The Incompetent Hero and the Sacred Sword's Awakening
BOOM!!!
"Ghk?!"
CRACK!!!
"Gaaah!!"
The crimson slash scattered uselessly, and what filled the space it left behind was a flash of pure white light.
With every flicker of that radiance, shallow cuts multiplied across the red-haired man's body. None of them, however, were serious enough to be fatal.
As if that fact only made him angrier, the man clenched his teeth and glared at the opponent bearing down on him.
"Hero!!!"
"What, you bastard. Just block the sword."
"!!"
KRAAANG!!!
The sacred sword came crashing down as if it meant to crush him flat.
Red Oni wound every last scrap of crimson energy he could wring from himself around both hands and caught the sacred sword. But the blade pressed down with a force that threatened to split his skull open at any second, and he was barely holding it at bay with both trembling arms. The slightest lapse in concentration, and that sword would carve him clean in two.
"Just what… are you…. I never heard a word about a hero gaining this kind of power!…."
"Hey, whether I got this strong or not is none of your damn business."
A casual step, then a solid kick!!
"Guh!"
Leon booted Red Oni while the man was still fully occupied just keeping the sword off him. Red Oni shot away like a loosed arrow and slammed into a tree, finally coming to a stop.
"Not getting up? You gonna die if you don't get up right now?"
"?!"
Slash! CRACK!!
Leon swung almost playfully. A white flash leapt from the tip of his blade, tore straight through the spot where Red Oni had been standing, and buried itself in the earth, leaving a deep gouge behind.
Heeding Leon's warning, Red Oni scrambled up and threw himself clear of the flash's reach. He rolled through the dirt without a care for the dust coating his whole body—anything to stay alive—and then his frame shook with pure humiliation.
But whether he felt humiliated or not hardly mattered right now.
"Feeling talkative yet? Who on your side is supposed to handle Baekho, huh? The Corrupted Demon King? But if it were him, Baekryeon probably wouldn't have made it out alive. Spit it out already."
"Hah… hah…. Why… are you so desperate to find that out?"
"Do I need a reason to figure out who my enemies are? You're asking the obvious. Are you stupid?"
Leon said it as he closed the distance. Watching him approach, Red Oni swallowed hard on spit that had risen unbidden.
He looked like he was just strolling over, yet not a single sound came from his footsteps. In this wrecked mountain forest, not even the snap of a common twig. And on that uneven ground, he kept his balance as naturally as breathing, without the slightest effort.
I'm going to die….
Keep fighting to the end? That monstrous sword stroke splits his head open and he dies.
Run? He's caught in a heartbeat, his legs are cut off, and he dies.
Nothing but death surfaced in Red Oni's mind. In the end, there was only one path left—give the man the answer he wanted and try to lure him into letting his guard down. Nothing else remained.
"…Fine. All right. I'll talk."
"Hah… finally opening your mouth? Would've been so much nicer if you'd just said it clean and fast from the start—no wasted effort for either of us. Besides, there's about… two people who'd love to see you right about now."
Even after Red Oni had essentially surrendered, his opponent did not relax. Leon looked like he had eased the tension in his body, but his grip on the sword was still iron-hard, and a strange gleam flickered along the tip, leaking killing intent. The pressure rolling off him said that one wrong move and that blade would flash and carve Red Oni to pieces on the spot.
Monster….
And to cut off any possible variables, Leon had stopped at a precise distance—close enough for his own attack to land instantly, far enough that Red Oni's could not. An exquisitely calculated range.
Red Oni let out a long breath and, as a final act of defiance, locked eyes with Leon.
"…You're right. Humans who carry Baekho's blood are one thing, but Baekho herself is not someone I can face."
"I already know that, so hurry up and talk."
"…The Sword Demon."
"…What?"
It was Leon who reeled at Red Oni's words.
The Sword Demon. The Sword King's first disciple—the one the Sword King had begged anyone who met her to kill on sight. Leon had thought she was just a setting detail. She was actually alive?!….
"The Sword Demon was… alive? That's impossible!"
It couldn't be. The Sword King had taken the Sword Demon as a disciple two hundred years ago, not long after earning the title of Sword King himself. Factor in the time, and at least a hundred and ninety years had to have passed by now.
The Sword King had become a Highlander of the Goddess and slipped free of a mortal lifespan, so he was an exception—but for an ordinary human to live past a hundred and ninety years was impossible even by modern medicine.
Was the Sword Demon not human at all? Some other race?
"Yes… that reaction. Looking at that face of yours, I understand now. Your sword… techniques similar to the Sword Demon's…. The Sword King's arts, aren't they? Heh… well…. There aren't many ways for a human to gain that kind of power. If it's the Sword King's techniques, it makes sense."
"Human, you said?"
That made even less sense. A human surviving all those years? How? By what method?
Questions stacked on questions in his head. The conclusion he reached was simple.
"…Talk. Where is the Sword Demon? Why is she working with you people? If you don't answer properly, I'll make you beg me to just kill you instead."
"……."
The moment Leon leveled his sword and spoke, Red Oni fell silent and lowered his head. Then, quietly, the corner of his mouth curled up.
"Do I really need to?"
"What the hell are you—"
Intuition
In that instant, a cold sensation washed over him.
He understood exactly what that feeling meant. His body moved fast.
Golden radiance of the dawn surged up along the white sacred sword.
Intuition + Great Counter + Gang-gi
CLAAANG!!!!!
A crimson flash from nowhere collided with the golden flash of dawn.
The shockwave that erupted from the impact defied all common sense—a cataclysm that dwarfed even the destruction Baekho had wrought. The surroundings completely collapsed, everything flying apart, and yet only two figures held their ground through the heart of that devastation.
"…."
"…."
They looked at each other.
A brief stillness—and the moment it broke, both of them snapped into stance.
Earth Cleaver
Sky Cleaver
Their sword auras collided.
The golden flash of dawn drove downward; a greedy crimson light surged toward the heavens.
SKREEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!
The instant the blades met, a sickening sound filled the air—as if the world itself were warping, like the gears inside some vast machine grinding themselves out of true.
"?!"
In a contest of force violent enough to make the world scream, the greedy red light began to devour the golden dawn little by little, shoving Leon's sword back.
It wasn't that his opponent's energy was simply stronger. If anything, raw power was equal—or Leon held the edge.
And yet the aura wrapping his blade steadily weakened while hers grew stronger.
The reason for the widening gap was not hard to see. As if it were literally eating his power, the light on the sword the Sword Demon held was dyeing itself a deeper, fiercer red. It was easy enough to conclude that the blade was absorbing his strength and converting it into hers.
BOOM!!!
Slash!
"…."
"…."
Immaculate white hair. Still blue eyes that gave no hint of what she was thinking. A small frame that looked about fourteen years old—and yet from that slight body came an overwhelming power no one would believe possible.
This was the Sword Demon.
The Sword King's disciple who, long ago, had destroyed an entire nation alone.
"…The same swordsmanship as Master's."
"Yeah. And yours is the same, but a little different in places. You refined it?"
"Yes."
The Sword Demon gave a clean nod, glanced at her own sword for a moment, then flicked a look at Red Oni, who had come up beside her.
Catching her gaze, Red Oni lowered his eyes.
"I lost Baekho. Forgive me, Sword Demon."
"…It's fine. We're leaving."
"Understood."
Red Oni bowed his head at her words.
These bastards tear the place apart and then just try to walk away?
"Hey. Stop. Who said you could leave?"
Leon moved to cut off the Sword Demon and Red Oni as they turned to go. He adjusted his grip on the sword, ready this time to put everything into a single strike, and locked his eyes on her.
The Sword Demon simply met his gaze and spoke, quiet and flat.
"Going to keep going?"
"Obviously."
"…You're strong, but you can't beat me."
"Says you."
True enough—that sword was a serious problem. In every game, every time, abilities or weapons that steal an opponent's power and make it their own are a pain to deal with. At the same time, those kinds of weapons are usually just tools for stomping weaklings.
Even with a sacred sword—or a club pretending to be one—once he'd figured out her blade's properties, the situation from a moment ago would not happen again.
"…The difference in our swords is one thing. But you don't have time."
"Don't have time? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"…To Jeonggi-guk of the Yeom Kingdom. I sent the Corrupted Demon King there."
"?!"
Wh-who did she send where?!
She sent the Corrupted Demon King to Jeonggi-guk in the Yeom Kingdom?!
"I don't mind fighting you… but can you put me down fast enough and still make it to the Yeom Kingdom?"
"You little…."
"…."
Leon ground his teeth and glared. The Sword Demon simply turned and walked. Red Oni, watching Leon's face carefully, followed her and vanished.