Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Rebellion Against Heaven and Regression

Fate.

Until now, I had thought my death was a fixed fate.

Something inevitable... something I could not escape, no matter how I struggled through regression.

That was how it had been until I met Zeto.

My hair flutters in the blowing wind.

Following it, I draw in a deep breath with all my strength.

Then I exhale.

“Whew...”

Zeto’s sword had changed.

According to Zeto from the previous round, it was his master’s sword.

I already knew who Zeto’s master was.

A high-level swordswoman who had once made a name for herself in the past. Purple Moon, Sierra.

Her skill was said to have been comparable even to the Sword Saint’s.

She was a grateful person who had taught Zeto many things. Unfortunately, judging from what Zeto said, she seemed to be someone who had already left the world.

“Why did it happen faster than before?”

It had been after the Labyrinth incident that Zeto took out his master’s sword.

This time, the timing was a little earlier.

“...Is it because my actions changed?”

I mutter to myself, words no one else will hear. Talking to myself was a foolish habit that had formed after I began regressing.

“I don’t know, Zeto.”

I do not know which of my actions affected him, or how.

After all, the me now was very different from the me of the previous round.

So much had changed that I could not get a sense of it.

I had experienced countless times how, when my actions changed, the actions of others or the future changed as well, yet Zeto alone especially bothered me.

Was it because I knew that, at this rate, he would die?

Even if he approached me, would it be right to push him away?

Zeto not getting entangled in my affairs, and living his own life ordinarily.

I knew very well that this was the easiest and best way.

Even though I knew, I could not do it.

There had been many failures and deaths.

Enough to wear my mind down to ruin.

The one who stopped my death was Zeto.

When “that day” approached, I deliberately avoided Zeto.

I did not want to drag someone who had become precious into this tragic story whose ending was obvious.

But on that day, Zeto appeared like a hero and saved me from danger.

To me, he was my savior.

And then he died.

In place of someone worthless like me.

In the end, is it fate that someone absolutely must die?

If it truly is such trash-like fate, I want to defy it. Just as Zeto defied fate by stopping my death.

“...It’s okay.”

I spoke the words I had repeated thousands upon hundreds of times since my regressions began, barely holding my mind together.

It is okay.

Nothing has happened yet.

But if Zeto has changed because of my actions,

And so Zeto does not approach my side this time.

If Zeto does not come to save me...

That... would not be okay.

Even if that were the only way to save Zeto.

It would not be okay.

If it came down to it, I was even thinking of “taking” Zeto first myself.

I was selfish.

That disgusted me, and I hated myself for it.

Without him, I could not endure.

“Ugh...”

Perhaps because wicked thoughts brushed through my head, the wind felt cold for no reason.

I hugged my chilled knees tightly with both arms.

I had never lived wishing for something like happiness.

My life had always been survival, survival, and more survival.

I simply wanted to live.

Everything changed after I met Zeto.

I felt novelty in repeated days, and when I was with him, my heart grew peaceful.

So perhaps I could wish for it.

...At least Zeto.

I slowly rose from the roof where I had been crouching.

“Zeto, what are you doing now?”

He was probably training.

Because he was an incredibly hard worker.

From the roof of the tall clock tower, everything looked small.

The world lay beneath my feet.

It felt as if I had gained the power to defy fate.

It was a place I often sought whenever I felt suffocated or anxious.

The unobstructed view here was one of the things I wanted to show Zeto someday.

If he breathed in the wide-open air, he would be able to feel at least a sense of refreshment.

“...I’ll work hard too.”

I had to go see the sea with Zeto.

I had to fulfill his wish, the wish even Zeto did not know.

Leaving those words behind, I slowly descended from the roof.

The clock tower located at the very center of the city.

The platinum-blonde girl who had been sitting on its roof left behind crackling sparks and vanished in an instant.

***

“You want me to twist the flow of mana?!”

My voice rose at Sierra’s absurd explanation.

[ Yes. That is the beginning of Rebellion Against Heaven. Reverse grip, and reverse flow. ]

Sierra recited the explanation again in a blunt voice, as if it were nothing much.

We were in a deep forest outside the academy, where not a single person came or went.

I could not feel Kaen’s presence either, so I could converse with Sierra comfortably.

The reason we had come all the way here instead of the training ground was to test Rebellion Against Heaven.

Since I had obtained the skill, should I not use it?

I did have knowledge about Rebellion Against Heaven through the status window, but Sierra, who had become the cursed blade, was clearly by my side.

Thus, for the sake of a natural process, I was learning Rebellion Against Heaven from her.

“My knowledge is shallow, but generally speaking, if one twists the flow of mana... would one not suffer internal injury...?”

[ Since when were you an ordinary person? Do not be so frightened and try it once. ]

Sierra urged me on with an indifferent expression.

I sat cross-legged on the ground and focused on the flow of mana.

Since the knowledge of Rebellion Against Heaven was already in my head, I knew the method to twist mana in reverse.

I could feel mana slowly flowing through my body.

If I twisted this in reverse...

“Kkhup!”

Along with a sharp pain, blood poured from my mouth. It was an obvious result.

As if she had expected this, Sierra quietly approached me and stroked my back.

“How did you end up trying to create such... wildly unprecedented swordsmanship?”

At my question, Sierra pondered deeply, then opened her mouth.

[...Do you know how many times I lost to the Sword Saint? ]

“Hmm... I do not know the exact number either.”

[ Seventy-six times. ]

Sierra stopped stroking my back and stood before me.

She had the eyes of a savage beast. Eyes in which only the wild instinct to tear something apart at any moment remained.

[ That is the number of times I lost to the Sword Saint. Since they were not duels to the death, I was able to keep my life. Perhaps I thought of it as fate. An accursed fate in which I had no choice but to lose to him. ]

“...But you did not give up.”

[ Yes. There was no giving up for me. However, if I was the earth when it came to swordsmanship, then that bastard was like the sky. The difference in compatibility between his swordsmanship and mine was extreme. ]

Sierra then raised her palm toward the sky.

Earth and sky.

[ If he was the sky... if losing to him was the fate given to me... ]

Before long, in time with her words, her palm turned downward.

[ I would defy it. That is Sierra Style: Rebellion Against Heaven. ]

Sierra’s low words rang inside my head, and a thrill ran through my whole body, raising goosebumps.

Defying fate.

It was a story that resonated deeply with me.

Fate, and Eisel’s death.

“And the failure I am vaguely beginning to feel... my own.”

I, too, was trying to defy fate.

[ You said you are poor at mana operation, yes? That is actually good. Do not try to handle it delicately and finely. Try reversing a larger, broader flow. ]

At Sierra’s easier explanation that followed, I attempted mana reversal once more.

This time, I did not try to make the operation difficult and fine.

A large flow.

A broader flow of mana.

I reverse it all at once.

In that instant, the flow of mana coursing through my body changed.

The strength entering my body drained away, loosening.

My movements grew visibly more relaxed.

But they were by no means slow.

Soon, I rose from my seat.

Rebellion Against Heaven was based on the reverse grip.

With my right hand, I held the cursed blade at my left waist in a reverse grip.

Then I executed the first technique of Rebellion Against Heaven, which Sierra had taught me and which I knew through acquiring the skill.

The posture when attacking, or the strength of the slash, were not the important parts.

Rebellion Against Heaven was ultimately swordsmanship that placed great meaning in defying something.

Rebellion Against Heaven was structured like a book, with pages such as Chapter One and Chapter Two.

What each chapter sought to defy differed.

What I was about to attempt now was the first chapter of Rebellion Against Heaven.

“What I want to defy is...”

—Shing!

At the same time as I drew the cursed blade held in a reverse grip, I cut diagonally.

Then I turned the direction smoothly and cut through the air a few more times.

—Clack.

I finished the flowing sequence of movements and sheathed the blade.

—Slice!

—Slash, slash!!

At the same time as I sheathed it, several trees in the distance were cut down.

Even though I had clearly cut only the air, leaves far away fell in showers, and severed branches dropped thudding to the ground.

Several trees with deep cuts made creaking sounds and collapsed.

It was not because sword aura had burst out, nor because sword force had touched and cut them.

“...Space.”

I had defied space.

The cursed blade defied the concept of space and cut trees at a distance it should never have reached.

This was Sierra Style: Rebellion Against Heaven, “Chapter One: Space.”

Seeing that it succeeded relatively cleanly, it seemed the Rebellion Against Heaven skill obtained through Demon Swordsmanship was applying properly.

[ D-Disciple, did you just reach a state of selflessness...? ]

Sierra, who had been watching closely from beside me, carefully asked in a small voice.

Judging from her expression, it seemed she had not expected me to succeed from the first attempt.

Since I had the status window, this was something extremely abnormal to her.

Considering she had struggled for decades to create this swordsmanship, it was no wonder.

“A state of selflessness...”

Selflessness.

It meant a state where one’s concentration reached such an extreme that even one’s own existence was forgotten.

Since I could not reveal the existence of the status window, it seemed this would make a good excuse in such situations from now on as well.

“I’m bewildered... It isn’t sword aura, yet it reached a tree so far away... I could clearly feel the sensation of cutting it too.”

I scratched my head and played it smooth.

[ Fortunately, it seems it was within the range your perception could detect. My disciple... may be a genius. To think you would learn this quickly... Because I am now the cursed blade, I felt it. The Rebellion Against Heaven just now was truly perfect. ]

Sierra continued admiring me.

“This... I’ll have to control my pace appropriately...”

Because Sierra’s admiration felt burdensome, I changed the subject.

“Did it not hurt? Are you not connected to the cursed blade?”

[ No matter how great the impact on the blade, I do not feel much in particular. I will become used to the other parts. Back then, it was a sensation I felt for the first time in a long while, so... forget that memory. ]

As I listened to Sierra’s explanation while she blushed, a thought occurred to me.

Which part of the cursed blade was connected to the sensation of which part of her body?

I did not know well, but perhaps I would find out when it came time to maintain the cursed blade.

[ More importantly... what do you think of Rebellion Against Heaven, which I created? I wish to hear my disciple’s evaluation. ]

Sierra, her eyes narrowing, asked me.

“It is simply astonishing that this is swordsmanship created by a human.”

This was not flattery for her sake.

I expressed what I had personally experienced, purely, without any embellishment.

[ It defies space, and it defies time. It defies what blocks the road before me. In the end, it will defy even the heavens. That is the essence contained within Rebellion Against Heaven. ]

“Then the final chapter...”

Rebellion Against Heaven was still incomplete.

Sierra had breathed her last just before completing it.

[ The final chapter... as you know, I did not complete it. ]

While Sierra continued speaking, she paused briefly, then caressed my cheek and said.

[ Rebellion Against God. That is the final chapter of Rebellion Against Heaven that you must complete from now on. ]

“Defy... god...?”

[ Yes. It carries the meaning of defying the god who handed down fate. ]

“If priests heard that, there would be trouble, haha...”

[ It is fine. They cannot hear it anyway. ]

Sierra snorted at my joke.

As I listened to Sierra’s explanation, I could not begin to estimate the maximum power of Rebellion Against Heaven.

“She said it was swordsmanship made to defeat the Sword Saint... but was she thinking of even beating god...?”

Even in the game, I had heard that her understanding of swordsmanship itself surpassed the Sword Saint’s...

But I had never imagined it would be to this extent.

I looked back on Chapter One of Rebellion Against Heaven, which I had just executed.

While I was using Chapter One, mana was constantly consumed. In the state of use, by defying space, my slashes could jump over distance and reach much farther.

Like this, rather than being a single active skill, Rebellion Against Heaven’s techniques seemed closer to sustained skills, a kind of Mode.

Should I say “Chapter One: Space” was a mode that allowed ranged attacks without using sword aura?

Considering Weakness Detection and the effect of the blindfold that I possessed, its power would be multiplied.

Since I did not draw out sword aura either, it seemed easy to make opponents let down their guard.

If Chapter One was already this much, what would “Chapter Two: Time” be like... and for that matter, I could not even guess what form the final chapter of Rebellion Against Heaven, Rebellion Against God, would take.

Regrettably, I could only use up to Chapter One for now.

It seemed to be the limit of Rebellion Against Heaven level 2.

“Chapter Two” was something I could roughly grasp thanks to Sierra’s earlier explanation and the skill level.

Chapter One defied space, and in Chapter Two, one defied the flow of time.

“How many chapters are there...?”

Since it was a skill that had not even appeared in the game, I lacked information. From now on, it would be best to ask Sierra directly whenever I had questions about Rebellion Against Heaven.

In any case, I could only handle Chapter One right now, but that alone was enough. I only needed to raise Demon Swordsmanship’s level a great deal and learn the rest.

One level of Rebellion Against Heaven per four levels of Demon Swordsmanship.

Considering its performance, it was absolutely not an inefficient investment.

I had obtained a satisfying result.

The performance of Rebellion Against Heaven, which I had tested for a moment, was on a monstrous level.

If there was a problem...

“But this uses quite a lot of mana...”

I said this while plopping down against the tree behind me. I needed mana recovery through the bracelet for a moment.

Sierra approached beside me and spoke in a gentle voice.

[ There is a difference in realm between you and me, after all. For now, it seems best to use it only at suitably important times. ]

“I will keep that in mind.”

[ You will also need to become accustomed to holding it in a reverse grip. You are still clumsy. Very much so. ]

After that, Sierra continued giving me advice for quite some time with a proud face.

“Surely this must be her first time teaching someone.”

She had already become a proper “master.”