The Weight of a Companion

Luiana strode quickly out of the village, the Sword of the Divine Tree gripped firmly in her hand. In the blink of an eye the village fell far behind, and the Tower drew steadily closer. Before long, she stood at its entrance.

“...Hoo.”

It was a tense moment. Her mind knew there were no longer any obstacles that could hold her back, yet the unease refused to leave her.

Step.

Luiana took one slow step toward the Tower. In the past, the taut, oppressive sensation at this distance would have made even lifting her foot difficult. But now that feeling was gone. Only a gentle, connected warmth from the Divine Tree remained, quietly encouraging her through her nerves.

Feeling the pleasant heat rise from her palm and travel up her arm, Luiana realized something. The Divine Tree was no longer a tree bound to the earth. It had become a companion that moved with her.

The colossal tree that once pierced the sky and could not be encircled even if dozens of people stretched out their arms had now shrunk until it fit in one hand, traveling alongside her. In that surge of emotion, her control slipped for just an instant.

Crack.

The moment her grip loosened, the sword swayed toward the ground. Its tip merely brushed the earth.

That was all.

Yet along the path it traced, soil exploded, stone shattered, and the ground flipped over. It looked as if a giant shovel had carved a single straight furrow through wet dirt.

“......”

Luiana stared at the aftermath, slightly flustered. The Divine Tree had become a sword, but it had not grown lighter. The solid wooden body, dense as iron, still carried its full mass despite the reduced size. She was simply using the precision and overwhelming output of the Cartein-style Magic System to cancel out the gravity acting on the blade with an opposing force.

The problem was that this cancellation had been maintained so naturally from the very beginning that she had never once felt the sword’s true weight. Only after the ground split and overturned did she truly understand that the blade in her hand was less a weapon and more a suppressed catastrophe.

The Cartein-style Magic System’s correction was not some simple spell that erased weight. It had to continuously calculate the sword’s angle, the movement of her wrist, the position of her feet, and even the direction of her next swing, layering on the opposing force each time. The one thing it did not account for was any correction in the direction the blade was already swinging.

Even the slightest tremor ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠at the sword’s tip carried the weight of a massive tree. The smallest accidental collision unleashed the destructive power of that enormous mass.

Luiana tightened her grip on the hilt once more. She seized the flow with her fingertips and used the sense of Stopping to define the limits of the correction system. Only then did the Sword of the Divine Tree fall quiet again, like an ordinary blade.

A low resonance traveled from inside the hilt. It was neither scolding nor surprise. It felt like a gentle pulse, softly urging her to be a little more careful.

Luiana let out a small breath.

“I know. It’s my first time too.”

At her words, the Sword of the Divine Tree gave a faint, almost imperceptible hum. It felt ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠like an answer.

Luiana adjusted the strength in her wrist to match that resonance. Lifting the sword was no longer simply a matter of bracing with her arm. Her body, the Divine Tree’s sword, and the entire magic system connecting them had to form a single unified posture.

Of course, only its outward appearance was ordinary.

“Grrrr!”

At that moment, space tore open and a monster burst forth. The emotion Luiana felt upon facing it was neither panic nor rage.

It was curiosity.

What would happen if I loosened the cancellation just a little more and let the full weight through?

The moment of thought was brief. The monster charged in an instant.

Luiana thrust the sword forward.

The instant the tip touched the monster, a deafening explosion erupted. The creature was not cut. It literally burst apart. Unable to withstand the overwhelming mass shaped like a blade, it disintegrated into a spray of blood that scattered in every direction.

A mass weapon was far crueler than she had imagined.

She liked it.

The only problem was that the splattered blood now covered her entire body. Luiana paid it no mind and stepped straight into the Tower’s entrance. She had grown used to peaceful days, but being drenched in blood had been everyday life in her previous existence.

As soon as she entered, the Tower projected information before her eyes.

Judging by the floor count, it was a mid-to-low grade Tower, just as she had expected. The sticking point was the minimum party requirement. Normally, solo entry would be impossible.

But the Tower immediately began reading the records engraved in Luiana’s soul.

The text flickered for a moment. The Tower seemed confused, repeatedly overlaying and erasing indecipherable sentences in the same space. Yet it could not ignore a climbing record of the 99th floor. Soon the shaking letters realigned themselves.

Another line of information appeared.

Luiana glanced down at the sword in her hand.

“Looks like you’re being treated as a climber too.”

The Divine Tree gave a small ring in response. Luiana chuckled.

“Nice. Then let’s climb together.”

She stepped past the entrance and into the interior. The first floor had already taken the form of a cave. Compared to the horrific and vicious environments she had faced in the final Tower of her previous life, a chilly cave almost seemed friendly.

That didn’t mean she could afford to relax and sightsee. Elves back in the village were waiting for her return. The fact that the cannon fire had stopped did not erase their fear. As long as the Tower remained, the village could be isolated again at any moment. Luiana knew this, so she did not slow her steps.

Before long, a group of goblins appeared ahead. There was no need to approach any closer. With grotesque cries, the goblins charged at her. Their momentum was impressive, but the result was hollow. With a single swing, they turned into green bodily fluid just like the monster outside the Tower.

As if it were only natural, Luiana did not stop walking and headed for the next floor.

After that, her ascent was unstoppable. The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠monsters changed with each floor, but their end was always the same: a handful of blood. Only the color differed.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Luiana did not linger long on any single floor. When a door opened she entered. When monsters appeared she swung her sword. When the path was blocked she carved a new one with the tip of her blade.

At first she handled the Sword of the Divine Tree with caution. But after several battles, she began to grasp how much she could loosen the cancellation without collapsing her surroundings. The sword’s movements, which crushed space with its colossal mass, felt less like cutting and more like pressing down. Still, Luiana decided that wasn’t so bad either. Swordsmanship, after all, was about drawing out the full nature of whatever you held in your hand.

Most of the lower-floor monsters charged in packs. Luiana did not face them one by one. She chose a single sword path and erased everything along that line at once. Where the blade passed, not only monster remains but long, crushed grooves remained in the walls and floor.

From the middle floors onward, the Tower began to adapt. Instead of narrow corridors, wide chambers appeared, and monsters sprang out from all directions at once. From here on, it wasn’t only the monsters that hindered her. The environment itself turned hostile. Magic circles that bound her ankles covered the floor, and poisonous fog poured from the ceiling.

But Luiana did not stop. She shattered the magic circles with the tip of her sword before her feet even touched them. The poisonous fog scattered, pushed aside by the pale green flow emanating from the Sword of the Divine Tree. The monsters rushing from every side simply gave her a reason to swing once more, with greater force.

As she climbed higher, the monsters’ reactions changed too. Those that had once charged now began to back away the moment she lifted her sword. Yet there was nowhere for the Tower’s monsters to flee. Nor did Luiana feel any need to chase them hastily. She simply included their escape routes in her sword path and poured weight along that line. The result was the same.

At some point the Tower’s responses grew strange, but Luiana paid them no attention.

The Tower counted Luiana as a single climber, then immediately counted the sword in her hand as another companion entrant. Then it switched the sword back to an armament, hesitated at the category of “Companion Tree,” and the text flickered in and out. Even so, Luiana did not stop. The Tower’s confusion could not become an obstacle to her.

If a door opened too slowly, she pushed it open with the tip of her sword. She passed before the path-blocking mechanisms could activate. When a barrier formed, she crushed it before it could finish materializing. Ending things before the opponent could finish preparing—it was a habit she had carved into her body in the Towers of her previous life.

And at last she reached the entrance to the 25th floor.

Luiana rested the sword across her shoulder like a carrying pole and gave a small laugh.

“Still confused?”

From inside the blade, the soul of the Divine Tree responded with a low ring, as if answering. Luiana looked toward the final door.

“Then let’s finish this while you’re still confused.”

With those words, the door opened.