The Power of a True Divine Sword
The entire arena was frozen in disbelief at the sight before them. Shin Seongmin had been slammed into the edge of the barrier. Not just anyone—Shin Seongmin. The man hailed as the strongest among Korea’s young Awakened. And yet he had been reduced to this state by nothing more than a few punches from a Guardian Star who had only recently revealed himself.
It wasn’t as if Shin Seongmin had held back, either. He had fought using Spirit Unification, and still he had been completely overpowered from start to finish. In that first clash, a few sharp-eyed observers had already realized he had lost by decision. If Yusoha’s mana hadn’t been iron-attribute, the match would have ended right there. Knowing her sword would shatter, trusting her contractor had been the right choice. The way she had turned Shin Seongmin’s sharp feint against him and sent him flying across the arena had even been exhilarating.
Such murmurs began spreading through the crowd. But the buzzing died down almost as quickly as it had started. Because when Eclipse turned his gaze toward Yusoha, the spectators witnessed it—flames blazing brilliantly above Shin Seongmin.
How could anyone describe the scene unfolding before them? Hellfire blazing? That would be accurate. The karma flames burning across Shin Seongmin’s collapsed body were growing larger by the second.
You idiot. I told you to go all out from the beginning, yet you still had to be so stubborn?
Even after that impact, Adein was still grumbling in that tone of hers. It meant the damage hadn’t been all that severe.
“…Ugh, haha. Still, I couldn’t help it. She said she taught Yusoha, so I figured I should at least see her swordsmanship once, right? Well, the gap was so big I couldn’t even watch properly…”
Get up already, you moron. An S-class Awakened getting wrecked by an A-class Guardian Star—you planning to advertise that to the whole neighborhood?
“Alright, alright. Then let’s begin.”
In an instant, Shin Seongmin’s entire demeanor changed. The playful attitude vanished without a trace, replaced by serious eyes locked onto Eclipse.
“This next one will be a little different. I got too hung up on seeing her swordsmanship and ended up looking pathetic.”
With those words, Shin Seongmin leaped straight into the surging karma flames burning in midair. Eclipse watched the sight with considerable interest, but Yusoha’s expression was the complete opposite. Cold sweat began running down her back. She was remembering the full power he had displayed when he stopped the Gate erosion before.
“……”
She said nothing, simply staring at the mass of flames with hardened eyes. The flaming mass was growing in size in real time while also changing shape. In the blink of an eye, the form the flames took was one everyone knew well.
A massive dragon.
Eclipse began pondering something as he observed the result of Shin Seongmin and Adein’s unification. While he was lost in thought, Yusoha felt her mind go completely blank. When Eclipse had asked her about Shin Seongmin, she had believed he could win. But that had been a severe miscalculation. No matter how strong, how was anyone supposed to fight a natural disaster like that?
Now I’m really going all out. You dared slam me into the ground? You’re dead!
Adein’s irritated voice rang throughout the arena as fierce mana began gathering at her mouth. She wasn’t actually a dragon, but she was a high-ranking spirit from a world where dragons existed. Naturally, she had formed contracts with dragons before. And after clashing with them for so many years, Adein had learned to imitate them. She had chosen this very moment to do exactly that.
The mana surging with flames, carrying the will of both Shin Seongmin and Adein, shot toward Eclipse. Yusoha’s face turned deathly pale. She hurriedly summoned a shield by squeezing out every drop of her mana in front of Eclipse, but the shield melted away almost instantly. The hellfire was right in front of Eclipse’s face.
“Eclipse!”
Yusoha screamed his name in panic, but Eclipse had only just emerged from his thoughts. He turned his head slightly to look at her and said,
“This should be enough to bring it out.”
“…What?”
At the sudden remark, Yusoha let out a dazed sound. Without another word, Eclipse placed his hand on the greatsword strapped to his back. The shabby, broken greatsword was drawn from behind him.
In that instant, Yusoha couldn’t help but shudder at the spine-chilling sensation. It felt as if an abyssal terror was racing through her entire body. Shabby? That thing? What nonsense. It was something that far surpassed human comprehension. Because she was especially sensitive to mana, she could tell. Just as she thought, Eclipse’s greatsword had crossed worlds and been imbued with unfathomable power.
Eclipse was the adversary of Terror, the one who had slaughtered countless legions of fear, the only human who had ever stood against a being that could destroy an entire world alone. The moment his feats were infused into the blade, it became a weapon capable of dealing direct damage to Terror itself. A true divine sword—unlike the fake ones that people on Earth simply called sacred artifacts—had finally revealed its true form on this planet for the first time.
Eclipse raised the broken greatsword high. And then.
He swung it downward.
Complex sword techniques? Such things were unnecessary. All that was needed was the fundamentals he had trained his entire life to master. Even though he was far weaker than he had been in his original world, he could still swing the power contained within the greatsword once.
When Adein had fired her breath, she had been certain of victory. She believed she could thoroughly roast that arrogant tin can and force him back to his realm. But that confidence didn’t last long. The moment the breath reached Eclipse’s face and he drew the broken greatsword, Adein was forced to confront the terror racing through her entire body.
Hic…!
Since Adein currently held control of their shared body, Shin Seongmin had no choice but to feel the same terror she did.
“What… is this?”
It felt like staring into an endless abyss. As if something at the edge of the void was calling to them. In that overwhelming pressure that made such illusions feel natural, Shin Seongmin and Adein flailed desperately until they barely managed to regain their senses. By then, Eclipse had already raised the greatsword high.
That’s dangerous. The thought came instinctively even as they breathed out their attack. They drew up every last bit of mana from within and poured it into strengthening the breath. But their efforts were in vain. The breath never reached Eclipse.
Because the downward slash of the greatsword had torn the breath apart.
Everyone watching shuddered at the sight of a breath filled with hellfire being split cleanly in two by a single sword strike. And the slash that had torn the breath apart did not stop there—it struck Shin Seongmin and Adein directly.
Slice.
The sound of something being cut cleanly rang out, and the body of the dragon wrapped in hellfire scattered into the air.
…Huh?
“…Huh?”
Shin Seongmin and Adein let out dazed voices, not even realizing they had been cut. Then, an excruciating pain began tearing through their bodies.
Aaaagh!
“…Ugh, ugh…”
The massive dragon completely lost its form, and Adein was forcibly unsummoned, vanishing from sight. Shin Seongmin nearly lost consciousness from the agony of Eclipse’s slash combined with the shock of the unsummoning, but he barely held on. He couldn’t collapse in such an embarrassing way.
Eclipse walked over to the struggling Shin Seongmin.
“It was a good match. I would have had a hard time without drawing this sword.”
“What… nonsense…”
Shin Seongmin couldn’t believe what he was hearing. What part of that was a good match? He had lost even when swinging his sword normally, and he had lost again when he went all out. It hadn’t even been a fierce battle. How could anyone call something like that a match?
“Hey, you…”
“What is it?”
“That wasn’t your full power, was it?”
“The strike I just used was the full power I can currently exert. Anything more is impossible for me right now.”
“Haha… Really, Soha summoned something ridiculous…”
The words “impossible for me right now” meant that in the future, he would be able to wield even greater strength. Shin Seongmin finally understood. The difference in their levels was overwhelming.
When he had first summoned Adein, she had been nothing more than a weak fire spirit. Not the high-ranking spirit she was now, but a faint spirit who had lost all her power and could have faded away at any moment. Yet she had grown strong enough to imitate the power of the dragons she had once contracted with in her previous world. If that was the case, just how strong could this Guardian Star become if he grew even further from here?
Shin Seongmin laughed in disbelief, then finally passed out from the pain surging through him.
The spectator seats had fallen into complete silence. Shin Seongmin had lost. Even after using his full power. It was a result no one present had expected. When the giant dragon form had appeared and the enormous mana gathered at Adein’s mouth, the crowd had judged that Yusoha and Eclipse would lose. In fact, several people had noticed Yusoha’s face turning pale.
But… the moment Eclipse drew the broken greatsword from his back, the entire arena fell silent. Because an indescribable terror had raced down their spines. Because the mere thought of facing that thing made them feel they might die. So no one—whether Awakened or ordinary citizen—could call that broken greatsword shabby. Overwhelmed by the pressure and fear radiating from the blade, quite a few people actually fainted on the spot.
Those who managed to stay conscious and watch the scene could only open their mouths in awe at the mythical sight that followed. The slash unleashed from the unidentified sword held by the shabby knight had split the breath of flames in two and silenced the massive hellfire dragon.
Faced with that unreal spectacle, the spectators could only stare in a daze, as if they were dreaming. But a voice snapped them back to reality.
The winner of this year’s Hwanryeong Tournament is… Hwanryeong Team 2 Leader, Yusoha!
It was the voice of the tournament announcer, who had quickly regained his composure. Even Yusoha looked stunned, as if she couldn’t believe it. But once she realized it was real, she ran straight to Eclipse and threw her arms around him.
“You did it!”
Startled by her sudden embrace, Eclipse gently pushed her back a little and asked,
“How was it?”
“It was the best!”
When Eclipse pulled away, Yusoha spoke again and held out her fist. The moment Eclipse bumped his gauntlet against it, a thunderous cheer erupted. The Hwanryeong Tournament, filled with one shocking twist after another, had finally come to an end.