The Sword Devil

by Nathan Valerio

  Like that, the three guards stood among the knights and were tempered by Cinder. Of course only some people each day would be able to do it because two of the three times were taken up by Ernest and Xero.

  Finally on the 5th day it was time for Ernest’s breakthrough. Unlike before when he still had a bit of childish charm, now his face had begun to obtain a masculine adult charm from all the beating and tempering he had under Cinder’s hammer.

  Beside him Night had also begun to turn a bit strange. His light blue skin had greatly dulled in the last few days slowly turning towards a human’s peach color, his black robe and large black wings have also slowly turned a slight greyish color. This was the direct effect of Ashley’s Sword Devil flames burning and tempering his body. The effect of him being tempered in such a savage manner with Holy Fire magic caused his body to greatly absorb a huge amount of Holy, Fire and demon mana.

  It was to the point that Holy and demon mana were only at a 4:6 proportion inside his body while Light and Fire were evenly matched. This had slowly showed signs of him further evolving under the brutal beating.

  As for Xero and Ashley, under the four days of Tempering Xero experienced hell on earth but the result it brought were incredible. Were Ashley could not sustain even a minute in her Demon Form before, she now stood and could spar with him for 5 minutes in her Demon Form and could brutally beat Xero down to the ground but with his stubbornness he would get up and the two would return to an intense sword fight that even scared the knights and guards.

  The Knights in particular began to admire the young 12 year old for his combat experience and strength.

  “You boys ready, this isn’t going to be like before. The output before was only at 10% for tempering, to breakthrough I will have to use 100% of my strength as well as put the forge on full power and even more, you will have to take 100 hits to perfectly breakthrough. Even if my tempering worked wonders on you boys your defense is still only at level 30 at this time.” She said.

  “High Risk brings high reward.” Ernest said.

  Cinder just smiled as she entered her Demon form. Having lost the Lesser status her size went from 4 meters to almost 6 but she could control just how much of her true form came out. Like for tempering or forging imps, she simply needed 50% of the power of her demon form and so her size never surpassed 4 meters but to forcefully break someone through a bottleneck, her size took its largest size and her pressure was even heavier.

  The forge and altar rumbled under Ernest and Night and suddenly began to expand in size going from 6 meter wide to 10 meters while a visible barrier had formed while the pillars grew in size while, strangely, strange claw like arms began to appear facing in towards the altar.

  It caused everyone who saw it to feel a sense of dread from it and they soon found out why.

  As Cinder lifted her massive hammer, those ‘arms’ suddenly shot out countless lights that impacted the two on the altar.

  “Wha…”

  Without time to react the hammer fell and unlike the previous impacts, their entire bodies were nearly turned into a meat paste but what most caused everyone to feel dread was that where the lights from the hands gathered, a white soul and a black and white soul were found. They were wrapped in the red lights in the form of Ernest and Night.

  “Is she going to forge their souls!?” Xero suddenly shouted.

  “Of course.” Ashley replied appearing in front of the frantic group. “To support the power of a level 31 strength, a strong soul is needed as well as a strong body. By separating both, just like how I make my Sword minions, she forges the soul and body separately to obtain the most optimal result.” Ashley said and grinned showing her two little sharp fangs.

  What was amazing though was the amount of mana flooding the entire forge.

  “It seems Cinder has shattered Night’s demon core it should be appearing by now.” Ashley said and as if responding to her voice Night’s body turned into mana and was withdrawn into countless shards that were leaking a massive amount of mana.

  It reformed slightly into a 19 cm large demon core but it didn’t have a chance to reform as it was shattered again and again and again.

  As for Ernest, this body was strangely gathered into a ball and would rapidly reform after each hit surrounded by the Sword Devil flames constantly being reborn.

  The constant ringing as the two souls and the two bodies were constantly broken and reformed until all four were just balls of compressed soul energy and mana.

  Only after the 90th hit the lights pushed the souls back into their respective bodies which caused chaotic waves while Cinder slammed down to remerge the soul and body back together with the last 10 hits completing the process.

  She turned back to human form by her body was covered in demon tattoo’s and as her body fell down she coughed up a huge amount of black blood while her hammer broke down and returned to her body.

  Zip tried to get close but Ashley stopped him, “Don’t it is the same thing that happened to me when I first tried my demon form but more serious.” She said.

  As for Ernest and Night.

  The body of the boy slowly stretched its hand from the ball of life matter and flame forming into a human form and soon solidified into his body while everything soon formed and he opened his eyes showing a shining eye. His hair and everything was perfectly in place as it had once been but his power had finally surpassed the threshold of level 30.

  As for Night, the core was finally allowed to reform and to instantly grew to 20 cm and was compressed to the limit before slowly one layer after another formed until totalling 4 crystalline layers.

  From there the mana began exit. It swirled like a vortex forming and compressing greatly into four limbs and the head and chest. Then it formed three more vortex on the back and a tail.

  Slowly the skin formed showing delicate pale skin and strong sculpted muscles. Black hair grew long down to the waist while a black halo appeared above the head while two shining white horns grew on the head. Although everything about the appearance seemed delicate, the male genitals were present and were soon covered by a white robe covering one side.

  Soon a slick black tail completely formed while grey feathered wings were spread behind his back. Night finally opened his eyes showing white sclera and yellow iris with a black slit pupil like a cats, which is a trait of demons and devils.

  Everyone was mesmerized by the beautiful angelic devil that stood there in his bare feet.

  “This is quite a surprise. I evolved.” He said. The voice was strangely deep like a muscular males giving a strange contrast to the 15 year old size he now had.

  He gripped his hand and suddenly a black light extended from his hand forming into a black shaft and solidified into a staff before black mana gathered at the tip and formed a black metal spearhead.

  He spun it and gripped it stopping it and nodded. “This is good.” He said and his feet slowly rose from the ground as he floated over to Cinder who was agonizing on the ground and pointed his spear and slightly inserted the spear into her back. What amazed them was that all the tattoo’s turned bright red and were slowly sucked into the spear covering the spear in cryptic tribal like tattoos.

  “This holy attribute is quite mystical.” he laughed, “Boy, if your little devil ever overexerts herself, bring it to me and I can help her cleanse her body.” Night said to Xero as he was satisfied with his current power and returned to Ernests familiar seal.

  After that, Cinder went to sleep returning to Zip while the forge shrank back down but the Holy flames were extinguished, completely used for the breakthrough.

  Chapter 9

  After the intense breakthrough, Cinder, even though she was healed by Night, she was completely depleted of mana and only after Ashley brought in, with frightening pressure coming off her body after an intense battle, an Alpha Ice wolf almost level 35. Only eating this her body could get some energy to regenerate mana to be able to move around.

  She then said she woul
d spend time in her own lava pit and after undressing she jumped right into the lava.

  Only a demon would be able to openly do something like this because of their healing capabilities but there was no problem.

  As for what Night had become, the fact that Ernest had no demon tattoo and Night himself saying that his true strength hadn’t actually risen, meant that he evolved but didn’t level up. That said, Night had Ernest give up on thinking of Identifying because he wanted to find out only at the academy.

  That said, Ernest had to spend a long time the fix up the Innate spells Night had.

  It took a week inside the lava for Cinder to come out healed but she said that she can’t break people through until she and Zip reached level 30 and break through along with Xero and Ashley. The impact on her body was simply too impossible to handle within spending almost a month each time in pain inside the lava pool to expel all the demon corrupting particles.

  Still she could temper like she did before. Which continued to happen with Xero taking one space daily as for the other one. Univa and Meldie discovered about it, Meldie didn’t have many thoughts on it but it was told to her that Spirits, Fairy and object familiars are the ones that were best forged by Cinder.

  As for Univa, she can’t be ‘forged’ but she and Tryus were tempered.

  The difference is in the number of hits. 10 hits is called tempering, 30 to 50 hits is forging, 100 hits is breaking through.

  The reason demons can be ‘forged’ is because ash is considered a material to them. It is unlike muscle, wood, stone, ash and any inorganic material making up a monster is regarded as an object to Plated Devils.

  That said, people with specific types of familiars can usually be ‘forged’ alongside them which supports the breakthrough or just the forging process.

  As for Tempering, it ignores this rule and any creature like Tryus or any organic monster, can be hit allowing them to have rapid development.

  Like this, the last month of summer went by with Xero, Univa and around 20 knights daily being hit until they were nearly unconscious but each hit slowly pushed them beyond their limits and the strength of the knights force quickly surpassed the level 10 threshold.

  When this happened, the reluctant guards began to volunteer and the strength also began to rise.

  At the end of summer, Ernest split up from them and went to the Holy Institute himself with Night taking him while Xero took Univa and Meldie with him to Everlight Academy.

  ***

  With the start of the school year, there was obviously the start of the year ranking as well as the new 2nd year students familiar summoning.

  ROAR! GOWAHH!

  The roar of a large Drake in the sky and on it’s back a blonde girl while on the ground was a boy and a giant black knight with a claymore.

  This was a battle between Univa and Xero and unlike the end of the previous year, Xero could access Ashley’s true power causing widespread shock at the ferocity of the Sword Devil’s demon form.

  With Univa flying Ashley growled and a large Greatsword appeared while Xero pulled out Edge and the two each took to the air flying several times faster than the dragon. That said, under the tempering of a month’s time, the scales of this drake had turned harder than steel but under Ashley’s blade, that did not matter.

  GOWAH!

  Ashley roared as she flew at Tryus as her claymore slowly released sparks of flame until she swung causing an arc of flame to be flung out as the Elemental Grand Cleave shot out.

  The fang’s on the drake suddenly shined and turned shiny and grey like metal and it bit the sword with swift reflexes.

  CLING! Swoosh Swoosh!

  From the back Univa was pointing her wand out and firing low mana costing fireballs and wind shockwaves towards Xero who was skillfully dodging.

  In his hand was a shining green sword. This was the Wind ore sword minion. As Xero’s mana entered it began to activate a spell set inside. “Downstream Slash!” Xero said and suddenly swung the sword.

  The spell was force out a sharp whirlwind that would curve down towards the ground.

  “Tryus! Dodge!” Univa shouted but the Sword Devil pushed forward to press the drake against the wall.

  When the wind hit and curved down, it pulled the drake down off balance.

  Down on the ground, in the high stands, Grunt and the other teachers were watching.

  “This child grew a lot during the summer.” the headmaster said.

  Miss Gilbody was looking at the fight while her glasses were off and her eyes shining. Behind her on a roost stand was a white owl. This was the Merlin in a small form similar to the Headmaster’s Phoenix or Nil’s Fenrir.

  “The devil shows signs of have holy mana in its body. What is strange is that both of their muscle structure seems to have markings…” She said.

  “Marks? Like injuries?” Grunt asked.

  Miss Gilbody though a moment, “The term is tempered like metal.” Merlin answered for her.

  “Tempered like metal?” The headmaster raised a brow and looked at her. “Is there a way for this to happen?” He asked.

  “Of course. HOO! There are countless race’s that can forge things but there are some rare ones that can forge living beings Hoo~! It functions as a method to train oneself.” Merlin explained.

  “Interesting.” The headmaster said simply.

  The battle had continued with Univa crashing and to her surprise some ten yellow swords hit the ground and from them Sword Minion’s appeared and pulled their swords out. These were the Earth Minions and they all suddenly stab their swords down and several layers of earth form a pyramid around Univa trapping her inside.

  BOOM! BOOM!

  Shockwaves came from the pyramid but the sword minions each jump in different spots and stab the sword in causing the structure to become extremely solid.

  Only thumping was heard after it was solidified.

  “It is done! The winner is Xero Null.” The headmaster said but his voice traveled all over.

  Xero flew down and shouted, “You all, let her out!” he ordered and jumped off Edge who spun around and became a tiny sword that moved near his ear and formed a magical ring on his ear.

  Ashley jumped down causing the ground to shake before her body returned to normal and she breathed a deep breath in at once before blowing it away causing a stream of black smoke to come from her inside.

  “Two minutes, ahaha! I knew we could finish this quickly.” Ashley laughed.

  “You shouldn’t overexert yourself.” Xero said.

  Ashley crossed her arms and pouted, “If I don’t do this then master will be looked down on.” She said.

  BANG!

  Suddenly the pyramid blew up as Tryus came out breaking heavily and grabbed something showing that it was Univa who was almost out of breath.

  She was placed down and almost collapsed but stood up with the support of Tryus but sighed and walked over. “That was a hard fight. Though summoning your minions wasn’t fair.” Univa pouted.

  Ashley pulled her lower eye lid and stuck her tongue out, “They were made by my power so I can call them out as much as I want! Bleh~!” She said acting like a child.

  Pow!

  Receiving a chop to the head, Ashley bent over, “Stop that.” Xero sighed and stuck his hand out to Univa, “Good fight.” he said.

  She smiled wryly and took his hand before the two walked back to the stands.

  This was the last fight, without any question these two were the years strongest students and, were in fact, as strong as Hellvine academy 3rd years if not a bit stronger than those starting the year.

  At this moment, Miss Gilbody flew out and stopped in mid air, “And there we have it, the #1 at the start of the year is Mr. Xero Null while #2 is miss Univa Crost. With this all the rankings taken care of, all formalities are complete.” She said and looked at the headmaster and nodded. “Alright, quiet down!” She shouted making the noise that was erupting quiet down. “Starting tomorrow the enti
re school shall be travelling to the new Dungeon City, Snake’s Nest. The dungeon was named as such because it was identified as having primarily snake monsters. The Order of the Snake God has already set up their temple but our academy has high authoritative rights to this dungeon as our great Archmagus Valmor had been present at the opening of the space crack helping restrain it.” She said.

  The children were confused by who the person she was talking about.

  “You are confused by who he is?” She said and smiled before turning only to find space distorting. As if a portal had opened, space began to twist and slowly a familiar elder appeared and the headmaster stood up and bowed. The elder appeared robed just like always. His bald head shined under the sun while his white beard hung freely. He work a monk like robe like those buddhist monks used.

  “It's the gatekeeper.” Xero said

  “Greetings Master Everlight.” The headmaster said.

  “Huh?” all the children started to muttered and looked at the two old men.

  “Children, you probably never knew this, this is the founder and owner of Everlight Academy, His lord Archmagus Valmor Everlight. You children should know him as the gatekeeper of the Training areas.” Miss Gilbody said.

  “HEE~!” Instantly the academies population exploded in shock.

  This was not joke after all, the academy was far from a young one. It had almost 250 years of history and was built by its founder when he was only 50, that meant that this old man was over 300 years old.

  “Greeting students, as you heard, I am the founder of this very academy, in a few days we shall move to Snake Nest Dungeon city in the Western desert lands so that we can get to the dungeon. You should know that the danger is very serious, the land is covered with countless monsters. It is common to find packs of level 40 monsters and even level 50’s. The objective of all the orders and institutes is to locate and kill off all the level 90 monsters to secure the safety of the dungeon. As for you children, it is to explore with the teachers and set up an city within the city. It is a similar situation to the camping trip last year that the current 3rd and 4th year had to do but you will get first hand instructions on defensive magic formation studies and attack magic formation as well as magic tool weaponry.” He said and looked all around. “Be ready to face death, a dungeon is a land of death, even with so many teachers, it is not safe.” He said and turned. “Gloria, take care of the children.” He said and stepped once more into the twisted space and vanished like he arrived.