「――!!」

There was no doubt that the one sucking up his magic power was the demonic sword Krishra.

Though, thanks to the violent god mode, the magic power that was sucked up by the sword immediately recovered but that act still continued for a considerably long time.

Just how much magic power was it planning on sucking up.

「Th, this is――」

Elma raised an amazed cry while standing next to Merea. She still had her hand entwined around Merea’s arm but it didn’t seem like any magic power wsa being sucked from her.

「Do you have any ideas? ――Damn, how long does it plan to keep on sucking my magic power?」

「Is that so...is that what’s happening」

As if she had realised something, Elma alone stood there nodding.

「The original way to use a demonic sword. No, the original use for the 『Seven Imperial Armaments』. ...I just understood that」

「The original use?」

「Yeah…, most probably, if my guess is correct」

Elma spoke rather inarticulately and gulped once before she continued to speak.

「If possible, I’d be relieved if you told me the reason immediately. Not knowing how long my magic power would be sucked up is quite scary after all」

Merea suddenly realised that Elma had strengthened the grip on his arm.

It was the kind of reaction that, someone who was scared would have.

Elma leaned onto Merea and put her entire body weight on him and spoke in a shaking voice.

「This is a――」

◆◆◆

「Strategic Weapon」

◆◆◆

The words she spoke, froze Merea’s thoughts for a moment.

「It can even be called a weapon of mass destruction」

Merea couldn’t immediately understand what she was trying to say.

However, he saw that she, even now, looked like she might cry at any moment while looking up into his face and had an extremely haggard expression.

「What should we do, Merea… I might have dug up something that should never have been brought to light」

Seeing that,

「――It’s fine」

Even though he had no basis for it, he couldn’t help but say that. For the first time, he felt like he saw her showing a weak appearance. The shoulder that he supported, felt extremely brittle.

◆◆◆

The current〈Sword Emperor〉, Elma Elisa, as the descendent of the manufacturer of the demonic sword, knew the most information about it.

However, most of the information was fragmented and wrapped in mystery.

The most essential part had been lost as if 『the information was intentionally erased』.

Elma had been told various information by her mother and grandfather.

It seemed like, although gradual but from the time of her grandfather, they had been trying to restore the information.

So, Elma accumulated the information that had been gathered so far. Nevertheless, she was still unable to make a clear connection.

That had now, reached a point where it was making an unexpected connection.

Elma ended up realising it. Why the information regarding the imperial armaments was so scarce. Once she understood that, all of her expectations and guesses made much more sense.

However, it was too late.

The seal on the imperial armament had already been stripped off.

Elma anticipated that a 『new battle』 would occur on this occasion.

◆◆◆

「Everything had been disguised. As I thought, something had happened during that dark age of war…」

The warring period when the Seven Imperial Armaments first made an appearance was known by experts as the 『dark age of war』.

The fact that information was scarce, the fact that the battles weren’t as disciplined as they were right now, the fact that the scale of destruction was huge. ――Visual, ethical and tragic.

Comprehending the meanings of all of those matters, the word dark was used.

In that darkness, the information of the seven imperial armaments was also mixed in. Information on that matter also became the hardest to look for.

In all of that, as the descendent of one of the seven imperial families, the information that she knew was,

――『Massacre』 『Seal』 『Pledge』.

Those three words. Although there were other fragments of information but the words that invited the maximum amount of curiosity were those three.

And now, seeing the situation where the magic sword was beginning to form an extremely large blade in a progressive form, once she was convinced of it being a strategic weapon, everything connected naturally.

「The common opinion is a lie…」

The most famous theory states that, the seven imperial armaments are said to have been made for breaking through a situation where a human’s personal fighting power, strategy or collective fighting power couldn’t make it possible.

Like the primitive era, they seeked difference in the abilities of their weapons.

In particular, they were said to be the most violent weapons that had the ability to interfere with natural phenomenons in order to 『combat techniques』.

However, that wasn’t the truth of the matter.

The power to combat techniques was just an exterior reason used to hide the real use behind.

In order to hide the actual use of the weapon, the ability to interfere with natural phenomenon was used as an invisibility cloak.

The seven imperial armaments were――

Weapons that brought about mass destruction through the power of techniques.

The moment she realised that fact, she was finally convinced as to why that information had not been passed down even in the families of the creators of the seven imperial armaments.

『Pledge』.

Elma had been told by her grandfather that the other six imperial families had been left with similar words.

――...Most probably,

While apologizing to the founders of the seven imperial families, Elma, reached for an answer.

「After the dark age of war, the〈Seven Imperial Families〉, with the approval of all the families, had destroyed the information regarding the imperial armaments…」

What they had been thinking was not that hard to guess.

Everything gathered around the word, 『massacre』.

There was a huge meaning attached with the fact that they used a word like 『massacre』 which means a one-sided mass slaughter, even though they were part of that dark age of war.

『That is something that must not exist in this world』. 『Weapons of mass destruction should be sealed』.

That was probably what they had been trying to say.

They all probably had the opinions that it would be better not to pass on the information about the actual power of the imperial armaments as strategic weapons.

Due to that, they chose to erase all the information about the original power of the imperial armaments from the annals of history.

As that happened, the actual power was forgotten by the world and the families which were tasked with protecting those weapons also lost the 『key』 to unleash that power.

「I kept feeling that the name〈38 Heavenly Sword Brigade〉was somewhat suspicious…」

The aspect of having 38 swords held up in the sky. ――That was a plausible lie.

Would a mercenary corps of only 38 people be able to survive through that dark age of war and make such a name for themselves?

What could be done by 38 people in the worst era of war in history, where there were no frameworks of ethics and everything kind of ethical matter would be stepped over.

――It’s the 『demonic sword』... They used the demonic sword.

〈The Protectors of the Demonic Sword〉.

After desperately digging through the fragments of information, she remembers that she had just once seen that term written somewhere.

That was the main job.

Inferring from the humongous amount of magic power leaking out of Merea, most probably, the true form of the〈38 Heavenly Sword Brigade〉is,

――『Brigade of 38 people, whose job is to provide the huge supply of magic power needed to invoke the imperial armament』.

Those were their original colours. And the one leading them was the founder of the Elisa household and the creator of the demonic sword.

However, after they had gotten achievements during the dark age of war, the descendents of the Elisa household moved towards sealing the demonic sword. Most probably, the information about the magic power had disappeared during that time.

They had thrown that information on their own.

They probably didn’t regret it even after that.

However,

――They threw too much away. If they really wanted to seal it, then they should have left a moderate amount of information behind.

Now that the original power of the demon sword had completely been forgotten, Elma realised that this single change was pushing everything towards the 『exact opposite』 direction.

◆◆◆

Since information was so extremely scarce, it instead, lead to them trying to dig that information up.

◆◆◆

An heirloom that had been passed down in her family. Wanting to find out more details about something they knew nothing about, could even be called a natural flow of events for humans.

The founders of the imperial families had been too naive about the inquisitive spirit of humans.

However, those people did also not comprehend it completely.

It would have been much better if they had just thrown the imperial armaments away.

The pros and cons would have been divided considerably at the moment that they couldn’t throw it away but the imperial armaments stayed in the annals of history.

Elma was born at the best time, so to speak. At the time when the information on the demonic sword was being dug up again.

That’s why she was able to understand the moment she saw the demonic sword react to Merea’s magic power.

For, but a moment, she even felt like she was looking back at history.

Why was the power of the imperial armaments hidden by the seven households?

The answer left over, was but one.

――The people who had even been hostile to each other at some point had put down their hostility and met up to form an alliance, simply because of how dangerous the〈Imperial Armaments〉were.

However, in Elma’s age that was being dissolved.

In reality, if a 『certain special existence』 had not been present then nothing would have been exposed.

It is not possible for several people at a time to wield the demonic sword and in fact, it’s even less possible for several people to have a huge amount of magic power.

In that sense, having a 『single person evoking』 something that was that troublesome should have been impossible.

That is, if〈Merea Mea〉had not been alive in this era.

The demonic sword that Merea had touched was already displaying an indescribable increase in size.

The blade was shining.

That was the light of destruction.

The people who saw that scene――especially, people who knew that this was a demonic sword and had a certain amount of information on the seven imperial armaments and the seven imperial families, would have already realised the actual power of this weapon.

Serius Brad Mūzeg. Hasim Kudo Lemuse.

Those two probably realised it.

At the same time, they probably also realised the possibilities and the danger, as well as the 『usefulness』 of the imperial armaments.

Which was why, from now on, another battle surrounding the imperial armaments would take place.

It was uncertain whether it would fall to the point of being similar to the dark age of war. However, the spread of the information would definitely lead to each nation trying to procure the imperial armaments.

Undoubtedly, this was the torrential flow of battle as well as――history.

Realising this fact, rather than feel fortunate, Elma felt a sense of despair. She felt like she had opened a box that must never be opened.

◆◆◆

「Oh...I…」

While being dazed, Elma could do nothing but watch the blade of the demonic sword get bigger and bigger.

Even Merea who had been holding onto the handle of the sword, seemed to have guessed something thanks to his brilliant intuition.

「...Merea, hand...that over」

Elma finally felt like she returned to herself as she spoke to Merea.

It ended up being activated. It ended up being exposed.

They could no longer hide it.

In that case, the least she could do was bear the responsibility for that.

Keeping in mind that they were in battle and as a warrior herself, Elma felt a crushing sense of responsibility that she should be the one to deal with it.

However――

「――That won’t do」

Merea gave a reply she never expected.

Several moments passed.

Elma gasped and――

「!! Hand it over!!」

She tried to forcefully take it away from Merea.

Just by looking at his thoughtful expression as well as the light flickering in his eyes, she immediately understood what he was thinking.

Which was why she felt that, even if she had to hit him and take it away from him then she would do that, so she jumped at him.

However, Elma was,

「――」

Thrust away with a single hand.

Don’t come close.

That was what he seemed to be implying.

After that, Merea raised the blade of the demonic sword, that had grown to the maximum limit, up in the air.

◆◆◆

――I can’t let Elma wield this sword.

That was what Merea had been thinking.

Seeing Elma’s expressions and from her words, he understood what sort of thing this demonic sword was.

Due to that, the first thing he thought of, was to stop Elma from wielding the demonic sword.

――Elma is a warrior.

She’s a woman who has the determination to take someone’s life.

In addition, she seems to be feeling a sense of guilt and responsibility towards her current comrades.

And they were currently on a battlefield.

She would probably use this demonic sword for the sake of her comrades.

Merea was convinced of that fact.

Although they couldn’t be said to have had a long relationship but he had, had deep conversations with her.

Which was why, he felt no doubt about this point.

Elma felt responsible for the seal having been released.

Merea had already seen through that fact. Most probably, Elma herself, as a warrior, felt drawn back the thought of using this demonic sword.

It was something he could understand from her expression and more than anything else, she had a rather easy to understand stance.

Merea himself had similar feelings so he could easily sympathise with her.

If the weapon is too strong then it’s hard not to feel a sense of repulsion when it makes it so much easier to take people’s lives.

There was no logic to that. An overwhelming power would, in turn, make the users draw back.

Even among the heroic spirits, there were many who had similar thoughts as well.

Everything is different from the time of close combat.

Since the opponent was too strong, I was unable to hold back, is an 『internal excuse』 that can no longer be used. It can also be considered a mental defense to preserve one’s mind.

Of course, it’s not like they are taking lives based on that excuse.

That determination was there.

Even so――

――Humans are not that strong.

Besides, strictly speaking, it’s troublesome that the ones to take lives are actually the weapons instead.

A difficult to determine boundary. The balance of a mind showing a dangerous tremor.

If it were possible to clearly draw a line for everything then it would be easy to live. However, that is easier said than done.

Understanding the disturbing subtleties of the heart, Merea promptly made a decision. While looking at the group of black clothes men in front of him, as well as the red dragon and Serius further ahead, he made a decision.

This is a weapon.

According to this situation, this would be a 『chance』.

However, if he had Elma wield it then, over and above her living with the huge pressure of having this curse accompany her through her life, she would end up having to shoulder the responsibility of the lives of a large number of people.

This was the first time that Merea showed his selfishness as a 『master』.

◆◆◆

――I’ll wield it.

◆◆◆

Pushing away Elma who had understood his intentions, Merea raised the demonic sword in the air.

Serius, on the other side, seemed to have also realised the intention of his movements. However, it was already too late.

「――!!」

As if it was the last push, Merea sent his internal magic power into the demonic sword and had the blade grow even bigger in an instant.

The flow of magic power was like a gale which raged in the surroundings and caused the stones and rocks to be blown around violently.

The true power of the demonic sword that the 38 people in the past had to cooperate to activate, was activated by Merea all alone thanks to the violent god mode.

Merea transcended the actual use all by himself including the 『sense of guilt』 that those people in the past had managed to somehow disperse amongst the 38 of them.

「――――」

He then swung that sword down.

Every single person on the battlefield watched the extraordinarily shining blade being swung down.

That demonic sword sucked in a lot of lives.

Ripping through the cloud, ripping through the air, ripping through people, ripping through the ground.

That sword――

Cleaved everything in its path.