The Amber Sword

Chapter 794 v4c162

Sublimation

“My lord, your swordsmanship...it’s...” Shido was awestruck. “ I have never seen anything like this...”

“Efficient and effective, isn’t it?” Lenarette Aurelius exhaled. He still had quite a few wounds across his body, but the Kirrlutzian prince was not whiny about it. Like a genuine warrior, he clenched his teeth as he added, “Though I do admit it is a little unrefined, hardly fit for royalty.”

“This style of sword art...was clearly made with the sole purpose of winning...” Shido mumbled.

“This sword art style was made solely for the kill because the sword is a weapon of murder.” The young prince remained silent but was suddenly reminded of his sister’s words, “Your master’s fighting style could even be said to not be birthed from the context of war, but instead one that focuses on instant termination of a fight. I guess that explains its no-nonsense sword art style...which makes me curious, where can it possibly stem from?”

Because it was the fighting style of a gamer.

It was less about channelling full force to a single strike, but more towards a rapid succession of swift attacks when opportunity presented itself, dealing the maximum damage one could deal, even if it was at the expense of minor injuries.

Meanwhile, Veronica was also fixated on the battleground. She was initially convinced that Brendel would be stuck in a tough battle, readying her troops for immediate backup once the tides were against him. What was beyond her expectations however was that not only was Brendel not overpowered, he was on the offensive.

Her emerald green pupils glistened from awe, watching as Brendel weaved through portals high and low. With the terrain at his aid and that strange machine at his whim, he was constantly pulling bizarre yet impressive attacks.

The Gods of Flames were stabbed in the back, or stumbling into each other, or just casually shoved to the wall. Carrying the electric sparks with them as rows and rows of foot soldiers fell into the abyss.

This had nothing to do with the sword art!

This was from experience!

The female squad leader was bewildered by what she was seeing, but she knew full well that it was not because of the Aouine’s military sword art, nor was it due to the resemblance to Flash Strike Sword Art as mentioned in those reports. It was pure fighting experience.

What her mind can’t seem to comprehend was the actual existence of a person of such calibre!

Brendel was only a mere twenty years old, she knew well of that, and from all the intel that she had gathered, that was true in its entirety. But for a youth of his age, not only did he possess otherworldly prowess, but how did he gather such experience in fighting and war?

Sometimes she was not even convinced anyone would ever subdue an opponent that way, yet there she was, witnessing it with her own two eyes as Brendel had done it, leaving her with just one question. This can’t just be Brendel’s own thought process!

But that was just nonsensical, outrageous even, that she would have acknowledged that this young lad possessed a fighting experience beyond that of her own.

Her conscience could begrudgingly admit that she was right, but her experience would not allow her to believe it.

Veronica was conflicted, she too was a sword saint herself! And a renowned one at that! The commander of the Kirrlutzian Azure skies division herself, laying waste to the Haizaiers, the demons, the heretics!

Evaluating her fifty-odd years of living, half of it spent in the fields of war, her pride and her gut would never allow for her to admit this. But she knew deep down that this was beyond just pure talent, but a convincing explanation eluded her.

She unwittingly lifted her head back up, crossing glances with Mephisto from a distance, the Ash Sword Saint shared the same awestruck look on his face.

But his leaned more towards genuine surprise, hers however was regret.

“You got yourself a good student, Mephisto.”

Veronica was envious, thinking about how she would have been first in line to invite Brendel into her division back at the Loop of Trade Winds, if she knew then.

She lamented. Who cares if he’s Kirrlutzian or Aouine, if I got Brendel to be one of my students, he would have sided with the Kirrlutz people eventually anyway! Auoine is too small to be threat for the Kirrlutz empire!

Why didn’t this even once cross my mind?

Meanwhile, Dim Korfa was anxious.

Initially, she wanted to first remove the weakest among Veronica, Mephisto and Brendel, but never would she ever ponder the possibility that she had gravely underestimated Brendel, and the surprise he brought.

“You hid your power!” From her perspective, that was the only reason. A twenty-year-old young adult having such monstrous fighting experience, she caught glimpses of her previous opponents in young Brendel.

Even though he was not quite the level of the Darkness Dragon, Odin nor Alphonse, the Dragon of Fury, or the Crystal, but his level was akin to that of the Twilight war already!

In the words of the mortals, this is the skill of a demigod!

Going through all the plausible reasons she could think of, there was none but one, that her previous adversaries took the form of a mortal to seek vengeance upon her. This reasoning was the most legitimate, for if she could have awoken from her previous state, who was to say others could not? The divine power was now far gone, but the divine influence was still very much present and alive, the most famous of which were Odin’s Azure knights.

With her forgone deduction, her expression shifted for the worse as her electrified hair began floating in midair. She howled, “You aren’t just a black dwarf...you, you are one of the Divine folk! Who the hell are you?!”

Divine folk huh.

Brendel pulled himself back from Korfa’s deafening roar, at that point he had already rid all enemies within his radius, while also breaking Hipamila out from a losing position. The young priestess had multiple times fallen into a losing position, her fighting ability some distance away from that of Ciel as she was clearly huffing and puffing from a close encounter being surrounded by three gods of flames.

“Thank you, milord.”

She had suffered several wounds, her robe torn from battle as she gradually caught her breath, through windows of gasps she expressed her gratitude.

Brendel was rather agitated by the battered condition of his subordinates, yet nonetheless kept his attention perked by Dim Korfa’s mention of divine folk.

What does that even mean?

Does Odin count as divine folk? Or the Azure knights? Are they divine folk? Odin once mentioned that they do have a portion of the highborn blood flowing within them, they could be the descendants of the Divine folk, but they likely aren’t purebloods.

He had always been curious about the relationship between the Divine folk and the gods. From its definitive meaning, divine folk would be the offspring of the gods. One of Vaunte’s mainstream teachings was that the Divine folk were the first true inhabitants of Vaunte, the servants of the gods, and from them came the golden age.

In the time of the Silver race, as the Pale poem has mentioned, the Divine folk would at least be on equal standing with Marsha or the Divine beings themselves, because the poem clearly mentioned that the Divine folk and Marsha were ones who have woven the world into existence!

But from what Korfa is saying, she seems to mean something entirely different, because she would know for sure what all of this means. Like she said, the Gods will no longer walk this land, and she was the last awoken God from the Vaunte. But why would she proclaim that I am not a member of the black dwarfs, but instead a Divine folk?

Even if Dim Korfa’s words sounded like a slip of a tongue, Brendel precisely captured the words he wasn’t intended to hear, that Korfa knows for a fact: The Divine folk aren’t gods.

Pondering the true definition of the term “Divine folk”, Brendel had his suspicions. What if the divine folk are Planeswalkers, which would be the legendary handlers. If that’s the case, it would connect all the dots.

There’s one thing though, be it Odin or the Azure knights, they called themselves the descendants of the Divine folk, but never the Divine folk themselves. But they are actual Planeswalkers after all...are they just being humble? Or is there a more sinister truth?

Brendel began connecting the dots, confident that his own bizarre system had something to do with this mystery.

He then lifted his head as he snickered right to Dim Korfa’s face, “Korfa oh Korfa, this has nothing to do with the divine folk.

It’s just that the playthings you put out are way too shabby don’t you think? If you wanted to talk about the Divine folk, aren’t there already a few around here?” He casually pointed at Mephisto and Veronica, who at that point had cleared themselves of all the minor Gods of flames, even Ciel managed to subdue the other two that were onto him.

Evidently, Hipamila and Ciel might be on the same level of prowess on paper, but experience-wise, the latter was on a far superior level.

“Do not play me as a fool,” Korfa actually took the bait as she sneered, “I couldn’t care less about your skill level, I am talking about fighting ability, don’t you think you’re giving far too ridiculous an excuse for it to even be believable? A bug closing in on activation, but with a fighting skill akin to that of a commander.”

Commander level fighting skill, Brendel caught a new term, and he now knows roughly where his fighting skill stood amongst the rest and where it originated from.

Well, that experience was from over 130 levels of fighting experience, one that would require drastically less time to be done as a player than an NPC, one that would take a locale over several centuries to achieve, or even more.

He knew with his current experience, he had significantly exceeded the levels of this era, encroaching on the divine realm even. What was lacking now was but his actual power level.

“With a commander level fighting ability, does that make me a member of the Divine folk?” Brendel halfheartedly chuckled.

“Of course not, are you from the Divine realm? Are you Alphonse, Crystal or Blaze?” Dim Korfa laughed maniacally as the entire space shook, she seemed brimmed with pride that she had seen through his scheme.

It’s no wonder this psychotic bitch thinks she’s exposed my weakness, she knew for a fact that no black dwarf would have any knowledge of the prehistoric era, God or any memory of the period, not even anyone from the Silver race!

Brendel finally understood where her interpretation was from. In Korfa’s point of view, with his commander level prowess, he would have to be either a God, or a member of the Divine folk, there was no other way around.

He was also reminded that Dim Korfa had, among the Twilight ranks, played a leader figure. Her description of a commander was one of her equal from the side of order, an opponent of the same calibre. From the ranking system of Kirrlutz mythology, he would be of demigod level or above.

Brendel was intrigued.

This was actually his first time encroaching on the muddy scenes from the prehistoric era. Knowing the game mechanics, anything from that time period was bombastic, the lore, the missions and the rewards.

In the game, anything slapped with the “prehistoric” title was immensely prestigious, even items like the Flash Strike Sword Art or the Nine Luminaries Sword Art were present era items, with the battle of the Ebabel fort as the demarcation event. Anything before that was the convoluted prehistoric era, jumbled with myths and legends.

There was only one in-game item that the players could obtain, and it was the War Stone Tablet.

Just that alone had created an absurd fever hype.

“Tell me, where are you from?” Korfa took to ask, “Eleven, Twelve or Seventeen?”

What do those numbers even mean? Brendel was dumbfounded, yet with the same stoic expression he wistfully replied, “It isn’t something I could tell.”

What was unexpected was the almost entirely electrically charged Dim Korfa abruptly gone quiet, her electrically imbued pupils staring terrifyingly at him, “Strange, not a member of the Divine folk, then what creature are you?”

“You’re the damn creature, bloody hell!” Brendel cursed under his breath, but he was not expecting his enemy to take a 180-degree approach.

Recalling the preceding events, the hint could only have been on the row of numbers she spewed, but he just couldn’t wrap his head around it, and Korfa was definitely not going to give him any further clues.

Right then, Veronica and Mephisto came up to him, each on one side.

“Brendel, what game are you playing with her?” Veronica was first to pop the question, albeit with a baffling look on her face which Brendel caught at once. She resembled a little child looking right at a toy she yearned that another kid had.

Just that simple thought gave him chills.

Half-expecting the Squad leader to come out with more strange ideas, he promptly answered, “I have no idea what she’s saying, milady, I just wanted to squeeze some intel out of her.”

“So you did as she said?” Veronica snapped.

Brendel nodded.

Their conversation was duly observed by Dim Korfa, even though the first daughter of Hati was expecting it, she was still visibly perturbed.

For someone of her status and regard, to be played by one of the Black dwarfs had her rattled. Naturally, she was not aware of Brendel’s otherworldly experience, and even then he might still be beneath her. But right then, all she comprehended was that she was tricked by a puny little bug.

Even worse still in front of her little ‘sister’.

If she still had her physical body, she would be flushed with embarrassment by now, but right then, all she could do was to channel her shame and anger to a thunderous rant!

“You mortals will pay for this!”

Right then, the entire space trembled, everyone instantly turned towards Dim Korfa, only to see her engulfed in a cluster of blinding electric currents, tens of thousands of electric bolts, thick as a human arm, fused into her body.

Watching the scene as it was playing out, Brendel was the first to react, “The Divine barrier is broken, the bitch is doing it herself!”

Without a twist, the invisible shield shattered like glass around Dim Korfa, only able to see its opaque shape in the split second as it burst, before vanishing into the air around it.

Within moments, the electric currents encircled Korfa, forming a scintillating electric sphere.

And Korfa was like a butterfly in her cocoon, shielded entirely in the electric ball, her body was remotely visible, but her pupils were glowing in blinding glare.

“Sublimation of divine power...” Shido, stared blindly at the scene as it unfolded while mumbling, “Sublimation of divine power, this is the sublimation of divine power!”

“What the hell is that?” Haruz confusedly turned to the others for clarification.

Miss Scholar was clearly stunned, completely oblivious of his enquiry, and it was instead Korfa behind him that replied, her eyes glimmering from the rustling sparks of electricity, “In your tongue, this is the ignition of the divine flame.”

......

The once weakly ember going by the name of the Blaze of Divine Power was lit, gradually growing from its initial ember spark into roaring flames.

Milos’ residual power was like a dormant seed planted, and at that moment, nourished and nurtured by Dim Korfa, breaking through its seed into a sapling. A sapling so immensely powerful Brendel could feel it resonate throughout the entire space, akin to a desolate cry for help within this precarious space. Rays of energy began forming from within thin air, translucent to sight as they lurched towards the electric cocoon that Korfa was in.

At that moment, Dim Korfa’s dark soul appeared to be forming a reaction with the Holy Cathedral of the Sleep. No, it was with Milos’ remains!

Brendel ultimately clicked on the identity of these translucent energy charges.

They were order.

They were the law.

They were the divine power of the space — Milos’ spiritual awareness.

Brendel’s expression shifted rather dramatically as he frantically yelled out to the others, “Watch out, her integration with Milos is getting tighter!”

“So this is the power of law and order.”

Dim Korfa’s voice rustled ever so slightly.

The owner of the once proud, conceited and ice-cold tone seemed to flip like a switch, now all that was left was the roaring voice of what akin to a queen.

Brendel could identify at this point the nearly perpendicular tone of hers to Milos’, just that it was still feminine.

“Order and chaos intertwine and intercept, like the presence of light and shadow,” Dim Korfa raised her hand from within the electric cocoon, “Nevertheless, these are unchanging facts of the world, and it does not belong to just you mortals. Allow me to stand in Milos’ place in restructuring this Earth.”

She proudly lifted her chin, her palm wide open, “Accept your penance.”

Immediately after her words dropped, a hundred bolts of lighting rose from all around her while Brendel and company watched in terror.

Like an ashen peacock boasting the majestic extent of its feathers, the nearing hundred blinding bolts of lightning hovered in mid-air, before taking a sharp turn, aimed directly at each and every one of her adversaries in the hall!

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