Chapter 110
#Chapter 110: Demonic Sword Forte (12) - Two Choices
People often misunderstand this, but a sword is dangerous even without a blade.
Whether it is still in its sheath or being used to strike with its back, a heavy lump of metal smashing into someone's head is enough to send them across the Sanzu River.
Therefore, if his opponent had been an ordinary person, Pina would have hesitated one way or another before swinging her sword.
No matter how important a holiday might be, one cannot kill someone because of it. (Some overworked office workers may disagree.)
However, the young man was not an ordinary person.
He was a formidable fighter with decent skill to begin with, and he had even borrowed the power of a demon.
Therefore, Pina was able to beat the young man without the slightest hesitation.
Thud! Thwack! Thwack!
“Ghk! Guhk! Argh! Argh!”
The young man could not regain his senses.
Being struck in both eyes right from the start had been devastating.
The moment he reflexively hunched over from the pain in his face, the back of his head was smashed, and when he fell face-first onto the floor, a full swing slammed into his side.
The young man screamed and tried desperately to escape from Pina, but each time, she clung to him like a ghost and relentlessly beat him down.
‘Why? How…!?’
Confusion and questions welled up in the young man's heart.
The young man had originally possessed skill that barely reached the fourth tier.
After contracting with Divana, his power had grown even stronger, to the point where he could form sword force, or aura.
In fact, he was currently wearing armor made of aura around his body, a powerful defense capable of lightly deflecting all but the most exceptional slashes.
Then what on earth was happening now? Why was the armor having no effect? Could it be that this so-called Demonic Sword ignored even aura-based defenses?
The young man's thoughts were mistaken.
It was true that Forte was a peerless sword capable of ignoring most defenses, but even it could not pierce aura while still inside its scabbard.
Therefore, the reason the young man was being beaten helplessly was simple.
The defense he had thought was perfect was not actually perfect. That was all.
《Aura truly is a terrifyingly versatile power. It can grant physical force to magic power itself, after all.》
《The most common uses are coating a weapon to give it destructive power beyond its limits, or wrapping it around the surface of one's skin and using it like armor. But those are merely the basics.》
《You can extend a weapon's range by emitting aura along its length, or shape it into a sphere and fire it like a cannonball. Even when coating a weapon, there are endless possibilities if you delve deeper, such as compressing the aura only along the edge to maximize its power, or concentrating it only on the area being attacked to reinforce its defense.》
《And such techniques and innovations are learned through painstaking, step-by-step training. If you simply acquire a power called ‘aura’ without going through that process… you'll end up like the young man right in front of us.》
《Ah, the aura around his shin has come undone. Kicking him with the tip of your foot should do the trick.》
‘Yes, Demonic Sword!’
Possessed by the wicked Demonic Sword's whisper, the girl swung her leg with all her might, and a mournful cry burst from the young man's mouth.
《Hey! Hey! Why are you just taking it so helplessly!? Put some distance between you! Harass her with spells! Your side is wide open right now! No, use your fist there instead of your sword, damn it!!》
And Divana, watching the scene, felt as though she would burst from frustration.
If Pina had shown the overwhelming clash of power she had displayed in the dungeon by using the Demonic Sword's strength, Divana would have accepted it as well. That would simply have meant losing because she was outmatched in terms of stats.
But Pina was barely borrowing the Demonic Sword's power at all right now.
The young man's stats were superior, yet he was being beaten one-sidedly.
Divana pondered deeply.
If she revealed her true form here, it would be possible to turn the situation around.
However, the faculty would learn of her existence, which would become an enormous hindrance to carrying out their subsequent operations.
But if she simply remained still, her contractor would be rendered unable to fight again by Pina.
With a face that looked incapable of killing even a bug, she was beating a person at a level that rivaled any professional.
After being lost in thought for quite some time, Divana finally made a decision.
《Ah, seriously…! Hey, listen carefully! From now on, you─》
Whether that decision was the right one would only become clear later.
***
“I-I was blinded by greed!”
The young man's face had become so swollen and misshapen that none of his original handsome features remained, and he suddenly bowed his head to the ground.
He slowly began to confess why he had done such a thing. His pronunciation was slurred here and there, but there was no major difficulty understanding what he said.
As a swordsman, he had coveted the Demonic Sword's power too much. He must have lost his mind for a moment. He would never let such a thing happen again. He was truly sorry. That was all.
“Hmm.”
As Pina scratched her cheek awkwardly, Divana clenched her fist.
《I knew this was the right move! She's the hero's descendant, after all! Unless you had killed someone or something, she wouldn't just kill you outright for attempting one theft!》
‘I-I see.’
The young man privately doubted whether Pina was really such an innocent and righteous person, but he did not bother to argue with Divana's claim.
Rather than get beaten even more for no reason, he also wanted to end the fight by any means possible.
Fortunately for the young man, the enraged Pina did not suddenly cut off his head for spouting nonsense.
Meanwhile, Divana continued her passionate speech.
《Now that things have come to this, focus completely on provoking her sympathy! Say that you were suffering terribly under pressure from your family! That when you saw such overwhelming power before you in that state, you were helplessly tempted! Something like that!》
It had become impossible to gain the psychological upper hand and guide Pina while she was in such a devastated state.
However, Divana said they could still guide her actions by appealing to her compassion, so she gave the young man her instructions, and he followed them faithfully.
A knightly family with a history of its own.
Yet descendants whose abilities were not particularly impressive compared with the reputation of their great ancestors.
Then, amid all that, a boy who displayed outstanding talent—and the immense pressure placed on that son by his father and the elders of the family.
The boy did his best to live up to the expectations around him, but realized that his talent had merely been a flash of brilliance from childhood, and grew anxious. The boy—or rather, now a grown man.
The young man's drawn-out lament was overflowing with solemnity and sincerity, because most of the story was true.
If he changed only the part about ‘stealing a sword because he wanted power’ to ‘contracting with a demon,’ it was the story of the young man's life itself.
“I see….”
Pina's eyes filled with sympathy.
Sensing that the operation had succeeded, the young man and Divana clenched their fists without realizing it.
And then Pina declared,
“Then, from now on, let's work a little harder at clearing dungeons together!”
Time stopped for a moment.
At least, that was what happened inside the heads of the young man and Divana.
“A-Actually, I had been keeping my schedule a little looser when I was with you all. The Demonic Sword even allowed it, saying, ‘You need to learn how to fight alongside your comrades sometimes.’ But I never realized you were struggling with things like that deep down….”
The young man doubted his ears.
What had she just said? What did she mean, ‘looser’?”
“I'll try a little harder too! Let's do our best together!”
Neither of them knew it, but this was Pina's immense act of goodwill.
Although she did not fundamentally care much for things like training or fighting, she had sympathized with the young man's past and decided to throw herself into it with enthusiasm.
“I-I appreciate that, but my abilities are insufficient, so I don't think I can keep up with Miss Pina's schedule.”
The young man's complexion turned ashen, and he spoke in a trembling voice.
It was a desperate struggle for survival.
And toward that young man, Pina smiled brightly.
“Oh, it's all right! The Demonic Sword says it knows the solution!”
“The solution…?”
“Could I borrow the jewel hanging around your neck for a moment?”
The young man's body flinched.
What Pina had indicated was none other than the accessory in which Divana was hiding.
‘W-what should I do?’
Divana answered reluctantly,
《Just hand it over.》
‘Wouldn't that be dangerous?’
《This is only a vessel, after all. Even if it were destroyed, it wouldn't cause me any particular trouble.》
Divana prepared herself to leap out of the accessory and subdue Pina immediately if necessary.
Understanding Divana's feelings, the young man carefully handed the accessory to Pina.
Pina wrapped it around the sword's hilt, then left it beneath the tree, in darkness untouched by any artificial light.
The young man asked,
“May I ask what you're doing right now?”
Pina answered,
“I don't really know either!”
“……?”
***
When she had first been left beneath the shade of the tree, Divana had not understood Pina's intentions at all.
She muttered from within the ward inside the accessory,
“I swear, that girl really is a lunatic.”
“Apparently, insults hurled by an enemy are supposed to be understood as praise, so that was quite the compliment.”
“?!”
At the voice from behind her, Divana recoiled in shock and turned around.
A man stood there.
The man looked as though he had been formed by gathering shadows together, and neither his features nor his clothes could be properly made out.
His suspicious appearance was concerning enough, but more than anything, the fact that an ‘outsider’ had invaded her private space drove Divana's wariness to its limit.
“Who are you? How did you get in here?”
“Do not ask such a trivial question. The answer is obvious, and it is not important right now.”
When the man raised his right arm, a sword appeared in his grasp.
Realizing that the sword was identical in shape to Pina's, Divana finally understood the man's identity.
“Then you're the Demonic Sword? So that wasn't just a madwoman's nonsense?”
“Fortunately, you are not completely oblivious. Now then─”
The man, Forte, declared,
“Choose. Death or cooperation.”