Episode 97
The first stage of mastering aura involves circulating it within the body to enhance physical strength—this is known as the Aura Beginner stage.
Next is the Aura Knight stage, where one can project aura outside the body, enveloping a sword or forming a shield.
The final stage is the Aura Master, where one can envelop their sword, armor, and body with aura to create an “avatar.”
In terms of a mage’s progression, this is akin to reaching the sixth circle, a level where one could become an elder of the tower.
Once someone becomes an Aura Master, there isn’t a specific term for the next level. It’s simply about refining and accumulating the power of aura and the ideas projected onto the avatar.
Except for seven individuals.
The strongest knights, known for mastering the pinnacle of swordsmanship and aura—The Seven Swords of the Continent.
These knights are the inspiration behind the legendary “Sword Masters” often featured in tales of chivalry.
Strictly speaking, the term “Sword Master” isn’t used among knights. It was a term coined by enthusiasts to help the public understand the prowess of the Seven Swords.
The term spread widely, becoming synonymous with the strength of the Seven Swords.
And except for rare cases like the masters of the Five-Colored Towers, when a knight and a mage of similar levels face off, the knight usually emerges victorious—unless the mage is a battle-hardened war mage.
The roots of a scholar secluded in a tower and a warrior on the battlefield are fundamentally different.
And there was a war mage who had experienced countless battlefields throughout his life.
A War Mage.
In the otherworldly winter night, a mage’s “world of ideas” can mean only two things: a place of absolute trust or a coliseum of slaughter to eliminate an opponent with full force.
“You…”
The white knight was there too, his body and skin hardened like mithril metal, resembling a creature made of white metal.
“Do you remember this scene?” Dale asked, standing amidst the flurries of snow on a winter night.
“I couldn’t care less about your trivial world of ideas,” the white knight replied coldly, gripping his sword as if ready to charge.
“That’s unfortunate.”
“What’s unfortunate?”
“I hoped you’d at least know where your grave would be.”
“I never intended to return alive from the start,” the Knight of Saint Magdalena replied.
“My life is dedicated to eliminating the seeds of evil that threaten my lord.”
“Don’t you find it ridiculous to serve that pig so loyally?”
“What do you know to dare insult my lord…!”
The conversation ended. The white knight charged.
His body, not just clad in mithril armor, but hardened like a silicon-based lifeform, became a white metal.
A white flash descended, but it wasn’t Dale’s role to block it.
Clang!
The black sword of the Death Knight met the strike.
However, the opponent was also an Aura Master using his full power through his avatar. The Death Knight’s previous equal footing vanished.
Dale’s Death Knight was being pushed back.
‘It’s not time to rely on Shub or Aurelia’s power yet.’
A fight with a strong opponent, a tightrope walk on the edge of life and death—each one was an invaluable experience for Dale, a foundation for his strength.
The shadow cloak fluttered, and the Shadow Lurkers emerged from the darkness at his feet.
“Light of Saint Magdalena!”
At the same time, the Knight of Saint Magdalena invoked the name of the holy maiden.
“With the compassion and mercy of the twin goddesses by my side!”
A cry filled with fervor, like a crusader’s. With that cry, light surged forth.
A dawn light dispelling the darkness of the early morning.
“Screeeech!”
Before that light, Dale’s Shadow Lurkers screamed in unison.
As if to banish the darkness of Dale’s world, the brilliant light surged forth.
“Rise.”
Dale spoke again.
Along the white and dark winter horizon, “they” rose at Dale’s command.
In the world of ideas, a mage can wield god-like power according to their capabilities. A high-level war mage can use “the world itself” as a weapon to eliminate an enemy.
“Order of the Dead Knights.”
Recalling the army of the Death Order, Dale chanted.
In the realm of death, their lord commanded them. Toward the corpses buried beneath the white surface.
One by one, the army of Death Knights, wielding the black swords of Saxon, rose.
”…!”
The result of endless honing of swordsmanship and necromancy, building a foundation of training.
The “Automatic” formula projected, each imbued with a fragment of a hero, forming an immortal army. The immortal knights built from the power of ideas.
Dale’s world moved with full force to eliminate his enemy.
A world filled with malice.
The overwhelming force of a high-level dark mage.
“What is this…?”
Could this truly be the work of a mere fourth-circle mage?
The Knight of Saint Magdalena, clad in an avatar, gasped in shock.
The immortal knights charged, undeterred by the surging light. The Shadow Lurkers submerged beneath the lake of shadows, avoiding the blinding flashes.
Following the lake of shadows, the spiked tendrils of the Shadow Lurkers rose, and the army of Death Knights began their charge.
Before them stood a knight enveloped in holy light.
The Knight of Saint Magdalena.
“Grant me the courage to never yield!”
Facing the approaching army of death, the indomitable hero gripped his sword of light with unwavering resolve.
Thud!
The sword of light struck down.
Aimed at the nemesis of the holy knight, the “Black Prince” of Saxon. Piercing through the chest, the blade of dawn emerged from Dale’s back.
Blood gushed from the wound.
“My victory…!”
In ecstasy, the white knight shouted.
A victory seized from the depths of despair, breaking through the army of death.
The mithril knight laughed triumphantly.
“My victory…!”
The white knight laughed.
Blood tears streamed from his torn retinas. Unaware that Shub’s slender tendrils were crossing his features, invading his brain.
Dale watched him with an expression devoid of emotion.
After reaching the fourth circle, it wasn’t just Dale who grew.
His cherished “shadow cloak” and the grimoire “The Book of the Black Goat” were no exceptions.
Apart from the tendrils ravaging the white knight, another tendril snaked into Dale’s ear. From the outer ear to the eardrum, crossing the auditory nerve to the brain.
A new ability of “Shub” acquired after reaching the fourth circle.
Dale was now absorbing the brain of the Knight of Saint Magdalena.
The central hub of information processing, composed of 86 billion neurons and 150 trillion synapses.
The life of an “Aura Master” who honed his sword throughout his life flowed into Dale’s consciousness.
Devouring the enemy’s brain.
It wasn’t an act Dale could undertake lightly.
Maintaining his identity amidst the flood of incoming information.
Swallowing the lifetime of ideas accumulated by the Knight of Saint Magdalena and making them his own.
──He saw the holy knight praising his sword talent in childhood.
──He felt the blood and sweat of relentless training to grasp the essence of aura.
“I finally obtained the avatar, my lord!”
The Knight of Saint Magdalena began to laugh dreamily.
──The joy of becoming an Aura Master and obtaining the avatar flowed in like a child’s delight.
He turned his head, unperturbed.
The entire memory of the Knight of Saint Magdalena.
From the detailed aura techniques they practiced to all the information he remembered, it flowed in. Swimming through the deluge of information, he grasped what he needed.
“Let’s test it.”
After gathering, Dale turned his head. Toward the Death Knight wielding Saxon’s black sword.
To project the essence of the Knight of Saint Magdalena, who had reached the level of an Aura Master, onto the pitch-black aura blade.
The Death Knight, built from the ideas in Dale’s world, adjusted his grip on the hilt.
Forcibly twisting the aura within, overlaying the ideas of the Knight of Saint Magdalena to reverse its color.
Whoosh!
Saxon’s black sword began to shine as a radiant white aura blade.
The white sword symbolizing the nobility of the Knights of Saint Magdalena. But it was only for a fleeting moment.
Clang!
Unable to withstand the distortion of aura, the Death Knight’s skeletal frame exploded into pieces.
Reincarnating in the form of an avatar was one thing, but he couldn’t even maintain his aura blade. Was it too much to expect a knight who pursued the opposing forces of black and white aura to handle such a burden?
”…”
He hadn’t harbored any grand expectations from the start. Just because something had consumed his mind didn’t mean he could instantly comprehend it fully.
Yet, achieving this level of accomplishment in such a short time was likely unheard of in this world.
“This is the power of Shub…”
─ Do you like it?
Shub smiled innocently, like a child.
She paid no mind to the knight she was mercilessly violating with the tentacles beneath her dress, wrapping Dale’s neck with her arms and tentacles as if he were the most precious thing in the world.
He was only at the fourth circle.
Despite being four circles away from the eighth circle, the level of the continent’s greatest mage.
And the abilities of Shub, which were just beginning to unlock at the fourth circle, were surely not the end of it.
The ancient Mother of Darkness.
If a magic tome were considered a mage’s sword, then calling it the finest blade in the world wouldn’t be an exaggeration.
‘Those mages who couldn’t absorb it at the third circle must be regretting it now.’
He thought, then shook his head. He had just reached the fourth circle, and there would be no end to the powerful opponents he would face. Just like the Saint Magdalene Knight standing before him.
After dispelling the world of ideas, he found himself in the arena of the Fight Club. Murmurs echoed all around, the commentators unable to hide their bewilderment.
Men wearing bird-beak masks had already aimed their blades at Dale’s vital points.
The ‘high assassins’ of the Shadow Court, led by the deadly blade.
“You’ve chosen the wrong opponent to point your blades at.”
Dale replied, unfazed.
“Fortunately, those who break the rules of the Fight Club receive the punishment they deserve.”
He glanced at the knight sprawled before him.
The Saint Magdalene Knight lay there, an empty shell with a hollow skull, the contents vanished.