13. The Essence of the Sword (Essence) (2)
13. The Essence of the Sword (Essence) (2)
There was a young boy.
Born an orphan, he was given the name Kronos by a single knight.
From the age of ten, there was a young boy who swung a sword all day.
In the beginning, it was a sword to protect himself and those around him. He wielded that protective sword for ten years.
And by the mere age of twenty, he rose to the position of vice-captain of a knight order, basked in the praise of all around him.
It was practically an acknowledgment that, setting aside his leadership abilities, his personal martial prowess was the greatest in the imperial knight order.
Cutting down men and beasts with a sword.
He had grown calloused to the act itself. And at the end of it, grew greedy.
A more perfect sword path. The greed to unfold a more perfect sword.
He swung the sword for twenty more years.
The man began to be called the Sword God.
This was after he single-handedly annihilated two Sword Masters from an enemy nation.
Now he felt no value whatsoever in murder and slaughter.
They were merely results.
The result of swinging a sword.
For the man, the important thing had become the unfolding of the sword path itself.
To cut.
To tear down the limits standing before his eyes.
A beautiful single stroke. A perfect single stroke.
A sword for the sake of the sword.
Kronos swung the sword like that for thirty years, forty years—
sixty years.
Though it was a sword he had swung since he had just turned ten, he still could not clearly deconstruct its profound principle.
It was eight years ago.
He annihilated an entire kingdom with a single sword.
Sword Lords.
He slit every throat of the swordsmen who clamored about having reached the realm of Master.
Because their Sword Aura was far too shallow.
He could pierce through the protective energy armor covering their entire bodies as if it were a sheet of paper.
Have I reached the limit that a human's sword can ascend to?
Thinking thus, Kronos resigned his official post and began his travels.
It was a journey to gain insight into the swords of the entire world.
Most of the other races could not block Kronos's sword.
However, a select few among the other races were different.
"...."
Kronos's knees buckled. A vivid sword scar was etched beside his left eye.
Kronos opened his right eye wide and faced the being who had bestowed defeat upon him.
An elf with both eyes closed.
A blind elf swordsman.
The figure looked down upon Kronos.
From the elf's lips flowed a beautiful voice that could only be described as ethereal.
"Did you think you had reached the limit attainable by humans, and thus set out on this journey seeking inhuman rivals?"
Kronos found himself answering that ethereal voice involuntarily.
"...That is so."
"How arrogant and ignorant."
The white-haired elf, eyes closed, looked at Kronos as he spoke.
"I have seen more than thirty humans stronger than you. While still possessing mortal bodies."
Kronos's brow furrowed deeply.
It was an utterly unbelievable statement. But he had no choice but to acknowledge it. Because the elf before him was said to have lived for over five hundred years.
"You have reached your limit. Not the limit of humanity. Your vessel is merely of that caliber."
The blind elf did not kill Kronos.
"Struggle. Writhe against your limits. That is how I shattered mine."
A man who knew nothing but the sword.
An old man who had ground his entire life into the single act of swordsmanship while living a somewhat predetermined lifespan.
Because the elf saw a sliver of himself in Kronos.
The man, now having lost the sight in his left eye, continued to swing his sword.
The narrowed field of vision did not significantly affect the unfolding of his sword path. Rather, the five senses that expanded simultaneously when he thrust his sword downward became even more maximized.
The man swung his sword.
He swung it like that for another five years.
He bisected the waist of a vampire, one who supposedly had some skill with a sword, with a single stroke of battojutsu.
He took the vampire's blood serum to an alchemist and threatened them, demanding they produce a usable drug by any means.
The resulting product was akin to a narcotic.
And Kronos was pleased with this narcotic.
A sword that cleaved the atmosphere.
He could see the gaps in time created as the atmosphere was cleaved. It allowed him to perceive the subtle sensation of the air being split by the sword.
To cut.
Kronos sought out drugs from then on.
Drugs that, the moment he drew his sword, could make the world clearly visible to him.
Drugs that showed him how to swing his sword to split the world.
He did not care if it was called a misguided greed.
He did not care if it was an effect born of mere illusion.
Kronos was prepared to accept anything if it gave him the power to shatter his vessel. The vessel called his limits that imprisoned him.
Unless it meant selling his body to a demon.
***
Kronos injected the drug and slumped into a chair.
He swung the sword and took the drugs.
That was the method for keeping his decrepit old body in peak condition continuously.
His breathing grew ragged.
His mind clouded for an instant, then returned.
Kronos fiddled with the hilt of his sword.
He slowly raised his body and advanced forward.
A roar and explosion like crashing thunder and lightning blanketed the entire development zone.
Kronos's eyes gleamed.
Fiercely.
Kronos's right eye was fixed clearly upon a single man.
It was directed at the man who had deflected eight shots from the magic electromagnetic cannon with a shortsword and perfectly parried them.
"...Huh."
The being who had parried the magic railgun, an attack Kronos had asserted even he would not be able to block.
The essence of the sword.
That man might possess it.
Kronos's gaze became stained with greed.
He must cross swords with that man.
That desire moved Kronos's aged body.
"Uh, Elder! You must help us! Th-There is an absurdly strong bastard!"
From beside him came the cry of that pig bastard, Bellek, rushing over.
The sword in Kronos's hand fell in a diagonal slash.
Sseogeogeok!
"Kuaaaaaaah!"
"You're noisy."
A sword strike dug deep into Bellek's shoulder blade. With his eyes rolled back to whites, Bellek convulsed all over, writhing on the floor.
Jeobeok jeobeok─
Kronos walked alone. Toward the direction of the 34 Akan guards.
No, precisely, toward Yuma.
***
The magic electromagnetic cannon was completely neutralized by the <Absolute Counter> skill triggered by Yuma's parry.
And as Bellek's forces guarding that magic electromagnetic cannon were annihilated by the collapsing building, the Akan guards were able to move without hesitation.
They penetrated Bellek's hideout in an instant.
And they rescued the bound mayor of Akan. Along with his brother who had been crawling on the floor.
Gelmour, Akan's mayor, had his blue hair messily disheveled.
"...Yu, Yuma-nim."
Gelmour bowed his entire body toward Yuma as if prostrating himself.
"How can I ever repay the grace of having my life saved twice..."
Yuma's blue gaze, amidst his dark gray hair, stared at Gelmour.
"Stand up, Gelmour."
"Understood."
It wasn't out of consideration for Gelmour, but because such behavior from him felt incredibly bothersome. But to Gelmour's ears, already thoroughly besotted, his words merely sounded like a divine commandment that must be obeyed.
Jeobeok─
The sound of Kronos's footsteps echoed out.
Gelmour swallowed dryly.
"...That is the old man who cut down my knight, a knight of upper Sword Expert rank, in a single stroke. According to Bellek, he is the former 2nd Seat Sword God of the Empire. I do not know if that statement is true, but he is undoubtedly a fearsome master."
Yuma stared at the level window floating above the head of the white-haired old man, Kronos.
[Lv.152]
The level of the first current Imperial Ten Seat he had met, Keingal, had been 103. That was the highest among all enemies he had encountered so far.
Yet the man walking toward him now, radiating an extraordinary aura at a mere glance, was level 152, far higher still.
The probability that everything Gelmour had just said was true seemed high.
Jeobeok
Kronos approached slowly.
Gulp.
The sound of one of the guards swallowing could be heard.
Presence.
The presence of an overlord.
Under the presence of Sword God Kronos, who had commanded thousands on the battlefield and beheaded tens of thousands, the 34 Akan guards literally lost their will to fight.
The old man slowly opened his mouth.
"The essence of the sword. I glimpsed it just now in your sword path."
Kronos's gaze was solely fixed on Yuma.
'...The essence of the sword?'
What the hell is that.
Yuma could not understand at all what Kronos was talking about.
"That sublime sword path that deflected eight magic electromagnetic cannon shots with a dagger, without infusing even a shred of ki into the blade."
Seureung...
Kronos drew his sword.
A brilliant crimson light coiled around the blade. It was an Aura Blade.
"Would you let me witness that sword path?"
Yuma readjusted his grip on the dagger, Black Dragon Bernak's Fang.
And he used Searching Eye.
[Lv.152] Kronos
Race: Human
Alignment: Evil
Class: Swordsman
Realm: Grand Sword Master
Grand Sword Master?
'It seems.'
The moment to use <Bullet Time> was apparently not when facing that magic electromagnetic cannon earlier, but now, against the old man in front of him.
Kronos looked at Yuma's dagger and smiled bitterly.
"That dagger certainly appears to be a famed blade, without doubt... but have you no intention of wielding another weapon? Longswords, greatswords, and countless other weapons are within my subspace pouch."
Even if he gave me one, I couldn't lift it.
Wielding a sword of a weight my body can't manage with this damn abysmal strength stat would make even <Parrying> difficult.
Yuma slowly shook his head.
"Not necessary."
Kronos twisted the corner of his mouth. It was not a sneer. It was a smile born of self-loathing.
"As expected... to one who has truly reached the essence of the sword, someone like me is judged worthy of being dealt with by that dagger alone."
That's not it.
"I am coming."
Kwak
Kronos stepped forth with a True Step.
The right arm gripping the sword swung horizontally.
A silent flash was unleashed.
A crimson full moon blanketed the world.
It was no metaphor.
Blanketed.
Like a heavy brushstroke distorting a blank white sheet of paper.
A sword path descended upon the world.
The sword of the young boy who had run all his life solely toward the sword.
The man's sword.
The old man's sword.
Jjeo───────────jeojeok
A strange light flickered in Yuma's blue eyes.
It was nothing infused with ki or anything of the sort.
Just, an instant.
It was a gaze meant to seize that instant.
He stepped forward lightly.
He found a gap. Before that sublime sword path could slice his body apart.
An instantaneous gap to parry and deflect it first.
The muscles of his entire body screamed out.
'I match it.'
That was his sole fixation.
Kaaaaang!!
A golden light source erupted, signifying the success of the parry.
Light flickered at the tip of the dagger.
<Absolute Counter>
It is returned.
The sublime sword path that Sword God Kronos had built up over his entire lifetime.
To Kronos himself.
As an attack ten times stronger.
With ten times loftier sublimity.
Only Yuma and Kronos could see that sword path with their naked eyes.
A sword that had transcended human limits.
A sword so sublime it could overwhelm even the sword path of the blind elf swordsman.
The sword strike was crashing down.
"Keuhahahahahahaha!"
Laughter burst from Kronos's lips.
Just as expected.
So this was the essence of the sword.
It was silence.
The sword path that reached the essence was terribly, profoundly silent.
Like the death approaching him.
"Beautiful!!"
Kronos felt genuine pleasure.
He felt a sensation greater than any moment in his seventy years of life.
Jjeojeo────────────jeok!!
A white light passed through Kronos's body.
It had been the sublime sword path Kronos had aspired to all this time.
Kronos's body slowly tilted toward the ground.
Thick blood gushed from his mouth.
Yuma, dragging his body that was screaming from head to toe, slowly approached Kronos.
"...Thank you."
Kronos fixed his single eye on Yuma and said thus.
"For letting me experience the essence of the sword... sincerely, thank you."
Yuma silently watched the dying Kronos.
"No one... will be able to raise an objection to you being called the Sword God. O great swordsman."
Kronos spoke as if bequeathing his own title.
As if bequeathing the sword path he had walked until now.
Kronos's single eye slowly closed. Soon, his breathing ceased entirely.
'Fuck.'
Yuma furrowed his brow.
That essence of the sword is your sword path.
That great and sublime sword path is your sword path.
How am I supposed to tell you I just reflected your own attack back at you?