Becoming The Sword Demon

A person dies when their skull gets split open.

I die, the Cult Leader dies, the Alliance Leader dies. Basically, everyone dies.
Since ancient times, martial artists have created all manner of weapons for the purpose of splitting people’s skulls open.

And among those weapons, the sword was particularly well suited to the task.

In any case, martial artists are lunatics who spend years training in seclusion just to split people’s heads open, and the easiest thing to split a head open with is a sword.

As time passed and mountains and rivers changed, martial artists began dividing swordsmanship into different realms, then swung their swords like madmen, again and again, trying to reach them.

And I happen to be one of those madmen.

Sword King, Sword Emperor, Sword Saint, Sword Sovereign, and so on…… My dream was once to reach the very pinnacle of all those realms and become the Sword God.

There was no particular reason.

I’d always believed that any man worth his salt ought to aim to become the greatest under heaven, so from the childhood I spent as a slave after being abducted by the Demon Cult until this very day, I had always sought to become the Sword God.

I used to think there was nothing a man couldn’t accomplish if he had one clear goal and pursued it like a madman……but looking at things now, I suppose that wasn’t quite true.

If I’d actually achieved my goal, the martial world wouldn’t be calling me a demon of the sword instead of a god of the sword.

Anyway, that’s the conclusion.

When a sword-crazed lunatic becomes the greatest under heaven, he becomes the Sword God. When he becomes a damned demon instead, he becomes the Sword Demon.

“…….”

Why did the sky have to look so beautiful while I was being chased?

Perhaps because it was autumn, the day was remarkably clear and pleasant. Unfortunately, unlike the cloudless sky, neither my body nor my mind was in particularly good shape.

For starters, my whole body was a complete mess.

Blood from my wounds streamed down my torn clothes, while the blood of the cultists I’d killed dripped from the sword in my right hand.

I must have cut down well over a hundred Demon Cultists while being chased all the way here, yet hundreds more of the crazy bastards were still on my heels, determined to kill me.

If I’d known my life would end up like this, I would’ve spent more time looking at magnificent skies like that…….

Once again, I was reminded that no one could see even an inch ahead in life, and right now I was getting a proper taste of just how bitter that goddamned life could be.

‘What a fucking life.’

I glanced ahead and found a cliff as massive as Mount Tai blocking my path. A sigh escaped me on its own.

“……Life sure isn’t easy.”

It seemed even the world itself had no intention of letting me escape.

“…….”

I silently looked at the cultists who had already caught up to me.

I hadn’t noticed while they were chasing me, but seeing them like this, it looked less like a crowd of people and more like a dark storm cloud rolling toward me. Every last one of them was dressed in black martial robes.

I looked at the dark-cloud bastards surrounding me without a single gap and opened my mouth to give them a long speech.

“……Long ago.”
“…….”
“I was a slave.”
“…….”

Maybe it was because I’d brought it up out of nowhere, or maybe what I’d said genuinely surprised them. A few of the cultists stared at me with somewhat startled expressions.

Since nobody answered, I continued on by myself.

“Believe it or not, that’s how it was. I swung my sword just to survive, then swung it again and again. By the time I realized there was no one left for me to kill, I’d already become the Sword Demon.”
“…….”
“Most of you here probably learned the sword from me. I suppose that’s because there was no one in the Cult who could defeat me with one. But in the end, I was still a slave. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

I pointed at the silent crowd of cultists and let out a booming laugh.

“In the end, all you learned was the swordsmanship of some pathetic slave. That’s what I’m saying. Hahaha! You miserable bastards. You probably lived happily enough without even realizing you were slaves yourselves.”
“…….”

Normally, once I started laughing by myself like an idiot, someone would be cursing me out or flying into a rage by now. These bastards must have been scared, though, because not one of them reacted. How boring.
Just then, I looked ahead and couldn’t help narrowing my eyes.

‘Fuck…….’

How should I put it? It was like a white cloud was walking out from the middle of a storm cloud.

Dressed in immaculate white robes that stood in stark contrast to the cultists around him, the Demonic Gentleman appeared while lazily fluttering a folding fan and addressed me.

“Prelate.”

I greeted the Demonic Gentleman, whom I hadn’t seen in quite some time, in an indifferent tone.

“So you came, pretty boy.”
“…….”

Watching irritation spread over the Demonic Gentleman’s smug face was always fresh and exhilarating. Probably because I’d never liked the bastard to begin with.

The Demonic Gentleman was, quite literally, a gentleman of the Demonic Path. More specifically, he was the Demon Cult’s strategist. The unpleasant sort of bastard who never stepped onto the battlefield himself, preferring to issue orders from the rear and send his subordinates to their deaths.

The Demonic Gentleman ran a hand over his tightly bound hair before continuing.

“……It appears you have nowhere left to run. You would be wise to surrender quickly. For a Prelate of our Cult to flee in such disgrace…… The Cult Leader would find the sight truly pathetic.”
“That mouth of yours still runs free, I see. Is a Prelate not even allowed to run?”

The Demonic Gentleman let out a derisive chuckle and glared at me.

“You ask the obvious. Since when were you ever a man who ran away? You were the executioner who slaughtered those who fled. Am I wrong?”
“……No. You aren’t wrong. That was the role of a Prelate afterall.”

The Demonic Gentleman covered his face with his fan and spoke.

“……Why in the world would a madman like you betray the Cult?”

I looked at the Demonic Gentleman and the Demon Cultists and answered calmly.

“……Gentleman. Does a man need some special reason to hate someone who is drifting away from being human?”
“And yet a man who says that spent so many years as a member of the Cult.”
“Have you already forgotten what I taught you? Even the greatest under heaven would struggle to evade the blade of a friend with whom he has shared a drink.”

The Cult Leader I had watched for so many years was slowly losing his humanity.

Of course, the Cult Leader had never exactly been close to human in the first place……but the more obsessively he pursued strength and the closer he came to perfection, the harder it became to ignore how steadily the humanity was disappearing from his eyes.

The Demonic Gentleman glared at me as though he wanted to kill me on the spot.

“Think of the blood of all the cultists you’ve killed. Have you no shame? Enough of this useless nonsense, Prelate. Hand over the secret treasure you stole from the Demon Cult.”
“…….”

Only then did I properly look at what I was holding.

It was an old longsword. A bizarre black sword covered entirely in pitch-black from sheath to blade to hilt rested in my hand.

“……Demon Wailing Sword.”

I actually knew, more or less, what kind of sword this was. Just as its name, Demon Wailing, suggested, it was quite literally a sword like a scream birthed by the Demonic Path.

According to what I’d heard from the Cult Leader, the Demon Wailing Sword had been in the making since the distant past.

It was a sacred relic of the Demon Cult, a wraith sword completed by slaughtering countless people and imprisoning their souls within it as demonic sigils.

I also knew just how dangerous the thing was.

If this haunted sword were completed in the Cult Leader’s hands……only then would he come to be called the Heavenly Demon, and the entire martial world would fall beneath the rule of the Demonic Path.

I couldn’t stomach a fucked-up mess like that. At least as long as I was alive, it wasn’t going to happen.

That was why I’d fought the Cult Leader, stolen the Demon Wailing Sword, and fled.

‘……The entire martial world nearly went to hell because of a single sword.’

I’d spent my whole life trying to kill the Cult Leader. Wouldn’t it be infuriating if the martial world fell under the Demonic Path before I even got the chance to smack him once?

I silently stared at the Demon Wailing Sword.

It truly was a sword befitting the Demonic Path. I’d handled and swung countless swords in my life, but I’d never felt anything like this before.

I hadn’t even drawn it yet, but it already made the hairs on my body stand on end. It felt like simply holding onto it for too long would give me nightmares.

My senses as the Sword Demon told me at once that this was a demonic sword of exceptional rarity.

I was just sinking into thought when the tactless Demonic Gentleman started talking again.

“……Prelate. Hand over the sword now, and I will let you leave alive. Consider it the minimum courtesy we owe you.”

I raised my head and looked over the lunatics who had come to kill me one by one.

There really were a lot of the bastards. The Cult’s assassins were here, along with the Elders who had trained them.

It seemed the entire headquarters had mobilized, save for the Cult Leader himself.

“……You certainly brought a lot of people just to kill one man.”

The Demonic Gentleman’s unpleasant laughter reached my ears.

Generally speaking, an enemy of the Demon Cult knew his luck had run out when he heard either the Demonic Gentleman or the Cult Leader laughing at him. Come to think of it, I’d already heard both. Chills.

After thoroughly enjoying himself mocking my pathetic and pitiful situation, the Demonic Gentleman spoke.

“Did you truly think you would make it back alive?”

At that point, I couldn’t help but laugh. Was this bastard seriously trying to threaten me with death?

Unfortunately for him, that was entirely the wrong tactic, so I laughed at the Demonic Gentleman to my heart’s content.

“After all these years, you still don’t know what kind of man I am? Threats don’t work on me. You don’t even know that much? What a bunch of idiots.”

“Prelate. Do you understand your situation now? This truly is your final chance. Put down the sword.”

I turned my head toward the Demonic Gentleman and spoke.

“Then may I say one thing as well?”
“If they’re your last words, by all means.”

I addressed the Demon Cultists gathered before me.

“……I am no longer a Prelate. As an apostate, and as your enemy, I will give you one final warning. Run. This is the last mercy I can offer you.”
“…….”

I meant it sincerely enough, but no one ran. Did I really look that pathetic?

The black-clad assassins began snickering at me, and then, as though laughter were a plague spreading through the crowd, everyone started laughing their asses off.

The Demonic Gentleman hardly needed mentioning. His face was hidden behind his fan, but it was obvious he was laughing harder than anyone, which thoroughly annoyed me.

This was my situation now. When all four of my limbs were intact, nobody had dared speak carelessly to me. Now everyone was trying to humiliate me.

And it wasn’t just me. That was the Demonic Path. That was the martial world. Show the slightest weakness, and the world would tear you apart and devour you.

“…….”

That was not the path I sought. If it was the natural law of the world that the weak should be despised, then the path I walked stood directly opposed to the will of the world.

The reason I felt that way was because there had once been a time when I, too, was weak.

No one is strong from the beginning. Everyone has a time when they’re so weak that even taking their first steps is difficult.

If people came from different worlds and saw things from different perspectives, there was nothing strange about some being weaker than others……so why had these bastards spent their lives tormenting the weak as though it were the most natural thing in the world?

I roared at the shameless bastards.

“Shut up!”
“…….”

I had infused the shout with internal energy, and the atmosphere fell silent in an instant.

The laughter vanished. Even the faintest breaths could barely be heard.

Still worked up, I began venting my anger at the cultists.

“The Cult Leader, all of you…… What exactly was so enjoyable? Was hurting people weaker than you for amusement truly that much fun? Fine. Come at me, all of you. But…….”

I held the Demon Wailing Sword out in front of me and spoke with complete seriousness.

“We all die here. Not a single one of us leaves…….”
“……!”

Only then did the composure on their faces melt away like snow, replaced by undisguised shock.

Apparently, not one of them had expected me to choose mutual destruction.

As though seeing straight through their thoughts, I spat out another vicious remark.

“The only reason I struggled this hard to stay alive was to kill the Cult Leader. I failed, so I’ve got nothing left to live for. Slaves to doctrine, let’s all die together.”

These bastards must have at least some idea how dangerous the Demon Wailing Sword was.

And with me threatening to kill us all with it, there was no way they could simply dismiss my warning.

The Demonic Gentleman, in particular, knew exactly what the Demon Wailing Sword was, and his face had gone completely pale.

The smile had vanished from his face before I knew it, and the Demonic Gentleman suddenly shouted as though enraged.

“Prelate, do you even know what that thing is?”
“Not my problem.”
“It is a sacred relic! Not just any relic, but a sacred relic of the Demon Cult! How in the world do you intend to control it?”

I glared at the raging Demonic Gentleman.

“Shut up. Once it’s in my hand, every sword is the same. Has there ever been a sword I couldn’t tame? Even the Cult Leader could do nothing against me when it came to the sword.”

I took a firm hold of the Demon Wailing Sword and issued one final ultimatum to the cultists, the demonic martial artists, and the Demonic Gentleman who had pursued me.

“……Now let’s all disappear into the back pages of history together. Demonic ones, come with me.”

The moment the words left my mouth, the Blood Wolf Unit, the War Wolf Unit, the demonic martial artists, and the remaining cultists leaped into the air, drew their respective weapons, and charged at me.

Daggers and hidden weapons came flying, followed by a barrage of attacks that would have been difficult to evade, but I had never intended to dodge in the first place. I simply gripped the Demon Wailing Sword firmly.

Even then, I studied the faces of the demonic martial artists and cultists. Was I not the only one with no intention of escaping? For the most part, their expressions showed no fear of death.

Their eyes burned with the determination to stop me from taking everyone down with me, even if it cost them their lives.

But I had abandoned any desire to live long ago.

“……Farewell.”

After bidding farewell to both the world and the cultists, I drew the Demon Wailing Sword with the last of my strength.

An instant passed like an eternity, and at last the pitch-black blade of the Demon Wailing Sword emerged into the world, like a demon buried deep beneath the earth for untold ages finally breaking free of its seal.

Saaaaaaaaah…….

The moment I drew the Demon Wailing Sword, the first senses to be cut off were sight and hearing.

Ominous, sinister black energy erupted in every direction from a sword that seemed to contain every trace of darkness in existence. As my entire vision was dyed pitch-black, I soon realized that every sound in the surrounding area had vanished as well.

What the hell was this? What was happening right now?

There was no way to put it into words. It was simply a ghostly sword saturated with all the wickedness and instability under heaven.

At that moment, before I could even fully experience the Demon Wailing Sword’s overwhelming presence, the surrounding air seemed to cling to the blade as though being sucked into it. Then, without warning, a tremendous roar struck my ears.

‘This is……?’

When I focused on the sound, I realized that the deafening roar was actually the wailing of ghosts.

The wails came in countless horrifying forms.

The screams of men, women, children, and the elderly all mingled together in a chaotic cacophony, occasionally joined by the rattling of bones and the sound of flesh being sliced apart.

In other words, the Demon Wailing Sword was pouring forth death itself. Just as its name suggested.

Even in the middle of all this, I closed my eyes and desperately tried to gather my senses.

It didn’t accomplish much. And yet, strangely enough, I felt at peace.

Thinking back on it now, I had always been that way.

I hadn’t been afraid when I fought the Cult Leader, nor had I felt fear while being hunted by the cultists.
For a man born into this world, what could be more frightening than having his will broken?

In the end, the Cult Leader had failed to break my will, and even death could not stand in my way.

The only thing I had ever feared was that, somewhere along the course of my life, I might forget the resolve I had once made.

But I had held onto that conviction until the very moment of my death, so I had no regrets.

“Come, sweet death.”

Having uttered the last of my last words, I lost consciousness. When I finally managed to open my eyes again, the world was nothing but darkness.