Chapter 56: Magic Analyzing Sword Mergen

’I’m in trouble.’

The first thought Adonis had. The spear was dead weight. His armor was cracked. He barely has any mana left. His last card was the Magic Analyzing Sword Mergen.

’Even then, I don’t think my body can even...’

A hand settled on his shoulder.

It was trembling and armored in gold.

Adonis turned to see Godfrey standing behind him. His helmet was dented, his white cape was half burned off, and a thin stripe of blood ran down the side of his face. He’s panting painfully but his feet were planted firmly on the ground.

"Do you need help, little brother?"

"D-, Definitely."

Adonis could barely hold back his smile.

In the stands, the nobles gasped.

"The First Prince?!"

"He’s still in the fight after that blast?!"

"Look at the three of them. Third Prince, Fourth Prince, Fifth Prince... and the First. Every one of them is talented in a different way. Pure talent. Cunning. Endurance. Wisdom."

"The Falsbane line is blessed. The kingdom is saved."

To them, the winner didn’t matter, as long as all the princes were this blessed their safety was guaranteed.

Leander, who got irritated by their cheers, lifted Zelgius high above his head with both hands.

"Enough. ENOUGH!"

Platinum fire rose from his blade in a pillar so tall that it tore into the sky and split the clouds in half.

"Undeserved... undeserved praises. I will be king! I will rule this land, and after it the rest of the continent! This is my destiny! I am chosen! And I’ll end you both with this!"

He brought the blade down.

The slash split the arena in two.

A line of white fire crossed the sand and swallowed everything including the two brothers.

Godfrey rushed forward with Davaniel high over his head and his shield slammed out before him.

"FORTRESS!"

A wall of holy light shook the air. It wasn’t an ordinary barrier. It was a tall, shimmering gate of gold, made of ghostly knights standing shoulder to shoulder as their shields locked together to form a barricade.

The platinum fire struck it.

BOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Everywhere, everything was shaking.

White flame crashed against the golden wall and didn’t break through. It splashed over the barrier like a tide against a cliff, devouring it from the edges, only to leave cracks.

The fire was snuffed out, not the barrier.

Godfrey staggered and went down to one knee, planting his shield in the sand to keep himself up.

Adonis’s mouth fell open.

"How... How did you...?"

"Lucky, I guess. I woke up a little after. But I stayed still and let everyone think I was out. I’ve been gathering defense points ever since. Enough for one use of Fortress."

"One."

"Only one a day. That’s my limit. Whatever we’re doing next has to count, brother."

"Yeah, yeah. I get it."

Indra vanished in Adonis’s hand and in its place, a golden light gathered in his palm. A blade formed from the glow: pure silver, long and broad, slightly curved but with more elegance than a scimitar. A prominent glowing blue core with a dark slit like a demon’s eye sat at the center of the guard area.

『Magic Analyzing Sword Mergen』

He tightened his grip.

"Godfrey."

"Yes?"

"I might have a plan."

Adonis held Mergen up between them.

"I need hits on his sword. Not one good hit. Like, a lot."

Godfrey frowned under his dented helmet.

"Wait, why this instead of just hitting him? Shouldn’t you be the one getting close to Leander?"

"No, it’s too risky. Zelgius burns everything. Armor, flesh, magic, even the idea of magic. A single prolonged clash and Mergen turns to ash in my hands. So I can’t trade blows. I touch, I read, I leave. And the whole time, I can’t let him touch me."

"So you need a wall to hide behind."

"I need a brother to support me."

Godfrey let out a short, tired laugh, and the golden gate of knights around them cracked. It had been holding for a while now, but everything burned in Zelgius’s presence.

A piece fell off and turned to ash before it hit the sand.

"STOP HIDING BEHIND THAT BARRIER, COWARDS!"

Leander’s voice boomed as he dragged Zelgius through the sand and left a trail of molten glass behind him.

"COME OUT AND FIGHT ME!"

"Well, not like we have a choice." Adonis shrugged.

Zelgius flames had eaten most of the barrier so what was left was a few pillars of gold and a lot of smoke.

Godfrey lifted his shield. Adonis lifted his sword.

They looked at each other, and nodded.

Then they were gone in a flash.

Calling it running would be a lie, that had a start and an end. What the audience saw was a streak of gold and a streak of black, two lines drawn across the arena in a second.

A man in full golden plate, a greatsword and a shield the size of a door, moving like that. If Godfrey was a tank, then right now he was a train.

They appeared in thin air on both sides of Leander.

Both blades came down together.

CLANG!

Zelgius rose to meet Davaniel and the greatsword stopped dead, held in place by a wrist that didn’t even tremble. At the same time, a curtain of burning dragon aura wrapped Leander’s other side and caught Adonis’s weaker slash like it was a leaf.

"Two on one."

Leander’s grin was feral.

"To be ganged up on... is quite the stimulating."

"Oookay..." Adonis said, and vanished.

The brothers never wasted a second or hesitated.

Front and back, high and low, from the sky and from the sand where Adonis’s cloak dropped him out of the dust, the attacks came from every corner Leander had.

Davaniel crashed down like a falling tower.

Mergen flashed in and out like a silver needle.

CLANG! CLANG! DOOOOM!

A fountain of sparks lit up the coliseum.

Leander turned, parried, turned again, and every time he blocked one he took another half-step back.

And then...

Clang. One. Mergen touched Zelgius.

The blue core lit up like a star, and a thin line of text crawled across Adonis’s vision.

『Scanning... [Fragment: Platinum Flame — 3%]』

He didn’t stay to read it. He saw Leander’s shoulder drop and his sword tilt to prepare another devastating slash, so he kicked off the air itself and shot back.

"Godfrey, shield!"

BOOOOOOM!

Leander swung a wall of white flames across the whole arena that devoured like a dragon.

Godfrey planted both feet and took it head-on.

Half of his shield disappeared. The fire burned up his arm, across his helmet, and across the left side of his face. His armor glowed orange, then red. The skin under it...

He wanted to scream.

He clenched his teeth so hard Adonis could see the muscles of his jaw jump, and his breath came out shaking, in and out, in and out, as if he’d die from the pain alone.

Even so, he didn’t scream.

Adonis looked at the scanning bar on his sword but there still wasn’t enough data.

’More. I need more.’

Adonis went in, so did Godfrey who was a half-step ahead of him with a melted greatshield. When Leander lifted his sword to strike, he never saw the one he was aiming at, only a wall of armor that didn’t move out of the way.

The flames broke on it and Godfrey’s body took the burn.

His armor bent and blackened as worthless pieces of it flaked off like burnt paper.

And the instant the fire cleared, Adonis was already there.

Clang, second strike. Clang, third strike.

He never left a clash long enough for the white fire to crawl up Mergen’s blade and eat it.

Sometimes Leander caught on and aimed at Adonis instead. Then Godfrey would swing Davaniel into the blast itself to cut through the flames and the shockwave came back through his arm and made it ripple.

Something in his arm cracked at each action.

But he swung again.

Stop, don’t do it, be careful, these were all things Adonis wanted to say, but the words were pointless. The only way to make his brother’s pain worth something was to use it.

So he did... four, five, six sword clashes.

In the stands, Mariella clutched the railing hard.

Beside her, Prussia hadn’t blinked in a long time, and her blue eyes followed the Fifth Prince darting across the arena like it was the only thing that mattered.

Right now, perhaps he was.

Only one person on the whole balcony wasn’t biting her nails.

Alpis sat with her arms folded under her small chest, one leg crossed over the other, watching the broad silver sword with narrowed eyes.

’That blade... I’ve seen that before.’

A long time ago, a god of wisdom and abundance. A weapon that stood on the table at the beginning of every war, because the one who wielded it never fought a battle he hadn’t already won in his head.

She huffed.

’Then he’s already scheming. Of course he has. Besides, if he can’t beat a lowly weapon like Zelgius, how am I supposed to call him my master? Hmph!’

Leander scraped Zelgius across the sand.

"I’m done with your game. Die!"

He charged at Adonis. Not at Godfrey or the wall.

For the first time, the golden-haired prince who’d been slipping past all of his sword attacks for most of the fight, didn’t run or show the slightest panic.

Adonis lifted Mergen and the core flared brightly.

『Imprint Compiled: [Platinum Flame (Reconstructed)]』

He slashed a crescent of white fire that shook the coliseum as Leander cut it in half with a reflex. The two halves went past his shoulders and melted two rows of seats, and then he froze out of fear of witnessing the impossible.

For the first time since the duel began, he looked afraid.

"That’s... That’s my flame. How did you..."

"Read. Archive. Adapt."

Adonis grinned. His lip was split and his aching breath was coming too fast, but his eyes were calm.

"That’s the principle of this sword. And maybe the principle I’ve lived by since the day I came into this world."

Mergen wasn’t strong, not really.

It couldn’t create or invent, only watch, recall, and answer.

A sword that never stopped and endured to the end, like the stubborn human spirit that refuses to lay down until there are fruitful results.

In that sense, the sword was just him.