Swordsmanship Genius Sees the Future

Chapter 43 - Sea of Illusions (6)

It works.

It's possible.

I could think faster.

As fast as I imagined.

Perhaps this, too, is a newly set limit.

At any rate, I succeeded in trapping him even more immovably than before.

Now, I'm safe for a while.

About ten seconds or so.

But this isn't enough.

In the end, Illusionary Sword alone cannot decide the match.

It can only prevent him from approaching; it can't make me win.

This is the new future I discovered.

The moment I transcended the limits of thought, a new illusion intruded among the hundreds of illusions filled only with defeat and death.

A future where I win.

Everything is still blurry.

But ultimately, I have to go there to win.

A real sword, not an Illusionary Sword.

This time, conversely, I approach him first.

I must mix real attacks among countless Illusionary Swords to deliver a decisive blow.

But...

I die.

I die. I die.

I die.

My head is cut off by a wild, flailing attack from him.

My abdomen bursts, and my intestines spill out.

I die. I die. I die.

A fist-sized hole is punched through my solar plexus.

That means if I connect from this direction, his thrust will come.

I'll lure that, turn my body to the side, create space to dodge in advance, and respond.

Upon approach, I'll unleash the maximum number of Illusionary Swords to obscure his vision.

Now, all I need to do is deliver an attack with my wooden sword.

No, it does work, but...

Is this an illusion too?

Or is it reality that I'm directly putting into action?

I don't know.

Something's mixed.

Illusion and reality overlap, unfolding almost at the same moment.

My wooden sword grazed his shoulder.

Thwack.

It connected.

This isn't an illusion.

A real attack connected in reality.

But my attack connecting with his body and his attack connecting with my body are entirely different stories.

"..."

There was no impact at all.

He got stronger.

He must have already activated his full 5-star Aura.

I can't even imagine how much his durability increased.

Illusionary Sword is a technique that directly affects the senses.

It inflicts pain regardless of how tough the body is.

On the other hand, my wooden sword probably didn't even feel like a hit.

No impact.

The referee remained still, as if unable to decide the match based on this.

Hey, referee?

Aren't you being too strict?

I heard you're the Class A homeroom teacher, so you're not showing favoritism to your own student, are you?

Whether she was or not, I resented it.

Wouldn't it be okay to just say I won at this point?

What more do I have to do?

Do I have to activate a real Union Sword and take off that Black Luna Young Master's head for you to end the match?

Of course, I can't do that.

Union Sword is forbidden.

The moment I activate it, defeat is confirmed.

Even if I took off his head without Union Sword, I'd be disqualified.

The criticism I'd face afterward would be immense, and ultimately, the future of the academy's destruction I first saw would be unavoidable.

Most of all...

I cannot accept losing after coming this far.

I have to win, by any means necessary.

At that moment, his body, cornered, began to be tinged with a transparent light.

It was probably Aura.

When a phenomenon I don't understand occurs, if I just attribute it to Aura, it's usually roughly correct.

That flow of Aura intensely twisted and caused a silent explosion.

Wait, I know what this is.

Trance.

A special state where one entrusts their body to the flow of ley lines and gains greater power.

In return, they must pay the price of their body moving uncontrollably.

It's usually known to be used when one stakes their life in the midst of combat with an enemy.

But he's using it here, now?

In just an inter-class competition?

Defeat is unacceptable.

It's an unwritten rule of the Black Luna family.

Zedebek felt a shiver run down his spine.

If things continued like this, he would lose.

It was just one match in the monthly inter-class competition.

But a loss is a loss.

The family would treat him as a loser and exclude him from competition.

Then it would be over.

He would no longer have a place in the family.

The evaluations of him as a promising future power of the family, and the countless privileges and fame he'd received since childhood, would all vanish.

He might not be able to forgive himself and become a wreck.

So he had to win.

To win, he had to become stronger.

But he was already giving his all.

The ley lines were lending him the maximum power possible.

Now, simply borrowing wasn't enough.

He had to entrust himself.

Throw himself into the ley lines.

Entrust everything to the flow of ley lines and surrender control of his body.

This is called Trance.

But he couldn't completely fall into it.

Then he would go berserk.

He often heard stories of waking up to find only corpses around.

So he had to maintain a shallow stage.

So he could revert to himself before going berserk, and this too, he had already finished training for.

"Hmph."

With a special breath, he sent the flow of his consciousness beyond.

Simultaneously, the Aura he had drawn to its maximum swelled even further.

As if all the blood vessels in his body were bulging.

Success.

With this, the boy could exert an even stronger power.

Beyond 5-star, the 6-star Aura stage.

'I can't believe I'm using this here. But at least it's a relief.'

In his gradually blurring consciousness, Zedebek began to laugh unintentionally.

"Ha, ha..."

Laughing during battle?

That's odd.

He had no intention of doing so.

From the beginning, direct descendants of the Black Luna family were raised with the teaching that they should never laugh freely in front of others.

This wasn't him laughing.

It was the ley lines.

The ley lines were laughing.

The ley lines knew that what he truly wanted wasn't power.

He just wanted to escape the pain.

The Illusionary Sword...

It hurt too much.

Even one hit hurt.

But he had to take dozens, no, hundreds of hits.

If no one was watching, he might have knelt and cried his eyes out.

The opponent was a monster.

So he wanted to escape.

Because in a Trance state, he wouldn't feel pain.

That was the truth.

That's why the ley lines, which now possessed his body, burst into laughter.

What a pathetic child.

How pathetic.

"Ha, haha! Hahahaha!"

It was a mocking laugh.

The ley lines were mocking him to their heart's content.

"...Hahaha!"

What was that?

The opponent suddenly burst into laughter.

Wasn't he in Trance?

Why is he suddenly laughing like crazy?

Is he normally like that?

I don't know, and anyway...

I'm screwed.

Trance brings at least a half-step increase in Aura.

It varies depending on control, but it comes with the risk of the body moving uncontrollably or going berserk.

So I'm screwed.

He went up another level, but I'm still stuck here.

I'm really pushing my limits right now...

But no.

Him entering Trance was actually an opportunity.

The final illusion that would decide this battle suddenly overlapped before my eyes.

This is the fastest and surest path.

Now I win.

If I can just hold out for 7 seconds.

And if I can't, I die.

Haha...

Suddenly, I wanted to laugh too.

Everything became simple.

A future clearly split into two forces a choice.

I unleashed Illusionary Swords and simultaneously sent my wooden sword flying towards his solar plexus.

With a time difference.

Just a few seconds ago, my wooden sword wouldn't have even registered.

He wouldn't have reacted to it at all.

But.

He was in a Trance state.

He unconsciously reacted to the physical presence.

More to the real sword than the Illusionary Sword.

Swish!

He swung his wooden sword.

A clear line was drawn in the air.

It felt as if space itself had been cut.

In reality, the tip of my wooden sword was sliced off and flew away.

Even though his wooden sword barely grazed it.

So this is Sword Qi.

He activated Sword Qi.

This was proof that he had achieved 5-star Aura.

And 6 seconds remained.

I anticipated his counterattack and pulled back first.

5 seconds.

He lunged, laughing like a madman.

Somehow, he was limber.

As if an invertebrate, the surrounding space seemed to sway with his movements.

What kind of absurd sorcery was this?

It was probably an illusion, but it wasn't easy to counter.

A bigger problem was that he became immune to pain in Trance state.

Later, they say he doesn't just become resistant, but completely unable to feel pain.

That's why he fights like a berserker, covered in blood, in the middle of a battlefield.

It's too much.

He's like some kind of poison demon.

And thankfully.

Thanks to that, I could hate the world one more time.

With that, the illusory domain I set gained power again.

Countless illusory blades surged anew, blocking his path.

No, they didn't actually block him.

He broke through, taking every single Illusionary Sword with his body.

Not even blinking, but rather laughing like a madman.

"Hahahahahahahaha!"

Don't laugh.

What's so funny?

I'm literally dying here.

Anyway, I was no longer there.

4 seconds remained.

The Illusionary Swords were merely a means to obscure his vision and buy time.

In that brief moment of obscured vision, I darted to the right.

Simultaneously, I scattered new Illusionary Swords in all directions, including the direction I dodged.

To keep his eyes covered.

To keep him from knowing which way I escaped.

But he instantly pinpointed my location.

He spun his head directly towards the direction I dodged and laughed.

"Haha!"

What a lunatic.

At the same time, I saw a sharp energy surge from his wooden sword.

It felt similar to Union Sword, but it definitely wasn't Union Sword.

So that was... Sword Qi.

No, it was Sword Aura.

Sword Qi is merely a transparent energy similar to Aura.

But that energy converged into one, creating a tangible, sharp blade of energy.

So it's Sword Aura.

The 6-star Aura stage that cuts through everything it touches.

The effect alone is really similar to Union Sword.

And it's a tragedy for me.

Now, I can't even narrowly dodge by the length of a wooden sword.

I have to factor in that the blade has lengthened by at least a handspan.

Otherwise, I die.

They say that if you activate Sword Aura, you can cut rocks with a wooden sword.

My weak body would probably be sliced open like warm pudding.

And it was true.

Illusions of my body being split into several pieces rapidly unfolded.

All those moments in the future were consistent.

I stiffened blankly, unable to react, and died.

As if I couldn't even feel pain.

It felt somewhat appealing, so I had to actively ignore it.

3 seconds.

He swung his sword with irregular movements in a form I'd never seen before.

Speed wasn't the problem.

The form was completely new, so prediction was impossible.

I just desperately escaped, covering his eyes with Illusionary Swords.

2 seconds.

At least one thing was clear: he, in Trance state, didn't care for his body at all.

Just now, if I had wanted to, I could have struck his head with my wooden sword while escaping.

Of course, it would have been useless, so I didn't.

Ah.

Damn it.

If only I activated Union Sword, I could instantly sever his neck...

1 second.

I understood.

There was a pattern to his bizarre movements.

Like a river splitting into three streams and then merging back into one large stream, the flow repeated.

But I had no more strength left.

My focus broke.

I could no longer create Illusionary Swords.

It wasn't a lack of hatred.

My mind just went completely blank.

I'm hungry.

I want to eat something.

0 seconds.

He suddenly let both arms hang limp and dropped his wooden sword.

What?

Was that a surrender?

No.

Like a beast that didn't know how to use tools, he charged forward bare-handed.

His nails, imbued with Sword Aura, glinted.

Still laughing like a madman, "Haha, hahaha!"

Then someone shouted, "Match over! Knights!"

Simultaneously, armored knights charged in from all directions.

It was the Academy Knights.

The knights who had been waiting as security personnel rushed in at once and swarmed him.

"Cover him! Cover him!"

"Pin him down!"

"Watch out for his nails! Gah! Even armor gets cut in an instant!"

"Young Master! Young Master Black Luna! Come to your senses! The inter-class competition is over!"

"Haha! Hahaha! Haak! No, no, no!"

Zedebek thrashed, almost ten knights pressing him down.

"No! Not yet! Ha! Hahahaha!"

"The match is over! You lost, Young Master!"

"No! Hahahaha! No, no! That can't be! Haha!"

"Gah! What kind of strength... How deep did you go! Break out of Trance quickly!"

"N-no! I can control this much! Get out of the way! Get out of the way!"

I saw fear spread in Zedebek's eyes.

Good.

It seemed his Trance was slowly wearing off.

On my end...

Everything just gave out.

There was nothing left.

I just slumped to the ground and bowed my head.

I couldn't see anything anymore.

"Match over! The winner is Ray Granvelle of 1st Year Class B!"

Still, it felt good.

The cheers of the crowd began to pour down on me.

"Whoa! Aaaargh!"

"Best! Best!"

"Granvelle is the best!"

"We won! Lily's brother is the best!"

"Aaaargh! Aaaargh!"

"Kuh, so that's Rajiks senior's brother. That family must only produce monsters."

I felt good.

I thought I had used everything and was empty, but something was still left inside.

My brother is happy.

Perhaps I'm the one who's happy.

No, now I really don't know what's what.

Nothing else was heard.

Well, whatever.

I won anyway.

Anyway...