Remnants of the Zurrernorn organization.
Evidence of connections with the followers of Shub-Niggurath.
The distribution routes for necromantic magic materials.
The corpse supply chain.
Based on the data received from the guild, Iel was investigating the forest paths and cemetery areas north of E-Rantel.
The path grew narrower.
The trees became denser.
Sunlight caught between the branches, failing to reach the ground.
Beneath the forest canopy, old wheel ruts and traces of washed-away blood remained.
Signs of people being dragged away.
Signs of heavy cargo being moved.
And the traces of violence that someone had tried to erase in haste, but failed to do so completely.
Iel knelt to examine the soil.
The necromantic mana was faint.
There were traces of Zurrernorn.
However, this did not belong to Zurrernorn alone.
There was another group.
Bandits.
Robbers.
And a swarm of outcasts.
The Death-Spreading Sword Band.
Former adventurers.
Retired soldiers.
Runaway serfs.
Mercenaries turned criminals.
A band of robbers composed of those who held swords but belonged to neither the kingdom nor the guild.
They used a cave in the forest as their base.
A place where the Kingdom's patrols rarely reached.
A crossroad where merchants heading to E-Rantel would momentarily let their guard down.
That was their hunting ground.
Iel stood before the entrance of the cave.
Laughter echoed from within.
Coarse, low laughter.
The smell of alcohol.
The scent of blood and iron.
And voices speaking of human beings as if they were mere objects.
"Did you see that woman?"
"Just looking at that staff, she's worth a fortune."
"Her clothes look expensive, too."
"If she's a mage, we have to finish her before she gets close."
"No, don't kill her. She'll be quite useful, won't she?"
The moment those words reached her ears.
Iel's gaze darkened.
She walked into the cave.
The bandits surrounded her.
One held a sword.
Another drew a dagger.
One was swinging a chain.
Another stared blatantly at Iel's staff.
They did not know who Iel was.
They might have heard rumors of the mage who saved E-Rantel.
But they likely believed that rumors were always exaggerated.
To them, the Iel before their eyes was just a young woman walking through the forest alone.
Prey carrying an expensive staff.
One bandit stepped forward.
"If you quietly put down that staff and follow us—"
He didn't finish his sentence.
Iel spoke softly.
"If you refuse to see people as people..."
She shifted the Genesis Staff to her back.
Then, she gripped the sword at her waist.
The Hero's Gladius.
The blade shimmered with a silver light.
"...Then I must make you see, even if by force."
The bandits laughed.
"A mage with a sword?"
"This should be fun!"
They didn't know.
Iel was a mage.
But she was not a stranger to the sword.
She had learned swordsmanship in Sylvania.
She had fought countless times.
Pushing her body to its limits, she had trained in both magic and the blade.
However, she did not lead with the edge.
She flipped the sword.
The reverse blade.
It was not to kill.
It was to subdue.
The first bandit lunged.
He swung a large axe.
Iel stepped aside.
The axe sliced through empty air.
The back of Iel's blade struck his wrist.
Crack.
With the sound of a breaking wrist bone, the axe fell. Immediately, the back of her blade struck his jaw.
The first bandit collapsed backward.
The second threw his chain.
Iel wrapped the chain around the tip of her sword and pulled.
The bandit's body was jerked forward.
In that instant.
Iel's knee slammed into his abdomen.
A sound like his breath being snuffed out escaped him.
The bandit fell to his knees on the spot.
The third and fourth attacked from both sides.
Iel lowered her stance.
A dagger from the left passed over her head.
A sword strike from the right was parried by the back of her blade.
Iel swept the left bandit's ankle.
As he lost his balance and fell, the back of her blade struck his temple with precision.
Three.
The bandit on the right backed away in panic.
Iel closed the distance before he could regain his posture.
The back of her blade pressed into his shoulder.
His wrist twisted.
His sword clattered to the floor.
Four.
The laughter inside the cave died down.
The bandits were beginning to realize.
The woman before them was not prey.
They had messed with the wrong person.
But it was already too late.
An archer from the back fired an arrow.
Without looking, Iel raised her sword.
The arrow struck the blade and deflected away.
The archer's eyes widened.
Iel kicked a small stone from the floor with her toe.
The stone struck the archer's forehead.
Five.
One bandit screamed and fled toward the back.
"Call Lord Brain!"
"That woman is crazy!"
"Block her! Block her, I said!"
The Death-Spreading Sword Band was pushed back one by one.
From the cave entrance to the middle passage.
From the middle passage to the armory.
From the armory to the inner living quarters.
Iel did not seem fast.
Yet, in reality, she was moving faster than anyone.
Her movements were not exaggerated.
They were not unnecessarily flashy.
With every swing of her sword, one man fell.
Elbow.
Knee.
Jaw.
Wrist.
Shoulder.
Solar plexus.
She struck only the points that would not kill.
Yet, she was not merciful.
She did not go easy on them.
She simply didn't kill them.
The rough warriors of the bandit band fell in succession.
Some had broken bones.
Some were knocked unconscious.
Some threw down their weapons in terror.
But Iel did not stop.
"Put down your weapons," she said.
"Unless you want to be hurt further."
One bandit tried to lower his sword with trembling hands.
In that moment.
Another bandit from behind shouted.
"Don't be afraid! She's just a human too!"
With those words, three men lunged at once.
A very brief flash of sadness passed over Iel's face.
"Yes," she said quietly.
"I am human too."
The back of her blade smashed into the first bandit's ribs.
The second bandit was tripped and fell, knocked out by a strike to the back of his head.
The third bandit tried to grab Iel's wrist.
Instead, his arm was twisted, and he was slammed into the floor.
"That's why I'm holding back."
She looked down at the fallen men.
"Because I am human."
The Death-Spreading Sword Band, pushed to the end of the cave, was now on the verge of total annihilation.
Then.
A quiet voice spoke from within.
"What a noisy mess."
Iel looked up.
In the deepest part of the cave.
A man stood there.
Blue hair.
Sharp eyes.
A slender frame.
But his entire body was tempered as if it were made for the sword.
The blade at his waist was no ordinary weapon.
His stance had few openings.
Brain Unglaus.
The swordsman who lost to Gazef Stronoff in the Kingdom's tournament.
A man who put in the effort of a commoner despite having the talent of a genius.
A man who had swung his sword tens of millions of times to defeat Gazef.
Iel looked at him.
He was of a different caliber than the bandits.
There was greed in his eyes. But it wasn't clouded.
There was the scent of a fugitive on his body. But he wasn't lazy.
His hands were hands that had harmed people. But his obsession with the sword was real.
'He is disciplined,' Iel thought.
And at the same time, she thought his blue hair was quite striking.
Brain Unglaus looked around at the fallen bandits.
"You handled the small fry well."
He walked forward slowly.
"But I am different."
Hearing that, Iel asked, "Where does that perception that you are different from others come from?"
Brain's eyebrows twitched.
"What?"
"I can feel that you are different from those people."
Iel looked Brain straight in the eye.
"You are disciplined, you've held a sword for a long time, and your body and mind are accustomed to battle."
She held her sword low.
"But that doesn't give you the right to harm people."
Brain paused for a moment. Then he laughed.
"Interesting."
He placed his hand on the hilt of his sword.
"O woman who believes she is an absolute power that no one can defeat..."
Iel watched him quietly.
Brain lowered his stance.
The air around him changed.
Martial Arts.
[Field].
Brain's perception expanded to a three-meter radius around him.
The cracks in the stone floor.
The movement of Iel's toes.
The angle of her wrist.
Her breathing.
The center of gravity of her sword.
The vibration of her mana.
Everything entered Brain's senses.
Next, he prepared [God Flash].
A technique to cut down the enemy faster than sound.
Detecting every movement of the enemy with [Field] and piercing their openings with [God Flash].
It was the lethal combination that Brain Unglaus had used to cut down countless foes.
He asked, "Your name?"
"Iel."
"I am Brain Unglaus."
He smirked.
"Remember it. It will be the last name you hear before you fall."
Brain's toes moved.
[Field] was complete.
Iel's breathing was detected.
The trembling of her sword tip was detected.
The shift in her weight was detected.
Brain was certain.
He would cut her.
[God Flash].
In that instant.
Iel moved first.
It wasn't that Iel's movement disappeared from Brain's [Field].
On the contrary, it was seen too clearly.
The problem was that even though he saw it, he was too late.
Iel kicked off the ground.
The stone floor gave a short rumble.
Her body shot forward.
Brain's eyes widened.
Fast.
No.
It wasn't just fast.
There was no wasted movement.
The angle of her shoulder as she drew her sword.
The position where her foot landed.
The direction of her gaze.
Everything was calculated.
Brain tried to activate [God Flash].
But Iel's sword reached him first.
The silver blade rose low.
And it sliced through Brain's sword.
Clang!
Brain's blade was split in half.
It happened in the blink of an eye.
Brain stopped.
The severed tip of his sword spun through the air before clattering to the floor.
The sound echoed through the cave.
Ting.
That sound rang out strangely long.
Brain looked at his hand.
The hilt was still in his grip.
But the sword was no longer a sword.
His ultimate technique.
[Field].
[God Flash].
Tens of millions of practice swings.
The obsession he had built up while grinding his teeth after losing to Gazef Stronoff.
The desire that led him to reject noble recruitment and join a criminal organization just to gain combat experience and money.
Everything was cut down before it could even begin.
Brain was speechless.
Iel did not point the tip of her sword at his throat.
Instead, she lightly placed the back of her blade on his shoulder.
"It's over."
Brain didn't understand those words.
No.
He didn't want to understand.
"No..."
His voice cracked.
"Not yet..."
He backed away, still clutching the broken hilt.
[Field] was still being maintained.
But it was meaningless.
He could see Iel's movements.
He could see Iel's position.
Her breathing, her toes, her sword—he could see everything.
Yet, the only thing that was clear was that he could not win.
He recalled the time he first lost to Gazef.
He had despaired then, too.
But that despair had a direction.
He just had to swing more.
He just had to train more.
Faster.
Sharper.
Deeper.
He believed Gazef was a wall that could be climbed.
He believed he could reach him one day.
But the Iel before him now was different.
This wasn't a wall.
It was the sky.
An unreachable height.
Not a human who swings a sword, but an entity that handles the laws beyond it after understanding the blade.
Brain's lips trembled.
"You... what are you?"
Iel replied, "I am human."
That word broke Brain even further.
Human.
If that was a human.
Then what was he?
He had swung his sword tens of millions of times.
He had seen blood, seen death, and chosen a filthy path just to grow stronger.
He had even shaved away his own pride to surpass Gazef.
Yet, the woman before him didn't kill him, didn't insult him—she just stood there.
She was overwhelming.
And she was quiet.
That silence was even more cruel.
Brain dropped the broken sword.
His hands shook.
His knees buckled.
He slumped to the floor.
The remnants of the Death-Spreading Sword Band watched that scene.
Their ultimate weapon.
Their pride.
The genius swordsman who had rivaled Gazef in the tournament.
Brain Unglaus.
He had collapsed without being able to do a single thing.
In that moment.
The band's morale was completely shattered.
A few of those remaining tried to flee.
Iel turned her head.
"Stop."
Her voice wasn't loud.
But with that one word, they stopped.
They knew they couldn't escape.
Iel walked among the fallen.
She kicked away the weapons of the wounded.
She checked the condition of those still breathing.
For those with severe injuries, she cast enough healing to ensure they wouldn't die.
She didn't kill them.
But she completely suppressed them.
The one with the broken wrist.
The one with the dislocated shoulder.
The one knocked out by a blow to the jaw.
The one with the broken leg who couldn't move.
The one who dropped his sword and prostrated himself.
The one crying in terror.
The Death-Spreading Sword Band was finished.
Iel looked toward the cave entrance.
"I will hand you over to the E-Rantel guard."
One bandit asked in a trembling voice, "Y-you're not going to kill us?"
Iel looked at him.
"Did you spare the people who begged you for their lives?"
The bandit couldn't answer.
Iel said, "I don't want to become like you."
She sheathed the Hero's Gladius.
Brain was still sitting on the floor.
His blue hair fell over his face.
His gaze was fixed on the broken pieces of his sword.
Iel approached him.
"Brain Unglaus."
Brain didn't respond.
"You are strong."
At those words, Brain's face contorted.
"Are you mocking me?"
"No."
Iel spoke quietly. "You are different from those people. You truly disciplined your sword. I can see that."
Brain grit his teeth.
"Then why..."
His voice trembled. "Why is there such a difference?"
Iel was silent for a moment.
Then she said, "It might be because you didn't think about what you were using that strength for."
Brain looked up.
Iel didn't look down on him. She leaned down slightly to meet his eye level.
"You wanted to surpass Gazef, didn't you?"
Brain's eyes wavered. "How do you know that name..."
"I met the Warrior Captain."
Brain gasped.
Gazef. That name still pierced his insides.
Iel said, "That man picked up the sword to protect someone."
She looked at the broken pieces of the sword.
"You picked up the sword to become strong yourself."
"Is that wrong?"
There was more desperation than anger in Brain's voice.
Iel shook her head.
"The desire to become strong is not wrong."
She continued quietly. "But if you view people as objects in order to become strong, you eventually become a tool of the sword yourself."
Brain couldn't say anything.
Only the groans of the fallen bandits remained in the cave.
Iel turned around.
"You will be handed over to the E-Rantel guard."
Brain gave a low laugh. "You're not killing me."
"No."
"Why?"
Iel replied, "Because I think you can still return to being a human."
Brain tried to laugh at those words.
But the laughter wouldn't come.
He stared at his broken sword.
The sword was broken.
His arrogance had been broken along with it.
That day.
The Death-Spreading Sword Band was annihilated by Iel.
Not a single person died.
But their violence was over.
The fear they had built up was over.
And Brain Unglaus realized for the first time.
Beyond the wall of Gazef he had tried to surpass...
There was a sky whose name he didn't even know yet.
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