Volume 12 Chapter 40 LæVateinn
Loki was stroking the new sword, Lævateinn.
I'm facing her, holding Durandal.
Right after I drove away the 3 giant monsters, on the ship. A pleasant tension filled the air. It was that unique, sharp feeling I get when facing an opponent who is either equal to or stronger than me.
Loki will keep getting stronger until I lose, until I'm satisfied. In other words, I can keep getting stronger, no limits. I can fight while growing.
"Phew..."
I let out a long breath. I immerse my mind in the battle.
I start to notice even the slightest movement from Loki. I can feel my sharpened awareness becoming more and more acute.
So, when the atmosphere around Loki's hand touching the sword changed, I quickly realized it.
"Aphorism!"
A close attack, followed by a swift strike. Durandal managed to slash at Loki and block his next move.
"───Whoa, you've finally pulled out the big one! That sword, The Cursed Thirteen Blades of Victory, huh?"
"Geez~! Can't you even sit still, Master~?!"
As we exchanged sword strikes, we switched positions. I was having so much fun that I pointed at Loki and laughed, "Hahaha!"
"Deep Gravity!"
"Ugh!"
Right after that, Loki snapped her fingers. It was a gesture for an illusion. But it was crushed before it could take effect, and Loki froze.
I rushed in and thrust Durandal at Loki.
"Ugh, no...!"
Loki barely dodged it. She got a cut on her side, bleeding, but it wasn't a fatal wound.
The force of fate.
I feel like if I reach out just a little more, I could touch Loki's life. But for some reason, I also think I might keep missing. That feeling comes from the tips of my fingers.
Right after that, Loki disappears, and my neck is pierced by Lævateinn.
"Gaahhh!"
"Hehehehe! Did you think the finger snap was the trigger for the illusion?"
Lævateinn flashes, and my head falls off. Right after, Loki swings the blade down towards me──towards my Anahata chakra.
My fist breaks through Loki's body, pulling out his insides.
"Ahhhhhh!"
Loki spits out a lot of blood. In that moment, my Anahata chakra activates, and my body starts to rebuild itself.
I stagger towards the falling Loki and unleash a powerful kick.
Loki's body flies away. I can't help but laugh out loud.
"Hahahahaha! Hahahahahaha! This is so much fun! So much fun, Loki! How many times in my life have I had a fight this close!"
"Hehe... I'm glad you're enjoying it... more than anything, Master...♡."
Loki lies on the ground, face down, saying that. A thought crosses my mind that maybe I've gone too far.
In other words, this is an illusion.
"Brahma."
I activate my Ajna chakra. The second eye sees the truth.
"State Aphorism."
Behind her weakened illusion, Loki was stroking her sword. I feel a chill and start running as if I've been pushed.
But it was too late.
"'I shall give fire to the gods, the fire of end and sin'."
I stretch out Durandal, closing the gap with a swift strike. A silver flash runs through the air. Just as it digs into Loki's flesh, trying to split her whole body in 2.
Loki's sword, Lævateinn, touched Durandal.
The fire released from Lævateinn rushed through Durandal to me. I panicked and threw Durandal away. Then I used gravity magic to grab it and switched to aerial maneuvering.
The greatsword Durandal still had flames lit on it. With trembling hands, I was sure that my decision to throw it away was not wrong.
"Hehe~♡ Master, that was amazing~! You dodged it! It's not just fate, your battle sense is way too good~!"
Loki clapped her hands and praised me. There was already a sense of superiority in her presence.
"Loki...! Seriously, there hasn't been an enemy like you."
"Right?♡ Even in Norse mythology, I'm one of the most prominent gods. Plus, this isn't just Asgard, it's Nilfheim!"
Loki swung Lævateinn. The fire followed her movements.
"As a god, this feels like my true power, right? Well, since I died and became a Demon, calling me Demon King might be more accurate, though~♡."
Loki stuck out her tongue playfully. She still looked like the young Rollo. But her strength, presence, and fate were on a completely different level than when she was Rollo.
Probably, Loki had already gained power that surpassed mine. Her movements were sharper, and the true power of Lævateinn was becoming clear. Even now, when it wasn't fully revealed, I was out of breath.
I swallowed hard.
Then, can I do one more thing?
New magic. New chakra. And one more new method, I could unleash it──
"Master~♡."
Loki whispered sweetly.
"You can do anything to me, you know~♡."
I heard that and, laughing, I told Durandal.
"[State Aphorism. 'Anger is the source of my power' ('I shall give fire to the gods, the fire of end and sin')]."
I slammed my fist down. The gauntlet Durandal held, the ability of The Cursed Thirteen Blades of Victory, was now hosting 2 powers at once.
"───As soon as you see it, you rip it up, normally!?"
"You were the one who said I could do anything, Loki!"
With the double aphorism from Vishuddha Chakra, I closed in on Loki. On top of the extreme buff effect from the magic sword Gram, the unknown fire of Lævateinn lit up on my gauntlet.
Along with that, a burning pain shot through me for a moment from the magic seal. The curse of the 13 blades of Lævateinn. A side effect. But its essence was suppressed by Durandal.
Loki swung Lævateinn. An unavoidable counterattack. When we clashed, the fire of Lævateinn should have ignited on me.
However, the copied traits collided, and the fire of Lævateinn did not transfer from the gauntlet Durandal. Loki's eyes widened as she shouted.
"No way!? If it's copied, it gets nullified!? No, the fact that The Cursed Thirteen Blades of Victory can be copied is strange in the first place!"
"Hahaha! Now I'm a bit more advantaged! After all!"
I slammed my fist down even harder. Our sword skills were evenly matched at that point. And I was better with my fists than with a sword──thanks to the buff effect of Gram.
"Ugh, whoa, this is bad!"
After ten rounds of fighting, Loki was out of breath. After 20 rounds, Loki's balance started to waver. After 30 rounds, finally, my weapon, Durandal, was deflected.
My torso was wide open. My eyes activated the Ajna chakra. I exhaled, focused, and with gravity magic, the Anahata chakra, and the weight manipulation of Durandal, I threw my full-powered punch.
"You're going to keep coming back, right? Then, until I'm satisfied, I have to keep winning!"
My fist dug deep into the center of Loki's torso, hitting him hard.
I felt a solid impact. The sensation of hitting something alive. But then I──
──I felt something strange.
"Master, were you worried about that~?"
My fist was stuck in Loki's chest. From there, intense heat swirled and began to glow red.
"You don't have to worry about that~♡ If that's the case, Loki has already escaped death at least ten times and powered up~♡."
I realized I had made a mistake and tried to pull back my hand. But Loki grabbed my hand and wouldn't let go.
"But, it seems like Master's fate might be running out soon~...? Hehe~♡ If it runs out──then I want you to grant Loki a wish~♡."
The heat kept invading my body. I could feel my arm inside Durandal getting burned by Loki's fire, turning to ash.
"Let's all rebuild the Demon King's castle together~ and then have a revival party for the Demon King's castle~♡ Like a fancy merchant guild party, right~? And after that, we'll all hold a wedding for Loki and Master~."
And then.
"We'll all become family♡."
Loki's raging flames blew wildly.
"──────."
The flames engulfed my entire body, burning me so fiercely that I wasn't even allowed to scream.
I was blown away without any chance to resist, my body turning to charcoal and scattering in the wind. My body regenerated in the Anahata chakra, but I was disoriented and couldn't make head nor tail of what had happened.
Loki was approaching me.
"Heh~."
Loki swung Lævateinn at me. I tried to dodge but only barely managed to evade it by a hair's breadth.
The flames of Lævateinn entered my body. The flames did not burn my flesh, but instead moved straight into my chakras and incinerated them.
"That glowing part of your body... it's god, right?"
Loki raises her sword with a mischievous grin.
"That means it's susceptible to Lævateinn's effect. Lævateinn's flames have the effect of 'burning away gods'. A flame that won't let you revive, a vicious and sticky flame of revenge."
"Brah, ma!"
As I tried to chant a mantra, my chakras were burnt and the pain ran through me. All four of my chakras had stopped functioning.
"And now this~♡"
Loki's slash severed my left arm. I gasped and tried to retreat, but another slash took off my right leg.
"Hehehe~ finally, finally you're done for~♡"
Loki reversed Lævateinn and raised it to deliver the finishing blow to me as I lay on the ground.
I growled ferociously in response.
"──That's not how it ends! Repulsion!"
My body was repelled from the ship. Using gravity magic, I escaped from the sky at high speed, aiming for the ground below.
"Ah, you don't get away──!"
I interrupted Loki's pursuit by recalling the greatsword Durandal using gravity magic, and the impact from being hit by it allowed me to escape my dire situation.
Focusing too much on escaping, I had crashed into some rubble. I was injured all over, and the pain caused me to remember, "Ah, yeah, my Anahata chakra's burnt out."
But...
"Ha, haha."
The sight of my own pathetic state. The fact that I had become so because of such intense, high-level combat...
"Haha, hahahahaha!"
It was fun, exhilarating!
"Hahahahaha, hahahahahahahahaha...!"
I stood up from the rubble, using Durandal as a cane with one foot missing. Glaring up at the floating ship, I said...
"...It's not over yet. It'll get even more fun..."
I couldn't die here, not like this.
What should I do to win here. I hadn't even come close to being satisfied yet. I still had so many things I could do.
Now that I had obtained the combat ability to surpass gods, the words I spoke would become druidic magic and gain even more negotiating power against gods.
The crystal eyes embedded in my body were those of a demon Eiosnight. So, if I adjusted the sorcery engraved here, there was a chance I could use Domain Control.
Besides, I hadn't perfected the gravity magic yet. I wouldn't lose until I used that last magic on Loki.
I could see the fighting spirit burning in my eyes. In this moment of my life, the pain was left far behind, and I could feel the flood of endorphins in my brain.
I wanted to keep going like this, to keep breaking through with Loki...
But a certain voice reached my ears, pouring cold water on my enthusiasm.
"Wade-kun!"
That voice called my name, bringing me back to myself.
When I looked sideways, I saw Ice and the others running towards me frantically.
All of them had faces that were about to cry. Toxy, who was in the lead, had tears tracing down her cheeks, and even Mudi, who was walking up from the back, had a stunned, disbelief expression.
"Ice...? Everyone..."
I called out to them, and suddenly my feelings returned to reality. At once, I was blasted into consciousness by the pain throughout my body, and fainted.
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