Chapter 4
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
Chapter 4
"I...."
Ekinessia knew what he would say to her. Regret, perhaps. Anger. Resentment or curses. But he stopped there and quietly drew his blade instead.
Yurien could not defeat her alone. After a long battle, I pierced his heart.
I watched the pale man dye crimson with blood and breathe his last. Those blue eyes that had believed in me and watched over me never closed, their light fading into darkness. I could not even close them for him.
The Demonic Blade cast his corpse aside without hesitation and left that place. Something shattered within me.
From that moment on, I abandoned even the fantasies I had clung to for survival. I no longer thought of what to do after victory. Only hatred for the Demonic Blade remained within me.
'I will kill it.'
At the boundary between unconsciousness and awareness, watching my own silhouette ripple darkly, I held only that single thought. Now, even amid the Demonic Blade's senseless slaughter, I could maintain focus.
The Demonic Blade moved to find its next prey. Because of that relentless carnage, experience accumulated endlessly. I grew increasingly skilled in manipulating mana.
Two years from that point. Six years since the Demonic Blade consumed me.
At twenty-six, I crossed a certain threshold. I understood naturally that I had reached somewhere beyond what was known as the Master rank. Since I was not a knight, I did not know what to call that realm.
In any case, I had reached it, and finally, I broke free from the Demonic Blade.
Ekinessia reclaimed her body in a small Fishing Village. Of course, there were no living people left in that village. I cast aside the Demonic Blade in my hand and moved my body, which had become mine again after six years.
Skin free of black stains. Hair that had regained its original color. My hands. My arms. A body that moves by my will.
"Ha."
Laughter escaped me. I collapsed in the middle of a pool of blood.
"It's too late! Far too late!"
I screamed. No one heard. Around me was only death, and irreversible deeds clung to my entire body.
I stared down at the Demonic Blade. With bare hands, unwrapped in mana, I struck it down. Even as the blade cut me, I did not care and continued to slash at it. Unsatisfied even with that, I wept.
'What do I do now? What should I do? I....'
Even after overcoming the Demonic Blade, nothing remained for me. No one was left to wait for me. I had killed them all with my own hands.
My blood, dripping from the wounds, flowed down the transparent blade alongside my tears and touched the pattern carved into the edge. The pattern glowed faintly. That was when I heard the 'voice'.
[Go ahead and try. As if you could break me.]
A voice that resonated not in my ears but in my soul. I could not tell if it was male or female, young or old. I was startled.
"Who, who are you?"
[Me? Bardegiosa. The blade you're holding right now.]
"What?"
[You're the second to awaken my consciousness since I was forged.]
I stared blankly at Bardegiosa for a long moment. My frozen mind began to turn, and the meaning of the words slowly became clear.
"You're... the Demonic Blade? Your consciousness awakened?"
[You awakened it. That means you've finally earned the right to become my master. Congratulations!]
"...Congratulations?"
I ground my teeth.
"This cursed blade, what are you saying now?"
[Now? But you're the one who just awakened me?]
"Yeah, so what. I'm going to destroy you anyway."
As I glared down at the blade with fierce eyes, a voice tinged with alarm rang out.
[Hey, hey, calm down. Uh, you've been through quite a lot, haven't you?]
"Quite a lot? How can you speak so lightly of it?"
Hatred blazed through her in vivid, searing waves. Her mana roiled and spilled beyond the boundaries of her body. She ground out words as if chewing through blood.
"It's all your doing. Mother, Father, Lancel, Nicole, even Yurien! You killed them all! All of them! There's nothing left now! Everything's destroyed! They're all dead! By my hand! Because of you!"
[No, wait—I think you're misunderstanding something. That wasn't 'me'.]
"Shut up!"
A Master channels mana through their blade to overlay it with a blade of pure mana—what they call a mana blade. Even Masters struggle to manifest one without a sword or similar object as a conduit. Yet she gathered mana in her bare hands and shaped it into a cutting edge.
She brought that mana blade down upon Bardegiosa with a thunderous crack. The earth split beneath the impact, soil erupting outward. The tremor that rippled across the ground was like an earthquake, yet the blade itself remained unmarred—not even a scratch.
[Ah, ah! That hurts! Even though you can't break me anyway! Please, just calm down and listen to me, master!]
"You're not my master."
Her voice came cold and cutting. Bardegiosa seemed to shudder at the words. With an expressionless face, she raised the blade again and again. If it wouldn't shatter in one blow, she would keep striking until it did. Her eyes burned crimson with fury—the gaze of someone no longer in control of themselves. The magic sword spoke urgently.
[It can be undone!]
"...What?"
The strange words made her pause. The magic sword rushed to continue.
[You were consumed by murderous intent and lost control of your body, right? The one who made you that way wasn't 'me'—it was the malice and killing intent that dwelled within me before I was forged. The one who created me used malice and killing intent as materials, and— hey, hey! Hey! Wait just a moment! Hey!]
"Meaningless prattle."
Mana coalesced in her palm once more. The magic sword shrieked.
[There's a way to undo it! A way to return to when no one had died yet!]
She froze. The mana scattered from her hand. Her voice trembled as she spoke.
"What did you just say? Undo it? That... everything before it all happened?"
[Yes, rewinding time is possible. The one who awakened me before you killed so many people that I undid it after being awakened. You should be able to do it too.]
"...How?"
It was a situation of nothing but crushing despair. She would have grasped at a straw. For her, Bardegiosa's words were the only hope.
[Of course, it won't be easy.]
"Stop talking and tell me. How? Can I save them all?"
[It's not saving them—it's rewinding time, I'm telling you.]
"I don't care, just tell me the method!"
She gripped the magic sword desperately. The patterns carved into the blade gleamed. The magic sword spoke plainly.
[Gather the Giosa Series and use Kairos Giosa. That's how.]
"...What are you talking about?"
[You know I'm one of the Giosa Series, right? You've never heard the legend of Giosa?]
Of course she had. It was a famous legend.
Long ago, there lived a master blacksmith who was praised for reaching the realm of divinity. He was certain that none, not even the gods themselves, could match his skill in forging blades.
One day, a god truly came to visit this blacksmith.
The god lent him divine power—the ability to forge blades from materials that could neither be seen nor touched, as intangible as night and day.
The god spoke thus:
【I have granted you power equal to my own. With it, forge the greatest blades. This is my trial for you.】
The blacksmith deliberated for seventy days and seventy nights. Over the course of a hundred years, he refined ten blades from extraordinary materials. All were beautiful, and each possessed miraculous power that had never existed before and would never exist again.
The blacksmith presented his works proudly to the god. The god gazed upon them in silence, then suddenly manifested two blades from the void. Though there were only two, a single one surpassed all ten of the blacksmith's creations combined in both beauty and power.
Only then did the blacksmith kneel. He repented of his arrogance in daring to rival the divine. The god forgave him graciously and took him to the heavenly realm.
After the blacksmith and god departed, the twelve blades left behind in the world came to be called the Giosa Series, taking their name from the ancient word for "trial."
The ten Giosa forged by the blacksmith chose masters of exceptional talent. But the two divine blades created by the god accepted no master. Legend says those sacred swords lend their power only to one who possesses all ten of the remaining Giosa.
This was the legend of the Twelve—a series of extraordinary blades known as the Giosa.
Those recognized as masters of a Giosa were called Giosa Owners. Each blade in the series had its own criteria for selecting an owner, but it was said that only those who had reached Master rank could be chosen by a Giosa.
In ages past, Giosa blades lay scattered across the continent. However, as incidents involving Giosa of tremendous power multiplied, an organization emerged to manage the entire Giosa series—the birth of the Changtian Knights.
Save for those Giosa whose locations remained unknown, most of the series fell under Changtian Knights' stewardship. And the Demon Blade Bardegiosa was among those whose whereabouts had vanished into mystery.
"Why bring up that legend?"
[Because if you possess all ten Giosa created by mankind, you can borrow the power of the Divine Blade. And it's true.]
"The power of a Divine Blade? Can you turn back time with it?"
[Of course. My previous master succeeded, after all. You just need to use the Divine Blade Kairos Giosa. Since Kairos Giosa is a blade forged from time itself, it can manipulate time. Of course, altering the entire world is no trivial feat—once you use it, you won't be able to borrow Kairos Giosa's power ever again.]
Hope descended upon me like a veil. Everything could be undone. The world tilted before my eyes. Ekinesia whispered through trembling lips.
"...You're not lying about this. If you are, I'll destroy you."
[Why would I lie about something like this? Besides, destroying me is impossible. I am Bardegiosa, after all.]
"Whether it's possible or not doesn't matter. If you've deceived me, I'll make you pay by any means necessary."
[Wow, look at those eyes. You look so delicate, but you're terrifying.]
I ignored the demon blade's rambling and searched my memory. I recalled everything I knew about the Giosa series. There was precious little. I could count on one hand the names of Giosa I knew. I was no knight—there was no reason I should have memorized all ten blades. How to gather information, how to collect them all, remained shrouded in darkness. The demon blade was right; this would be no simple task.
Yet it mattered not. Even if the chance was gossamer-thin, I would not abandon it. I would reverse everything. With these hands, I would resurrect all the dead.
I resolved to seize a miracle with my own strength.
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org