The Holy Land of the Sword.
The meeting hall.
Three Sword Saints knelt on one knee before him.
Nina Farion.
Jino Blitz.
Before them stood the figure of the Sword God, Gal Farion.
The Sword God stood in a relaxed posture, one hand resting on the sword at his hip, gazing down at the three of them.
He spoke slowly.
"Your swordsmanship has already surpassed the realm of Sword Saint."
At those words, Jino's shoulders trembled ever so slightly.
"I think it's time we chose the second Sword King to follow Guile."
Jino's eyes flew wide open.
His fists clenched tight, trembling violently.
Joy was seizing his body whole.
He desperately suppressed the urge to leap up in elation.
But the Sword God was not finished.
"One question first."
"..."
"Do you understand the difference between a Sword Saint, a Sword King, and a Sword Emperor?"
"...Strength?"
It was Nina who answered, almost in a whisper.
Every pair of eyes in the room was saying the same thing — what else could it be but strength?
But at the same time, they all understood.
The Sword God wanted to hear what lay beyond that.
The source from which strength itself was born.
The Sword God did not answer Nina. Instead, he turned the question back on her.
"Nina. Before you learned the Light Fang, what did your master tell you?"
Nina's master was not the Sword God, Gal Farion.
The one who had taught her swordsmanship directly was Jino's father, the Sword Emperor Timothy Blitz.
Nina recalled her master's words and wrung them out.
"He told me, 'You are right-handed, so train your left hand. Until you can control a sword perfectly with your left hand alone, you cannot unleash the Light Fang.'"
"That's right. The key to the Light Fang lies not in your dominant arm, but in the opposite one. Do you understand why?"
"If strength enters the dominant arm, the tip of the blade drifts sideways."
"Correct. You pour every ounce of battle aura into that point and cut straight through. Simple, but that is the essence of the Light Fang."
Swordsmanship, after all, is the art of cutting a moving opponent.
If you charged straight ahead like a fool, you'd be dodged in an instant.
That was why swordsmen cut from below, from the side, from diagonals — employing every manner of angle and trick to land a blow.
But the First Sword God was different.
He needed no such things.
He simply swung his sword at maximum speed and bisected everything in his path.
"The history of the Sword God Style is packed into this one principle."
The Sword God rapped the hilt of his sword with a claw.
"The First made it look effortless, and the successive Sword Gods chipped away at understanding it, little by little. What we have now — the Sword God Style — is what they finally arrived at.
Understanding the principle of the Light Fang, the mechanics behind it, the method of training it.
Once you arrive at it, it's dead simple.
Anyone with even a sliver of talent can learn to use it.
That was the beginning of the era when the Sword God Style was called the strongest.
We owe the First, and the Sword Gods who decoded his technique, for our standing."
The Sword God rapped the hilt once more.
"The Light Fang is the Sword God Style's supreme technique — what other schools would call a 'secret art.' Yet even after mastering its essence, you lot can't stop squabbling over who's better.
Sword Saint, Sword King, Sword Emperor, Sword God... Ridiculous, isn't it? Doing the same damn thing, yet there's always some who are strong and some who are weak."
The Sword God turned his gaze toward Jino.
"What do you think that difference is? Jino — answer me."
Summoned, Jino raised his head.
Anxiety was plastered across his face.
He didn't know the answer.
But the urgency of needing to answer quickly forced his lips apart.
"If — if I think about it rationally, beyond technique... footwork, physical strength, perhaps... t-the quality of one's weapon?"
"A weapon!? How many years have you been training!? Shouldn't you start over from the basics!?"
"I — I'm sorry!"
At the Sword God's roar, Jino went deathly pale and hung his head.
He wanted to answer "talent."
But he understood perfectly well that the Sword God was not looking for that answer.
It was not something that could be brushed off with such a simple word.
After all, they were discussing the very substance of talent.
Say the wrong thing, and he could really be thrown out of here.
"You're still a brat, so you don't get it, huh?
Well, that's fine. Even without understanding it, the strong are still strong.
Alright then, Nina — give me your answer."
"............"
Asked, Nina fell into deep thought.
What was being asked of her was, in all likelihood, the difference between Sword Saint and Sword Emperor, and Sword King.
What she and the others lacked compared to those above.
Come to think of it, the Sword God and the Sword Emperor both already had partners.
What she wanted. A boyfriend? A husband?
She glanced toward Jino.
He was hanging his head.
His expression was one of pure, bitter frustration.
Lately, Nina had found herself unable to stop thinking about him — her junior.
And then she recalled a word the Sword God often used.
"...Desire?"
"Ha! You've gotten a little sultry lately. As expected of my daughter."
The Sword God grinned as though peering into the deepest recesses of Nina's heart.
Nina did not flinch.
She had trained herself never to flinch.
"Desire — that's not wrong either. But then, how far can your desire endure?"
"Endure...?"
"For example. If you had to choose between marrying Jino and becoming a Sword King — which would you pick?"
At the word "marriage," Jino and Nina's eyes met.
A faint blush colored Nina's cheeks.
"...I would choose Sword King."
Between marrying Jino and becoming Sword King, she would choose Sword King.
In other words, her desire extended only so far.
Nina realized she had misspoken.
"You're still sweet as ever. Alright then, Eris — what about you?"
"Resolve."
Eris answered without hesitation.
Without a moment's thought, instantly.
"Resolve. That's not it."
The Sword God laughed and denied it.
But Eris glared at him and answered once more.
"It is. Resolve."
In that moment, vivid images flooded Eris's mind.
Her own helplessness. Rudeus, collapsing.
Since that time, she had grown stronger.
Power, speed — compared to a few years ago, the difference was night and day.
But she could never defeat Orsted.
Through these years of training, Eris had come to see her own limits.
No matter how much she trained from here on, she would never reach Orsted's domain.
But if she was with Rudeus.
Together with him, she could reach it.
A mage.
And.
A swordsman.
Fighting as one.
If she could trade her life to stop Orsted, even for a moment, Rudeus would finish it.
If Rudeus won, that was victory.
Of course, she would die — but Rudeus would survive.
If that happened, a future alongside Rudeus would surely cease to exist.
But that was fine.
If she considered the future, she would hesitate.
If she hesitated, her sword would dull.
If her sword dulled, both she and Rudeus would die.
Then she would be the one to die.
Eris had made her resolve.
"So then, you wouldn't mind if you couldn't become a Sword King?"
"I don't care either way."
"Don't you want to become stronger?"
"I do. But a title? What does it matter?"
The Sword God murmured, looking pleased.
"Very well — Eris and Nina. Between the two of you, whoever wins will be named Sword King!"
At those words, the youngest of the three, Jino, quietly lowered his shoulders.
--- Eris and Nina.
The two stood facing each other.
"..."
In each of their hands was gripped a wooden sword.
But with the skill of two Sword Saints, even a wooden sword could easily prove lethal.
"This reminds me of when I first came here," Eris said.
"Yes, it does."
What floated through both their minds was a scene from several years ago — when Eris had been brought here by Guile.
This woman, wild as a magical beast, had planted humiliation deep in Nina's soul.
In front of the other Sword Saints and Jino, she had been reduced to wetting herself in utter shame.
Even now, remembering it made her want to clutch her face and roll on the ground.
But she bore no hatred toward Eris.
Because of her, Nina had grown stronger.
She had cast aside her pride and thrown herself into training with single-minded devotion.
Looking back on it that way, she could say with genuine confidence that even that humiliation had become fuel.
"Today, I'm the one who will win."
The instant Nina declared it, killing intent erupted from Eris.
But Nina did not so much as flinch.
With the serene, enlightened expression of an ascetic monk, she gazed back at Eris.
"............Hmph."
In the next moment, Eris's killing intent vanished as swiftly as it had appeared.
And an expression utterly at odds with Nina's settled onto Eris's face.
A smile.
A grinning, unsettling smile had plastered itself across Eris's features.
The smile of a predator.
Nina had learned to feel instinctive fear toward that smile.
During her training with the Water God Isolte, she had crossed swords with Eris many times.
And she had lost.
Of course, there had been times she won.
But it was only the defeats that burned bright in her memory.
"..."
Eris did not move.
She stood perfectly still, that beastly smile still on her face.
For someone who always seized the initiative, this was unusual.
The word "counter" flashed through Nina's mind.
The same counter she had received over and over in her bouts against Isolte.
Eris could not use the Water God Style's techniques.
But the North God Style had its own counter techniques.
Eris was most likely aiming for exactly that.
"............"
Silence fell over the hall.
Eris in middle stance. Nina in high stance.
Frozen at a distance of a single step.
Expressionless Nina. Smiling Eris.
Like eerie statues, the two simply glared at each other.
Stillness — that was rare in a clash between practitioners of the Sword God Style, a school that made striking first its creed.
The two stood frozen.
And the one who sighed at the sight was none other than the Sword God.
"How long are you two going to stare at each other?"
That was the spark.
It was Nina who moved.
She lunged forward with blinding speed.
The countless hundreds of thousands of repetitions of the Sword God Style's movements.
Her feet landed in a position of extreme efficiency, channeling explosive energy into her upper body.
That energy fused with the battle aura emanating from Nina's body.
It traveled down her arms and onto her blade.
Light Fang.
The sword, boasting overwhelming speed, descended in a powerful arc from overhead.
It was a perfect technique.
A perfect Light Fang that anyone who witnessed it would admire.
But — "Guuah!"
A tremendous impact struck Nina's abdomen, sending her hurtling backward.
She slammed into the dojo wall and slid down to a seated position on the floor.
Her training gi had torn, revealing her well-trained abdomen.
A red welt was slowly beginning to snake across that exposed stomach.
By the time she felt the searing pain, the Sword God had spoken.
"That's enough!"
Nina stared at Eris with a blank, hollow expression.
Eris's forehead was drenched in sweat.
The shoulder of her gi was slightly torn — but that was all.
That smile was no longer on her face.
But her stance — that of the victor.
"...Kuh."
Nina understood what had happened.
The moment Nina moved, Eris had lunged in almost the same instant.
And against Nina's overhead strike, Eris had dropped her body low and unleashed a horizontal Light Fang.
But she couldn't understand.
If that was the case, Nina's blade should have reached first.
She was the one who moved first, her sword speed was marginally faster than Eris's, and she was executing an overhead downward swing — the angle at which the Light Fang achieved its greatest velocity.
Even if Eris had lowered her head slightly, Nina's blade should have arrived before hers.
And yet, the result wasn't even a mutual strike.
Why was she the one on the ground, while Eris still stood?
"You don't need more force than necessary to bring someone down."
Eris said it quietly.
Nina did not understand the meaning of those words.
What Eris had used was a technique from the North God Style.
The Light Fang — a technique that was supposed to overkill any opponent regardless.
Eris had redirected its power into speed instead.
She had limited the slash's destructive force to what was needed to end the fight, and invested everything else into velocity.
It was a distribution of battle aura she had learned during her training with the North Emperor.
Of course, the speed gained from that adjustment was marginal.
A massive reduction in power, with a proportional speed increase that barely matched it.
But even that slight increase in speed was enough to overturn a difference of a single hair's breadth — and decide the outcome.
"Magnificent, Eris. I grant you the title of Sword King."
Nina slowly rose to her feet.
A dull ache throbbed in her abdomen, and she grimaced.
(Completely beaten.)
Because it was a wooden sword, she had merely been sent flying. Had it been a real blade, her insides would have spilled across the floor.
A Light Fang was supposed to bisect the torso — a hit to the abdomen was more than lethal.
Eris, by contrast, had taken only a cut across the shoulder at most.
A total defeat.
Nina sighed, sat down right where she was, and straightened her spine.
She had lost in every respect.
She moved first — and lost.
Lost.
Defeated.
Something heavy and bitter rose up from within her chest.
"Does it sting, Nina?"
"Yes."
Big, ragged tears were rolling down Nina's cheeks.
"You still have room to grow. Keep training."
"Yes... Father."
That day, Nina called him "Father" for the first time in a long while.
"..."
The Sword God quietly waited for Nina's tears to stop.
Eris, too, kept her mouth in a tight line and her arms folded, waiting in silence.
--- Once Nina had finished crying, the Sword God addressed Eris.
"Eris. I have granted you the title of Sword King, but there is nothing left for me to teach you. I will also grant you full transmission of the school."
Full transmission.
At those words, Nina and Jino exchanged glances.
It was a designation that neither of the two Sword Emperors, nor even Sword King Guile, had ever received.
Full transmission — that was what it meant.
"As a bonus, I could also grant you the title of Sword Emperor... but in that case, you would have to fight Guile. Or if you'd like to skip straight to calling yourself Sword God, you can kill me."
What'll it be?
The Sword God rested his hand on his blade.
Eris shook her head.
"Sword God? I couldn't care less."
"Thought so... So what do you plan to do from here?"
"I'm going home to my family for now."
Looking into Eris's straightforward eyes, the Sword God felt a kind of dazzlement.
She possessed something that he felt he had, at some point, lost entirely.
If she never lost sight of that earnest drive to grow stronger, and the purpose behind it...
Then perhaps Eris — perhaps she could defeat the invincible Orsted. He even had that kind of premonition.
"Come, Eris. As proof of your title as Sword King, I shall bestow upon you one of the Seven Holy Swords."
"...Thank you."
Eris Greyrat's long journey of training came to its end that day.
--- Eris and the Sword God departed, and the Sword King investiture ceremony concluded.
Two remained behind.
Nina and Jino.
"..."
"..."
The two sat in silence for a long while.
What filled their hearts was frustration and envy.
But neither one let it show on their face or pass their lips.
"..."
Without a word, both rose to their feet.
They walked side by side to the edge of the meeting hall, where wooden swords were lined up, and each took one.
Before long, the clacking sound of wooden blades striking each other echoed through the hall.
It was a sound that, in the Holy Land of the Sword, could be heard anywhere.
(To be continued.)