The Sword That Chose Me
I crawled.
Every inch felt like an eternity.
My fingers dug into the damp earth, leaving trails of blood behind me. Every breath scraped against my throat, and my vision faded with each passing second.
The golden light remained still.
It neither approached me…
Nor drifted away.
It simply waited.
As though it had already known I would come.
“…Don’t…”
“…Disappear…”
I whispered.
Whether I was speaking to the light…
Or to my own fading consciousness…
I didn’t know.
The closer I came, the stranger it became.
At first, I thought it was a miniature sun.
A divine flame.
A miracle.
But now…
I realized the light wasn’t the object.
It surrounded the object.
Floating silently within the golden radiance…
Was a sword.
⸻
It was beautiful.
And horrifying.
The blade wasn’t merely black.
It was absolute darkness.
A darkness so deep that my eyes couldn’t focus on it.
It seemed to swallow every color around it.
Even the golden light embracing it vanished the moment it touched the blade.
It was impossible.
Light and darkness should never exist together.
Yet before me…
They danced as one.
The sword looked both holy…
And cursed.
As if heaven and hell had forged it together.
“…What are you…?”
No answer came.
Only silence.
⸻
Every instinct screamed at me to stay away.
Run.
Hide.
Forget I had ever seen it.
But another voice…
One much quieter…
Whispered inside my heart.
“Touch it.”
I shook my head.
“No…”
“Touch it.”
“I’ll die.”
“You are already dying.”
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The words weren’t spoken aloud.
They simply appeared within my mind.
Calm.
Emotionless.
As though they had always existed.
I laughed weakly.
“…Fair enough.”
I was already at death’s door.
What difference would one more step make?
Slowly…
My trembling hand reached toward the hilt.
Closer.
Closer.
Closer…
The moment my fingertips touched the sword—
⸻
The world exploded.
“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!”
Pain.
There was no other word.
No.
Even pain was too gentle.
It felt as though every cell in my body had been ripped apart one by one.
My hand disappeared.
Not vanished.
It decayed.
The flesh melted away before my eyes.
Muscles dissolved.
Veins evaporated.
Within a single heartbeat…
Everything below my wrist had become nothing but white bone.
“No…!”
I tried pulling away.
My body refused.
The sword held me.
Not with chains.
Not with force.
But with something far more terrifying.
Destiny.
My screams echoed throughout the endless forest.
Birds fled.
Unknown beasts roared in the distance.
The very earth trembled beneath me.
Yet the sword remained perfectly still.
As though this agony were nothing more than a greeting.
⸻
The destruction spread.
My forearm.
My elbow.
My shoulder.
Every inch of my body slowly transformed into a skeleton.
I watched helplessly as my ribs emerged from beneath dissolving flesh.
Blood vanished.
Skin crumbled into dust.
My own beating heart became visible for a brief, horrifying moment before it too disappeared.
I should have died.
A thousand times over.
Yet…
I remained conscious.
Forced to witness every second.
Every nerve.
Every muscle.
Every bone.
It was torture beyond imagination.
“…Please…”
“…Kill me…”
No one answered.
⸻
Then…
Life returned.
Tiny crimson threads wrapped around my bones.
Muscles.
One fiber at a time.
Slowly…
Almost lovingly…
New nerves stretched through my arm.
Veins followed.
Warm blood rushed through them like rivers after years of drought.
Fresh skin covered everything.
My hand was whole again.
No.
Not whole.
Different.
Stronger.
I clenched my fist.
The strength inside it wasn’t something I had ever possessed before.
It felt…
Refined.
The same process spread through my entire body.
Every bone.
Every organ.
Every drop of blood.
Destroyed.
Reborn.
Destroyed again.
Reborn again.
Until…
Silence.
⸻
I collapsed onto the ground, gasping for air.
Sweat soaked my clothes.
Every breath trembled.
Yet…
The crushing weight of the forest had become lighter.
The air no longer suffocated me.
My body no longer felt as fragile as glass.
I slowly stood.
For the first time since arriving in this world…
I could stand without shaking.
I looked down at my hands.
There wasn’t a single wound.
Not even a scar remained.
Had everything…
Really happened?
My eyes drifted toward the sword.
It floated exactly where it had before.
As if nothing had happened.
I reached toward it once more.
This time…
The sword gently fell into my hand.
It felt surprisingly light.
Almost…
As though it had always belonged there.
The moment I grasped the hilt, the golden light surrounding the blade disappeared.
The impossible darkness remained.
For an instant, I thought I saw crimson lines briefly pulse beneath the black surface of the sword.
Like veins.
Like a heartbeat.
Then they vanished.
The forest became silent.
Too silent.
Even the insects that had nearly devoured me moments ago were gone.
No buzzing.
No footsteps.
No distant roars.
It was as if every creature within miles had fled.
Fear.
They were afraid.
Not of me.
Of the sword.
A cold wind drifted through the ancient trees.
For the first time…
A strange thought entered my mind.
“This sword wasn’t waiting for someone powerful.”
“It was waiting…”
“For me.”
The realization should have made me happy.
Instead…
It filled me with unease.
Because no ordinary weapon could do what this one had done.
And no ordinary weapon…
Would ever choose someone as worthless as me.
Somewhere beyond the endless forest…
Something ancient slowly opened its eyes.
As though it had sensed that the Black Devil…
Had found a new master.
End of Chapter 4