The Sword Saint's Second Life As a Fox Girl

“No time to lose now,” Erin muttered as she hurried towards the cage in which Katya was trapped.

“Y-you killed him…” Katya gasped in disbelief as her eyes remained glued to the corpse of her former lover.

“Technically, my friend did, but details. First, let’s get you out of here first.” Erin took hold of the bars and pulled, but the door shook and stayed shut. “Locked. Of course. Do you know where the key is?”

Katya shook her head. “No, but I can pick the lock.”

“Oh, right. You are very good at lockpicking. Got us all into quite a bit of trouble.”

“I did…, didn’t I…” Katya responded with a wry smile. “We can reminisce later. This will only take a minute.” Katya was about to pick the lock with her hairpin, but she was stopped.

“No need,” said Erin. She gripped the iron bars tighter and gave them a strong tug. And just like that, the entire door came off.

“Whoa… you’re strong,” Katya muttered in awe.

“Is that so surprising?” Erin asked with a smirk, tossing the gate aside.

“You are in a different body right now, and your body seems to lack a lot of brawn.”

“Looks can be deceiving, Katya. Especially in this world. Come, let’s get out of here before—”

“Before what?” asked Marsh, who was back on his feet with the bullet hole still present on his head. “You’re not going anywhere. Not without me.”

“This is why all the ladies avoided you, Ivan.”

“What are you—” Before the words could fully leave Marsh’s lips, another shot rang out, and the bullet pierced through his head once more. Another shot immediately followed, piercing through where his heart was. He stared at Erin with his eyes turning as wide as they could before collapsing to the ground again.

“...Is he truly dead now?” asked Katya.

“Not likely, but let’s not dawdle.” Erin scooped Katya into her arms and rushed up the stairs like a breeze.

“Took you long enough,” said Aedan, who was waiting for them.

Katya gasped at the sight of bodies scattered in the room. Each of Marsh’s followers was dead, save for one. “Why is it alive?”

“W-what?” Baloc stammered. He was cowering behind a chair. “W-what do you mean, why am I still alive? Have I done something to warrant—”

“You dare to act so ignorantly!” Katya snarled, hopping off from Erin’s arms. “Because of you that I’m—” She barely got her words out and a few steps, and her breath had already all but left her. Her legs lost their strength and she fell to her knees. Thankfully, Erin was quick to hold her up before her knees could be painfully slammed into the floor.

“Leave him,” Aedan said. “Katya’s safety is our priority.”

“If her health is your priority, you should not be taking her away from William.”

“Shut… up…” Katya hissed with whatever strength she could muster.

Erin scooped Katya back into her arms, and carried her out of the cottage. “What’s next?” she asked. “That person was not lying. Katya won’t survive long without… whatever it is that she needs.”

“Her body is artificial and so is her soul.”

Erin was shocked to learn that. She knew Katya was artificial in some way, but she couldn’t imagine that her soul would be too. “What do you mean her soul is artificial?”

“...Clearly, it is impossible to bring back the dead from one world to another without the divine assistance. This is not reincarnation or soul transmigration. I doubt this… ‘Katya’ is the same Katya that you know.”

“How is that possible? She’s—”

“Memories. That’s all there is. She’s nothing more than a living puppet with the memories of the one you know as ‘Katya’.”

“So… you’re saying that I-I’m… a fake?” Katya asked, hesitantly.

“Yes.”

“Bollocks!” Erin shouted.

“It’s not. It’s the truth.”

“Well, truth or not, we can discuss this further once we’re out of this forest. Katya or not, she’s still a living being.”

Aedan smiled. “Of course. I didn’t mean to demean her. I just thought you would appreciate the truth.”

“And I do,” said Katya with a downcast expression.

“Alright, where to?”

“The Fae Embassy. Artificial she may be, she’s still a Fae. They will know what to do.”

“Alright, then. Let’s get going.”

“You are going nowhere!!” Marsh’s roar reverberated across the whole forest. He came hurtling out of the cottage and stopped before the three. “You are going nowhere!! Not with Katya!”

Erin narrowed her gaze. She gently laid Katya down and stepped forward, shielding the two from Marsh. Darkness had taken hold of the disgraced High Lord from head to toe. All of his wounds had healed. “You’re sick and stupid if you think Katya is going anywhere with you. When’s the last time you looked in the mirror?”

“I don’t need your permission, Argon, especially not from you. Have you not done enough? You have taken everything from me! And now you see to take everything from me once more?”

“I have taken nothing from you. There’s nothing to take from you.”

“You killed Katya!!” Marsh roared.

“...I did,” Erin admitted. “And I paid my dues. I was killed by someone stronger than me, someone I challenged.”

“And you think you’re forgiven just like that? Never.”

“If there’s any forgiveness to be had, it would certainly not be from you.”

Marsh’s bloodshot gaze turned to Katya. Immediately, his eyes softened. “Katya… come to me. Without me, you won’t be able to live long. I’m telling the truth.”

“I’m not stupid, Ivan. I know I will be dead without your… spell, but I will not keep on living at the expense of others. Get that through your thick skull already, Ivan.”

“Katya… don’t make me do this… I don’t want to hurt you. I told you, I will do whatever to make us whole again.”

“Whole, you say? Don’t make me sick. Stop this farce already, Ivan.”

“What farce? Katya, my love for you is true. It is no lie.”

“...Stop calling me that. I feel sick hearing that.”

“Stop calling you… what?”

“That name, Katya!” the girl exploded with rage. “Stop me calling me Katya! You know full well that I am not her!”

“Absurd. You are Katya. That’s the truth. There’s no one else that you could be.”

“I am not Katya. I am just some result of your sick experiment with the memories of the one you called Katya.”

“Doesn’t matter. You are Katya, my one and only Katya. What are we if not our consciousness and memories?”

“...You have fallen beyond help, Ivan.” The girl turned her face away. “Argon… please, end his misery. I may not be Katya, but I can’t bear to see him keep falling any longer.”

“I know,” said Erin. “I can’t bear to see him in this state either. Don’t worry. I will end this.” Erin strode towards Marsh with her sword manifested in her hand.

Marsh chuckled before breaking into a sigh. “So, it has come to this. It didn’t need to be this way, but you chose this. And I shall not be giving any mercy, even if we were once friends.”

“I don’t need any mercy, Ivan.”

“You have been in this world long enough, Argon. Surely you know by now how versatile and unpredictable demonic power can be. Do you think you can even hope to defeat me?”

“Surely you have heard of my exploits by now, haven’t you?”

Marsh snorted. “Those are nothing. I am the genuine article. Those are nothing more than unrefined strength with crude owners. Unlike them, I don’t get corrupted by the demonic power.”

“We shall see,” Erin said and lunged at Marsh.

“Fool!” Marsh laughed and brandished a large, dark greatsword, forged from the demonic energy he drew from his Unique Talent. “Do you think rushing at an opponent whom you know nothing of is wise?”

Erin stayed silent and swung her sword.

Marsh confidently raised his greatsword in defence. However, his eyes went wide the moment their blades clashed and he witnessed how easily Erin’s blade was cleaving through his. It was like a hot knife cutting into butter. He tried to deflect Erin’s blade, but she skillfully followed his flow. She read his intention, which was no surprise to Marsh. He had never once won against Argon in a duel or a match. As much as he hated to admit it, he had never met anyone as good with the sword as Argon.

He quickly let go of his sword and leapt out of the blade’s reach before it could take his head.

“This is certainly unpredictable,” Erin scoffed. “Well, to you, that is.”

“N-not possible.”

“You may have heard of my exploits, but you clearly don’t know the details. If this is all you have, then I must warn you that I have fought worse and stronger.”

Marsh let out a battle cry and threw himself at Erin. He brandished another greatsword and swung at her. The moment his sword was cut down by her, his other arm morphed into a bestial form that was twice the size of his body. He thrust that bestial arm of his at Erin.

She stood her ground and let her bladework flourish.

“Huh?” was all Marsh could mutter before his bestial arm was shredded into pieces. Though his power had dulled the pain mostly, he could still feel the agony that threatened to surface. He fell to his knees, clutching his stump and groaning. “No… this can’t be happening… After all this time, I’m still… below you?”

“What do you think was going to happen? Did you honestly think that I would just be idle and let my swordsmanship rot?”

“This is unacceptable. I will not lose. Not to you.” Marsh rose to his feet. His shredded arm had already recovered and healed, but the humiliation remained. He placed his hand on the ground.

Erin felt a tremble underneath her feet, and her instincts screamed at her. She leapt from that spot just as spikes of darkness erupted from the ground.

Marsh raised his hand into the air. The darkness followed his gesture. It erupted from the ground, hurling pieces of the ground towards Erin.

Violet mist appeared around Erin, and all the chunks of debris broke into hundreds of small pieces the moment they touched the mist. With a flick of her hands, the mist expanded outwards, quickly reaching Marsh.

The moment the mist touched Marsh, he recoiled from it. The mist was dangerous. He would be shredded like paper if the mist swallowed him. He snapped his fingers. Sparks flew from the friction. He caught the spark in his palm and the spark turned into a ball of flame. Combined with the darkness he had taken hold of, the flames grew into a hellish fire. He let loose the hellfire at the mist. The mist evaporated into nothing in the face of the hellfire and the flames only continued to grow.

Erin grinned. She reeled back in her Aura Domain and she changed her sword’s form into a single-edged sabre. She let her aura gather in her blade. When the flames of hell drew close enough, she swung her sabre, unleashing her aura with that single swing. The aura blade cut through the flames, which dispersed into nothing immediately, and travelled straight towards Marsh.

“No,” Marsh uttered. That was all he could say before the aura blade flew straight through him. He clutched his neck, and he felt warm fluids leaking and dripping down. He also felt a slit and that was the last thing he felt before his head came rolling off his neck.

Erin turned his back on him before the body had even hit the ground. She walked back to Katya’s side.

“Is he… truly dead now?”

“No,” answered Erin.

“No?”

“Demons are tenacious in nature,” Aedan explained further.

“I see… Then, what do we do with him now?”

Erin conjured cyan flame into her hands and threw it at the remains of Marsh. “If this doesn’t finish him, then I’m out of options.”