Ch.19Light That Should Not Be Taken (5)

The final gateway to escape the underground city.

Najin gritted his teeth as he looked at Ivan standing guard at the entrance to the tunnel leading to the waterfall. It was the reality he had been trying so hard to ignore.

···He knew Ivan was pursuing him.

Offen had told him so. But at the same time, Najin had hoped. Perhaps Ivan was trying to let him go. Perhaps he was deliberately not chasing after him. That was Najin’s hope and wish.

Because he didn’t want to face Ivan.

Because he didn’t want to point his sword at Ivan.

Because he didn’t want to fight Ivan with the resolve to kill.

“So you’ve come.”

But reality thrust itself before the boy’s eyes.

The worst situation he had imagined had arrived.

“I’ve been waiting.”

If you want to leave this city, you must overcome that enormous wall. You must overcome the man who has drawn lines for you and restricted you to go outside. Najin’s expression crumpled in the face of this reality.

“Draw your sword.”

Ivan drew his blade.

Ivan did not offer a sword salute. He merely pointed the tip of his sword at Najin. With eyes colder than ever before, and a voice low and grim.

A pressure weighing down on his shoulders.

What he felt was a sticky killing intent.

Najin sensed there was no other way. Though he didn’t want to fight, though he was afraid, he had no choice but to draw his sword. The blade that scraped roughly against its scabbard as it was drawn now pointed at Ivan.

And then, boom.

Ivan kicked off the ground and charged.

Unlike during their practice sessions, Ivan didn’t wait for Najin to approach first. Trailing a pale blue sword aura, Ivan swung his sword toward Najin.

Ivan was forcing Najin’s hand.

Come at me with the resolve to die, he seemed to say.

Otherwise, I have no choice but to cut you down.

2.

Knight of Atanga, Ivan.

Ivan had reached the realm of Sword Expert at the age of 31 and had served as a Knight of Atanga for 8 years. Even after losing his honor and falling to the underground city, he hadn’t neglected his training for the past ten years.

Eighteen years since reaching the realm of Sword Expert.

Ivan had once been called a promising talent in the Knights of Atanga. A knight who might have become a Sword Seeker had he received proper support and education. Such a person had remained at the same level for 18 years.

The implication was simple.

Ivan ranked among the upper echelons of Sword Experts. It meant he could predict victory against most Experts, and his swordsmanship and combat techniques had approached the realm of perfection over many years.

In other words.

“···Ugh!”

For Najin, who had barely approached the level of Sword Expert, Ivan was far too formidable an opponent. The moment Najin parried Ivan’s sword, his body was lifted off the ground.

Different. The weight behind the sword.

Different. The density of the sword aura.

Despite surrounding himself with his own sword aura, Najin was pushed back. He rolled across the ground and got to his feet. There was no time to catch his breath, of course. Ivan’s pursuing sword struck the ground where Najin had just been standing with a loud crash!

The ground was deeply gouged, and dust billowed up.

In the moment when the rising dust obscured his vision, Ivan’s sword cut through the cloud. Clang! Even though Najin barely blocked the sword, he was pushed back again. His sword hand tingled painfully.

Najin realized how much Ivan had been holding back during their previous sparring sessions, how much he had restrained himself.

His fingers trembled after just two or three sword clashes. Cold sweat ran down his spine. Najin gritted his teeth and steadied his breathing. With wide eyes, he tracked Ivan’s movements.

Fast. Heavy. And unceasing.

Ivan’s movements seemed to break at times, yet they all created a single flow. Najin was being swept away by that flow.

“Kuh!”

He blocked the sword but was struck in the knee.

He tried to deflect the sword, but his technique was countered, and the pommel struck his temple. As his vision blurred, Ivan’s greaved foot kicked him in the stomach.

His breathing faltered.

And with it, his stance crumbled.

He barely twisted his body to avoid the sword thrust that followed, but the tip grazed him, drawing blood. Amidst the spraying blood, Najin groaned. He couldn’t allow himself to be swept away by the flow.

‘I must counterattack.’

But how?

Combat techniques, grappling, feints, methods to induce the opponent’s carelessness… everything Najin had built up so far was ineffective against Ivan.

Because it all originated from Ivan.

These were all things Ivan had taught Najin, and naturally, Ivan was superior in all of them. The density of sword aura, the perfection of technique, the weight of the sword, stance, grappling… Ivan had the upper hand in every aspect.

“Don’t fight on your opponent’s battlefield.”

“You can’t always fight those weaker than you. So, how do you fight against the strong?”

Najin recalled.

“Draw them into your battlefield.”

“Find where you surpass your opponent.”

Where could he surpass Ivan?

‘…He told me not to be overconfident in my talent.’

There was only one thing Najin could rely on. The only thing in which Najin might surpass Ivan. That was Najin’s talent and specialty. Najin widened his eyes.

His bloodshot eyes moved rapidly.

Even when he couldn’t keep up with Ivan’s movements before, and even now as he was being pushed back, Najin’s eyes were accurately tracking Ivan’s movements. He strained those eyes even more.

With his eyes wide open, he could see.

The gaps between Ivan’s movements. The subtle time differences that occurred when connecting one action to another. Najin didn’t yet have the technique to precisely strike those gaps. He hadn’t learned such things.

‘But.’

Just because he hadn’t learned something didn’t mean he could just take the beating. Since when had he relied solely on what he was taught? The techniques he had learned only increased his options; it had always been quick judgment and boldness that had found his way forward.

Najin kicked off the ground and charged.

Ka, gagagak!

The sword slid along the blade’s surface, and as Najin moved as if to deflect the sword, Ivan tried to counter the technique. Najin dove into Ivan’s space. Boldly diving in and twisting his body, Najin struck Ivan’s shoulder with his pommel.

Crack.

The gap Najin had identified with his own eyes. He struck the seam connecting Ivan’s stances. For the first time, the flow Ivan had been creating was broken, and Najin didn’t miss the opportunity, kicking off the ground.

Circling to Ivan’s side, Najin swung his sword. Clang! For the first time, Ivan stepped back. Absorbed in wielding his sword, Najin didn’t notice, but at that moment, a faint smile spread across Ivan’s face.

‘A technique I never taught him…’

Ivan hid his smile as he responded.

‘He’s using it on his own.’

Najin was still inferior to Ivan.

Najin was still inexperienced, and his understanding of the sword as a weapon was also low. But Najin was filling all those gaps with his instincts and eyes.

He uses techniques I never taught him. Ivan clicked his tongue at Najin’s movements, improvising techniques on the spot. But he still thought:

It’s not enough.

Despite all the hints he was giving, Najin hadn’t realized it yet. Ivan forcefully pushed back the pursuing Najin and created distance.

“……”

Pushed back, Najin felt something odd.

The killing intent he had felt from Ivan was appearing and disappearing repeatedly. It seemed like Ivan was trying to kill him, but also trying to teach him.

Neither was false.

Ivan was sincerely trying to kill Najin, and at the same time, sincerely trying to teach him. The human heart cannot be simplified into a single direction. As Najin felt this dissonance…

“Huu……”

Ivan exhaled.

Then, he repeated a seemingly meaningless action he had done several times during the battle. It was raising his sword and steadying his breath.

Kiing!

Ivan’s sword aura became clearer.

His scattered sword aura became neat, and the blue flame that had been dying down blazed up again. This action, repeated several times. Najin silently observed it.

Ivan approached. He swung his sword, and Najin received Ivan’s sword in his own way.

Receiving. Getting cut. Being kicked.

Pushing back, finding gaps, retreating again.

As the battle continued, Najin realized. While he could improvise to fill other elements, there was a fundamental element in which he was inferior to Ivan. That was none other than the sword aura Ivan wrapped around his sword.

Ivan’s sword aura was clear and neat.

Najin’s sword aura was blurry and rough.

A perfectly refined sword aura versus fragments of an unrefined one. That was the gap between Ivan and himself. How could he fill that gap? As Najin searched for an answer, Ivan once again took his stance.

A stance he took over and over.

Najin narrowed his eyes.

“When you return, I’ll teach you how to handle sword aura.”

“On the pride of Ivan, Knight of Atanga.”

…Could it be?

Najin observed Ivan’s movements.

For a while now, Ivan had been repeating seemingly meaningless actions. As if telling Najin to watch. Realizing this, Najin couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh. Now he understood.

The answer was there.

‘…Really.’

What rhythm was he supposed to follow?

Najin had seen that stance Ivan was taking, the flow moving through Ivan’s body and wrapping around his sword, many times up close. Because he had seen it, he understood.

Najin stepped back significantly.

Ivan didn’t pursue him.

As if saying, go ahead and try.

“Huu……”

Najin exhaled deeply.

Steadying his breath, Najin took the stance most familiar to him. Lowering his body with the sword trailing behind his waist, a stance for charging. In this stance, Najin focused on the flow within his body.

Don’t just let the flow go where it will. Grasp it and control it. Make it flow in the direction you want, along the path you desire.

Naturally, it’s not an easy task.

It’s not simple enough to imitate after seeing it just a few times. This is something that is usually realized through long periods of meditation in a cross-legged position.

That’s how Ivan did it. That’s how Ivan’s master did it. That’s how most of the Knights of Atanga realized it. But Ivan knew. The boy before him was far from simply being talented.

Najin had good eyes.

Ivan knew this fact. Better than anyone.

For this boy, showing him once was better than telling him a hundred times, making him experience it directly was the right way to teach him. Watching Najin, Ivan smiled.

“Yes.”

Only then did Ivan speak.

“That’s how you use it.”

Najin’s trailing sword.

Golden particles rose up over Najin’s blade, which had been wrapped in white sword aura. The rising particles filled in the parts that the white hadn’t covered, mixing with the white.

Golden particles mixed with the white sword aura.

Gold sparkled within the deep white.

What was created was a platinum-colored sword aura. In a place where stars couldn’t be seen, what colored the sword of a boy who had longed for stars was platinum (白金). A sword aura with the color of starlight.

When Ivan confirmed the sword aura coloring the boy’s sword, his eyes widened. Then Ivan burst into laughter. Platinum-colored sword aura. As far as Ivan remembered, it was a color of sword aura that no one else possessed. A sword aura resembling starlight was the exclusive property of King Arthur.

A boy who had drawn the sword left by King Arthur, and who possessed the same sword aura as King Arthur, stood before him.

With his own color.

A sword aura that completely wrapped the sword, beyond fragments.

It was evidence that the boy had reached the complete realm of Sword Expert. Ivan gripped his sword again and charged toward Najin. The two sword auras tore at each other.

Platinum-colored sword aura and pale blue sword aura collided.

3.

Each time the swords clashed, pale blue flames and platinum starlight sprayed upward. After several clashes, Ivan and Najin simultaneously stepped back. Looking at the boy who had nearly caught up to him, Ivan thought:

This was enough.

“Najin.”

He had fulfilled his duty as a master.

“Come at me with the resolve to kill.”

Ivan lowered his sword.

It was a stance he had never shown Najin before, a stance for unleashing Ivan’s proudest technique. The swordsmanship with which he had executed evil men who had lost their honor and pride as Knights of Atanga.

Before unleashing that swordsmanship, Ivan warned:

I will bring out everything I have to kill you, so you should do the same. Point your brightest light at me.

The hesitation was gone.

All that remained in Ivan was killing intent.

“……”

Najin silently lowered his sword.

This was far from acknowledging his defeat. Rather, it was the opposite. With his sword sheathed at his waist, Najin reached out toward the empty air.

Grasp.

Najin clutched the empty air. To show his brightest light. The air rippled as starlight began to gather. What appeared in the boy’s hand was the sword of stars, Excalibur.

Starlight brightly illuminated the underground city.

The moment he drew Excalibur, Najin staggered. Just summoning the sword required considerable energy.

But Najin quickly steadied himself.

To break through the wall blocking his path and move forward.

The boy holding the star and the knight chasing the star faced each other.