The Sword Devil

by Nathan Valerio

  “There are 47 books on this subject, it is a branch of tool summoning magic, it is somewhat advanced and 45 of these books are for years 5 and above.” He said and turned to the library and quickly flew up higher before returning with two books. One was called ‘Basic Tool summoning magic and it’s Formula construction’ while the other was called, ‘Five Formula basic monster forge system’.

  The first book was a 3rd year book for people wanting to develop a tool summoning creature while the second was a basic forge spell. It was a complete spell formula for a forge summoning spell. The five formula would represent the parts it needed, Forge summoning, mana gathering, Fire starting, heat control, and Anvil strengthening.

  Each formula would create a different item, Forge summoning spawned a simple smith furnace and anvil, fire starting created a magic formation inside that would start the fire, heat control helped contain the heat and increase the heat without letting too much of it to escape and Anvil strengthening would strengthen the anvil to handle the strength of the monster using it. The size, strengthen and shape of the furnace and anvil greatly changed depending on the monster using it since there are many sizes.

  Xero’s eyes shined when he found that there was a premade spell. From this he could surely improve his own forge spell that he had been making. The spell he made was nearly ten times bigger but it was because he didn’t have the many more advanced magical sequences and knowledge to make it work more efficiently.

  With just a look through the formula he could see that it was many times more efficient than his own. Several sections he couldn’t understand because of his lack of knowledge but a hungry look appeared on his face to figure this formula out.

  “Sir, please make a copy of these books for me! My familiar really needs a forge spell to grow stronger.” Xero said with shining eyes.

  The librarian laughed, “Alright child, calm down, so many books… will cost you an uncommon mana stone.” he said.

  Xero easily took out the stone, to pay to get magical knowledge books that he could keep for his family to learn from. He didn’t think twice as he took it and started to store each book as they were made and was extra careful of the summon spell book and the forge summon book.

  He thanked him and soon went off to meet Meldie. After sending off a letter that told his parents where he would spend the summer Xero took Meldie on his sword towards her family, that lived in the northern nation of the Radiance empire.

  Chapter 4

  Unlike the trip to the Lurian Empire that takes only around 2 days of flight, Radiance Empire was not only further away, almost 9 days of flying, but the empire was many times bigger than Lurian empire.

  They controlled almost 60% the northern territory of the known continent. It is one of the stronger nations with high level of influence in the explored territories.

  Xero and Meldie have been flying for nearly 9 days and were arriving at the borders. During the trip, because it was Edge that was flying instead of just a random Greatsword, he could fly continuously without stopping and without Xero’s control.

  As such the two had spent most of their time talking, playing or training. At the start they had a lot to talk about but as time passed it became harder to start a conversation so it started to move on to school work talk, exchange of knowledge, then talk of their training and some skills.

  Later, Xero began to study the ‘Basic Tool summoning magic and it’s Formula construction’ book. The book was incredibly useful for Xero because Tool summoning magic was much simpler than living being summoning or spawning. The tools ranged from hammers to an oven. These were very useful tool spells to have when out in the wild.

  Xero was tempted to add a large brick roasting pit summoning spell to Ashley’s repertoire of spells so that she can cook anywhere.

  Still he focused on three important tools, a hammer, an anvil and a smithing Furnace. The anvil and hammer were simple spell formula but the furnace was quite complex, though not extensively but it incorporated a number of things learned only in the 3rd year but it was only in few spots.

  In Xero’s mind he was able to replace these spots with a few lower class sections but because he wasn’t satisfied he took out the books on magic knowledge to read to try and figure it out.

  “Master, we are approaching the borders.” Edge warned them.

  “Just keep going, there shouldn’t be any problems. Meldie, what town does your family live in?” Xero asked.

  “It’s called Blue light city, the lord founder if the city is master of a Blue fire Angel so it was named after that.” She said.

  Nodding, Xero put away his books and stood on the sword while Meldie remained sitting, Edge had expanded to be around 10 meters long and 4 wide so it gave plenty of space to walk around on. He also kept all the features of the Greatsword making it that wind doesn’t pass stronger no matter the speed.

  Bang!

  Suddenly Edge trembled as they flew and the three were shaken before Edge fixed himself up and continued on.

  “What was that!?” Xero asked.

  “Ah!” Meldie suddenly gasped, “I forgot~! The nation has a barrier around the barrier to be able to sense when someone flies inside!” Meldie said suddenly.

  WOOSH! WOOSH! WOOSH!

  Suddenly several large creatures swooped out of nowhere. The bodies were massive and released an oppressive aura of dominance. With the wind from the creatures blowing hard, even Edge could not maintain stability and began to shake until he got used to it and the three saw what had passed by.

  Flying all around them were countless dragons of different kinds. With two true dragons, 20 drakes that looked similar to the true dragons but tiny in comparison and flying all around were wyverns. The wyverns were dragon type beasts but there are two types. One is the kind that have two wings and two legs and are born in mountains normally. These are highly feral and dangerous. The other originates from sea dragon type creatures who possess fins. By altering water magic to air magic, their two fins become longer and their scales become feathers and they get the ability to fly. The almost always hover and only land to sleep, their mature size was between 4 to 7 meters long. Almost 50 of such creature flew around and this type is a domesticated mount trained for military use.

  “Who are you and what is your purpose in flying into the Radiance empire without authorization!?” A loud voice came from the true dragons. All the piece wore armor covering their body and half their face.

  Meldie quickly stood up and bowed, “I am sorry, I am one of the daughters of the head of the Donima Merchant firm from Blue Light City. Because I don’t normally fly when travelling I had forgotten about our great nation’s barrier!” She said.

  At the mention of the firm, the aggressive aura of the men lightened up considerably and one of the wyvern riders flew close before stopping over the blade. Edge expanded, shocking them but the space opened up was enough to land several wyvern and still have some space left over.

  Dismounting the man took out a crystal ball, “Please place both your hands one this, it will register your entry into the nation. There is also a 1 gold fee for non-residents when entering.” He said.

  They nodded, not going against their words and so they touched it. The orb identified them and made sure to check if they were from the nation or not. Meldie was exempted from the tax but Xero was forced to pay a whole gold coin to enter making Meldie ashamed since she had not warned him earlier.

  “Beware of where you fly, there are many such restricted flight zones within the nation, look…” He pulls out a medal with a dragon engraving, “...This is a flight medals distributed by his Marquess of the Crost family for people that have flight abilities. This is required for flight within the Radiance nation and is used to pass the barrier without… crashing as you did.” He said.

  “We understand, thank you sir knight.” Xero nodded as he understood that things here were several times more rigid compared to the other nations they passed through.

  “T
here is a nearby outpost so follow us to get all the regulations and flight medal set up to avoid complications in the future.” The wyvern rider said and Xero nodded.

  Letting the man mount his beast again, Edge shrank back down and following behind the dragon herd, they eventually reached an outpost that the dragon knight had mentioned.

  Xero did the troublesome process to obtain the flight medallion and left with a warning, “The Medallion is valid for one year, when you return to the Radiance empire anytime after a year is over you must go to a border outpost and regulate the validation.” He said and Xero nodded before leaving.

  He also obtained a map showing the ‘air space’ of the entire nation. Areas in red were prohibited to everyone but a select few, some area only allowed people above a certain nobility rank.

  “So many regulations.” Xero said feeling a headache as he read the complex rules the nation imposed towards flight. He was only thankful that Blue Light City was near the borders and there was much less trouble or restrictions in these areas.

  The two were able to finally continue and reached Blue Light City within half a day without any more trouble from the guards.

  The Donima Merchant Firm existed inside the town, like most cities, it had an inner and outer city. Only villages and towns did not have the inner city due to the size being small but eventually it would develop it as the population rises forming a ‘noble’ base of the population.

  The term ‘noble’ comes from the rich and poor of the population. The Donima family that commands the Donima Merchant Firm is a ‘noble’ yet all it’s members do not surpass level 30 and so it is considered a ‘common noble’.

  Of course, even among them there are ranks, the Donima family was a large noble family and instead of living in the Inner city, where there were countless political things to worry about, they purchased land 20 kilometers from the city and built a manor of their own. This was the Donima estate where the family lived.

  When they arrived, Meldie directly told him to fly over the walls and landed at the door. When the guards saw her they came up and greeted her, “10th Young Miss, you have returned.” They bowed.

  “Hey Meldie, you mentioned before that Halfling come in large numbers but after recounting everything, don’t you have twins?” Xero said.

  She smiled, “I was born alone, it was a rare event to Halflings.” She said and turned to the guard and told them to tell her parents she was home before she guided Xero into the house.

  The house of a Merchant cannot be underestimated. It has much more glamor than a noble of the state, that is for sure. It made Xero wonder if any of his family would fit as a merchant. After some thought he completely tossed that out into the trash. Nil was a hunter and was good as a leader because he had been an army man before being a hunter. Zip was a blacksmith, Void was more towards a hunter himself, Xero was still a child and his focus was more towards training and magic, Nadir was… her, Nero and Zitch were babies and Opal was too simple minded. Although Jasmine was smart, she was more towards a housewife than a merchant, having no prior training and only some magical knowledge.

  As the two wait at the front, Xero admiring the wealth of the family, suddenly he heard footsteps and turned to find a young boy running over and behind him was a beautiful little girl but she was walking with a swollen belly.

  “My little girl! You’re back!” The boy said.

  “Papa! Mama!” Meldie said and hugged the boy.

  Xero was amazed when he heard this. The boy wore a suit made out of fine silk and short blue hair. The girl had long pink hair and a doll like face while she wore a one piece dress.

  “Oh dear, you have grown so cute since you left.” The girl who was supposed to be Meldie’s mother said.

  Xero was complete out of his element here, the fact that halflings remained youthful was well known but Xero had never expected for it to be to this degree were you couldn’t figure out if the person was 10 or 50.

  When the parents finished hugging their daughter the man turned and his eyes turned sharp. “So sweetie, this is my new son in law.” He asked.

  “No! He is just a classmate!” Meldie shouted blushing.

  “Isn’t that how I met your father dear, don’t be shy.” Her mother said.

  Xero was sweating at this moment because of what he was hearing. Marriage in most country happened between the age of 14 to 18, this is considered the marriage window but normally ‘powerful’ people with lots of potential would not marry until their late 20s so as to not distract themselves from their training.

  At this time, a sudden rush of children came out of the rooms a total of 14 children, 5 of which were even smaller younger children, came out. They were shouting, “Little sis is back!” and other things.

  After a while, similar to the ‘parents’ they looked at Xero examining him.

  “Little sis, you sure picked one up early.” A dark haired boy said.

  “BIG BRO!” Meldie said while red faced. “Xero, I’m sorry but halflings are really open towards marriage.” She said fidgeting, “Normally starting from the age of 12 they already search for a partner. N-not that I did that!” She said looking down embarrassed.

  “Oh my, as shy as always.” One of the ‘older’ brothers sighed.

  “Hey, at least she was faster than you.” One of the older sisters said.

  At this point Meldie wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out. “S-stop it! I invited Xero because last year he didn’t explore much!” she said.

  “Alright stop teasing your adorable sister. Xero was it? I’m Francis Donima and this is my wife, Cristal.” He introduced himself and his wife.

  “I’m Xero Null, I’m from the Lurian Empire.” Xero replied and shook his hand.

  An interested expression showed up on his face. “Oh a Lurian, that’s quite a distance.” Francis said holding his chin, “If I remember right~, that nation has good metal work. It’s towards the south so the distance would take almost 3 months of carriage to get to the borders.” He muttered. When he got to this point he suddenly noticed something, “Wait, to get to the academy without teleportation or air transport would take 2 months, how did you two arrive in only 9 days?” He asked.

  Meldie stepped up hugging her father, “Xero has a flying skill related to his familiar.” She said.

  The eyes of the halfling shined instantly, “Oh really! Son-in-law, tell me about it!” He said hugging Xero from behind.

  “FATHER!” Meldie shouted embarrassed even more after the subject had been dropped but suddenly returned.

  “Now dear, don’t try to take advantage of the young boy. It’s not good for our image.” Cristal said.

  Francis trembled slightly but didn’t show it on his face, “Right, let’s have a feast then you kids can rest a while from your travels.” He said and ordered the servants to get cooking.

  ***

  Hiding in the underbrush of the surrounding forest, slowly a blue skinned face with curly black hair stuck his head out. The yellow eyes and black sclera showed it was a demon. He had slightly pointed ears and it picked up all the sound within 1 kilometer of him.

  “Good, it seems we lost them for now.” he muttered. The devil turned back and saw a bloodied human. The demon frowned as he felt the strength of the human slowly weaken as the blood dripped from his right leg. There was a large hole there that was bleeding.

  “Hang in there Ernest.” the demon said.

  The pair was Ernest Wais Nelmoon and Night Gale from the Holy Academy who went to Xero’s camp during the trip at the start of the year. Being a year older he was already exploring and this time he came to the Radiance Empire for a job at the Light god Church here.

  “That bitch, the next time I spot her, I make will sure to shove one up her ass. If she didn’t sneak attack us and spout so much bullshit.” Night cursed over and over again as he removed his master’s pants for a moment and ripped out the leather belt on the pants and put the pants in place once more. He then ripped
his master’s robe and formed a ball cloth and a sheet of cloth put it against the wound. The ball he stuffed in his master’s mouth then wrapped the belt around the leg and pulled it tight causing Ernest to shout but it was muffled.

  The pressure on the leg’s veins caused the blood to slow down while Night took the chance to wrap the sheet around the wound to contain the wound’s blood from flowing out more.

  “I need to get to a town that has a Light church and get protection.” Night said.

  Sniff!

  Suddenly his nose twitched as he looked to the south east, “This smell…!” He muttered.

  “FOUND HIM!” a sudden shout from above was heard.

  Night turned and saw a young man with a glowing familiar behind him and the radiance was around the master helping him fly.

  Night sneered, “Shit, these pesky flies, guess I can only bite the bullet. He should have a flight technique if I remember what Ernest said.” Night said and quickly picked up his master and spread his black feathered wings and broke the tree top.

  Suddenly several other people broke the treetops following all leaving behind a ‘holy’ light while Night left behind a blue wind.

  “I have found you! Die devils!” A self righteous voice shouted.

  Night turned around and there he saw Silvia with a triumphant grin.

  “You self righteous bitch, you better hope we don’t survive because if we do, I will make sure to hunt your sorry ass all the way to hell and stuff you into a puny Imp and torture you even if your soul breaks apart!” Night said and focused on his Demon core. It suddenly cracked and mana suddenly gushed out and filled a magic formula on his wings.

  The two black feathered wings were suddenly covered in a Holy light and they doubled in size.

  “You demon! You dare use our holy magic!” Silvia shouted but suddenly Night flapped and behind him there was a sudden shock wave while his body burst forth through the sky while he carried Ernest away.