Requiem Of A Failed Hero

“I have never met a human like you, you have the potential to be much more, we can be allies fighting side by side under the guidance of the true light that is beyond humanity. I have seen him, I have seen his power. He is the light of the world, the only one that can save the world of Therut and this world.”

Raith finally understood the ant king’s perspective.

‘This bastard got named and thinks his namer is the good one, the savior of some sort.’

Raith pointed his hand to me, “I don’t care whatever, if you talk again I will slice off your head without hesitation.” He warned him with an intense glare as he readied his sword.

“How about we get serious now, Bal?”

“Ah, ah, I thought you were never going to ask!”

“And so how do I use these skills?” Raith sought politely.

“The difference between the hidden skills I showed you and my normal sword skill… if you have noticed those hidden skills belonged to my first user, although my memory is still a bit hazy. I know a few things. They are skills that you have to pick, they can become the one thing we share… when I’m in your hands they are yours.”

‘…and when you are not?’

“Master it enough first. Then nothing much will matter when I’m not in your hands. Do you plan on abandoning me?”

‘…No, never. I just find relying on others a bother.’

“Whatever, focus on this goddamn talkative in front of you.”

“I offer you a chance of power, I offer you the light but you are just too ignorant. What do I do with you? I don’t want you to die like other humans.” The ant king’s countenance fell as he lowered his head in sorrow. “Well, you will live on in me after I consume your brain”

fuuuuuuu

The ant king’s eyes widened as Raith let out steam through his mouth while exhaling softly. With that seemingly insignificant action, the air around changed drastically and the ant king who was quite sensible to changes couldn’t help but notice it.

He naturally shut his mouth and frown so hard that his veins were showing on his forehead, he clawed his hand and protruded his sharp claws even longer and sharper than before, preparing himself for the worst outcome.

“Six demon sword…”

WHISH

Black smoke swirled around the sword as Raith stood his stance, exuding a quiet confidence. He inhaled deeply again taking in the ethereal essence of the darkness and then.

WHAM!

“First demon”

The ant lunged forward with its claws slashing through the air as soon as it felt that tingling that told it that Raith was about to execute a dangerous attack– but Raith met his attack head-on, both of them met in the middle of their distance, Raith sidestepped with an uninterrupted and perfectly fluid motion, his footwork was like mirroring the elegant dance of the moonlight in still waters.

His sword arced through the air, surging with an enormous tide of black aura that blasted out with the air impact as Raith’s sword stopped at the ant’s neck before the ant could even react.

He was meaning to cut off its head with one strike but the ant’s exoskeleton was tougher than he thought. But Raith gave no thought to it, he was just going to try again.

“Second demon”

The next arc carved out with a silvery light that cut through the darkness, leaving the epitome of brilliance in its wake, captivated by the beauty of his speed the ant did not even know when Raith had retracted his hand and lunged another strike that now buried in its midsection.

But the ant’s defense was still as impressive.

“Third demon” 𝒷𝒹ℴ𝓿𝓁.𝓬𝓸𝓂

The ant’s eyes gleamed as Raith lowered his body and bent his blade in a winding motion along with his body as he danced around the ant in a flowing pattern, cutting everything in his path till he was behind the ant.

It was so serene that nothing was felt, apart from the black smoke that flowed with every pattern like a remnant of its dreadfulness, the ant didn’t even know when Raith passed it.

Even with that much, only small dents appeared on the ant king’s skin– although his clothes were torn. The dents appeared on his skin like one was persistently trying to hit a certain part of the wall– that small carving.

The ant immediately, with widened eyes spun backward, darting towards Raith, it had now known better than to give him a breathing space. Its claws flashed forward like lightning aimed at Raith’s face, intending to crush everything with one grip.

“Fourth demon”

With a swift spin away from his line of attack, Raith evaded the ant’s claws, simultaneously releasing a rapid succession of slashes twisting his sword and body in a flowing fashion– and accurately executing all multiple blows successfully, with the clashing sound of his sword and the ant’s exoskeleton reverberating through the enclosure in a symphony of echoes.

The ant stumbled back, amazed by the beautiful swordsmanship that Raith was executing but couldn’t dare to spare a moment to talk about it– else it wanted Raith to successfully harvest its own head instead.

Gritting its teeth wildly, it launched itself as Raith pierced forward for the next attack–

“Fifth demon”

The atmosphere seem like it was responding to Raith’s swordsmanship, as he prepared for the fifth demonic sword, tension fell on the atmosphere, slowing down the pace of the ant that had already paced, it was as if the darkness behind it was pulling it back.

With a resolute breath, Raith unleashed a devastating move, his sword traced an arc in the air, and in a blinding flash the blade connected with the ant king, severing its arm in a shower of green ichor.

The ant was left bewildered, it was still in the air when its arm had flown off and didn’t even have enough time to react, Raith’s speed transcended all of its skills.

It leaped several steps in careful observation of Raith and the extraordinary black sword he was holding.

“A sword capable of cutting through my impenetrable defense. How amusing.” He said and looked at his hand.

“But all that endeavor is useless…”

He said and–

Wham!

His hand grew out fully instantly.

“Of course, I was expecting that,” Raith stated.

He wasn’t done.

‘With that last strike, I now understand how the attack power works.’ Raith narrowed his gaze as he got ready to unleash the complementing strike of the Six Demon sword.

The mistake anyone would have made was to think the Six Demon sword was all but a sword technique.

Raith knew it at a glance of the skill info. The main objective of this skill is to bring one into the realm of focus.

However that is done by the guidance of several sword strikes that calls together all the faculties of focus of the swordsman to one point and by the time the last sword strike is unleashed, one passes that boundary of natural focus and enters a realm that naturally is unreachable to human.

Raith didn’t know this much but knew at the very least that being in that realm of focus was the true aim of The Six Demon sword. And perhaps, it will now influence the use of other sword skills.

“Sixth demon”

“Damn, you human!!!” The ant king shouted, tearing through the air towards Raith and becoming a blur as he moved, he was super fast and was even pushing himself beyond his limit in order to overcome that helplessness he felt before Raith’s sword.

As Raith his first step, all the lower levels of the enclosure immediately became murky– he charged towards the ant with a deafening speed sound, blasting away in a straight line like a fired bullet. He released a horizontal slash that was covered in the murk– the ant slashed at him thinking that his sword did not reach it but Raith’s image faded into the air as he appeared behind the ant king who caught nothing.

“An afterimage? Did he move faster than I could perceive in that split second, fast enough to leave an afterimage?” The ant asked himself.

Splatter!!

Only a few seconds later did green blood splatter out of its side, raining showers around it.

‘What?’ The ant king was flabbergasted, ‘I could swear I didn’t see him cut me!’

He didn’t understand what was happening. Because of Raith’s black sword hiding within the murk that suddenly fill the lower levels as he launched the sixth demonic sword strike, the ant was unable to perceive the sword or see it coming which made it feel like Raith missed.

But that was the least of its concern right now.

[You have entered the realm of absolute focus ‘SAMADHI’]

[You are in the state of SAMADHI]

The ant slowly turned with its shoulders trembling as it absorbed the image of Raith behind his back.

Raith was standing with both of his hands gripping his sword whose tip was almost kissing the ground.

He was different, even by looks– the veins already on his forehead seemed like they were all going to escape, and the pupil in his eyes had disappeared leaving only the white sclera. Not to say the dignified presence that he carried.