Grave of Swords
How much deeper had they gone?
A peculiar energy wrapped around them — mysterious, yet far from threatening.
A blinding light swallowed their vision. Jinhyuk and his companions instinctively shut their eyes and turned their heads.
They stayed like that for a moment. Then a cool breeze swept over them.
They were supposed to be underwater. So how was there wind?
Birdsong followed, utterly peaceful, and warm light began to tickle their faces. When they finally managed to open their eyes—
"Whoa..."
A landscape utterly different from moments ago unfolded before them. Jinhyuk was standing in a verdant forest, the kind of place that would heal you if you simply lay still.
He looked down at his thoroughly soaked clothes. Water still dripped from the fabric — so the underwater journey hadn't been a dream.
"Woohooo! Spirit paradise!"
A delighted Elia started bounding through the trees. Spirits were a presence Jinhyuk had encountered countless times in games and comics — but in the real world, the name was utterly foreign.
He got to his feet and started walking with Seira toward the light pouring down. Elia, who had climbed all the way up a tree, soon joined them and matched their stride.
Beyond the forest lay a wide, still lake. At its center stood a being who looked mysterious at a glance — radiant golden hair that caught the sunlight, and even from this distance, a pair of vivid blue eyes. No matter how you looked at her, she was far from human.
"That's the spirit of the lake. She's the one who granted us entry. Hmm? Master? You okay?"
Elia waved a hand in front of his face. Jinhyuk held up a thumb.
"Yeah. Just... realizing spirits actually exist."
"You've already got a 3,271-year-old elf and a yordle the size of a bean. What's so special about this?"
"When you put it that way..."
While the three of them whispered among themselves, the spirit rose and began to walk. She approached across the water's surface, her steps light as air, and coming right up to them, she smiled — a smile as radiant as her appearance.
"My name is Ariadne, Spirit of the Lake. I have been waiting for you."
Elia and Jinhyuk quietly stepped aside. Seira, who had been gazing at the spirit, spoke.
"You know of me?"
"You are the master of the Black Knights. We have never met. I have merely heard tell of you — from the one who entrusted this lake to me."
"The one who entrusted it...?"
"The knights who gathered here called him this: Khan Rendio, Vice Commander of the Black Knights."
Seira's eyes widened. How could she not know that name? It belonged to the comrade who had stood beside her the longest.
Listening from the side, Jinhyuk clenched his fist. What lay here wasn't some mere lump of Lapis ore. It had to be here. The Grave of Swords.
"Before he slept, Khan asked this of me. Should the master of the knights ever come, I was to show her the way."
Ariadne slowly stepped aside. A staircase of light formed beneath the glittering, sun-dappled surface of the lake.
Before taking a step, Seira looked at Jinhyuk.
"Go on ahead."
He smiled and waved her on. He wanted nothing more than to see the Grave of Swords as soon as possible — but he could not be the first to face them. The only one with that right was Seira Kinkaiten, Commander of the Black Knights.
"I shall go."
Seira nodded and descended the stairs into the lake.
I can breathe...
She was clearly underwater, yet she could draw breath. Sunlight pouring from the surface and the crystal-clear water made for excellent visibility besides.
Descending the stairs, Seira came to a halt. Then she drew a deep breath.
Dozens of graves spread out before her eyes. Familiar swords were planted in tombs wrought of black ore. She approached slowly and examined the blades. Of course they were familiar. These were the swords her knights had cherished and wielded at her side.
"Kaite Magaroff. Randol Percipi."
She stood before each grave as she spoke the names, offering a silent prayer. Watching her, Ariadne smiled.
Ariadne had witnessed the Black Knights' final hours from close at hand. Whenever they had a moment, they had spoken of Seira. They had teased her, sometimes — but even in the jest there had always been respect, loyalty, and affection.
So this is the kind of person she was.
They had been the strongest knights even Ariadne, who had lived for millennia, had ever seen. She had wondered, privately, what kind of person could command such knights' genuine devotion even unto death. And only now was that question answered.
"Kamen Breed. Sein Ardan."
No names were inscribed upon the graves. Just as the knights had never forgotten Seira, she had never forgotten them — neither the swords they had wielded in her service, nor the names they had borne.
Standing before the last grave, Seira smiled.
"Khan Rendio."
Having waited for her silent prayer to finish, Ariadne approached.
"I am told the Black Knights swore an oath before they parted. That they would walk their own paths, but share their final rest together. That, they said, was the last covenant of the Black Knights."
"So they did."
Surveying the graves once more, Seira tilted her head.
"What is that chair in the center of the graves?"
At the heart of the pouring sunlight, an absurdly uncomfortable-looking wooden chair sat there, wholly out of place. Ariadne smiled with meaning.
"My place...?"
Guiding Seira toward it, Ariadne continued.
"Khan and the knights said this of you. That you always stood at the very front of the order. That you bore, alone and in silence, the weight of the duty to lead and protect them all."
"The weight... I know not whether I bore it well."
"You did so very well. Had you not, these free-spirited knights would never have kept their covenant to the very end."
Ariadne laid a hand upon the chair.
"Vice Commander Khan said this: that at least in death, at least once they had found their rest, they would be the ones to surround and protect you."
Seira gazed quietly at the chair. Those were words worthy of Khan Rendio — a man the enemy had called a demon, yet who had been nothing but warmth itself to Seira and her knights.
"He asked me to be sure to tell you, should you come. That there is no place in this Grave of Swords for the commander to be buried. So come only when you are weary and worn, sit for a little while, and go. Khan, Sein, and the knights went to great lengths, you see — to find the most uncomfortable chair in all the world. Please, sit."
Seira sat.
"How is the chair?"
"Uncomfortable. The worst of any I have ever sat upon."
"Wonderful. The knights would be so pleased to hear that."
Smiling, Seira rose. She had stood so quickly not merely because the chair was uncomfortable. She was neither lonely, nor struggling, nor weary — not now. And so she would save this rest for later. For a future that might one day exhaust her.
"This way."
Ariadne led Seira deeper into the lake. It was time to fulfill Khan's final request.
Moments later, a sword came into view, and Seira's eyes widened.
The graves of Sein Ardan, Kamen Breed, and Khan Rendio had held their second swords. Sein's Thunder Sword Raven and Kamen's Cursed Blade Muramasa were already in Seira's possession. She had wondered where Khan's blade had gone — and here it was.
A sword lay upon a stone that resembled an altar. A blade of purest white, traced with blood-red veins like living arteries.
"The Blood Phantom's Sword. Blood Rain."
An ancient blade of purest white, traced with blood-red veins.
Formerly wielded by Khan Rendio, Vice Commander of the Black Knights.
Seira murmured the name and took hold of the blade.
"I know not whether I ought to take it."
"You must take it. The sword wishes to drink more blood at the side of a worthy master... or so Khan said. He even anticipated that you would hesitate."
Seira burst out laughing. Khan Rendio, through and through. Perhaps it was all the time they had spent together — he had always had a way of seeing right through her, in the oddest of places.
"As you wished, I shall take it with me. To a battlefield where there is yet more blood to be found."
Taking Blood Rain, Seira turned. And looking upon the graves, she smiled more brightly than she ever had — vowing, as she did, that she would come to visit often.
Sunlight poured from the surface, illuminating the Grave of Swords and Seira alike. Ariadne smiled along with them, warm and content. As the spirit of the lake, she could feel it with perfect clarity: the joy of souls reunited with one they held dear, and the earnest blessing of those who wished their commander well upon the path she would walk.
Ariadne took a few steps back, committing Seira and the Grave of Swords to memory.
They reached each other at last.
A thread of fate that had crossed centuries to arrive, at last, in one another's hands. She wanted to remember this for a long, long time. This moment, more sacred and more beautiful than anything else.
A couple of hours later.
"Whoa..."
Emerging from the lake, Jinhyuk wore a look of awe. He had just finished visiting the Grave of Swords, and the reverence he'd felt there defied words.
"Now that was something precious."
Elia smiled in satisfaction as she looked back at the lake. A Grave of Swords guarded by a lake spirit thousands of years old. She felt she understood, if only a little, how sacred and how great the covenant of the knights who slept here had been.
"Come here and wring me out, would you?"
Elia held out one of her twin tails to Jinhyuk.
"Gently, okay? Don't go yanking it out."
"Yeah. Don't worry."
He wrung the water from her hair as carefully as he could. She had so much of it a broom would weep with envy.
"There's so much of it, I figure you could stand to lose a little."
"Don't you go thinking nasty thoughts like that, hmm? Always remember you're dealing with a 3,271-year-old granny."
He kept at the wringing for quite a while. Then Seira emerged from the lake looking thoroughly refreshed, and as if they'd been waiting for it, Elia and Jinhyuk came over and started wringing the water from her hair as well.
"Did you pay your respects?"
Seira nodded and looked at Jinhyuk.
"It is thanks to you, Master."
"Me? I didn't do anything."
"Had it not been for you, Master, I would never have met them again. You have my thanks. And... you were right."
Seira smiled faintly and went on.
Jinhyuk puffed out his chest, thoroughly pleased with himself.
"See? I told you so! I knew Seira must've been a really, really great commander."
It wasn't simply that he was happy to have been right. What truly delighted him was that Seira herself had come to know how great and how good a person she was.
"And."
Seira held out a sword.
"I found it. The last sword."
"Ohh."
He'd been about to carefully ask what had become of the blade, as it happened. At last, every sword had been gathered.
After gazing at it for a long moment, Seira spoke.
"The sword of Khan Rendio, Vice Commander of the Black Knights. Blood Rain."
The instant Seira spoke the sword's name—
*Ding!*
The system's cheerful chime rang out.