Before dealing with the Giant’s Sword issue, I made one request to Kubri.
“…You want me to gather as many onlookers as possible around Tamil Lake?”
“Yes. I want as many people as possible to see me handling the Giant’s Sword problem. Personally, I have reasons to build fame quickly.”
“That’s not a difficult request.”
Afterward, the agitators hired by the Quentaltin Clan roamed the entire city, spreading one rumor.
‘The successor to the Seal of Struggle, a human named Aiden Stroke with miraculous powers, has accepted the request of Quentaltin Clan Master Kubri Lendi-Rolango to eliminate the Giant’s Sword!’
Or so it went.
“Whoa! I hear a human from Baskaya is getting rid of that damn sword today?”
“Is that just a rumor?”
Regardless, the Giant’s Sword story was a major issue for Umbril’s residents, so the rumor spread like wildfire, covering the entire city in just about two days.
A significant number of Umbril’s residents gathered around Tamil Lake with half doubt and half hope, quickly forming a massive crowd.
“Seems like enough have gathered. Shall we start?”
Muttering that while feeling countless eyes on me, I calmly stepped forward and drew up my lightning energy.
<Infinity Shock>
Crackle crackle!!
Lightning from the Thunder God Physique soon enveloped my entire body. I concentrated that lightning energy into the copper ball in my right hand. It was something I had prepared in advance for today.
“Hoo….”
A short deep breath.
Then, aiming at the holy sword in the middle of the lake, I threw the copper ball with a twist of my waist like a pro baseball player.
Whoosh!
The copper ball left my right hand, emitting a brilliant light as it crossed the lake. A pitch that would have far exceeded 200 mph in a baseball stadium suddenly struck the Undefeatable Divine Holy Sword (S+) directly.
Clang!
The copper ball and the Undefeatable Divine Holy Sword collided, producing a loud metallic sound.
For a moment, it seemed like immense lightning enveloped the sword body, but it soon evaporated due to the sword’s inherent anti-magic power.
I clicked my tongue slightly.
“…Tsk, so this is the extent for now.”
I had thrown it with all my might.
But the holy sword didn’t budge from its spot. In the first place, with my current mana, there’s no way I could affect such a high-level relic.
The reason I threw the copper ball wasn’t to actually do something with it, but purely for dramatic effect.
I glared at Plebelziam, which Epio was carrying, and whispered.
‘Plebelziam, signal.’
[Got it.]
Right after that.
The Giant’s Sword above the lake vanished as if evaporating.
“…Huh?”
“What?”
The residents, who had been noisily murmuring until just before, all shut their mouths at once. It felt utterly unreal.
The residents of Umbril, who had been staring blankly at the scene, soon regained their senses one by one and approached the lake.
As some brave ones immersed themselves in it…
“I’m not being repelled?”
“Tamil Lake is back to normal!”
Once it was confirmed there was no resistance, countless cheers erupted suddenly. Even those watching from afar belatedly jumped into Tamil Lake.
“Crazy! That damn sword really disappeared!”
“Blispiel! Quentaltin!”
“The one who blew away the Giant’s Sword is Aiden Stroke, the successor to the Seal of Struggle!”
Someone among the residents shouting my name was the signal.
“”Aiden! Aiden! Aiden!””
Countless residents began chanting ‘Aiden’ like a cheer.
A bit embarrassing.
[You have achieved the feat of handling the Giant’s Sword that threatened the livelihood of the city-state Umbril.]
[The residents feel great awe toward you. This achievement will not be forgotten for a long time.]
[Divinity increased by 1.]
“Good.”
Seeing the [Divinity] stat rise, which I had personally aimed for, brought a smile to my lips. The effort of mobilizing agitators and waiting two whole days paid off.
A short while later.
“Did we do well?”
Clara, tossing off the Formless Robe (S-), approached me with a triumphant smile.
Beside her, an exhausted-looking Linia followed.
Clara bounced in place.
“Aiden, that’s unfair! We did all the hard work, but you get all the cheers!”
“Well, to raise the clan’s reputation, this is more efficient. When we get back to Elanore, I’ll buy you tons of snacks, so don’t be so mad.”
“Really?! Don’t forget that promise!”
Using the Priestess of the Sun for a few snacks—if the cathedral officials saw this, they’d be speechless in disbelief.
“Anyway, you both really worked hard. So where’s the item?”
“Here.”
At my question, Clara held out her left hand.
On her proffered palm lay a blade the size of a key.
A beautiful golden sword in form—it was the Undefeatable Divine Holy Sword (S+) shrunk to the extreme.
The equipping condition for this relic is [Divinity] 7 or higher. But it truly shines starting from 8, when all additional functions unlock.
The core one among them is the ‘function to adjust the sword’s size and mass without exceeding limits’.
Originally, the Undefeatable Divine Holy Sword is sized to perfectly fit a longsword standard. No matter how strong, carrying around a sword over 3m all the time would be inconvenient.
However, when the sword moves on its own without a user, it expands its size to the maximum.
“Good. I plan to handle that sword separately later, so keep it safe until this matter ends, Clara.”
“Understood~ Oh, here’s the necklace back.”
Clara smiled brightly as she returned the Fortune Wheel Amulet (S) to me.
To explain the sequence of events:
Clara approached the sword in the center of the lake while invisible via the Formless Robe (S-), and upon receiving the signal from Plebelziam, activated the size adjustment function.
Immediately after, she put the shrunken Undefeatable Divine Holy Sword right into her bosom, so to Umbril’s residents, it only looked like I had eliminated the Giant’s Sword by throwing the copper ball.
Thanks to wearing the Fortune Wheel Amulet (S), which raises Divinity by 1, she achieved [Divinity] 8, allowing her to unlock the Undefeatable Divine Holy Sword’s additional functions.
I looked at Linia.
Clara was the one bouncing around, but actually, Linia had done all the hard work.
Linia could walk on water using the footwork she learned from Estriel, and her role was to carry the high-Divinity Clara to the center of the lake.
The water surface walking technique, Water Surface Walk (B), requires extremely delicate mana control. It’s hard enough alone, but doing it with Clara on her back left Linia looking utterly drained of energy.
If she had messed up and fallen into the water, they would have been repelled far by the Undefeatable Divine Holy Sword’s power, so her contribution this time was huge.
[Divinity:04]
More importantly, my pure Divinity finally hit 4.
With the amulet equipped, it rises to 5.
Divinity is the stat with the most ambiguous growth criteria. In this incident, Clara and Linia did the actual work, but I succeeded in raising Divinity by deceiving the residents’ eyes. This is because the Divinity stat itself is somewhat based on people’s perceptions.
Tricks like this, bordering on fraud, probably won’t work anymore once Divinity reaches 5.
According to the setting, from then on, Divinity doesn’t rise from ordinary achievements.
Considering that Estriel, who contributed to the Circulation Church for decades, has Divinity 6, it’s easy to understand.
“Let’s call it a day and head back.”
We returned to the Quentaltin Clan house amid the residents’ cheers.
To grasp the context of the incident in Umbril, first consider why the Undefeatable Divine Holy Sword, sleeping nearby, suddenly flew to Tamil Lake and embedded itself. Fundamentally, it’s because the leader of the Five Heroes, Bellifort, will awaken soon, but that alone isn’t reason enough to fly to the lake.
Undefeatable Divine Holy Sword (S+)
- Tracks impure energy in the absence of a user
- ???
- ???
- ???
The answer lies in the first function revealed by the ‘Appraisal’. This relic has a function to track impure energy when without a user. In short, it sensed evil energy near the lake and flew there.
“The reason for the recent surge in missing persons is because a ritual spell called <Black Swamp> has been activated underground in Umbril.”
“Black Swamp?”
“Yes. We scoured ancient texts and learned that an evil ancient ritual is being performed near this city.”
The fact that a ritual spell is being conducted in Umbril was outright revealed in Part 3 of the original.
The ritual spell <Black Swamp> randomly draws in living beings within its range while active. The targeted beings sink into the ground as if into a swamp and are transported somewhere underground. Since the spell is only cast at night, it’s no wonder no traces are left.
Kubri’s expression grew serious.
“So someone is deliberately abducting residents through trickery?”
“We suspect so. And based on the number of missing persons, we estimate the ritual started about 5-6 years ago.”
“…That matches the time my close friend, Ravalbea, went missing?”
I nodded.
The perpetrator of this ritual is a black mage named ‘Osgos’, who in Part 3 succeeds in the ritual by sacrificing countless victims, obtaining immense mana.
Among the sacrificed offerings, there was mention of a minotaur warrior with tremendous power, and contextually, that’s undoubtedly Kubri’s friend Ravalbea.
In short, the three issues I agreed to resolve in the contract all stem from this one <Black Swamp>. As a bonus, the Wings of the Firebird (S-) I’m aiming for is also inside the altar where the ritual is taking place, so it’s no exaggeration to call it a masterpiece.
Kubri’s attitude became even more serious now that he had a lead on resolving the issue.
“Then the problem is finding the entrance to where the ritual is being held. Aiden, do you have any ideas?”
“Of course. We just need to break through the bottom of Tamil Lake and enter.”
The Undefeatable Divine Holy Sword definitely flew and embedded itself above the lake. The impure energy tracking function isn’t for show.
Though it was confused on the lake surface about where to go, that’s because Osgos used earth attribute dominance to seal the entrance entirely, causing interference in the tracking.
“In short, stopping that ritual or whatever will resolve the damned problems plaguing Umbril in one fell swoop.”
Kubri rose from his seat without further questions.
“We’ll head to the lake tonight. Let’s start preparations.”
We finished preparations by midnight and left the clan house. Not just Kubri, but selected elites from the Quentaltin Clan accompanied us.
<Aqua Navigator>
Chesa used a water manipulation spell in front of the lake.
Splash!
It might be an exaggeration to compare it to Moses’ miracle, but the water parted on both sides, creating a path wide enough for the party to proceed.
Chesa had steadily trained her mana control ability since contracting with the grimoire. As a result, the Mana Sensitivity Disorder (-) trait had already disappeared, and her [Senses] stat had surged explosively, already reaching 6.
Soon, we reached the bottom of the lake.
“Chesa, can you find the altar entrance?”
“I’ll try.”
Chesa replied calmly, yet confidently.
Not quite at her original level, but her recent growth as a mage had boosted her self-esteem considerably.
The Nano Eater she contracted with is a grimoire that sustains itself by absorbing ambient mana. Thus, it’s sensitive to mana flows or traces, and with time, it should find where Osgos sealed the entrance.
Chesa wandered around the lake bottom and suddenly stopped.
“…I’m sensing heterogeneous mana from below here. Nano Eater’s control personality estimates it’s a black mage’s mana.”
“No doubt about it.”
Me, Epio, and the warrior-class clan members from Quentaltin began digging the ground with shovels we brought from headquarters.
It was shoveling by warriors with superhuman physical abilities from a modern perspective. The work speed surpassed that of 100 construction workers, and we soon uncovered a door buried in the dirt.
A frog subhuman mage from the Quentaltin Clan slightly opened the door and peered inside.
“It seems a spell to prevent flooding is cast over the entire altar. Chesa won’t need to keep working hard.”
Indeed, since there are residents to rescue inside, flooding would be disastrous.
Suddenly, we entered the altar.
Right after the rearmost Clara and the Life Church priest entered the altar, bang! the entrance closed.
“You rat bastards! I don’t know how you found out about my altar’s existence, but now that you’ve entered, you’ll all become sacrifices for the ritual!”
“Cliché welcome speech.”
Step step…
No sooner had I muttered that than a horde of mages in black robes appeared and surrounded us.
They must be the minions or disciples of Osgos, the high-level black mage.
The eerie mages activated pre-prepared spells.
<Liquid Guardian>
Beast-shaped summons composed of liquid appeared before them. Bears, dogs, spiders… extremely varied forms according to each’s preference. Soon, the guardians approached us. The caster mages were slowly retreating, seemingly preparing spells to subdue us.
It’s the most standard tactic for a group of only mages in combat. Typical, but effective nonetheless.
In a normal case, with our numbers, it would be tricky to handle, but…
Flash!
Suddenly, a streak of white light shot out from among us.
The shot light instantly bypassed the guardians and began weaving through the mages relentlessly.
Spurt! Splash!
Blood sprayed wherever the light passed,
“Argh!”
“Aaah!”
The mages’ screams followed belatedly.
It took barely ten seconds for all the black mages to collapse to the ground.
Kubri stood amid the countless corpses.
His shortsword and hand axe in both hands were covered in red blood.
He turned to us and said.
“We don’t have time to dawdle in a place like this. Let’s hurry.”