Chapter 553: Jealousy is My Power (53)
Chapter 553: Jealousy is My Power (53)
For a moment, I had a thought.
Was the Sword Duke acting like a child and playing a prank on me again?
But that irreverent hypothesis was discarded shortly after. It was because the Sword Duke’s expression as he spoke was far too calm.
If anything, I was the one who looked more urgent after hearing such a cryptic question.
In truth, frustration was my primary emotion.
However, I was in a position where I had no one else to rely on but the Sword Duke. Suppressing the surge of emotion rising within me, I struggled to squeeze out the words.
“Of course it’s possible! Didn't you show me yourself, Elder?”
“No, it’s impossible.”
It was a sudden, flat denial.
As I stood there dazed, unable to process his words for a moment, the Sword Duke gave me a look of utter indifference.
“Splitting the sky with a single sword? Are you kidding me? There’s no way something like that is possible.”
“But, Elder, you clearly…!”
“That is what mental imagery is.”
The answer was instantaneous.
As if he had already anticipated my rebuttal, the girl continued.
“It is impossible in the real world, but in the world of mental imagery, it is different. It’s just like how dreams aren't bound by the laws of physics… That is why even the sun can pass through the eye of a needle.”
It was the clearest explanation I had heard so far.
And that was exactly why I couldn't bring myself to open my mouth. It seemed there could be no explanation more lucid than this, yet I still couldn't grasp the feeling of it.
In the end, I had no choice but to ask another question.
“……How?”
“You have to believe.”
The Sword Duke said this while staring at me silently.
My eyes naturally drifted toward my waist. A sword and a hand axe were hanging there.
‘The eye of a needle,’ huh.
I instinctively gripped my sword. I didn't even know why I did it.
“What is the sun?”
“I don't know.”
“Then what is the needle’s eye?”
“……I don't really know that either.”
At that, the Sword Duke burst into laughter as if he had expected as much.
“Well, of course! How can you imagine the needle’s eye when you can't even conceive of the sun? You still don't know yourself very well.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Watch closely, kid.”
As the Sword Duke spoke, he quietly placed a hand on my back.
In the very next instant.
“Guh!” I gasped, my breath hitching as my eyes flew wide. A ferocious torrent of mana was swirling, relentlessly invading my meridian points.
It was an amount I had never experienced in my life.
A ‘torrent’? No, it was more like a ‘tidal wave.’
I felt like screaming right then and there.
There was a limit to the amount of mana one could move at once. This was because there were limits to the meridians themselves.
With this much mana, I should have been worrying about my life, let alone damaging my meridians.
But before I could even protest.
“……This is the ‘Sun.’”
At those words, I momentarily stopped breathing.
My bewildered eyes scanned my limbs. Even though mana exceeding my limits was circulating through my meridians, my body showed no signs of abnormality.
It was a mystery.
How could I be standing here without any issues?
“This is ‘you,’ Ian Percus… The Morning Star of Humanity, the only disciple who will inherit the Sword Soul!”
Suddenly, a realization struck me.
Looking back, I had only been focusing on the special power that ‘mental imagery’ possessed. Since it allowed one to move within stopped time, anyone would have done the same.
But I shouldn't have.
The majestic flow of mana through my meridians soon became a full, surging power that reached every single capillary. It was immediately after that the blade was dyed in a brilliant silver.
With a light more radiant than ever before.
Compared to the endless mana flowing through my body, how thin and frail this sword seemed.
It was just like a needle.
“How is it, kid……?”
The Sword Duke patted my back a couple of times as if for the last time and slowly stepped back.
“Has the needle not embraced the sun?”
Only then did a bitter smile play on my lips.
I could finally see why the Great Witch had sent the Sword Duke to me.
He preferred the type of teaching that hammered lessons directly into the body. In contrast, the Great Witch’s secret arts were more complex and delicate.
The sun contained within a needle?
It couldn't end there.
I tightened my grip on the sword’s hilt. I could clearly feel the countless threads of mana connecting to the sword through my meridians.
So, I pulled those threads tight, as if cinching them.
“……Ho.”
Along with the girl’s low exclamation of admiration, the silver aura shining from my sword began to condense tightly. Smaller, smaller, and even sharper.
The aura, compressed to its limit, looked as solid as a physical object.
And then I realized.
I raised the sword’s point high toward the sky. The cluster of light held by the blade was itching to break free from my control at any moment.
But not yet.
Just a little more.
At the moment I felt certain I had reached my limit.
A Single Flash—a linear trajectory connecting heaven and earth was engraved.
What I had imagined was the magnificent sight of the sky being cleaved by a single sword. Although it didn't reach the miracle of splitting the world in half, I was satisfied with the fact that I had reproduced that scene even slightly.
Because space was splitting apart along that silver boundary.
The Sword Duke’s eyes widened as if he couldn't believe my success.
“……Did you do it?”
I had to catch my breath just to answer that question.
The boiling mana was still moving through every part of my meridians. Since I had poured out all that power at once, it was impossible for my meridians not to be strained.
In the end, it was only after a few seconds that my voice finally came out.
“I’m not sure……?”
That was my honest impression.
It was a technique I had used for the first time in my life. Naturally, I had no way of gauging success or failure.
But unlike me, who was just dazed, the Sword Duke was hopping up and down, making a fuss.
“I-I think you did! Kid, you really… your sword talent is beyond imagination! I never dreamed you’d pull it off in one go. It’s a level of mastery as if you were reproducing a technique you already knew……!”
Right then.
CRASH!
Space shattered around the silver line. A refreshing sound echoed, almost hollow in its clarity, and then a silhouette tore through the gap and appeared.
I could tell just by the small stature and the pointed hat.
‘Senior Elsie,’ I muttered the name to myself instinctively.
“Everyone, stop!”
It was a cry filled with emotions so desperate they felt heart-wrenching.
In Senior Elsie’s blue eyes, there was a rare look of anxiety. To the point where an unhideable fear seeped from her face as she glanced at me.
Did that cry have an effect?
The noise rising from the point where the Vampire and the Great Witch were clashing ceased. Not missing the moment, Senior Elsie continued her urgent plea.
“We—we have to… we have to get out of here right now! Outside, the assailants are……!”
Senior Elsie couldn't even finish her sentence.
THOOM!
An impact occurred as if the entire world were tilting.
Bewildered gazes turned toward the sky. The blood-red moon that should have been there was now cracked and shaking precariously.
Witnessing this, the Sword Duke immediately roared.
“We’re leaving now! Kid, hurry!”
Space was already split open before us.
Since Senior Elsie had entered from the outside, we just had to go from the inside to the outside.
Yet, the reason I hesitated and couldn't leave.
It was because of the woman caught at the edge of my vision.
The Great Witch was silently looking up at the sky. Her hat obscured her eyes, making it impossible to read the emotions reflected in them.
The Sword Duke wasn't one to miss what I was thinking.
“It’s already too late! The collapse is too fast!”
With that, the girl grabbed me by the scruff of the neck with a rough hand. After throwing both me and Senior Elsie toward the exit, he prepared to kick off the ground.
If only the space in front of us hadn't collapsed first.
It was a bizarre sight.
There was nothing in the air, yet transparent fragments were falling, and landscapes from all sorts of places were mixing together.
A burning forest.
Two women facing off.
As my vision was dyed with those scenes, I realized a fact I hadn't known before.
The figures of the two women looked familiar.
I hadn't realized it when we first entered the barrier.
The Sword Duke’s judgment was swift.
“Shit… there’s no choice! At least we have to……!”
As the Sword Duke shouted and stepped toward the other side.
“……No!”
A girl who had been lying still suddenly bolted upright.
Senior Elsie began to run frantically with a distraught look. Before I could even ask what she was doing.
That small hand began to pass through the collapsing space.
My eyes momentarily turned toward the Sword Duke. Already halfway through the boundary to the other side, the Sword Duke desperately reached out his arm.
“Kid, please……!”
I tried to grab that hand.
But instinctively, I caught sight of Senior Elsie, who remained behind me.
That was the end.
That very brief moment of hesitation ended with my vision fading to black.
“……You really find all sorts of ways to be an idiot.”
Along with the sigh of a man that brushed past my ears.