The Rising Sun

Lee Seon-woo was an Earth-attribute Awakened, but he knew the Sky Sword better than most people ever would.

It was the sword art created by a legend of the Siberia War — the one who had carved through an SS-rank Gate and cut open the heavens themselves. Anyone who walked the path of the sword was duty-bound to learn from that person.

And so he, too, had analyzed the Sky Sword obsessively and drilled it into his bones.

His own abilities were different; he could never unleash the Sky Sword himself. But against a swordsman who wielded it? He had been confident he could pin them down without much trouble.

That was what he had believed — right up until three successive slashes split the earth beneath him.

"Kh…!"

When he opened his eyes, he saw the colossal surge of mana gathered into three branching slashes.

The first was meant to shatter a guard. The second and third were the real killing blows. Instinct screamed that trying to block them head-on would get him killed for certain.

So he slammed the ground in a panic.

BOOOOM—!

A deafening roar erupted. Shockwaves rolled outward in a perfect ring until they met the slashes and detonated midair.

Through the billowing smoke he saw a pair of vivid crimson eyes. The murderous intent dripping from them was so pure that gooseflesh prickled across his skin before he could stop it.

"Kh…!"

But there was no time to stand there dazed.

Even with his head spinning, his instincts were howling that something was already closing in. He barely got his sword up before the second technique bloomed from the girl's hand.

The girl lunged, and a brilliant red slash came crashing down on him.

He swung on pure reflex — and in that instant he saw the trajectory her longsword would carve. He had clearly knocked the slash aside, yet a future flashed before him in which the curve rode up along his blade and took his head clean off.

"Hup…!"

This was not an attack meant to be blocked. He had to wall off the entire path in front of him so it could never climb over. Gripping his greatsword in both hands, he swept it in a full circle.

CLAAAANG—!

The greatsword, whirling counterclockwise, crushed the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠trajectory that had tried to vault across it. The rebound drove the sky-forged longsword point-first into the dirt.

"Euk…!?"

A thin, delayed whimper reached him half a beat later.

This time, it was the sky that had been put on trial.

The longsword, pinned beneath the power of the earth, could not be wrenched free by a frail girl's strength. With both her blade and the left hand gripping it sealed, a fist came crashing down on her.

There was no ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠room to dodge. Drop the sword and block — or keep holding on ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and take the hit. Faced with that brutal binary, she smiled sweetly.

"Hand-to-hand? I like it!"

She curled her tiny fist, and a massive current of wind gathered behind it.

THWOOM—!

The instant their fists met, something like a bomb went off, and Seon-woo's punch was driven down into the ground. The colossal force packed inside it scoured the earth and left a fan-shaped scar.

"Khuh!?"

"Eut?!"

The shockwave shoved both of them back.

Seon-woo only skidded three meters. The girl, who had taken the full brunt of the impact, was hurled much farther. She drove her longsword into the ground to stop herself, then lifted her head.

Lee Seon-woo stood there shaking out a tingling fist, his coat torn in places. Unfortunately, neither of them had landed a decisive blow yet.

"Haa… this isn't going to be easy…"

For a second, the thought of dropping the limiters crossed my mind.

We were reading each other's futures and fighting on that edge. Victory would go to whoever could parse the greater number of futures in the shortest time.

And Lee Seon-woo still wasn't used to handling those eyes.

That was only natural. He might have been a year older, but my real combat experience crushed his by a landslide.

In a fight built on reading the future, I would win without question. The fact that the exchange was even holding together while I kept my brain throttled past seventy percent was proof enough.

"But…"

Did I really need to?

This wasn't a life-or-death match. The Sword Saint was someone I rather liked, and honestly, he had already earned a passing grade.

His future-reading still had holes, but time would fix that.

And besides…

"I got impatient and threw a punch without thinking. My apologies."

"Oh my, are you apologizing?"

"It was discourteous of me."

"Hmm…"

I liked that about him — that even with power like his, he still knew how to be polite and how to apologize. It should have been the bare minimum, and yet the world was overflowing with people who couldn't manage even that.

So if I was being honest, I rather liked Lee Seon-woo as a person.

Ah. Not in a romantic way, of course. I still wasn't fully settled into the awareness that I was a girl, and I had no desire for love.

Just… a reliable junior, maybe?

As someone walking the same path of the sword, I found him admirable.

"It's fine. I'm not the type who thinks you have to keep your manners mid-fight."

With a faint smile, I sheathed my sword.

"Then shall we fight properly?"

"Gladly!"

The two sword strikes met in midair and exploded — and that detonation became the signal for the tempo of the fight to jump a full beat.

As the two blades danced, the arena's outer walls began to shatter. Lee Seon-woo's Earth-attribute power heaved the ground upward; the razor wind I commanded shaved the rising earth away.

Warning sirens demanding evacuation blared through the air, but no one paid them any mind. Launching off crumbling debris, I gathered wind into my hand and unfurled a dazzling technique.

A lattice of blood-red slashes tore across the arena floor, the heaved earth, and the collapsing stone arches as it came crashing in. Before that dizzying storm of blades, Lee Seon-woo raised his sword in quiet stillness.

No matter how fiercely a tempest rages, the earth does not move.

Storms may bring down countless mountains and fill even more valleys, but ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in the end, wind cannot erase the land.

Bracing himself to take every attack, he swung.

A crimson sword-path that painted the heavens collided with a colossal slash that carved a horizon across the world.

"…Maybe I should have blocked it."

I muttered under my breath and stared at the status window floating in front of me.

Chaotic Sword might not quite reach secret-art tier, but it was the strongest technique I could fire off with my brain functions restricted. The number of A-rank monsters that had gone silent after getting caught in it was already in the double digits.

With a slash like that, I'd figured that even if he blocked, I would at least seize the initiative… I never imagined he would take it raw and still swing his sword through it.

"Ugh…"

The moment I flopped onto the floor spread-eagled and shut my eyes, that final blow rose vivid before me again.

In the eyes that met mine, I had seen Lee Seon-woo's unyielding will. I had watched his sword open a world painted red and draw a horizon across it.

The instant I faced that rising sun, my instincts knew.

This fight — I had lost.

"Still, that was a pretty cool sword, wasn't it?"

"…Khuh."

"Ahaha…"

I laughed and looked up at Lee Seon-woo, who had dropped to one knee.

He was barely still upright. Of course he was. He had taken a slash that could casually carve through A-rank magical beasts with nothing but his own body.

Unlike me, who had been split cleanly in half, Lee Seon-woo's entire body had been diced to ribbons. Only the absurd toughness unique to Earth-attribute Awakened was keeping him on his feet.

"Kh… fair enough. I never expected you to push straight through like that."

"You showed me everything you had. As a fellow swordsman, I had to answer with everything I had."

That was why it stung a little.

A secret art — oui — uses the characters for "profound" and "meaning." To unleash a sword art's secret form is to bare everything that technique holds inside it.

In Lee Seon-woo's sword, I had seen a rising sun. In return, I had wanted to show him a sword that could cut the sky. Doing so would have been as good as advertising that I was the Sword Saint, but still.

Besides… this ruined body of mine wouldn't allow it.

Just yesterday I had pushed myself on a whim, jammed myself full of drugs, and gotten an earful from Maria. If I pulled the same stunt again today? She would genuinely kill me. Afraid of getting chewed out by someone I loved, I never did bring out the secret art.

"That was a fine fight."

"Likewise."

It had been a satisfying match.

Thinking that, I took the hand Lee Seon-woo offered and pulled myself up.

The forty thousand viewers who had somehow piled into the stream, however, seemed to feel differently.

The frozen chat window finally started to move.