Chapter 98 - The Sword that Split the Heavens (1)
1
During the Dragon Demon war, Azell had seen a lot of Dragon Demon weapons used. Both his allies and enemies wielded it.
Each of them had a unique form and ability. All of them were named, and they boasted incredible amounts of power. This was why Azell remembered every Dragon Demon weapon he had encountered before.
“That"s the Book of Darkness. The Simpleton Prince Saibein"s Dragon Demon weapon is still being pa.s.sed around amongst you all?”
Saibein had been one of the sons of the Dragon Demon King.
The Dragon Demon weapon called Book of Darkness was something that had been used by Saibein. It allowed one to have control over Darkness, and there were all kinds of high rank magical spells engraved in it. It was a wonderful tool, which allowed one to carpet-bomb one"s enemies.
Niberis became angry at his words.
“You b.a.s.t.a.r.d! A young human like you dares to insult my father!”
“Mmm? You are the daughter of the Simpleton Prince? In the end, that guy lived long enough to leave behind a progeny? It is true that he was a simpleton, but he was always hard to kill.”
During the Dragon Demon Wars, the humans gave Saibein the nickname of the Simpleton Prince to ridicule him. It wasn"t as if Saibein was weak. As befitting the son of the Dragon Demon King, he had incredible amount of Dragon Demon magic, and he was a naturally skilled magician.
However, Saibein"s problem was the fact that he hadn’t had any defining wartime accomplishments. It was true even when he had become the bait to lure out Azell"s third master Liglan. He had always been defeated, and in turn, his pride had been trampled.
Until the Dragon Demon war ended, this remained true even after Saibein partic.i.p.ated in multiple engagements. He was also grievously injured in the penultimate battle, so he hadn"t even been present at the final battle. It seemed he had lived on in the Plain of Darkness.
Niberis exploded.
“You have yet to live a hundred years, yet you dare talk about my father as if you know him! I"ll make you suffer. You will wish for your death!”
“I do know him? Is he perhaps still alive? If so, I want to meet him. I almost took off his head twice, but he threw away the lives of his subordinates like it was nothing to be able to run away. This tactic was highly inconvenient, and in the end, I wasn"t able to kill him.”
“How much nonsense do you have to spout before you are satisfied!”
From within the darkness that had pervaded the surrounding, all kinds of magic exploded forth. Niberis" personal reservoir of Qi had increased compared to an year ago. On top of her development, she now had the Dragon Demon weapon called the Book of Darkness. She could use an incredible amount of power compared to her previous self.
Kwah kwah kwah kwah kwah!
The Darkness rose up like a tsunami, and the sounds of thunder rang out. The Book of Darkness allowed one to control the Darkness, and it was almost akin to a Dragon’s control over an element it was born with. Its performance was almost unrivalled. Moreover, each of the magical spells engraved into the book was superb. One could become a one man army with this power.
This trove of power was released all at once.
The surging darkness swallowed up Azell, and all kinds of Curses and Destruction magic detonated within. No matter how talented he was, he wouldn"t be able to come out intact under this level of firepower.
“…it really is an annoying item. I"ll admit that the Book of Darkness is quite high-powered. Its overwhelming firepower could simply crush an opponent..”
However, Azell"s voice could be heard over the thundering noises. Niberis unconsciously inhaled.
At the same time, blue thunder and lightning split the darkness.
It wasn"t natural phenomena. The thunderbolts were terrifyingly concentrated in a single location, and it looked like a sword. Thunderbolts split the darkness in half, and one could see Azell with his red hair whipping about.
The shocked Niberis heard an inconceivable string of words.
“Dragon Maken Rise!”
Accompanying Azell"s shout, the sky let out a roar.
Kwah-roo-roong! Ggwah-gwahng!
There had been no clouds in the sky, yet a thunderbolt erupted as it ripped away the darkness of the night. The thunderbolt struck the sword in Azell"s hand, and it connected the heaven and earth as one. In the midst of the exploding thunder, which didn"t allow other sounds to be heard, one could hear a psychic shout.
-The Sword that Split the Heavens!
The name was apt. The thunderbolt split open the skies, and it resolved into a single sword. Thunderbolts condensed into forming this blue sword, and it was exactly the shape of the the Dragon Maken he had used to defeat the Earth Dragon at the Balan Forest.
However, the one from before had been an illusion. It hadn’t possessed a real body. An unbelievable amount of power had been focused for the sword to take form, but it had been destined to fall apart. It didn"t have its prior physical form to anchor into.
However, Azell had changed the sword"s destiny. He had superimposed the Dragon Maken"s image to the Dragon Sword, which was made out of the white bones of a Dragon.
When she saw it, she became scare out of her wits.
“No way! It can"t be that sword...!”
Her surprise wasn"t rooted only in the fact that Azell had a Dragon Demon weapon. If it was just the appearance of such a weapon, she wouldn"t have been surprised to a degree where her thoughts briefly shorted out.
The problem was the name. Azell had called forth the Dragon Demon weapon with his will, and he had used its true name. It was a nightmare of a name for the Dragon Demon king worshippers. It haunted them in their dreams.
The Dragon Demon weapon wasn"t named by its User. All Dragon Demon weapons possessed a true name as soon as it was born.
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh……!
Niberis was frozen in shock, but the Book of Darkness in front of her reacted. Niberis didn"t do anything, yet the book trembled before the pages started to flip over. From Niberis" perspective, she felt as if the Book of Darkness was trying to express some unknown feeling.
Azell laughed as he gripped the Dragon Maken in front of him.
“Well, from now on, it is up to you to determine if I"m talking bulls.h.i.t or not. This Dragon Maken has ripped apart the Book of Darkness twice before in a fight with the Simpleton Prince. Shall we see what"ll happen when I rip it apart for the third time?”
2
The Dragon Demon castle was located far in the north within the Plain of Darkness. The first wife of the Dragon Demon king was submerged within the great magic of Darkness. Aincera opened her eyes in surprise.
The great Darkness was spread around her at all times. It was a magic taught to her by the Dragon Demon King Atein. She didn"t even need to take a single step, yet she was able to communicate with all Dragon Demon king worshippers. She could survey all parts of the continent, and its power was instrumental in maintaining and hiding relics like the Road of Emptiness. It was a transcendental magic.
Within this magic, Aincera was like a G.o.ddess, who was able to hear the prayers of her numerous followers. No, to be precise, this magic was a proxy that allowed the prayers of the humans to reach the G.o.ddess.
Moreover, this magic"s utility wasn"t limited to communication. In the beginning, Aincera had set up a bank of knowledge when she incubated this magic. It was able to find information as if it was prescience.
The Dragon Demon king worshippers were connected by darkness, and everything they saw, heard and thought was sent to her. Then she was able to bring up relevant information from memory bank.
This all resulted in her being able to coordinate the eradication of knowledge amongst the humans. Everything regarding the technique of Dragon Arts, Spirit Order and the Dragon Demon weapons were all….
Aincera mumbled as if she was groaning.
“The Sword that Split the Heavens. How could that cursed Dragon Demon weapon show up again?”
There was a price exacted from her for harboring this great Darkness within her. It was as if she had stolen a part of a power of a G.o.d, yet it also put her in a half-dead state.
Aincera’s self was buried within this sea-like consciousness, and her sense of self had become faint. She was only able to operate, because she had been obsessed with her principles, and she had the overwhelming will to live.
Of course, her emotions had faded away as if it had be cut away. No matter what business came up, she dealt with it in a indifferent manner.
However… She remembered the memories stamped into her memories 200 years ago, and the terror she felt couldn"t be erased.
“The Sword that Split the Heavens?”
“The Dragon Demon weapon of the great sinner has appeared?”
“That cannot be.”
Shocked voices was flying towards her from everywhere on the continent. The magic allowed them to ignore the vast distance, and it was as if they were all gathered in the same room. They were all feeling the same emotion.
Fear.
The moment the Dragon Demon weapon was born Aincera knew about it. The being connected to the great Darkness encountered the Dragon Demon weapon, and she was now aware of this fact.
This was why Aincera was able to look up the ident.i.ty of the Dragon Demon weapon encountered by Niberis.
The Sword that Split the Heavens.
This was the weapon swung by the hero Azell Karzark in the Dragon Demon war. In the end, this weapon was used to end the life of the Dragon Demon king Atein. It was name of the Dragon Maken.
3
Azell had received several Dragon Demon weapons from his third master Liglan. However, he only had one Dragon Demon weapon he had created for himself. It was the "Sword that Split the Heavens."
Azell hadn"t created the Dragon Maken in his hands anew. He just recovered the one from before.
Carlos had used a surprising magic to preserve his sword, while Azell slept. However, when he went through with the Dragon Slayer"s Ritual with the Earth Dragon inside the Balan forest, he had consumed all the power needed to maintain the existence of the sword. It disappeared.
However, when he went through his second Dragon Slayer"s ritual, he found the fragments of the sword still existing within his Energy Pulse. The reason why he hadn"t been able to discover this fact was simple. Azell had been short on Dragon Demon magic. If one didn"t have Dragon Demon magic, it was impossible to form or maintain the Dragon Demon qi. This was why he had the fragments within his Energy Pulse, but these fragments was destined to slowly dissolved since nothing was maintaining it.
However, when Azell completed the second Dragon Slayer"s ritual, he changed the fate of the sword. When he realized this fact, he attempted a third Dragon Slayer"s Ritual, while he resided at the Dukedom of Tarantos. He won, and he had gained a powerful source of Dragon Demon magic.
This resulted in him being able to gather the fragments existing within his Energy Pulse, and he had revived the Dragon Maken.
However, the problem was its incomplete revival. The Sword that Split the Heavens was considered to be one of the top Dragon Demon weapons.
Azell was able to gain a considerable amount of Dragon Demon magic through his third Dragon Slayer"s Ritual, but he couldn"t fully revive his sword.
It would only be possible if he conducted more Dragon Slayer"s Ritual. However, the Dragon Slayer"s Rituals wasn"t something that should be done in a short amount of time. If he was able to do so, Azell would have travelled the entire country looking for Dragons. He would have done Dragon Slayer"s Rituals with a fearsome fervor.
During the Dragon Demon war, there were two reasons why the beings with the Dragon Demon weapons didn"t blindly conduct the Dragon Slayer"s Ritual.
First. If one hadn"t digested the Dragon"s power before doing another Dragon Slayer"s Ritual, the Dragon could steal the power residing in the human.
Second. When the human attempting the Dragon Slayer’s Ritual increased in the amount of Dragon Demon magic one possessed, the Dragon seemed to respond by getting stronger. Basically, even if one obtained a Dragon Demon weapon through multiple Dragon Slayer"s Ritual, the difficulty level of the fights with the Dragons never decreased.
Carlos had a theory regarding why it was so.
‘It may be, because the Dragon Demon magic"s originates from the Dragons. Dragon Demon magic allows the Dragons to to control reality through their will. Moreover, they are able to freely control the element they have affinity with. There is a connection between these two abilities.’
The Dragon Slayer"s Ritual was a life and death fight between a Dragon and a human. However, it was also a conversation between their souls. The winner took the loser"s wisdom or power. The fact that this was possible in the first place meant that they were dealing with a magic that transcend common sense.