Chapter 65
When I went up to the dueling arena, the Sword Empress greeted me with a sword in hand.
She looked into my eyes and smiled.
“Good eyes. I can feel the spirit befitting an Academy cadet. Back then, it wasn’t like that.”
“I’ll be in your care.”
As I took a slow breath in and exhaled, thick steam poured out.
Perhaps it was due to the burning desire to compete, but my body temperature rose rapidly.
“Just taking a breath can produce this much heat? You must have learned a martial art of extreme yang. One worthy of being called a divine art. What is your master’s honorable name?”
“I don’t even know my master’s name. He always told me to call him however I wished.”
“A reclusive hermit, then.”
I nodded.
I couldn’t tell her that my master was the Heavenly Demon.
After all, she was one of the highest-ranking officers of Pandemonium and was classified as a Special-Class Dangerous Individual by society.
Even so, the reason I could use the Asura Divine Art in the Academy was that it wasn’t the Heavenly Demon’s secret technique—it was a martial art custom-made by my master just for me.
Therefore, even if I used the Asura Divine Art, there was no reason for anyone to suspect that I was the Heavenly Demon’s disciple.
She asked again.
“Now that I think about it, your weapon?”
“I don’t use weapons. My master always said that weapons are mere illusions when it comes to mastering martial arts.”
“Oh… so he said that. I’m getting even more curious about who your master is. I know of seekers like you—those who abandon weapons and pursue strength itself.”
There are others like that besides me?
They couldn’t possibly know that not using a weapon increases proficiency like I do.
They must be insane.
Well, from their point of view, I probably looked like one of those madmen myself.
Soon, a countdown appeared on the display board.
The Sword Empress drew a sword and floated it in the air.
Was she planning to test my reactions slowly?
Dan Chun-woo and Park Siwoo both endured the assault of three swords without much difficulty.
And Helena—she retired shortly after the third sword appeared.
Now, how many swords could I endure?
If I didn’t want to embarrass myself, I had to last at least through four.
I slowly took a stance and began channeling my mana.
Internal energy circulated through my body as a heated surge rose from my dantian.
The countdown reached three.
Mana concentrated in my hands, and flames ignited.
It was the manifestation of Fist Energy.
And finally, the moment the countdown hit zero—
A single sword orbiting around the Sword Empress shot toward me like a bullet.
The target was my neck!
Clang!
With the sound of metal colliding, the sword bounced off.
Blocked it!
Facing it directly, I realized it was far stronger than I expected.
I managed to block it because I had analyzed the pattern from Dan Chun-woo and Park Siwoo’s duels, but if I’d faced it blindly, I might’ve been taken out right from the start.
The rebounded sword returned to her, then once again shot toward me.
This time, it was a slash, not a thrust.
The floating swords, each moving along its own trajectory in midair, were quite troublesome to deal with in person.
I struck several times following the sword’s movement paths.
Traces of fire lingered in the air.
Each sword was so solid that my fists went numb.
“Whew.”
I steadied my breath and looked at the swords carving arcs through the air.
How should I counter that?
There were many ways to predict an opponent’s movements when facing someone wielding a sword— their footwork, their gaze, their muscle movements.
If one broadened their perception, it was possible to combine those elements to anticipate their next move.
But Sword Control Art had none of that.
There was no central body guiding the swords, so the trajectories were impossible to predict.
Swords flew in directions no human anatomy could allow, some spinning as they sliced through the air.
This was dangerous.
I twisted my body to dodge a sword spinning toward me like a circular saw.
At that instant, instinct screamed.
Even though I’d avoided a deadly strike, my senses grew even sharper, on edge.
I immediately detonated the Fist Energy surrounding my hands.
The burst of flame propelled my body backward.
And in that very instant—another sword pierced the spot where I had just been.
My head cooled as if drenched in cold water.
That one was truly dangerous.
“You seem to be thinking too much. Do you really have time for that?”
Before I knew it, another sword had joined the fray.
Two swords now attacked in unison.
The difficulty doubled—no, more than that.
I could no longer block them head-on like before.
When I blocked one sword, another flew in from my blind spot.
She never let both swords stay within my field of vision.
Thanks to my expanded sense perception, I could detect the attacks, but reacting based on that alone was nearly impossible.
As I searched for a method, I took a step into True Step.
At the same time, I clenched my fists and rapidly activated the Asura Divine Art.
Internal energy surged through my body, heating it intensely.
“Hup.”
With a short exhale, flames burst around me in a ring shape.
Flames rotating around my body— creating a fierce wind through their rapid spin.
A Fire Wheel imbued with repulsive force.
It was the same technique I’d used during the Student Council entrance interview to block Yoo Iseo’s attack.
With this, even swords flying in from blind spots couldn’t easily approach.
Seeing this, the Sword Empress made a brief comment.
“You used your head. But I don’t really like tricks like that.”
At the same time, blue flames wrapped around her sword.
As expected, the Sword Empress was a truly broken character.
Manifesting Sword Aura while in the state of Sword Control Art—wasn’t that beyond even a Playable Character?
If dozens, even hundreds of swords floated in the air, all coated with sword aura, and then fell at once—
I didn’t even want to imagine the destructive power.
“Ha-ha.”
I let out a faint, hollow laugh and clenched the hand I had just opened.
She said she didn’t like tricks?
But I was a Player who had refined those very tricks to their absolute limit.
If one failed to grow or succeed, then it would be called a trick—but once you cleared it, that same trick became a clever stratagem.
So, let’s not fuss over means or methods.
I unleashed the power of the Asura Divine Art that I had been suppressing until now.
A terrible heat spread, and the air shimmered with rising mirages.
The sudden burst of heat made the Sword Empress pause her sword for a moment and look at me, as if to gauge the situation.
Her relaxed expression seemed to say that no matter what kind of struggle I put up, it would all be pointless.
Simply targeting the swords wouldn’t end the fight.
Dan Chun-woo’s battle had been the same.
In the end, since the Sword Empress herself was the core of the Sword Control Art, I had to aim for her.
I didn’t miss the moment she let her guard down and rushed forward.
I became a streak of crimson light as I charged toward her.
At the same time, I swung my fist.
The explosion of flame spread in all directions.
Kwooooom!
Damn it, did it not work?
My fist hurt too much for it to have landed on a person.
“A fine strike.”
As the flames faded, the Sword Empress appeared between them.
A third sword had already been summoned, blocking my path.
She hadn’t moved a single step from where the duel had begun.
At the same time, danger signals surged through my senses.
I immediately flung myself backward and swung my fists in all directions.
Kwaaang!
The three swords whirled through the air, constantly changing directions and attacking in waves.
Now I understood why Park Siwoo and Dan Chun-woo both fell when the third sword appeared.
With focus, it was possible to handle two weapons.
But once there were three, the attacks exceeded what human cognition could track.
At first, it could be endured through raw mana or physical strength, but that was merely a temporary measure.
I created a massive wall of flame to obscure her view.
I just needed to buy some time.
I recalled Dan Chun-woo’s movements.
He had seemed to adapt better to the three swords than Park Siwoo had.
How had he managed it?
Then, as if to help me, a fragment of Yoo Sung-woo’s memory flashed through my mind.
A hazy image of the Heavenly Demon appeared.
Was she training?
‘Once a martial artist reaches a certain level, they must contemplate their own domain. A territory that they can wholly command and control. Battles between those who’ve reached enlightenment are nothing more than wars to seize one another’s domains.’
As the storm of swords poured down, wounds began to appear all over my body.
They weren’t practice blades—they were real.
Blood soaked through my uniform.
But my attention wasn’t on the pain—it was on the Heavenly Demon’s words.
It was pure instinct.
Yoo Sung-woo’s memories wouldn’t have shown me something useless.
This had to be an opportunity—to break through this situation, to elevate my realm.
According to the Heavenly Demon, a domain was ultimately the space I could completely control.
Space...
I pushed the Asura Divine Art to its utmost limit, heightening every nerve in my body.
It was impossible to seize the full Spatial Control, so instead, I focused only on the senses that extended from my own energy.
I sharpened my perception to its extreme.
Within that heightened sense, I began to feel the movements of the swords.
Gradually, the trajectories became clearer than before.
But that alone wasn’t enough.
The swords moved at terrifying speeds and in impossible patterns—I had to avoid them along the optimal path.
To do that, I narrowed the range of my perception.
I kept my awareness only within the area where I could move freely and left my movements to instinct and experience.
Then, everything within about a one-meter radius around me began to grow vividly clear.
The flow of air within my perception, the shifting of the ground, the movement of muscles, breathing, even the flow of mana.
The flood of information was so intense that it felt like my head would burst—I could’ve drawn my surroundings perfectly even with my eyes closed.
At that moment, the Sword Empress unleashed her swords again.
Attacks that bent and twisted in from my blind spots.
But now, vision was no longer the issue.
My senses were moving.
I released my clenched fists.
Dan Chun-woo and the Sword Empress had said it during their duel, hadn’t they?
Use your whole body.
There was no need to be fixated on fists alone.
I just needed to use my entire body according to the situation.
Now I finally understood what the Heavenly Demon meant.
A domain wasn’t just the range where I could move my body.
A domain was the space where I could truly exist as myself.
At that moment, the swords invading from outside were finally perceived with perfect clarity.
All those attacks I thought were simultaneous—each carried a subtle delay.
I deflected the first sword that entered my domain with Golden Thread Hand.
Then, I caught the deflected sword midair.
Due to the Sword Empress’s inner energy, I couldn’t control the sword completely, but blocking the second strike was easy.
Cheng!
Then came the final sword.
I let my body follow the rebound from the clash between the two blades.
My heated body naturally tilted, and the third sword grazed past me.
Every movement flowed together like a single motion—graceful and seamless.
A perfectly efficient movement within my domain.
This was it.
So this was how it worked.
The Heavenly Demon’s teachings, which had existed only as memory and knowledge, began to take shape within me.
No matter how much memory inheritance I received, no matter how my body remembered those techniques—
If I, the one who controlled it all, lacked understanding, I could never truly wield them.
With this enlightenment, I could finally land a hit on the Sword Empress.
The Sword Empress’s eyes gleamed as she saw me flawlessly deflect all three swords.
“As expected. Just as I thought, you’ll taste the best. Now then, shall we enjoy the main dish properly?”
As she said that, another sword rose above her head.
The fourth sword had appeared.