章 7: [Sword Art]

Suddenly a warm sensation enveloped my body making me feel extremely comfortable. It felt as if I was back in my bed. It didn't feel bad...

"What just happened!"

Abruptly sitting up straight, I found my body drenched in sweat but all my fatigue was gone as though I had just woken up from a comfortable sleep.

Glancing around, I finally took notice of my surroundings. It was the same temple where I had fought the wraiths but something felt different it looked brighter.

The obsidian altar instead of being crowned by a perpetual silver flame, was crowned by a much larger flame of both silver and gold.

"You up kid?"

"Huh?"

Snapping my head to the right, where the voice was coming from, a middle-aged man standing with a sword on his waist.

I warily looked at the stranger before me.

Flowing golden hair with a streak of silver, shining golden eyes, and a stern yet kind-looking face.

"Relax kid, I'm not gonna do anything to you"

"Who are you?"

I warily asked without letting my guard down.

If not for the fact that I was sure that he was not there when I was previously checking the room, I wouldn't have been as wary as I am now.

A transcendent.

I could instinctively feel it, the man standing before me was a transcendent.

A person who had broken the shackles of being human and ascended to a higher level.

As if he was reminded of something the stern-looking middle-aged man looked at me and spoke."Ah! That's right! I haven't introduced myself yet have I?"

Lightly smiling, he extended his right hand in my direction "A pleasure to meet you kid my name is Reinhardt Aurum."

"Technically I could be considered to be dead but…someone passed my trials waking up the remnant soul I left behind when I passed away"

"R-remnant soul!"

But then I suddenly remembered the man shown to me in the mirror if not for the silver streak in his hair, he looked the same. Knowing this, I managed to put the two and two together and managed to recompose myself.

"Cough…Sorry about that"

"You are the one from the mirror, aren't you?"

Amused by my odd behavior he laughed out loud and said "Hahahaha no worries no worries, I had expected this kind of reaction to happen once someone found my resting place but yes I am the one whom you saw in the [Labyrinth of Reflections]."

"Noah"

"Pardon?"

Confused. Reinhardt raised his eyebrow and looked at me who was reaching for his hand.

"My name is Noah. Noah Hart"

"Ah! that's right! How rude of me, I had forgotten to ask for your name…a pleasure to meet you, Ren!"

Gripping my hand, we both looked at each other and shook our hands.

"Well if you have awakened my remnant soul, you must have passed my trials."

My body jerked back slightly as I felt a warm sensation passing through my hand.

"Hmm... The [Luminous Flame] seems to have settled in nicely in your body." Saying that he let go of my hand putting it on his chin as he began thinking.

"Although it shouldn't have settled so quickly, well it's talent I guess."

"Good, it seems that my luck isn't too bad."

Walking past me, he walked toward the obsidian altar as he gestured for me to follow along.

"Follow me."

The more I walked toward the altar the more I was left mesmerized by the swirling flames..

As soon as I reached the altar he began speaking.

"It's nice isn't it?"

Sitting comfortably near the flame, Reinhardt waved his hand urging me to sit down next to him.

"It truly is…" I replied as I sat down on the ground beside him.

Silence enveloped us as we both calmly stared at the glowing flames before us. It was strange but yet relaxing at the same time.

"You know I was really surprised when I first saw you…"

The first to disrupt the silence was Reinhardt, who with a smile plastered on his face continued to look at the garden before him.

"Ever since my death, no one had ever been to this place, and rightfully so, as I made sure to hide this place from the prying eyes."

"Of course, even if they did find this place out of pure luck, I made sure they wouldn't be able to enter. "

With a smile on his face, he glanced at me, which made me recall the traumatizing experience I had gone through before.

'Of course, I know! I am still being haunted by the phantom pain of the flames.' I cursed inwardly as I smiled and nodded.

"Yes I remember"

"Kukuku, you're so easy to read kid."

Laughing out loud, Reinhardt continued "You see I put the trials here as a test to determine if someone was worthy of waking up my soul. Even if you completed the first two trials but ran away on the third one you would've never been able to come here. Once you complete all three trials only then will you have the right to have an audience with me."

Looking at Reinhardt I could faintly see a trace of admiration in his eyes as he looked at me.

"2 hours 12 minutes, and 51 seconds. That's how long you took to complete all three trials. Even as a transcendent, I was shocked by your speed and determination."

I kept smiling, but my eyelid couldn't help but twitch at his statement 'Of course I had, it's not like I wanted to die after just being transmigrated! Getting this sword art was necessary.'

"Getting back on the topic, the reason why I created the rope test was to determine if someone was worthy enough to become my successor."

"The [Luminous Flame] is a unique type of power having the ability to purify and incorporate any type of power in existence, It is the true and complete form of the energy you used against the Ember Wraith. Its power is much greater as well so the sword art you learnt in the second trial would not be able to handle it efficiently."

"When my power grew I had that problem causing my efficiency to go way down so in search of a way to efficiently utilize my stronger power I developed a new sword art, the [Radiant Convergence]."

"The [Radiant Convergence] is a sword art that focuses on pure offense having no defensive techniques. The essence of this art is the penetration of defenses by purifying others' defenses and incorporating them into your own and converging all the types of energies into your own."

" However, the entry barrier to learning it is high. To learn this sword art, one fundamentally needs to possess the energy of Luminous flame. And that's not all. One also requires sword talent, and the Energy of Luminous flame doesn't accumulate as easily as one might think."

Standing up Reinhardt walked across the temple.

Placing his hand on the sheath of his sword he took a deep breath.

Soon after, his eyes glowed a golden light.

Slowly he pulled out his sword which was gleaming with fusion of silver and gold , the next moment.

A dance unfolded.

His ever luminescent blade danced in his hands moving with unnerving dexterity, his footwork was smooth and swift never stopping.

One after another he demonstrated various techniques and finally.

-Click!

The sword was back in its sheath.

"The [Radiant Convergence] is the art of perfection. When you manage to repeat the same motion every time with no margin of error, that is when you will have finally mastered the [Radiant Convergence]"

Closing my eyes I tried to keep my composure.

My heart was beating like crazy, and my blood boiled. 'That was insane! Holy sh*t! I want to do that too!'

Ding!

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[System Notice]

-[Swordsmanship(F+)] proficency has increased massively.

____________________________________________________

Looking at me, Reinhardt let out a chuckle and asked.

"So,Do you wish to learn?"