I Pulled the Holy Sword
How on earth did she get here?
Doubt and sheer bewilderment flashed through my mind, but they vanished just as quickly. The simple fact that she had rushed here to save me filled me with overwhelming gratitude. Pure, unadulterated relief.
I was practically moved to tears, yet my astonishment couldn't linger. I immediately projected a status window toward the mutated Yeong So-so.
Name:■■■ Martial Artist
Age:■■■
Level:80
Rank:■-Star (■■■■■■■■■■■)
Unique Skill:Heavenly Evil Body (SS+)
Detailed Info: A being who could be hailed as an incarnation of martial might bestowed by the heavens. Though she was previously being guided toward the path of righteousness by a specific individual, she suffered two crushing defeats in succession. She is now corrupted and mutated by frustration and ■■■. This is the being you once knew, and yet it is not. Please, make a wise judgment.
Corrupted characters...?
Never once, whether in the game or in this world, had I seen such broken script. Even moments ago, while she was parasitizing Croom, her status window had displayed perfectly normally. But these glitched glyphs were utterly bizarre—no, grotesque.
A DLC...?
No, common sense dictated that even downloadable content would have matching fonts. Besides, this system interface was practically a divine Authority in its own right...
That left only one plausible conclusion.
There's another threat out there that I know nothing about. And it comes from beyond the game itself.
Dammit. All I wanted was to enjoy a peaceful life in another world. First the Round Table, and now another batch of lunatics on top of that? The difficulty scaling in this shit-tier game was truly out of its goddamn mind!
Just as panic threatened to overtake me, a voice dripping with murderous intent reached my ears.
"Are you unharmed? If you've suffered so much as a single scratch, I will flay that godforsaken bitch alive right this instant...!"
"I just scraped myself a bit, so I'm not hurt badly. It's fine."
"You were... hurt?"
Ah. Wrong answer. I should have told her I wasn't hurt at all!
Strengthening my vision with mana, I immediately grasped what she was up to. She was forging a titanic hammer out of pure mana, compressing it again and again until it turned dense and lethal.
Ilena has activated Mana Manipulation (SSS).
It wasn't even a named combat technique—just a colossal sledgehammer constructed via raw Mana Manipulation.
The hammer loomed high in the air, waiting patiently for So-so to close the distance. And the second So-so's fraying patience snapped and she surged forward—
KAAANG—!
Having predicted her trajectory in advance, Ilena swung the hammer with the crisp, ringing crack of a home run. The sheer mass behind the impact should have crippled at least half of a normal body.
And yet.
Yeong So-so swelled her flesh in an instant, effortlessly absorbing the shock. Using the recoil as elastic momentum, she ricocheted straight back toward us, drawing her blade. The sword had been swallowed by warped flesh, stained a horrifying crimson.
The moment its edge cut the air—
Heavenly Demon Sword Art: Second Stance
Demonic Heavenly Flash
A pitch-black slash, identical to the one I had witnessed against Mordred, tore across the sky, cleaving the very space cleanly in two. It was a terrifying feat she hadn't been able to achieve back at level 60.
Even so, Ilena merely looked on as if gazing upon an insect.
"Hmm, Boss. Just asking to be sure... I can kill that thing, right?"
"Kill her...?! Hey! Of course not—! Mmph... Mmmph!"
I tried to shout back, but something clamped down over my mouth, stifling my voice.
"Aha! Silence means consent, so... I'll kill it."
"Mmmph...! Mmmmmph!!"
You crazy bitch—!
Why was every conflict with these fantasy lunatics strictly a binary of life or death?!
Smelling imminent catastrophe, I flailed my limbs in a frantic bid to break free. But against a member of the Round Table whose average stats sat comfortably at SSS, my chances of escape were zero.
Swallowed by profound helplessness, I watched events unfold before my eyes that belonged in an apocalyptic comic.
The sky fractured.
The dungeon boundaries cracked and splintered.
Heaven and earth violently traded places in a storm of absolute madness.
Lost in total bewilderment and overwhelmed by my own impotence, an eerie prompt echoed directly in my skull.
[Do you desire power...]
Holy shit, you scared the crap out of me—!
Hearing a voice barge straight into my brain nearly made my soul leap out of my chest. For a second, I thought Croom's lingering grudge had come back to haunt me from beyond the grave.
Wait, it sounded strangely familiar. That youthful voice and that insolent, deadpan tone...
'Is that you, Cali?'
[......]
'You thought you were being sneaky, but you can't fool my ears. Nope.'
Realizing she had been thoroughly exposed, the telepathic transmission went dead for a while. Then, after what felt like a few minutes:
[Inquiry. How on earth did you figure that out?]
Her baffled question trickled into my mind.
Well, if she asked how I knew, it wasn't like I had a profound explanation...
'A man's intuition?'
[......]
'Was that a bit of a stretch? Fine, let's just call it a lucky guess...'
Just as I moved my gaze away—
"Whoa—!"
In the span of a single heartbeat, the world inverted. I was plucked straight from the brutal battlefield of the two women and dumped onto a tranquil, craggy stone mountain.
KRA-KRA-KRAK—!
Oh dear, what on earth was this now?
Without a shred of exaggeration, a mountain—an actual mountain—was rising right before my eyes. A colossal peak towering high enough to slap Mount Everest across the face multiple times over.
[Ascend. To the one who proves their conviction, the corresponding blessing shall be granted.]
A completely transformed, solemn voice boomed down.
She was determined to play dumb right to the bitter end, huh? Wait, was she not even human to begin with? Some monster native to the dungeon, or perhaps a whole new species?
My curiosity deepened, but I had zero intention of dancing to her tune.
"Not doing it."
[......?]
"I said I'm not going. Why the hell should I climb that? I'd rather just go back, so hurry up and return me to where I came from. Or do whatever you want."
Even if I could manipulate mana, scaling a height like that was borderline impossible. And more to the point, why should I bother?
If she wanted something from me, she could haul her own ass down here. Ordering me to climb with an attitude?
Screw that. If she had a problem, she could come down herself.
When I showed no inclination to climb even after an eternity of waiting, I felt an illusion that the mountain was shrinking slightly... No, wait, it wasn't an illusion.
"Is it shrinking in real-time?"
What had once been three times the height of Everest shrank to twice its size. When I literally laid flat on the ground and pretended to go to sleep, it plummeted to half the height of Everest.
Well, since things had turned out like this...
Ssssszzzz—!
Sizzle, crackle...!
I pulled meat and a grill plate out of my inventory, resuming the barbecue I hadn't finished earlier.
"Mmm~! Even if I say so myself, this is damn delicious!"
[If only you didn't meet the conditions...]
"What was that? Couldn't quite catch that, but want a bite?"
[You crazy bastard.]
By the time I had polished off about half the meat along with some sparkling water, I looked up.
"Oh, look at that. It's totally flat now."
The mountain that had previously soared beyond sight had leveled out into a plain, and at its center stood a sword thrust into the ground—a blade worthy of being called a masterpiece.
The situation was suspicious as hell by any metric, but escaping this realm under my own power was practically out of the question. Left with no other choice...
"Fine. I don't know what kind of game you're playing, but you win."
I strode over to the sword and drew in a deep breath.
Gripping the hilt with a reverse grip, I braced myself and pulled with all my might.
Krrrrk—!
Accompanied by a coarse grating sensation like dislodging a rusted piece of farm equipment from hard earth, the blade gradually eased free. Why on earth had someone stuck such a fine blade out here in the middle of nowhere anyway?
It didn't reek of curses like a demonic blade, a cursed demon katana, or a spectral sword...
Still suspicious, I hauled on the hilt with utmost caution.
"Whoa, whoa...?! Whoaaaa...!!"
[To be frank, that was nothing more than cheap trickery this time. But congratulations anyway.]
A blinding radiance erupted from the blade itself, coiling around me in brilliant ribbons of light.
By the will of the sword, the scheduled trials have been skipped.
You have passed the Trial of the Sword.
◈ Certain abilities are currently sealed.
I confirmed the blade's name.
A name beyond my wildest imagination. I had known full well that this world was a messy blend of countless mythologies and conflicting lore, but did this blade really exist here too?
"Tsk... Ah, this might actually be bad..."
If this sword truly existed, it meant there were originally individuals destined to bear the title of the Round Table. And extrapolating further...
"The Vice Guildmaster of the Round Table I created. The Lion King who was meant to claim it by destiny. And now me, who snatched that destiny away and claimed the sword for free."
A truly twisted lineage had been born.
A completely botched knot of usurped fates. Well, whatever, things would sort themselves out eventually, right? There were gods around, so surely destiny would snap back into place on its own.
"Ah, whatever. Not my problem."
Giving up cleanly on thinking any further, I examined the sword in my hands.
Though it appeared slightly unadorned, the noble elegance radiating from its blade and crossguard marked it as a masterpiece among masterpieces. Without question, it belonged in the highest echelon of divine armaments.
Honestly, procuring a blade of this caliber usually required undertaking epic odysseys or undergoing countless trials soaked in sacrifice and blood. Having obtained it this easily felt so absurd that it was bordering on downright suspicious.
Just in case, I gave the blade an experimental horizontal slash.
"......"
Nothing happened.
Apparently, even a legendary holy sword didn't produce flashy special effects just from being swung around.
Is this thing a knockoff?
What kind of masterpiece possessed no bonus perks other than being sturdy? It was so bland that I began to question whether it truly was a holy sword at all.
And then.
Shhhhh...!
Just as I was dismissing it as nothing more than a flashy, useless hunk of metal, the surrounding scenery began to distort. In the blink of an eye, I was thrown back to where I had been before.
The scenery and the flow of time remained exactly as they were when I left.
I momentarily wondered if it had all been an illusion, but the sword was still gripped firmly in my hand, grounding me in reality.
And then, a crushing sense of powerlessness washed over me anew.
Even if I held a divine sword, my current self couldn't even participate in the cataclysmic duel unfolding right before my eyes. Just as I tried to let out a deep sigh of despair—only to fail miserably because my mouth was still taped shut—
Would you like to activate the effect of 'Ex-Calibur'?
The opportunity to turn the tables had finally arrived.