Ch.547The Sword of Radiance, Hauteclaire

The guardians, having lost the option of high-level spirits, had only the World Tree’s blessing and their own strength to rely on.

Karvios and Feilandria filled their bodies with mana by devouring lower spirits, then channeled all of it into enhancing their physical abilities—a textbook spirit manipulation technique for close combat.

Facing them, Perlien de Genes drew his silver-blue true silver sword, wreathing himself in crimson holy light rather than pure white radiance. Though he had transferred to the Church of Elpinel, the holy light power he had accumulated was still from Saulite, meaning the miracles he could use remained those of the Church of Saulite.

“CLANG!”

The fairy’s thin sword and Perlien’s true silver blade collided, releasing a clear metallic sound.

“Kuh…!”

Despite enhancing her physical abilities with mana, Feilandria was pushed back by the difference in weight.

A natural opening appeared. However, instead of pursuing her, Perlien remained in place and swung his true silver sword a couple of times. Karvios’s arrows, touching the silver-blue trajectory, were sliced in two.

“A true silver sword with a golden hilt and crystal ornaments…!”

Feilandria, having regained her posture, pointed at the longsword in Perlien’s grip, staring at it intently instead of charging again.

“Could it be…!”

She had heard about a sword with such characteristics before—a story told by the generation before hers with voices full of resentment. The shape matched the description of the sword that appeared in that story.

“Could it be… Hauteclere?”

One of the swords of the twelve hated butchers.

Just like Durandal, which was presumed to be in the possession of her target, this cursed demonic sword that had brought death to countless fairies was right before her eyes!

“Hmm. So you recognize it. Is that the wisdom of fairy years?”

Perlien affirmed her words as he charged forward.

“Indeed. This is Hauteclere the Radiant. The sword of Olivier, one of the Twelve Knights who saved humanity!”

The golden engravings on the true silver blade shimmered with brilliant light.

—-

The two swords crossed, spitting sparks, while deflected arrows embedded themselves throughout the forest. The two fairies and Perlien engaged in a silent struggle in the darkness.

Feilandria deflected Hauteclere with her thin sword as it relentlessly targeted her vital points, breaking into a cold sweat.

Her ears stood straight up. She was so disconcerted—far beyond the shock of having their presence discovered—that even her breathing became irregular.

‘A wielder of Hauteclere? There was another successor to the Twelve Murderers besides Median?’

An incident unknown to anyone in her homeland. Feilandria bit her lip.

The fairies had expected that bloodlines of the Twelve Knights might remain, but there was an enormous gap between mere descendants and successors who had awakened the swords. They were beings of entirely different dimensions.

The divine artifacts of Elpinel, the Oath Swords, contained such dangerous powers.

‘…Should we retreat?’

The tip of Feilandria’s ear trembled slightly. By her judgment, if this short-lived human had awakened Hauteclere’s power, this was no time for mere swordplay.

The Radiant Sword, Hauteclere.

The nickname attached to that weapon was none other than “Fairy’s Death.”

Perhaps if the World Tree’s blessing had been at its peak hundreds of years ago, it would be different, but fighting with their current strength was far too burdensome.

“Radiant? What does that matter! How dare a mere short-lived creature be so arrogant!”

But for Karvios, the name of the sword meant nothing. As is often the case, one sees only as much as one knows, and the ignorant are always foolishly brave.

Though aware of the Twelve Knights, Karvios had no interest in specific names, so Perlien’s words were meaningless nonsense to him.

“Be torn to shreds!”

He summoned more than ten wind spirits and transformed them all into arrows to fire. Unlike fire or lightning, wind power could minimize light and noise.

“Karvios, wait—”

Before Feilandria could stop him, the wind arrows Karvios had fired flew simultaneously toward Perlien.

Arrows that created whirlwinds of cutting wind at their impact points—an attack that could tear human flesh to shreds in an instant.

Perlien smiled.

The enemy’s rashness was helping him.

“Devour all evil magic and wicked things. Hauteclere!”

The true silver blade turned golden. Hauteclere revealing its true power. Perlien swung the sword, drawing a large circle.

“CRACK!”

The spirit arrows flying like lightning all shattered as they touched the sword’s trajectory.

No, they weren’t shattering.

“What…!”

Karvios exclaimed in shock.

The fragments of spirits cut by Hauteclere, instead of dissolving and scattering their remains in the air, were being sucked into the golden blade!

“It absorbs spirit power?!”

“Is that all you think it does? If that were the extent of it, it wouldn’t deserve to be called a divine artifact!”

Perlien pointed Hauteclere toward Karvios.

“WOOOONG!”

The blade, now brimming with mana, vibrated as it revealed its power. A stream of pure white light burst forth, becoming dozens of swords that lined up in the air behind Perlien.

“Radiance of Retribution”—the power to absorb energies that Elpinel deemed wicked, such as mana, dark mana, and spirits, and transform them into pure white light.

That was the power of Hauteclere the Radiant.

“Behold Olivier’s Radiance!”

With Perlien’s command, the swords of light shot toward the fairies.

—-

Feilandria gritted her teeth as she dodged and deflected the swords of light that flew as if they had lives of their own.

‘So this is why Hauteclere was called the “Fairy’s Death”…’

Though she couldn’t grasp the exact principles or limitations, it was clear that it absorbed mana and spirit power to use as its own weapon.

In other words, against the master of Hauteclere, most fairy tactics were sealed!

‘Not only lower spirits, but even if we summoned high-level spirits, it would be meaningless. The moment they’re cut by that sword, they’d be absorbed and become the enemy’s strength. That means we have no choice but to engage in physical combat relying on the World Tree’s blessing…’

Unfortunately, engaging in physical combat with humans wasn’t a wise choice. Fairies were lighter than human children.

Thanks to this, they could surpass humans in agility and speed, but their strikes were too light, causing them to be thrown back the moment they crossed weapons with humans.

Showing such openings would quickly lead to death.

“Kuk…! Senior Feilandria! What should we do?!”

Karvios desperately sought advice while narrowly avoiding the swords of light.

He too had realized they couldn’t use magic or spirits, but there was no way to defeat a human of equal level with their main tactics sealed.

At least, Karvios couldn’t think of a solution.

Unlike Feilandria, who had thought of one potentially effective method.

“What do we do? We’re in a forest, aren’t we? So we should use the geographical advantage!”

Feilandria wiped blood from a wound where Hauteclere had grazed her and splattered it around. Fairy blood was added to the trees and undergrowth that had been crushed in the battle between guardian and hero.

Karvios, realizing what Feilandria was trying to do, likewise soaked the surroundings with his own blood.

‘What are they trying to do? Use geographical advantage? Spread blood scent to mask their own, and hide in the darkness of the forest?’

Perlien attacked them with nine swords while using the remaining three to protect himself and survey the surroundings.

Fairies suddenly offering their bodily fluids to trees. He wondered what this behavior could possibly mean.

The answer came immediately.

“God with roots in the earth. Great tree of life, protect your children!”

Feilandria, who had destroyed two radiant swords with a shower of strikes from her thin blade, shouted loudly.

To teach the master of Hauteclere, who had reappeared after hundreds of years, what it meant to fight fairies in a forest.

The World Tree’s blessing bestowed upon fairies wasn’t simply limited to enhancing their physical abilities and senses.

If that were all, they wouldn’t have been called the forest folk.

It was a fact not widely known, as most who witnessed it became forest fertilizer, but within the blood of those blessed by the World Tree dwelled the power of the World Tree itself—the authority of the tree god who ruled all vegetation.

“GRRRR…!”

The forest awakened.

—-

“This is…!”

Sensing the anomaly, Perlien pulled all nine remaining swords of light around himself. It was an instinctive reaction. He felt as if everything around him had suddenly turned hostile.

And the intuition of a hero-class paladin was generally very close to reality.

“RUMBLE!”

A violent tremor like an earthquake. The surrounding trees shook their bodies and rustled their leaves in unison.

Birds perched on branches took flight with sharp cries, and small animals fled with shrieks.

What had been a cozy shelter until moments ago had transformed into a predator’s maw.

“What did you do?!”

“You’ll see.”

With Feilandria’s answer, dozens of tentacle-like appendages burst from the ground at an astonishing speed.

Writhing like snakes, rough like tree roots… no, they were tree roots themselves.

Tree roots that should have been quietly buried in the earth were raging like frenzied animals!

It wasn’t just the roots. Trunks that had stood tall were now whipping about like lashes, and branches and leaves were shooting forth like thorns.

Literally, the forest itself had turned against Perlien!

“Could this be the power of the World Tree…!”

Perlien groaned as he cut down approaching tree roots with swords of light and split tree trunks with Hauteclere like an axe. He couldn’t deflect them all.

Leaves that penetrated between slashes embedded themselves like arrows, and tree trunks that continued advancing even after being split in half struck his body.

It felt like being trapped in a net of hundreds of spears and swords.