The 9Th Class Swordmaster: Blade Of Truth [EN]: Chapter 208

161. Blader (2)

“……Blader? Why are you bringing that up all of a sudden? You weren’t even alive back then. Are you saying humans from the Mythic Age were also involved with Bladers?”

Karyl frowned slightly at his words.

[Indeed. Humans, Elves, and even Dwarves, including myself. You know that Blader was a group formed by various races to create the most powerful weapons.]

Karyl nodded.

[But there were those who used this name first. No, it doesn’t matter who came first. The order is meaningless. It was a name given to them from the start.]

Alrn spoke the name carefully, unlike usual.

[It would be more accurate to say that we took their name, those who participated in the Divine War.]

“Bladers…… existed even in the Mythic Age?”

[I told you. Not ‘even in the Mythic Age,’ but the ones who existed in the Mythic Age were the real Bladers. They are completely different from us. Their reasons for gathering, their mission, everything.]

“…….”

He spoke as if embarrassed.

He had always been at the forefront of everything.

From the art of forbidden techniques to the study of corruption.

He pursued challenges that no other mages had attempted, considering them his life’s work.

But it seemed he was ashamed that the group he, the great mage called the First Mage, had created took its name from predecessors who already existed.

It also meant that they were the only ones he couldn’t surpass.

[Well, I’m making it sound grand, but very little is known about their true nature. Frankly, we don’t even know if they were all human or if there were quasi-humans mixed in like us.]

“Ahem…….”

[All that’s known is that they were the seventeen apostles. And…….]

Alrn looked at Karyl.

[It is only said that they were born to kill gods.]

“Kill…… gods?”

Karyl’s shoulders trembled slightly at his words.

More than a thousand years ago.

Karyl was amazed that there were people who had the same thoughts as him so long ago that he couldn’t even know when it was.

[That’s all I know. You might be better off asking the Spirit King.]

Alrn shrugged.

“I already asked Lamine. But she wouldn’t tell me.”

Karyl shook his head.

After the battle with Duat, he asked him about the Divine War first, but Lamine didn’t give him a clear answer.

[Well……. There must be a reason why the Spirit King is doing that. Anyway, after the Divine War, they were human, so some died and others filled their places, and the lineage of the Bladers continued for a long time.]

“Ahem…….”

[Because of that, the number always changed. The last was seventeen, but at first, it was four or even seven. But the positions of two people never changed.]

“……Where did you hear that?”

Alrn scoffed at Karyl’s question.

Then, he opened a new bottle of liquor from the floor, drank it, and said.

[It’s not a pleasant memory. Isn’t it a dragon who taught magic to the Council of Seven Elders? The reason I know is simple. Because the Platinum Dragon told us about it one day.]

Karyl nodded at his words.

“Nar Di Maugh might have known them.”

[Since he’s a dragon, he probably did. He’s the oldest of the dragons still alive.]

“I have another reason to go to his lair.”

[Is your faith in him still the same?]

“I wonder.”

Alrn Xavius shook his head at Karyl’s ambiguous answer.

[What’s with that ambiguous answer? Haven’t you changed since the Narak Rock days [referring to a past event or location]?]

Karyl chuckled at his rebuke.

“Faith ended in the past. Now that I’m back, all I trust is my fist.”

[Hmm. That’s a little better.]

“I don’t know if he participated in the Divine War, but if he knows about the Bladers, it’ll be good because I won’t have to go around asking. I have to find out somehow.”

He clenched and unclenched his fist several times.

[Leave some for me too.]

Alrn smacked his lips as if he didn’t have enough alcohol.

Perhaps it was because he had recalled someone he didn’t want to remember.

[Anyway……. I don’t know why only that saying is passed down. I don’t know what it means that the number of members changes.]

Alrn said casually.

But at that moment,

Karyl’s face hardened slightly as he listened to his words.

“Seventeen people…….”

He felt like he had heard that ambiguous number somewhere.

“Seven……teen…….”

Karyl narrowed his eyes and bit his lip slightly, trying to remember.

“……!!”

As if he remembered something, he slowly began to repeat something in a low voice.

“Five of the seventeen are vacant, but two will never change. Doesn’t this sound similar?”

[……?]

Alrn looked at him with a questioning look.

“Lyseria. That was definitely written in the Red Dragon’s lair. It was an ancient language that only priests could read.”

[Really?]

“A priest of the Order said that……. That story was about God. There are four children of the first God, and seventeen incarnations were born to them. Yula is one of them.”

[The fit is too good to be a coincidence. Even the fact that the number of Bladers and the number of Gods changed is the same……. Hmm.]

Alrn showed interest in Karyl’s words.

This was because the power of the Order and God was not as absolute in the Magic Age as it is now.

Whoosh—!!!

[It’s not strange.]

It was then.

Flames rose from the back of Karyl’s hand, and Lamine’s figure appeared. Unlike usual, it was a small figure, only an inch in size.

“Lamine.”

[Lyseria was a dragon who made a covenant with the Bladers during the Divine War. There’s no problem even if their story is written there. What’s strange is that, according to you, that story has been transformed into a story of God and passed down to the Order.]

Lamine, who was sealed in the Fire Dragon’s Nest, Lyseria’s lair, did not know the contents of the barrier.

Furthermore, she could not know how the content had been altered and passed down over time.

[Well……. Red Dragon, he abandoned humans and sided with God in the end. There’s nothing to say even if it’s passed down as a story of God.]

At Lamine’s words, Karyl recalled the memory of when he ate the Red Dragon’s heart.

Was it because of his heart?

Karyl remembered the events of when Lyseria was killed by Kaie Esir as clearly as if he had experienced them himself.

“A dragon who betrayed humans……. I don’t know if it was the price of betrayal or just because of human desire, but he was eventually killed by humans.”

He smiled bitterly.

[Getting back to the point, the reason we created the Bladers was to create something that surpassed their weapons.]

“……Weapons?”

Alrn pointed to the Ice Claw that Karyl was wearing and said.

[Yes. They are known to have used very special weapons. The shape can be various; it can be a sword, a spear, or sometimes armor or magic. However, the fifteen weapons are called Master Keys, and the two unchanging ones had weapons that only they could use.]

“……Hmm. Is that so?”

Karyl smacked his lips at Alrn’s words.

“Well, the humans who opposed God couldn’t have fought with weapons from the neighborhood blacksmith. Are there any of those weapons still left?”

He wondered what the fifteen relics used by the former Bladers in the Mythic Age were.

The Blader’s Five Weapons.

Even the Ice Claw he was using now was far superior to any existing weapon.

But if it was made in an era when the power of spirits was abundant and magic enveloped the earth……?

[Hehe……. Your greed really knows no bounds.]

Karyl smiled bitterly.

[There’s no need to try to find them. You just don’t know it, but some of the fifteen weapons are already out in the world. And you have one too.]

“……?!”

Karyl couldn’t help but be surprised at Lamine’s words.

“Me?”

[Ain Trigger. That jewel containing the essence of my power is one of the Mythic relics. At that time, I made a contract with a Spirit King and one of the Bladers.]

“Huh…….”

Karyl understood a little why the Flame Tyrant was friendly to humans.

On the other hand, Duat’s case would be a distrust of humans due to betrayal of that faith.

[The two swords used by the Barbarian Queen are also Mythic relics. So is the hammer of that big guy who is the leader of the mercenary group. Of course, both of them are not enough to draw out the power of the weapons.]

“Really?”

It was surprising that her twin swords were Mythic weapons, but how much power was hidden inside that even two people who had reached the rank of Sword Master could not use all the power of the weapons…….

It was nothing short of amazing.

[The same goes for you.]

Karyl shrugged.

He fully understood Lamine’s constant complaints that his spirit power was insufficient.

“Then……. Can you tell me why you lost the Divine War because of humans?”

[…….]

Lamine was silent at Karyl’s question.

“Tch, you’re not falling for it.”

Karyl had the same reaction when he asked before, so he had an expected expression.

Alrn also shook his head as if he didn’t know that much.

“Is there a reason you can’t tell me? Then how about this? I don’t care about the other Blader’s weapons. Will the relics used by those two unchanging ones remain here?”

[Maybe. Or maybe not.]

“What do you mean?”

Lamine hesitated for a moment, then said as if she had made up her mind.

[I mean I don’t know either. That’s not a weapon from this world.]

“……!!!”

Alrn Xavius, who was quick to notice Karyl’s reaction, tapped him on the shoulder and said.

[Your eyes have changed. Are you going to look for it?]

“If I have the chance. I don’t even know where it is, and I don’t even know if it’s here.”

[But your eyes are different. To me, that sounds like you’re going to get it. You’ve never failed to get what you want.]

Karyl smiled faintly at Alrn’s words.

“Greed can sometimes be a very important meaning of existence for humans.”

[You’re a greedy human? Come on. Even if it may seem that way to others, you can’t fool my eyes.]

Alrn laughed heartily as he looked at Karyl.

Although his appearance had changed, the being inside was still the teacher who taught Karyl magic.

He was the one who knew him best.

[You’re just getting what you think you need for your goal. Isn’t your goal just one thing from beginning to end?]

Swish-

Karyl drew the Ice Claw as he listened to Alrn’s words.

“Well…….”

The cold blade gleamed in the light of the dawn that was slowly beginning to break.

“This is not enough.”

Not enough to cut off the breath of God.

Whoosh……!!

As he lightly swung the sword, the Ice Claw emitted a sharp sonic boom as if it were crying.

“It’s time to change weapons.”