“Ahh, kid. Najin. You know, I used to cross swords with one fucking powerful devil. Huh? I was a pretty famous knight in my day.”

“Yes, of course.”

“You don’t look like you believe me. It’s true, I tell you.”

“Ivan, you’ve told me that more than ten times now. You might not remember because you’re drunk, but I’m hearing the same story ten times over.”

“Huh? Really?”

“Shall I guess what comes next? That devil was a truly hideous thing with dozens of arms, like a spider...”

Ivan burst into a chuckle.

“It really was the sort of devil you’d see in a nightmare. That bastard killed quite a few of my cohort. Even now, thinking about it makes the back of my neck tighten. A damned shame. It really is.”

“Still, well...” he muttered, draining his cup.

“Someone will avenge them. There’s one fellow who comes to mind. I reckon he’ll find that devil and kill it somehow. He’s an obsessive bastard.”

“Who is he?”

“Just someone I know. A fellow with one hell of a parry.”

2.

Fighting a devil was an exceedingly difficult task.

Not only were devils naturally tenacious creatures, they could also wield powers bordering on Mystery. Why else would an organization like the Order of Starblood exist specifically to hunt them?

Devils were hard to kill. Even for a swordsman who had reached the rank of Sword Seeker, cutting one down was no easy task. That held true even for a middle-ranking devil.

Then what of the devil before them?

The ancient devil, Orgis.

He had existed long before the three classifications of low, middle, and high rank were established. A seasoned devil who had survived the age a thousand years ago when King Arthur slaughtered every devil he encountered.

“Seasoned, my ass. He just never caught my eye. Rather than ‘seasoned,’ I’d say ‘good at hiding.’”

That was how Merlin put it, but even she did not deny that Orgis was a powerful devil. As with most things, surviving for so many years was often proof of strength in itself.

Normally, the proper force to face Orgis would consist of at least a squad of Sword Seekers accompanied by inquisitors well versed in devils. To subjugate him through sheer force alone would require someone at least approaching the strength of a Sword Master.

Yet only two Sword Seekers stood here.

Argo had reached Flowering, but was still far from becoming a Sword Master. And although Najin could partially reproduce a Sword Master’s techniques, he was still only a swordsman at Sprouting.

Sprouting, Flowering, Full Bloom.

The two were wielding their swords against a devil who required a swordsman at least at Full Bloom. Anyone who heard the story would surely say they had no regard for their own lives, but...

CLANG, CLAAANG!

Anyone who actually saw them fight would be unable to say that. Neither showed the slightest sign of being driven back. Instead, they were pressing the devil.

“Hah!”

Argo deflected every attack coming at him from all those different angles. He held only one sword, but he did not limit himself to wielding his own weapon. A first-rate warrior had to know how to handle an opponent’s weapons as though they were his own.

CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!

He deflected the first sword to reach him. That sword struck the spear thrusting in from the side, the spear struck a greatsword, and the greatsword struck a hammer... Like falling dominoes, every one of Orgis’s attacks was knocked aside.

CRACK!

Some were caught in Bookmark’s power and became thin sheets. Of course, disabling a few weapons that way still left Orgis with dozens of arms.

Deflect five, and another ten came. Block ten, and twenty followed, then thirty more... However extraordinary Argo’s parrying had become, he could not deflect them all alone.

‘If I were alone, that would be true.’

But Argo was not facing Orgis alone. Najin intervened at precisely the right moment and knocked aside Orgis’s weapons. Metal clashed incessantly, many times within a single second.

Just two men faced a devil composed of more than a hundred knights. Without retreating a single step before those hundred-odd weapons, Argo and Najin planted their feet firmly forward.

THOOM!

Striking downward, Najin carved a long gash through the ground. The mound of earth he cut free surged upward. Bookmark’s power would surely activate the moment that earth closed over him, but Najin was deliberately enticing Orgis to use it.

The earth moved of its own accord. Just as it was about to engulf Najin, Orgis’s limbs, redirected by Argo’s parries, were caught beneath it first.

CLAP!

Eight arms became as thin as sheets of paper. Najin cut through them along with the mound of earth. As the soil crumbled beneath his sword aura as though evaporating, his eyes flashed.

Platinum eyes, not the color of sunset.

The sword aura Najin created was pure, brilliant white. And amid that white flashed gold. Orgis felt an instinctive terror. A terror etched into his soul, and the natural enemy imprinted upon the entire devil race.

SCREEEECH!

Faced with sword aura that called King Arthur to mind, Orgis let out a monstrous shriek and drew up his demonic energy. He looked almost like a terrified beast.

And any living creature would resist fiercely when its life was threatened. Orgis now began expending every reserve of strength he had stored away and held back.

BURST!

A single arm woven from dozens of knights’ arms erupted from Orgis’s back. It held a greatsword dripping with pitch-black filth.

The moment that greatsword swept horizontally, Argo abandoned any attempt to parry it. Najin likewise gave up on knocking it aside and immediately ducked. The greatsword swept over their heads.

An immense blast of wind followed.

BOOM, BOOOOM!

The sound of something collapsing echoed immediately afterward. They did not need to look behind them to know that several buildings had collapsed along the line the greatsword had traced.

3.

Devils had no concept of an all-out contest or a test of strength. To a devil, a fight that demanded all its strength was naturally something to avoid. Even victory brought no profit if too much power had been spent.

But things changed when its life was in danger. Terrified of Najin, Orgis began resisting with everything he had.

BOOM, KABOOOM!

Realizing that the power of his Masterpiece was eating away at his own flesh, Orgis stopped activating Bookmark and tried to crush Najin and Argo with his strength alone.

Argo had seen this same desperate, all-out struggle twenty years ago.

‘It was like this then, too.’

When Ivan, Argo, and the other knights had turned Bookmark’s power against Orgis and torn off his limbs, Orgis had stopped using Bookmark and fought them with his own raw strength.

Back then, Argo had been unable to withstand Orgis’s onslaught. All he could do was grit his teeth and hold on, and even that had only been possible thanks to the sacrifice of several of his cohort.

‘Back then, I had to watch you escape.’

The corners of Argo’s mouth lifted.

‘But this time is different.’

Twenty years. For twenty years, Argo had studied how to face Orgis. To a transcendent being or a devil, twenty years might be no more than an instant, but to a human, it was enough time for an inexperienced youth to become a seasoned knight.

He held nothing back as he displayed the skills he had honed.

One choice followed another. Argo swung his sword without pause to meet Orgis’s blades, while Najin took the powerful blows Argo could not handle.

The Sword of Unfolding Return, the swordsmanship Najin had learned from Alderan.

Built upon compressing sword aura along the blade to its utmost limit, this swordsmanship specialized in facing powerful foes. It was a sword meant to cut what could not be cut.

CLACK!

Najin no longer paid any attention to Orgis’s other attacks. He swung his sword with his gaze fixed solely on the enormous greatsword rising from the devil’s back. If he concentrated on that one greatsword, he could withstand it.

‘The problem is the dozens of weapons coming from the sides even after I knock the greatsword aside...’

Naturally, knocking aside the greatsword required a large movement. And a large movement left a large opening. If Orgis exploited that opening, Najin would be helpless. Najin had only two arms, while Orgis had dozens.

But, as already stated, Najin was not fighting alone.

CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!

Argo covered Najin’s openings. Najin withstood what Argo could not. Filling the gaps in each other’s defenses, they pressed Orgis.

‘Use your Masterpiece, devil.’

The two forced the devil to choose.

Were you trying to fight without your Masterpiece because you feared it would eat away at your flesh? But without it, you could not win. My sword was not so dull that you could face it while holding anything back.

SLASH!

Cut by Najin’s and Argo’s swords, Orgis bled. Blood sprayed, then sprayed again. As he continued to bleed, Orgis finally began using his Masterpiece once more. But that did nothing to improve his situation.

CRACK!

A parry. The deflected attacks were caught in the Masterpiece’s power and compressed into thin sheets of paper. And no knight was incapable of cutting paper. Having lost several arms with absurd ease, Orgis retreated farther.

His hundred-odd arms had dwindled to fifty.

From fifty to thirty, then twenty...

The seemingly endless weapons had diminished until their number could be clearly counted.

TAP.

Argo pressed harder.

As he swung his sword, he recalled the past.

[“Argo!”]

[“You don’t have to tell me, Ivan!”]

The days when he had wielded his sword alongside his dearest friend from his cohort. Back then, Argo had been too inexperienced and weak to carry out Ivan’s plan perfectly. He had failed to create an opportunity for Ivan to land the strike he was so proud of.

Twenty years had passed, and Argo stood here again.

His dear friend was not here. He had fallen, condemned as a criminal. But as though taking his place, a boy who must have learned swordsmanship from him was swinging his sword.

‘Honestly...’

Argo smiled.

Smiling, he shouted the words he had wanted to say twenty years ago, but had been unable to utter then.

“Now!”

CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!

Orgis’s eight remaining arms were knocked aside at once. Najin charged into the opening directly ahead. Closing in within an instant, he opened his eyes wide.

Then—

SLASH!

The most powerful arm sprouting from Orgis’s back. Najin severed that enormous arm, woven from dozens of knights’ arms, in a single stroke. As the devil’s blood spouted like a fountain, Orgis’s demonic energy began dwindling at once.

The eight remaining arms also fell away one by one with each swing of their swords. Seven, six, five... two.

Only two arms remained to the devil.

In his final moments, the devil paradoxically stretched out his two arms to shield his body like a human. That was his last desperate struggle.

THOOM.

And Najin took one firm step toward that devil. He did not need to consider which technique to use for the finish.

The swordsmanship of Ivan, knight of Atanga.

The First Strike, an upward blow, shattered an opponent’s technique and defense to create an opening. Najin’s sword cut through the devil’s two remaining arms. Without stopping there, it carved a deep wound through the devil’s body.

SLAAASH!

Blood spouted. The great gash in the devil’s body exposed his heart, which had been concealed beneath hundreds of corpses. Normally, Najin would have brought down the Second Strike to split that heart, but even now, there was no need.

Argo was already swinging his sword at Najin’s side.

Argo was a knight of Atanga. The moment Najin unleashed the First Strike, Argo began the next stroke without hesitation. Thanks to that, almost at the same instant Najin completed his First Strike, Argo’s sword fell like a guillotine.

SLICE.

The devil’s heart split in two.