Honing the Emergency Rations Swordsmanship
The time had come to truly hone my emergency rations swordsmanship. From now on, I would build real, proper strength.
The best option would have been training with an actual sword, but...
"If you fall asleep later, I'll come right in... hehe."
Bianca was giggling with a sinister laugh in one corner of the cabin. Asking her for a sword seemed incredibly difficult. Honestly, I even felt a bit reluctant to approach her.
Sigh. No choice, then.
In the end, I had no option but to make do with the sword inside my mind's eye.
I reflected on everything I'd experienced so far. From the sudden kidnapping until now. Amid all those countless incidents, what kind of enlightenment should I pursue?
I closed my eyes, retracing my memories one by one and comparing them.
More useful stuff than I expected?
Digging through my recollections, I found quite a few clues that could lead to new sword techniques. One of them stood out.
The anomaly. When I'd faced Kehol. The overwhelming pressure I'd felt then.
Kehol's bizarre appearance had inspired fear, but the unique oppressive aura of an anomaly had been just as threatening. It felt similar to the killing intent Serena had shown me before, yet somehow different.
I'm not sure if this can even be called swordsmanship, but...
More precisely, it was closer to a trick or technique. Still, it seemed like I could replicate something similar through the sword.
Mimicking momentum was an incredibly vague concept, but I figured I just needed to follow the sensations of killing intent and oppressive pressure. It wasn't as hard as I'd thought.
Carefully, I raised the sword in my hand and assumed a stance. Pouring my will into it—the determination to slaughter my opponent at any moment—I unleashed the aura.
Bianca flinched.
"I-Ian?"
"Hm?"
"N-never mind... Must be my imagination?"
It was powerful enough to make even the distracted Bianca react. This seemed pretty useful.
The problem is, of course...
This was the full extent of the sword technique I'd created. It was nothing more than a threat. If I had to name it, I'd call it the Void Illusion Sword. A technique that poured everything into pure bluffing, with no substance whatsoever.
In many ways, it was an awkward skill to use right away.
I need something more powerful.
The technique above would be good in specific situations, but what I desperately needed now was raw destructive power.
What were the strongest techniques I've ever felt?
The one that had felt the most overwhelmingly powerful. The most memorable was undoubtedly the 'meteor' Bianca had created. Its initial size had been intimidating enough, but when it condensed into a single spell later, it had been truly monstrous.
But the applications seem too limited.
If it was just about gathering power, I'd already grasped that principle through the Strong Sword. Was there something beyond that?
Wait. Gathering?
Suddenly, inspiration struck me.
A heat source sphere close to the sun. The magic at that time hadn't been the transformation Bianca intended. So where had that 'source' come from?
Magic required the resource called mana, but swordsmanship was different. It was the combination of physical strength and the wielder's skill. However, no matter how advanced the technique, without sufficient capability to support it, the effect would be minimal. Just as no matter how well a child wielded a sword, they could never defeat an adult.
The origin of this inspiration had ironically come from Bianca herself. I'd originally planned to create a sword technique with even greater power after witnessing her overwhelming magic, but... I realized that assumption had been wrong from the start.
It's not simply a matter of the difference between a child and an adult.
Even if a child and adult fought, there was a tiny chance the child could win. But what if it was an ant versus a human? No matter how hard the ant struggled, one kick from the human would end it.
No matter how much an ant gathers its strength, it's still just an ant.
The sword technique Ian had originally considered was the 'deflection' he'd used unconsciously during his spar with the knight commander. That half-instinctive technique had been incredibly useful, but after experiencing Bianca's magic, he'd immediately scrapped the idea.
Simply deflecting attacks wouldn't be enough against the level of enemies he'd face from now on.
To break through overwhelming power, simply deflecting attacks isn't enough.
That was nothing more than desperate struggling to avoid the opponent's strikes. It could never be a swordsmanship meant to win.
Then there's only one thing I should pursue.
The sword in Ian's hand began to tremble violently. An impossible sight—an insubstantial blade shaking.
I will use their power against them.
The new sword technique Ian had learned. The Sword of Rebound.
When he swung the sword, the entire cabin shook from the impact. Originally, it was a technique that reversed an opponent's attack and converted it into his own power. But there was no target in front of him.
Then whose rebound force was Ian using?
I didn't think this would actually work.
The sword in his mind's eye had already scattered from the severe headache, but Ian unconsciously stared at his fingertips. The vivid sensation still lingered.
What he'd used was none other than the power of the earth itself.
I can even use the ground's rebound force?
More precisely, it was the foundational force based on the ground and his own weight, but even that was an incredible technique. In theory, it could reverse any impact.
Looking at the results alone, it seemed like a truly overpowered skill. Yet Ian's expression remained dark.
...It'll be difficult to use in actual combat.
Using the earth's power to increase the sword's attack power was easy, but actually reversing enemies' attacks in real battle was bizarrely difficult. Even Ian thought it was nearly impossible. One miscalculation and he'd simply take the opponent's attack head-on.
Objectively and subjectively, Ian's growth was so remarkable it was hard to believe it came from self-teaching. Yet he still couldn't feel satisfied.
Is there anything else I can use?
Although the 'sword' in his mind's eye could no longer be used, his unique inspiration continued to grant him new enlightenments.
Just as Ian was about to sink back into contemplation, Bianca approached him with an unusually serious expression.
"I-Ian?"
"Yeah. Um, Bianca, sorry, but could you leave me alone for a bit? I need to think for a moment..."
"You... you didn't regain your memories, did you?"
"?"
An unexpected opportunity had come to Ian.
Memories, huh...
The inspirations that had just flashed through his mind vanished like they'd been washed away, but that wasn't important right now.
The 'memories' Bianca mentioned seemed to refer to those from the first round. Normally, he would have played dumb again, but... he'd grown frustrated with the continuous variables, so he wanted to use this chance to ask everything clearly.
What exactly had happened in the future? What kind of things had he done? There were more questions than he could count.
But the current 'me' lacked any justification for knowing about the regression, so asking outright felt wrong. It might even reveal the existence of the original story.
...Come to think of it, I could just pretend my memories returned and gather information that way.
As he mulled it over, a pretty good idea popped into his head. A solid method to induce information from Bianca through appropriate questions.
That meant he'd have to act like the future 'me'...
The me from the first round... well, he was probably pretty similar to how I am now.
From how Serena and Bianca had reacted before, the future me had been close enough to them to become lovers. So acting like a lover should work.
I didn't know how many years the future me had survived, but considering his age, I mimicked a slightly more mature tone and spoke.
"Bianca. It's been a while."
"I-Ian!"
"You've been through a lot, haven't you?"
I gently stroked her hair. On top of that, I gazed at her with loving, affectionate eyes like a lover would and embraced her tenderly.
There was no mirror, so I couldn't see it, but it was probably quite a sweet sight.
Bianca didn't avoid my touch, but she turned her head with a clearly disappointed expression.
"......Yeah. Still not yet, huh."
Huh?
I'd been caught immediately.
"Food."
"H-here it is!"
"Water."
"U-um? Here?"
"Yeah."
"I-it's embarrassing... but if Ian wants it, then... hehe."
A ruined world. The surroundings were nothing but desolate cities, but to Bianca, it was no different from paradise. If only the other 'comrades' she would meet later didn't exist, she would have wanted to live like this with the man forever.
"Ian oppa!"
From far away, without even leaving an afterimage. The Sword Demon had come looking for the man.
Serena, the Sword Demon, ran over with joy, then looked at Bianca beside him and turned to the man with an incredulous expression.
"...Oppa, who's that person next to you?"
"Emergency rations."
"?"
"...And water, along with the comrades who will join us from now on."
With those words, the man took the lead and walked toward another demonic realm. As Bianca's face flushed red behind him, Serena seriously considered smacking the back of his head.