Chapter 97: The Cathedral in the Ruins (2)
Arc Blade.
It was a unique weapon whose power varied wildly depending on the mana infused into it.
Pajijijik……!
When I injected the mana of White Thunder into the sword’s hilt, a blade made of white sparks burst forth.
‘It’s still very unstable.’
Even though the output wasn’t that high, the hilt trembled violently.
If I were to pour in just a bit more power here, it felt like the weapon itself might break.
‘I did push it too hard at the auction.’
The Radiance-type mana injected that day had been far from ordinary.
I found out later, but the other mage who had helped Diesel back then had been an incredible powerhouse, already approaching the end of Level 6.
‘Well, considering it had been subrged in the Mariana Trench for decades…….’
It had already been seventy years since my older brother went missing in the Pacific Ocean.
When I thought about how it had been sunk in the deep sea for such a long ti, the fact that it was even functioning like this felt like a miracle.
‘Can this even be fixed?’
The creator of the Arc Blade was unknown.
Even when I ticulously traced back my older brother’s mories, and even when I asked Sis to scour the entire Electrosphere, it was information I couldn’t find.
‘If it’s Magnus, it might be possible.’
I recalled the business card Diesel had won at the auction.
A legendary craftsman who created artifacts, Magnus.
If it were him, maybe he could figure sothing out.
“That weapon is…….”
Edwin Silver muttered as he recognized the sword in my hand.
“An Arc Blade.”
“You know this?”
“It would be stranger if I didn’t.”
A na known to anyone who wielded a sword.
Lee Hamin, the Supre Swordsman.
The weapon he had used until his final monts, cutting down the Ghosts of Destruction, was the Arc Blade.
“……Just how did you get your hands on it?”
“That’s not important.”
“…….”
I slowly rotated the rough sword hilt in my grip.
Pajijijik……!
Sparks danced wildly along the blade of white lightning.
I soon steadied my stance and fixed my gaze on my opponent.
“Co.”
“Hm…….”
Edwin let out a low hum without realizing it.
It was an exclamation born of surprise.
Confidence enough to yield the first move.
Having crossed blades countless tis, Edwin grasped it instinctively.
‘The mont he holds a sword, his eyes change.’
That the man standing before him was not bluffing.
‘It’s been a while since I’ve t an interesting opponent.’
A faint smile ford at the corner of his lips.
“Fine.”
Soon, light gathered along his silver blade as well.
An iridescent glow that shimred with subtle colors.
‘It’s ti to bring out that swordsmanship again.’
Edwin Silver strode forward, closing the distance in an instant.
The first attack was a straightforward diagonal slash.
A simple yet powerful strike aid at my right shoulder.
Pajijijik……!
The flas of the Arc Blade slid along the silver blade.
‘This guy…….’
From that single slash, I sensed sothing strange.
A feeling that was sohow familiar.
Several more attacks followed.
A swiftly swung horizontal slash, a sharp thrust aid at my blind spot.
After exchanging those sequences, I was able to vaguely understand.
‘He’s using my older brother’s swordsmanship.’
My older brother had been famous in life for using countless sword styles.
Knowledge from various otherworlds, as well as secrets hidden within the physical world.
What Edwin was using now was one of the unique sword styles my older brother had personally created.
‘Gongryu Sword.’
A powerful sword style devised solely for duels between people.
Its defining trait was its fluid, water-like movents.
‘Could it be that he’s my brother’s disciple?’
No.
That was impossible.
That man had lived his entire life strictly adhering to the principle of never teaching his self-created sword styles to anyone, for fear they might fall into the hands of the wicked.
‘Then what in the world…….’
Thought alone yielded no answer.
So I unfolded a completely different sword style.
A special sword style made solely for wielding the Arc Blade.
‘Myeolmoll Sword.’
A technique the Supre Swordsman had perfected for annihilation itself.
Among them, a single fundantal form ca to mind.
‘Flash Sever.’
A basic swing that did nothing more than cut straight.
But.
Psssssst……!
Within it was hidden the terrifying output of the Arc Blade, montarily amplified.
“……!”
Surprise filled Edwin Silver’s expression.
But he quickly regained his composure and evaded the strike with astonishing speed.
‘A Reaction Booster.’
“Why, you little…….”
Frowning, he tore off his suit jacket.
Pshhhhh…….
At the sa ti, steam burst out from behind Edwin’s back.
It was a phenonon that appeared during the cooling of overheated implants.
‘Money really is king.’
The Reaction Booster installed in Edwin produced an effect similar to my ‘Kantara’s Sixth Molar’.
“I’ll admit it.”
Edwin’s montum suddenly changed.
He raised his silver sword and took a stance, while with his other hand he began forming a magic formula.
‘Like hell I’ll let you……!’
That was the Radiance-type enhancent spell I had faced earlier, ‘Echo of Radiance’.
The first ti, I had let it go just to learn the spell structure, but now there was no reason to do that.
Once again, a flash tore through the air.
A lethal attack imbued with the power of white lightning.
The mana of White Thunder contained within the Arc Blade.
A blade that tore its target apart with the force of electricity.
In response, Edwin raised his silver sword.
“…….”
The tal of the artifact collided with the blade of White Thunder.
The sparks that erupted reflected off the surrounding mirrors, flooding the area with light.
‘Now I get it.’
I finally understood the source of the subtle discomfort I had felt all along.
‘This isn’t my brother’s swordsmanship.’
On the surface, it was indistinguishable from my brother’s Gongryu Sword.
But in monts of crisis like this, Edwin’s swordsmanship lacked the most crucial technique.
‘The flow between offense and defense isn’t connected at all.’
When continuing an attack, the sword path was virtually identical to my brother’s.
The problem appeared when attack and defense beca intertwined.
‘The core of the Gongryu Sword is uninterrupted flexibility.’
It was a knockoff that had copied only the offensive parts.
A swordsmanship that could only be described as half-baked.
Soone had clearly stolen the sword style my older brother used.
‘Well, if you think about it, it’s only natural.’
It was a swordsmanship used by the world’s greatest swordsman.
Wanting to covet that technique was, in a way, an inevitable desire.
‘They probably analyzed my brother’s movents and recreated it.’
That was why they could only copy the offensive forms.
In the past, my older brother had almost never taken ‘defensive’ actions in battle.
‘He had already reached a realm where that wasn’t necessary.’
The best defense is offense.
Lee Hamin was the man who had proven that old adage in reality.
‘So it really does seem like the Gongryu Sword’s lineage was cut off.’
Except for one person.
Diesel, who had inherited my older brother’s knowledge in its entirety.
What would happen if this fact beca known to the world?
Just opening a swordsmanship dojo teaching the Gongryu Sword would already guarantee a future of sitting atop a pile of money.
‘Well then, shall I show just a little?’
Once I realized the truth, the flaws in the Gongryu Sword Edwin was wielding began to reveal themselves.
I slipped into that opening and displayed a single proper, genuine Gongryu Sword form.
‘Full Moon Slash.’
A slash that swept widely in all directions, as if drawing a perfect circle.
A current of white lightning traced the shape of a full, radiant moon.
“……!”
Edwin Silver’s eyes went wide at that beautiful curve.
“That form is…….”
‘He obviously knows what this is.’
One of the offensive forms my older brother favored.
If so, then he would also know the thod to block it.
The weakness of Full Moon Slash lay in the fact that its trajectory was fixed.
Using his Reaction Booster, Edwin evaded the attack and widened the distance.
“It seems you’ve mastered Offensive Swordsmanship as well.”
“Offensive Swordsmanship, huh…….”
True to it being a knockoff, even the na was similar.
“No.”
“What?”
At my answer, Edwin openly frowned.
“This is the circular slash of Offensive Swordsmanship.”
“I said it’s not.”
“…….”
At the repeated denial, he slowly blinked.
‘If that’s the case…….’
A man who wielded the Arc Blade—sothing no one had managed to do.
And on top of that, he was perfectly demonstrating a higher-level form of Offensive Swordsmanship.
Edwin asked what he had begun to suspect.
“Is it…… the Gongryu Sword?”
“…….”
When no answer ca back, his eyebrow twitched.
Then his face returned to its usual impassive expression.
“No. That can’t be.”
It was a swordsmanship that had been lost after its founder refused to pass it on.
Given Lee Hamin’s personality, there was no way its lineage had continued.
Just as Edwin reached that conclusion—
“I’ll make you an offer.”
The man before him slowly opened his mouth.
“I’ll teach you.”
“……?”
“The Gongryu Sword’s forms.”
“What are you saying…….”
“In exchange, hand over those two Network Elves.”
At those words, Edwin’s face twisted again.
‘He’s saying he’ll teach the Gongryu Sword’s forms?’
If what he said was true……
‘No. That’s ridiculous. The Gongryu Sword was already lost…….’
“Can’t believe ?”
“…….”
“Then confirm it yourself.”
The man took a stance once more.
A stance that was all too familiar to Edwin.
‘The defensive stance of Offensive Swordsmanship…….’
But sothing about it was subtly different.
The shape of the hand gripping the sword, the angle of the blade tip, the stride of the feet, the height of the shoulders…….
The overall frawork was clearly that of Offensive Swordsmanship, yet the man’s stance felt like staring at a solid wall.
“Co.”
I urged him on.
Edwin Silver clenched his sword tightly.
“If what you’re saying is true…….”
Then he began to redraw the magic formula he had ford monts earlier.
“Then this much should serve as proof.”
‘Hmm…….’
I fell into brief contemplation.
Edwin Silver.
An executive of the gacorporation Royal Spirit, and a human who possessed the power of a Seed.
‘I should win him over as much as possible and use him as a connection.’
Even setting aside the fact that he was a Seed, Royal Spirit ranked fifth among the ten gacorps that ruled the world.
There was no downside to forming ties with an executive of such a corporation.
‘And sohow, I feel like I’d get along pretty well with this guy.’
After digging into this middle-aged man’s background over the past few days, I had learned that he handled matters very cleanly.
The fact that he operated independently without heavy interference from headquarters also appealed to .
Perhaps I could extract more than expected by using the Gongryu Sword as bait.
‘Then I’ll have to put on this much of a performance.’
Soon, Edwin placed a period in the air.
At that mont, multicolored afterimages began to trail behind his movents.
“No one has ever withstood this attack.”
“…….”
“All twenty-five reverberations of the Echo of Radiance.”
The Seed ability, Cutting Surface.
Even a single one would be threatening, yet there were twenty-five.
But despite Edwin’s words, I didn’t flinch at all.
“How long are you going to keep talking?”
When I sent him a provocational sneer instead, Edwin Silver smiled.
“Very well.”
He then brought his hand to the silver blade.
Pushushushuk……!
Mana of multicolored radiance imbued itself into Edwin’s weapon.
At the sa ti, similar hues of light filled the swords held by the afterimages.
“Let’s see it, then.”
Soon after, he kicked off the ground.
Behind him, an enormous number of afterimages moved.
It looked like a group of well-trained assassins.
‘Impressive.’
Then, suddenly, the afterimages changed direction and headed sowhere completely different.
Toward the mirrors scattered all around.
As if being sucked in, they hurled themselves into the glittering mirrors.
‘Hmm…….’
Special mirrors that amplified mana.
The mont an afterimage touched one, it bounced imdiately into another mirror.
Each ti that happened, the power they carried grew greater.
‘This is definitely dangerous.’
The afterimages that had been moving sluggishly began reflecting at speeds too fast to even see.
‘Dangerous, yes…… but still, this is nowhere near enough.’
The monsters my older brother had faced in the past.
Compared to the original opponents of the Arc Blade I now held, this was nothing more than a beautiful spectacle.
Colors burst forth from all directions, like cara flashes going off.
And as the movents of the twenty-five afterimages reached their peak—
Edwin Silver’s main body charged at first.
At the sa ti—
I recalled a sword technique from my mories.
‘Gongryu Sword.’
A technique my older brother, who possessed genius-level talent with the sword, had researched solely for duels between people.
Among them, a form no one had ever dared to imitate.
‘Mandoy Ilseom.’
A single flash that cleaved ten thousand paths into one.
Amid the surging wave of multicolored light, a single streak of pure white lightning flashed.
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