NOVEL WEB Chapter 32
“Phantom…”
With the name of the great author on her lips, Maya’s eyes sharpened.
‘I thought he was just a nobody, but I was mistaken.’
Curiosity piqued by news of another Sword Protagonist from her generation, she entered the capital.
It just so happened that The Hegemon-King Li’s Consort was being performed to great acclaim, so naturally, she ended up watching it.
And in that process, Maya came to realize something.
The Sword Protagonist.
You knew too, didn’t you?
That the only thing necessary to survive in this world is power. The overwhelming force to dominate others.
“…”
With her eyes closed, Maya quietly focused on her meditation.
She was well aware of the frenzy created by The Hegemon-King Li’s Consort in the capital.
Even young mages and knights were thoroughly mimicking the martial arts displayed in The Hegemon-King Li’s Consort, applying mana like inner energy, and rumors were swirling about the emergence of a new class called “Magic Swordsman.”
“Fools.”
What Xiang Yu demonstrated was not some mere mana.
Just after watching the first act of The Hegemon-King Li’s Consort, she instinctively trained for days on end. Reflecting on the depiction of ‘toning the qi’, Maya focused all her mind into her lower dantian.
Though mixed with the blood of elves, Maya was an orphan who had grown up wandering the human world.
Whether the depiction of elves in The Hegemon-King Li’s Consort was accurate, she wasn’t sure.
It was just a piece of fiction, and it differed in many ways from the teachings of her elven master who had once trained her.
“…”
However, there was one thing she instinctively realized as a Sword Protagonist who had trained in the ways of the sword for a lifetime.
The internal energy of Xiang Yu depicted in The Hegemon-King Li’s Consort was not pure magic; rather, it was akin to the writhing vitality accumulated within the body.
And perhaps…
The genius who had been called a master of swordsmanship could recreate this.
Sure enough? That intuition was not a misconception.
10 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 3 hours, 6 hours…
In the endlessly flowing time, Maya continually broke new ground.
An energy she had never felt before coiled and increasingly pulsed within her.
Finally, at the moment when all that energy reached a single point.
Kuooooo–!!
A sturdy force surged along the blade of Maya’s renowned sword, Eternal Snow.
It was different from the Triple Transformation of Zen, but the principle yielded a similar result.
A sign that her previously stagnant skills had risen a level.
Looking at this, Maya calmly raised her sword and aimed at the gigantic rock before her.
And the next moment.
Chwa-ck-!!
Urlung!
In the blink of an eye, her swift stroke split the rock in a cross shape, causing it to crumble.
Like cutting through soft cabbage leaves, the boulder that would chip even the sharpest steel crumbled away.
“…”
Chirp chirp chirp!
The pale dawn broke beyond the horizon.
Watching this, Maya withdrew her energy and strapped the sword to her back.
She then began to walk slowly towards the dark forest outside the capital’s borders.
This was a monumental moment marking the birth of the first Sword Aura user in another world influenced by The Hegemon-King Li’s Consort.
In the dense forest near the capital of the Holy Empire, the Dark Forest…
There existed a secret cartel formed by a multitude of members, resembling a martial arts organization.
The Dark Forest had always been notorious for its thick woods and complex terrain.
It was a perfect spot for the lost criminals and evil beings who enjoyed slaughter.
Naturally, those who built their own forces over time had grown into a supreme criminal cartel that even the country struggled to manage.
Hidden in the dense forest, it became difficult to conduct proper suppression. Moreover, they had become strong fighters by employing mercenaries of different races and even smuggled monstrous beasts.
In reality, they could be likened to the infamous drug cartel, ‘Los Zetas’, which once dominated Mexico.
…But this fearsome group was currently being dismantled by a single sword-wielding individual.
“Krahhk!”
“R-Run!”
“Damn! Where did that monster suddenly come from?!”
Swish! Scrape! Chwaak-!!
Sharp beams of light flew everywhere.
Blood splashed from the ongoing carnage, soaking the surroundings through a fountain of gore.
And standing in the center of that devastation was a half-elf, wielding a sword that gleamed like ice.
Crack, crack!
Eek!?
The sound of a leashed monstrous hunting dog and hyena bones cracking echoed.
The felons’ sturdy skins were utterly ineffective against the sword strikes.
When even their biological weapons were neutralized, the panicked cartel leaders shouted ahead of their subordinates.
“What are you all doing! It’s just one person!”
“Let’s take her down together! Have you forgotten who we are?”
“There are way more of us! If we encircle her and attack all at once, we can take her!”
But unfortunately, the numerical superiority was of no help at all.
The movements of the half-elf who had awakened her abilities were far swifter than imagined…
Chwaak-!!
“Ugh?!”
“W-What? Is steel like paper?!”
…Weapons and armor of the organization were shredded like tofu under the might of the powerful Sword Aura.
And now that everything useful for fighting was destroyed…
“W-Wait! Just wait, Aaaah-!!”
“S-Save me…!”
It was only a matter of time before she would annihilate them due to her unparalleled swordsmanship talents.
“Cough, ugh! Who the hell are you?! What grudge could you possibly have against us?!”
The bellowing of the brutish cartel boss who had lost all his subordinates.
As he lay bleeding from his wounds, the Sword Protagonist, Maya, approached him calmly with measured steps.
“Does it hurt?”
“Damn it! Are you really asking me that now?! Of course it hurts, you crazy woman, kyaah-!!”
Snip!
“Yeah. You all hurt, don’t you?”
With a blue flash, the cartel boss’s fingers went flying.
“…My parents were also killed by criminals affiliated with your cartel.”
Looking down at the boss, who was writhing with bleeding hands and ankles, Maya said coldly.
“Right before my eyes when I was just a little kid. And it was completely brutal.”
“Cough?! W-What’s…?!”
“You tried to kidnap me, a half-elf, to sell me in the overseas slave market. But when my parents found out, you killed them for resisting too annoyingly.”
It had been more than 15 years since that incident, but Maya had never forgotten that traumatic day.
If help hadn’t come, she too would have either died or been sold into another land.
It was the nameless elven swordsman who would later become Maya’s master.
He had stumbled onto the scene by chance, intervening to save the girl’s life.
But although her life was saved, something inside the girl’s head had broken that day.
The feelings that any living being should feel vanished in an instant.
She became numb to external stimuli and internal urges alike.
And that misaligned gear kept spinning in madness and deeply rooted an obsession within the girl.
It was a craving for overwhelming power.
A twisted stubbornness to pursue nothing but strength to avoid losing something again.
“Wait! I don’t know when exactly you’re talking about, but I never gave such orders! It must have been some rogue actions of a few members! I-I’ll apologize immediately, so please spare my life…!”
Pffft!
“Aaaaah-!!”
“You didn’t save my mom, did you?”
Thud! Snip!
“Cough, guhh…!!”
“You trampled on my dad while he bled out and laughed at him.”
Crack! Bam! Poww-!!
“So why should I spare you? Huh?”
Already, there was no response to be heard. The cartel boss, writhing in pain, had long since turned into butchered meat.
Even still, the Sword Protagonist Maya couldn’t stop mutilating his corpse.
It wasn’t merely a desire for revenge for her parents.
“…”
As the cartel boss’s corpse was reduced to pieces, Maya paused, reflecting upon her blood-soaked palms.
She had faced many outlaws and rogues during her wandering journey.
As a Sword Protagonist, she had frequently vanquished villains and driven off monstrous beasts.
…However, she had never so ruthlessly massacred a large group before today.
And now, her delicate hands trembled for an unknown reason.
Unbeknownst to her, she was feeling the thrill of blood and murder.
In the process of slaying the living, she had awakened to a sadistic pleasure.
In that moment, Maya recalled the ominous fortune told by a creepy witch she had encountered during her travels.
“Hehe, what a truly tragic child. Born of an elf mother from the east, you were tainted with the ominous aura that brings forth bloodshed. Literally a sharp blade, indeed, dear child.”
An ominous aura that brings forth bloodshed?
I, the chosen Sword Protagonist, urged to bear the world’s evils?