WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ Reincarnation of the Sword Demon

Chapter 82

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Just Borrowing This

Kyle got the gist of what Lizet was saying.

The current succession of the Demon King was different from before. Dozens of demons had received something called an "Inscription," some godforsaken thing, and a competition had begun over who was most fit to inherit the throne.

Azel Beliar didn't want to compete and didn't want to become the Demon King, so he ran. A demon named Nasdel had sent hounds to steal Azel's Inscription. And Lizet Beliar had come to kill the brother who had abandoned his honor.

So far, so good. It had been the son of the Demon King tangled up in all this, however many times removed, but thanks to Lizet showing up, Kyle didn't have to take any responsibility for it. He could have just finished his own business and, on his way out, had a little fun holding up Lizet as she tried to leave cleanly.

But Azel's Inscription had transferred to Lucia. An Inscription signifying the right to inherit the throne of the Demon King had been carved into a Half-blood who hadn't even been born in Erebos and didn't know who her parents were.

"Is there a way to erase the Inscription?"

Kyle stared Lizet down as he asked. He hadn't moved from his position in front of Lucia.

"There is no such way."

"Maybe there just isn't one yet. You said this kind of succession has never happened before, right?"

"Why would you want to erase it?"

Lizet tilted her head.

"The Inscription is proof of a successor. An exceedingly glorious thing. Why would anyone want to erase an Inscription like this?"

"Your brother wanted it erased."

"And so he died."

Lizet said it with a perfectly calm face. Kyle found that answer almost absurd.

"You're the one who killed him."

"Had I stayed silent, Nasdel would have killed Azel. Even if I had killed Nasdel and left Azel alone, Azel would eventually have been killed by some other demon."

Lizet turned her head and looked at Azel's body for a moment. In her eyes, just for an instant, something like regret and grief passed through.

"Right now, neither the method to erase the Inscription nor to transfer it, none of it has been established. But in Erebos there are many high-ranking demons who want to become the next Demon King. Do you think they'll research how to erase the Inscription, or how to steal it?"

"They'll research how to transfer it. Not everyone who holds an Inscription wants to become the Demon King."

"I find that incomprehensible."

Lizet murmured, and she meant it. From the way she had talked about honor earlier, her character was easy enough to read, but Kyle pressed her with some skepticism anyway.

"If you become the Demon King, you inherit the soul and your memories become mixed with others. That means you stop being entirely yourself. You're fine with that?"

"I am confident I will not lose myself."

"Huh... did your father say the same thing?"

"My father became the Demon King and then had me. I never knew him before he was the Demon King."

That was an airtight argument.

"Alastor pureblood. I know this is a perspective that's hard for a human like you to understand. I don't particularly expect you to understand it."

Lizet fixed her narrowed gaze on Kyle.

"But what becomes mixed is only the memories. The soul does not mix. The souls of predecessors remain seated on the Demon King's throne."

"If memories that aren't mine get mixed in, then in the end I'm no longer me."

"Anyone who loses themselves to mere memories should consider becoming the Demon King all the more glorious. It means a worthless self is reborn as something greater."

"We're not getting anywhere."

"I said so, didn't I? I don't expect you to understand. You can do the same as I do."

Lizet stepped forward.

"But this next part should be easy enough for you to understand. Step aside, Alastor pureblood."

"Me? Why?"

Kyle ran his thumb over the hilt of Fenris, still in its scabbard, as he asked. Lizet glanced at Azel's body once more, then looked away. Her gaze wasn't on Kyle, it had settled on Lucia, collapsed behind him.

"What that Half-blood child inherited is Azel's Inscription."

"The brother you killed."

"I cherished Azel. Sincerely. I prayed that child would grow into a demon of strength and honor, because our father is the Demon King."

There was not a single lie in Lizet's words. She had truly cherished Azel. Before entering the Colosseum for her training, she had visited him every single day to encourage him, and even after entering the Colosseum she had regularly sent him letters and gifts to aid his training.

"But Azel did not grow strong, and he abandoned his honor. So... I killed him with my own hands. I feel great sorrow over that fact."

Lizet raised her head and looked up at the ceiling. Good lord, there were tears gathered at the corners of her eyes.

"Azel is dead. But my brother's Inscription has passed to that Half-blood child. The Inscription that should have disappeared. I feel this is fate and connection."

"So?"

"I will take that child to Erebos. I will give her the Beliar name and guide her so she can take part in the honorable competition."

"Only one person can become the Demon King in the end."

"If that child wishes to kill me and become the Demon King, I will face her with genuine joy."

Did every Inscription have to disappear except one before the competition ended? Did that last survivor inherit the Demon King's throne? That still wasn't clear. This succession was unprecedented. Perhaps, if someone proved themselves fit and the past Demon Kings were satisfied, the throne could be inherited even before only one remained.

That was a very hopeful thought.

'You're saying you won't try to kill Lucia?'

Kyle didn't bother asking that either. He had no intention of handing Lucia over. No intention of stepping aside for Lizet.

"Looks like we both have a reason to fight now."

The difference from before was that Kyle wasn't smiling. This wasn't a time to swing a sword just for the fun of it. Even the Sword Demon from his previous life, obsessed with his blade, wandering the world for nothing but his own satisfaction, had known when to make that distinction.

Sometimes you had to set aside the fun and pick up a sword for a heavier reason. Kyle watched Lizet with cold eyes and drew Fenris.

"You have no intention of asking Lucia herself what she wants?"

"So that child's name is Lucia. Lucia Beliar. A fine ring to it."

"I'm asking whether you intend to ask her."

"I'll take Lucia first, and if she regains consciousness, I'll ask her then."

"Hah."

"Alastor pureblood. What about you? Do you intend to ask that child what she wants?"

"I'll ask her later too. If she says she wants to go to Erebos, I'll think about it then."

Jor, which had been holding the Core, returned to Kyle as a streak of violet lightning. Kyle felt his middle dantian fill to the brim and drove the Primordial Chaos Sword Canon into acceleration.

"Unlike you, I won't kill someone just because they don't do what I want."

"I do not kill unconditionally either."

Clink. The fingers encased in gauntlets curled into a fist.

"I will try persuasion first. Just as I did with Azel."

She had asked Azel what he intended to do going forward. Azel had said he didn't want to be a successor. That he was afraid of becoming the Demon King.

So she killed him. Lizet had wiped away the lingering shadow of the brother she had once loved, that ghost clinging to her head and heart. His Inscription had passed to that Half-blood child, so now that child was Lizet's sibling.

This time the standoff didn't last long. Whether to strike first or wait. Reading each other for openings, ignoring deliberately exposed gaps, tracking each other's eyes, designing the flow of battle in their heads, all of that was for a fight you were savoring.

Kyle had no interest in that right now. Not a fight where you chewed each moment slowly and left nothing behind, but a fight where you drove your will into the outcome and forced the result.

Crack!

Lightning burst. The moment Kyle's feet left the ground, violet lightning split the floor along the path of his charge. The speed was incomparable to when he had fought Ruzan and Azel earlier.

That had been a fight he was enjoying. This was a fight he wasn't. That difference showed plainly in his speed.

Lizet's red eyes didn't miss a single movement. Her tightly clenched right fist rose. She twisted her waist and threw the punch.

A simple straight, the black Aura packed into the fist tore through the air. Boom! Fenris and the fist collided head-on. Aura of different colors clashed and scattered. The shockwave shook the space. Stone dust rained from the ceiling and cracks spread across the floor like a web.

Kyle felt his right hand go numb. Not one of the demons he had faced today had managed to push back against his Sword Force, but Lizet was doing it like it was nothing.

Strong.

He had been pushed back half a step from that collision. He had sensed it the moment he first saw her, and it was true: Lizet was strong.

Can't read a demon's age from their face.

A little weaker than Aslan, maybe? He hadn't seen either of them at full strength, but that was his rough read for now.

Strong.

Lizet felt the same about Kyle. Fifteen years old, he had said. No human should be this strong at that age, but the Alastor pureblood really was something different. Her lips parted.

"Pureblood. What's your name?"

Only now was Lizet asking Kyle his name. Kyle answered in a flat, cold voice.

"Kyle Alastor."

The standoff lasted only a heartbeat. Kyle's feet moved again. He stepped forward into the half-step he'd been pushed back and swung Fenris upward at an angle-a rising slash from low to high, aimed at Lizet's jaw.

Lizet didn't lean her head back or shift her upper body to dodge. Instead she brought her left fist down like a hammer and batted the blade of Fenris downward. Clang! Fenris drove into the floor.

For a swordsman, the moment the sword is buried in the ground is the most dangerous moment there is. Lizet didn't miss it. Her right fist came for Kyle's face.

Kyle didn't let go of Fenris. Instead he used the embedded blade as a pivot and spun his body. Lizet's fist grazed him by a hair and a few red strands flew off.

He wrenched Fenris free with the momentum of the spin. The arc of the draw became a slash aimed at Lizet's side.

Clang! Lizet's left gauntlet caught the blade. Sparks and Aura scattered. The slash was blocked, but fragments of Sword Force coating the blade shredded Lizet's clothes. No blood, but the fabric was cut.

"You're skilled in combat."

Lizet murmured. In the instant her lips moved, Fenris struck five times. Neck, shoulder, chest, side, thigh. The combination flowed one into the next, but Lizet wasn't cut. Both her fists caught four of the strikes, and the last was stopped by her knee.

A Fist Demon, but she doesn't only use fists.

The way she had caught that last strike with her knee felt practiced. He had also caught something unsettling from her elbow in the middle of her punches. Lizet's entire body was a weapon. A faint black Aura covered her from head to toe. She was concentrating her Aura force at her fists, but wherever she needed to strike, the force would surge out from that point.

Normally that would be nearly impossible to predict, but Kyle could faintly sense the flow of that Aura. His innate Chaos Spirit Root was sensitive enough to detect the way another person's mana flowed and elevated into Aura.

Weaving that sense into real-time combat responses was a different matter, but Kyle trusted the accumulated experience from his previous life. Without that trust, he couldn't stand against Lizet.

Thinking that, he stepped back and steadied his breath. Lizet didn't retreat. She came forward, and her footwork was different now, she was beginning to move in earnest.

One step, and her body vanished from his sight. Kyle moved the sword on instinct's warning. Boom! A fist from the left pushed him back. Before he could even reset his stance, a flurry followed.

Boom boom boom boom! Under the savage barrage, Kyle was steadily pushed back step by step. He held firm with his Sword Force and weathered the blows, then detonated the Primordial Chaos Sword Canon. Rumble! The mana racing through his body traced a sword path, and Fenris traced it too.

Lizet caught the diagonal rising slash with both hands, and those hands were forced apart to either side. Her body opened up. As Fenris, which had gone high, began to fall to cut through her, Lizet stomped off the floor.

Clang!

Fenris collided with Lizet's swinging right leg. In the instant of that impact, Lizet twisted her waist in midair. Her left heel came flying at Kyle's head. Kyle immediately let Fenris flow off the right leg in contact and dropped low. A sickening sound grazed the top of his skull.

He pushed off the ground and stepped back. Again, Lizet didn't let him create distance. Thud! The foot she planted shook the heart of the Secret Realm. A wave of pressure crushed down on Kyle's entire body at the same moment.

Kyle answered with his own force. Killing Intent and fighting spirit, the presence Kyle poured out swallowed Lizet's pressure whole. In the instant Lizet's body stiffened, Kyle thrust Fenris forward. Violet Sword Force wrapped the blade. In this single piercing thrust, the Sword Force coating Fenris was no longer a simple blade of mana. It carried unmistakable Thunder Energy.

Boom! Lizet's body was driven back. Both arms that had caught the thrust went numb. Violet Thunder Energy lingered around her body and kept her from moving freely.

Lizet swallowed a breath. Thud! The black Aura coating her body deepened. With that, she shook herself free of the Thunder Energy.

Fenris was close. The Sword Force covering the blade still carried Thunder Energy. The arcs it traced were as fast as lightning's flash.

Both of Lizet's fists moved. Left, right, left, left. Four consecutive strikes knocked the Sword Force aside. The transferred Thunder Energy could no longer linger on her.

Lightning...

A light flashed in Lizet's eyes. Humans had organs called spirit roots to handle elemental mana, but the Demon Tribe had nothing like that. This superior race was born understanding and wielding mana from their very first moment.

Because of that, demons who weren't mages didn't bother loading their Sword Force with elemental mana that had such a strong elemental pull. What set the Demon Tribe apart from humans was their mastery of pure, unattributed mana.

So in the end this one is human too. Using an element instead of his native mana.

Until now there had been no particular element standing out, but now he was clearly showing Thunder Energy. That was the limit of a human.

The mana the Demon Tribe freely wielded was native mana, carrying no attribute. To breathe it and command it as naturally as a limb was to inscribe your own nature into the source itself. If the mana a human wielded was a mimicry of nature drawn through an inborn spirit root, the mana the Demon Tribe wielded was native power shaped into the self.

That was why the Demon Tribe was superior to humans. Kyle's sword was remarkable, but Lizet reconfirmed the superiority of her kind. Fenris, carrying Thunder Energy, moved without pause. Thrusting, slashing, rising, falling. The Sword Force raised through the Primordial Chaos Sword Canon traced over every line of those paths. A single stream of Sword Force split into ten, and ten converged back into one.

Lizet's fists caught all of it. Even while catching it, she moved forward. The mana she had refined and made her own through training was not being pushed back by Thunder Energy that was merely an imitation. That wasn't real lightning, after all.

She hadn't heard his thoughts, but Kyle's view was not so different from Lizet's. Spirit roots awakened all humans equally and let them handle mana, yet the inborn spirit root fixed their direction.

Before awakening his spirit root, Kyle had already been absorbing himself in all kinds of cultivation texts and sword arts in the Great Archive. Even now that the Primordial Chaos Sword Canon was complete, whenever he had time to spare, he spent it there.

Lightning is fast. The cultivation texts and sword arts created by those with this spirit root were almost all skewed toward speed. Just as lightning flares and vanishes, lightning swordsmanship was the same. Speed as the foundation, with power concentrated into a single instant in most cases.

Flame is hot. It burns whatever it touches. If lightning pierces a single point, flame spreads wide. The range of attack is broad, and once it catches, it doesn't go out easily. That was why flame swordsmanship was fierce and relentless.

Water is supple. Block it and it goes around; if there's a gap, it seeps in. The destructive power head-on is weaker, but it deflects an opponent's attacks and shifts the current. The line between offense and defense blurs. Karthan's sword had been like that.

In the end, the sword follows the spirit root. Breathing in the unattributed mana that fills the world, refining it through the inborn spirit root into the right element, and holding it inside the body, that was the martial arts of this era.

Kyle had no intention of rejecting the martial arts that had developed that way. They had grown in line with the spirit roots, and there was no particular glaring flaw. For the people of this era, that was simply the natural order.

But Kyle was not a person of this era. The sword and martial arts he had devoted his entire life to were, in this age, actually closer to what the Demon Tribe practiced. Five hundred years ago, humans had taken in unattributed, native mana and cultivated it as their own.

He had no intention of rejecting it, but there was no need to follow it as though it were the only truth. Kyle knew too much for that, and had been born with too much.

Lizet didn't know any of that. She didn't know Kyle had reincarnated, and she didn't know what he had been born with. The unknowing Lizet closed in to the range that was uncomfortable for a swordsman.

The distance where you couldn't swing a sword freely. Too close even for a thrust. The distance where a fist hits hardest.

At a fist's range, the Fist Demon threw a punch. Thud! The fist thrown with a ground-shaking stomp warped the space around it. At this range, lightning couldn't stop the Fist Demon's punch. To do that would require transcending innate limits and grasping the ideal.

Something possible only at the Extreme Boundary. No matter how genius the talent, reaching the Extreme Boundary at fifteen was impossible.

"...?!"

The lightning flowed like water.

That was how Lizet felt it. The lightning that should have flared and vanished didn't vanish. The sword path was supple. The Sword Force was supple. What flowed with suppleness first was the sword itself, and the Sword Force carrying the Thunder Energy followed that arc with complete naturalness.

The fist driven out straight flowed along the sword path. Not fatal. If she had been composed, she could have changed the flow or pulled the attack back. But in that moment, Lizet was not composed. She had been deceived by the lightning Kyle had shown her.

Uncle Karthan.

In that sword, Kyle thought of Karthan. Karthan's sword had been at a level even the Sword Demon could acknowledge.

Just borrowing this.

Borrow it he might say, but the arc Fenris was drawing now wasn't identical to Karthan's. Of course it wasn't, Kyle was unfolding a sword he had only seen Karthan perform.

Kyle's body rotated half a turn, and Lizet's fist slid off to the side. Kyle saw Lizet's eyes go wide. Apparently even that demon princess hadn't anticipated a human handling mana this way, shifting the sword's nature mid-motion.

The price of surprise is paid in blood. That was usually how the battlefield worked.

Fenris drove into Lizet's side.

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