Free Web NovelChapter 17: Kosetsu and The Mysterious Figure.
"Foolish boy!"
A voice echoed through the now-silent treasury. It came from the snail, whose expression remained completely unchanged.
"How foolish to choose something like that?!"
From the way the descendant of his master had entered the treasury and respectfully addressed him, Snol had thought the boy possessed at least a little wisdom.
He had even been prepared to guide him toward an artifact suited to his current strength, something he could wield safely and grow alongside and yet, just like so many before him, the boy had chosen to cling to an old legend.
For centuries, Snol had guarded his master’s legacy and once every decade or so, at least one such fool would always appear.
After earning some merit, they would enter the treasury and immediately set their sights on that sword, the weapon once wielded by the founder himself.
They all believed the same thing.
That the shattered blade concealed some miraculous power and that the broken fragments hid a secret waiting to be awakened and every single one of them met the same fate.
They were swallowed by the sword’s trial and never emerged again.
The sword was nothing more than a memento left behind by the founder of the family and it was never meant to be wielded in its shattered state.
There was no hidden ability sleeping within it or a secret technique waiting to be discovered, it was simply broken during the final battle of his master and yet, fools like this would stake their lives for the chance to claim it, thinking that they would succeed where countless others had failed.
Snol did not believe for even a second that this boy would be any different. After all, the sword’s trial had never been intended for someone so weak and feeble and no one since the founder himself had managed to control it. freewebnσvel.cøm
So, snol simply floated back toward a luxurious cushion on top of an elderwood platform where a book was kept open as he resumed his reading.
***
Meanwhile, within a desolate space, Zenith looked around only to find himself surrounded by an endless expanse of white with snow stretching as far as his eye could see.
Some distance away, a single crimson flower rested atop a small cliff on the steep mountainside before him. It was the only thing with a color other than white within the endless sea of white.
"As cold as always, my friend."
Zenith spoke aloud as his gaze drifted down to his own body.
He was completely naked.
The winds assaulted his skin without mercy and to make things worse, he could not find even a trace of mana within himself to shield against the relentless cold. But he had expected this since before. After all, he had endured this cold in last life as well.
He walked forward without hesitation until he arrived at the foot of the mountainside. The cliff upon which the flower rested stood far above him and to gain Kosetsu’s acknowledgment, he had to reach it and collect that crimson flower sitting atop it.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Zenith began climbing the mountain with his pitiful H-Rank physique.
He didn’t think about the distance, he didn’t think about the difficulty and he definitely didn’t think about what would happen if he fell down from such a distance, he simply kept climbing.
His mind wandered endlessly as his trait, [[Chaos Mind]], worked with all its might, sending his thoughts spiraling in every direction and allowing him to ignore the biting cold and the pain coursing through his hands.
Kosetsu.
A legendary sword once wielded by the Butcher of the North, the man who brought ruin wherever he walked.
According to legend, during his travels, the founder discovered the sword lodged within a meteor that had fallen from the sky.
After the founder’s last battle where he was said to have died, the sword somehow appeared back within the Ruinbringer treasury in a shattered state on the platform carved from the very meteorite in which it was originally found.
No one knew why it was broken or how it had returned but after that day, countless people attempted to make it submit to them, some wanted it for power while others wanted the fame that would come from wielding the founder’s weapon.
But none of them succeeded.
As the years passed, most people abandoned the idea entirely and dismissed it as nothing more than a broken artifact and the select few who tried died.
Only after Zenith destroyed the Ruinbringer family and entered the treasury himself did the sword find its second wielder.
He didn’t know how long he had been climbing or how far he had climbed but at this point, none of it mattered.
Kosetsu never tested a person’s strength, all it wanted was someone whose will was strong enough to endure everything because anything less would simply be devoured by it.
After all, Kosetsu was a demonic blade.
Zenith kept climbing. His fingers had long since turned purple from the cold and the relentless climb, his lungs burned with every breath and his muscles cried in protest but he didn’t stop.
Just one more!
He repeated the words endlessly in his mind.
One more!
One more!
As long as he could take one more step, he would continue. As long as he could pull himself up one more time, he would continue.
Only after what felt like days did Zenith finally reach the cliff where the crimson flower rested as he pulled himself onto the cliff before collapsing onto the ground.
He lay there, breathing heavily as he stared up at the endless white sky and then his gaze shifted toward his hands.
He was back into his clothes and his fingers had completely healed, as if nothing had ever happened to them.
Zenith wasn’t surprised because he knew from before about the mountainside being an illusion created by the trial. Though if he had fallen, he would have truly died because even if the mountainside was an illusion, every sensation it inflicted was real.
With that thought, Zenith finally turned toward the crimson flower as he pushed himself off the ground and walked toward it.
Without the slightest hesitation, he reached out and grabbed the flower as it instantly dissolved into a wave of scarlet energy before being absorbed into his body.
Zenith was about to exit the space but before he could, the entire space began to tremble as a brilliant light erupted right before him and from within it, a humanoid figure slowly stepped out.
A frown appeared on Zenith’s face as he looked at the newly arrived figure because no matter how much he searched through his mind, he couldn’t remember seeing anyone like that.
"Who the hell are you, now?!"
