Hard Carried by My Sword

Chapter 264

Leon blinked and asked, Wait, did you just say Mind-Blade?

—Yes.

As in, that legend where if you will to cut something, you actually cut it?

Martial arts had no visible end, so practitioners invented countless classifications to locate themselves along the path. Different from titles like Aura Wielder or Expert, there were distinctions of the practical realms: Unity of blade and body, forming of sword energy, overwhelming Aura, states in which intent itself carried killing force.

Among them, Mind-Blade stood at the very top, so rare that many believed it a myth. Its effect resembled an overwhelming Aura, yes, but differed in one decisive way. Mind-Blade executed a real slash without emitting any Aura at all. Used in an ambush, even an Aura Master wouldn’t react in time.

—Well, that’s not wrong.

El-Cid said, —If you reach the peak of Mind-Blade, you can kill an unprepared Master in one stroke. If they’re fully alert, they’ll escape with heavy injuries at worst.

Huh? If they’re ready, they can evade or block it?

—Of course, dummy! Even if one didn’t train Psychokinesis from the beginning as you did, an Aura Master stands at the boundary of that realm. Failing to react when faced with death would be stranger.

El-Cid continued. —Mind-Blade isn’t the grandiose delusion people who can’t even reach its threshold imagine it to be. ‘When the heart moves, the blade moves.’ If your blade follows intent perfectly and moves exactly the way you want it to, that, too, is Mind-Blade.

Leon listened while cutting down a Swamp Troll that lunged through the fog. Its regeneration vanished the moment it entered the Nether Valley, so its undead flesh rotted away instantly. freewebnovel.cσ๓

He stepped back to avoid the collapse, then forward again. His horizontal cut sent the heads of a gnoll and a ghoul flying, and he kicked an incoming harpy to pieces before it could strike.

These corpses were half-rotten shells. Their attack power was one thing, but their durability had already reached its limit. He wasn’t destroying their immortality since he hadn’t cut them using the Holy Sword, but restoring those broken bodies would take time. There was no need to waste strength finishing every single one.

—Those who entered the Mind-Blade path gained many possibilities within their domain, such as accelerating time, leaping space, and more.

For some reason, a memory of the Giant King Kasim surfaced. Leon had challenged him dozens, hundreds of times in the Titan Mountains, yet never landed a proper hit.

Kasim moved more slowly than Leon yet always struck first. It was as if he were skipping the middle of a movement entirely. Even blocking him was a beat too late. What Kasim had shown was the pinnacle of launching late yet striking first.

Leon thought, Perhaps that, too, was...

—In the end, Mind-Blade could omit even the act of movement itself, but that’s horribly inefficient. Why rely solely on will when you have hands and feet?

Leon absorbed the words while focusing on the domain that he had formed. It had a radius of two meters—though perhaps even smaller now—where anything entering was cut down.

Creatures whose presence he couldn’t sense earlier now felt as though he could reach out and touch them, making it simple to draw the optimal trajectory every time. Even attacks from behind or underground lost their threat if he consistently responded one step ahead.

El-Cid said that manipulation of space and time is possible...

If El-Cid was right, Mind-Blade could evolve just like Aura Blade did. Then what should Leon’s Mind-Blade become? Should he sharpen strengths, or compensate for weaknesses?

Sun Sword and Grand Chariot are powerful enough. And I’ve never really felt lacking in speed...

Pushing for more output could risk tearing his body apart. And against Britra, he couldn’t rely on brute force alone. The dragon was no longer a pure dragon after absorbing the Demon King’s fragment. As long as the Holy Sword could land a proper hit, sheer output mattered far less.

What he needed wasn’t a killing blow, but a guaranteed one. He needed something that ignored defense and evasion.

—Oh?

Noticing a subtle yet clear shift in Leon’s movement, El-Cid chuckled, amused. —So that’s the direction you’re choosing? Not bad. Whether you finish it in time... that’s the only real problem.

But if he succeeded, it would become a decisive reversal. Thankfully, the Nether Valley provided endless test subjects.

“Haah...”

After some time, Leon lowered his sword. He had annihilated a thousand monsters, granting rest to beings who had been denied it for centuries.

It was much harder and more tedious than expected. Had he used Sun Sword, it wouldn’t have taken three minutes. Instead, it took nearly an hour—proof of how heavily he’d relied on Sun Sword and Grand Chariot.

—Good work. Ready to go deeper?

“I can’t even take a second to catch my breath?”

—You’re not that tired. Walk a bit and you’ll have your energy back. Worst case, ask the little golem to guard you while you nap.

Only then did Leon remember Rodlin. He turned, and there she was, exactly as before, standing with Exile Barrier deployed, eyes clear and unblinking.

As their gazes met, she said, “Hostile units have been completely eliminated. Shall I deactivate Exile Barrier and shift to alert mode?”

“Ah, yeah. Please do.”

“As you wish, Master Leon.”

The bluish barrier dissolved, and in that instant, layers of mana ripples expanded outward in every direction. It was probably the spell corresponding to the “alert mode” Rodlin mentioned.

She closed her eyes briefly, then opened them again and reported, “The fog is interfering with detection magic. My effective scanning radius is two kilometers, with an estimated error margin of fifteen meters. I expect these values to worsen as we proceed deeper.”

“That’s plenty. Any chance we get lost?”

“I could not find any mechanism that distorts direction or warps space. If I build an internal map from accumulated data, escaping the demon realm itself will not be difficult.”

“Good.” Leon nodded once, then turned forward again. “We’re heading into the deep zone. Don’t stray far, and when combat starts, focus on self-defence. If your condition deteriorates or you detect a threat to my safety, you’re permitted to act autonomously.”

“Yes, Master. Pre-command has been registered.”

His red cloak fluttered as he advanced, and the small girl followed closely behind him. It was an oddly peaceful image within such a gloomy, oppressive demon realm.

Their silhouettes dissolved into the mist, and where moments ago a furious battle had raged, only thick, wet fog seeped back in as though nothing had happened. The Nether Valley—one of the continent’s Four Great Demon Realms—still lay only at its entrance.

***

After Leon and Rodlin entered the demon realm, Karen and Elahan remained near the entrance for their lessons. William, the Second Cardinal, stiffly explained—clearly unaccustomed to speaking this much.

“Understood?” he asked Karen.

“Not at all...?” Karen replied as she pressed her fingers into her temples.

William let out a long breath, rubbing the back of his neck. There was no surprise there. Though they shared elven blood, Karen had never lived as an elf, and teaching her innate elven abilities was proving... maddening.

Spirit arts, the hallmark of elves, was the act of communing with and commanding the wills dwelling in nature. It was not so much a learned skill as a natural faculty. How was one supposed to teach something as instinctive as breathing?

“This is difficult. I’ve heard that elves who grow up outside forests often have dulled sensitivity to spirits, or their affinity deteriorates, but in your case...”

Karen’s situation was unique. Dark Elves often communicated with spirits outside the pure elemental line—shadows, darkness, umbral forces. With Karen’s very aura being “Shadow,” William had assumed she’d take to spirit arts easily. Unfortunately, he thought wrong.

“Your Aura Blade is interfering with spirit development... I’ve never heard anything like it. I can’t remember the last time I had such a headache.”

“S-sorry...” Karen sheepishly apologized.

“It’s nothing for you to apologize for. The fault lies with my own inadequacy.”

Then, he turned from her and faced Elahan. “Saintess, and you?”

Responding to his call, Elahan opened her eyes from meditation.

“Hard to put into words, but... I think I understand. The distortion of the Nether Valley is twisting the natural order. As a reaction, Holy Power and sacred spells manifest several times stronger than they do in normal space.”

“And?”

“Most high-tier magic becomes unusable here. Unless one has an internal mana-core like Rodlin, drawing ambient mana becomes nearly impossible, so mages are severely constrained.”

William nodded. “Correct. That’s why one of this demon realm’s nicknames is ‘the Mage’s Grave.’ A ninth-tier mage might force their way through, but weakening is inevitable. Magic rewrites natural law, but in the deep zones of the Four Great Demon Realms, natural law is distorted from the start.”

Both Karen and Elahan silently absorbed his teaching. His knowledge as a Cardinal and centuries of accumulated elven experience were a treasure in themselves.

Meanwhile, Albion lounged on a bed she’d summoned from subspace, biting into a fruit she’d forgotten she even had.

Her job was bringing Leon’s party to William, which was practically finished. The only reason she had chosen not to return to her lair was that this rare spark of stimulation was... pleasant. Enjoying herself, Albion decided to offer a favor.

“Child of the World Tree,” she called to William.

“Oh! Yes, O Great Attuner.”

“You can stop with the formalities. It’s tedious.”

After stopping William from kneeling again, she turned toward Karen, whose face remained troubled.

Spirit arts, hm.

To dragons, who touched natural law directly, spirit arts were a trivial parlor trick. But precisely because they surpassed it, they understood it well. The dragon’s authority, Attunement, was essentially the superior form of spirit arts.

“Hand over that child to me.”

Karen tilted her head, startled at being singled out. William, equally surprised, asked carefully, “M-may I ask why?”

“A whim. I know what’s tripping her up, and I’d like to teach her myself.” Albion rose from her bed and approached Karen. “Not only the hero—you have learned Rodrick’s martial arts.”

“Huh? Ah, yes!” Karen jolted.

“As expected of something he invented, its logic is so profound that it terrifies the spirits themselves. They likely perceive you as a high-ranking spirit from another plane. Of course, they’d hide instead of answering when you call.”

Aura Blade was the construction of one’s own law. In the same way, Karen, through the Pitch-Black Dance, had effectively turned herself into a pseudo-spirit, manipulating an attribute directly.

To spirits rooted in natural order, she felt alien. And because her power was strong enough to bind or overwhelm them, hiding from her was the only instinctive response.

“T-then what do I do? Does this mean I can never use spirit arts?”

“That’s what I’m here to fix, is it not? I intended to offer this to Rodrick once... but that scoundrel dismissed my grace as some manipulative trick, so he hardly deserved it.”

Albion pricked her fingertip, letting a single bead of blood rise, then held it out.

Karen blinked and asked, “Why... Blood...?”

“Drink it.” With a languid, dangerous smile, Alvion looked down at her. “I hereby appoint you as my Guardian Knight.”

The words were so unexpected that Karen froze, and Elahan and William snapped their eyes wide in shock.