I woke up early that morning, the amnesia of waking up momentarily relieving me before the memory of what had happened that night hit me like a baseball bat. I had killed my father, I had done it, not an enemy, not just any assassin, not a wandering swordsman who came to disturb the peace of the sacred land of the sword, it was my father, the man who trained me, my family, he abandoned me at the least expected moment, yes... but even so I never hated him for that, even now, he had conspired to kill me, but even so, I felt guilty, it was the first time I felt like that, the first time I felt bad about killing, I had nightmares at the right moment of how the light came out of his eyes, maybe with the king rank healing circles I could have healed him and immobilized him to make him reconsider... I had enough time...
but I just stared at him, at that moment I had not processed what I had done, I had killed my own father...
I got up feeling my body heavy, I had to meet with Ariel and the others. I found them quickly talking in a room, all eyes turned to me when I entered.
I didn't know what time it was, but I always got up before everyone else, not after.
"Mr. Gino, I understand that one of the assassins was your father, right?..." Ariel murmured.
"Yes... it was my father, he attempted against his life and almost killed Sylphiette, but I took care of him" I murmured as I sat at the table
"I see... according to Rudeus and Sylphiette, both had a conversation before I killed him, right? Did he say something important to you?" she asked.
"Yes, he said that he is collaborating with the former Sword God Gull Farion and with a guy he called Kall, I don't know if they have any relation with Darius although there is no need to doubt it" I said
"... I see, that will be very helpful, I suppose that they already found out that I have a world power as an ally..." she murmured.
"It seems so, though there's no need to worry, in my current state I can take care of Gull Farion" I said
"That's a relief, then there's no reason to keep waiting, we have to leave" she said and so we began to get ready.
Here it would be decided if Ariel became queen or not.
...
Our stage was one of the large reception halls of the Silver Palace, used primarily for large gatherings and parties, and today there was only one long table in the room.
The room was so well decorated that one could not suspect that the event had been organized ten days in the making.
I was officially here as a member of the staff, and Rudeus and I stood near the entrance to the waiting room, studying the faces of the attendees as they arrived.
Most of the conversation in the waiting room consisted of speculating on what Princess Ariel was going to say today, and how Prince Grabel's faction might react.
The first important character arrived a little late, it was Philemon Notos Greyrat accompanied by his eldest son.
He stopped at the entrance to look at Rudeus with undisguised hostility.
"Hmmm! Do you really think you can sneak back into the Notos Greyrat household after all these years?" he said.
"The thought never crossed my mind, actually." Rudeus muttered.
"Remember this, boy, by all rights, you shouldn't even be allowed to call yourself Greyrat." He said.
"Uhm... sure, okay." Rudeus said.
After letting out that confusing insult, Philemon studied the faces of the guests in the waiting room and then disappeared into a private room reserved for the high nobility.
After Philemon's arrival, the rest of the important guests began to appear at a steady pace, the parents of Ariel's attendants and several members of Triss's family were among them, the other heads of the four great families also appeared, the Euros clan arrived first, then Zephyros and finally Boreas.
Finally, when everyone else had already introduced themselves, High Minister Darius arrived, his only company being a single bodyguard.
As soon as he saw me, Darius looked away with a grimace of fear, but the bodyguard headed in my direction
It was Reida, she looked slightly older than the last time I saw her, but other than that, she was the same.
"God Sword...what are you doing here?" she asked as she looked me up and down.
"Princess Ariel's cause captivated me and here I am" I said in a sarcastic tone.
"...I see, Isolte is already here you know? I plan for her to be my successor when I'm gone..." she said with a wistful look.
"That sounds like a good plan" I muttered.
"Hah! Yes it is" she said, then turned around and walked away with Darius.
In any case, the most important guest, First Prince Grabel, was not going to come to the main waiting room, instead, he was expected to show up directly in the main hall once the party started.
In other words, all the players were now assembled.
...
The party had begun in earnest
The nobles entered the room in a certain order and took their seats along the huge central table. I watched all this from the periphery of the room, where I was standing alongside several other bodyguards.
Ariel had arranged for there to be almost no palace guards on duty, so most of the nobles had brought their own.
Sylphiette wasn't here, she had an important role to play in the upcoming ceremonies, and was currently waiting somewhere else.
Ariel stood behind the place of honor at the head of the table, once all the guests had settled into their seats, she stepped forward.
"Thank you all very much for taking time out of your busy schedules to attend this party," she murmured.
At first, her welcoming speech was rather conventional. She began by mentioning the king's illness, made some comments about the state of things in Asura, and talked about how she had felt watching events from afar during her studies abroad... that sort of thing.
But soon she began her attack.
"Now then, there is a specific reason why I have gathered you here today, as it happens, I have two people I would like to introduce to you," she said.
As Ariel spoke these words, a voluptuous woman in a beautiful dress walked through the doorway.
Without saying anything, she slowly crossed the hall until she stood beside Ariel.
Seeing her face, Darius's eyes widened.
Some other nobles at the table stood up, the color draining from their faces.
They were probably representatives of the Purplehorse family.
"This is Tristina, the second daughter of the Purplehouse house, by pure coincidence, I met her on my travels, in the most unlikely of places," Ariel said.
Triss performed an impeccable curtsy.
"Thank you very much for the introduction, your highness. Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is Tristina Purplehouse," she said.
There was a flurry of voices around the room.
"I hadn't disappeared?!"
"I thought she was dead! 2
"That girl was alive?!...She has certainly become a beauty."
However, after a few moments, the comments began to focus on one particular question.
"But...what is she doing here?"
"When I found her and took her under my protection, Tristina was in a terribly weakened state, but she told me that she had several things to tell you all, and that is why I have brought her with me to this meeting." Ariel said.
Triss stepped forward at the right moment and approached Darius, who was sitting high up at the table.
Looking at him with the disdain of someone studying a particularly dirty pig, she began to tell her story.
She did not speak with the harsh tone of a bandit.
Her words were clean, elegant, like those of a noblewoman. She spoke of her family's betrayal and her purchase by High Minister Darius.
She spoke of how he had kept her as a pet, a dog.
And she spoke of how she had nearly lost her life after the Displacement Incident.
She told the story of how she had survived: the bandit gang that had bought her and her life as their leader's plaything.
Finally, she explained how Ariel had rescued her.
Several nobles burst into tears during the tale.
She had the feeling that Ariel had asked them to do so in advance.
But many of the others, especially Darius's allies, had clear expressions of shock and dismay on their faces.
The Purplehorse family members, in particular, were white-faced with fear and visibly sweating.
Darius himself, however, maintained a placid expression.
He showed no signs of losing his composure, at least on the surface.
It was the face of a man who had come through tougher situations than this one.
"And that is all my story."
Triss finally wrapped things up, and as she stepped back, Ariel stepped forward.
"Now then, this is all quite surprising, Minister Darius, I certainly did not expect such shocking facts to be revealed in front of everyone like this, it is truly hard to believe... Could you really have abused your power so blatantly? Kidnapping a noble-born girl and treating her as your personal slave?" Ariel spoke.
Her tone, calm at first, began to heat up quickly as she continued, now she was spitting the words at Darius with a fury in her voice.
"Is this how a High Minister of Asura behaves? Is this the behavior of a man who administers our entire kingdom, it is a total disgrace, do you have anything to say for yourself, sir?" Ariel asked.
With a disdainful snort, Darius slowly stood up.
"Princess Ariel, you're taking your games too far today. I didn't expect you to grab a woman off the street and insist on calling her the daughter of the Purplehouse. I know my enemies delight in spreading such rumors behind my back, but this is the first time anyone has thrown such lies in my face." He said.
Laughing loudly, he turned to look around the room, silently encouraging the other nobles to agree that Triss was an impostor.
"You claim her story is false, then?" Ariel asked.
"Naturally, now I have a question for you, Princess Ariel, do you have any proof that this...Miss Tristina is really the second daughter of the Purplehouse house?
"Tristina," Ariel muttered.
At Ariel's urging, Triss reached into the bosom of her dress and pulled out something.
It was a ring, it had a beautiful purple gem in the center, with the image of a horse carved into its surface.
"Ah! An amethyst with the image of a horse, no doubt, is what the members of the Purplehouse house wear to prove their identity." Darius said rather easily, but his face hadn't lost any of its composure, if anything his smile had become sharper and more hateful.
"I see, I see, since this lovely girl is wearing that ring, it seems that she really is a Purplehouse, or so one might initially believe." He muttered.
"It turns out that, I have news of my own to share regarding Tristina Purplehouse, I'm afraid she's been identified for a while." "Little" Darius continued.
"Identified?" Ariel asked, identity conclusively tilting her head slightly.
"I'm sure you all remember, ladies and gentlemen, a certain operation we carried out in the capital about a month ago, its objective was to round up all members of certain criminal organizations that had taken root within the royal capital. In the course of that exercise, I'm afraid Miss Tristina's body was discovered." Darius said.
Ariel breathed heavily upon hearing this.
A month ago? She had prepared for this in advance...
"Of course, her signet ring had already been sold on the black market, so it was difficult for us to establish her i. However, Miss Tristina's body had a distinctive feature that only her family knew about: a crescent-shaped birthmark on her chest..." Darius muttered.
Now that was a lie. Triss didn't have any such birthmarks.
At least, not anywhere I'd seen... and she was wearing very revealing clothes.
"I believe the head of the Purplehouse house will be able to confirm all this for us, isn't that right, Lord Freitus Purplehouse?" Darius asked.
But before the man could answer...
A noble saint from the table reached out and took off a ring from his finger and changed shape...
"fuck hell with this shit!" A young voice echoed from the side of the room and a burst of light with a golden glow shot towards Darius, cutting off his head on the spot.
We were all completely shocked by this.
Not even Reida could react to this.
"Damn stupid! You had to wait until Ariel won the throne!" A familiar voice reached my ears and the windows of the place burst.
On instinct I lunged at Ariel to protect her
(clank!)
The sound of metal swords echoed throughout the place, before me was a man with blue hair and a scar on his cheek, the guy had a totally familiar shark smile.
"gull..." I muttered
(crash!, krakaboom!")
thuds were heard from outside the castle
"they're attacking us!!" Sylphiette shouted
Rudeus was totally in shock as he looked at the young man who had killed Darius, he was a black-haired boy with no armor and a beautiful golden sword..
Alek Kallman lll
"fuajajajaja!!, Hitogami was right!!, everyone is here!" a voice echoed from outside and a huge figure with golden armor and six arms burst into the place.
"you should feel honored Gino...Hitogami gathered the heavyweights just to kill you!" Gull said with a smile
oh shit...
=====
I'm cooking something, give me power stones
Gull Farion, Alek Kallman III, Reida Reia and Badigadi with the God of Fighting armor.
They were all gathered here with the sole purpose of killing me, I could take them all on by myself, but I don't think I can even take on Bagidadi with Rudeus, we need Orsted, and we need him now.
That was what I thought as I sent mana to my communication ring, Orsted had said to activate it in case something bad happened, but even I thought I wouldn't need it, if Badigadi wasn't here I wouldn't be as nervous as I was now...
"Shit! Rudeus!! Get Ariel out of here!" I shouted as I got into a combat stance.
But there was no response, in front of me was Gull Farion and Reida, although she looked just as confused as I was.
"Gull, so you've fallen so low as to side against Princess Ariel" Reida muttered slowly as she unsheathed her sword.
"Heh! This is more personal, but if you want you can try to attack me, although I'm not the Sword God at the moment, I'm still at my best" he said with a smile.
"No... right now we're on the same side" she muttered as her gaze turned to me.
The other nobles were completely in shock, those who tried to get up were cut in half by Gull or Reida, Ariel had run as fast as she could with Triss and had taken refuge behind Rudeus, but he had bigger problems, Alek was giving a stupid speech while mocking Rudeus, I hadn't seen Sylphiette for a while and that was starting to worry me.
"What are you doing there waiting? Didn't I teach you that the one who attacks first is always the winner?!" Gull shouted.
I took a deep breath, I can handle them, I can do it, they are nothing to me.
I closed my eyes, inhaled deeply, crouched slightly and... with one jump I closed the distance between me and the two divine rank swordsmen in front of me.
It happened in less than a thousandth of a second.
Reida couldn't even follow my movements, his arms were just lifting slightly, he hadn't even realized that I had moved.
With a long sword of light, I cut Reida's throat cleanly, his head was still stuck to his body, he hadn't even processed that he had died.
I turned to Gull Farion, he saw my movements just barely, but he was still trying to intercept the attack that was going for Reida, his arms were exposed...
I closed my eyes and opened them again, I made a decision.
With a clean cut, both of Gull's arms flew out, his eyes widened, the feeling of pain still hadn't reached his brain, I quickly jumped and grabbed his sword and Reida's and returned to the place where I had been before.
The sound returned, the color returned when I stopped moving, the momentum of my attacks finally reached the two swordsmen.
Reida's head flew several meters and his body fell to the ground with a dry sound.
Gull's arms also fell to the ground as his face contorted in pain and he gave a heartbreaking scream, like a huge bear that was wounded as he fell to his knees.
"Gull!!!" Alek screamed as he looked at me with anger.
"Fuahahahaha! So the rumors are true! You are the youngest Sword God I have ever seen" Bagidadi shouted from the hole in the wall he had made.
The guy hadn't even entered, he was waiting outside, analyzing me...
"Alek Kallman lll!!!, I challenge you to a duel! Accept it or die!" I shouted pointing my sword at him.
His face turned into surprise but he put on a manic smile.
"Hah! Sword God Gino Britzs accepts!" he said as he got into an attack position.
I looked at Rudeus, the guy looked totally scared, behind him were Ariel, Luke and Triss equally scared.
"But with one condition! While this duel is going on, let them go!" I shouted
Alek looked at me confused and scratched his chin thoughtfully
"Very well! The Sword God has given all of you a few more minutes of life! Be grateful!" Alek said in a mocking tone.
Without waiting any longer, Ariel and her group left the room at full speed, at this rate Orsted will arrive... I can win...
...
"Tell me something Alek Kallman..." I muttered
"What are you doing here? Are you plotting against Princess Ariel?!" I shouted
"Eh? No! I'm here because I was promised that Orsted would be here! I've killed all the remaining superds, and now it's Orsted's turn!" he said in a proud tone.
"The remaining superds!?...What do you mean?!" I asked.
"Hah! Those demons were taking refuge in the kingdom of Bihereil, it was easy to find and kill them!" he declared.
"..."
I was completely shocked at this, by this point Ruigerd should already be in that village, that means...
I tightened the handle of my sword to the point that my hands turned pale as I tried to control my anger.
"Tell me... Who told you that?" I muttered with murderous intent.
"Ha! That would be me, boy!" A familiar voice said from the table where the guests were.
Some nobles lay dead, others fainted and some were hiding under the table, but there was one who remained impassive.
Prince Grabel...
The guy had a huge smile on his face as he stood up from his seat, he showed me his right hand and with one finger he pointed to a ring, he took it off and...
"Damn you little bastard..." I muttered angrily.
In front of me was Gesse Nukadia, he was dressed like a noble and looked at me with pride.
"You don't seem so clever now do you?...Next time you kill someone, make sure they're dead" he said and put his hand into his robe, from it...he took out a sword with a red blade and a white staff and threw them to the ground.
They were Ghislaine's sword and Roxy's staff.
"Did you think that with your current power it would be enough?! No one betrays Hitogami and comes out victorious!" he shouted but the words did not reach my ears, I could only look at the sword and the staff on the ground...
I don't even remember what happened, literally anger controlled me.
It was as if I were a spectator of my own body, I could see what was happening but I couldn't control it.
First I reached Gesse at a speed I had never reached before, everything around me turned black, I even surpassed the speed of color.
With a simple slash I cut Gesse in half, I didn't stop there, I reached where Gull was writhing, I planned to try to make him reconsider, but now I can't, with a slash I also cut off his head, then I went towards Alek who barely had time to react
(claaank!!) the sound of ours resonated throughout the place.
"What's wrong Sword God?! Are you mad?! Let me tell you that your wife Dedoldia was a thorn in my side!" he said with a smile.
"Raaaaaaaah!!!" I let out a guttural scream as I thrust my sword towards Alek.
"Ngg..." he made a sound of effort as our swords clashed.
Seeing that this wasn't working I crouched down and aimed for his ribs, he couldn't react in time and I cut him in half.
I didn't stop there, I cut off his head, I cut off his right arm and his left arm until they turned into ground meat as well as his legs, I didn't stop there, no matter how much I cut him he would revive, so I kept going and going, I don't know how much time passed, but I even used fire magic to burn the flesh, it was too fast, I had done too much, I didn't care, nothing mattered to me anymore, if everything these bastards say is true, I don't even have a purpose to live anymore.
When Alek's flesh turned to ashes I wanted to stop, but my body couldn't. I looked behind me, there was only one imposing figure that stood out from all the others.
Six arms, at least three meters tall, and he was approaching me quickly. I didn't hesitate for a second and I lunged at him. I threw a long sword of light at him with all my strength. My arm hurt. I had never put it through so much effort, even now. My attack reached him...
It made a slight cut on his armor, on his chest, where I had aimed. The force of the attack made him stagger backwards. I didn't stop there. Because of the momentum of my attack, I crashed into the wall. I didn't know that I had broken in the process, but I didn't care and I lunged at him again.
My target was now his legs, because of his momentary loss of balance, he was staggering backwards, but I didn't care, I again threw a long sword of light at him, directly behind his knees, the blow was accurate, but I felt like hitting a wall, but in my case, my sword was a hammer and I was able to make my way through.
Again the momentum made him stagger and now he fell forward on his knees.
"Fuahahaha! You're very strong!" He shouted as he tried to stand up, but I didn't let him do it, now I stopped halfway, turned 360 degrees and lunged at him again, again at his chest, but Badigadi realized this, with wind magic I changed my trajectory in the air and rose, one of his right arms was exposed.
"Graaaaaah!" A turn in the air my sword headed for his arm.
(claaaank!)
The sound of metal hitting echoed in my ears, I gritted my teeth in pain and anger when I saw that my attack did nothing to him.
His armor had a slight dent but nothing more, I wouldn't beat him like that.
"fuajajajaja!, my turn!" he said and threw three arms at me at once.
I barely had time to use my sword as protection, the sensation was the same as when I was run over by that truck before dying.
Unfortunately my sword couldn't bear it and broke under the weight of the attack, with this the three fists hit my body and I was sent flying, crashing into a wall at supersonic speed.
"bleggh!!" When I crashed into the wall, an intense pain ran through my entire body, it was so much that I even tried to scream in pain, but instead of a scream, blood came out.
I was practically embedded in the wall, I couldn't breathe.
My head hurts, my arms hurt, my feet hurt, I feel like my internal organs are collapsing.
"S-shit..." I muttered as my vision blurred and I fell to the ground with a thud.
"Stay proud, you're strong" Badigadi said as he approached me, I could barely move my arms and tried to search under my robe for something that could help me.
The king level magic circles! I've only used one of the three that Orsted gave me...
With this thought in mind, I unfolded the circle and placed it on my chest.
Quickly a feeling of immediate relief invaded my body, it's as if all the pain before had only been a dream, I even felt stronger than before.
"Wow! Humans have really become resilient!" Badigadi said as he approached me at a slow pace.
"..."
I looked around, my sword had broken, I hadn't brought my father's sword with me, I had lost sight of Gull Farion's sword, the only sword available was Alek's...
"I guess it's time for you to say goodbye..." Badigadi said, he was already close to me.
With water magic I created a smoke screen between him and me.
"Hah! Useless tricks" he said and began to hit the ground where I had been, one more second and I would be mush...
I ran at full speed to the point of skidding and with one hand I reached for Alek's sword.
It was heavy, about a meter and a half surely, and an immense feeling of power overwhelmed me completely.
Badigadi came out of the smoke screen and stopped to look at me.
"Hah! That sword won't make any difference!" he shouted as he lunged at me.
I started running again until I was behind him...no!, I have to give him a precise blow!.
I started running further back, until I reached the end of the room.
"Now what are you planning!!" he shouted as he searched for me.
"...in my right hand a sword" I muttered as I raised the sword above my head.
"in my left hand a sword, with this blade I will claim hundreds of lives, I am the Sword God Gino Britz!!" I shouted.
The next moment everything around me began to float as did Badigadi.
"Whoaaa!, what the hell is this!!!" he shouted as he twisted in the air.
"Haaaaa!!" I shouted as I lowered the sword to the ground.
The building around me collapsed, Badigadi was thrown to the ground at the speed of light and I felt half of my mana being drained in an instant.
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