Demon Sword Master of the Holy Sword Academy - Volume 1 - Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

THE DEMON SWORD

“Sweep Everything, Flames of Inferno, and Reduce All to Ashes—Zof Amadia!”

Voooooooooooooooooooooooosh…!

Not mincing words, Leonis loosed his strongest fire-type spell—the Hellfire Flurry—at the Archsage’s many faces. Summoned from the Realm of Muspelheim, the flames immolated the Voids, along with the roots that birthed them.

“Perhaps now you will recall the sheer power of the Undead King, Leonis Death Magnus?”

He tapped hard at the ground with the handle of his Staff of Sealed Sins. The air wavered from the intense heat. The Voids were reduced to cinders, but… The next moment, a dark-green mana flare blinded Leonis. The Holy Tree tore away its scorched appendages and began swiftly regrowing.

“Oh, that’s some impressive regeneration. Such is the power of the Holy Tree.” The Undead King praised his ancient foe. The Holy Tree of the Spirit Forest grew by sucking up the mana in the ground. Its leaves were a panacea capable of healing any illness, and it was said those who fed on its fruit gained immortality. The Archsage Arakael had tricked the elves of the Spirit Forest in order to make that power his own.

“…Undead… King… Leo…nis…”

The Archsage’s faces writhed unnaturally on the tree’s surface, calling with strained voices to the boy standing before them.

“Ah, so you can speak. And here I thought you’d completely lost your sentience.”

“…I thought you…perished…a thousand years ago…”

“For an Archsage, you’re one bloody fool.” Leonis sneered. “I would never die. I merely sealed my soul away.”

“…The only fool here…is you… The world has…already changed…”

“It certainly has. The food especially has become much more palatable.”

The Archsage continued, ignoring Leonis’s words as if they’d been nonsense.

“The world shall…be reborn…with the Star of Nothingness…”

“The Star of Nothingness?”

“The Nothingness has chosen me…as herald of the Star’s gospel!”

The Archsage’s insane laughter echoed through the vast underground tunnel.

“…Look out!” Blackas raised his voice in warning.

“Tch!”

Leaping away, Leonis chanted the eighth-order spell, Multiple Frost Slash—Sharianos.

Blades of frigid ice appeared out of thin air, stabbing into the Holy Tree’s roots from every direction. The sharp tendrils smashed through the floor and sped toward Leonis!

“Aroooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”

Blackas’s body shook as he unleashed his Blast Howl, reducing the roots to dust.

“What’s wrong, Leonis?! This isn’t like you!”

“…Right.”

At Blackas’s chiding, Leonis looked down at his hands.

“It seems my mana has weakened greatly.”

“What?”

Of course, reverting to his human body was part of it. But it couldn’t have been just that. The power of his Zof Amadia spell from earlier and his Sharianos just now…both were significantly weaker than they should have been.

“I get it. It’s this place…!” Leonis deduced.

In a manner of speaking, he was inside the Holy Tree’s body. The roots strewn everywhere were constantly draining his mana.

“…Correct, Undead…King…,” the Archsage’s voice thundered. “Become my… Become Arakael Degradios’s sustenance…”

The fruits of immortality on the great tree burst, producing countless Voids of different shapes.

“So what?” Leonis smiled thinly.

“…What…?”

“This is a good enough handicap for me, given my opponent is a potted plant that refuses to die.”

Leonis lifted his staff, and the presence of death quickly surrounded him. The shadow at his feet expanded at once and rang out with the eerie sound of clattering bones.

“Personal sorcery—Create Undead Legion!”

An army of skeletons erupted from his shadow, each holding a weapon that shone with magical energy.

Clack, click, creak, clack…

A veritable hill of bones surged from beneath Leonis’s feet. From atop it, Leonis lorded over the flock of Voids. The scene had become something of an accurate reenactment of the battle of the Wasteland of Sidon, a thousand years past.

“My army of loyal undead…,” Leonis commanded boldly. “Overrun my foolish foe!”

The mountain of bones clacked and creaked as it surged forward like a wave.

Leo…?

Riselia’s consciousness awakened within the darkness… She thought she’d heard his voice.

“…!”

The girl tried moving, but vines coiled tightly around her body, rendering her immobile.

Right, that tree caught me after we defeated a Void…

And that was how she’d lost consciousness. Her field of vision was dark, and she couldn’t see anything. The harder she tried to struggle, the harder the vines gripped and constricted her. And on top of it all, the rotten miasma the Voids produced suffused the air around her. If she weren’t already undead, it surely would have rotted her lungs from the inside.

“…Let go of me…!”

She bit into the vines with her sharp fangs but couldn’t tear through them.

…What do I do…?

Even if she summoned her Holy Sword, it wouldn’t help her if she couldn’t move. But then…

“—lia…hear me…?”

The boy’s voice shook her eardrums.

“Leo…?!”

The comms device hanging off one of her ears lit up, but the boy’s voice cut out just as quickly as it had emerged. Leonis was coming to save her… That alone gave her strength. Back on the surface, Regina and Sakuya were likely fighting hard, too.

That’s right… If I don’t fight now, why did I even awaken power of a Holy Sword in the first place?!

A faint glow began radiating from Riselia’s silver hair.

Leonis tightened his grasp on the earring-type communication device. Riselia gave no response. He couldn’t tell if his voice had reached her or not, but he knew she was in there. There was no doubting it.

The demonic wolf prince of the Realm of Shadows sailed across the bones as if surfing over surging waves.

“Dark Dragon of Flames, Devour My Foes—Jirus Vera!”

Riding on his sworn friend’s back, Leonis chanted a sixth-order spell. Black flames of darkness took the shape of a dragon and devoured the Voids. It was one of the Undead King’s unique, personal spells. Its magic kneaded the elements of death and flames into one. Black fire ran wild, eating into the immortal Holy Tree as an army of skeleton soldiers continued their advance.

“…Chant a hymn…of light…”

Countless faces of an old man surfaced on the trunk of the Holy Tree, all of them reciting the same words at once.

“…It’s using sorcery?!” Leonis’s eyes widened.

Arakael was trying to chant a high-order spell of holy magic. Moreover, it was a multi-person chant, done through his countless faces.

…Like the Holy Sect’s priests.

The priests under Arakael’s command had likely been fused into the tree as well. Leonis had no way of knowing if they had been forced or had willingly sacrificed their bodies for the sake of the Six Heroes…

Regardless, a massive spell circle shone, suspended in the air. It was an eighth-order holy spell—the Divine Light Cannon, Lex Megido.

Flashes of light rained down like lightning, smiting the army of undead. Skeletons that took a direct hit were reduced to cinders immediately, and even the spell’s shock waves were enough to rob the skeletons of their pseudo-life, returning them to mere bones.

“Blackas!”

The great wolf leapt in response to Leonis’s command, weaving between the blades of holy light. The two closed in on the Holy Tree.

“Darkness, Burst Forth—Arzam!” Leonis chanted a tenth-order spell.

Black flames combusted from thin air, striking the Holy Tree. But the enormous plant merely generated new faces to replace the ones that had been destroyed. The new ones quickly resumed their chanting. A barrier of light dropped like a curtain, repelling the darkness and erasing Leonis’s spell.

Arakael had cast a defensive spell—the Sacred Barrier, Ras Gu Roa.

It can conjure an eighth-order and seventh-order spell at the same time…

Leonis clicked his tongue as he landed on the ground. He could do that much, too, of course. But the fact that it could still use sorcery like that, even after having lost so much intelligence…

“I see. It’s no wonder they called you Archsage,” Leonis said with an ironic smirk.

“Such a large amount of mana. It even exceeds the amounts he had when he was alive, does it not?” Blackas asked.

“Yes…” The Undead Lord gave a short nod. “He’s probably absorbing mana directly from that huge mana crystal.”

Arakael effectively had an inexhaustible source of mana, enabling him to chant multiple spells at once. By comparison, Leonis’s mana was being depleted just by his presence there.

…I’ll be at a disadvantage if this battle lingers for too long.

Arakael, on the other hand, had fused with the Holy Tree and was immortal. He would be able to almost instantly recover from any average spell. And so long as he lived, he could produce an endless supply of Voids.

This place was an altar. An altar of blood, prepared for the purpose of slaying Leonis as a sacrifice.

Le…o…ni…iiiiiiiiiiiiiiisssssssss…!

The dead consumed by the Holy Tree howled. There was no awareness to their wails. All Leonis could hear was hunger. Roots swung down to strike at the child, but he repelled them with a sequence of gravity spells.

A high-scale destruction spell might be able to annihilate this entire area.

But that would also destroy the mana crystal powering the Assault Garden. Riselia would be caught in the blast, too…

My minion, eh…?

Then Leonis hit upon an idea.

It’ll be a gamble…

The Undead King tightened his grip on the earring device and said:

“Blackas. I’m going to try something reckless.”

“Reckless, hmm? Very well. I am the prince of the Realm of Shadows, after all.”

The huge black wolf shook his body. He was Leonis’s irreplaceable brother in arms who had run at his side across countless battlefields. Even with no further explanation, the wolf could tell what Leonis was thinking.

Again, Leonis began an incantation, summoning a legion of the undead.

“Armies of the undead, follow my lead…!”

The troops let out an enthusiastic, clattering cry as they followed Leonis’s charge.

“I won’t lose…! Won’t…lose…!”

Mana lit up Riselia’s silvery hair as she tore off the vines of the Holy Tree and began crawling her way out. The more she struggled, the harder the vines dug into her skin, leaving bleeding lacerations all over her body. Even so, Riselia persisted…

“Let goooooooooooooooooooooooo!”

She wouldn’t lose. She wouldn’t, wouldn’t, wouldn’t, wouldn’t…!

“I absolutely won’t lose…!”

On that day six years ago, the Third Assault Garden was overrun by Voids, and her parents were killed. On that day, she had sworn:

…I don’t want to be someone who’s always waiting to be rescued…!

The girl’s blood surged; that seething, hot fluid gathered and became a blade of unrivaled sharpness. It sliced through the vines binding her limbs.

Uuuuooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!

Countless magic circles appeared, surrounding Leonis and Blackas. The fires of the eighth-order holy magic, Divine Light Cannon, consumed the army of skeletons. Standing atop the mountain of toppled bones, Leonis rushed forward atop the back of his black wolf companion. A giant-class Void rose up from beneath the rubble, swinging its humongous fist down in an attempt to crush them both.

“Gran Beld!”

Firing a Heavy Destruction Blast, a seventh-order gravity spell, he knocked the Void’s massive body to the ground, sending stone flying into the air. Shards of rock skimmed across his face, leaving streaks of blood trailing down his skin.

The tree’s roots sprang into action. Countless faces appeared on their tips, chanting holy magic. Yet another Divine Light Cannon.

“Blackas!”

Leonis jumped off the black wolf’s back, thrusting the tip of his staff against the Holy Tree. Blackas Shadow Prince’s body became as shadow and coiled around Leonis’s arm as he swung. This was another of Leonis’s personal spells—Howling Blaze!

The black wolf’s head howled. Surrounded with massive amounts of mana, the beast tore through the pack of Voids and bit into the faces appearing on the trunk of the Holy Tree. Leonis’s and Arakael’s mana collided, crashing into each other.

But Leonis only had a human body’s worth of mana, while Arakael had a mana crystal capable of powering a city at his disposal. The difference in their capacities was as stark as that of heaven and earth. Leonis was only able to keep up because he was the proud Undead King, he who’d mastered the arcane arts.

…Where are you?

Leonis strained his eyes, trying to look into the writhing depths of the Holy Tree. He scanned every inch, searching for his minion among the suffocating, blinding amounts of mana… And then he found it: an intense concentration of magical energy.

“…There you are!”

Leonis closed one of his eyes, extended his left hand forward…and flicked his thumb.

“Ii Ray!”

The Lightning Flash spell used electricity to propel blades forward at high speeds—it was an assassination technique. However, he hadn’t launched a blade; it was Riselia’s communication earring. The accessory was fairly aerodynamically shaped, though launching something like that with the spell had no chance of actually damaging Arakael.

“…Is that your…last resort…Undead King…?”

The faces on the tree’s stump cackled manically.

“Laugh all you want. The only fool here is you, Archsage,” Leonis retorted confidently.

It was then that a sudden crack ran through the Holy Tree’s massive, regenerating trunk.

Creeeaaaaak, snap!

Bloodred light seeped through the fissures, eating up the Holy Tree from the inside.

“What…? What did you…? What did you doooooooooooooo?!” The faces on the tree’s trunk contorted in pain.

“Oh, I simply shared some of my blood and mana with my minion.”

The Holy Tree’s surface cracked, and then…burst open. A flurry of long silver hair spread like wings of magical light.

“Leo!”

The Vampire Queen—Riselia Crystalia. Her eyes shone a brilliant shade of crimson.

She’s awakened to her vampiric power…!

The sight of her spreading her mana wings to fly above and lord over that which lay below was breathtakingly beautiful.

“Leo… Aaaah, aaaah?!”

But then, unaccustomed as she was to her new magical appendages, she gave them a flap and went into an awkward tailspin.

…She still isn’t used to using her mana wings.

With the support of Leonis’s floating magic, she landed at his side.

“I see you’ve learned how to use your vampire powers.”

“Yes. This is your blood, isn’t it…?”

Riselia opened her hands, revealing a blood-smeared earring. It was indeed Leonis’s blood, charged with massive amounts of mana.

“That was just the trigger. Your mana was already overflowing as it was, Selia.”

Leonis knew she was on the verge of awakening within the Holy Tree. He simply gave her his blood to serve as the catalyst for the explosion.

“Do you need more?” Leonis extended his finger toward her, prompting Riselia to blush.

“I—I got plenty already!”

The young woman then turned and faced the Holy Tree as it continued screaming in agony.

“So that’s the Void Lord…,” she said, her expression stiff with discomfort at the monstrosity’s unnatural appearance. “It regrows so fast… How are we going to stop it…?”

“Selia, could you buy me some time?”

“Huh?”

“I’ll wipe it out, completely.”

Riselia appeared to doubt whether Leonis was truly capable of such a feat, but she concealed her concern. Leonis gave an assured smile and tightened his grip on his staff.

“It’ll take me a while to do it, so protect me until then.”

“…Understood.” She nodded, her voice full of trust.

Riselia then raised one hand into the air.

“Activate!”

With that, a crimson blade formed between her fingers. She ran it across her arm, as if playing a stringed instrument. Blood dripped down as she cut her flesh; the red liquid pooled at her feet as she winced from the pain.

“What are you doing?”

“I’ll show you how this Holy Sword is used…!”

Uuuuuuooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!

A group of newly born giant-class Voids charged toward them. Riselia drove her crimson, bloodstained blade into the ground. The next moment, the blood pooling on the floor rose up, coalescing into a number of floating blades.

“This is my Holy Sword—the Bloody Sword!” Riselia spoke the weapon’s name proudly.

The blades of blood rushed forward, slicing the advancing Voids to ribbons.

…It has the ability to protect its wielder automatically?!

A Holy Sword is a reflection of its wielder’s soul, and this one’s ability allowed it to manipulate blood… A most fitting ability for a girl who’d become a Vampire Queen.

“I’ll protect you, Leo!”

Countless flowers of blood bloomed.

“…I see. You’ve found a truly skilled minion,” Blackas said, surfacing from Leonis’s shadow.

“Yes. Like I thought, she’s worthy of being my right-hand woman,” the boy replied with a smile.

And now, as her master, he would have to respond to his minion’s efforts in kind. He would destroy the Archsage Arakael with the dignity of an Undead King. There was no need to hold back now that his servant was safe.

Playtime was officially over.

Leonis twisted the hilt of his staff lightly, and it fell heavily to the ground.

The staff concealed a sword within.

An overwhelming surge of mana rushed forth the moment the weapon was unsheathed.

“Wh-what…? What is this…?!” demanded the innumerable faces etched into the Holy Tree.

The Holy Tree, the mighty Archsage, was afraid. Leonis slowly stepped forward.

“Leo?!” Riselia exclaimed.

“A certain envious goddess once told me not to go around drawing this sword needlessly…”

The Staff of Sealed Sins was a legend-class artifact, but in truth, it was just a scabbard for the mythology-class weapon it concealed.

The Undead King Leonis had only ever wielded this sword twice. The first time, he reduced the mountain that was home to the massive Sacred Dragon to scorched earth…

The second time, he slew a god.

Uuuuuuuooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!

The massive mana crystal filled with light. The Holy Tree was preparing to cast the tenth-order spell Providence Annihilation—Aion. It intended to destroy everything surrounding it altogether. This was the core of the Assault Garden, and if this place was destroyed, the whole city would collapse. Perhaps Arakael was confident the Holy Tree would survive with its immortality.

…No, that thing probably doesn’t have enough intelligence to understand that much anymore.

Leonis heaved a sigh of exasperation and brandished his sword. The blade gleamed with darkness.

This was the holy sword given to the greatest swordsman among the Six Heroes, Leonis. A holy sword…? No, the blessing of the Goddess had reforged it into a demon sword—one kept sealed so as to contain its intense power…

Thou Art the Sword to Save the World, Gifted by the Heavens.

Thou Art the Sword to Ruin the World, Made to Rebel Against the Heavens.

A Holy Sword, Sanctified by the Gods.

A Demon Sword, Blessed by the Goddess.

I Demarcate This Land as My Kingdom and Wield You to Lay Waste to My Foes.

Let Your Name, Submerged in Darkness, Ring Forth—

“The Demon Sword, Dáinsleif!”

The Demon Sword glinted in the light as Leonis readied its black blade. It was the antithesis of a holy sword. It had been blessed by the Goddess who rebelled against the gods of the Celestial Sphere. And since it was wielded by a Dark Lord, it became known as the Demon Sword.

However, Dáinsleif still retained its will from when it was a Holy Sword and was sealed so it could only be drawn under a very specific condition. And that condition was…

To protect one’s kingdom.

Dáinsleif was originally forged to protect one’s country. A weapon for safeguarding one’s kingdom and driving away invaders…

And so the Undead King proclaimed this land, the Seventh Assault Garden, as his kingdom. He declared the citizens on the surface to be his subjects and Excalibur Academy to be the castle over which he reigned. The fact that he successfully drew the Demon Sword meant it acknowledged this as Leonis’s domain.

It was entirely unexpected and unplanned, but from this moment forward, the Seventh Assault Garden and Excalibur Academy would have to become the base for the resurgence of the Dark Lords’ Armies. And this Void Lord who threatened the lives of his subjects was…

“You are the enemy I am meant to strike down,” Leonis decreed, resolute. He gripped the Demon Sword in his hands.

…Impossible… Why do you possess…the Holy Sword that struck down a god…?

The fearful voices of the Archsage reverberated through the underground tunnel.

“…Oh? Have you regained enough of your sentience to know fear?” Leonis sneered for a moment before vanishing from where he stood.

“Leo?!” Riselia raised her voice in surprise.

The Goddess of Rebellion had sealed more than just the Demon Sword’s power in the blade. She’d also sealed within the weapon Leonis’s power and experience from when he was a hero. Which meant that when Leonis held the Demon Sword, he would regain the power of the greatest swordsman to have ever lived.

The master of the Demon Sword cut through the assembled Voids in the blink of an eye and leaped high into the air. The Archsage’s faces twisted and contorted grotesquely on the trunk of the Holy Tree.

“Any last words, king of the Voids…?”

…Ruin…cannot be overturned… No matter what…

“I am the Undead King. Destiny is governed by my hand,” Leonis said with a scoff, and then…

“Secret Blade Art of the Rognas Kingdom School—Ragna Lost!”

The Demon Sword’s blade unleashed an incredible black light, eradicating the Holy Tree from existence.