CHAPTER 104 Test of Raiten and the Boiling of Crossgard

The matte, black-basalt scabbard settled onto my back via a double leather harness crossed over my chest. I balanced the straps so that Raiten's hilt, along with its sharp, straight crossguard and carved Lynx head pommel, protruded right above my right shoulder. Zero thigh interference, zero accidental bumping against doorframes, full range of movement for my arms. The longsword rested on my spine as stably as if it were a natural extension of my skeleton.

When I stepped into the spacious oak-basalt living room of the manor near the forest, a brief, appreciative silence fell over the room.

Shnee, who was cleaning her diamond rapier of Celestial Silver with a soft cloth on the sofa under the window, looked up. Her brilliant eyes narrowed slightly, sensing the deep, cold resonance of sapphire energy emanating from the polished Kaelar Core embedded in the crossguard. Karys, leaning against an ottoman with her dark wolf ears twitching toward me, let out air through her nose with a quiet whistle of respect.

– Dude... that scrap on your back smells like such thick, heavy death that the fur on my neck is standing up, Kaede squeaked in Polish directly from my collar. – And that guard! Pure, angular engineering with no useless shit. You look like a guy who came to collect debts with interest.

– Pragmatically speaking, kiddo, a weapon is meant to cut and stay out of the way of movement, not look like a palace candelabra, I replied smoothly in our Polish code with a brazen smirk.

– Boss, the coffee is hot, zero grounds, served with sub-millimeter precision on the oak tabletop, Ria’s cheeky voice sounded beside me.

The small Tiefling in her spotlessly clean apron set the steaming mug on the table, then crossed her arms over her chest, tactically sizing up the new harness across my chest.

– Well... finally, she concluded with a sparkle in her black eyes and a small, feisty smile. – With that sword on your back, you finally look like a real Sovereign of the Manor, not just a guy throwing gold coins left and right. Elena is currently calculating reserves in the ledgers, and Silas sent a boy with news from the city. All of Crossgard is burning.

– Burning? I raised an eyebrow, taking a sip of hot coffee.

Elena approached the table with a thick accounting volume under her arm. Her surgical, cold gaze scanned Raiten's hilt with the highest approval.

– The status change on the Golden Board in the Oath Guild occurred yesterday, exact milliseconds after you neutralized the Titan on the hundredth floor, Elena explained distinguishedly. – The inscription 'Forgotten Necropolises' flashed gold with the status 'CLEARED (100/100)'. The aristocracy from the Upper City and the guard commanders are in absolute shock. None of the imperial guilds have any idea which power liquidated the most dangerous dungeon in the region without their permission or knowledge.

– Let them shake in their silk pants, I laughed coldly. – Before we get down to business with Silas, though, I need to test the resonance of this toy.

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Karys, Shnee, and Luthia followed me to the expansive basalt training field spreading out behind the manor. The ground of hard volcanic stone provided the perfect testing ground for physical overloads.

I stood in the center of the yard. Reaching over my shoulder with my right hand, I gripped Raiten's hilt. The blade slid out of the scabbard with a smooth, metallic whistle entirely devoid of friction. The dark charcoal steel with its wavy damascus pattern gleamed in the morning sun with matte elegance.

– Protocol one: sapphire flow, I muttered to myself.

I released a narrow, dense beam of sapphire Raitai from my reactor. The channeled energy flowed through my hand directly into the hilt. The Kaelar Core set in the center of the guard flashed with a powerful electric blue, and the Celtic inscription carved into the fuller — “Where the Sapphire Thunder falls, the bonds of Destiny shatter” — blazed with pure, crystalline light. Zero channel resistance. Zero heat loss. The metal conducted my energy at one hundred percent efficiency.

– And now... time for the Leviathan, I bared my teeth in a predatory smile.

The muscles in my arm tensed. Twisting my hip to use my body's inertia, I hurled Raiten with full force toward a massive basalt boulder standing fifty meters away at the edge of the range.

The sword streaked through the air with a supersonic snap and slammed into the solid volcanic bedrock right up to the guard. Cracks spread three meters across the boulder.

Silence. Shnee observed the rock with mild curiosity, while Karys narrowed her eyes.

I took a slow step back. Lowering my hand, I extended my right palm toward the distant rock. Opening my sapphire reactor, I sent a pure impulse of will directly to the Astral Anchor Rune carved by Grim onto the guard.

BOOM!

The basalt rock exploded into fine dust. Raiten, with a powerful sonic boom defying gravity, tore out of the rubble, broke inertia, flipped one hundred and eighty degrees in midair, and speeding at supersonic velocity, screwed its hilt perfectly into my open palm!

The return impulse pushed my shoulder back slightly, but the grip of my KAI reinforcement locked onto the hilt without losing a millimeter of precision. The sapphire runes on the blade extinguished with a quiet, electric hiss.

– Holy shit... Karys gasped, her dark wolf ears standing straight up in awe. – Dave... did you just summon a sword from fifty meters away while blasting a boulder to dust?!

– Astral Anchor, kiddo, I smiled with dantean chill, sliding Raiten back into the scabbard on my back with a smooth click. – Pragmatically speaking, a weapon that returns to its owner at a single click of will saves running across the battlefield.

At that exact moment, Silas walked through the basalt gate of the manor. The old fence wore a deep hood, and his face was sweatier and paler than usual.

– Dave... Silas choked out, wiping his forehead with a worn cloth. – There's a cauldron in the city like I haven't seen in ten years. The City Guard has suspended issuing passes to the Upper City, and Inquisition spies are roaming the alleys of the Lower City, asking about blue discharges and someone selling S-rank cores in bulk.

– Let them ask, their loss, I replied calmly, gesturing for him to join us at the gazebo. – What about the auction?

Silas pulled two heavy, black-lacquered passes sealed with gold wax from a leather bag.

– The Closed Auction at the Aristocracy Auction House in the Upper City will take place tomorrow at dusk, the old fence said, lowering his voice. – The entire flower of the lords, guild representatives, and wealthy merchants will be there. They are putting up not just artwork, but extremely rare, exotic metal alloys, damaged ancient artifacts, and unprocessed cores from foreign raids.

I looked at Elena, who opened a pouch filled with our pure gold from core sales. Our treasurer's eyes gleamed with cold, absolute financial dominance.

– Pragmatically speaking, Silas... we're going shopping, I smiled with brazen chill. – We're going to bid and snag every rare alloy and component that catches my eye. My workshop and Grim's forge need raw materials for new projects, and the aristocracy of Crossgard will gladly finance our engineering whims.