Chapter 113
#Chapter 113: Demonic Sword Forte (15) - The Drop
In a hero's chronicle, there is always something symbolic that represents the hero.
A peerless sword that never breaks.
A magical ring that protects its user.
A special blessing that transforms water into a healing potion.
A mighty constitution capable of overpowering dozens of adult men through sheer strength, and so on.
In the same vein, what symbolized the hero Fernando Valestia was none other than his technique.
The hero's signature technique, which annihilated enemies with a special aura that bloomed like petals fluttering in the wind.
Back when she was even younger and knew even less about the world than she did now.
Pina loved the hero's ‘Flower Flurry’ dearly.
The story of the hero helping people while thousands upon thousands of petals fluttered beautifully through the air was more than enough to stir a young girl's innocent imagination.
The adults of her family doted on the girl, who would puff out her chest and smile, saying that she would become like that someday, as though they found her adorable.
But, as always, the world was not quite so romantic.
No matter how hard Pina swung her sword and repeated her efforts, she could not produce the legendary Flower Flurry.
She simply thought she lacked the ability, and so she trained even harder.
She held back from playing, held back from resting, and held back from eating or dressing up.
In doing so, she built up her skills faster than everyone else.
And all that effort came to an end one day because of a single remark from her father.
-My daughter. The technique known as Flower Flurry is nothing more than an illusion. So don't fret over being unable to reproduce it.
Things might have been different if Pina's family had been the sort of people who could think, ‘It's a good thing that she's making an effort of her own accord, regardless of whether it wears her life away.’
But her family were decent people.
And so they told Pina the truth.
Among the secret sword techniques passed down through the Valestia family, there was indeed a technique believed to be the original version of the ‘legendary Flower Flurry.’
However, that technique consumed an absurd amount of mana despite having pitiful power, making it almost entirely impractical in actual combat.
There were many techniques among the hero's arsenal that were far more practical and excellent, and the Flower Flurry widely known to the public was nothing more than an illusion born from bards' exaggerations and distortions.
Pina merely listened blankly to her father's explanation.
Seeing the concern in her father's eyes—he was worried his daughter might have been too shocked—the young girl stopped denying it or throwing a tantrum, insisting that couldn't be true.
Pina obediently nodded and continued her ordinary daily life afterward.
That's right.
It was an ‘ordinary’ daily life in the truest sense.
Pina no longer worked herself to the bone trying to recreate the legend.
She no longer gripped her sword until the skin peeled from her palms, as she had before, nor did she cut into her sleeping hours to save time.
She worked only enough that others would not click their tongues at her, lazed around when no one was watching, and instead of noble devotion, she held only enough goodwill not to become a burden.
Flower Flurry was an illusion.
The technique she had regarded as the hero's symbol was nothing more than a fake created by people's imaginations and storytelling.
If that was so, what guarantee was there that the legends of the other heroes were any different?
It was hardly something worth grandly calling despair or betrayal.
A child who knew nothing of the world had simply learned reality and matured a little.
Or so it should have been.
《Flower Flurry? Ho. Now that's a fine technique. What a splendid image.》
One day, the Demonic Sword, practicing in sync with Pina, uttered those words.
Pina brushed off the compliment with an ambiguous smile and a “Is that so?”
She did not explain to Forte the history behind Flower Flurry.
In the first place, the technique had merely come to Forte's attention when they were practicing their forms together; Pina had simply mentioned that she had another technique and added no commentary of her own.
Yet it seemed that Forte took that smile as disbelief.
《You don't seem to believe what I'm saying.》
“Ah, no. Of course I do.”
《You don't seem to believe what I'm saying.》
“I said I believe you.”
《You don't seem to believe what I'm saying.》
“…….”
The Demonic Sword was persistent.
Especially after Pina's pointed remarks had prevented him from using phrases like, ‘Heh-heh, do you need strength?’ he had become even more so.
Therefore, Pina also contradicted him ever so slightly.
“W-Well, you see. Aura consumes a tremendous amount of mana to begin with, right? And even more so when it separates from the body or has a complicated shape.”
Aura.
What swordsmen commonly called sword aura, simply put, was ‘the realm of materializing mana.’
Beyond strengthening the body with mana, beyond strengthening a sword with mana, it was the power to exert physical force through nothing but mana itself.
And this materialized mana had no limit to its output.
Whereas physical enhancement was bound by the body's own limits, and sword aura by the sword's limits, aura, being a mass of power in itself, grew endlessly stronger the more mana was poured into it and the more it was compressed.
This was why a fifth-tier swordsman wielding aura could easily cut through the weapons and armor of swordsmen who had not reached the realm of aura.
Therefore, in theory, a swordsman who had mastered aura did not need to carry either a weapon or armor.
After all, if they shaped mana into a sword and swung it, that would be a peerless sword, and if they wore it around their body like clothing, it would be the ultimate armor.
Yet in reality, even swordsmen who wielded aura always sought out peerless swords and wore fine armor.
And when manifesting aura, they did not create an entirely new sword in midair, but used it by coating an existing sword, as it were, or mixing sword aura and aura together.
Because that was more efficient.
“I heard that even creating a sword you can hold and swing is enough to leave most knights completely drained of mana. To say nothing of turning it into countless petals and sweeping across a battlefield—that would be impossible, and even if our ancestor had enough mana to do it, using another technique with that same mana would be far more efficient.”
The words spoken by the adults who had once persuaded Pina herself.
Following their reasoning, Pina explained it to Forte.
Thus, Flower Flurry was either fake, exaggerated, or merely a waste that only the chosen could use.
Forte answered.
《Then I shall show you. I will let you experience for yourself whether the hero's legend is an illusion or not.》
And now, after time had passed, at this very moment.
Pina was unconsciously spellbound by the scene unfolding before her.
Petals fluttered.
Petals fluttered.
Petals the color of her hair fluttered.
Every time those fluttering petals touched a wall or the floor, the entire area around the point of contact was sliced away.
Perhaps feeling threatened by the beautiful yet deadly spectacle, the demon's shadow twisted its form as though trying to keep the petals from touching it.
And just as if it had predicted that, a will was transmitted from the Demonic Sword clutched in Pina's hand.
Following the path indicated by the Demonic Sword, Pina moved her body.
She shifted her toes, straightened her waist, twisted her shoulder, swung her arm, and drew the motion forth with her wrist.
With each tiny gust, the black aura trembled.
Just as petals fluttered in a small breeze, the aura's Flower Flurry traced new trajectories and flew toward the fleeing shadow.
──────! ! ! !
Every time it was touched by a single petal, the shadow let out a silent scream.
The shadow tried somehow to discern the petals' trajectories and evade them, but the more it did so, the more wildly the petals scattered, filling the room.
A demon powerful enough to trample and toy with most of the humans living on this continent was being overwhelmed one-sidedly, unable even to mount a proper resistance.
《Contractor. As you said, aura is not an efficient technique. An aura of fluttering petals—if one sought to realize it as a ‘technique,’ it would undoubtedly become something filled with waste and inefficiency.》
《But in this world, there are things that surpass efficiency precisely because they are inefficient. The human heart is one such thing.》
《The seventh tier is a transcendent realm in which one overwrites the world with one's own will. And the sixth tier is the process of groping one's way toward expressing one's mental image in the world before reaching that transcendence.》
《‘Flower Flurry’ must have been the will and life of your ancestor, something he held in his heart. If one fails to understand that and pursues efficiency alone, one can never reach the true meaning of the technique.》
《Of course, the same applies to me. This is less a genuine mental image than an imitation using the will the hero left behind in his swordsmanship as a shell. The original was probably more profound.》
《Still, is it not a magnificent sight, even if it is only an imitation?》
Pina nodded unconsciously.
Separate from the body moving according to the technique engraved into it through repetition, her heart trembled with such profound emotion that she nearly forgot she was in the middle of a battle.
‘…So it really was possible.’
It was a sight Pina herself had produced, not anyone else.
There should no longer have been any room for doubt, yet Pina still could not feel the reality of the situation.
No—if she was being honest, she had felt that way ever since meeting Forte.
The demons scheming to exploit the blood flowing through her body, and a powerful Demonic Sword like Forte lending her its strength—every part of it felt unreal.
That was why she had continued to throw herself into the situation with a playful, comical, not-too-serious attitude.
She had not particularly asked about Forte's identity, which she should naturally have found suspicious, nor had she pressed him about his goal, simply letting it pass with an ‘I suppose that's how it is.’
Because that was the comfortable, easy path.
Because that was how she had continued to live ever since giving up on her dream.
But now.
No, from now on.
Sssrrrk.
As if cutting off Pina's continuing thoughts, the black Flower Flurry vanished without a trace.
What remained was a room densely covered in sword marks, as though tens of thousands of soldiers had brought their swords down upon it, and the Sage's stone statue, the only thing left without so much as a scratch.
What did not remain was the demon once called ‘Shador.’
Compared to its might and abilities, it was an absurdly futile end.
Of course, that did not mean it came without a price.
“Umm.”
Pina's body staggered.
No matter how much assistance Forte had provided, Pina herself had ultimately been the one to unleash Flower Flurry.
Her body, which had been in perfect condition until just before she reached the 100th floor, was exhausted, and her mana had likewise been depleted to a dangerously low level.
It was the aftereffect of driving Shador relentlessly into a corner and finishing it off, without giving the demon skilled at fleeing and hiding even the slightest chance.
At this rate, descending all the way back to the first floor would be grueling, but she had ample preparations for that as well.
After all, that was why she had bound the demon Divana by contract and made her an ally instead of defeating her.
“D-Demonic Sword, my arms and legs are trembling. It’s okay if I rest for a little while, right?”
《Yes. Kylen and Divana should be waiting on a lower floor, so they will come if you call out loudly. You can eat some travel rations, regain some strength, and then head down.》
“What should we do about the seal?”
《We will have to deal with it eventually. We can either officially entrust it to the faculty, destroy it, or seal it somewhere new the demons do not know about.》
As always, Forte promptly answered Pina's questions.
Feeling a vague sense of comfort and warmth in that reassurance, Pina thought,
‘I think I’ve been too indifferent and insincere all this time.’
Let's learn a little more about Forte.
And instead of being dragged along unconditionally by whatever Forte told her to do, let's take the initiative and learn to coordinate with him.
It might be difficult, and there might be a lot to do, but that would be fun too.
Just as Pina was thinking this and about to thank Forte.
【A great achievement has been confirmed.】
【The submission of the demon ‘Divana’ has been confirmed.】
【The subjugation of the demon ‘Shador’ has been confirmed.】
Pina had been listening blankly to the sound when she suddenly realized something and felt a chill.
Why?
How?
Why does the system know of the demons' existence?
Shador, who had revealed its true form, was one thing, but Divana had never once manifested a body in reality?
【‘Pina Valestia’ has been confirmed to have passed the hidden quest.】
【‘Pina Valestia’ is hereby officially recognized as the ‘next hero.’】
【The official quest, ‘The Hero’s Path. First,’ is being assigned to the hero candidate.】
【Quest: The Hero’s Path. First】
【Clear condition: Complete at least 50% of the ‘Temporary Storage’ subjugation operation】【Current progress: 0%】
【Time limit: Unlimited】
【Reward: Unlock the next quest】
【Special Note 1: Across the academy, temporary storage facilities prepared for the true hero are active. Subjugate them and recover the ‘resources’ they have accumulated.】
【Special Note 2: To facilitate the smooth recovery of resources, all temporary storage facilities will enter a dormant state until the quest ends.】
【Special Note 3: Please rest assured, hero. Our adventure will
succeed
this time.】