Chapter 200
Chapter 200
It was an absurd question. It would not have been an exaggeration to say it was completely out of line. Even Cedric’s expression shifted slightly, and only then did Lyon realize how outrageous his words had been.“What...?” Cedric muttered.
A Master was one who surpassed the mortal limits all had to bear, stepping beyond the threshold of transcendence. To ask for the method of becoming one was something Lyon, who wasn’t even a disciple or close acquaintance, had no right to utter aloud.
Learning even a single move of a noble house’s secret technique was enough to warrant assassination. The insight required to reach the realm of an Aura Master was far beyond anything that could be traded, no matter the price.
So, Lyon immediately bowed his head in apology.
“My apologies. I’ve spoken rudely.”
However, Cedric’s response was unexpected.
“No, it’s a good question. I was wondering the same thing myself.”
Kicking aside the corpses at his feet, Cedric sat on a boulder, as if finally ready to speak. The stench of blood hung thick in the air, but for a man nicknamed “Sword Demon,” it was as natural as breathing.
A life of killing was simply the norm for Cedric. Realizing that, Lyon stiffened instinctively just watching him.
As a royal, Lyon had been raised to measure the value of life. However, the man before him dismissed it as utterly worthless.
So the rumors of his pure bloodlust were true...
Cedric spoke, his tone calm but cutting.
“You asked how to reach the realm of a Master. The answer’s simple. For those without talent or effort, they’d be better off dying and hoping for better luck in their next life, but your case is different.”
“Different... how?” Lyon asked, puzzled.
“You already have the qualifications. You’re just missing one piece.”
Cedric’s tone was absolute. Despite his cruelty, the insight he’d honed as a warrior—the intuitive perception of the martial truth embedded in human nature—was genius in itself. He could see at a glance what Lyon lacked.
“As is well known, the path to becoming a Master differs greatly for warriors and mages,” he explained.
There was a notable difference between an Aura Master and a seventh-tier Grand Mage. If a Grand Mage proved transcendence by constructing and unfolding their own law of the world, an Aura Master manifested the microcosm within—the inner universe—into the material world, wielding a power that defies natural law.
In short, mages sought the truths and principles of the world, while warriors tempered their will and strength to surpass their own limits.
“Your talent is enough. You’ve got enough spirit, abundant, and your body is trained to its limit. Then what is it you lack?” Cedric asked Lyon.
“Heart...?”
“Right. You already knew, so why ask?” Cedric gave a low, mocking laugh. “I don’t know what makes a royal like you so discontent, but what you lack now is self. I’m not talking about confidence. I mean the power to define yourself. You know, the axis that lets you believe and move forward.”
The reason an Aura Master’s Aura Blade reflected their life philosophy was precisely that. Leon awakened the Sun Sword because he admired Rodrick. Al Razzaz, who had revered sandstorms since childhood, mastered the Djinn. Karen, who saw the darkness in her life as a tool, awakened the Pitch-Black Dance.
Lyon, however, had nothing that defined him. Not even now, when he had forsaken the destiny of a Hero to live as a crown prince.
“If I use myself as an example, it’s simple. From the moment I decided to live as a swordsman, I wanted to cut through anything and keep going. No obstacle, no shackle could bind me. I simply wanted to wander this world freely.”
Anyone else in his place would have ignored the provocation from the Hispania soldiers on the street and endured the insults just to avoid trouble. Cedric hadn’t hesitated to cut them down because, in the life he defined for himself, enduring such humiliation was unacceptable.
“Good and evil don’t matter. Right and wrong, virtue and sin—none of that influences the philosophy that defines a Master. They call me a true, pure bloodthirsty butcher, and they’re not wrong. But as long as I believe in what I am, that’s enough.”
“Even if it isn’t right?”
“Isn’t ‘right’ just what people say it is? If you believe something is right, even if a hundred others say otherwise, you shouldn’t waver.”
It was a violent idea, but for Aura Masters, it was true. What others would call stubbornness became strength.
Cedric’s conviction—that anything could be cut—let him cut what should have been uncuttable. One’s mind only reached that realm by stepping closer to madness. It was the horizon Lyon had hesitated to cross, clinging too tightly to reason.
“Well, you’ll forget all this by tomorrow anyway.”
Muttering to himself, Cedric drew his sword. The following motion was so natural that Lyon forgot, for an instant, that he was now within Cedric’s killing range. He raised the blade as easily as moving an arm or a leg, showing his mastery of the unity of his body and sword, and stopped the tip right at Lyon’s throat.
Only a moment later did Lyon register the danger; cold sweat ran down his neck.
“One hundred times,” Cedric said.
“W-what...?” Lyon stammered and blinked, not understanding.
“I’ll do this a hundred times. On the hundredth, I won’t stop. So, if you don’t want to die, block or dodge it.”
“Wait, what do you...?!”
As Lyon barely threw himself aside, his breastplate split open, and a faint red line glowed across the gap. An inch deeper, and his lungs and heart would’ve been pierced.
“Good. You finally drew your sword. Should’ve done that seconds ago.”
Watching Lyon hastily ready his weapon, Cedric bit down a grin drenched in bloodlust. It had been too long since he’d had proper fun. Making a decent plaything might not be bad.
“Ninety-eight left.”
A flash of steel burst from Cedric’s hand once more.
***
After taking care of business in Ladoga, Leon’s party quickly set out for their next destination. Fortunately, unlike Alger and Ladoga, there were no other domains nearby hiding any similar plots.
It was only natural. The Evil Order’s goal was expansion. If their objective was to broaden the scale and duration of war, destroying every domain would only defeat that purpose. The vastness of the Empire’s territory also played a role.
“Maybe it’s just that the Evil Order doesn’t have the strength to do more,” Leon concluded.
And indeed, that was true. If the Evil Order had been powerful enough to overwhelm the Empire outright, even the Holy Church would have struggled to contain them. The fact that they operated only from behind the scenes proved that their power was insufficient to dominate the world openly.
“Hero Leon, then our next destination is the Imperial Capital?” Elahan asked cautiously.
The Imperial Capital of Calelum. The heart of the Clyde Empire, where the Mad Emperor Nex ruled. It was a place where, inevitably, they would face the Evil Order or some other formidable enemy. It was also a place still marked with a red quest icon.
Leon nodded and replied, “Yes. We’ll take the shortest route. Ladoga was the last thing we could handle on this side.”
The Evil Order’s schemes weren’t limited to those two domains, but the fronts involving the invading Kingdom of Ferma or the Maritime Union of Meril were beyond their reach. Not only were they too far, but Leon and his party had no political standing to intervene.
Opposing those nations directly under Jugend’s name was technically an option, but it was an option that would only escalate the war. That would be doing the Evil Order a favor.
Still, that red quest marker bothers me, Leon thought.
He studied the map projected by the Holy Sword, his eyes fixed on the crimson mark glowing over Calelum. If memory served, that same mark had been red even when he was training in the Titan Mountains, showing that the quest was nearly impossible for them. Yellow already meant severe danger, but red—beyond orange—meant survival itself was uncertain.
The fact that the difficulty reflected their increased strength was also quite concerning. Both he and Karen had become Aura Masters since leaving the mountains, and with Elahan joining, their overall strength had grown immensely.
El-Cid’s voice murmured in his mind.
—Most likely multiple bishops. At least two or three, maybe as many as six.
The Nine Hell, huh.
Leon had once witnessed the battle between Irexana and the Bishop of Despair, Cordia. Though he had lost, Cordia had wounded that terrifying Irexana and even turned his own death into a curse to threaten his foes. Even a single one of them would be manageable—but two or more would make victory impossible to predict.
“Oh, that reminds me,” said Karen, who had been walking silently. “Ella, come to think of it—I’ve never actually seen you use your Aura Blade. Is that on purpose? Or is there a reason you can’t?”
Leon, intrigued, turned toward Elahan as well.
“Hm? That’s true.”
She was both the strongest Saint in history and a Master-level warrior. Even without an Aura Blade, her power had never felt lacking. Her holy techniques—such as Divine Judgment—were stronger than most Aura Blades anyway.
Elahan blinked, looking between the two.
“Oh? Have I never mentioned it? It’s true I’ve reached the realm of a Master, but I can’t use an Aura Blade.”
“Huh? Why not?”
“Because I’m a Saintess, of course.”
Leon and Karen both tilted their heads in confusion, prompting Elahan to smile softly and explain.
“An Aura Blade is the projection of one’s heart, your will made manifest in the material world. In a sense, it’s the embodiment of the self, the act of asserting your existence.”
“Yeah, that sounds about right,” Leon agreed.
“But in my case,” Elahan continued, “part of my heart is made of faith. Faith isn’t something that directs itself inward or serves the self. So, it cannot become an Aura Blade. It can blend with Aura and enhance it, but that’s all.”
It was a trait unique to Saintesses. Even the Cardinals, the next closest in power and faith, did not have their inner world wholly formed from devotion.
And that was the only way things could be. There was a reason Saintesses were called the “Staffs of the Goddess.” Chosen directly by Her grace, they were vessels linking this world to the heavens.
“From birth, the Goddess has protected me. In exchange, I suppose I lost the right to assert my own will.”
“Haha! So you’re saying an Aura Blade is the right to be stubborn? That’s adorable.”
Karen laughed at the phrasing, and Elahan smiled faintly in return.
“It’s a power that defies the laws of the material world. Unless it’s channeled through something like your Holy Sword, Hero, my strength—being divine in nature—can’t take that form.”
Even so, the lack of an Aura Blade didn’t make Elahan weaker than other Masters. The harmony of Holy Power and Aura amplified both, and when one considered the divine techniques she could wield, she might even be stronger without an Aura Blade.
As they continued their conversation, a sudden question crossed Leon’s mind.
“Elahan, where is ‘she’ now?”
“Ah. Give me a moment, please.”
Closing her eyes, Elahan grew still. Leon and Karen watched her expectantly. If the three of them weren’t enough for the Nine Hell, they could reinforce. This was why they were risking marching straight into the heart of danger, Calelum.
One of the Holy Church’s strengths lay in its elite few. Among them, the Cardinals rivaled even the Holy Iron Inquisitors in combat power, some freely roaming the continent. There was even the adventurer-registered Cardinal known as Drifter. And one more.
Leon whispered the name under his breath, “Adela of the Rampage.”
Soon, the Fourth Cardinal of the Holy Church would join them.
woo: Happy 200 chapters! As always, thank you so much for all your support :) Hope y’all are enjoying watching Leon becoming more and more OP as much as I am!