Reincarnated as a Sword Vol. 4

by Yuu Tanaka

  When I saw the look in her eyes, I knew I mustn’t.

  And so I gave her a little help.

  I used the rest of my power to bestow Fiend Breaker on her. I didn’t know whether I could, since I’d already used it during the ritual, but it seemed to work. Both my stamina and mana were at their limits. I thought I lost a few years of my life pulling that off. But I was useless in the fight. This was the least I could do.

  As Fran sped away, she turned to look at me one last time, concerned about my earlier collapse. I didn’t mean to worry her… I hated myself for being so weak. I promised I would train if I survived this battle. I didn’t want to feel this way.

  “Good luck out there…”

  Fran warped and jumped higher and higher. She must be planning to strike from the skies.

  I watched her descend on the giant Vilefiend, wrapped in a pale blue glow.

  We were right above Linford.

  The giant hadn’t noticed us since Amanda and Forlund were keeping him busy.

  “Teacher, are you ready?”

  Yeah! I’ll handle backup! No more running away!

  “I’ll leave you to it.”

  I felt stronger just hearing the trust in her voice. Right now, we could do anything together. Fran’s sword hand was hotter than usual. I could feel her heartbeat, her breath, and the fine movements of her hand.

  “Let’s go.”

  Let’s do this.

  Fran readied me and Air Hopped off Jet’s back. She twisted her body and hung suspended in midair. The mana thread supporting her was connected to two cubes of pressurized air.

  We could tie an infinite number of mana threads in midair this way. Theoretically, we could run free through the air if we wanted to.

  Fran leaned back into the mana rope until her weight pulled it taut. Once it reached maximum elasticity, she used the charged-up energy to launch herself straight down.

  The technique reminded me of a wrestling move at first, but now that I think about it, it was more like a pinball machine.

  The momentum surged us through the air.

  Fran accelerated even further with Air Hops and Wind Magic. I used Air Current Manipulation to help reduce the drag. I also used Increase Weight, making myself weigh over fifty kilos. Fran cancelled out the side-effects with Reduce Weight and had no issue wielding me.

  Soon, we reached Linford’s giant body.

  He still hadn’t noticed us, thanks to our stealth.

  I Transmogrified myself to Fran’s specifications. Her suggestion surprised me when we discussed it. I took the form of a katana. I never told her about the weapon, but that’s definitely what she described.

  She must’ve mulled this over for a while.

  “Hn?”

  With twenty five meters to go, Linford finally turned towards us. We were in striking distance now. The giant glared at Fran with bloodshot eyes.

  “Beastgirl! How did you survive?!” Linford screamed, unleashing a stream of purple smoke.

  A cloud of Malice. It melted everything it touched, from armor to architecture. The move was difficult to evade.

  How was Fran going to dodge this one?

  “Seen that one before.”

  She anticipated Linford’s purple smoke. She had already seen him use it.

  “Vernier.”

  Vernier was a flame spell which allowed the user to accelerate for a short time. The sudden acceleration took a toll on the user’s body, which made it difficult to use. It was easiest for straight line accelerations.

  Fran protected herself with a thin layer of air and sped through the malicious gas. The trip barely grazed her. Charlotte’s barrier must’ve helped, and Fran smiled knowingly to herself.

  Linford’s eyes bulged when he saw Fran accelerate through his poison smoke.

  “Impudent beast! Hngh!”

  Frustrated, Linford crossed his arms to protect his head.

  Fool! He’d fallen for the trick of only paying attention to Fran’s eyes and murderous intent. She’d learned this trick from the master duelist Valuza during the Seedrun Conflict. Linford’s head was not our target.

  “Haaa!”

  Haaa!

  Fran was targeting Linford’s torso.

  I coordinated my skills with hers as we made contact, using Elemental Blade Fire, Vibrofang, and Venomfang.

  Fran used the same skills to double the effect, but I could only stay in this state for a second. Any longer and my blade would melt. But Fran had taken the tremendous strain into account.

  A moment was all she needed. She drew me out of the air sheath.

  The acceleration of the freefall, combined with the full force of her own quickdraw, created our ultimate attack. Our powers were concentrated into a single slash of blinding speed.

  This was nothing like the brute force of my Telekinetic Catapult. It was a technical move, combining hyper-acceleration with impeccable timing.

  “Gaaaaaargh!”

  The slash left a blue glow as it cut Linford’s body from his left shoulder to his abdomen. Our attack cut right through his heart, and it lay exposed, pulsing eerily.

  I felt the urge to shout for joy the moment our slash connected. Unable to resist, I let out a cheer which rivaled Jet’s howl.

  YEEEEESSSSSS!!!

  It was a different kind of satisfaction from absorbing crystal. It felt like I’d cut through the dark cloud of sorrow that hung over me. This was the first time I’d felt this kind of release, but I had no time to reflect on my emotions. Neither did I have time to see how Linford was doing. Fran was fast approaching the ground and I decelerated her with a well-timed Short Jump.

  “Thanks, Teacher.”

  That was close.

  If I’d been a second late, she would’ve crashed into the earth.

  Fran remained calm throughout her descent. Not out of conceit, but out of trust. She knew I wouldn’t let her down.

  I regained my composure. The intense flood of emotion had settled. I needed to focus on the battle. We weren’t out of the woods yet.

  We surveyed the giant wizard from a safe distance.

  “Damn you! Damn you all!”

  He had fallen to one knee and was screaming in pain. Blood gushed out of the great wound Fran had left, depleting half of his health.

  How was he not dead?! He was still breathing, though his heart had been cut in half. “Persistent” didn’t do him justice. The giant wizard had the survivability of a cockroach. We weren’t able to finish him, but no one could say that we didn’t even the score.

  We did it, Fran.

  “Yeah! We made a finishing move!”

  We could only use it in wide open spaces though. It was impossible to pull off in a dungeon, let alone indoors.

  The quickdraw out of the air pressure sheath was much more forgiving in terms of space. Accelerating her draw with wind magic was a good way to get the drop on our opponent, too.

  Normally, a quickdraw required you to carry your sword on your hip. But with the air sheath, Fran could use it from any angle.

  Venomfang was already doing its job. I could tell from here that Linford was poisoned. We couldn’t expect much out of it, since he had Fast Regeneration and Abnormal Status Resistance, but it was enough to keep his regeneration in check. He couldn’t heal the damage Amanda’s party were dealing him now.

  “Fran’s softened him up for us, boys! Rock his face off!”

  “Hmph.”

  “No problem! Good job, Fran!”

  “Affirmative!”

  “I’ll show you what a dwarf can do!”

  “Ha ha ha! All of you look like you’re worth killing, but I’ll start with the old man tonight!”

  On Amanda’s command, the all stars piled onto Linford. We would’ve joined the offensive, but our ultimate attack took a good chunk of my durability. Even with Instant Regeneration, it would take some time for my blade to recover. Fran, on the other hand, was fresh out of mana.

  Forlund charged his mana blades,
making them glow brighter than before, and launched toward the monster. Combined with Amanda’s vertical whiplash, the attack took off Linford’s right arm, along with the building behind it. Colbert launched the giant with an uppercut, allowing Phillip to take off his other arm with a shot of lightning from his spear. Then Gammod the Guildmaster crushed Linford’s right foot with his warhammer.

  “Graaaaargh! You vermin!”

  “You’re mine now! Give me your powers, old man!”

  “Traitor…!”

  Theraclede cut off Linford’s remaining leg and topped the giant fiendmancer. He was going to Cannibalize him. We had to stop him somehow!

  No, it’s not over yet.

  “Grrrr!”

  Jet learned well from his master. He plunged down at Linford from the skies and sank his fangs into his neck, ripping a good chunk out. He activated Shadow Walk before he hit the ground, making it look like the earth had swallowed him.

  Jet took the best part for himself!

  “Aaargh… How could I have lost…to these insignificants…!”

  Linford croaked his last words resentfully. His skin shriveled and cracked, and soon the giant mage withered away to dust.

  It was an awful way to go.

  “You goddamn mongrel! You keep getting in my way!” Theraclede said, annoyed.

  Jet had been the one to interrupt his ambush on Colbert and the others.

  Seeing that everything worked out, Fran sat down, exhausted.

  “Ruff…”

  Jet returned as we looked at Linford’s remains. But his demeanor was strange, and it appeared that he was bleeding from the mouth. What happened?

  Jet, are you okay?!

  “Was it Linford?”

  “Urf…”

  We looked into his mouth. His fangs were cracked. His canine snapped in the middle, gushing blood.

  It made sense, now that I thought about it. Our plunging attack depleted most of my Durability. Jet had done a similar move and was paying for it with his teeth.

  Don’t go too crazy now.

  “Woof.”

  “That was really cool, though.”

  “Arf!”

  I quickly administered some healing.

  Fran has leveled up

  Fran has leveled...

  The P.A. rang in my head. Linford was definitely dead. Our battle was finally over.

  We got a lot of EXP from beating such a strong opponent.

  Fran, Jet, Amanda, Forlund, Colbert, Phillip, Gammod, Theraclede, and Charlotte. Our EXP was split nine ways, and Fran still managed to hit level 40. She was only five levels away from her cap now. I wondered what would happen when we reached it. I was as excited as I was anxious.

  We got a number of skills and titles out of the fight. Fiend Killer was awarded to anyone who killed a Vilefiend. We also obtained Malice Resistance 1 from the beating we’d taken from Linford’s spells.

  I was sure Jet had leveled up too, and he had two new skills: Malice Sense and Malice Resistance. Odd, considering Jet didn’t take nearly as much punishment as Fran did. Did he get it with Predator? I mean, it allowed him to take the skills of the creatures he ate, and he took a huge bite out of Linford with his last attack, flesh and blood included. I suppose that was the source of his new skills.

  He was fine, but I thought it’d be better if he laid off the Fiend diet…

  With the battle over, I wanted to let Fran rest in a comfortable bed. The fight might be over, but the conflict was not.

  Teacher, we need to go after Zelyse, Fran said in a matter-of-fact way.

  Once she regained her composure, she pulled herself up—using me as a makeshift walking stick.

  You can rest for a while longer.

  No. We have to move quickly.

  Her mind was made up. My wielder’s motivation rubbed off on me.

  Jet, can you still track him down? I asked.

  “Urf…”

  His sense of smell was overwhelmed by the battle. Jet was exhausted and couldn’t track as well as usual. We could ask Theraclede. I figured he might know something.

  Uh, where’d Theraclede go?

  “He’s gone?”

  “What? The Mad Warrior is missing!” Amanda shouted in surprise, looking around.

  When did he make his exit? He was still with us when Linford died.

  “Over there!” Amanda pointed.

  Theraclede was standing a good fifty meters away.

  “That dumb dog got in my way again! I would’ve made the final blow if not for him! Well, I still got a piece of the old man, anyway! I’ll be taking my leave now!”

  “Get back here!”

  Colbert chased after him, but Theraclede was one step ahead.

  “Ha ha! See you later, suckers!”

  “What? He teleported?”

  Amanda gaped at Theraclede’s sudden disappearance. The spell must be a part of Fiendmancy, since Linford had used it, too. It must come with certain requirements though, since neither of them could use it in quick succession.

  “Damn it. I wanted to cash in his bounty, since he’s been on the run for so long! I’ll get him next time!”

  The Mad Warrior was long gone. Maybe we should chase him down with Amanda and the rest? No, Zelyse was more important.

  “The Malice remains,” Forlund muttered, reminding me about the Fiendstones in the temple.

  We should destroy them before they did anything funny.

  “It might be the Fiendstones.”

  “What is a Fiendstone?”

  Fran told the party about the dark crystals. They swallowed and went through the rubble in search of them. Soon, Charlotte joined us, too.

  The priestess was sensitive to Malice and was instrumental in finding the Fiendstones. They were buried deep in the earth, but it was nothing Gammod’s Earth Magic couldn’t solve.

  “So this is a Fiendstone…”

  “It’s putting out a lot less Malice than before.”

  Fran was right. They were emitting far less dark energy than before Linford’s transformation.

  “And these were in the temple?”

  “Linford put them there.”

  “I see…”

  “Figure anything out, Charlotte?”

  “Just a guess.”

  According to Charlotte, temples were connected to the divine realm. They were the dwelling places of gods, and oracles could use them to communicate with the divine. It was what gave temples the ability to change a person’s Class. The gods themselves maintained this pathway, so humans couldn’t abuse it.

  Charlotte suggested that the Fiendstones might twist this pathway, pointing it towards the Evil One himself.

  Colbert couldn’t believe it, but Amanda and Gammod agreed that it was a nonzero possibility. The powers of the Evil One were wrapped in mystery.

  The Evil One lost the war with the gods at the dawn of the world, and parts of him were sealed in temples all across the lands. His core was said to be guarded by the gods themselves. It sounded like myth, but after what we’d seen tonight, I was willing to believe it.

  In any case, we all agreed that the Fiendstones should be destroyed. Once Amanda and her party had ground them to dust, Forlund set fire to the remains with a spell. The only loose end now was Zelyse.

  “Amanda, I need your help.”

  “Sure!”

  “You’re not going to wait for me to tell you?”

  “Don’t have to. How can I refuse a request coming from you? What do you want?”

  Fran thanked Amanda for her frankness and told everyone about Zelyse. The remaining conspirator was still on the loose, and he was definitely plotting something.

  “The alchemist Zelyse… I didn’t know he was still in this city. I’ll avenge my brothers yet.”

  “I haven’t heard that name in a while. I thought someone already finished the job!”

  “The Mad Warrior might be with him.”

  “Looks like I’ll have to beat him up for the children!”

/>   “Indeed.”

  With everyone pumped up, we would find him in no time.

  But then I saw it was unnecessary.

  “For all his talk, Linford sure went down in a hurry.”

  Zelyse had shown himself.

  He stood on top of a pile of rubble, a condescending grin on his lips.

  He was here in the flesh now, although I still couldn’t Identify him.

  “I have some good news for you all. Our plan has failed! My main conspirator’s dead. I didn’t get the souls I wanted, and I can’t really break the seal of the Evil One on my own. I can’t use Fiendmancy, you see,” he bragged with a faint smile.

  I didn’t know why he would want to boast about his failure.

  “But you’re always getting in my way, Fran. You killed Linford and his men, stole my Cure Turmeric, a vital ingredient for Fiend Water, and sold the bread you made with it at a cooking contest. You stole my Soul Essence, too. Not to mention you got in the way of Charlotte’s kidnapping during the ritual of purification.”

  He had wanted to kidnap Charlotte to put a stop to the ritual.

  “Why Charlotte?”

  “Linford wanted her for some reason.”

  They wanted Charlotte for a dark ritual. It would have the opposite effect from the one she performed during the Moons Festival and create Malice instead of purification. Then she would be the sacrifice. They’d only lent money to the orphanage so they could force them to hand her over. This part of their plan failed when Weint asked for the recipe instead of the girl.

  “If things went according to plan, I would have all the children of the orphanage. They make great test subjects, you know.”

  Zelyse was scum, but I almost felt sorry for him.

  Amanda’s desire to slaughter the smug bastard started mounting the second she heard what he planned for the orphans. That was over the line for the A-Rank. Zelyse just made it to the top of her kill list.

  But someone else felt just as murderous, and that someone else was Fran.

  Zelyse was annoying to begin with, but the things he said completely infuriated her. Fran was close to the kids at the orphanage. It was personal now.