Chapter 72
Chapter 72
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 72
Chapter Title: Holy Sword-3
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For a moment, no one could utter a word.
It felt just like the time when Leonardo had first arrived and racked up victory after victory against the apprentice knights.
The difference was that the methods, the emotions involved, and even the opponent were all completely different from back then.
"No matter how talented you are, a magic sword isn't something you can wield with talent alone."
Leonardo sheathed his sword and pulled out the black rock bracelet. Up until now, he had been facing Ariasfil with a mere iron sword.
"No, in your case, it's precisely because you have talent that you can't wield it."
The black rock shifted into the form of a longsword.
Kaang!!
Ariasfil charged forward. Her sword strikes came in rapid succession, pressing her advantage with overwhelming firepower. But even under the fierce assault, Leo didn't so much as twitch his lips or eyes.
"First weakness."
As he parried every strike, Leo drew his iron sword with his other hand.
"Your attacks are so straightforward they're simplistic."
She hurriedly guarded, but Leo simply hurled the iron sword at her. A wind bullet was loaded, and the magic circle serving as the trigger was complete.
Hwaruk
She tried to defend with Fire Azure, flames enveloping her to block the wind strike. But it didn't matter.
Kaang!
The black rock slithered like a living serpent, whipping around to strike Ariasfil from behind.
"Kyaak!!"
Ariasfil was sent flying again from the impact. She had wrapped herself in the bare minimum of aura, preventing her body from being sliced, but she couldn't withstand the heavy blow.
"That's why you fall for such crude feints. You've never used feints yourself, so your responses are inadequate."
Normally, feints wouldn't work on her.
Her superhuman talent allowed her to see through any ordinary slow trap, and even if she fell for one, she had the ability to escape it.
"Then...!!"
But Leonardo had clashed against that superhuman talent time and again, fallen, and risen.
He had studied everything: what moves she made when flustered, which attacks she focused on most, what her best techniques were.
Kuwaaaang!!
This time, Fire Azure combined with magic and even fire spirits to unleash a pillar of flame. Amid the firepower and heat, Rios hurriedly deployed a barrier around the surroundings.
He thought the servants might be in danger, even if the knights weren't.
"Second weakness."
Even there, Leonardo only counterattacked, showing no reaction.
"Your innate mana capacity makes your attack range unnecessarily wide."
What Leonardo used was a thrust. The black spear pierced straight through the pillar of flame at a single point.
And soon, he redirected that flame's path into his own fire, sending it arcing into the sky.
"That's why even using a magic sword that relies on manipulation and application is meaningless. There's no synergy at all."
A cynical response, and then Leo assumed a javelin stance.
"And beyond that, defending against attacks like this becomes difficult."
Flame magic compressed into the spear. Though the amount and purity of mana were inferior to Ariasfil's, the superior density amplified its power.
"This is how you use flames."
Leo hurled the spear. A line of heat shot forward like a flash of light—it was easier to think of it as a line rather than a spear.
"Uwaa... Aaaah!!"
A scream-like shout as she barely blocked the heat spear.
"Feint."
But that wasn't the black rock spear. What flew was merely a compressed mass of heat. The real black rock spear was in Leo's hand as he closed in.
Paang!
Fire Azure was knocked away, disarming her as if to rub salt in the humiliation.
"Get up. You said you'd block it."
His tone was resolute and cold. Those who had seen the gentle Leo with Ariasfil up until now unconsciously wondered who this person standing there was.
"Not yet... Not... yet...!"
Pukeok!
Leonardo struck Ariasfil with the butt of the spear, a blow that felt downright harsh.
"Third weakness."
Leonardo launched ice magic to extinguish the flames while using the resulting steam to create a smokescreen.
"You only use spirit arts as support, so your experience is severely lacking."
Ariasfil desperately tried to summon more spirits in denial, but the gathered spirits were far too few, slowing her body's recovery as well.
"That's why you don't even know spirits are weak to such drastic environmental changes."
The courtyard was now filled with flashes, explosions, extreme heat, and sudden chills—irregular environmental shifts occurring one after another. The spirits originally present couldn't exert their full power because of it.
She might have known it on some level. But her mind, battered by the onslaught, couldn't make calm judgments.
Only Leonardo pointing it out made her realize the drastic changes had been happening.
"Above all, the biggest problem is,"
Ariasfil rose again. Her trembling hand gripping the iron sword looked not just valiant but pitiful.
Hwiiik! Peok!
This time, Leo transformed the black rock into gauntlets. Dodging her unsteady swing, he struck her collarbone.
"Your weak mental fortitude."
This time, her jaw. It was now beyond a duel—pure one-sided schooling.
"And the complacency that stems from it."
"...Stop...! If you go any further...!"
Leonardo replied to Marken's shout without even turning.
"I plan to go further. Wasn't it you, Sir Marken, who gave her Fire Azure and egged her on in the first place?"
"Leo...! This isn't like you at all...!!"
When even Rios tried to intervene, Leonardo finally turned.
"Do you know what 'lowly' means? Do you know why I stuck to House Reinhardt like glue?"
Everyone froze at the question. Their bodies stiffened at the killing intent in the boy's eyes.
"Did you think I wasn't truly angry?"
The killing intent was chillingly mad.
"Why did you push Ariasfil forward? Did you think I'd just laugh it off because of some past affection?"
Fury poured out—a vivid rage mixed with complex emotions.
"Why didn't you go all out? If it were me, I'd have used spirit arts early to delay the gauntlets' activation."
He vented his anger at Ariasfil too. Her upright fighting style filled him with such frustration it nearly made him vomit.
"Why did you accept all my conditions? Create an environment favorable to yourself. Isn't that basic tactics?"
Strikes flew in. Armor fragments scattered like shrapnel. Even the Sage cried out.
Was meaning required? There was a reason he had to do this now.
"Your weak mental fortitude stems from that."
He drove a fist straight into her stomach.
"You've never been desperate."
The impact sent Ariasfil skidding across the ground. Even Sirica, no knight, tried to intervene, but the Family Head grabbed her hand and shook his head.
"Born too strong, you've never truly experienced being overwhelmed or surpassed."
The world's greatest talent—that was the root of Ariasfil's weakness.
"As a result, your power to face fear and endure sin is weak."
Leonardo slowly clenched his fist as he approached. Ariasfil lay collapsed, unmoving.
"Stop!! The match is over...!"
"We'll decide when it's over. Outsiders, stay out."
His clenched fist aimed at Ariasfil.
"Gladio...!! Your daughter is getting beaten like that...!"
"Don't interfere. Just as Leonardo said."
"Dad!! If this keeps up...!!"
"Yeah!! Brother!! At this rate...!!"
In that instant, Ariasfil drew her sword in a surprise attack. Leo hurriedly tried to defend with his gauntlets.
"Feint."
Ariasfil dropped the sword,
Kuwoong!
And unleashed a straight punch. This time, it was Leonardo who flew back.
"...That was..."
"Leonardo's..."
An advanced form of the basics Leonardo had created—now embodied in Ariasfil's fist.
The flying Leonardo wore a refreshed expression.
"Finally... you discarded that pointless pride?"
It was hardly the face of someone caught off guard by a sneak attack.
"Shut up... I fixed the first one just now."
"My technique's good, right?"
The killing intent vanished. But their fighting spirits blazed higher.
"...What... is..."
Everyone from House Reinhardt except the Family Head wore expressions of utter incomprehension.
"Didn't it seem strange? Why I bothered pointing out your weaknesses verbally."
At first, even Gladio thought it was meant to humiliate her, like everyone else. But as the fight dragged on, a sense of incongruity grew.
"The weaknesses felt more like advice than insults. And only the truly essential ones, picked out precisely."
Not "you'll lose because of these flaws," but "fix them now that I've told you"—that was the tone and behavior.
"But the killing intent..."
"Think about it—that's suspicious too. Would normal Leonardo show killing intent even when he seriously meant to kill?"
Normal Leonardo wouldn't.
He'd erase his presence as much as possible and deliver the fastest, most precise strike to a vital point.
That was one of the strengths revealed in Leonardo's fighting style.
"But here, he deliberately showed it. Even accounting for anger, it was overly excessive."
Then, everyone recalled Leonardo's final words.
-You've never been desperate.
-Born too strong, you've never truly experienced being overwhelmed or surpassed.
"...All of that was an act?"
Using killing intent to force desperation, thoroughly dominating to make her feel overwhelmed and surpassed—an act that seemed overdone but wasn't implausible.
"I was skeptical too, but it makes some sense. After all..."
Leonardo hadn't used a single advanced basic form. If he had, he could have subdued or killed her instantly.
"Still... your daughter took all those hits..."
"Of course I'm angry. But... more than that..."
He had to admit Leonardo understood his daughter more clearly than he did. The proof was unfolding right now.
Leonardo coming to House Reinhardt, and the goal he had repeatedly mentioned.
That was...
"Finally, you've become worthy of my goal."
Properly fighting and defeating Ariasfil—that was what Leonardo's actions revolved around.
"You beat the hell out of her and have the gall to say that...?!"
"Sorry. I'm just too happy...!"
A flurry of strikes followed, black rock regripped as he unleashed sword aura.
No formality,
No pride,
The sword of the boy who focused solely on the basics.
Now dwelled in the girl's sword.
"But can copied techniques defeat the original?"
Exchanging blows in the same forms, Leonardo gradually gained the upper hand.
"You'll see when you try...!"
Kuwaa!!
But instead of compressing sword aura into a blade aura, Ariasfil expelled it to form a greatsword of mana.
Leo’s arm got caught in Ariasfil's sword aura, skin and blood splattering.
"Uwaaaaa!!!"
The black rock blade shattered in two, a massive wound opening across chest and abdomen from the sword aura's impact.
"Second weakness... gone now?"
"Cough..."
Blood trickled from her mouth. Everyone gasped, staring at the blood streaming down Leo's body.
"Leo...!?"
"Why...?! Still not enough...!"
Leonardo picked up the fallen Fire Azure and cauterized his wound.
Chiiik
It was a barbaric method unfit even to be called emergency treatment.
"This...! This is...!"
The reason Leonardo, who had forsaken his parents, kept doing dangerous things.
It was exceedingly simple.
"This...! Is how...! I've...! Lived...!"
Death had to be at his side for Leo to feel the will to live.
"My...! Own...! Way of life...!!"
Leonardo attached the black rock to Fire Azure. At the same time, he connected it to the black rock inside his body.
With the black rock linked to Fire Azure, the red flames glowed white-hot. Not as potent as blue heat, but the blaze was intimidating enough.
"Winning is..."
"Toppling is..."
For this moment, their thoughts aligned.
"Me...!!"
"My side...!!"
Pure mana sword aura clashed and released with compounded fiery heat.
Genius talent collided with mortal effort.
To onlookers, it seemed evenly matched in power—they'd likely mistake this moment for eternity.
But the two clashing swords instinctively knew.
This fight would end anticlimactically if it continued like this.
Compared to the magic sword Fire Azure, Ariasfil's iron sword had reached its limit.
From the moment it absorbed her mana wholesale, the iron sword had no fight left.
If it went on, the battle would fizzle out inconclusively.
No decisive victory, no convincing defeat—just a bland conclusion.
Both were certain.
Sword aura and flame pillars soared into the sky to signal the end. Despite the fierce clash, no nearby civilians were harmed.
A miracle worthy of divine intervention.
"...Ha... Even a genius... is too much..."
Leonardo dropped Fire Azure's hilt and chuckled. He couldn't help but laugh at the ploy disguised as a divine miracle before his eyes.
"Already... using the holy sword...?"
Satisfied with the result, Leo collapsed.
"...This sword..."
The divine miracle was gripped in Ariasfil's hand.
Hero's Sword
The holy sword was proudly held in place.