The Sword that Cleaves Spells
A mere thirty percent... I would gladly give even more.
"What? B-but..."
At Dohyun's words, Yu-ha unconsciously tightened her grip on the sword cradled in her arms.
Slowly, she turned her head and looked ahead.
A tsunami as massive as a house filled the horizon, surging toward them.
Above the pitch-black crest of the wave, countless swarms of vengeful spirits writhed and rose.
"Hehehehehehe..."
"Kieeeeeeeek!"
Gulp.
She swallowed hard, her throat dry.
...Is this really okay?
No matter how she looked at it, the enemy seemed far too powerful.
They were on an entirely different level from the minor spirits she had somehow managed to deal with until now.
Each and every one of those water ghosts radiated a dark, ferocious spiritual power that defied comparison.
To be honest, just a little bit... she wanted to run away.
Besides, hadn't she already experienced it yesterday?
She had infused her sword with spiritual power and slashed the vines, but they were nothing more than formless illusions.
They only mimicked the act of being cut, only to surge back twice or thrice as thick from the severed spots.
Normally, a sword wrapped in spiritual power could cut through vengeful spirits.
But these things weren't real.
They were merely projections generated by the spiritual circuits laid out on the floor.
With no physical form to cut, how was she supposed to slash them?
...As expected, maybe it's impossible.
Just as a corner of her heart began to shrink in fear once more, she suddenly looked back at Dohyun.
"..."
She froze.
His face was incredibly calm.
Even in the face of that monstrous tsunami, he showed not a shred of agitation.
He simply watched as if success were a foregone conclusion, his eyes devoid of even a speck of doubt.
...
A man of his caliber believed in her this much.
It was likely his absolute faith in the sword he had repaired with his own hands.
It was strange.
Looking at his expression, the lingering shred of anxiety in her heart melted away.
...Right. Let's do this.
A person as amazing as him believes in my sword—no, in me.
Yu-ha adjusted her grip on the sword. Then, she slowly channeled her spiritual power into it.
Bzzzzzt—
The sword drank in her spiritual power.
Thump, thump, thump...
Her wildly racing heartbeat...
Thump...
Thump.
At some point, it quieted down as if by magic.
Yu-ha stared blankly down at her hands. It was strange.
Just moments ago, her mind had been so chaotic.
Dozens of thoughts had been boiling over at once—fearing the tsunami, wanting to run away, believing she would fail.
But now, it was unbelievably quiet.
It felt as if someone had completely switched off the noise inside her head. The world seemed to flow in slow motion.
The spiritual power of the Ishihara clan was slightly different from others.
While the spiritual power of others flowed gently like a stream, the spiritual power running through the Ishihara bloodline boiled like scalding water, creating uncontrollable, turbulent waves.
That was why even the most basic swordsmanship—infusing a sword with a steady flow of spiritual power to execute a slash—was close to a miracle for her.
Swordsmanship, by nature, required distributing the energy within one's body evenly across the limbs and the blade. Without training to channel spiritual power consistently into the sword, one couldn't even mimic a single slashing motion.
Yet her spiritual power surged and fluctuated wildly on its own. When she channeled that energy into a normal sword, the center of gravity shifted constantly along with the turbulent waves. The sword would wobble and sway of its own accord.
She heard those words everywhere she went.
Some places claimed the pressure of her family name was too much. Others said she lacked talent. They all refused to take her in, saying that accepting a high-profile figure like her only to raise a mediocre swordsman would tarnish their dojo's reputation.
Everyone told her she had no talent. So, she had believed them.
...But even so, she had never been lazy for a single day.
Since no one would accept her as a disciple, she swung her sword alone in her empty yard every single day. Sandbags were wrapped tightly around her wrists and ankles. She pushed herself until her palms split and bled, desperately trying to suppress her wild spiritual power and channel it into the blade.
She held onto the single belief that one day, she would become a great spiritualist like her grandfather. Clinging to that hope, she endured endless nights.
And yet, right now.
The spiritual power that had eluded her control despite a lifetime of struggling quieted down the moment she gripped this sword.
The wild fluctuations traveled through the sword and began to circulate gently back into her body. Her boiling energy settled like a placid lake. Then, all of that explosive power flowed directly into the blade.
Tap!
Yu-ha leaped off the ground.
Splash!
Parting the black waters beneath her feet, her body shot forward like an arrow. She was fast. Unbelievably so.
"Hehehehehehe..."
"Kieeeeeeeek!"
At that sight, the corners of Dohyun's mouth curled upward into a smirk.
"D-Do-hyeong! No matter how you look at it, this is a bit... Isn't it too much for her to handle alone?"
Jin Muyeong, standing beside him, hurriedly fumbled in his pockets.
"I should help her—"
He was about to pull out his brass knuckles to assist her when—
Tap.
Dohyun gently placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Just stay back and watch."
"...Huh?"
Jin Muyeong turned to Dohyun with a bewildered expression, then looked forward again.
She was already right in front of the tsunami.
The massive wave reared up ferociously as if to swallow her whole. The vengeful spirits atop the crest rolled their bloodshot eyes and opened their jaws in unison.
But Yu-ha did not stop. Instead, she lunged even deeper.
And then, she raised her sword.
Chiiiiiiing—!
From the tip of the blade to the hilt, the sword vibrated with a brilliant blue light.
Then, she slashed down.
Slashhhhhh—!
"..."
"..."
Both Jin Muyeong and Yoo Seon-woo could only stare blankly at the scene.
The colossal tsunami that had seemed ready to swallow the sky just moments ago was split clean down the middle.
Kweeeeeeeek!
The hundreds of vengeful spirits lurking within were sliced along the path of the blade, crumbling into handfuls of ash and scattering into the wind.
"...W-what in the world..."
A dazed murmur escaped Yoo Seon-woo's lips.
It was supposed to be an uncuttable illusion. Hadn't he seen it with his own eyes yesterday? Those wretched vines that kept multiplying no matter how many times they were slashed.
Yet that woman had cleaved a mountain-sized tsunami in half with a single strike.
...Does that even make sense?
...I cut it.
Yu-ha stared blankly at the sword in her hand.
She had definitely cut it just now. The very thing that had been useless to slash yesterday had been cleanly severed.
Where the blade had passed, a brilliant blue rift remained, as if the illusion itself had been torn open.
Only then did she realize the true power of this sword.
The spiritual power extending along the blade was cutting through the very spell formula supporting the illusion.
Yes, this sword was a blade that cut through spells.
The moment she realized this, her turbulent spiritual waves finally locked into place with the sword, beginning to resonate in perfect harmony.
And with that, the latent potential of the Ishihara family sleeping within her—a beast-like combat instinct—finally awakened.
Her fear vanished as if it had never existed. Her body felt incredibly light.
Somehow, neither the raging black waves nor the swarming vengeful spirits frightened her anymore.
Before her mind could even process where to step or which way to swing, her body already knew.
...Here.
There was no need to think. She simply let her body move.
Tap!
Yu-ha leaped forward again.
Roar!
Black waves crashed toward her from all directions, but her sword was faster.
Slash! Slash!
With every stroke along the flow, the waves parted. The vengeful spirits trying to squeeze through the gaps were sliced in two and crumbled away.
She slashed once. She slashed again. And still, she did not stop.
...Interesting.
Dohyun watched her swing the sword with a pleased expression.
The first strike or two could be attributed to the sword's performance, but what she was doing now could not be explained by the weapon alone.
As her boiling spiritual power settled into a calm flow, something that had been suppressed by that very energy for her entire life finally surfaced.
A razor-sharp awareness. Flawless, efficient movements. And a beast-like instinct that anticipated danger before it struck.
...So this was it.
The reason why this woman clung so desperately to the sword. And why her grandfather was called the 'Sword Demon'. He finally understood.
Her innate talent had been overflowing from the very beginning. She simply lacked the tool to draw it out.
Once that boiling spiritual power was brought under control, that explosive energy became a weapon more powerful than anyone else's.
Dohyun looked at her again as she brandished the blade. Her eyes were filled with a terrifying level of focus.
Yet the corners of her mouth were curved into a faint smile.
It was, truly, the face of someone possessed.
Slash!
Another wave was split apart.
Slice! Boom!
Every time her sword flashed, house-sized waves collapsed, and hundreds of vengeful spirits crumbled into ash.
The more she cut, the more something welled up from the depths of her chest.
...Ah.
Strangely, she felt like crying. It was this easy. It was this light.
The contempt she had endured. The closed doors. The label of being talentless. The sorrowful nights she had spent swallowing her tears alone in the empty yard. All of that pent-up resentment exploded from the tip of her blade.
The more she slashed, the more natural the sword felt in her hand. The more she swung, the more she felt a blockage within her burst open. The thrilling sensation of tearing through spell formulas awakened every cell in her body.
...Ah.
Yu-ha shuddered inwardly even as she gasped for breath. This wild ecstasy, this overwhelming sensation!
...Thirty percent?
A deep smile spread across Yu-ha's lips.
What is a mere thirty percent? I would gladly give even more.
She cut, cut, and cut again. The frantically surging waves gradually began to subside.
The tsunami, which had initially reared up in a wild, desperate struggle, steadily lost its momentum under her relentless onslaught.
She chased down the retreating waves to the very end, and when she cleaved the final stream—
"..."
Her hand holding the sword came to a sudden halt. There was nothing left to cut.
The raised tip of her blade hung in the empty air, frozen with nowhere left to go. The surroundings fell into an unbelievable silence.
The screams of the vengeful spirits that had filled her ears, and the heat that had scorched her mind, receded like the tide.
All that remained was the sound of her own ragged breathing. Only then did the wildly boiling energy within her slowly settle down.
*Pant, pant...*
Gasping for air, Yu-ha looked blankly around her.
More than half of the black sea had vanished. The remaining ripples looked unnatural, lacking the appearance of real seawater.
The blood-red sky was mottled, as if the color had bled out in places. The waves undulating in the distance were patchy and empty, like an unfinished painting.
The landscape that had been so vivid just moments ago now looked like a faded, cheap imitation.
It was as if the power sustaining this world had been almost entirely drained away.
And then, at the edge of the faded sea, through the thinning mist, something slowly revealed itself.
Parting the black fog, an old wooden boat floated silently in the water.
Aboard the vessel, an old man crouched.
He was bound tightly by dozens of pitch-black cords. It was a white-haired old man, his head hanging low.
...Now that it's come to this, the truth is finally showing itself.
Only then did Dohyun channel his spiritual power to his eyes.
As his blurred vision cleared, the paths of bright blue circuits materialized beyond the crumbling illusion.
All of those paths converged into a single point, feeding directly into the wooden boat floating in the distance.
And on that boat crouched the old man. Dozens of black circuits wrapped tightly around his frail body, constantly squeezing him dry.
...That's it.
This vast sea, the endless swarms of vengeful spirits—everything had been forged by grinding down and squeezing that old man's soul.
In other words, that old man was the heart and the engine powering this illusion.
...Poor fellow.
He certainly hadn't entered this place of his own free will, yet he was trapped here, having his soul ground to dust.
Well, the details could be sorted out later. Once those circuits were severed, the illusion would lose its power source and collapse entirely.
Dohyun slowly turned his head.
"Yu-ha."
"Yes!"
The look in her eyes as she turned back was completely different from before.
Dohyun gestured toward the far side of the faded sea with his chin.
"Over there, in the distance. Do you see the old man on the boat?"
"...I see him."
Through the thinning mist, she could faintly make out the crouching, head-bowed figure of the old man.
"He is the heart of this painting."
A smile spread across Dohyun's face.
"Cut those bonds... and it's over."
Yu-ha didn't ask any questions. She simply adjusted her grip on the sword.
"Understood."
Whoosh!
Her body shot forward like an arrow, crossing the crumbling black sea in an instant toward the old man on the boat.
Roar!
The remaining waves reared up in a final, desperate attempt to block her path, but they were too late.
Slashhhhh—!
Yu-ha's sword severed everything binding the old man's body in a single stroke.
Crack, crackle—
At that moment, the limp old man slowly opened his eyes.
"...Thank... you..."
His form slowly shattered into particles of light and scattered away.
Crack!
With that, a massive fissure tore through the faded sky.
Cr-cr-crack!
The remaining black sea fractured like a windowpane from all sides, and then—
Shatter!
The illusion crumbled into countless pieces.
"...Gasp!"
"*Pant, pant!*"
When they came to their senses, the group was standing once again in the middle of the storage vault.
"...C-Chairman...?"
The butler, who had been waiting outside, muttered with a pale face.
He stared blankly at a point in the air, looking exactly like someone who had just witnessed a ghost.
But he quickly shook his head, assuming he had just seen things, and rushed to support the staggering group.
The black water that had risen to their knees and the tsunami that had covered the sky had all vanished as if they had never existed.
The paintings of Master Cheongram that lined the walls hung quietly, faded and drained of their power.
In particular, the painting of the massive tsunami was now nothing more than an old canvas smeared with black paint.
...Hmm.
Dohyun slowly looked around at the lifeless paintings. He could piece together what had happened.
It seemed this Master Cheongram had been plotting something insidious.
He had engraved genuine, beneficial spells on the surface to lure people with promises of wealth and fortune, while hiding another circuit underneath. A circuit designed to slowly eat away at the life force of whoever kept the painting nearby. It was a trap designed that way from the very beginning.
And the old man from earlier was likely the former chairman of this mansion.
The butler probably hadn't seen anything clearly. It was just that at the final moment of the soul's release, the residual energy had been strong enough to brush against even someone without spiritual sight.
The more the owner cherished and kept the painting close, the more it drained their life force. Then, using the trapped soul as a power source, the painting's true function had been fully activated.
Well, whatever kind of person Cheongram was, the Bureau could deal with it.
...Anyway.
This commission was wrapped up successfully. And there was some extra profit too.
In truth, hadn't Yu-ha and he resolved the whole thing themselves? On top of that, thirty percent of Yu-ha's share was going to be transferred to him.
...Heh. A highly satisfying outcome.
That aside, the more he thought about it, the more remarkable the weapon was.
Whoever had crafted it had managed to perfectly tune it to the turbulent spiritual power of the Ishihara bloodline, calming its wild, explosive flow and converting that raw energy entirely into the sword's cutting power.
That rough, explosive wave was normally the worst possible match for standard swordsmanship. Yet this sword condensed that uncontrollable fluctuation and turned it into an interference wave that shattered spell formulas.
In other words, it was an anti-magic sword designed to slash through spells.
...A design that draws out latent potential.
It was a truly brilliant concept.
As he studied it, he felt a fresh wave of inspiration bubbling up in his mind.
Hehe... I should try applying this next time.
He was indulging in these pleasant thoughts when—
Sheathe.
From a short distance away, the sound of Yu-ha sheathing her sword echoed.
Having cleaved through that massive illusion all on her own, she was slowly walking toward him.
"Good job—"
Just as Dohyun was about to greet her—
Grab!
Yu-ha suddenly lunged forward and threw her arms tightly around his neck.
"...?"
"...Huh?"
"...Ugh... *sob*..."
Her slender shoulders trembled against his chest as she clung to him.
Her scent was dizzyingly close, and her warm breath brushed against his ear. Clutching his collar tightly, she finally burst into tears, unable to hold them back any longer.
...What? What's going on?
Dohyun stood frozen, his arms hovering awkwardly in the air.
She continued to sob against his chest, her shoulders shaking.
"...U-Um, Yu-ha? Is there... something wrong with the sword?"
"...N-No... *hic*... That's not it..."
She buried herself even deeper into his embrace.
"T-Thank you. Truly... for everything..."
Her tear-choked voice tickled Dohyun's ear.
In the end, Dohyun could only remain silent.