Chapter 785

While waiting for Damien’s body to regain its vitality, I checked the changes that had occurred in my own body.

‘Just as I thought. My physical strength has increased.’

To be precise, it would be more accurate to say that the peak of my strength had significantly risen.

My usual strength felt the same as before, but when I pushed my muscles to their limit with the intention of giving it my all, I could exert several times the force I used to.

Even without awakening the Power of Feats, I could press down the blade of the Black Iron Dagger with my fingertips and snap it, or spin it in my hand and crush it like a metal ball.

[Hmm, how peculiar. It doesn’t look like anything has changed.]

Hersela muttered with a tone of interest.

As she said, it was indeed a strange phenomenon.

Despite my physical strength increasing several times over, the thickness of my limbs remained the same as before.

It wasn’t like I had bulked up through normal training; it was more like my human muscles had been replaced with those of a beast.

Well, for me, it was a fortunate thing.

I didn’t fancy the idea of turning into a grotesquely muscular bodybuilder, pumped full of drugs to the limit.

About thirty minutes later.

Damien, who had nearly turned into a frozen popsicle, managed to regain his normal condition thanks to the warmth of the campfire and the heat from his dried leather clothes.

Or perhaps it was the warmth of the stew I had cooked and handed to him while we rested.

“If you’re done resting, let’s head down.”

Seeing Damien, who had stopped shivering and was exhaling warm breaths as he set down the empty stew bowl, I decided it was time to move and got up.

We still had a long way to go to reach the Holy Sword.

—

What awaited us at the bottom of the lake was a crystal cave, so deep that the bottom was invisible and as vast as the frozen lake above.

A cavern that stretched downward like a passage to the abyss.

Everywhere, blue cliffs blocked our path, with crystal formations the size of small boats jutting out like horns, casting shadows.

The spot where Damien and I had lit a campfire to warm ourselves was also one of these protruding crystal structures.

– Wooong…

I wasn’t sure if the semi-transparent crystal piles, glowing with a vivid blue light and humming, could be called crystals.

[It’s still strange. What are these things?]

As I looked down at the scenery below, filled with blue crystals like teeth growing in a throat, Hersela also seemed curious about their nature and asked.

‘Well, I don’t know.’

The blue crystals were neither mana stones nor ordinary crystals.

All I knew about them was that they weren’t naturally formed structures but were created under the influence of the Holy Sword.

And even that was just a half-guess.

Well, the true nature of these blue rocks wasn’t my concern. The important thing was that the Holy Sword was buried somewhere below.

“Let’s go, Damien.”

After lightly patting Damien on the back, who seemed mesmerized by the beauty of the glowing blue crystals, I leaped toward the cavern below.

– Kwang!

Using the crystal formations as stepping stones, I jumped and landed repeatedly.

Adjusting the propulsion of Up-hwa finely, this method was much faster and consumed less energy than descending slowly at a moderate speed.

– Krrrrr!

“Gasp…!”

Occasionally, a minor accident occurred where the crystal stepping stones couldn’t withstand the impact of landing and crumbled.

But after descending a few hundred meters vertically, something strange was added to the scenery of the pit, which had been nothing but blue rocks.

“What’s this?”

Damien tilted his head and bent down, seemingly trying to touch something wrapped around the blue crystal rock at his feet.

“Chains…?”

Chains of pure white light, as radiant as Lacey’s Divine Light, wrapped around the crystal rocks in all directions, stretching toward something below.

It was as if they were tightly binding and sealing something beneath.

It was a sign that we were nearing our destination.

“We’re almost there. Let’s keep going down.”

After tapping the chains, which had a metallic weight despite being made of light, I urged Damien to descend further.

After about ten more minutes, we finally reached the bottom of the underground passage.

And there, we found it.

In the middle of the ground, transformed into a blue ice sheet by the frozen lake water, stood a small mountain-like crystal formation, with a pure white greatsword jutting out from its tip.

“See, I told you I could find it.”

I grinned at the scene, which looked like it had been lifted straight from my memories, and gazed at the Holy Sword, Juwaiyoz, embedded in the crystal rock.

The greatsword, shaped like a cross with a small circle overlapping it, similar to the emblem of the Elpinel Church Order. Unlike Damien’s Jin, the blade itself wasn’t much different from an ordinary greatsword.

The blade emitted a pure white light, like a snowy field under the sun.

The blade, wrapped in chains of light, was covered in divine script whose meaning was unknown. Upon closer inspection, each character was connected to the ends of the chains of light.

As if the light emanating from the divine script had transformed into chains.

At the center of the cross-shaped design, in the middle of the blade, was a ring-shaped ornament with a hollow center, inside which floated a white sphere of light like a sun.

The golden blade and hilt, adorned with intricate craftsmanship, were beautiful enough to be considered works of art. The counterweight at the end of the hilt, possibly inlaid with silver, shimmered with a silver-blue luster like moonlight.

“Is that it…?”

“Yeah, the Holy Sword, Juwaiyoz. The culprit behind all our hardships and your new sword.”

Damien seemed somewhat bewildered.

Since my Durandal, aside from the blade, had a rather plain and modest design, perhaps he had expected Juwaiyoz to be similarly unremarkable?

If so, then it was unfortunate, but Juwaiyoz, befitting a weapon for the protagonist, had an extravagantly ornate design. Anyone who saw it would immediately recognize it as a Holy Sword.

Unlike Rotholandus, who pursued simple functionality, Carolus likely preferred a design that showcased the emperor’s majesty and divinity to the world.

“What are you waiting for? Go and pull it out.”

“Uh…”

I lightly patted Damien’s back, who was staring blankly at the Holy Sword, urging him to move. But instead of rushing toward the sword, Damien hesitated and turned to look at me.

“What’s wrong?”

What’s the problem? Did he develop a sudden aversion to the sword now that he saw how extravagant it was?

“Well… I’ve been thinking, it seems a bit too much for me… It suits you much better, Ha-shal-leur. Why don’t you try pulling it out as a test?”

“What?”

I stared at Damien in disbelief.

Instead of rushing over, grabbing it, and declaring, “I am Damien, the hero of the Holy Sword!” he’s trying to pass it off to me now?

Is he planning to dump the hero role on me and enjoy a leisurely hero life from the sidelines?

Or is this some high-level trolling? Telling me to at least pretend to pull out a sword I can’t possibly pull?

“What do you mean, ‘try pulling it out’? I can’t pull that thing.”

As I laughed dryly and replied, Damien tilted his head with an innocent expression and asked.

“If even you can’t pull it out with your strength, then no one can, right?”

“……”

Uh… Hmm… Come to think of it, that was a reasonable question.

I had told him about the origins of the Holy Sword, but I hadn’t mentioned the qualifications needed to pull it out or the fact that Damien was the chosen hero.

Originally, the concept of a “hero” was just a term coined by users for convenience; it wasn’t mentioned in the original work. Even Emperor Carolus the Great, hailed as the Savior of Humanity, was only referred to as the “master of the Holy Sword.”

So, Damien, unaware of the qualifications needed to pull out the Holy Sword, naturally assumed that if I pulled with all my strength, it would come out easily.

“So, it’s not about strength… How should I explain this…?”

I scratched the back of my head, pondering how to explain that only Damien could pull out the Holy Sword without delving into the original work’s knowledge.

“…Never mind, showing you would be better.”

Recalling the old saying that seeing is believing, I decided to demonstrate instead of explaining. I leaped onto the crystal rock where the Holy Sword was embedded and grabbed the golden hilt.

And then.

“Haaaaah!”

With a rough shout, I pulled the hilt upward with all my might.

– Kugugugung!

The vibration and roar shook the crystal cave.

The chains of light stretched taut, and the crystal formations, pressed by the force, grated and poured down transparent powder like rain.

The superhuman strength that could drag dragon remains was concentrated on the hilt I gripped.

“Ugh…!”

But no matter how much I strained to pull the hilt, the blade embedded in the crystal didn’t budge even a millimeter, remaining firmly rooted in place.

“See… It’s not coming out…”

And then.

As I turned my head toward Damien, gritting my teeth to show I was giving it my all and smiling at the expected result—

– Kwadddddd!

With a thunderous roar, my body was flung backward. It was as if something that had been resisting the force had suddenly been pulled out.

“Huh…?”

What the heck, why did it come out?!

So shocked that I couldn’t even regain my posture, I fell flat on my back onto the ice sheet.

“Ha-shal-leur!”

A startled Damien called my name and ran over, but I didn’t even have the presence of mind to look at him.

If I had really pulled out the Holy Sword, my plan to nurture Damien as the hero and reap the benefits would be completely upended.

Ignoring the faint pain running down my spine, I turned my head to look at my right hand, which was gripping the hilt.

And I saw.

The pure white greatsword lying sideways, held by my fingertips, and—

– Wooong!

—a massive crystal mass, pulled out by the roots and vibrating.

[I told you to pull out the sword, but you’re pulling out the rock instead. Even for a fool, there’s a limit. Are you the child of a troll or an ogre?]

That’s right.

I hadn’t pulled out Juwaiyoz. As I expected, this sword wasn’t something I could pull out.

“…This came out.”

…I had just pulled out the entire crystal hill that was firmly holding the blade.

It was a situation that only made me laugh dryly.