Ch-129
—
**Aria.**
She sat cross-legged, taking quiet, steady breaths.
Then, above her head, a single sword began to drift slowly through the air, carrying a faint chill.
*North-Heaven Ice Sword.*
The sword of an ancient god that slept in the northern lands.
One of the weapons so dangerous that the White King had personally sealed it away.
A blade that froze everything it touched in an instant â so absolute in its cold that no one had ever dared to wield it.
Yet she had succeeded in taming it.
And in doing so, she had gained enlightenment and surpassed a wall within herself.
*But it still isnât enough.*
Her longing only deepened.
If she wanted to surpass **his** sword â the one that surfaced endlessly in her mind â she still had far to go.
The sword aura that had struck the monolith in one blow.
The monolith that neither the Sword saint nor Swordmaster Raktusha could cut â he had cleaved it as if slicing through thin paper.
The âtrue master of the sword,â as the Sword saint had spoken of, could only have been referring to him.
*How do I reach that level?*
She once thought she was a genius.
But she had learned through Raktusha â and through *that man* â that this was arrogance.
Even after taming the North-Heaven Ice Sword, the distance still felt immeasurable.
She wanted to reach him. No matter what it took.
To do that, she could not stop.
Aria closed her eyes and began her âcontemplation.â
But soon, she opened them again.
*âŠfifth pillar.*
A name had surfaced in her mind, breaking her focus.
The man who had risen like a comet in Cramdel.
Fifth Pillar Randolph.
A name she had heard so often that her ears were sick of it â yet she had never seen him in person.
Still, the White King kept trying to tie the two of them together in one way or another.
*It wonât go the way he wants.*
She wasnât some object to be sold according to the White Kingâs will.
As soon as she entered, as soon as she saw his face, she would say it clearly.
That corpse-crow things were not to her taste.
That she had absolutely no intention of being entangled with something grotesque and ugly.
She would even scare him enough to make *him* walk out first.
ââŠâŠâ
Resolving herself, Aria rose slowly with firm determination.
It was almost time for her meal with fifth pillar.
*
*
A spacious room beautifully decorated with countless jewels.
As Aria appeared at the banquet table, she reinforced her resolve once more.
*Iâll go unrestrained. If he dislikes me, thereâll be no further entanglement.*
It was an act directly opposing the White Kingâs wishes.
If the White King set his mind to something, a mere disruption like this wouldnât stop him.
But this was fifth pillar.
For some reason, whenever it involved fifth pillar, the White King took a step back.
Which meant: if fifth pillar didnât like her, even the mighty White King could not push things forward.
*Heâs here first.*
Though the appointed time hadnât arrived yet, someone who appeared to be fifth pillar was already seated in the banquet hall.
Cramdel residents rarely grasped the concept of âbeing on time,â yet at least fifth pillar seemed to.
*Once I see his face, Iâll say it immediately.*
She had already made up her mind.
She had no intention of playing along with the White Kingâs forced arrangements.
The moment she saw his face, she would get straight to the point:
That she couldnât stand someone like him â that she especially hated corpse crows.
It would be a great discourtesy, but it was the only way.
With that decision, she sat across from the man.
ââŠâŠ!!!â
Aria found herself unable to speak a single word she had prepared.
She had planned to unleash harsh, decisive words â yet her mind went blank as white paper.
Because fifth pillarâs appearanceâ
His faceâ
âH-HowâŠ!â
Every hair on Ariaâs body stood on end.
It wasnât *just* that his face was horrifying.
It was â but that wasnât why she reacted this way.
âB-BaalâŠâ
Why was *Baal* here?
*
*
âŠBaal?
Hearing the name spill from Ariaâs lips, I tilted my head.
People often reacted with horror when I transformed into âThe One Who Kindles Darkness,â but no one had ever called me Baal.
If my face truly resembled Baal, wouldnât the White King have noticed first?
Or maybe the White King and the other main pillars had never actually seen Baal.
âWhy is Baal in Cramdel? Are you trying to sink Cramdel?â
Sshhhhhhhh!
Something heavy flew toward me from behind, and I turned my head.
A blade, trailing extreme cold, brushed past my ear.
âAs if Iâd let things go your way!â
âI am fifth pillarââ
KWA-RANG!
Aria kicked off the floor.
Frost surged from her entire body as she held her sword.
An armor and helmet of ice formed over her.
As her blade poured forth its power, everything around her began freezing over.
*Sheâs grown tremendously.*
I couldnât help but be impressed.
Compared to when I saw her at the Mountain of Trainees, this Aria was a completely different being.
ăLv. 11ă
Just like the other main pillars, she had raised her class tremendously.
That sword was likely the reason.
ăNorth-Heaven Ice Sword (???)ă
Its grade was unknown, but it had clearly elevated her combat power by several tiers.
To display such overwhelming forceâ
*Itâs a demonic sword.*
Not an ordinary blade.
One of those that devour their wielders if they are weak.
Tak!
I caught the incoming sword in my hand.
âYou foolâ!â
To grab the blade of the North-Heaven Ice Swordâ
It should freeze me instantly and shatter me to pieces.
SAAAAAâ
As expected, cold erupted from the sword.
The frost surged rapidly, trying to devour meâ
âŠBut nothing froze.
*What?*
The North-Heaven Ice Sword freezes everything.
Anything it touched was destined to freeze solid.
But in this moment, instead of freezing meâ
*What is this�*
The frost circled onceâ
and began freezing *Aria* instead.
As if the sword she had tamed no longer recognized her and turned to devour its own master.
Impossible. Absolutely impossible.
How could this happen?
*Did the ownership of the sword⊠transfer?*
Only then did I realize why it froze Aria.
It wasnât simply an attack.
The moment I touched it, the swordâs âownership rightsâ shifted to me.
Yet this, too, should have been impossible.
Because the North-Heaven Ice Sword was a âboundâ weapon.
Only the bound wielder could possess and use it.
Unless the owner was killed, the binding could not be broken.
Everyone in Pangaenia knew this as basic common sense.
And more than that: a cursed sword like this would never acknowledge someone ominous.
A weapon sealed in the north and personally overseen by the White King.
If someone unrecognized tried to wield it, it would kill them instantly.
Thatâs how it should have been.
âŠBut I did not freeze.
Then did the sword recognize me as its new master?
*âŠNo. A deeper darknessâŠ*
Ah.
It wasnât that the sword acknowledged me.
It was *overpowered*.
Overwhelmed by a deeper darkness.
By a will it could not resist.
Such a thingâ
I had never seen anything like it.
Impossible feats were unfolding before my eyes.
âSleep for a bit.â
Crackâ!
Aria turned into a solid block of ice.
*
*
*âŠWhat do I do now?*
I scratched my head as I looked at Aria trapped inside the ice.
Even I hadnât expected her to mistake me for Baal and attack without hesitation.
*How do I unfreeze her?*
I looked down at the North-Heaven Ice Sword in my hand.
As the One Who Kindles Darkness, I had briefly stolen its functions, but I had no idea how to reverse the freezing.
Tap. Tap.
I lightly shook the sword.
Normally, in my âGluttonâ form, it was impossible to equip weapons.
But I was clearly swinging it right now.
This, too, must have been due to the traits of the One Who Kindles Darkness.
Andâ
âS-Scary! What are you?! Scary!!
âŠAn ego sword.
The North-Heaven Ice Sword was talking to me.
Amazing.
Truly incredible.
Even *Path of Light*, the unique-grade sword I had lodged into the Demon Kingâs chest, had not possessed self-awareness.
It had a will, but not like this â not a voice, not fear like a living being.
And though some swords were labeled as âego swords,â they didnât actually speak like this.
They simply spoke pre-recorded lines as needed.
They had no emotions.
That made this all the more astonishing.
I had never seen a sword like this before.
Even when I browsed Wilhelmâs memories carved into the stars â nothing like this had existed.
ââŠfifth pillar. What are you doing?â
Ah.
A voice from behind.
I turned.
The White King stood there, gazing heavily at me and Aria.
Aria frozen in ice.
Me holding and swinging her sword.
It was an easy scene to misunderstand.
âŠand the White King was *definitely* misunderstanding.
—
—
He had arranged this meeting so the two of them could eat, talk, and get to know each other.
He had forced the situation, but he believed Aria and fifth pillar were well-matched.
Both were honest by nature.
Push them just a little, and they would surely come to like one another â or so he had thought.
ââŠâŠâ
But instead of growing closeâŠ
The scene unfolding before him was the opposite of everything he had hoped for.
Not warm.
Not friendly.
Not even a beginning.
Just disaster.
A block of ice â with Aria frozen inside it.
And fifth pillar holding the North-Heaven Ice Sword and swinging it aroundâ
as if it were a toy.
*âŠHow?*
But the North-Heaven Ice Sword was a bound weapon.
Only the bound owner could use it.
Unless the owner died.
It was an unchanging truth.
So how was fifth pillar using it right now?
There was only one answer.
He must have killed Aria and stolen it.
And furthermoreâ
*The Omenâs Eye.*
The North-Heaven Ice Sword was a powerful demonic sword.
Even if someone stole it, unless the sword acknowledged them, they could not wield it.
Yet now, at the center of its blade was an engraved âeye.â
The eye of an omen â the eye of a crow.
A single eye, open and weeping blood, controlling everything about the sword.
The White King recognized it instantly.
*How dare he.*
No matter how coveted that sword wasâŠ
To commit such a deed here, in the White Kingâs own hall, right before his eyesâŠ
âHow dare youâŠâ
The White Kingâs two eyes turned blood-red.
The fur all over his body began to stand on end, bristling upward.
He had been far too complacent until now.
It was true that he had shown favoritism toward fifth pillar.
Whenever fifth pillar had come dangerously close to crossing a line â again and again â unlike his other four pillars, whom he had blessed personally, he had treated fifth pillar with a certain degree of respect.
fifth pillar was ominous, yes, but that was no reason to turn that ominousness into an enemy.
Yet his concessions had apparently made fifth pillar look down on him.
â…It seems thereâs been a misunderstanding, caw.â
âŠBefore the White King could transform into his âtrue form,â I barely managed to speak.
Until this day, the White King had never once revealed his true form in front of me.
Because once he revealed it, it could only end with one of us dying.
But now, the White King was about to reveal his true form.
Having seen Ariaâs state right before his eyes, he had lost all reason.
There was only one way to resolve this.
âAria isnât deadââŠâ
KWA-AANGâ!
Before I could even finish speaking, the White King attacked me.
