115 – Magic Tower – 4
Serena trampled on the gauntlet of her half-damaged armor, shattering it whole, and picked up the rusty sword lying on the floor.
Something rusty enough to even call it metal rattled the handle. Serena didn’t even flinch.
The rusty sword, which had been fighting for a while with Serena, soon stopped trembling as if it had declared surrender. The pressure of the mana that had been squeezing the surroundings weakened a little.
“Are you okay, Serena?”
“What do you mean, lord?”
“That sword. Didn’t you hear something in your head asking you to swing yourself?”
“I thought it was like that right after I caught it, but after blowing mana a few times, it quieted down. It’s okay now. Thank you for your concern, lord.”
It was a sound that the souls trapped inside the sword would shed tears of resentment when they heard it.
He would have mobilized even the ghosts who had picked up the sword to dominate the demonic sword with a useless weapon and then died from being possessed by the sword, and played hard with their tongues to make Serena look the same as them, but it means that even that was stamped out.
At first glance, it’s nothing more than a dirty ugly lump of scrap metal, but it’s a sword that has absorbed a lot of people’s souls.
When I held it in the past, I wondered if the soul that was tied up inside would exceed 100, even if it wasn’t as good as what I had experienced.
Absorbing my soul, of course, failed.
“Well, even World Eaters follow Serena’s words calmly, but at best there’s no way a rusty sword can stand against them. But he’s good at grasping his subjects.”
The moment he finished saying that, Serena’s expression subtly changed, and the hand holding the sword gained strength.
The entire sword was covered with blue mana. The trembling that started at the handle soon spread beyond the cross guard to the blade and the tip of the sword.
Serena gripped the handle of her sword harder. A vein popped out on the back of his hand. A piece of rusty metal was about to fall out, but was blocked by the blue mana that covered the entire sword and floated inside.
The tremors soon subsided. As the trembling of the rusty sword calmly changed, the blue mana that had been suppressing the sword scattered into the air. Serena loosened her grip.
“At most, he must have been mad at me for saying it was a rusty sword.”
“Was this something that made you angry? Somehow, I felt that the repercussions were intense. Since you dared to fight against the lord over something like a sword, I will destroy it as it is if you give me an order.”
“No, just leave it alone. He was scolding his master for not swinging at him. He probably didn’t mean it.”
“Antal… you mean?”
There was a lot of emotion that I couldn’t understand in the tone.
“Does this feel a little weird? I’m not close enough to describe him as an antagonist. You can change it to grumbling or complaining. Yes, complaining would be the most accurate. He complained that he was cursing at himself without even swinging at him.”
At my words, Serena looked at the rusty sword in her hand with subtle eyes. At the same time as the eyes of the blue eyes focused, even the subtle trembling of the sword body suddenly stopped.
That guy was scared of Serena.
He must have calmed down after realizing that he was a strong man capable of destroying the sword itself by making up his mind and infusing mana beyond the limit.
I don’t know if I still want to live like that even when I’m living trapped inside a rusty sword. I can only do that and move on.
“Then you can think of it as a sword with an ego. If it’s an ego sword, I’ve heard of its existence.”
“It’s an ego sword. It’s not completely wrong. Instead, there are only several souls that have formed egos within them. If not, there will be more than a hundred. All of those souls yearn for the meaning of existence, so they can move on their own from time to time.”
“Are you saying the meaning of existence, lord?”
“Yes, the purpose of existence. For example, the World Eater’s purpose of existence is to drink blood and use it as nourishment to manifest the demon dwelling in the sword into the world. Doesn’t he keep trembling while asking for more blood?”
“That’s right.”
“That’s because that’s his purpose. In the case of this rusty sword, the purpose of existence is just to make all the metal in the world rust. I don’t know why he’s doing such a useless thing, but hey.”
As I held out my hand, Serena, realizing what he meant, handed over the sword. The fishy smell and savory taste peculiar to rusty iron, which I had felt a long time ago, lingered in my mouth.
It was a sign that my body was starting to erode.
The hand holding the sword slowly rusted. It was a nasty trick to completely harden his hand and never let go of the sword.
Dozens of voices whispered simultaneously in my head. Hurry up and swing your sword, just put everything down and go where your instincts lead you.
ignored and promoted regenerative capacity.
The voices resonating in my head disappeared as if they had been washed. The rust that was on the hand holding the sword also disappeared.
After that, this knife tried to encroach on my body several times, but every time it failed because the super regeneration ability returned everything to its original state.
Even though all attempts to encroach on me had failed, I didn’t give up. I waved my sword slightly at Serena, watching the rust still creeping up on my hand.
“Wow, what a guy.”
Seeing my hand rot, Serena’s eyes shone fiercely. As soon as my permission was granted, he was ready to sever his sword.
I stopped Serena with a wink and knelt down to pick up a wooden box lying next to me. When I closed the lid with the sword inside, I felt a slight vibration through the box.
First of all, since this guy also belongs to the category of demonic swords, this wooden box will eventually corrode, that is to say, rust and disappear.
It’s just that it takes an overwhelmingly longer time to completely rust compared to metal.
I put the wooden box that was closed with a lock on my side and stood up. Serena was still disapproving of the sword stuck in the box.
When I handed out the box, Serena readily accepted it and injected mana into it. The box rattled like mad and soon died.
“There are probably a few more like this. Not as active as this one, just to the point of being excited by themselves.”
“If my lord wishes, I will destroy them all.”
“It’s been collected so far, so let’s destroy it? Leave it alone. No matter what you do here, you can’t leave the Mage Tower. I never intended to do that anyway, so it’s okay.”
“If that is the will of my lord.”
True to its name, the Magic Tower, this tower stretched upwards for about 10 floors, but the place I had to stop by now was the basement.
The upper floor is a place where relatively safe weapons are stored, and the basement is a place where weapons that will kill many people if unlucky are stored.
Those placed on the upper floors of the tower at least do not cause mental erosion or manipulate the user’s body as soon as they are caught.
If there are safe ones and dangerous ones, of course we should look at the dangerous ones first. It’s a place that’s been neglected for almost 10 years, so you don’t know what will happen.
‘I have something to meet.’
I glanced at the World Eater strapped to Serena’s waist. Sensing my gaze, Serena asked.
“Do you need anything, lord?”
“Could you lend me some World Eaters for a while? I have a place to use it.”
“It was given to me by the lord, so you can take it anytime.”
Saying that, Serena politely held out the World Eater she supported with both hands. When I held it in my hand, the sword body hummed and vibrated weakly.
For nearly ten years, Serena seemed to have gotten very close to me, and I tried to bring a demon into my body, but I didn’t. If it was, Serena would have beaten it to pieces.
I found a circular stone stairway close to the wall and started down. Serena, holding a wooden box under one arm, followed me.
Although the sunlight couldn’t come in because of the bricks that were closely attached without any gaps, it wasn’t so dark under my feet because there were lighting magic circles everywhere.
As the basement got closer, Serena, perhaps sensing an ominous aura creeping over her, sped up her steps a little and came closer to me.
“My lord, if you don’t mind, I’ll go in first.”
“Huh? No, there’s no need for that. There’s hardly anyone other than this guy who can move alone. At most, one or two will end, but since they’re weapons, they can’t see us. They can’t even feel our presence or mana. Probably for a while. Should I go further to react?”
At the end of the stairs, the appearance of the basement was revealed, completely bricked. A protective magic circle was drawn on every brick, regardless of walls, ceilings, and floors.
All sorts of weapons and armor were displayed at regular intervals. All of them were weapons that I judged were dangerous and left them in the basement.
Serena took a quick look around the cellar and spat out a comment.
“……Mana is fluctuating very unstable, lord. I don’t think it’s a very good place.”
“Because it’s not a good place. Why are magic circles spread all over the place like that?”
My words caused Serena to frown even more than when she first set foot in the basement. He seemed to notice who drew these magic circles.
“Leave the box in an empty spot over there, and walk around and look around. If you’re curious, you can touch it. Serena and you won’t be eaten by these guys here.”
As befits the weapons I judged to be dangerous, here was a weapon that, when activated by touching it, was a nobleman, and in the worst case, it even destroyed the other person’s mind just by looking at it.
Of course, they were put in a box enchanted with sealing magic and kept in solitary confinement, so you don’t have to worry. And if it’s Serena, she’ll probably be able to resist their mind control.
Because Charlotte wasn’t caught. So there’s no way Serena will get caught.
Like a knight wielding a sword, Serena immediately picked up a long sword nearby as soon as I put the box down where I pointed.
It was a mixture of blue and white that made me feel cold just by looking at it. White frost rose from the sword and spread in all directions.
Was that called Frozen Frost? Anyway, it has a very unusual name.
It’s a sword that starts by freezing the guy’s arm first, but as expected, Serena casually wielded it here and there.
Leaving Serena behind, I carried the World Eater across the basement for a long time. Serena caught up to me like the wind as she caught me moving away.
“Didn’t I just say I could watch?”
“I can’t get away from my lord.”
Serena’s eyes were firm. They would stay apart if I forced them to give orders, but should I? He turned his head without saying a word.
The vast basement suddenly became a narrow hallway. Iron doors stood on both sides of the hallway. As I mentioned earlier, these were rooms where weapons that could erode one’s mind just by looking at them were sealed.
After walking for several minutes along a hallway barely wide enough for two people to pass, I managed to arrive at a certain door.
Unlike the iron gates he had passed so far, it was a simple wooden gate.
However, the number of defensive magic circles on the door was not simple at all. Serena, who confirmed that, took a step forward and covered her entire body with mana.
Leaving behind Serena, who had her eyes fixed on the door, with the energy to blow away whatever came out of it, she pushed the door lightly with the tip of the World Eater knife in her hand.
The door was opened so vainly. It was unbelievable that an enormous amount of defensive magic circles were overlapping, so it was an easy entry and exit permit.
Serena still had suspicious eyes, but when I went inside without hesitation, she followed me in as if she couldn’t help it.
The inside was plain.
A large box was placed in the middle of a square room with simple stone walls, and something was placed on top of the wooden box.
It was a scabbard entirely decorated with red jewels. Seeing this, Serena’s eyes widened slightly.
“Master, is this…?”
“What you think is right.”
I held up the World Eater lightly. Serena’s eyes alternated between the scabbard and the World Eater placed vertically on top of the box.
“……Could it be, is that the real sword of the World Eaters?”
“That’s correct. You got it right.”
Saying that, he pulled out the World Eater from the fake sword case. The blade was covered with an ominous red aura.
After a long time, it was time to talk to the devil.
