From The Ashes - 039 (Patreon)

Chapter 039 – The Fastest Way

[2012]

I continued to converse with Johann for a few more minutes during which we talked some more about the Dwarven craftsmanship and his desire to entire the Royal Library as soon as possible to learn some magical knowledge.

I told him that he should just look for the Einherjar who delivered my meals and have them inform the Queen so that she could make some arrangements as soon as possible.

Eventually, I dismissed him and told him to scout out the place himself as I took the small booklet and the sword with me before drawing on the Space Stone's power to leave for Vormir.

Like always, the sky was bleak and gloomy in this barren world, the only sound coming from the grey storms that ravaged the ashen land.

I wasn't bothered by this though, my form erupting with azure flames as I produced my own light and sat down crosslegged on a mostly flat boulder. Placing the unruly blade in my lap, I held the small booklet in my hands as I opened it and read the notes that the Dwarven King had left for me.

Luckily, Eitri seemed to know the English language and was aware of the fact that I could not read Asgardian script.

The booklet wasn't made out of paper or some crude parchment but thin sheets of grey leather with dark words branded on them. Bound together, there were only half a dozen 'pages', the information on them sparse yet crucial.

As Johann had mentioned, Eitri explained with a few short words that the material of the sword was too special, which made it near-impossible for him to guess the capabilities of the weapon that he had created for me.

Astral Beasts were an incredibly rare species even on a universal scale, much like wielders of 'Soul of Will' like myself, which meant that almost nothing was known of their true capabilities or limits.

As such, to not waste this potential, Eitri had used only two 'simple' enchantments as the core of the blade that he had created, which could roughly explained with two simple words: 'change' and 'focus'.

According to him, these enchantments were not only the most suitable but also the only ones that wouldn't conflict with the inherent nature of the behemoth's bones, which simultaneously ensured that I could channel the power of the Infinity Stones, my flames, and my Haki into the blade.

Still, his notes made it clear that he did not have a full understanding of 'Bahat' as he wasn't able to wield the weapon himself.

With his mountainous experience, he came to the rather simple conclusion that only after the weapon acknowledged me as its master would I be able to truly master it and could then start to explore all its abilities.

One thing that the Dwarven King was sure of though was that the most basic abilities of the weapon should include the characteristics of form change and indestructibility, with the latter being a relative term.

Nevertheless, I could be sure that there existed only very very few objects or beings that had the ability to damage 'Bahat'.

I was more interested in the transformation ability though since my Armament could already make this blade unbreakable if I was strong enough.

Placing my hand on the metallic handle, which felt warm to the touch due to the blade's inherent ability to absorb the ambient energy including heat, no doubt a weakened characteristic of the Astral Beast, I tried to sense its internal structure and find a way to change its form.

I was out of luck though as the remnant will of the Universe Behemoth resisted my control stubbornly, even though I suppressed it with my Conqueror's Spirit. Rather helpless, I knew that I could only take things one step at a time, which meant that I first had to tame this blade before it would follow any of my orders.

To be honest, this was a strange way to put it since, strictly speaking, the blade wasn't 'alive' in the literal sense. The remnant will inside wasn't a living spirit and neither did it have true intelligence.

It was more like an instinct, similar to the base logic of a program, the remnant will could only act according to vestiges of the inherent nature that had been left behind in the bones by the behemoth before its death.

Still, while it would be wrong to call the blade 'alive', it was obviously also wrong to claim that it was merely an object without its own will.

It was somewhat of a conundrum and I didn't think that there existed a word that could truly explain what kind of existence 'Bahat' was. Maybe though that was the charm of a divine armament forged by Dwarven magic out of the bones of a mythical behemoth with the heat of a dying star.

I had some thoughts and ideas as I pondered on this topic for a few minutes, though I understood that this wasn't the time for experiments.

It was clear what I had to do now, which was to subdue the blade and become its master. Or, in other words, it was time to become a swordmaster.

There was no roundabout way to tame this blade and the ferocious will that lived inside it, and even if there was, I wouldn't take any other path. Even if he himself was not a master of the swords but merely a novice, Marco's memories were clear about one thing – a swordsman could never ever lose his determination nor waver in his path.

Seeking shortcuts was obviously not in line with this philosophy so I didn't even think in this direction.

Immersing myself in the knowledge about swordsmanship that Marco possessed, I started to construct a rough outline of the path that I had to tread.

Generally, swordsmanship was divided into two disciplines in the One Piece world, 'Goken' and 'Juken', also called the 'Strong Sword' and the 'Gentle Sword', with the former focusing on strength and the latter focusing on speed.

Naturally, the 'most powerful' swordsmen were those who managed to perfectly combine these two disciplines into their own style, leaving them without any weaknesses that could be easily exploited.

This though still manly applied to ordinary swordsman as all true pinnacle figures were not just measured by their mastery of their basic swordsmanship technique but more importantly their mastery over Haki and its applications in the path of the sword.

Additionally, there were many minor milestones that signified progress in one's swordsmanship but aside from physical training, it all boiled down to 'integrating one's own will with the sword'.

It sounded abstract but it simply described the infusion of spiritual energy and intent into the blade, and the degree of control and power one could unleash through that. The combination of spiritual energy and intent was naturally Haki, ranging from elementary to advanced forms.

Marco had only learned the elementary infusion of Haki into bladed weapons, which could be used to execute 'Flying Slashes', a long-ranged technique based on the release of 'sword aura'. The strength of this technique was entirely reliant on one ones Haki mastery and the proficiency of infusion.

There had been people who had claimed that there was a physical strength and speed requirement for the technique since it was said to also involve the compression of air through the force used when swinging the blade but that was untrue. Or at least it wasn't true in my case.

My guess was that the atmospheric composition and air density were vastly different in Marco's homeworld than it was on habitable planets in this Universe. I didn't have any concrete proof for that speculation but it seemed to be the only logical explanation for some of the differences in fighting techniques that I had discovered over this period of time.

Though I didn't spend too much time pondering these possible differences since getting a definite answer in the short term was without a doubt beyond my abilities, nor did it serve any real purpose.

The advanced swordsmanship ability to coat one's whole blade in Advanced Armament Haki was another major milestone but Marco had not learned that as it wasn't easy to infuse objects with such condensed spiritual energy that a coat of protective Armament could be formed and sustained for extended periods of time.

Even covering one's own body with Advanced Armament Haki was not an easy feat during high-intensity battles and comparatively few individuals could do this with some measure of ease, to speak nothing of covering external objects.

Marco had mastered the former but had never busied himself with learning the latter since his Devil Fruit had given him greatly enhanced physical strength, which was his greatest reliance during fights aside from his supernatural healing capabilities.

Not to mention that his Devil Fruit Transformation was an avian form which made it very hard to wield weapons while in a hybrid state and even more so when fully transformed. Still, it was for his hybrid form that he had initially learned swordsmanship as he had occasionally wielded a blade with his claw-turned feet in the past.

In the end, this was a matter of specialization as learning any form of Haki was a time-intensive task, and mastering the advanced forms was something that often took years.

Marco had focused on those techniques that had complemented his Devil Fruit and fighting style the most while swordsmen in general specialized in another direction.

My own situation was special since I had the support of the Soul Stone, which could nourish my soul and exponentially accelerate the recovery of my spiritual energy to a level where it seemed almost inexhaustible.

Not for the first time did I take notice of how the Soul Stone seemed to be a divine tool for the training of Haki. With these conditions, it was only natural that I was confident in reaching incredible heights in my mastery of all forms of Haki.

Rising from my seated position, I placed the leather booklet into a space pocket with a  quick flaring of blue cosmic energy while my other hand tightly held onto the unruly black short sword.

And in the next moment, the flaming coat around my figure darkened as a domineering spiritual pressure cracked the atmosphere around me, a flickering orange flame lighting up in between my eyebrows while black arcs mixed with the blue fire released from my flesh.

There was only one way to become a swordsman, which was practice, strict and endless practice. Subduing Bahat was pretty much the same as I could sense that the remnant will would not submit in a short period of time.

Stretching out my free hand and pointing my palm towards the sky-reaching cliffside to my right, I called upon the Soul Stone's innate strength as my eyes erupted with enigmatic orange fire.

A moment later, the gray-black stone shattered while the earth trembled and quaked as half a dozen stone giants emerged from the canyon, their mountainous size throwing the surroundings into darkness.

They were walking natural disasters, even worse, they could not be killed since they did not have any vital organs and the Soul Stone supplied the energy for their continued undying existence.

Focusing on the blade in my hand, I still moved forward without hesitation to confront the mountain-like stone giants while imbuing my Haki and inner fire into Bahat, feeling a strong resistance as I did so.

The ground beneath my feet cracked as I exerted strength through my legs, my intention to fight head-on clear while the short blade in my hand drew an arc, causing a sharp wave of dark fire to clash with the moving mountain to my right.

I wasn't surprised when I saw that my fiery aura blade barely cracked the surface of the grayish-black stone, though I did frown a bit when I didn't manage to block all of the stone spears that flew my way in retaliation and several of them tore sizable holes in my body.

Soul Stone's greatest power was to reverse life and death, though I personally was much more fond of the ability to 'animate' lifeless objects, giving life where there had been none.

The stone giant, as beings brought to life by the cosmic ingot, had no vital points, felt no pain, and did not know exhaustion. They also had absolute control over their own granite bodies, which gave them the ability to attack using what others might interpret as 'earth magic'.

And as one would expect, they made for excellent sparring partners, especially since they had no emotions that would cause them to hesitate or hold back.

Still, I could have avoided these injuries by using the Space Stone or using my inner fire as a propellant, even if I did not want to transform myself and rely on my aerial mobility. But since I had tried to block the attack with the blade in my hand, I had to suffer the consequences of my shortcomings.

Even with a near-omniscient view of my surroundings, given to me by my Observation Haki and spiritual sense, trying to rely solely on the blade in my hand to defend myself had proven itself too difficult when faced with a storm of rock spears that darkened the sky.

Bahat's resistance weakened the Haki and inner fire that I had infused into the sword considerably, which had made my attempt to block the attack with an energy blade end up in failure.

Still, the fastest way to master the sword was to fight with the sword. And since I possessed rather impressive self-healing abilities, I was determined to use the most brutal method to accelerate the learning process.

No pain, no gain.

Ripping out the stone spears that had pierced my thigh and abdomen, I landed rather unseemly while the gargantuan stone golems approached from all sides.

Pushing myself to my feet, I reignited the Bahat, pouring my Haki and fire into the blade without holding back, before throwing myself back into the fight, my eyes shining like bluish steel.