Chapter 218: Knight of Honor [2]

Chapter 217

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Episode 55 - Knight of Honor [2]

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I slightly raised my gaze, my expression unreadable.

Honestly, she was really tall.

’Is she taller than my real body?’

I mean, this body is tall, sure, but not as tall as my real one.

Strangely enough, I feel a certain sense of superiority from being quite tall.

But my master’s new appearance, who had previously been less than ten centimeters tall, now stood close to two meters.

Her new appearance was probably her true form.

Eyes and hair as black as ink, impossible to ignore, truly highlighted her beauty.

"Ugh... I knew changing my form would consume a lot of Mana, but it’s more than I expected."

Then she looked at me and added,

"It seems I can only maintain this appearance for an hour at most, disciple."

I looked at her for a second. Then I lowered my gaze, raised it again, and said,

"Tsk, have some dignity."

I turned around and gripped my sword as I closed my eyes and focused on swinging it, keeping my mind clear.

Meanwhile, behind me, my master muttered in confusion,

"What do you mean by dignity?"

She probably looked down at herself the very next second.

"Ah... w-wait, I’m not that kind of person... Hey, disciple, it’s not what it looks like."

Ignoring her words, however, I simply focused. There were more important things to do.

The reason for her reaction was that she was currently wearing a dress so short and a blouse so small and thin that anyone could see... let’s just say, her true self.

***

A few minutes later.

Now wearing proper clothes created with Mana, my master stood in front of me and said,

"Before we begin, wipe that look off your face."

"...."

With my head slightly raised to meet her eyes, I said,

"It’s just that... you could be a little shorter, at least five centimeters shorter than me."

"....."

"Because I feel like you have a strange obsession with feeling superior because of your height."

She shook her head. I looked at her expressionlessly and said,

"No, I think there’s a misunderstanding. I don’t..."

Then she raised her hand and stopped me in the middle of my excuse.

"No excuses. Now let’s get straight to the point."

I let out a sigh and nodded.

Holding a wooden sword, my master said,

Meanwhile, she assumed a simple stance and held the wooden sword with one hand.

"The Third Form: Intent... as I already said, it’s about creating Sword Intent."

"However, the Sword Intent that I created and later incorporated to turn it into the Third Form of Inverted Heaven is different from conventional Sword Intent."

Tilting my head slightly, I asked,

"What kind of difference?"

I had never seen Sword Intent, and although I knew a little about it, it was only because of my master’s explanations.

I knew that Sword Intent was slightly different for every swordsman.

But I had never seen it, so I didn’t really know anything about it or its differences.

’But if she says hers is different, then I guess it really must be, right?’

That was my first thought.

Then my master continued,

"Conventional Sword Intent has a rather simple characteristic. It’s about using Will, Imagination, and Mana to bring it into reality, then simply attacking. That’s all."

"Of course, you can also create a kind of armor using Sword Intent. It has multiple uses, but they’re all... simple, so to speak."

"But mine, of course, is different because it’s part of a Sword Art."

"The biggest difference is this: I combined the power of space and time with Sword Intent."

She raised the wooden sword, and before my eyes, space distorted.

Light Mana radiated faintly, and something invisible covered the wooden blade.

That invisible thing—Sword Intent—twisted space and time simultaneously. Its shape was probably that of a blade.

"Normally, attacking would simply be like launching a long-range strike, like a Mana sword created through magic that extends several meters."

Then she lowered the sword slightly and pointed it forward.

Countless slashes appeared all across the floor of the training hall.

"....."

I stared at the scene in a daze for a second.

’This resembles Veronica’s Sword Art... no.’

But there were differences.

Veronica moves both her body and her katana at such incredible speed that it seems as though she never even drew it.

My master, however, hadn’t moved.

Using space, she created multiple pathways through it, and using time, she accelerated the movement of her sword. The result was what lay before me.

By creating pathways through space, she only needed a single movement.

Yet at the same time, that single movement became multiple separate slashes across space.

’My head hurts.’

I frowned slightly. The concept was certainly difficult for most people to understand.

But I didn’t need to understand it.

"You’ve grasped it, haven’t you?"

My master looked at me with a satisfied smile. As for me, I gave a faint nod while lost in thought.

"Anyway, that attack was simply ’physical.’ There’s also the version I call Omnipresent. Simply by using your vision or your senses, without fully using the sword, you can use Sword Intent."

"...."

I frowned for a second, clearly confused.

"What does that mean?"

"It means that, simply by seeing and aiming, you can use Sword Intent without needing to swing your sword."

A click echoed through my mind, and I understood what my master meant.

Well, it certainly could be called omnipresent.

Just by relying on my senses, which for me was like being aware of everything within a 360-degree radius, as though I possessed omniscient vision.

That meant that, by using Sword Intent through my senses, I could attack from every angle without needing to look directly at my target.

"The demonstration was incredible and all, but how exactly did you use Sword Intent?"

Until now, I had only trained my mastery over Imagination and Will.

I had already mastered Imagination well enough after creating the Mind Palace.

But aside from that, I didn’t know how to use or manifest Sword Intent.

When I saw my master use Sword Intent, it looked to me as though something invisible emerged from the sword and spread outward.

That was all. Simply watching it wasn’t enough for me to imitate it.

Although I had already come up with a few ideas about how to use it, I still wasn’t completely sure.

"It’s similar to when you use Gravity. When you use Gravity, you need to employ your Will, right?"

I gave a faint nod.

"Well, it’s similar. You manifest your Will through Mana, and then you use your Imagination. Follow those three steps until you create something ’real’ and ’physical.’ If you succeed, you’ll be able to manifest Sword Intent, but as its name implies..."

My master paused.

"You must have an ’intent.’ If you cannot have an intent, then you’ll never be able to manifest Sword Intent."

I nodded as I absorbed my master’s words. Overall, what my master said largely matched my own thoughts.

I had already formed an idea of how to use Sword Intent; the only difference was that I had overlooked the concept of Intent itself.

With that in mind, I closed my eyes.

’Alright, then let’s begin.’

***

Time flew by.

During that time, Alice had returned to her original Spirit form and recovered all of her Mana.

She then returned to her human form and quietly continued watching Adel.

She was holding a sandwich in her hand. Out of pure curiosity, Alice had searched through the mansion they were in and found several sandwiches in the main dining hall.

She knew that Adel loved sandwiches, so she tried one. However, to Alice, it was nothing more than bread with a few things in the middle.

Nothing more, nothing less.

She couldn’t find any truly unique or exceptional flavor in it.

’Perhaps because I’m a Spirit and not a human, I don’t find anything particularly special about this.’

Alice looked at the sandwich before finishing it.

Honestly, she didn’t understand why her disciple loved sandwiches with coffee so much.

She let out a sigh and quietly continued watching her disciple.

So far, Adel had managed to imitate Sword Intent, but it wasn’t the real thing.

Because it lacked Intent.

Without Intent, Sword Intent wouldn’t truly be Sword Intent.

That was the reason almost no one could learn Sword Intent.

Because everyone lacked true Intent and merely imitated someone who had manifested Sword Intent.

And Adel was caught up in that as well, although he was slowly changing.

Alice noticed a faint manifestation of genuine Intent; however, it faded away shortly afterward.

’He only needs one final push, and he’ll achieve it.’

She could tell him what it was, but...

’That’s not how Sword Intent is learned.’

Learning Sword Intent required a personal, individual discovery without anyone else’s help.

And Adel was accomplishing exactly that. He only needed a little more time, and he would succeed.

Then he would finally be able to train the Third Form of Inverted Heaven.

A smile appeared at the corner of Alice’s lips as she crossed her arms.

’If those other four saw my disciple manifest Sword Intent in only five hours... what kind of faces would they make?’

She wanted to laugh, but held herself back and continued watching in silence.