what you're best at."

Lily took two steps closer and forcefully handed her a paintbrush, the second paintbrush she had unexpectedly obtained after slaying the Purple King with her sword, capable of changing the world within the painting.

"..." The moment she grasped the pen, it seemed that Akane Isshiki had finally made up her mind. Her shoulders stopped trembling and her eyes stopped wandering.

The young female painter took a deep breath.

"I see!"

As a painter, what Isshiki Akane can do is, of course, paint.

But she suddenly hesitated. This huge ceiling painting was created by the master painter Issey Miyazaki, while she was just a young apprentice who had just begun to learn. Did she really have the right to modify it?
Aizen Yurika didn't urge him, but searched everywhere in the studio. Ordinary paints obviously couldn't modify things in the mortal world, so she had to find the special paint that Isshiki Azur had used before.

The light shone on her, as if through a veil, unable to fully illuminate her face, which possessed inhuman beauty.

“The story shouldn’t end like this,” Lily said softly, with a small dish of transparent paint in front of her, shimmering with a faint light that looked strangely familiar.

“…Yes!” Akane nodded vigorously, then vigorously dipped her paintbrush into paint.

She wants to challenge her father, a renowned painter, with her own artwork!

Akane Isshiki pulled over an ordinary easel painted with the shadow of the sky and began to work with complete concentration.

Initially, she wanted to end the fight immediately.

No matter how powerful the weapon or entity is added, the paint cannot show its color and will peel off the paper as soon as it is applied.

Until Akane Isshiki remembered a picture book she had read in her childhood, the paint suddenly shimmered with seven colors, and the fairy tale of the past was brought back to life on the paper.
The paintbrush landed right in the center of that pale sun.

But the protagonist of the story changes from seven kings to a young hero.

He wears the world's strongest armor of courage, a gift from the Red King, protecting the hero from any harm.

He wore the world's coldest helmet of reason, a gift from the Blue King, which kept the hero forever calm.

He also possesses an orange ring that grants him boundless strength, a golden cloak that allows him to fly, a vibrant green vial, cyan boots that let him walk on water, and a purple amulet that brings him endless confidence.

The seven virtues bestowed upon seven items, and with Akane Isshiki's painstaking drawing, all the equipment eventually lost their original outlines, collectively converging into a magnificent full-body armor.

The various colors blended together but did not become a muddy black; instead, they transformed into a pure white that contained all seven colors.

"A weapon... the hero still needs a weapon..." Akane Isshiki muttered to herself, then was horrified to find that she had used up all her paint, and looked helpless.

"What do we do? We're out of paint!"

“No, there’s plenty of paint.” Lily appeared behind her with a small knife.

puff!

Accompanied by Akane Isshiki's scream, the sound of a sharp blade piercing flesh echoed in the art studio.

"Isn't this a lot?"

Lily raised her hand above the palette, clenching her fist to let the blood flow continuously from the wound.

The dripping red stains were almost impossible to look away from.

Ordinary pigments cannot be used in the world depicted in the painting, but since they have all consumed food from that world, their blood contains traces of that world's elements.

Therefore, this could potentially become a substitute for special pigments.

"Draw it," Lily whispered quietly.

"To paint the best sword in the world for a wise ruler."

"And he will become the most powerful swordsman of this generation."

(End of this chapter)