The Great Sword is not the Main Body!
Chapter 227 – Ancient Dragon, Sirinias (12)

Amid fading consciousness, I felt the energy of the spirit settle on my chest.

In an instant, my crushed ribs returned to place, and my ruptured organs began to regenerate.

I immediately spat out the dead blood rising up my throat and forced myself upright.

Sirin was still standing quietly in the spot where she had knocked me down.

I couldn’t follow her movement…

The distance between us was considerable.

And yet, Sirin closed that distance in a single breath.

Or should I even say she closed it?

It would be more accurate to say she had been standing there from the start.

That wasn’t all.

I couldn’t even register the punch, or whatever it was, that struck my chest. There was no sign of a wind-up. Nor was there any trace of movement after the blow landed.

Sirin had simply stood there, while I alone was the one who ended up tumbling across the ground.

Did she move that fast?

At a speed my [ki sense] couldn’t even perceive?

I didn’t know. I couldn’t know, but I gripped my greatsword.

Breathing out the blood-heavy air, I focused my [ki sense]. I didn’t miss even the smallest detail: the way her breath flowed, the blood coursing through her veins, or the subtle movement of her mana.

Just as I expected, Sirin’s body was a mess.

She hadn’t been in good shape since arriving here, and after taking my last attack, she was even more wrecked.

Then how… how could she move like that, 

Crack!

“Guh, hak-!”

A sudden shock sent my body flying. I rolled across the ground, spraying thick blood. I tried to push myself up with my left arm, but it had been crushed and couldn’t support me.

As a result, I collapsed again. I barely managed to raise my upper body using the arm that wasn’t broken.

A step behind, the Spirit of Light landed on my left arm. As I felt my arm rapidly begin to heal, I braced my legs to stand, 

BANG!

It was as if a massive beast had trampled me. The earth around me exploded outward.

Clinging to consciousness, I twisted my waist to rise. Shattered bones stabbed through muscle and organs to stop my movements, but I gritted my teeth and forced myself up.

I couldn’t afford to stay like this. Somehow, I had to respond to that movement, 

“You’ve grown well. In a world where even Kartia has vanished, there’s no swordsman superior to you.”

Crack!

The arm I instinctively raised was crushed again.

“But that’s all there is to it.”

Crumble.

My body, recoiling in pain, slammed into the ground.

“Your level is still bound to this world. You couldn’t even surpass Kartia.”

―――!

A deafening explosion went off right in front of me, shaking my consciousness. The Spirits of Light that had arrived earlier, and even Laila’s petals, were completely wiped away by that single blast.

A fist? A foot? Or something forged from mana?

I still couldn’t make out what the attack was.

But it wasn’t the greatsword.

If it were, my body would have already been torn to pieces.

I spat out a shattered molar and stood up. With lungs now ragged like tattered cloth, I let out a searing breath and expanded my [ki sense].

After being thrown around so much, I had landed far away.

Still, if I ran, I could close the distance quickly.

Sirin walked that distance.

“So break through. Cast off everything that binds you. Shatter the laws. You can do it. No, you must.”

Her footsteps carried no weight.

In those steps, a fist was clenched.

She could’ve closed the gap instantly again, just like before, but instead, she lifted her leg, then set it down.

She raised her arm slightly, clenched her fist.

To Sirin in her current state, those motions were completely meaningless.

But they meant something else, she was holding back for me.

She was trying to help me grow.

Yet this process wasn’t as gentle as before. Sirin’s attacks now carried a deep, thick intent to kill. No, beyond that, an intent to shatter the entire world.

That fact infuriated me.

The gap between me and Sirin.

Despite all the guidance I had received. Despite all the people I had lost. The fact that I was still weak.

It boiled my blood.

So I cast aside all distractions.

Even the smallest hesitation about striking Sirin. Even fear itself.

I raised my greatsword.

To do the one thing I do best.

To defeat the opponent standing before me.

“I’ll say it again, Noah. If you want to be the protagonist, if you want to save this world, to save Rubia… ”

Shatter the laws.

Suddenly, the sound vanished.

The space rippled.

The moment I sensed it, I swung my greatsword. 

KWAANG! 

A fist suddenly appeared before my eyes, colliding with my greatsword. Before the sparks could even fade, 

Sirin moved.

I moved.

BANG! 

A sharp sonic boom erupted.

My greatsword, overwhelmed by the clash of strength, bounced away. Using that force, I threw my body backward. In an instant, the gap widened, and then disappeared. I hurled my greatsword with all my might. 

KWAJAZAJAK! 

The impact was so loud, it was hard to believe it came from a clash between a fist and a sword.

Sirin’s arm, still pressing against my greatsword, slid downward in a wide arc. Just as I tried to retrieve the greatsword being dragged with it, thud.

Sirin’s palm touched my chest.

“Ggh, huk!”

A strange force dug into my body, hammering through me from the inside out.

Crunch,  I bit my lip and grabbed the hand pressing against my chest, driving my knee upward. But Sirin wasn’t having it. With a crack, the hand I had seized clenched again and slammed into my body.

THUD, BOOM!

My body was hurled backward, tearing through the air. I jammed my greatsword into the ground to stop my tumbling body. 

CRACK! 

It dragged a deep scar across the earth before finally halting my momentum. I yanked it free.

“Grrk, ptoo…”

I spat out the blood that kept rising and steadied my breath.

“…Hah.”

From a distance, Sirin looked at me and curled her lips as she caressed her abdomen. Where her fingers touched, there was a deep wound left by my greatsword.

Just before I was blown away by her punch, my swing had landed.

“You’re almost there.”

Sirin clutched her gruesome wound to stop the bleeding, then raised her head.

And then she walked.

Just like before, an announcement of the next strike.

I steadied my ragged breath and expanded my [ki sense].

I could picture Sirin.

I could picture the ground beneath her steps.

And that ground… it looked like the end of the world.

“Yes. Draw it wider. As far as you can, enough to surpass your limits. Enough to save what you wish to protect. At the end of everything that forms the world, cut down whatever blocks your path.”

I kept expanding it without stopping.

Past this place.

Past Kartia.

Beyond everywhere my feet had once tread.

To the center of the world.

To the root that encompasses everything.

And upon it, I saw the chains.

The chains that bound my soul.

And beside them, the chains already severed.

The chains Kartia had cut.

I laughed when I saw them.

I laughed, and raised my greatsword.

Toward what I truly needed to cut down.

I swung.

* * *

While walking toward Noah with my fist clenched, 

Twitch, my steps halted.

Cold sweat ran down my spine.

The chill crawling up my back froze me in place.

The cause, 

Noah.

Her presence had changed.

No, her entire existence had changed.

“You did it. You finally did it.”

I had known.

From the moment Noah began to follow my movements, I had sensed she was approaching the threshold of the [Law]. But I never imagined she would awaken so quickly.

That wasn’t the only thing I didn’t expect.

That power.

The power she now held far exceeded my expectations.

“So the protagonist is the protagonist, huh.”

Of course, she hadn’t completely broken free of the [Law].

She had merely cracked the shell that bound her.

But it wouldn’t take long to shatter it completely.

In that case, I must help her break it.

That will be my final act as a [Law], 

No.

As Noah’s friend, it’s the last thing I can do for her.

I gripped the dragging greatsword in both hands.

Steadied my breath. Awakened my intuition.

The fight to come couldn’t be navigated with the five senses alone. If I relied on them, I would surely die before even exchanging a single blow.

“Laila, may I ask you one last favor?”

[…A barrier, then?]

“Yes, as strong as you can make it. Put everything you have into it.”

I waved to Laila and released the barrier she had placed around me. With that, sixty percent of my lost strength returned to my body.

“…Hah.”

A buoyant sigh escaped me, filled with the omnipotence swelling inside.

At the same time, 

Noah raised her greatsword.

The blade that had cast off all delusion was calm.

Her breath, her presence, her killing intent, 

All of it had settled into perfect stillness.

No, settled so deeply that I couldn’t feel a thing anymore.

Even with my eyes, the eyes of a [Law] that observes all, I couldn’t begin to peer into that immense power.

I was no longer the one being challenged.

Now, I was the challenger.

“Hehe… Hahaha!”

Laughter wouldn’t stop spilling out.

Was it the thought that I could finally die?

No, it was the thought that I could finally fulfill my wish.

Fulfill her wish.

“…Haha… Noah, thanks to you. Because you became my friend. I dreamed dreams I thought I’d never dream again. Held hopes I thought I’d never hold again. Took in a disciple I never expected. Gained a happiness I never could have.”

I laughed.

“Thanks to you, it’s been fun. Truly… thank you.”

Noah also smiled at me.

“Me too… thank you, Sirin.”

That smile was so bright.

And yet… unbearably sad.

“Yes. This will be the last time.”

And so, 

“Noah, show me your path.”

The greatsword that once sought to save the world, 

And the greatsword now seeking to save it, 

Were swung.