Pure-white sword aura wreathed the longsword.

It was far too powerful to have been produced by a Sword Expert. Rather than a blade wrapped in light, it looked as though Najin held a blade made entirely of light.

Sword aura with an absurd output.

Yet it had no special form or properties. Of course it didn’t. Najin was still a Sword Expert; he had yet to reach the realm of a Seeker. All he had done was push his sword aura’s output beyond its limits, using a method possible for him alone.

... Najin’s mana training method was special.

He stored only a tiny amount of mana in his body. Most of the mana he cultivated went toward strengthening his body and the channels through which mana flowed. That was because he had no need to store mana within himself.

He could use external mana the instant he absorbed it. He could draw in the mana drifting through the air and immediately weave it into sword aura.

His very sense of how to wield mana differed from that of others, who could only use the mana stored within their bodies.

‘That’s why.’

Najin knew.

‘Mana itself has no limits.’

The mana drifting outside him. The raw currents circulating through the world.

Wielding them was... like standing in the middle of a vast sea with a single cup in his hand.

His small vessel could only scoop up so much seawater for now. But Najin knew that if he enlarged it, he could draw as much water as he wanted.

There was one more thing.

In his decisive battle with Ivan, just before leaving the underground city, Najin had unconsciously hit upon something. It was a special method of wielding mana that his yearning for victory had led him to discover—a method possible for Najin alone.

Rather than scooping water up with a vessel, he would leap into the sea.

Even if he floundered in its depths and drowned, he would throw himself in to seize the victory before him. That was the gamble Najin had discovered. And now, he made that same gamble again.

-You, that...

Merlin was taken aback by the way Najin was wielding his mana.

The paths engraved in Najin’s body—the channels through which mana flowed, his mana circuits—began to strain. More mana than they could contain flooded his body.

He was wielding mana beyond his limits.

His circuits strained. Broke. Cracked. The mana they could not contain began to leak. That raw, leaking mana ran wild, clawing at the inside of his body.

Absorbing more mana than he could handle. Stepping beyond the limits permitted to him.

It was an utterly reckless method, one that gave him overwhelming output at the cost of destroying his body from within and ruining his circuits, without a thought for what came afterward. Even with Excalibur’s restorative power...

“Cough. Gah...”

Najin alone had to endure the agony of the rampaging mana tearing his insides to shreds. He coughed up a mouthful of blood. His face twisted at the pain of being ground apart from within.

But his grip on his sword only tightened.

Najin glared at Berheigen with his bloodshot eyes wide open. A yearning for victory filled his sunset-colored eyes. Clenching his teeth, he stamped his foot into the ground.

-...

Merlin fell silent.

The method Najin had created out of his yearning for victory was, by coincidence, one Arthur had once used as well. He had taught it to no one, and no record of it existed anywhere.

Arthur, who had fought countless powerful foes, had yearned for a blow that could tear out a stronger opponent’s throat. A blow that could shatter the limits imposed upon him.

He had always challenged those stronger than himself, staking his life on victory. Even when defeat seemed all but certain, he had struggled to seize a win. This was the method he had devised along that journey.

Even when the mana surging within tore his body apart. Even when the excruciating pain of straining, twisting circuits engulfed him.

He would never retreat. Coughing up blood, he would charge his enemy and be sure to take their head.

To Merlin, that image of Arthur overlapped with Najin. Though no one had taught him, Najin had discovered the same method entirely on his own, driven by the single-minded resolve to win.

-Seriously.

Merlin burst out laughing.

-You’re even crazier than I thought.

Najin kicked off the ground and charged Berheigen. His surging white sword aura flashed brilliantly.

2.

Berheigen’s eyes wavered.

The boy who had been on the verge of death had suddenly revived. That alone was astonishing, but instead of growing weaker, he had become even faster, and the sword aura enveloping his blade surged with greater force. As though he had been hiding his strength all along.

CLAAANG!

The instant their swords collided, Berheigen was driven back. He had the advantage in both his weapon’s weight and physical strength, but he lost in output. The repulsive force of that fiercely surging sword aura had pushed his greatsword away.

‘What the...!’

Berheigen’s eyes widened.

His sword hand tingled. Najin’s next strike followed. Berheigen started to raise his forearm to protect his neck as he had before, then shuddered.

No. He couldn’t.

He couldn’t take that with his bare body.

Belatedly, Berheigen twisted aside. Najin’s sword, aimed at his neck, swept across his shoulder instead. In that instant, Berheigen knew he had been right to dodge.

SLICE.

It had cut deep into his shoulder. Had it struck his neck, it would have severed nearly half of it. Through the burning pain of the wound, Berheigen met Najin’s eyes.

Bloodshot eyes gleaming with the colors of sunset.

They were utterly chilling. Berheigen instinctively understood that the battle itself had changed. That boy’s sword aura was powerful enough to cut through even his demonized body. He could no longer block it with his flesh.

‘Just what are you?’

This wasn’t Sword Expert level.

By any reasonable standard, it was impossible for a Sword Expert to produce sword aura with that much output. A Sword Expert couldn’t possibly move like that.

‘What the hell are you?’

Cold sweat ran down Berheigen’s back.

Every time their swords collided, every time Najin’s blade traced a strange arc and lunged straight for his neck... Berheigen had to grit his teeth and block it.

Until now, he had been toying with Najin. Now he had to meet his blade as an equal.

If he failed to block, he would die. Their ranks no longer mattered. Skill and split-second judgment would decide the outcome. Every swing separated life from death. And with every passing moment, Najin’s sword demanded something of Berheigen.

Death. Blood. Flesh.

Blood spattered. Severed flesh scattered. Najin was no longer the only one bleeding. Blood had begun to spray from Berheigen’s body as well.

* * *

The pursuit force hunting Demon Knight Berheigen.

Argo, the knight leading the force composed of Atanga’s knights, pulled on his horse’s reins.

This was where the last signal had come from. As he stopped and surveyed his surroundings, the clang of colliding swords reached his ears.

CLANG! CLANG!

He signaled the knights following him, then headed toward the sound.

Pushing through the brush and passing the densely packed trees... he came upon an artificially created clearing in the middle of the forest.

Uprooted trees and trunks cut in two lay strewn haphazardly across it. The clearing had likely been made by cutting down and uprooting trees that got in the way during a sword fight. At a glance, it looked like a dueling ground built in the heart of the forest.

CLAAANG!

Two swordsmen were clashing in that dueling ground. One was Berheigen, the Demon Knight the Atanga Knight Order had been pursuing. The other was a young man who looked like an adventurer.

‘Didn’t they say an adventurer in Cambria had accepted the commission?’

The young man was probably that adventurer.

Grateful to him for carrying out the commission so admirably, Argo drew his sword. He would relieve the young man of his burden and slay the Demon Knight.

But just as he was about to step forward, Argo frowned. Something felt wrong.

Berheigen’s movements, his sword aura, and his thick demonic energy... To Argo’s eyes, Berheigen’s level was far higher than reported. Had his strength been assessed incorrectly? It was surprising, but that wasn’t a problem.

‘I came along to prepare for just such a possibility.’

Argo was a powerful warrior who had reached the realm of Sword Seeker.

And the proud knights of Atanga stood behind him. Even if an unexpected complication arose, they could handle it.

So Berheigen’s unexpected strength wasn’t an issue... but something else caught Argo’s attention.

It was the movement of the young man clashing blades with Berheigen. He swung his sword, trailing brilliantly white sword aura. Its output was astonishing even to Argo, a Sword Seeker.

SWISH!

Untainted, pure-white sword aura knocked Berheigen’s blackened sword aside again and again. Sometimes gently. Sometimes boldly. The young man’s steps were light, yet precise.

His sword thrust into every opening. His stances flowed naturally from one to the next.

He displayed a strange swordsmanship that seemed to blend several styles upon the foundation of the Order of the Sword’s techniques. That alone was worthy of admiration... but most astonishing was his split-second judgment.

‘Bold.’

He didn’t merely parry. He boldly pressed in to inflict wounds, never failing to sink his teeth into an opening his opponent exposed. Like a savage beast.

And so the young man was matching Berheigen blow for blow.

He was fighting on equal terms with a Demon Knight whose strength appeared to be at Sword Seeker level. Surely Argo would have known someone so skilled, yet the face was unfamiliar. As he studied the young man’s face, Argo caught his breath.

He had seen his eyes.

Those eyes, fixed solely on Berheigen, burned fiercely. A fierce craving for victory. Chilling eyes that seemed to draw him in.

“...”

The instant he saw them, Argo silently lowered his sword. He extended an arm, signaling the Atanga Knight Order to halt.

A duel fought with the will to deny one’s opponent, with a fierce yearning for victory, with every ounce of one’s strength.

That was something no outsider should intrude upon or obstruct. Ready to intervene at any moment, Argo watched Najin and Berheigen’s sword fight.

No, he wasn’t simply watching. His gaze had been stolen.

The sword the young man wielded was raw.

His swordsmanship and sword aura were not yet fully honed or complete. Yet that very rawness drew the eye. There was an intensity that could only be found in something unrefined.

CLANG! SCRAAAPE!

Their sword auras scraped against each other, spraying bursts of light. Blood erupting wherever a sword tip passed touched those flying sparks of sword aura and evaporated with a hiss.

HISSS!

Spraying blood. The clash of swords. Bewilderingly interwoven footsteps.

The scales, once perfectly balanced, began to tip toward Najin. Unlike Najin, who continued to grow even during the battle, Berheigen was merely standing still.

CRUNCH!

Berheigen’s greatsword tore into the ground. By the time the heavy impact shook the earth, Najin’s feet had already left it. He leaped lightly and spun, bringing his longsword down on Berheigen’s blade the instant he landed.

CLAAANG!

His longsword struck the greatsword embedded in the earth, driving it deeper. Then Najin swung his longsword along the flat of the angled greatsword.

SCRAAAPE!

The blade scraping along the greatsword was aimed at Berheigen’s neck.

“... Gah!”

Berheigen hurriedly released his greatsword and reached out to catch Najin’s blade, but...

SLICE.

Najin’s sword aura was already beyond anything his resistance could withstand. The instant it touched his outstretched palm, it sliced through his hand, from little finger to index finger. Najin’s sword cut through flesh and bone without losing any speed.

Just as Najin’s sword, advancing through the spray of blood it vaporized, was about to reach Berheigen’s neck, Berheigen sensed his defeat. He felt an inescapable death approaching. And so he played the card he had kept hidden until the very last moment.

“—!”

Berheigen let out an inhuman shriek.

His eyes rolled back, and pitch-black smoke suddenly surged from his body. In an instant, the bursting smoke swallowed both Najin and Berheigen.

It happened too quickly for even the watching Atanga Knight Order to react.

3.

The card Berheigen had kept hidden until the end.

He had originally saved it for a battle against the Atanga Knight Order, since he could use it only once.

An authority obtained through his contract with a demon. A single opportunity to borrow that authority.

Berheigen had used it to kill Najin, certain that he would die if he didn’t. His face twisted with rage.

“This wasn’t meant to be wasted on the likes of you.”

The artifact House Schulhauser had guarded for generations.

The demon dwelling within it was publicly known to be of lower-middle rank... but Berheigen knew it was far more than that.

Hundreds of years ago, in the ancient era, the demon within the artifact had been active. Berheigen had learned this by stealing House Schulhauser’s forbidden tome. That was why he had seized the artifact and contracted with the demon dwelling inside it.

A demon symbolizing darkness, terror, and the blind.

The ancient demon, Arkand.

Its authority manifested through Berheigen’s hands. The surging black mist transformed in an instant into a dome-shaped barrier, trapping Najin and Berheigen inside.

Arkand itself could have swallowed a small territory whole... but this was the extent of what Berheigen could deploy. Yet he knew this alone was enough.

The barrier’s range might be limited, but its properties were the same.

‘Complete isolation from the outside. The creation of a completely sealed space that even starlight cannot reach...’

And the amplification of demonic energy. Every one of Berheigen’s wounds healed in an instant. Flesh filled out, and his severed fingers grew back, stained black. Strength overflowed throughout his body; his physical capabilities were incomparable to what they had been moments earlier.

Pitch-black sword aura roiled over the greatsword he raised.

Within this space, Berheigen held an overwhelming advantage. He was confident he would not fall behind even against the Atanga Knight Order. No, he was certain that not even they would be a match for him.

A sense of omnipotence enveloped him. He could feel his overwhelming power.

Berheigen curled his lips upward as he looked at Najin. Even Najin’s brilliantly white sword aura was dwindling, obscured by the darkness the barrier had brought. It would never flare again. This barrier would weaken his opponent even as it strengthened Berheigen.

“This is the end, brat.”

Berheigen looked at Najin with his lips curled upward. In darkness created by a demon, the light produced by a mere human was pitiful. Najin, trailing white sword aura that looked ready to go out at any moment, was an utterly wretched sight.

Berheigen was certain of his victory.

He advanced toward Najin, pondering how to crush him, how gruesome an end to give that insolent bastard.

“...”

Berheigen met Najin’s eyes.

There was no fear in them. No wavering, either. They were utterly calm. Those eyes made Berheigen feel that something was wrong.

... Had they always been that color?

Najin’s eyes, which had surely been sunset-colored only moments before, now shone platinum.

Like stars in the night sky.

-He finally used it.

Merlin’s voice rang in Najin’s ears.

It was brimming with laughter.