What I used was an elemental enchantment technique on the sword spirit through the lesser spirit, but honestly, I didn’t want to use this from the start. This technique is a common attribute-granting skill that channels fire-attribute spiritual power into the sword spirit through the lesser spirit, but there’s a problem.
[Sword of Karmic Fire] pours an enormous amount of spiritual power into the sword spirit, right up to its limit, to produce firepower effective even against high-ranking spirits. As a result, it consumes a massive amount of spiritual power. Moreover, because it uses a lesser spirit as an intermediary, if the balance is off even slightly, the lesser spirit can’t withstand it and gets sent back. It requires a lot of concentration.
I didn’t want to use this technique in this situation where consecutive battles are expected.
“Your spiritual power is monstrous as always.”
“It’s my only redeeming quality. Anyway, I’m going to test if this actually works, so cover me.”
“Good grief.”
I laugh as I say this to the exasperated-looking Gareth, not waiting for a reply before dashing forward at once.
Faced with me approaching while drawing a red trajectory, the Guardians, perhaps feeling instinctive fear, try to retreat, but their bodies don’t move and they lose their balance on the spot.
“Tch!?”
“It’s not befitting of knights to flee.”
When the immobilized Guardians look at their feet, they find them glued to the ground by a spiritual technique Gareth activated. As expected, nice support.
“Never let your guard down.”
“!!”
Startled, I quickly darted under the Guardian, who was trying to shatter the ice beneath him. With a swift and precise upward slash, I sliced through him diagonally.
The Guardian, though rattled, instinctively raised his halberd to block the strike. However, this was a mistake. My blade, engulfed in flames, cut through the halberd’s shaft without any resistance and sliced the Guardian in half.
“That’s one down.”
Without even glancing at the Guardian as he disintegrated into particles and vanished into the spirit world, I leapt into the air.
Drawing a fiery arc in the sky, I moved above the second Guardian, who was left defenseless and unsettled by the sight of his fallen comrade. I struck down with a single vertical slash, cleaving him in two as well.
“!!”
In the blink of an eye, two of their comrades had been slain. The remaining Guardians on the ground, now terrified, flapped their wings and tried to escape into the sky.
“You’re not getting away!”
I swung my sword in a wide arc, aiming at a Guardian who had hesitated just a moment too long while trying to shatter the ice.
The flaming slash flew through the air, slightly missing its mark but still managing to burn off the Guardian’s right wing, sending him plummeting to the ground. I was about to finish him off when I felt a surge of spiritual energy from behind.
In that instant, a streak of violet lightning flashed past me.
“Magic Sword Gram, limited release!”
Gareth, having unleashed the power of his magic sword, wielded it with a crackling energy. Timing his strike perfectly, he slashed horizontally at the falling Guardian, the thunderous blade cutting cleanly through its torso.
“Can’t let you hog all the glory,” Gareth said with a confident smirk.
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“Impressive,”
I muttered in admiration, dodging an incoming attack from another Guardian by leaping into the air. Gareth’s swordsmanship was as precise and swift as ever, slicing through the Guardian with effortless grace. As expected from my swordmaster—he’s incredible.
“Raaaahh!”
Enraged by the loss of their comrades, the remaining Guardians let out furious roars as they rushed toward Gareth. But they seemed to have forgotten something crucial.
A Spirit Master is never alone; they are always paired with their contracted spirit.
“Roarrr!”
With a ferocious roar, Beowulf, Gareth’s contracted spirit, appeared. He pounced on the Guardians from above, slamming them to the ground with his sharp, clawed forelimbs. Then, with a burst of freezing energy from his entire body, he encased them in ice within moments.
“As always, an amazing spirit,”
I shouted, dodging the halberd aimed at my face with a mix of envy and awe.
Though several Guardians had now surrounded Gareth, diving at him from the sky, he managed to fend them all off effortlessly.
The speed and power with which the Guardians wielded their halberds were certainly impressive, but their technique was quite poor.
I’ve honed my skills under Gareth’s rigorous training, so these brute-force attacks won’t get to me.
“Raaahh!”
“Hah!”
I deflected a clumsy, heavy swing with the flat of my sword, redirecting it toward another Guardian behind me.
“Guh!?”
“!!”
“Wide open!”
Taking advantage of the Guardians’ confusion at this unexpected friendly fire, I gripped my sword with both hands, spun around, and unleashed a fiery slash. The two Guardians caught in the arc of flames collapsed to the ground, their bodies consumed by fire.
“This is exhausting…”
While I can defeat them, the spiritual energy it takes to bring down each one is immense. Grimacing slightly, I raised my sword to face the approaching Guardians.
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“Rourke, I think it’s time to call it a day, don’t you?”
About five more minutes into the fight, Gareth’s voice cut through the chaos. I glanced over to see that he had just finished cutting down another Guardian.
His body crackled with violet lightning, but his breathing was heavy, and signs of fatigue were beginning to show on his face.
We had bought enough time, and we’d taken down a fair number of Guardians. It was probably time for us to retreat.
“Yeah, let’s get out of here.”
Nodding in agreement with Gareth, I summoned a second minor spirit from the spirit substitute—this time an earth-elemental one.
“Alright, Beowulf!”
Seeing my nod, Gareth called for Beowulf, who rushed over and nimbly leapt onto his back, then dashed toward me.
I extended my hand, and Gareth reached out to grab it, but as he did, a Guardian suddenly descended from above, swinging his halberd down at us. Gareth had to withdraw his hand and swing his magic sword to block the attack.
“Beowulf! Grab him!”
“Gah!?”
In a split-second decision, Gareth ordered Beowulf to grab me. The ice wolf clamped its jaws around the back of my neck and took off toward the stairs. Ugh, I can’t breathe.
“Keep going up!”
“So… suffocating…”
Even as I was being tossed around by Beowulf, struggling to breathe, I managed to place my hand on the spirit wall at the base of the stairs and activate my spirit art.
Using earth magic, I caused the ground to rise, completely sealing off the entrance to the staircase we had just ascended. That should hold them off for a while.
“Hey, is it really okay to do that?”
“It was… already… like this…”
“You’re something else, aren’t you…”
Gareth chuckled, clearly amused by my breathless reply as he rode on Beowulf’s back.
But seriously, just let me down already. I’m about to pass out…
Despite my desperate thoughts, Gareth didn’t seem to take my condition too seriously. Beowulf, still holding me by the scruff of my neck, continued to run, bumping me against the floor as we rushed to rejoin our companions.
These days, spirits have become so deeply integrated into human life that there’s even a profession called Spirit Master. However, there’s still a lot we don’t know about spirits.
One of the few known facts is that spirits don’t experience death the way humans do.
Unlike humans, spirits are beings composed of vast amounts of spiritual energy, so even if they are injured, they do not die. Instead, when they are on the verge of losing their connection to this world, they disappear into a separate dimension known as the “Spirit Realm,” a place where only spirits can exist.
This phenomenon is known as “banishment.” When a spirit is banished, they lose all the memories, knowledge, and experiences they gained in this world, and regardless of how powerful they were, they revert to a minor spirit.
Hearing this, one might think that while spirits don’t technically die, being banished is pretty close to death for them. But since they don’t cease to exist, in the field of spirit studies, banishment is not considered the same as death.
You could compare it to the concept of reincarnation in humans.
According to common belief, all spirits are born as minor spirits in the Spirit Realm and gradually raise their rank as they gain experience in this world over a long period of time… But this is still a subject of ongoing research, and nothing is definitive.
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