The Great Witch awakened with a long groan.
It felt like waking up from a deep sleep. For a moment, her sense of reality faded until she caught the smell of damp earth, realizing that her body was sprawled on the ground.
Then, a question naturally arose.
What had happened?
The question didn’t linger.
It was due to the memory of the opponent she had been fighting alone before losing consciousness.
A vampire.
A disaster that should never be unleashed upon the world.
The Great Witch’s body sprang up as she recalled that existence. She was so flustered that her pupils trembled involuntarily.
The Great Witch was desperate.
“Where did the second one go!? Ah, sister… no, the vampire…!”
But her determined voice couldn’t finish that sentence.
The reason was simple.
She felt no presence around her.
Therefore, it was pointless to say anything. And on the other hand, it was also because she couldn’t understand the words she had spoken.
“The second one?”
It had been quite a while since she had any students, let alone a child. The person the Great Witch should call that way did not exist in this world.
But, something.
The Great Witch closed her mouth, filled with a lonely emptiness. The unfamiliar memories flooding her felt like echoes, leaving her in a daze.
Once again, dreams and reality overlapped.
With a headache that surged again, the Great Witch had to stumble and moan involuntarily.
Until some abnormal sign was detected.
No, it could be said that describing it as detected might be misleading.
It was like the whirlpool that appeared in front of a fisherman in a small boat.
Even if she didn’t want to acknowledge it, her whole body was crying out for its existence. The Great Witch’s gaze, stiffened in surprise, slowly shifted toward a certain point.
A storm.
It was impossible to measure its true scale. However, to reach this level of intimidation emitted by one or more beings, there was one condition needed.
The Master must be included among them.
Therefore, the Great Witch had no choice but to take steps forward, desperately wishing that the Sword Master was merely excited and rampaging on his own.
For there was only one other possibility that she could conceive.
The vampire had brought its true form.
It was a tragedy that must never occur. Suddenly recalling the horrors of the past, the Great Witch’s body trembled, soon followed by steps tainted with anxiety and nervousness.
But even that was short-lived.
Before long, the Great Witch bore witness to an unbelievable sight.
“What, hey….”
Swords were crossed against each other.
The energy of the trained swordsman was as sharp as a blade. When a skilled swordsman focused their mind, it was meaningless to clearly distinguish between sword and body.
It was as if the body moved for the sake of the sword.
However, the continent’s best swordsman once said.
Becoming one with the sword is just the beginning.
A true swordsman forges even their soul into a single sword. And upon reaching this gateway, the soul of the master becomes vast and intense enough to swallow the entire world.
Thus, the sword soul.
It was a stage where one reaches the pinnacle of the sword and abandons the sword. The whole world became his hilt and blade.
Some might consider this a metaphor or exaggeration.
But not the Great Witch.
She had already reached the pinnacle of magic. She knew well what kind of miracles a being that reached ‘Master’ could bring.
Nevertheless, the Great Witch remained silent for a while, her eyes wide open.
Two swords.
This meant that, apart from the sword master, another sword existed.
It was a bizarre sensation.
If the Sword Master’s presence turned the whole world into a blade, the man standing opposite was creating cracks in the whole world. Through the gradually distorting time and space, the silver Milky Way seeped out like blood and water.
The starlight, lacking a distinct form, looked like an amorphous monster. From beyond the boundary, an unprecedented force reached out toward this earth.
Thus, it became even more of a question.
Could such a distorted mental image exist?
The mental image was the landscape of the mind. Those masters who achieved higher realms, regardless of martial or magical paths, typically maintained a polished reflection of still water.
Only then could the mental image overwhelm reality.
But look at the writhing fog of light.
It was like a caged beast bound by chains. If a mistake were made, there was a manifestation of violence there that could trample the entire continent.
It must be killed.
The Great Witch thought carelessly like that. Soon, a cold sweat formed on her forehead.
The reason was unknown.
Yet, the more she saw that power, the more uncontrollable the urge surged.
As if welcoming an old nemesis.
It was just then.
“…Stop.”
With a quiet sigh, the overwhelming storm of magic that had been suffocating dissipated.
The change in attitude was dramatically bewildering. The girl faced with the whim of the man slightly furrowed her brow.
Her dislike was evident.
Still, the man had no intention of retracting his words.
“Let’s stop here. Setting aside my identity, isn’t it clear that I’m not the enemy?”
The Sword Master didn’t immediately respond to the man’s question.
After staring at the man for a while, she simply sneered and withdrew her energy.
A petulant retort escaped from her small lips.
“Hah, what a funny guy… how can I believe the words of someone whose identity I don’t even know?”
“If that were the case, you would have shown your true intentions long ago.”
Perhaps she liked those words.
The Sword Master shook her head with a faint smile, a “huh” escaping her lips.
“Well, it’s not incorrect. If I had shown my true intentions, I would have already…!”
As she made a gesture of slicing her throat with her fingertips.
The man remained silent upon seeing that. He simply took a step forward, sending an unspoken signal.
Let’s leave this place quickly.
No one stood in the way of the echoing footfalls.
The Sword Master watched the man pass by with an unreadable expression, and the Great Witch was left struggling to find words, her lips merely twitching.
For a moment, there seemed to be an illusion that the man and the Sword Master made eye contact.
With a crack, a gust of wind swept through the area right after.
The impact was so intense that the Great Witch had to shield her eyes with her sleeve. When she let her sleeve fall again with a soft moan, the two swordsmen’s blades had clashed, spitting sparks.
“…You’re quite impressive, monster.”
“I learned from a good master. And also….”
With a sharp clang.
As the blade aimed for his throat was batted away, the man murmured with a nonchalant voice.
“What I haven’t revealed is the same for me.”
With that, the man resumed walking forward.
The Sword Master, glancing at his retreating figure, couldn’t help but smile slightly, a sign of disbelief.
“Honestly, such a temper…”
No matter how much the Sword Master clicked her tongue, the man’s steps were unimpeded. He seemed set on leaving this place and disappearing at any moment.
That was the reason.
The Great Witch had unknowingly grabbed the man’s collar.
The man flinched, his golden eyes focused on the Great Witch.
Faint emotions stirred in those golden pupils. The Great Witch, not even knowing the reason she had caught the man, awkwardly averted her gaze.
The man also could not open his mouth for a while.
After several seconds of awkward silence, just as the Sword Master seemed to sense something strange and was about to speak,
“What is it?”
His voice was as cold as the northern chilly wind.
The tone, stripped of all emotions, was instead clear and distinct. At that coldness, the Great Witch could hardly bear the sudden pang in her heart.
However, the moment she faced those golden eyes devoid of even embers of emotion,
The Great Witch’s body flinched, trembling.
Those were truly the eyes of a man who had burned everything. In that gaze, transmitting only fatigue, there was even a hint of wishing for death.
Why did this truth strike her so melancholic?
It was a question even the Great Witch couldn’t understand.
“Ah, um…”
“If you have no business here, I shall take my leave.”
At that moment, she found herself with no means to retain him.
The man was about to leave, perhaps never to meet again.
It was a natural course of events.
After all, even the man’s identity remained in the realm of mystery. Based on what she had witnessed, he seemed to be a powerful being who reached ‘Master,’ yet where such a strong presence had come from was beyond her imagination.
There was only one clear fact.
That man was an extraordinary existence.
So it was no surprise that they might never meet again.
Perhaps forever.
It seemed she still had unspoken words.
The Great Witch groaned and sighed, unable to even grasp her own feelings. The Sword Master, crossing her arms, noticed her strange expression.
Suddenly,
They heard the sound of leaves crunching somewhere.
It was inevitable that everyone’s gaze turned to the source.
There stood a beautiful woman with silver hair.
With striking scarlet eyes, the woman seemed startled by the sound she had made, her eyes wide open.
Gradually, her gaze met those of the others.
There were no barriers, only three masters present.
The vampire’s judgment was apt.
“Kyaa, kyaaah!”
And then a flight that disappeared without even a trace of its tail.
Such a departure left the group dumbfounded, their faces blank. Naturally, it was for just a brief moment.
“…Get her!”
As the Sword Master raised her voice, three newcomers immediately launched themselves, kicking off the ground.
