The Amber Sword

Amidst the rain, a golden pillar appeared. An unknown voice echoed out to everyone, saying, “Your Majesty, Aouine has not been destroyed yet. And it will never be. The battle flag, too, will always be waving both gloriously and proudly on this piece of land.”

It was the voice of the sword.

Freya watched while the sword in her hands burned with a raging blaze. Meanwhile, another light pillar appeared in the distance. Forst, White Lion Legion’s head of guards, was watching as the battle flag burned and emitted a beam of light into the heavens.

It shot up into the sky, disappearing among the layers of clouds.

Forst was dumbfounded. The White Lion Legion’s centuries-old battle flag had crumbled to ash in front of his eyes.

“Brendel…..” Freya’s voice was faint, she could not believe what had happened, “What is happening? The sword is summoning you…”

Brendel was wordless because he felt it as well.

The sword was summoning him.

But it was not the Lionheart Sword.

He calmed his heart down and looked back to the Knight of Lake who was standing beside Freya. His eyes were burning with an azure light as he stared at Brendel.

“You know what’s happening, right?” Brendel growled, “Grey Knight Krentel!”

The Knight of Lake was right behind Freya. He looked at Brendel and did not say anything.

There was only pain in Krentel’s memories. But in the depths of despair, there were also gleaming images filled with people and incidents that were familiar, yet foreign at the same time.

As if everything was meaningless.

……

“Krentel, do you vow to protect this sword? If you do, you will never have peace, and your soul will forever wander the  land.”

“Your Majesty, we’ve already given up everything for this belief.” A blonde young man answered with a smile.

An old man sighed and looked at him, “Krentel, I’ve separated the sword from the soul and I’ve given one to you and the other to Lucan. You’ll use it to protect the Royal Family, while Lucan will be the next leader of the White Lion Legion. If everything turns out to be as I expect, head to Radner’s region.”

“If there’s someone who can pick up this sword one day, the soul of the Lionheart Sword will definitely acknowledge him. When that time comes, remember our promise.”

“Your Majesty.”

“Krentel, you once asked for the reason I brought the Lionheart Sword out of Kirrlutz,” the old man stopped a while and said, “It wasn’t I who chose the sword, but the Lionheart Sword who chose me.”

“Your Majesty?”

“The Holy Sword Odefeiss inherited the will of the Flame King, but its soul remained within the Lionheart Sword. Its beliefs, its ideals, and everything the people of Aouine had forgotten about…”

“Krentel, always remember that the people of Aouine are the descendants of the Flame King.”

……

Amidst the rain, another light pillar disappeared as King Erik’s battle flag vanished. However, Brendel felt as if a mighty entity was looking down at him from beyond the clouds.

A massive, powerful, sublime being.

He couldn’t resist lifting up his head.

It wasn’t King Erik’s will, but rather something more passionate, more steadfast…

The ashen clouds were converging. Suddenly, a light pillar fell, striking the space between Brendel’s eyebrows. Brendel shouted in agony. It was as if a flaming arrow was stabbed into his mind, burning his thoughts.

“Brendel!” Freya was shocked, as was everyone else. All of them felt it. The source of the energy that was surging around Ampere Seale originated from the light pillar in the sky.

Any pain he had felt before paled in comparison to this one. Even though his Willpower stat had reached 100, it was still unbearable for him.

But Freya was the one who had resonated with the Lionheart Sword; why did the effect occur on Brendel?

Was there a bug?

At that moment, Brendel learned just what was going on. The mental shock lasted only for a moment, but unfamiliar memories and knowledge filled up his mind.

He was too used to that feeling.

It was someone’s legacy.

“Brendel, this…” Orthylss’s voice could be heard from the depths of his heart, startled awake by the shock Brendel went through.

Brendel felt surprised as well.

He did not answer Orthylss. Instead, he immediately opened his status screen. He checked his inventory and saw a line of golden-red words at the bottom.

Flaming Blade Odefeiss’ fragment (soul), Divine Artifact

Dear Marsha!

Brendel looked up into the gloomy sky without saying anything.

The cold sweat on his forehead dissolved in the rain. He finally understood just what happened that day.

He finally understood why the Sage Slates caused that huge resonance with the Lionheart Sword that day. It was so great it was befitted a Divine Artifact’s resonance, something impossible for the Lionheart Sword that was merely a Mythical Artifact.

He did not believe it when Master Bosley stated that the Lionheart Sword was just a fragment of the Odefeiss. After all, there was just no way a Mythical Artifact could have been a component of another weapon.

At least, that was what he learned back in the game.

However, he just realized that Odefeiss’s soul had been residing in the Lionheart Sword all this time!

Both of them had fused into one.

Oderfeiss’s soul called out to him, while the Lionheart Sword itself acknowledged Freya.

And today, they had been separated again once more!

Brendel turned his head to look at Freya. The Lionheart Sword’s flame was dimming out, the beams of light around her dissolving into light particles in the air.

The Lionheart Sword in her hand turned back to normal – back to the way Brendel remembered it.

The real King Erik’s Lionheart Sword.

“Congratulations, Freya. You’ve been acknowledged by the Lionheart Sword and King Erik.” Brendel smiled gently and said, “You’re finally Aouine’s War Goddess.”

“Me? A War Goddess? What are you talking about, Brendel?” Freya looked at the sword in her hands in confusion. She then looked at Brendel worriedly, “Brendel, what happened to you? Do you have another Lionheart Sword?”

Brendel turned his gaze to her. The light that had struck him just now was still there. The magic power in the air hadn’t weakened either, but unexpectedly grew stronger instead.

It was much stronger than the Lionheart Sword’s resonance back then.

People who were sensitive towards the movement of magic energy could hear the air crackle as if massive amounts of power were flowing and converging into a huge magic whirlpool.

“This is what a Divine Artifact’s Resonance looks like.”

A voice echoed behind both of them. Brendel turned his head over and saw Maynild rushing over with a cold expression. She looked at Brendel and solemnly asked,

“You know what’s happening right?”

Brendel nodded.

He had always thought that there would only be Coast Guards at the north gate, but it was only when the resonance caused by the Lionheart Sword happened that he realized how wrong he had been. Everything that was going on right now was proof of that.

Someone leaked the message.

He had trusted the wrong person from the beginning.

“The White Lion Battalion…” Brendel looked at the north and silently whispered, “and…”

Suddenly, an even brighter pillar of light appeared on the northern skies, shimmering as a small dot far far away.

In a fraction of a second, the ashen clouds in the sky above Ampere Seale vanished, revealing a cerulean skyline…

A large Magic Array was placed in the sky, churning like gigantic gears. And upon it, several Laws of the world were engraved.

Regular and irregular patterns all converged above Ampere Seale, forming a complex, mysterious magic array that no one could understand.

It spanned the entirety of Ampere Seale.

Shortly afterwards, a second and third light pillar shot up, the fourth light pillar on Brendel . All of them connected together with the magic array in the sky.

Everyone was stunned; they could only raise their heads and look up.

Brendel lifted his head, but his mind was clear as he came to an understanding

The Flaming Blade Oderfeiss was descending.

The people of Kirrlutz were here as well.

They were waiting for the Flaming Blade to descend once more for them to retrieve it. hat day had finally arrived.

They had planned this from the start. So this was what Archbishop Moros wrote to Wood in the letter.

And this was the secret Princess Magadal found out.