Chapter 276 Volume IV – Chapter 123: The Legendary Sword

I couldn’t tell the North Holar everything I knew about Project Durandal directly, they would ask me where I got such secret information and they would suspect me.

So I had to hear everything about the project from them first. That’s why I wanted to be involved in the project. Only in this way could I reveal everything I learned from the game.

And it worked out the way I wanted. After I joined the project, they told me everything they had done so far, and I learned as much as possible about the project. Even the things I already knew, I had to relearn as if I didn’t know. Even if what they knew about it was much less than I did, I wanted to at least check.

The Durandal was a legendary sword that the dwarves had possessed since time immemorial. It was crafted by an unknown magic, so ancient that there is not even a single legend about its history. All that was known about it was that it could cut anything, tangible or intangible. And I mean literally everything…

But no one had been able to use it for a very long time. It was not known why, but the sword could not be used in any way. Almost no one could even touch it, let alone use its properties. The sword rejected anyone who touched it and would literally burn the skin if contact was prolonged.

Project Durandal was based on modifying this legendary sword. Whatever prevented it from being used would be removed, its effect would be strengthened and improved as much as possible.

But so far, the North Holar has made almost no progress on this project. There had been much research and experimentation into what made it what it was known for, but nothing had been found. Because the sword did not make use of the ‘runes’ that form the basis of dwarven technology.

After studying the project for a long time, one by one, I told them everything I knew. Even though they didn’t know most of it, after all, I did.

What surprised them the most was the knowledge that the sword did not make use of a rune, but of a consciousness that had been sleeping inside it for centuries. They asked me how I knew this. I inevitably had to give an evasive answer.

When I cited the phoenix on Mount Doruan as a source, no one had anything to say. Then I explained how they could control this consciousness.

Even though the sword doesn’t make use of runes, it doesn’t mean that it can’t be affected by them. So, I presented the rune I remembered from the game to them as if I had created it myself.

Of course, I went to the sword a few times during this whole process. I also had the opportunity to examine it closely.

The sword… strangely enough, had such a simple appearance that it didn’t look like a ‘legendary’ sword at all.

The blade of the sword was not too long for me, which makes sense, considering that the person who used to wield it was a dwarf. It was a little shorter than sixty centimeters. With the hilt, it reached a total length of around seventy centimeters.

The cross-guard of the sword, which connects the blade to the hilt, looked worn. It looked like it was made of leather, but it wasn’t.

Durandal looked like a completely normal sword, whether I was looking at it from a distance or up close. In fact, because it was old, it gave it an air of being unusable. It looked like it would break in the first battle.

It was like that for a reason, of course. The story behind this sword… was not a simple or happy one. It was a tragedy in the truest sense of the word. But what happened in the past was in the past, and I couldn’t afford to care.

So I didn’t pay much attention to the sword, I focused entirely on the rune I was working on, and in the end… I succeeded. I had filled a room almost two times the size of a normal hall with runes, but I had succeeded.

A time was set for the rune to be activated, and while everything was being prepared, all I did was wait for it. Because… I knew what would happen when the rune was activated.

Finally, the time came.

*******

I peered through several layers of one of the world’s most durable glass into a huge room covered with runes, with not a single person in it.

“Three, two, one… zero.”

When the countdown was complete, the rune was activated. The room filled with mana, and the glow of the virgoniums, the source of this mana, faded with each passing second. Not only that. They also slowly began to literally rot and disintegrate. It didn’t matter for me though.

The runes in the room flickered like a heartbeat, and the whole floor trembled with the movement.

First a muffled sound penetrated our ears through the windows, which under normal circumstances should be soundproof. Then… a brilliant flash of light suddenly caught everyone’s eyes.

Some dwarves recoiled in fear, others made meaningless noises. But me… I just stood where I was.

“AAAGHHHHHHH!”

I saw some of them run to the control panel to deactivate the rune, as if everything was descending into chaos as an ear-splitting, echoing man’s voice rang out. But I didn’t let them.

With my wind magic, I created a wall between the dwarves and the panel. Countless dwarves turned to me as soon as they realized it was me.

“Aiden Tenebra! What th’ fuck are ya doin’?!”

“Hurry! Deactivate the rune!”

I sighed deeply.

“Just be quiet for a minute, will you?”

I saw the meaninglessness in their eyes, I saw those who looked at me as if I had betrayed them, but… I ignored every one of them no matter what they said to me.

My time was limited, after all.

I stared at the sword, surrounded by countless rotten virgonium, with shimmering motifs swirling around it.

Just then, the echoing voice that had just been screaming suddenly began to utter a single word.

“Durandal… DURANDAL…!”

His voice calmed down for a moment, this time he started to say something else.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”

He continued to mutter different, meaningless words. Finally, after about forty seconds, the glow from the runes slowly faded.

I approached the glass, took a deep breath, and spoke calmly, ignoring the dwarves trembling with terror around me.

“Your mission is over, Durandal is long dead.”

This time the voice cried out angrily.

“Wha’ d’ya mean by dead?! Who the hell’re ye?”

“A human who knows your story, nothing more. As I said, your mission is over. Durandal is dead, and so are his wife and children. But not because of a tragedy, they died happily of old age. They chose to rest. So… as Durandal’s brother, shouldn’t you rest too?”

Silence enveloped the room for a moment. When I realized that the virgoniums were rotting even more, I continued, clicking my tongue.

“Your war is over, ours is still going on. Long ago you averted a tragedy, brought peace to the dwarves. Now… you can do the same again. All you need to do is rest.”

“Rest… huh?”

The voice paused for a moment, then fell silent again.

“Oh… can I… rest…?”

“Of course. All you have to do is surrender to what is causing you pain right now. The pain will disappear and you will find yourself in eternal peace.”

“I can… rest…”

His voice grew hoarser and hoarser, for a moment reflecting an intense tone of peace.

“Then… I must rest…”

Just like I said, he gave himself over to the effect the runes had on him. He didn’t think too much about it.

Well, not that he could. Not only were the runes putting intense pressure on him, but the mere thought of his brother succeeding gave him happiness after all the tragedy he had been through. And after years of use… the thought of being able to rest must have really given him peace.

So, he didn’t question what I said. He let the runes do what they did. And the runes… slowly tore him apart.

A minute later, all the runes went out, just like that. The glow disappeared.

When it was all over… the sword named Durandal glowed with a faint glow.

The consciousness inside had disappeared, but the remnants of it remained. That was the purpose of the rune in the first place, to put him into a deeper sleep than he was… to kill him, in a way, but to keep his remnants inside the sword. That way the sword would retain its magic and properties.

For a moment, a bad feeling swept through my body because I had lied to the consciousness inside the sword, to the dwarf named ‘Durandal’. I squinted, but of course, I did not give in to this feeling. After all, not everything I said was a lie.

What I said about him finding eternal peace, for example, was not a lie. After all, after using the sword, there will be no trace of it. It will literally disappear from this world.

So… he’s really going to die. He won’t have to endure anymore.

*******

Well… I got a little punishment for what I did. After all, I had broken the wall of wind I had created after the runes disappeared, so I had countless dwarves ganging up on me at once.

It was only when I explained that what I had done was to help them rather than betray them, and they confirmed it themselves, that I was free once again.

Of course, they wanted me to tell them other things. Like what I said to Durandal’s brother when I spoke to him. But I didn’t tell them what happened, and since I was able to dodge most of it when I told them that what I knew was about the phoenix, I used that again, and that was the end of it, even if they weren’t very satisfied.

After I got my hands on Project Durandal, things happened quickly.

When they finally saw that the sword stopped rejecting them, the dwarves started modifying it. A few dwarves, enlightened by what I had suggested to them about what they needed to do, quickly got to work.

As for me, I told them that I would withdraw from the project unless they specifically asked me for help, because I wanted to get back to the battlefield, and so I did.

I kept fighting, I kept killing, I kept gaining experience.

The rumors about me spread even more.

Weeks slowly followed more weeks.

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