'Cute.'
Su-ho let out a short laugh.
Yeah, no matter how you looked at it, it seemed you were the mid-boss here.
If I want to meet him, I have to defeat you first and come on, is that it?
Then I'd be happy to play along.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
Su-ho immediately summoned the Blood Sword and took hold of it.
But the surprising thing was that the Nameless Swordsman... no, the Sword Emperor, was the same.
'Would you look at this guy?'
Are you saying he's changed a lot from when we met before?
A guy who used to merely copy the status window was now copying even skills along with it.
He even made the weapon identical too, showing the intent to match the balance even more thoroughly.
Su-ho raised the Blood Sword and took his stance.
"Let's see your skills for once. Since the balance has been matched, I hope your swordsmanship has improved too."
I don't know whether the substance inside is the same as before, but one way or another, wasn't the name and shell itself that of a former Sword Emperor?
I was able to defeat him and become the Sword God.
At this unexpected reunion, Su-ho's heart began to pound, and soon it was the Sword Emperor who came in first.
Clank— KWAANG!!
Behind the rusty-joint sound coming from that light running start, a huge roar that didn't suit it at all exploded out.
It was the sound produced because the leg strength behind the kick-off was enormous.
The ground where he planted his foot caved in, and using that force as recoil, he charged at Su-ho like a dump truck.
Su-ho did not avoid that charge and accepted it head-on in full.
KAAANG!!
When Blood Sword and Blood Sword collided, there rang out an extremely heavy, yet clear metallic grinding sound.
There was no such thing as the swords breaking.
Because his sword was a sword of exactly the same form as mine.
So now all that remained was a fight in the purely technical domain.
Su-ho immediately shoved him back and then began stepping in earnest.
'It's been a while since I've had a swordsmanship duel, so this really gets my heart racing.'
Thinking about it, that was true.
He had started as a swordsman, climbed all the way to the realm of the Formless Sword, and even regressed to the past, but after actually regressing, there had not been even a single time when he had achieved any particularly meaningful swordsmanship growth.
Because Su-ho's skill had already risen to the rank of the very pinnacle of the world.
'At most, all I did was repeat and repeat in order to regain the skills I'd obtained in the past.'
That was why even the fight against the Sword Emperor he met again in the early days after regressing had not been all that difficult.
Before the regression, he had only barely won after rushing in again and again through repeated defeats, but after regressing, he already knew the bastard's weaknesses well.
Kang! Kaang! Kang!
The swords collided in rapid succession.
As he stepped, Su-ho slowly enjoyed the situation as it was now.
A sense of urgency?
He did not feel even a little of that.
Rather, he was curious.
What kind of swordsmanship skill had this new Sword Emperor acquired?
And so, as the Sword Emperor thrust out his sword, Su-ho received all of it.
Kakang! Kang! Kang! Kang!
The feel of taking the hits was heavy.
So the corners of Su-ho's mouth rose on their own.
Yeah, this is it.
This is exactly it.
The meticulousness, precision, and exactness you can't see in other swordsmen.
This is what swordsmanship is.
Su-ho received his sword for a while longer.
But the more he received that swordsmanship, the stranger the feeling became.
A strangely familiar feeling.
A very intimate feeling.
And before long, that sense of déjà vu made Su-ho's eyes go round.
'Huh, wait, could this be...'
No, it can't be.
I think I'm mistaken?
At first, that was what he thought.
So he watched for a while longer.
But no matter how he looked at it, this was swordsmanship he knew.
He tested it.
From the steps to the way it blocked and the way it drove forward.
After testing this and that, Su-ho could only let out a hollow laugh.
'Isn't this my swordsmanship?'
My swordsmanship.
That was exactly what it was.
This was Su-ho Sword, the unique sword art Su-ho had created entirely on his own.
But the Sword Emperor is using my swordsmanship?
Is he doing this on purpose?
That was the right answer.
To think it wasn't enough to copy the status window and even the weapon, and that he had copied even my swordsmanship to create a complete copy.
Yeah.
Yeah, so that's why it had looked so good.
Because it wasn't anything else. It was the swordsmanship I had made.
Even a hedgehog finds its own young the cutest, and a cook finds his own recipe the tastiest.
Without a word, Su-ho continued receiving his sword.
Now that he knew the swordsmanship the Sword Emperor was using was his own Su-ho Sword, he no longer felt tense.
Instead, he sank into another thought.
What had the Sword Constellation been thinking when it sent this bastard out?
What had it been thinking when it placed Su-ho Sword in his hands and sent him to me?
There was no way to know.
But one thing was certain: I probably have to deal with this guy before I can see the next stage.
Fine. If that's the condition, then I'll accept it as much as you want.
Having finished organizing his thoughts, Su-ho corrected his stance.
Then, from the form where he had only been receiving, he changed his stance and began driving the Sword Emperor back like mad.
Kakang! Kakang! Kakang! Kakang! Kang!
Driving someone back is even easier than receiving them.
He had definitely thought it would be.
But no matter how much he raised the speed and intensity and drove him back fiercely, strangely enough, the result he thought should come never did.
'What is this?'
Something was strange.
Is the Sword Emperor using some sinister art I don't know about?
That can't be.
Because he trusted the system.
Even though it looked extremely dirty, when it came to things like this, it was very fair and meticulous.
Then what was wrong?
Let's focus a little more.
Thinking that, he swung his sword even harder.
Kakang! Kang! Kakang! Kakang! Kang!
The sword swung like mad.
Its force and momentum were much higher than before.
But even this time, the Sword Emperor still hardly showed any openings.
There was no sign of haste either.
Just as Su-ho had been at the beginning, he received the sword Su-ho was pressing in on him with, in a strangely relaxed sort of way.
Thus the rough exchange continued hundreds of times.
Kang!!
Su-ho swung his sword in a wide arc, driving the Sword Emperor far back.
"Hoooooo......"
His body was soaked with sweat.
Su-ho exhaled the old breath heated up inside him and brushed back his sweat-soaked hair.
Clank—
The Sword Emperor took his stance again, making that distinctive rusty-joint sound.
Don't you ever get tired?
You said you copied the same status window as me?
But of course he wouldn't tire.
Because the inside of that old-looking shell was empty.
By the way, what was the problem?
He narrowed his eyes and glared at the Sword Emperor.
Could it be that this wasn't Su-ho Sword, but some other swordsmanship?
Was it such a similar flow that I had mistaken it?
No, that couldn't be.
Su-ho Sword is my child.
What parent in the world fails to recognize their own child?
Then what is it?
What exactly is the problem?
'I seriously don't know.'
Around then, the Sword Emperor rushed at Su-ho once again.
Su-ho took his stance again too.
Yeah.
If I don't know well enough, then let's crash into it until I do.
There is no answer other than that right now.
Of course, it'd be even better if I win while fighting.
Though the odds are very low, thinking that, Su-ho once again charged at the Sword Emperor.
KAAANG!!
The sharp sound of clashing blades rang through the space once again.
***
How much time had passed?
Hundreds, no, it felt like at least thousands of exchanges had been traded.
His whole body was hot.
His heart pounded as if it would burst, and sweat poured from his whole body to the point that after cooling in the outside air, even steam was rising from it.
"Hoooo."
Once again, he brushed back his wet hair.
Su-ho's eyelids were lowered halfway.
There was not the slightest trace of a smile to be found on his face.
For a long while he had done nothing but collide head-on without any sense of the right answer.
In that process, he had made countless attempts and run countless tests.
And at last he was able to arrive at a conclusion regarding this sickening, damnable mirror match.
'This doesn't reach a conclusion because it's my swordsmanship.'
That was the conclusion Su-ho reached.
Why did he think that? Because this was the conclusion he had obtained after matching blades for thousands of exchanges and testing every kind of hypothesis there was.
'The Sword Emperor didn't merely copy my status window, my sword, and my swordsmanship.'
The more he mixed swords with him, the more he could tell.
The Sword Emperor was not the Sword Emperor.
The Sword Emperor was An Su-ho.
More precisely, another An Su-ho.
Whether it was the doing of the Sword Constellation or the system, that unprecedented existence had made the Sword Emperor before his eyes completely identical to Su-ho except for the shell being different.
Even down to the tiniest and most trivial habit that came out when using swordsmanship.
And that side doesn't even get tired.
That was why it didn't reach a conclusion.
"Hoooo......"
He exhaled another old breath.
Truly incredible.
I don't know who it is, but they really had an interesting idea.
Come to think of it, with something like the virtual reality program Infinity around, why had I never thought of copying and fighting myself?
There couldn't be a more certain training method than that, could there?
Thanks to that, he now knew the way to break the Sword Emperor.
And that was to surpass himself, and the swordsmanship he himself had created.
Haha.
I laughed out loud.
To surpass myself.
Easy to say, sure, but how could that possibly be as easy as it sounds?
This wasn't merely about surpassing achievements of the past. I had to surpass an existence identical to myself physically and technically.
I began turning my head again.
Maybe this fight would take longer and feel duller than any fight I had ever experienced until now.
And on top of that, in order to end this fight, it seemed it would be a truly difficult one, because what I had to surpass was not some technical assistance like the system or skills, but truly my very self.
I started taking my stance again.
Hoooooo.
Old breath spilled from his mouth.
His muscles were a little stiff with fatigue, but a smile rose to his lips.
To be honest, it was enjoyable.
Because it was the first chance in a very long time to improve as a swordsman after resolving to live as one.
Of course, he had confidence too.
This wasn't arrogance or conceit. It was conviction.
Why?
Because there was an enormous difference between that bastard and me.
That difference was that he was fixed, unable to evolve, while I, as the creator of Su-ho Sword, could continue evolving endlessly.
That was why I can only be the one who wins this fight in the end.
Unlike you, to whom no further evolution is allowed, I will evolve in real time.
Once he thought that, he no longer felt tired or irritated.
Rather, it was enjoyable.
At the thought that he could become even stronger.
'I will become stronger and gain power worthy of my true epithet.'
And I will win the indie game, save my world, save myself, and save everyone leaning on me.
"Come on, then."
The instant those words ended, the Sword Emperor once more began charging sharply at Su-ho.
***
How much time had passed?
Kang! Kang!
The repetition of the same sounds.
However.
Kagagagang!!
At last, amid those regular sounds, a different kind of grinding noise rang out.
'Found it...!'
At the same time, Su-ho's eyes flashed brightly.
He didn't know how much time he had spent.
But he had swung his sword without even noticing fatigue or the passing of time.
And at last he found it.
His own bad habit in the Sword Emperor who had been copied like a mirror, and the flaw in Su-ho Sword that stemmed from it.
At first he had been uncertain.
Could this really be right?
But the verification he dug into obsessively several times finally gave him certainty.
Kagagagakang!!
The same grinding sound as before.
One more confirmation.
And then the final certainty he obtained.
That's it.
My evolution will begin there.
Because that was still only the bad habit and faint flaw I had barely just found. It wasn't the completed right answer yet.
The corner of Su-ho's mouth rose higher than it ever had before.
He was happy.
It was enjoyable.
It felt as though all his fatigue had been blown away.
Recovery skill?
He didn't need it.
The dopamine and adrenaline flooding out of him drove him mad.
"I'm going!!"
Kakang!! Kakang!! Kakang!! Kakang!!
A fierce collision.
And then, after another long stretch of time passed like that.
Kwa-jak!
A violent sound of rupture.
And then.
Thud!
The sound of something falling.
It was none other than one of the Sword Emperor's arms, severed by Su-ho's sword.
