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‘You need to focus a little more, kiddo… You have to let the belief that you can master anything on earth and that there is nothing and no one who should not bow down in your presence become a part of you. You have to feel it deep within yourself… That’s the only way to use the Sword Demon class skill.’

‘I’m trying. It’s not as easy as it sounds.’

‘Well, it’s not as difficult as you seem to think… I didn’t think it would be so hard for you to learn how to use the skill.’

I’m in the same uninhabited meadow where I always come whenever I need to reflect or try something, and I’m holding Zariche unsheathed in my hands.

Today I’ve come to try to learn a new skill that, according to Zariche, I should be able to use as the owner of the Sword Demon class, even though I can’t use it normally: by mentioning or thinking its name.

According to Zariche, the skill is called Sword Demon Domain and should give me a huge advantage when fighting multiple enemies alone, although he didn’t tell me exactly what that advantage is.

The reason the sword has offered to teach me this supposed hidden skill is that he has apparently decided to offer me a mutually beneficial agreement.

According to the terms he himself proposed, he will not try to control my body or mind in exchange for me letting him stay out of my inventory and using him to fight.

With his proposal, I discovered that the sword hates my inventory much more than he had let on until now, as he apparently cannot think properly inside it because time inside my inventory ‘feels strange.’

I suspect that this is not the only reason for his proposal, as it is strange that he took so long to decide to offer me a truce, but it may simply be a matter of pride on the part of the sword.

Certainly, he has no shortage of excessive pride and ego.

Today is just one day after the attack on Delia, so Alessia and Delia agreed to stay home and rest.

In the morning, my opinion was the same as theirs, but the proposal and information from the cursed sword surprised me so much that I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

I don’t know how much I can trust him, but I have nothing to lose by taking a chance.

In the worst case, I’ll just have to put him back in my inventory.

The information about this supposed hidden skill was meant to be a peace offering, but it seems he didn’t expect it to be so difficult for me to learn how to use the skill.

So he’s been sharing some more information about himself to show his goodwill.

He told me that he can change shape at will, something I already knew he could do.

He also told me that he can use the blood he stores in combat to temporarily increase his Edge rune by one level.

But I told him that I already knew that information too and that, besides, it’s something I’ll almost never need.

At that point, the sword was already starting to get impatient.

Perhaps that is why he revealed something to me that he had not initially intended to tell me.

Apparently, the sword can freely control which individuals are affected by the Dementia Mist skill.

That information was useful to me, as it means I can use the skill without any problems when fighting alongside others.

But that’s not the only thing I discovered in the conversation.

I also got a clearer idea of how the sword’s mind works and came to the conclusion that it’s not as intelligent as I had initially thought.

I think his reasoning ability is quite linear and limited, because otherwise it makes no sense for him to try to gain my trust by revealing information that I had already discovered.

‘This isn’t getting me anywhere. I’m starting to think I was a fool to trust you.’

‘I confess that I didn’t think it would be so hard for you to use the skill either. In the past, my previous bearers used it with relative ease.’

‘Were there other people who used you? How did they do it?’

‘Well, as usual, by unsheathing me. I think I’m starting to understand why you’re having such a hard time learning to use the skill.’

‘I know that! what I mean is that I want to know how they managed not to lose control when using you.’

‘Ahh… That… No one but you has been able to use me and escape my control… That skill of yours didn’t exist in the past.’

‘But you said you had other bearers.’

‘Exactly: bearers. They were people who carried me but didn’t use me. I was their last resort… Ha! I’m sure that if they knew what I made them do, they would all have regretted using me… But you have nothing to worry about… You’re different.’

Along with Zariche’s thoughts, a wave of perverse pleasure washes over me, surely due to the memory of the atrocities he committed.

But right after that, I feel a sense of fear and caution, as if they were the feelings of a child who has been caught doing something naughty.

‘Just as I imagined… Haa… Well, this makes it easier.’

‘What do you mean?’ asks the sword, as I notice the feeling of caution intensifying.

‘Nothing… So how many bearers did you have? Who sealed you in that stone? And… How long have you been sealed?’

‘I don’t know how many bearers I had… I never bothered to keep count. People are just tools for my amusement, nothing more. There’s no point in keeping track of how many toys I’ve broken throughout my existence… I also don’t know how long I was sealed. Keeping track of the passage of time is irrelevant to us eternal beings… but any amount of time is a long time if you’re locked up… I hate being locked up… but I hate that disgusting skill of yours even more.’

‘You didn’t answer the second question.’

‘Because I don’t want to… I get in a bad mood just thinking about that damn golden hypocrite.’

‘Hmm… Okay… Going back to this supposed hidden skill, is there anything else you can tell me to learn how to use it?’

‘No… And there’s no such thing as a hidden skill. Skills exist, and that’s it. They’re not supposed to be that difficult to activate… Maybe it’s harder now than it used to be.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Supposedly, the more skills a person knows, the harder it is for them to learn new skills… It always gets harder and more complicated… Order tries to limit chaos, and chaos in turn creates new variables… There was a time when people didn’t need to use a chant to activate skills… It was all about practice and learning… But then people ‘discovered’ that using a chant made it ‘easier’ to use them… It’s the same old story, a constant tug-of-war: chaos versus order, life versus death, etc.’

‘I have quite a few skills… Maybe that’s why I can’t learn to use it,’ I say mentally, trying not to be distracted by the sword’s ravings.

‘That can’t be it… For that to be the case, you’d have to have several dozen skills… Or at least that’s how it used to be… No, you must be doing something wrong.’

‘Well, I’ve been trying to activate it for over an hour now… Sword demon domain!… Nothing.’

‘I already told you that you don’t have to say or think the name of the skill to activate it! You have to force its activation with your body and mind. You’re useless!’

‘Or maybe it is just that you don’t know how to teach! … Assuming the skill really exists,’ I say mentally and throw the sword away in any direction.

The weapon sticks into the ground several meters away from me, and I instantly stop hearing his voice.

‘Focus, Emir…

I know the sword doesn’t lie, because it makes no sense for him to lie to me with this kind of nonsense…

Sword demon domain’

Suddenly, I feel a small sting of pain in my chest, while around me, at my feet, a circle of darkness with reddish, viscous-looking tinges grows.

The color of the circle is very similar to that of coagulated blood and extends approximately one meter around me in all directions.

The more the circle expands, the more the pain in my chest grows, almost as if the skill were feeding on my own blood.

Interestingly, despite being able to activate it, the skill does not appear on my interface, so I will have to trust Zariche regarding its effects.

‘Ha! It seems the bastard was right…

Should I apologize to him? Nah…

It’s obvious now that he was laughing at me this whole time, since I would never have been able to activate the skill while holding him in my hands…

But…

Now that the skill is activated…

I wonder if…’

With a few steps, I reach the place where the sword is stuck and pull him out of the ground.

‘Hello again. Didn’t you tell me that I didn’t need to say or think the name of the skill to activate it?’

‘Yes! I told you more than three times, you damn idiot brat. If I have to repeat it one more time, I’m going to start doubting my judgment in offering you this… truce.’

‘Then why did the skill activate as soon as I said its name, and I didn’t have you in my hands?’

As I talk mentally to the sword, I observe the effect of Sword Demon Domain to see if it starts to disappear now that I have wielded Zariche again.

But it seems that his skill-blocking effect does not disable skills that are already activated.

That’s an important discovery.

‘I- I don’t know… I already told you that it wasn’t so complicated to activate skills before… It seems that currently the Sword Demon Domain skill works differently than I remember… Haa… The world has changed while I was sealed away much more than I thought.’

The feeling of regret and melancholy I sense coming from the sword disarms me and convinces me that he wasn’t lying to laugh at me.

While still holding Zariche, I deactivate the skill and try to reactivate it, but, as I suspected, I can’t activate it while wielding the sword.

So I let go of the sword momentarily and try to activate the skill.

‘Sword Demon Domain’

Instantly, the skill reactivates with a slight twinge of pain in my chest.

‘Hmm… For whatever reason, it appears that it was much easier to activate the skill before…

Has anything else changed besides how it’s activated?’

Then I pick Zariche up again and ask him, ‘What effects is this skill supposed to have?’

‘My bearers used it when they had to fight multiple enemies alone. The skill causes all beings within its radius to fight the one closest to them, while also making them heavier and slowly draining their health to give it to the one who activated Sword Demon Domain… But that was before… I don’t know what effects it might have now,’ says the sword in a dejected tone.

‘Okay. But assuming it works as you remember, I can’t decide who it affects, can I?’

‘No. That’s why my bearers never used it when fighting alongside others. The skill affects all beings around the one who activated it, as long as there isn’t much difference between the strength of the one who activated it and those affected.’

‘Hmm…

That’s a problem…

But the benefits are extremely great…

Assuming it works as you remember.’

‘Yes. The skill may be useless now,’ says the sword, in the same tone of voice.

‘Cheer up! We can check that very easily.’

After thinking for a few seconds, I open an illusory door to a trap zone in the Altamira Labyrinth.

At the same time I appear in the place, hundreds of glowing eyes begin to point in my direction.

But that only lasts a fraction of a second, because a moment later the horde of Level 9 Black Widows begins to kill each other.

As soon as the carnage begins, the sharp pain I felt in my chest disappears and is replaced by a momentary feeling of well-being, which fades at the same time as the last of the Black Widows dies.

‘It seems that the skill still works as you remembered,’ I say mentally, as I open an illusory door to another trap room.

‘Yes, it appears that things haven’t changed much since I was sealed away,’ says the cursed sword, his tone of voice returning to normal.

‘Good. Now that you’re feeling a little more cheerful, help me think of a good way to convince Alessia and Delia that it’s a good idea for me to accept this agreement you proposed.’

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