Reincarnation of the Sword Demon - Chapter 165

WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Chapter 165: I Said, Who Are You?

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Mana was suppressed in this white space. Every movement here, even swinging a sword, required powerful will.

Kyle spent quite some time regulating his breathing. Climbing the stairs had consumed a considerable amount of intent; intent recovered more slowly than mana, and given the nature of this space, no amount of waiting would restore it to a satisfying degree.

Even so, he steadied his breathing to hone his will.

Swinging a sword did not require an immense amount of intent. All he needed was a single swing, and the will to kill contained within it. With only that in mind, Kyle gripped Fenris.

Julius's hand left Kyle's shoulder. He watched his grandson with admiration in his eyes. The killing intent Kyle was giving off was far too savage for a sword meant to be offered to the Founding Ancestor.

There was no reason to reprimand him. Before it was a means of cultivation, a sword was ultimately a tool for killing people. If he wished to show the source of that sword, then such killing intent was only natural.

'I cut.'

Kyle did not notice the admiration in Julius's eyes. His gaze was fixed solely on the rift before him, and beyond it, at Ruin, who might, perhaps, be somewhere unimaginably far away.

'I cut.'

He repeated it over and over. In truth, there was nothing special about such resolve. Whenever Kyle swung a sword, he had always carried that kind of determination.

The unfortunate part was that the sword he was about to swing was not wholly his own. He had to acknowledge the truth. Even if he swung his sword in his current state, Kyle's sword could not reach that rift.

The only sword that might reach it was Ruin's.

So for now, he had to swing Ruin's sword.

Shing.

Fenris slid free of its sheath. Kyle gripped it in both hands and raised it over his head.

'This is your sword I'm about to swing, but...'

He glared beyond the rift. In his heart, he imagined Ruin was on the other side and hoped he was there.

But he did not know whether Ruin truly was beyond it. No matter how hard he stared, Kyle could not see what lay past the rift.

So he decided to think whatever he pleased.

Ruin was beyond it. The man who had ascended and gone beyond the farthest sky was returning power because he found the swords his descendants swung commendable.

'I'll mix in a little of my own desire.'

He did not want to look like a commendable descendant. Ruin had spent his life longing for a fight with the Sword Demon.

What Kyle needed to show him was not the appearance of a descendant, but the pure exhilaration Ruin had supposedly enjoyed most during their battle in Kyle's previous life.

In that battle.

'Did I want to kill you?'

Just as he was about to swing, Kyle froze.

He had always poured killing intent into his sword. The all-out strength Kyle knew from his previous life had meant a battle where he would certainly kill the other person. The Dark Age had been such a time. The battlefields the Sword Demon wandered had been like that, and so had every opponent the Sword Demon faced.

When he first met Ruin at the Imperial Palace.

It was true that he had attacked with killing intent. At the time, that was what an all-out battle meant to the Sword Demon.

'It's also true that those fights were enjoyable.'

Whether he killed his opponent, failed to kill them, or had to flee himself, swinging a sword had been fun. Killing intent had only been an excellent trigger for drawing out his full strength.

'But halfway through... my killing intent cooled.'

Was it because he realized he could not kill Ruin no matter what he did?

No. That was not it.

He had simply become captivated by Ruin's sword. He had thought that if a sword like this killed him, he would be fine with it.

He had simply swung his sword in a trance. What filled the Sword Demon's chest in that moment had not been killing intent, but pure joy.

He had wanted that moment never to end. He had swung his sword thinking that, and when he came to his senses, he had been dying.

"Ha ha."

Kyle, you idiot.

You went on and on to Helenas and other swordsmen about finding joy in the sword and loving it. You lectured Julius about illusions and how impossible it was to communicate with him.

Yet you had never done that with the sword you found most beautiful and enjoyable. You understood Ruin's loneliness so deeply, yet you had never tried to put joy into this sword.

'This sword I've been swinging all this time. I've kept saying it's fucking awful and filling myself with complaints.'

Even now, he had been trying to fill this sword with his own killing intent to prove that he was here. He had said he would win over this proud young lady, yet how could they possibly suit each other if he was so full of killing intent?

'Stupidly enough, even I misunderstood this sword's true nature.'

The killing intent boiling deep in his chest quietly subsided.

Julius's eyes gleamed. It was strange that his grandson's killing intent had faded, yet somehow, Kyle holding his sword now looked remarkably relaxed and natural.

'He has realized something.'

Julius took a silent step back in admiration. At the same time, he focused on how Kyle would swing his sword.

Under that gaze, Kyle recalled Ruin's sword.

The sword that had killed him in his previous life.

The sword Fenris had shown him.

The sword he had swung ever since Sword Grove.

All of it connected.

Whoosh.

The sword raised above his head fell.

There was no vicious killing intent in that strike, no clear intent.

There was only the joy of bringing a sword down to cut.

That was all, but the sword path stirred. The pure emotion contained in that one swing formed a clear slash.

Fwoosh!

A single line drawn from above to below was swallowed by the rift.

Julius's eyes widened at the sight. Kyle's sword did not carry the thunderous force of the sword Julius had swung earlier. In terms of pure power, it seemed far weaker than Julius's sword.

Yet that sword reached the rift without wavering.

Thump.

Kyle's heart pounded, and the white space resonated. The rift began to shake.

Rumble...!

The tremors spread through the entire space.

'Ah.'

At that moment, Kyle saw beyond the rift.

What lay on the other side was a lonely road that seemed endless. The path stretched in a perfectly straight line, like an infinity no being of this world could ever reach.

Perhaps it truly was infinite.

No matter how long he looked, he could not see its end.

'Sword path...'

The thought came to Kyle without him realizing it.

That was the path of the sword. Every swordsman stepped onto a road like that. To devote everything to the sword meant walking one's own sword path for a lifetime.

And eventually, they all reached the same path.

There was no end to this road. No one had reached its end. Yet everyone desired the end of this road.

They chased the illusion of the sword's end, longing to make that illusion real.

Something came into view.

He had gone farther than anyone else could reach.

He was still moving forward. Slowly, one step at a time, without stopping, continuing on.

For what purpose?

Because he had already stepped onto that road. Because if he gave up and sat down, every step he had taken would lose its meaning.

And because the farther he moved forward, the more another swordsman could follow that path.

'You are still...'

Kyle quietly watched him.

'Bearing responsibility and proving yourself.'

A man with vivid red hair was swinging a sword.

Again and again.

He swung his sword through different movements, advancing forward at a pace slower than a grub. Each time he swung, power like what had flowed from the rift earlier rose up.

Watching the man's back, Kyle swung his sword once more.

Another line was drawn.

At that moment, the man turned his head.

Ruin Alastor.

Golden eyes looked across that long road at Kyle. Those eyes trembled faintly.

Kyle quietly looked at Ruin. The distance between them was unimaginably vast, but they clearly saw each other.

A faint smile touched Ruin's lips. After looking at Kyle for a moment, Ruin turned his body and swung his sword in this direction.

Once.

Fwoosh!

The sword Ruin himself had swung toward this place carried tremendous power as it traveled back along the road.

Only then did Kyle understand.

Reverberation was not an answer. The power had simply overflowed along the path made by a slash that reached the rift and flowed beyond it.

But now, Kyle's sword had made Ruin turn around.

The power that returned was incomparably stronger than before, when it had merely overflowed.

Flash!

The path of Ruin's sword was carved into Kyle's head and chest.

Ruin's form grew faint. Kyle understood exactly how far away Ruin was.

"You will reach this place someday."

Ruin's voice came through the fading image.

"I will."

Kyle answered with a crooked smile.

"Without fail."

Fwoooosh!

Power flowing from the rift shook the entire space. Julius hurriedly grabbed Kyle. Kyle stood blankly, letting himself be caught without resistance.

Worried that the power returning from the rift might harm Kyle, Julius turned and leaped down the stairs.

"Wh-what is this...?"

He had swung his sword toward the rift more times than he could count, but this had never happened before.

Standing below the stairs, Julius looked up in confusion. The rift had not stopped rippling, and the returning power continued overflowing as though it would never end, shaking the white space.

"The Founding Ancestor has answered."

Kyle came to his senses and spoke.

Julius flinched and looked down at him.

"Wh... what did you say?"

"The faith our ancestors had, Grandfather's faith, was right. The Founding Ancestor is beyond that rift. Even now, he is still swinging his sword over there."

Kyle steadied his breathing and sheathed Fenris.

"Just now, I saw the Founding Ancestor, and he saw me as well. This power is the aftermath of the sword he swung toward me."

"...!"

"The unfortunate part is that the Founding Ancestor did not turn around for Grandfather's sword or our ancestors' swords."

Kyle spoke honestly.

Julius's eyes shook violently. Yet he did not deny Kyle's words. Instead, he gripped Kyle's shoulders with trembling hands.

"Your... sword made him turn around?"

"Yes. Because I swung the Founding Ancestor's sword."

"I thought it was better than the sword you showed me earlier."

"You felt correctly. My heart is a little more at ease than before."

"Did you gain an insight?"

"It isn't some grand realization worthy of being called an insight. I just... understood something I already knew more deeply, I suppose..."

Julius drew in a sharp breath at the mutter.

"Knowing something and understanding it are different things. Congratulations, Kyle."

"Thank you."

Kyle bowed his head as he answered.

The power filling the space slowly began to settle. It was likely flowing toward the Seal on the Cultivation Floors.

[Ghk.]

Suddenly.

A voice came from inside his chest.

It was Jor's voice.

[Ghk, nghk, kyaak...]

It was a bizarre sound Jor had never made before. Kyle flinched and looked down at his chest. He could feel Jor, coiled within his Middle Dantian, twisting her body.

'Hey, what's wrong with you?'

[Kyaak, k-kyaak, guah...]

Jor continued twisting and making strange noises. She had not answered when he spoke to her earlier, yet suddenly she was making those sounds for no apparent reason.

Flustered, Kyle pulled Jor outside.

Thud!

Jor's body tumbled across the white space. Yet even as he pulled her out, he could not see her tail. Jor's body was so long that it seemed to go on forever.

She had always been long enough that it was hard to tell whether she was a snake or a dragon, but this length was clearly abnormal.

Kyle could not help being deeply alarmed as he held Jor's body, which still extended from his chest.

"W-what is this?"

Julius was equally startled. He knew about Jor as well. The newborn lightning Spirit Kyle had contracted at a young age, a strange Spirit that had gained a physical body through Kyle's unusual Spirit Root and the Cultivation Floors.

"I-I don't know."

Kyle answered in a daze as he quickly pulled Jor's body from his chest.

Her long torso twisted and tangled in the center of the white space. Jor's head had already emerged. She opened her mouth wide, twisted her body, and continued letting out bizarre sounds.

"Ah... ahh, ahh-kah, ah-gah-gahk..."

Jor's eyes turned a multitude of colors.

Thud!

Jor's body, which had grown as though it would never end, finally pulled free at the tail. At that moment, her entire body convulsed.

Crackle, crackle!

The gaps between Jor's scales gave off the same multicolored light as her eyes.

Then something flew from Jor's open mouth.

It was a Fragment.

It shone brilliantly in the same multicolored light as Jor's eyes and the gaps between her scales.

Kiiiiing!

The Fragment floated into the air, giving off light.

[Ruin.]