I Will Shatter the Broken Heart of Obsidian
At my shocking declaration that I would destroy the Obsidian, Gracia’s gaze locked onto me. At the same time, the noisy lecture hall fell into complete silence. Everyone who heard my words doubted their own ears.
Destroy the Obsidian, the symbol of the Sigmund family? What kind of nonsense was that?
Edga Fix, stand down. You are my student. I have a duty to protect you.
However, what mattered most to Gracia wasn’t the truth of my statement, but the safety of her student. She had already made the mistake of allowing Max to reach this state. She couldn’t let another one of her students get hurt.
But Professor, at this rate, isn’t killing him the only option left?
Gracia fell silent.
Even though she was a Sword Master, with nothing but this 17-centimeter stick, she couldn’t possibly “subdue” someone who had become a complete Madman while wielding the Obsidian itself. Of course, if she wanted to, she could kill him at any time. But given her personality, she simply couldn’t bring herself to kill her own student.
[Whoosh!]
While we exchanged those brief words, the black mana Max fired came rushing toward us. Yet Gracia kept her eyes fixed on me the entire time. With a casual swing of her 17-centimeter stick, she completely neutralized the incoming black mana.
“Kuhahahahahaha! Kuhaha! Kuhahahahahaha!!”
Max began laughing like a beast and started tearing at his own body with his sharpened nails. He was wounding himself to draw out even more power. Watching him, Gracia let out a long sigh.
…There’s no other way.
Max had already entered the complete Madman stage. There was no conventional method to subdue him. In the end, she had no choice but to grasp at the straw that was my proposal.
…Ed, I accept your plan. However—
Even so, Ed’s safety came first. Gracia emphasized this point clearly.
—If I order a retreat, you must retreat immediately. And I will not accept any plan that puts you in serious danger.
“…Of course.”
I accepted her conditions without hesitation. Gracia then told me to explain the plan, and I began laying out the strategy I had devised. After hearing everything, she nodded and confirmed the details.
So, I hold off Max’s Obsidian, and you launch a surprise attack to destroy it?
“Yes.”
“Heh. What a crazy plan.”
A crazy plan. There was no other way to describe it. To endure the power of a Madman amplified by the Obsidian using nothing but a 17-centimeter wooden stick.
Are you certain you can destroy the Obsidian?
Gracia didn’t argue further. Because she knew it was actually possible. She was one of only four Sword Masters in the empire—an absolute powerhouse who had transcended the limits of any weapon.
“Yes. Because I’m a blacksmith.”
And I was a talented young man steadily climbing toward the pinnacle of blacksmithing. Just as Gracia could block the Obsidian with a 17-centimeter wooden stick, I could shatter it through precise engineering analysis.
“Then let’s begin.”
BOOM!
The moment Gracia finished speaking, the fully transformed Max charged at us. At the same time, an enormous amount of black mana erupted from the Obsidian and chased after us as we retreated.
[Vrrrrrm!]
I activated my Plasma Mana Shield to block the assault. Gracia, with her masterful footwork, deflected most of the mana and struck down the rest with her wooden stick wrapped in aura.
[Whoosh!]
But Gracia didn’t stop there. She charged straight at Max. Exactly as I had requested.
“Commander! We’ve located the sparring arena!”
At the same time, Alerina’s adjutant, who had finally found the location, reported in. However, Alerina kept her eyes fixed on the screen ahead and simply muttered,
“Something… feels like it’s about to happen…”
“Pardon?”
“…Those two are going to handle it themselves. That pretty-faced kid has something hidden up his sleeve.”
Hidden up his sleeve? The adjutant turned his gaze to the screen. The video transmission magic orb that had somehow survived was broadcasting Gracia and Max live.
“KROOOOOO!!!”
Max was swinging his sword like a madman, pouring out his rage. The fact that Gracia was toying with him like a child using nothing but a wooden stick had wounded his pride, driving him into a frenzy.
[Shaaaaa—!!]
An enormous surge of black mana, now massively enlarged, shot toward Gracia. Hundreds of sharp, awl-shaped spikes of black mana split apart and pierced toward her body.
“As expected of a Sword Master…”
Just as some nameless cadet had muttered, Gracia dodged the attack with the mysterious, godlike movements only a Sword Master could perform. Enraged beyond reason, Max once again began tearing at his own flesh to draw out more power.
Gracia looked at him with utter disgust and spoke in a cold voice.
You will be remembered as the worst swordsman in history. All you can do is rely on drugs and mutilate yourself.
“KROOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”
With Max’s rage-filled roar, a red haze exploded outward. The Obsidian trembled strangely and began sucking in all the red haze that had spread through the air like a vacuum cleaner. Then, wielding the now even more empowered Obsidian, Max brought it crashing down toward the top of Gracia’s head.
[…….]
At that exact moment, Gracia used her secret technique. In a world where everything moved in slow motion, only Gracia’s time seemed to flow differently. Her body moved freely. It felt as if a single instant had been split into thousands of frames.
‘Well hidden.’
Within that frozen space, Gracia confirmed my position. For my plan to destroy the Obsidian from Max’s blind spot to succeed, my position, timing, and the aggro had to align perfectly.
‘I’ll leave the rest to you.’
And now was the moment. Blue haze erupted from Gracia’s entire body, completely overwhelming Max’s red haze.
[Whoosh!]
Time, which had stopped, began to flow again. The massive Obsidian Max had swung came hurtling down toward Gracia at terrifying speed.
[—KWAANG!!]
Yet Gracia blocked it with nothing but her wooden stick. The blue aura that extended from the 17-centimeter stick had taken the place of a blade. It looked exactly like a lightsaber.
“Swooooooo!!!”
But it wasn’t over. The Obsidian began absorbing all the black mana scattered throughout the area. The pressure bearing down on Gracia grew heavier by the second, and cracks began to form in her expression.
[—Taat!]
However, at that very moment—I, who had been hiding in the ceiling, activated my thrusters and charged straight at Max. Since Gracia had done her part, it was now my turn.
When Max tried to smash Gracia with his empowered Obsidian, I caught the brief instant his gaze flicked toward me. I instinctively knew my turn had come. He had checked my position right before blocking the Obsidian.
[Clack-clack-clack!]
I immediately transformed my gauntlet. Since the only way to destroy the Obsidian was with an ultra-high-temperature plasma blade, I reshaped the gauntlet into the form that could manifest that technology.
Vwoooooong!
The moment the transformation finished, an ultra-high-temperature plasma blade erupted from the gauntlet. It resembled a zealot’s psionic blade. The powerful magnetic field generated by the conductor kept the blade stable without transferring even a single degree of its heat to me.
[KWAANG!]
Max’s Obsidian collided with Gracia’s wooden stick. At first glance, it looked like a cat’s paw crushing a mouse—Max seemed to be completely overpowering her. But Gracia was no mouse. She was simply refusing to show her claws.
[Swoooooooo!]
That was why I waited. I waited until the Obsidian had absorbed every last bit of black mana and focused entirely on the attack. I waited for the perfect moment when Max would be completely defenseless against my ambush.
‘Now!’
The moment finally arrived. The Obsidian had absorbed all its mana and converted it into pure offense. Gracia was slowly being pushed back.
[Whoosh!]
I bent my legs like a compressed spring, then kicked off the wall with all my strength, launching my body straight at Max’s Obsidian. At the same time, I activated my thrusters to add even more acceleration to the surprise attack.
[Fwoooosh!]
In the blink of an eye, I arrived right in front of the Obsidian. All that remained was to shatter it with the ultra-high-temperature plasma blade.
‘Can I really do this?’
Destroying an artifact that had earned the title of “Masterpiece” was no easy task. It required an enormous number of conditions to be met. The first was that all the black mana within the Obsidian had to be converted into offense. Thanks to Gracia drawing the aggro perfectly, that condition was cleared.
The second was that Max must not notice my ambush at all. If he did, he could redirect the black mana to defense. The third was that I had to strike with an absurdly high temperature capable of melting the Obsidian, whose melting point was extraordinarily high. But since my plasma blade exceeded 6,000 degrees, that too seemed possible.
‘I can do this!’
All the difficult conditions had been met. With absolute certainty, I swung the plasma blade at Max without hesitation. At the same time, just before the blade made contact, I partially released the magnetic field containing the ultra-high-temperature plasma. I wanted to expose the Obsidian directly to over 6,000 degrees of heat.
[Sssssssssssshhh!]
It worked perfectly. The Obsidian, which had been using every ounce of its mana to control the black energy, couldn’t even send mana to its reinforcement spell in time. It twisted and warped under the sudden ambush.
[Crack!]
[Snap!]
Cracks and gaps formed as the blade momentarily melted. I drove the plasma blade deep into those fissures, and finally, the infamous Obsidian—one of the empire’s four great demonic swords—
[———KWAaaaaaaaang!!]
Shattered into a thousand pieces.
The emerald mana stones embedded throughout the blade couldn’t even send mana to protect the sword body. It melted and broke apart from the surprise attack.
“……?”
It was an impossible sight. Even Max, now a complete Madman, stared at his broken sword with a dazed expression, unable to believe what had just happened.
“Professor.”
“Yeah. Let’s finish this.”
But there was still work to do—subduing the Madman Max. With the Obsidian gone, he was now nothing more than prey.
[Whoosh!]
Gracia’s figure blurred with terrifying speed. She slipped into Max’s blind spot and severed his Achilles tendon in an instant.
“KROOOOOOOOO!!”
Furious, Max swung his fist. But Gracia was already gone. She reappeared in front of him and struck his wrist with her aura.
[Fwooooooooosh!!!]
His wrist was severed, and an enormous spray of blood gushed out. Of course, the more Max was wounded and enraged, the stronger he became. But a mere cadet who had drunk the Madness Potion posed no threat to a Sword Master.
“Grrrr… Grrrrrrrr…”
About thirty minutes after Gracia had bound Max in black sap and thoroughly beaten him, the Madman state began to wear off. The Madness Potion dissolved in his bloodstream was finally leaving his system, returning him to his original form.
“O-our family heirloom… The Obsidian that Father bestowed upon me…”
Max, who had finally regained his senses, now understood the full situation and began to sob. Gracia let out a small sigh, dispelled the aura from her wooden stick, and patted my shoulder.
“Edga Fix, thanks to you, we were able to subdue him safely. You never cease to amaze me.”
“……”
Leaving those words behind, Gracia approached Max. Watching him frantically gather the shattered fragments of the Obsidian, she spoke in a cold voice.
“Max. Why did you do such a thing? You have crossed a line that should never be crossed.”
Yet Max ignored her scolding and continued muttering to himself. The family head will kill me. I’m finished. Father will disown me. Fuck, this is all because of that commoner bastard. He spat out a rapid-fire barrage of words.
“I knew you were a dangerous child.”
Gracia continued calmly. Perhaps because her voice carried mana, Max, who had been muttering like a madman, looked up at her.
“If you had asked me for help instead of relying on the power of a Madman, I would have helped you anytime.”
“……”
“Max Sigmund. You have just lost your final chance. You used a forbidden potion out of personal grudge and tried to kill your fellow student?”
“B-but if I didn’t win this duel… the family head would…”
“Count Sigmund is still your father. Think back on everything you’ve done. He was trying to suppress your wicked heart even if it meant pressuring you like this.”
“Kk… Kkklk… You don’t know shit, yet you lecture me… Father never acknowledged me… He always… fuck, he just made me train like crazy…”
“You fool. Look at the Obsidian that shattered because of your stupidity.”
“……?”
“That sword is the very heart of your father. He entrusted you with the treasured blade that symbolizes the Sigmund family.”
“……”
“I know Count Sigmund. He is not the kind of man who becomes cruel without reason.”
Gracia knelt down to meet Max’s eyes. Yet her gaze still burned with fury.
“The sin of killing a loyal servant who had served the family for years because you were ruled by emotion. The sin of disgracing the family by daring to touch the Cruel Archduchess without knowing your place. And all the other petty evil deeds you’ve committed.”
“……”
“Count Sigmund covered up all those sins and sent you here. He entrusted you with the family’s treasured sword in the hope that you would change.”
“Ah… Aaaah… Uuuu…”
“And yet, during the first evaluation match, you tried to bribe the collateral branch of the family to cheat. Did you really think the family head wouldn’t know?”
“Th-the family head…”
“…Protecting the family’s name is not only about winning. It is about upholding the responsibility and dignity that come with that name.”
Gracia said this as she cast a healing spell on Max. Even so, the anger in her eyes did not fade.
“But now you have no honor left to protect. In the end, everything is your own doing. Because of your sins, Count Sigmund will shed tears of blood.”
With those final words, Gracia stood up. At the same time, Alerina’s adjutant and the cleanup team he had brought entered the sparring arena. Max continued to sob for a long time, clutching the shattered remains of the Obsidian.
In the end, Max was expelled from the academy. The Sigmund Count family also underwent a large-scale investigation, but nothing suspicious was found. It turned out that Max, who had been hanging out with low-quality delinquents since childhood, had simply obtained the Madness Potion through a broker.
Once the incident was settled, the topic of conversation shifted from “Max” to the “Obsidian.” What should be done about the artifact that Edga Fix had shattered?
The final decision rested with the owner of the Obsidian, Count Sigmund. The Count wanted the sword fully repaired and sent letters to the empire’s master blacksmiths and the Dwarf Allied Kingdom to inquire. However, there was no blacksmith in the empire capable of repairing the Obsidian, which contained the concentrated techniques of the dwarves. The Dwarf Allied Kingdom also refused outright, saying they didn’t even want to look at such a cursed demonic sword.
“……”
Count Sigmund let out a low groan. There was only one person in the entire world he could entrust with the repair of the demonic sword.
The very boy his son had tried to kill.