71. United Wings

“Hmph, within tragedy lies an intricate knot, and within it, each their own circumstance.”

The Sword Demon slowly lowered the hand that had shielded his face.

Tears had long since dried, and his moistened eyes were now sharpened to a keener edge.

“I shall make this day’s tragedy nourishment for what is to come.”

His chilling gaze swept over Isaac and the Grand Master.

To acknowledge that the trap for Arundel had failed, and to promise the next time…

…was also to say that he would kill everyone before him and depart.

“You blatantly disregard us, do you?”

The Grand Master scoffed, adjusting his greatsword upon his shoulder.

Yet, the Sword Demon remained impassive, only continuing what he wished to say.

As if the Grand Master’s voice were utterly inaudible.

“Do you truly intend to challenge me with *that*?”

The greatswords clutched in both their hands.

“Do you know before whom you wield it?”

The meaning of fighting a being of origin.

The Sword Demon reminded them once more.

The primordial transcendent.

The progenitor of the greatsword, hailed as the sword of the transcendent.

The two challenging the origin swallowed nervously, yet did not reply.

Whether that silence was a sufficient answer, the Sword Demon nodded as he raised his greatsword once more.

“Learning is, invariably, the act that most fulfills emptiness-”

The Sword Demon vanished like an afterimage.

Isaac’s eyes widened as his voice echoed from the left.

“Until the moment your eyes close, be grateful for the lesson.”

*Kaaang!*

The Grand Master’s greatsword grazed Isaac’s eye.

The Sword Demon had attempted to cleave Isaac’s neck in an instant, but the Grand Master beside him had reacted first, thrusting his blade to intercept the greatsword.

Startled, Isaac did not retreat, but instead launched himself toward the Sword Demon.

Now, with his blade blocked, was his chance.

Isaac’s greatsword arced in a smooth arc, yet the Sword Demon’s hand snatched it with shocking ease.

The sword met resistance, a blockage so slight it felt almost mocking.

That he’d stopped a blow of such force with a mere hand.

It hammered home the gulf in their levels, proof he shouldn’t even be on this battlefield.

But Isaac, still trapped in that grip, clenched his fist with brutal force.

The method he’d learned through Arundel’s teachings, the way he’d brought down Loengreen.

Abandoning his sword, he aimed a punch directly at the Sword Demon’s vital point.

*Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!*

His fist connected with the temple, skimmed past the philtrum, and landed hard on the solar plexus.

It was a blow that would stagger even Hellmund, promising a certain degree of impact, yet…

“….!”

The blood flowing was Isaac’s own.

The blood dripping from his fist, the pain, felt like slamming his hand against a sheet of iron bristling with thorns.

“Foolish.”

Looking down at Isaac, who had lunged deep into his personal space for the attack, the Sword Demon reached out to harvest his life, like a ripe fruit.

*Whoosh!*

A spear came hurtling, aimed at the Sword Demon’s shoulder blade.

Under normal circumstances, he would have disregarded it, claiming Isaac’s life regardless.

But this was the very spot where the Grandmaster had inflicted a wound.

The Sword Demon frantically twisted aside, giving Isaac precious seconds to recover.

No retreat.

Isaac’s role was merely to create an opening, to allow the Grandmaster to continue the fight.

He gripped the trapped sword once more with his hand. He couldn’t overcome the monster’s grip even if he tried to pull it away, so, Isaac channeled all his strength into that hold.

*Pszszszszzt!*

Brikalla’s lightning crackled and writhed, a ferocious cry.

The Sword Demon, startled for a split second by the stinging electric pain in his palm…

“It’s a damn eyesore, you clinging to the ‘source’ for this long.”

The Grandmaster’s sword, at the ready, flashed and descended.

*Tado.* The angle and swing, calculated precisely to reach the Sword Demon’s neck.

But the Sword Demon’s reaction exceeded all expectations, preventing the lethal cut.

The Sword Demon retreated again, with a desperate haste.

His lip curled, gnawing at the flesh, as if feeling the shame of being forced to yield.

*Thud.*

The moment he saw a fragment of his horn fall to the ground, the Sword Demon’s eyes flooded with crimson, malevolent energy.

“Alright, I suppose I must concede you can at least imitate it.”

The roiling crimson aura surged in tandem with the ink-black power gathering within the great katana.

If granted even a moment more, the strike that had cleaved the knights of Hellmunt in two would descend again.

That would essentially be the end.

There was no one here capable of withstanding it.

“Keep your wits about you. We must now enter *his* domain.”

For the sake of victory, the Sword Demon had resolved to fight defensively.

The constant, unpredictable assault utilizing their numerical advantage seemed to have made him unsure of the outcome.

“I will carve the path. Follow me.”

“Understood.”

The Grand Master surged forward first. The Sword Demon, however, kept his gaze fixed more on the Grand Master than on Isaac, inclining the great katana.

“Filthy, vile hybrid, I will concede the strength of your blade.”

“Forgive me, but your acknowledgement is hardly something I desire.”

*Kaaang!*

The two men’s stances collided.

However, the collision was fleeting.

The exchange of blows, several in a single breath, resembled a dance of blades.

Unlike the contest of strength against Arandel.

If one were to describe it, it was as if their swords were so searingly hot they were constantly being released and then gripped again.

Isaac, amidst the raging storm of blows, turned back.

It was for the sake of victory.

Isaac held no great reservation in such an act.

“Pathetic.”

A burst of black light erupted from the Sword Demon’s great katana.

“Guh?!”

The Grand Master, blasted back by the force, lost his footing.

The Sword Demon, who had feigned indifference, twisted his body and lunged directly toward Isaac.

“The pathetic charade ends here, you second-rate imitation.”

“……!”

“This is no battlefield for the unqualified.”

The Sword Demon’s presence overwhelmed Isaac’s vision. A massive nodachi arced down, ready to cleave him in two, but.

Kaaang!

Isaac’s body launched upwards, tumbling across the ground. Yet, there was no sword wound. He’d been outmatched in strength, but he had undeniably blocked the Sword Demon’s blade.

“……!”

The Sword Demon realized it the instant his attack was stopped.

The trajectory had been read even before the swing began.

For the first time, the Sword Demon’s eyes widened, pupils trembling.

“W-What is this…”

It was different from the Grandmaster.

She reacted to the sword, matching its pace to defend.

Isaac’s body couldn’t even react in time, meaning he had anticipated the trajectory and blocked it the instant the Sword Demon moved.

Prrruduk!

It was humiliating.

To be sprawled out, broken, on the ground.

By a mere human.

That his sword, honed over a lifetime, had been read and understood in a handful of exchanges.

That his nodachi, forged within eons of unfathomable depth, was being analyzed by some insignificant swordsman…!

“Is your sword just old?”

Isaac slowly gathered himself, a mocking sneer twisting his lips.

“It wasn’t difficult to read.”

“You insolent fool!”

Kuuung!

The Sword Demon took a great step forward.

From the very beginning, he hadn’t liked it.

Unlike the nodachi, it was a short sword.

It was fair to say it had been modified for humans to wield.

It made them feel like their pride, their sword, had been stolen by humans.

“You always! Always! Snatched away what was ours!”

*Kuuung!*

A long leap.

The dark-tinged energy surging on the greatsword signaled that preparations were complete.

But the murderous aura of the Sword Demon, blazing like fire, remained fixed entirely on Isaac.

“Izaaac!”

Silberna’s spear flew desperately. However, with a mere backward motion to swing his sword, the Sword Demon deflected Silberna’s spear.

Instantly, he arrived before Isaac.

The sword, once more, attempted to unleash a savage cleave.

As if a death reel flickered past.

The Sword Demon’s attack seemed to move in slow motion.

Because it contained so much it was practically a cursed blade, it was somewhat slower than the previous strikes, but

regardless, it was precisely the right moment to sever Isaac’s neck, but

The Sword Demon turned around.

Simultaneously, he parried the Grand Master’s sword, which had been swinging to strike his back with its long handle.

“…!”

*Kaaang!*

The Grand Master’s sword soared high into the sky.

From within that chaos, the Sword Demon’s calm voice resonated, heavy and deep.

“The fury is mine.”

The Sword Demon’s rage, which had been on full display until just now, had already subsided. Could it be that he had even vented any resentment at all?

He was composed and collected enough to bring that doubt to your mind.

“The karma and lives held in our hands are for our brethren.”

He had feigned anger on purpose, luring the Grand Master out.

Isaac’s eyes conceded the demon was formidable, even to the point of staining his own pride in swordsmanship with humiliation.

The Sword Demon was clearly aiming for victory, acting to behead the woman who posed the greatest threat.

Dark inkiness congealed thickly on the greatsword.

As if some massive siege engine were set in motion, the Sword Demon’s greatsword advanced, heavy and deliberate.

There was no escape, no means to block it.

The immense cleave, condensed to bisect the Grand Master’s body, was about to carve its line through the air.

“Do you know?”

The Grandmaster, a slight curve playing on his lips.

“Originally, that fiend wields twin blades.”

The wind stirred.

A small gust forced its way into the space, which was becoming stained with ink-black.

The opposite of moments ago.

Isaac caught his flung-away stance in mid-air, a demonic aura, akin to the Sword Demon, settling into his eyes.

Two blades tucked themselves into Isaac’s waist.

An elegant heron folding its wings, almost.

But the slashes extended from both hands were not a heron, but an eagle spreading its wings wide.

Flying Wings, indeed.

Precisely as the two blades reached the Sword Demon’s shoulder, his sticky flesh and bone crumbled, and one arm fell to the floor.

*Thump!*

“Krrraaagh!”

Losing balance as one arm vanished, the tip of the greatsword wavered, striking the ground.

The ink-black, nothing short of a grudge, lost its direction, tearing through the wounded Sword Demon.

The blood spewing from his mouth was black.

“Haa, haa!”

Isaac, too, let his arms drop, all strength draining from his body in an instant.

He pushed himself, knowing that without pushing, victory was impossible.

Though, unlike before.

Not fainting was proof of his growth.

“Unfurled, they were like a great eagle.”

He could still catch fragments of praise.

“The fruit, however, is a phoenix.”

A bright smile blossomed on the Grandmaster’s face.