Chapter 167

The difference in power between Snoden and us was striking.

Clang

!

Just blocking his sword swing pushed me back several steps. That was the sheer force behind his blow.

I felt an excruciating pain, as if my hand was being torn apart. The sensation was incomparable to what I’d felt during the duel I had with Mayaton.

I was lucky that I didn’t just drop my sword.

In the past, I would have definitely dropped it.

“...”

Kwoooreorak

!

The zombies looming from behind were being handled by Eleris.

Boom!

Boooom!

Eleris had stopped pretending to be a low-level mage. The continuous stream of fireballs she unleashed was evidence of that.

However, Ellen had no time to be shocked by Eleris dropping the pretense.

Clang! Clang! Kagak!

Kr...huk!

Just blocking the relentless onslaught of sword strikes seemed difficult enough to endure. Skill aside, his sheer physical strength and reaction speed were on a completely different level than ours.

Clang!!!

“Argh!”

The only fortunate thing was that there were two of us. If we attacked simultaneously, one of our attacks would inevitably land.

Thunk!

I stabbed my sword into the back of the guy who had just deflected Ellen’s blade.

He swung his sword at me straight away, completely disregarding the injury. I managed to pull my sword out and leap away, but if my thrust had been even slightly deeper, my neck would have been slashed open.

Despite how deep the stab wound was, I did not think it would kill him.

“This is absurd...”

Ssss

...

However, I did not expect the wound to heal on its own either.

Both Ellen and I stared in disbelief as the wound miraculously closed up and disappeared.

‘He can regenerate.’

“We have to slash, not stab.”

“Right.”

We had to sever a part of him with a single stroke.

We might not stand a chance one-on-one, but the effects of our combined attacks were significant.

We could overcome this overwhelming difference in physicality. Ellen and I had practiced a lot together. Although we hadn’t specifically practiced coordinated attacks, we could roughly predict each other’s movements.

Even though we didn’t have perfect synchronization, we were as proficient at it as if we had done this often.

He seemed to instinctively recognize Ellen as the greater threat and focused his attacks more on her. After several exchanges, I found an opening to swing my sword at his neck.

Thunk! Slash!

Just like severing the heads of zombies, I sliced through the neck of the guy who was blocking Ellen’s attack, cutting it off in one stroke.

“This is... insane...”

The severed head reattached itself automatically.

Even though his head had come off and reattached itself, he showed no expression. From the gaping holes where his eyes should have been, I could read no emotion.

It was a completely different feeling from looking at a zombie.

He wasn’t human, nor was he undead; he was something entirely different.

Overwhelming strength, reaction speed, and regeneration...

“That sword.”

With limited information about the enemy, all we could do was guess.

“We need to make him drop that sword.”

The only clue we had was that the sword was the source of everything.

If the source of his regenerative power came from that sword, we had to make him drop it.

If that didn’t work, we’d have to think of the next move.

In the worst-case scenario, we would escape via teleportation.

Snoden charged at us. This time, he was targeting me.

“Heup!”

Trying to stop his attack head-on would only get me pushed back. Instead, I used his sword’s force against him, deflecting and parrying the blows. Certainly, in terms of raw strength, he had the upper hand, but he lacked skill.

His swordsmanship couldn’t even compare to Ellen’s. And I had received extended training from her.

I had learned many ways to deal with overwhelming strength.

Since I Ellen always overpowered me, I had to become proficient at fighting opponents who had an overwhelming physical advantage, and I was all too familiar with it.

Slash

!

“Grah!”

Our opponent was focused on attacking me, and was suddenly distracted by Ellen’s sword striking from the side. Ellen had a definite technical advantage, and I also had a slight edge in skill over him, and our advantage was increased by the coordination between our attacks.

While I couldn’t say how a prolonged battle against this infinitely-regenerating enemy might pan out, we could at least handle him for now.

This time, he swung his sword down towards Ellen.

Bang

!

Then, an unbelievable thing happened.

Ellen took the blow of the descending sword with her body. However, her body was wrapped in a blue light.

She grabbed the sword as if to ensure he wouldn’t drop it.

Only then did it dawn on me... A single-use protection bracelet.

With just that one defensive spell, she’d created a significant opening.

“Reinhart!”

My body moved before I had the chance to think.

“Give me that arm, you bastard!”

Slash

!

I swung my sword with all my strength, slicing through Snoden’s wrist.

Cling

!

Ellen quickly kicked the fallen sword far away the moment it hit the ground.

“Graaaagh!”

Snoden let out a terrifying scream and lunged towards his severed hand. He acted as if he had lost his mind, though he had been composed up until then.

The fallen hand didn’t reattach. It didn’t regenerate.

The sword twitched and trembled as if it were the source of his power.

It seemed separating the sword from his body was the right answer.

Thud

!

Ellen body-slammed him as he tried to run towards the sword, sending him sprawling.

“He’s weakened...!”

Without that monstrous strength, he was easily sent flying. The struggling fiend and the buzzing sword were now separated.

Ellen immediately swung Lament at the downed Snoden, decapitating him.

“Keuueeek!”

The trembling body of the guy suddenly went limp.

Wooong!

But it wasn’t over yet.

The sword suddenly floated into midair and then flew off. It was heading toward one of the zombies that Eleris was dealing with, one she hadn’t managed to destroy yet.

Thwak!

“...”

One of the zombies picked up the sword, almost as if the sword had commanded the zombie to grab it.

The cursed sword had just switched its owner randomly.

***

The zombie, now empowered, came charging at me with the sword.

Kuang

!

“Argh!”

Just one clash of our swords was enough to send me reeling backward.

No matter who the host was, the host itself became enhanced.

Even if I cut off the arm, the sword would fly towards the zombies on its own. It was clear that it controlled the surrounding zombies.

Unless we did something about the sword itself, this situation would keep on repeating. Eleris was handling the most important task of neutralizing the incoming zombies. We needed to exterminate all the other zombies, and then take off the arm.

Even with me reinforcing my physical attributes, matching the guy’s strength was impossible.

Thankfully, he relied only on brute force and did not possess much skill, so I managed to deflect his attacks somewhat.

However, the strain on my body was progressively increasing and my whole body felt like it was creaking.

Shwick

!

“...”

The zombie had begun to adapt. He dodged to avoid the attack that Ellen had aimed at his arm. He recognized that we were targeting it.

He realized we were aiming to cut his arm off and focused all his attention on preventing that specific attack.

Any other wounds he suffered were immaterial. His body would simply regenerate. The sword’s power was continually restoring his body.

Boom! Boom, Boom! Boom!

Eleris was preoccupied with holding off the horde of zombies. Did she think we could handle things on our end by ourselves? Would she be able to protect us if we were truly in danger?

In this situation, communication was impossible. I couldn’t tell if Eleris had any energy to spare. Even if she did, I couldn’t afford to rely on that now.

We had to do this on our own, without counting on external help.

Relying too much on insurance was not an option.

My whole body was tingling. Deflecting each of his blows made my wrists and shoulders feel like they were about to break.

“We can’t drag this out into a battle of attrition.”

If this turned into a prolonged battle, we would lose. His stamina seemed infinite, and even in this short fight, our bodies felt like they were falling apart. It was clear that Ellen’s body was also under tremendous strain.

But was there any way to avoid a drawn-out fight?

While we maintained our standoff, Ellen called out to me.

“Reinhart.”

“Yeah?”

If we kept allowing the sword to switch hosts, our wrists would be shattered merely from the constant exchange of blows.

“From now on, don’t intervene.”

Ellen seemed to have decided that she could sever the zombie’s arm on her own.

But how would she do that, when we had no solution other than our combined effort?

Ellen took a deep breath.

***

Before departing for The Dark Land...

“Hey. Hit me hard once.”

“... Pardon me?”

It was the day when Loyar had asked Ellen if she would die for Reinhart, to which she had answered that she didn’t know.

Loyar had promised to teach Ellen something.

“Just hit me in the solar plexus or wherever you want, with all your strength.”

“...”

“Do I have to show you how it’s done first?”

“Okay, I’ll do it.”

As instructed, Ellen struck Loyar in the solar plexus with all her might. The sound was almost like a loud crack, but Loyar was barely pushed back and remained completely unscathed.

When Ellen had sparred with Loyar for the first time, she had controlled her strength to a certain extent, but this time, she had used her full power.

Yet Loyar was completely undamaged. It even seemed like Ellen’s own fist might have been the one to break first.

“Do you know what this is?”

“... Mana Reinforcement.”

“Exactly.”

Loyar could protect and enhance her body using mana.

“There’s a world of difference between someone who can do this and someone who can’t. It’s like magic. Not just anyone can do it. Just as there are very few who can become mages, there are very few who can reinforce their body with mana.”

“...”

“And don’t think you’ll get any closer to understanding just by staring at me; I’m not going to tell you why I can do it.”

Just as very few could become mages, only a select few could reinforce their bodies with mana to reach a superhuman level. And among those, only a minuscule number achieved the classification of Master.

“Someone like you who can’t use Mana Reinforcement can’t beat me, not in a million years. Using that weird sword of yours might change things a bit, but not by much.”

The difference in power levels was stark.

Unless Ellen managed to surpass her limits, she could never hope to defeat Loyar.

“They probably haven’t taught you this at the Temple yet. If you don’t learn it correctly... it’s hard to explain, but you could end up bleeding out from every part of your body and die. While magic can’t be learned by those who aren’t smart enough, this technique could kill those whose bodies aren’t fit for it. That’s why it’s taught so cautiously.”

Mana Reinforcement...

It was a double-edged sword. Thus, only those with appropriate aptitude were carefully selected and taught. If taught wrongly, it would mean the loss of a valuable talent.

“If only geniuses could awaken this technique, then some geniuses would be able to master it, wouldn’t there? But even among those geniuses, there are geniuses who stand out. Just as only geniuses become mages, among those mages, there are exceptional geniuses. When it comes to this technique, things are no different.”

Loyar looked directly at Ellen. “You will master this very easily,” she proclaimed.

‘In my eyes, you transcend the category of genius, and are a monster. Hence, you don’t need to learn it as cautiously as most people do,’

Loyar thought.

“Honestly, someone like you probably doesn’t even need someone to teach it to you.”

She didn’t seem like she needed anyone to guide her.

“... But I don’t know how to do it,” Ellen said.

Loyar shook her head.

“You’ve never even tried.”

Of course, she wouldn’t have attempted something she hadn’t even learned yet. It was only natural. Why would she try to do something she hadn’t been taught?

Ellen thought the white-haired

ajumma

was talking nonsense.

“Feel the mana inside your body, control it with your will, and use it to reinforce your body. It’s simple.”

That was an overly simplified explanation of Mana Reinforcement. It wasn’t something that could be summed up with just a few words.

“If it’s so simple, then why can’t everyone learn it?”

“It’s simple... but only for you.” Loyar was confident. “It might be difficult for everyone else, but it will be simple for you.”

“... Why are you so sure?”

“Because I’ve never seen anyone with talent as absurd as yours in my life.”

Loyar believed that Ellen had the greatest potential of anyone she had ever encountered.

Hoping that she would be an ally to Reinhart, Loyar told Ellen of this technique.

She told her that she didn’t have to wait for someone to teach her Mana Reinforcement, and that it would be easy for her to learn, despite it being hard for others.

“But you said that if it’s used incorrectly, I’ll cough up blood and die.”

“Then that’s just your fate.”

“...”

“That’s just the way it is. If you’re bored of waiting for someone to teach it to you, try doing it on your own. But don’t push yourself too hard. If you have plenty of time, just wait until they teach you at the Temple.”

“Can’t you teach me yourself?”

“Why should I?”

‘Such an irresponsible person...’

Somehow, though, those words were comforting.

Ellen remembered them that way.

And now, Ellen was facing an incomprehensible enemy.

Loyar hadn’t advised her to use it immediately in actual combat.

But right now...

“...”

Ellen realized she had to do it to overcome this situation.

Not having learned it meant she had no reason to try it. She knew it was a dangerous skill, and she didn’t want to approach it carelessly.

But now, she had a reason to attempt it, despite not having learned the proper technique.

This was as absurd as someone who knew nothing about magic trying to use magic on their own.

She could escape with Reinhart using a Teleportation scroll.

But she lacked the courage to flee.

She didn’t know how Rellia, the suspicious mage, could suddenly unleash advanced magic.

But in the end, she was just a mage.

There was no way she could handle this monster. Facing this creature was up to herself and Reinhart.

The mage was doing a mage’s job, and doing it perfectly.

She couldn’t abandon them and flee.

She didn’t have the courage to leave someone behind in the grip of death and run away.

Though she was not someone she knew well, this person had fought alongside her.

She was not a precious person, nor a familiar one, but someone who had joined her in her risky endeavors without question.

She hadn’t argued or opposed her, and simply followed her intentions silently. Whatever secret she might be hiding wasn’t something to ponder right then.

Although she had seemed saddened by the excessive demand to take so many lives, she had ultimately complied.

Her secrets could be pried out of her later.

For now, she couldn’t abandon her. She couldn’t abandon someone who was fighting for them.

She had told Austin that if one couldn’t be strong, they should at least have some sense of shame.

Yet, here she was, faced with an incomprehensible enemy, unable to choose to abandon a suspicious ally and run away shamelessly.

She simply couldn’t make that choice.

In that case, then, she had to be strong.

To maintain her sense of honor, she had to be strong. To survive with her honor intact, she had to be strong.

Because of this, she now needed to take a life-threatening gamble.

She had to take the gamble of using something she had never even practiced, directly in combat—a gamble with her life on the line.

With no courage to retreat, she staked her life under the compulsion that she had to become stronger.

Just like her brother had done.

Unable to turn away from her conscience, she set out down her brother’s path, the brother who had spent his life striving to be strong enough to live with his own conscience.

She didn’t know how to do it, but she would try.

Harness the mana within her body and use it to elevate her physical abilities to a higher level.

Furthermore, coat it over her skin like armor to enhance her defense.

Mana Reinforcement... The white-haired

ajumma

who skillfully wielded this technique had endured Lament’s strike with just this reinforcement.

Ellen doubted she could reach that level. Lament’s strike couldn’t simply be blocked by some middling degree of Mana Reinforcement.

The woman might even be a Master. That was Ellen’s guess.

Whether or not she could even use it was uncertain.

A power of which she knew the result, but not the process.

Mana Reinforcement...

The white-haired

ajumma

was certain that Ellen could do it without any formal training.

“Haaaagh....”

Unfamiliar forces resided within her, and she needed to elevate her overall physical capabilities by explosively harnessing them.

Had she ever focused like this in her life?

Had she ever been this tense in her life?

Ellen felt the awakening of her super senses, and she opened her eyes.

At that moment, blue energy swirled within Ellen’s pupils.

“...”

The enemy was watching her.

Flash

!

Ellen’s body disappeared.

She had achieved a speed beyond human capability.

Suspended in mid-air, the tip of Ellen’s sword swung down precisely at the zombie’s wrist, the one that held the sword.

Blue energy rippled around Ellen’s entire body.

-

Clang

!

However, the zombie blocked the sword strike.

“What in the... world?” I muttered in a daze, and Ellen caught my words with her ears.

The creature that had been way too overpowered before was suddenly thrown back by her.

There was no room to retreat...

If there was no room to retreat, the only option was for her to become stronger.

Harnessing her heightened senses, where even a slight lapse in concentration would make her lose her mind, Ellen continued her calm assault.

***

Even seeing it with my own eyes, I couldn’t believe it. Ellen was overpowering the creature that had so far overwhelmed us with its physical might.

Bang! Kwakang! Clang! Clang!

The enemy tried to deflect Ellen’s sword strikes, but was continuously being pushed back. It seemed like it was struggling just to defend itself.

Mana Reinforcement...

It was a core subject in the Temple’s curriculum, and a crucial part of the main story. It was supposed to be taught from next year onwards. Though the teaching of it would start next year, Ellen would be the only one to master it immediately.

All the students with combat talents would practice it, and would make numerous mistakes along the way. That’s how it was supposed to play out. Many wouldn’t even master it by the time they graduated.

Ellen, after learning it, would quickly ascend to the rank of superhuman.

Now, though, history had changed.

Ellen had succeeded in the insane task of mastering Mana Reinforcement on her own.

“...”

[Achievement Unlocked - Superhuman (Ellen Artorius)]

[Ellen Artorius has embarked on the path to becoming a superhuman much earlier than expected.]

[You have received 500 Achievement Points.]

Ellen had changed the path of the story, and therefore I had unlocked an achievement. But this was not the time to focus on that.

Interfering with Ellen’s fight was not an option.

Thunk! Thud!

“Gragh!”

I took down the zombies that Eleris had missed one by one, preventing them from interfering with Ellen’s fight. The extent of their decay was far worse than what we had seen at Klitz Point, and it was difficult to endure the repulsive smell and sight.

As I sliced through the zombies’ necks, I made sure none of them could get close to where Ellen was fighting.

Bang! Bang! Bang

!

It didn’t sound like swords clashing. Instead, it sounded like massive weapons colliding with each other.

Ellen, who was using Mana Reinforcement, was emitting a blue aura from her body. It looked almost like she was shrouded in ghostly flames.

Swoong

!

With an upward strike, Ellen opened a gash in the enemy’s chest.

Slash

!

A fierce slash followed, carving through the vulnerable area around its elbow. The sword was separated from the monster’s arm once again.

Thunk

!

Ellen swiftly decapitated the zombie that had just lost its weapon. She succeeded in disarming the sword’s host a second time.

—Ugh!

Ellen collapsed in a fit of coughing.

“Ellen!”

No sooner had she dealt with the zombie than she started coughing up blood. The mere fact that she had used Mana Reinforcement without any prior training was already a miracle. It was only natural that there would be side effects.

The situation was dire.

The sword began to move of its own accord again.

It was searching for another host.

Ellen was now incapacitated. If the sword found another host, we would be out of options.

There was no time for me to hope for Eleris to do something.

I had to act.

I had to do something, anything!

“Ugh... Damn it!”

I threw myself into the air and grabbed the handle of the cursed sword.

I activated Revise.

‘I would not be controlled by this sword!’

But my expectations were dashed.

[This Revise function cannot be executed.]

Was it impossible to execute an operation to avoid being controlled by the sword? Was the curse embedded in the sword

that

powerful?

However, that wasn’t the case.

[The trait ‘Divine Spirit’ is protecting you.]

The trait I had acquired from Olivia Lanche, Divine Spirit, protected me.