The Sword Devil

by Nathan Valerio

  The naked tan black horned girl looked up and grinned, “It could evolve if it’s developed enough.” She replied.

  “It has a few skills, Elemental mana bolt, Elemental mana Cleave, Elemental mana bomb.” She said.

  “Cleave, sword cut? Did you add that sister in law?!” Xero asked.

  “I tried to add something myself.” She said.

  “That should be plenty.” She said swinging the air with the tiny hammer.

  “So you will do it?” She asked.

  Cinder shrugged, “I just need an open space.” She said and looked around and walked to the window and gripped the edge and looked outside. “Outside should be fine.” She said and with Jasmine the two walked outside.

  The others followed them outside, and Void even unsummoned his familiar because she would not stop acting like a spoiled cat and ignored him.

  Outside she walked around with no apparent problem with the midwinter cold as she looked around, eventually picking a spot on the west side of the open manor grounds halfway between the manor and wall. “Okay~! Plated Devil’s Divine Forge!” She shouted and suddenly a large amount of mana rose up her arm and into the small hammer that suddenly grew as tall as her and she took it before slamming it down into the snow.

  The ground shook as suddenly a blood red magic formation began to take shape and slowly spread out. The snow instantly burst into a wave of steam becoming a dense mist while the area shook more and more as the temperature was rising until it finally stopped. A sudden wind swiftly blew the mist away and standing on the spot that had once been empty and covered in snow was a 6 meter wide lava pit and upon this pit was a 3 meter wide flat black rock. At the edge of the lava pool were six pillars with many engravings. Were Cinder stood was a small bridge and the tiny five year old figure had vanished.

  Standing there was a 4 meters tall slightly gorilla shaped horned Demon covered in dense Iron plate holding a very large demonic hammer made of black plated tail and its own horns.

  It turned slowly and looked at them making them feel cold, this was the power of a Demon’s size and intimidating power. Not to mention the Plated devil’s aura surrounding it increasing this suppressing feeling while it created a defensive aura around it.

  It lifted the hand and pointed at the altar while growling.

  “It seems in this form they lose the ability to speak, she must be telling us to have your spirit go onto the altar.” Nil said.

  Breaking out of their shock, the men look at Jasmine and she summons the little spirit and with her order it flies into the center of the altar.

  Cinder raises the hammer and knocks the base down causing everything to shake but the pillars began to shine. Mana in the surroundings began to flow inside as the magical formation began to light up and the light invaded into the gem spirit.

  It began to shake but Cinder did not give it any time as she lifted the hammer and gripping with both hands, she brought it down in the same manner as swinging the hammer to forge metal.

  BANG!

  The hammer slammed down and crushed the gem spirit leaving it in shards but unlike what one would expect, the shards released a lot of mana and gathered the invading mana and were put back together into a living gem spirit just in time for the second impact.

  Each impact shook the ground raising a powder of snow into the air filling the air with hard to breath frost but one by one the pounding continued until the 50th impact. As soon as the hammer came up the gem spirit began to shine brightly.

  Cinder lifted the hammer and brought it down and the sound of shattering glass was heard but the light shined brighter.

  “The real forging has begun finally.” Zip said.

  Being someone connected to Cinder, he could somewhat feel what was happening, this skill was meant to bring out the potential of a familiar, in fact, it was a skill meant specifically for familiars and their masters. Of course, if this was in hell, it would be used to forge demons instead. The formation would keep the demon core and soul from returning to the spawning pits and would instead forge the core and body releasing the potential without dying. Plated Devils are recognized as nobles in hell because of their power to forge powerful demons.

  For anything besides a familiar in the human world, this ability would be considered useless. Also the true forging process begins after the evolution begins as they pound more the body grinding it more allowing the evolving body to reach its peak.

  After the 70th hit, Cinder stopped and her body shined a red light before it all was sucked into her Demon core and her small form appeared once more and she landed breathing hard after exhausting a large amount of mana.

  On the altar the glowing was blinding but had begun to dull and slowly the light settled revealing a short crystal body.

  In the shape of a young 12 year old boy. A young man who wore armor that seemed to be made of solid crystal stood. The armor was not impressive and looked more like a knight in training then a true knight. The helmet covered the entire face except for the eyes that glowed a red glow in a similar shape to Cinder’s in her demon form. Finally on his chest, there was a space that caved in and revealed a crystal core at the center beating like a heart.

  “This is!” Jasmine said in shock as she looked at the little warrior that had somehow appeared from her gem spirit.

  The little warrior walked off the altar and came to her before kneeling on one leg, “Mistress, this servant has allowed you to suffer for my weakness. My race is one known as Gem Knights and this servant is a Knight’s Junior. Our race requires immense energy within our bodies to be completely born but this world lacked the abundant and easy to access energy of my native world leaving this servant incapable and you, my mistress, to suffer in weak humiliation. I humbly apologize.” He said and took her hand and kissed it.

  Pow!

  The next second a large hammer met the side of his head as Zip looked furious at him, “Oi brat, you may be her familiar but she is my woman. Hands off before I ‘forge’ your body in another manner.” Zip said.

  Jasmine looked at Zip in surprise but a bright and beautiful smile appeared on her face to see her husband jealous for her.

  Unsurprisingly, the hit had completely knocked out the young knight not allowing him a single moment to resist the jealous husband wrath. In the end, he simply returned to Jasmine but she was happy to see his love and kissed him sweetly apologizing for her earlier actions when he summoned his familiar.

  The other three did not interrupt but Cinder was pouting while being held back by Nil. They only broke up the loving mood when Ashley called for dinner. As for the forge, it was a permanent spawned item that Cinder created in the yard and would gather mana storing it within the lava in the pool.

  Chapter 2

  The day after the Null brother’s woke up, Xero had plans to return to Everlight because he wanted to consult Grunt about Ashley who had withheld the knowledge of her other form to have a leisurely life while he broke his back to train.

  That said, it didn’t go exactly as planned because the morning he was about to leave, like a raging bull, a certain bearman rushed into the city and right into the Lord’s manor.

  “BOY~! Where are you!?”

  Standing high and mighty was Grunt sweating as if he ran a marathon just to arrive here. The snow within a half meter radius of him melted from the heat he radiated.

  The family that was eating breakfast were shaken by the voice and ran outside to find Grunt. The bearman in question spotted Xero and instantly rushed over and grabbed the boy.

  “Oi kid! You’re alright!?” he said as he spun Xero around and patted him to make sure all there was nothing broken or hurt. “I heard you and your folks were trashed by some bandits! Where are they!? Who are they!? I’ll rip their head out from their ass! Boy who did it!?” He shouted.

  “What are you doing here?” Xero finally got to ask after Grunt put him down.

  “I got a message saying you were injured by a bandit attack on your village.�
�� he then looked around and raised a brow, “You guys sure invested a hell of a lot of money on a little village.” he said.

  “That was more than a week ago, father and my two brothers along with Ashley were able to turn the situation around when they suddenly crushed their own cores.” Xero explained, “How long ago was it that you got the message?”

  “A day ago why?” He asked.

  Xero suddenly smiled wryly as he realized what was going on.

  “My my Grunt, your favorite little disciple was in danger and you weren’t even here to protect him.” A voice like a chime said.

  His face turned extremely serious as he looked at Xero’s wry smile. Grunt instantly figured out that he had been tricked and shit was about to hit the fan hard his way. Turning around he found Madrid grinning triumphantly.

  “Madrid, what are you doing in such a tiny village?” Grunt asked.

  “I was sent out here by the pope to set up a temple.” She said.

  Grunt was scowling as he looked at her once he realized she had sent an the message using one of the men from her church.

  “What do you want?” He asked.

  She giggled, “Obviously you.” She said and suddenly jumped and went for a kick to disable his leg.

  Grunt snorted and kicked off the ground and jumped straight over the walls. Madrid giggled as she looked at Xero before she lifted her hand and the little blue ice sword appeared. Jumping and landing with a light step she found his mana trail and suddenly vanished in pursuit.

  The Null family was just stunned by it before looking at Xero, “Who was that son?” Nil asked.

  “My PE teacher.” Xero sighed and turned around before walking inside ignoring the problems of others. This time he was even more relaxed since he would not need to go back to the academy, though he still had two weeks to go before the next monthly test so he would need to start his school studies and work again after the time spent worrying about his family.

  It was not unexpected when they heard rumbles from far away and Madrid appeared again with an injured Grunt and a smile on her face.

  “Xero, I must thank you so much for the sword, she is so strong.” She said and shook Grunt, “I’ll be keeping him a bit.” She giggled and flew off on her sword.

  “And here I wanted to talk to him about Ashley.” Xero sighed but could do nothing about it.

  Madrid had said that she would spend the time needed to set up the temple, in particular, she would wait for the settlers to come and populate the small temple that was low on hands.

  With the Lumberjacks clearing the space between the Lord Manor and the main gate, particularly the path of destruction that Tiger Scar did, Xero began to use magic and form a large dirt road, about the size that would fit three carriages on the roads.

  The toppled trees were collected by the lumberjacks if there were any left and they began to process the wood while the packed road was developed.

  Then from Nil and the scholar began to talk about how to develop the roads.

  The first thing that was decided was that there be a 20 meter wide space around manor’s walls clear of building. This was a requirement by the crown and is called the Lord’s Plaza. Within this place, the Lord controls and it is were the lord’s own merchants and goods are sold as well as announcements are decided. Also all roads to the gates connect directly, in a straight line, to the Lord’s Plaza so with three gates, each one had a road heading right to them opening the road in these areas.

  Only the next day when Xero was leaving his house did Grunt appear glaring at him.

  “So you escaped, that was fast.” Xero said.

  “Fast my ass, besides having to contend with Madrid trying to cripple my movements she almost chained me down so I wouldn’t escape and I even had to keep healing myself because my attacks couldn’t surpass hers! That sword, you gave it to her didn’t you!” He pointed at Xero’s face.

  Xero shook his head but suddenly Edge appeared. “Me and Ashley recently discovered to make permanent and bound flying Swords. Ashley ‘sold’ one to Madrid before I could stop her.”

  He said and called the devil out who was grabbed by the bearman. “Make me one so that I can escape from that damned woman.” He said shaking the little devil.

  “S-s-s-st-stop shak-king me!” Ashley shouted.

  “Give me a sword like that.” He pointed at Edge.

  “This servant cannot be cloned, this servant is one of a kind.” Edge complained.

  Ashley rolled her eyes, “Yeah, a pain in the ass.” She said and looked at Grunt and grinned, she rubbed her hands as she looked at him, “I’ll sell you one if you give me a Nature Element type Rare Mana stone.” She said.

  Xero’s eyes turned wide by how greedy this devil was.

  “What the hell would you use that for?!” Grunt narrowed his eyes. Unlike Madrid who was under the influence of her own emotions, Grunt is in a fit of rage.

  “Of course I am breeding strong swords. My race makes lots of swords so I need good material and the mana for it is required.” She said looking expectantly.

  Grunt clicked his tongue and fished into his magic bag and fished out a green magic stone that was similar to the earth one and looked like a rough gem.

  Ashley knew these high power people were filthy rich, even the poorest could pull out at least an uncommon stone out of his ass.

  She grabbed it and stored it in Xero’s bag before summoning out a great sword and a sword spirit and gave him the instructions.

  The entire sequence of events happened and what ended up appearing in Grunt’s hand was a very large great sword that was almost as tall as he was. Thing was that the sword was formed out of multicolored crystal and it had a blunt edge making it almost look like a shield. When it shrank, it became a small crystal and, like the others, it had a knight like personality. Grunt named him Shard to which it, surprisingly, accepted.

  Grunt finally sighed as the sword melded into his body and allowed him to control it with his mind at will.

  “Hey Grunt, I was going to go look for you yesterday at the academy before you arrived.” Xero said.

  “What do you need?” He asked.

  Xero smiled and began to explained the new information about Ashley and he narrowed his eyes towards the devil and grinned. “So a liar, that isn’t a good thing, kid you need to smash her into her place.” He said.

  “She will just run away by using a trick with the aura.” Xero said.

  Grunt snorted, “Things like aura’s are shared between master and Familiar, you yourself said that the description of the skill covers her and you and improves sword based spells and protects you from magic, weakening it and reducing damage.” he said.

  “That is true but I don’t know how to consciously use it.” Xero said.

  “Ask.” He said.

  Xero blinked and blushed as he realized that indeed he could have asked and turned to Ashley but she turned her head, “Master will use it against me so I won’t say.” She instantly said.

  With a sigh Xero said, “Ashley, tell me about the Sword Devil Aura and how to consciously make it work as well as that trick you use.” Xero ordered with the familiar seal.

  She pouted and stomped, “The aura… is like a force… field.” She said stomping and trying to bite her lips to stop, “It can be controlled like… killing intent and is guided by it or mana. Mana is… weaker but by using it… master can coat weapons. Only using killing intent can master subdue the ambient mana to allow wind mana to flow in your body and cause your presence to become that of wind. The aura can also isolate the mana in your body and prohibits other from seeing or feeling it through their perception.” She said.

  “Killing intent huh, as expected of devils. The aura literally intimidates the spiritual connection in nature that controls mana away from the it around the body to allow the body to ‘become like the mana it absorbs’.” Grunt said.

  “Killing intent?” Xero frowned.

  Grunt smiled, “Think this sce
ne kid, your sister being raped, your family being killed and your home being burned.” Grunt said.

  Xero thought and his pupils shrank as he was filled with rage at the thought. Suddenly the Sword Devil’s aura activated around his body and even the ground around him started to get cut up as a breeze was invaded by the aura and made it as sharp as a sword.

  “That's good kid, Killing intent is your will to kill, normally to make it thicker, people usually hunt other humans and kill them. Soldiers, knights, everyone with some combat profession will develop a cold killing intent, common people are usually intimidated by it but a strong soldier can retain it inside him. Killing intent grows the most when you are in a life and death situation. Girl, no more slacking, when he goes to beat the shit out of you, fight back as best as possible without killing him and making him fear for his life. This is the best method for you both to grow mentally.” He said.

  “I don’t want to hurt master.” She said.

  Grunt snorted and crossed his arms, “Then let him remain weak and die when he can’t kill or make a decisive attack.” Grunt said.

  Ashley realized what he meant and nodded.

  After that Grunt nodded and looked to the right and saw the burning altar, “I’ve been wondering but what is that?” He asked.

  Xero spent some time to explain the new situation of his family and the ability of his brother’s familiar to ‘forge’ object type familiars and making their bodies stronger.

  WOOSH!

  At the time that Xero was finishing his explanation, a large tree flew over the wall and Cinder appeared jumping over the west wall and grabbing the tree.

  “Cinder, what is going on?!” Xero suddenly shouted seeing the massive tree being thrown around like a rock.

  “Ah, lil bro, Boss went to the mines to work for himself and said I can do what I want so I decided to start forging.” She said.

  “But that’s a tree?” Xero thought.

  He looked at the devil that was now clothed, she wore a child size brown overall that covered her lower body and had a bandages around her flat chest while there was a towel around her neck hanging down her shoulders.