Chapter 105: Whip (3)

“One, two…”

I struck down two with a surprise attack, then another with Jessica’s help, and including the spear now on the ground, that made four in total.

Five demon swords still stood before me, but their morale had clearly crumbled after seeing four fall so quickly. This fight was shaping up to be trivial.

However, one of them radiated an especially ominous light. In terms of raw power, it surpassed even my own.

Did Ganryu’s group have such an abundance of resources that they could simply hand over a body like that to the leader of these fools?

“Ha… thinking about it, this is ridiculous.”

The fact that these idiots were using the dolls employed by Ganryu’s group meant they must have received help from humans.

“You spineless bastards. Didn’t you claim to be independent from humans? What’s with those bodies? If you’re going to be stupid, at least have some conviction!”

“Shut up!! Enduring such contradictions is exactly what the demon sword liberation movement is about!!”

Hearing another voice of diminished intelligence, I turned to see a familiar weapon gesticulating wildly, its blade radiating heat.

“Ah, it’s you? As always, you’re quite the dickish weapon. But what did you just say? What contradiction?”

At this point, I’d be more surprised if their leader wasn’t a possessed individual like myself.

Logically, it’s more plausible that a possessed individual was pulling the strings behind the scenes, rather than some coincidental appearance of beings similar to those on Earth.

“Is there really no one behind you guys? Because otherwise–oops…”

Instead of an answer to my casual question, a familiar dagger emitting a blue light came flying at me.

Taking this as a signal to begin the battle, all the demon swords except one rushed at me en masse.

Having lived as swords for so long, their skills were reasonably impressive, even disregarding their physical strength.

However, they were merely passable. Having only recently become swordsmen, they lagged behind in psychological warfare and prediction.

‘How the hell did these morons manage to consume the Demon Sword Society…’

Honestly, I found it more astonishing that these idiots had managed to devour the Demon Sword Society than the fact that demon swords had fused with humans.

While the skills of the other demon swords posed little threat, I couldn’t afford to underestimate Agaia, their leader, who had reached the realm of Swordmaster in the original work.

The combination of Swordmaster-level skills and physical abilities surpassing my own made it challenging to face them while dealing with these idiots.

No matter how pathetic they were, their sheer numbers alone posed a significant threat by increasing the frequency of attacks.

I tried to isolate Agaia from the other demon swords, but interference at crucial moments repeatedly foiled my attacks.

As I continued dodging the relentless barrage of attacks, I eventually failed to evade one, resulting in a slight cut on my cheek.

“Ah…”

“Master!! Are you alright?!” Wolffang shouted in a fuss, but it was just a minor graze, seemingly not even poisoned.

I wiped the blood trickling down my cheek with my sleeve. The bastards seemed quite pleased with themselves for inflicting such a trivial wound, their faces twisting into sneers.

“Damn it…”

Sighing deeply, I glanced at the undergrowth Silence had plowed through earlier.

Having dragged out this fight with these idiots for quite some time, Silence should have cleared the forest by now, given the horse’s speed.

If not, even I, renowned for my mercy, would have no choice but to turn Silence into horsemeat.

“Worried about that woman? Rest assured, we’ll kill her after we’re done with you.”

Such words didn’t particularly anger me, as I knew they’d never come to pass. Instead, a question arose.

“Why did you leave Jessica unharmed?”

“What?”

“I understand not killing her if you wanted to use her as a hostage. But why didn’t you cut her legs or something?”

Jessica, capable of energy manipulation, could break free from ropes at the first opportunity.

To truly immobilize her, it would have been better to wound her legs directly. So why didn’t they?

“It’s unlikely you spared her out of love for humans, given you’ve killed your own masters. Did whoever gave you those bodies order you not to harm her?”

Though I was just spouting nonsense without any basis, it seemed I had hit the mark, judging by the agitation on their faces.

“Your expressions tell me everything. Seeing how well you obey humans you supposedly despise, don’t you secretly wish to be used by them?”

“Sh-shut up!!!”

A roar even louder than when Jessica had called out to me earlier echoed throughout the forest.

As if taking that roar as a signal, all but one of the demon swords charged at me, having lost their composure.

“Stop!! Why are you getting so riled up over such petty provocation?!”

Unlike Agaia, who had never found a master truly worthy of wielding her, my words cut into them like a blade reopening old wounds.

Their current charge was driven more by anxiety and unease at having their vulnerabilities exposed than by anger at having their convictions insulted.

Like a child trying to hide wet bedsheets from their parents after wetting the bed at night, they sought to erase today’s events by eliminating me.

‘How foolish…’

Since time immemorial, power-ups fueled by rage have been a privilege reserved for protagonists. Yet these obsolete demon swords, unable to even accept their own obsolescence, dared to seek such a power-up through anger.

While Agaia had managed to keep her wits about her and tried to restrain her comrades, her voice couldn’t reach those who had lost all reason.

“Phew…”

Taking a deep breath, I lifted my foot and stomped down on the ground with all my might.

The earth began to shake as if hit by an earthquake, causing most of the demon swords rushing towards me to lose their balance and fall.

“Ugh…!! The ley lines?!”

“That’s right. Your combat experience serves you well.”

It was a simple technique of roughly manipulating the power of the ley lines flowing through the earth to cause an earthquake, but its effectiveness was evident.

The tremors that started where I had stepped quickly spread, threatening to engulf the entire forest.

The demon swords struggled to resist the vibrations and regain their footing, but once balance was lost, it proved extremely difficult to recover.

I moved to finish off those rolling on the ground before they could rise again, but Agaia wasn’t about to stand idly by.

“You think I’ll let you kill my comrades?!”

Having experience fighting against ley line users, Agaia could move relatively freely despite the tremors. However, even she struggled to fight while protecting four demon swords.

One by one, they fell before Agaia’s eyes, reverting to their sword forms with a single scream before plummeting into the cracks that had opened in the earth.

Once all the demon swords had fallen deep into the ground, Agaia shouted with bloodshot eyes.

“You fucking sword-obsessed bastard…!!”

“Hey, we’ve barely started. Why so surprised over something like this?”

As Agaia tilted her head in confusion, I grinned and stomped my foot again, causing the ground to shake once more.

“You, don’t tell me…!!”

Finally realizing my intentions, Agaia reached out to stop me, but it was far too late.

The ground shook again as a torrent of power beyond common sense surged through the earth.

Soon after, mixed with the sounds of vibrations and falling trees, the sound of metal shattering echoed in my ears.

“Bwahahahaha!! Trash belongs in the trash can!! Obsolete demon swords belong in the ground!!”

—Raei  Translations—

Even when my comrades’ bodies had crumbled earlier, my non-existent heart had sunk, but I thought it wasn’t over yet.

Losing bodies of Swordmaster caliber was unfortunate, but my comrades could be revived if we found new bodies.

So I thought it wasn’t the worst-case scenario yet, but in that moment, that small hope was completely shattered.

The moment I heard the horrific sound of my comrades’ slender blades snapping, I felt as if something broke in my mind as well.

“I’ll kill you…!! Even if I die, I’ll make sure to take you with me!!!”

“I think I’ve heard that line from you guys about three times now, but as you can see, I’m still perfectly alive.”

The bastard sneered at my heartfelt cry, brushing off my attack as if it were nothing.

And for some inexplicable reason, he did so with a strange sword technique that involved sheathing and drawing his sword.

“One of your abilities was to freely change your form, right? If you can turn into a katana, I might consider making you my sword.”

“Shut up!!”

“You’ve already submitted to humans once! What’s wrong with finding a new master?!”

“You shut up too, you sword-obsessed prick!!!”

Every word from their mouths poured oil onto the fire of rage burning in my chest.

The more I swung my sword at the grinning bastard, the more I thought of my comrades who died meaninglessly, the greater my anger grew.

“Ah, aaaaaargh!!!”

Perhaps as a manifestation of that rage crossing a threshold, my vision suddenly turned red, and I began to hear what seemed like auditory hallucinations.

Voices, I heard voices.

Not the familiar voices of my dear comrades, but eerie yet somehow sweet, decadent yet bizarre laughter…

[Chaejijiijik…!!]

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