The God-Possessed Swordsmanship Genius - Chapter 44

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Sword Genius Blessed by a Spirit, Chapter 44

* * *

Allen stood before the rock where the Fake Demon Sword was embedded.
In the distance, Lucas and Belvemos were fighting. The clash between the two of them was still fierce.
Standing before the Fake Demon Sword, Allen silently addressed the True Demon Sword.

‘Kaglos, I have a question.’

-What is it?

‘Is that demon over there greater than you?’

-Ha!

Kaglos answered as though he could hardly believe the question.

-That fellow seems to be no small thing, but he falls far short of comparing to me. Don’t insult me, Bishuken.

Most demons were full of bluster, but judging by his reaction, he seemed to be sincere.
Then again, that was what Allen had guessed as well.
The Kaglos who had fought the First Head of the Clan had been no lesser than the might of the Ten Great Demons. Going by Kaglos’s own words, he had not even been in his prime back then.

‘Then that settles it.’

-What are you planning to do?

Allen answered with his actions.

“Like this.”

The Fake Demon Sword, lodged in the rock.
The moment Allen reached out toward it—

“Hey, Allen—!!!”

From far away, Lucas’s shout cut through the air, as he fought Belvemos.
He had realized what Allen was about to do.
But Allen had no intention of stopping.

‘Don’t worry, Brother.’

Clank.

Allen’s hand closed around the Fake Demon Sword.

‘Nothing’s going to happen.’

Shhk.

As one would expect from a sword forged by Lenard’s father, the Fake Demon Sword slid out of the rock with ease.
Demonic Energy flowed in through the hilt he gripped. The hilt felt scorching hot, like iron heated in a forge.
With it came a voice.

-You looked so confident, and this is all you could come up with?

Belvemos’s voice reverberated inside his head.

-So you’re his younger brother, huh. Well, that’s even better. This just got more interesting-.

Belvemos’s voice cut off abruptly.
Sure enough, after a moment.

-…Huh?

A trace of bewilderment crept into the voice echoing inside his head.

* * *

Belvemos’s soul was dragged down into a deep darkness.
A space without end, pitch-black, like a universe where every star had gone out.
Opening his eyes there, Belvemos looked around.

“Where in the world am I…?”

He remembered only that the youthful swordsman boy had seized him.
Just as he had been using his own power to infiltrate the soul of the boy who had touched the sword.
Then, by some force, Belvemos had been pulled into this place.
He could not make sense of the situation.
A space like this, inside a human soul?
He had seized the bodies of many humans and demons over the ages, but never had he encountered anything like this.

Clang.

It was then that a harsh metallic clatter reached his ears.
At the first sound to pierce the stillness of the darkness, Belvemos turned his gaze toward it on instinct.
And at the sight that met his eyes, Belvemos was startled.

‘That human man?’

Beyond a thick iron cage.
Wrapped tightly in long chains was the human man he had seen from outside.
But only his appearance was the same.

‘No, he’s different.’

Belvemos, who could see the essence of a soul, could tell.
The swordsman boy he had seen outside and the being before him were alike only in their shells; in every other way, they were nothing alike.

“Who are you?”

Belvemos’s voice trembled little by little.

“Where in the world is this? Why would something like you be inside that worthless human’s body…?”

His voice grew smaller and smaller.
Belvemos sensed that something about his condition was wrong.
Just as when he had bowed his head before the Demon King, his soul was seized by terror.

Skrrk-

Then the being inside the cage raised its head.

A face exactly like that of the swordsman outside.
The moment his eyes met that expressionless face, Belvemos’s soul shook like an aspen leaf in the wind.
His soul cried out.
Run from here. Never go near that thing.
I couldn’t tell why this kind of dread was crawling over me.
There was only one thing I could think of.

‘Fear has been carved into my soul.’

Belvemos turned his body around.
He ran toward the darkness.
No, he fled.
He had no idea where he was. He couldn’t guess how far this pitch-black dark stretched, and he didn’t even try.
All he could think about was getting away from that iron cage, and getting away now.
Just as Belvemos was fleeing from something he couldn’t name, he glanced back over his shoulder.

Clang!

One of the chains binding it snapped, and the darkness vanished.

* * *

Ding!

[The ‘Soul of Ten Thousand Demons’ resists the ‘Demon Sword Belvemos.’]

The message came the moment he gripped the demon sword.
Allen had half-expected it, and inwardly he let out a breath of relief.

‘Good.’

It was the same message he had received when he had taken hold of Kaglos.
The Soul of Ten Thousand Demons.
The question mark lodged inside him had succeeded in holding back Belvemos’s soul.

Kieeeeeeeeeeh!!!

A horrific shriek rang out from the demon sword.
At the same moment, something changed with the Steel Castle Lord, who was fighting in the distance.

“M-my lord!”
“The Lord is—!”

The Steel Castle Lord, who had been locked blade to blade with Lucas, staggered and collapsed. At the same time, sweat poured from his entire body like rain.
Lucas hesitated for a moment at his sudden collapse.

‘What’s going on?’

The sword Lucas had pressed to the Steel Castle Lord’s throat wavered.
At first, he suspected the demon was deceiving him yet again. A demon who lied as easily as breathing would find such an act no trouble at all.
But even so, the situation on Allen’s side was just as strange as this one.

Kiehhh, kiehhhh!!!

A piercing, agonized scream.
The sound was coming from inside the demon sword.
It was like the howl of a soul fallen into hell. Some of the swordsmen could bear it no longer; they dropped the blades in their hands and clamped their hands over their ears.

Lucas tried to rush toward Allen. He feared that if things went on like this, Allen might have his body seized.
But then.

“Wait… just a moment.”

An arm stretched out, blocking Lucas’s path.

“Wait a moment.”

It was Saul’s arm, the Steel Castle Lord’s, the moment he came back to his senses.
At the Steel Castle Lord’s restraint, Lucas hesitated for a moment.
He knew it too.
They could not simply rush in like this, with no preparation whatsoever.

What if Allen’s body had already been taken over by Belvemos?
He might be the one to get hurt, having rushed in to save his little brother.
If that happened, things would go from bad to worse. With the Steel Castle Lord in such poor condition, the weight on Lucas’s shoulders was heavy.
And then, after a while.

Ki… eh…

Little by little, the screams that had been coming from the demon sword faded away.

The noisy ravine fell silent. The Flying Sword Corps, the Steel Castle, and the imperial knights gathered around Allen.
Without letting his guard down, Lucas made his way toward Allen.

“…Allen.”

Lucas, who had been calling Allen’s name, shook his head.
No.
The one standing over there is—

“I’ll get you out soon.”

It was not his own brother, Allen Bishuken.
Most likely, the demon that had been sleeping inside the Fake Demon Sword had fully revived…

“Huh? I’m fine, you know?”
“…?”

Lucas, who had been channeling mana into his sword, wore a puzzled expression.
The voice was clear and cheerful, completely out of step with the situation.
Allen grinned brightly and twirled the demon sword around for him to see.

“See? I’m really fine. Now it’s a total hunk of junk, too.”
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“What do I think? I’m on a mission, obviously.”

Even so, Lucas was not quick to take Allen at his word.
He had already been deceived by a demon’s lies once. Lucas had learned well just how cunning and deceitful demons could be.

What if the one over there was not Allen?
What if the demon Belvemos was pretending to be his little brother?
This was not the kind of suspicion that could be dismissed with a mere “it could be so.”
If anything, the chances that the one standing there was not Allen were high.

‘Most likely, that’s the case.’

It was certain that Belvemos’s soul had slipped out of the Steel Castle Lord’s body.
If so, it was highly probable that the vanished soul had transferred to Allen, who now held the demon sword.
There was no way Allen could endure the demon’s soul, when even the Steel Castle Lord had been unable to bear it.

‘It’s the demon’s act.’

It was just as Lucas was privately settling on that conviction.

Swish-swish-swish!

Someone whipped past Lucas at tremendous speed.
Lucas recognized him and cried out.

“Lord Commander!”

Saul, the Steel Castle’s lord.
Sword drawn, he was charging straight at Allen at a blistering pace.

Steel Style, First Form.
Sharp Edge Slash.

Whoosh!

The swordsmen surrounding Allen gasped in shock.
The Steel Castle lord’s blade was so fast that, to their eyes, Allen’s head had already been severed.
But.

“…”

The Steel Castle lord had not taken Allen’s head.
His blade hung motionless just short of Allen’s throat.
In an instant, the valley below fell as silent as if the world itself had stopped. On the flat of the Steel Castle lord’s blade, both Allen’s face and his own were reflected at once.
Lucas, seeing that Allen was unharmed, let out a quiet breath behind him.
He, too, had truly believed the Steel Castle lord meant to kill Allen.
The first to speak was Allen.

“See?”

With a blade at his throat, Allen grinned at the Steel Castle lord.

“I told you it was real.”

His reaction was that of a man who had known all along that the other would pull his sword back.
Their eyes met at close range. In that moment, the Steel Castle lord recalled how, months ago, Allen had shown up at his door without warning.
The same eyes.

Shk.

The instant he met that gaze, the Steel Castle lord withdrew his blade.

“Looks that way.”
“I was startled. I thought you were really going to kill me.”
“If you were a demon, I’d have expected you to react that way. If this had all been an act, you would have attacked me the moment an opening appeared.”
“So you believe me now?”
“I do. Not even at this distance can I sense any demonic energy.”

He had swung for a vital point and Allen hadn’t reacted, and even up close, no trace of demonic energy could be felt.
With that single exchange, the Steel Castle lord had confirmed that Allen was perfectly sound.
And above all else.

Crack. Crack-crack.

In the next moment, the Fake Demon Sword clutched in Allen’s hand began to fracture.

Pang!

The Fake Demon Sword shattered like glass.
Its fragments scattered across the ground with a patter. Unlike before, the shards had lost their crimson glow.
The fake Demon Sword had shattered, and with it, it had lost all its power.

“Whew-.”

At that, sighs and murmurs of relief rose from all around.

“It… it broke.”
“S-is it over?”
“Looks that way.”

The demon sword had broken.
Steel Castle’s Lord had returned to his senses, and Allen, who had taken hold of the demon sword a second time, was unharmed.
With this, everything tied to the demons had truly come to an end.
Meanwhile, Lucas strode over and asked in an irritated voice.

“What on earth were you thinking, doing something so reckless?”

Sensing that Lucas was not in a good mood, Allen gave a sheepish grin.
In moments like this, the best thing was to laugh it off.

“I didn’t do it without thinking, so please don’t be too angry, Captain.”
“Only when it suits you do I get to be Captain?”

Lucas let out a heavy sigh and said,

“…We’ll talk later.”

Either way, this was the moment when everyone was relieved and celebrating that the battle had ended safely.
Lucas didn’t want to spoil the good mood for no reason, so he set his scolding aside for now.
Instead, he looked at the fragments of the sword lying on the ground and said bitterly,

“Everyone’s more or less unharmed, but… in the end, the mission was a failure.”

Not only was what they had finally found a fake, but even that had broken to pieces.
It had been a grave mission carried out by the Flying Sword Corps and Steel Castle together, yet the result was little more than a wild goose chase.
And yet.

“I don’t think so.”
“…?”

At Allen’s sudden words, Lucas and Steel Castle’s Lord exchanged puzzled looks.
Then Allen drew one of the two swords hanging at his waist.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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