Chapter 1524: Chapter 216 - Samui (3)
"Do you really think I would simply agree to what you’re saying?" Samui asked.
Even though I couldn’t actually see her expression, and despite the fact that she didn’t even have eyes to begin with, I somehow had the strange and very specific feeling that she was staring at me with the kind of disgusted look that people usually reserved for complete idiots.
I honestly didn’t know why I was imagining that.
For some reason that I couldn’t explain, however, I could picture it perfectly.
The image was so clear in my head that it was honestly a little unsettling.
"I think the two of us could have really good chemistry together," I said. "If you let me wield you, then you’ll finally be able to fulfill your purpose properly. Besides, you wouldn’t have to rely on anyone else anymore. You could just keep absorbing from me constantly, and you wouldn’t even have to worry about accidentally killing me while you’re doing it. You can already tell that I’m not exactly a normal person just from trying to absorb my life force, right?"
"Well, I can admit that much," she replied after a brief pause. "But that doesn’t suddenly make you someone worthy enough for me to attach myself to. I don’t think that’s a good argument at all."
She sounded completely unconvinced by my reasoning.
"Even if my attempts to absorb your life force don’t seem to work no matter how much I try," she continued, "that still doesn’t make you worthy. There isn’t anyone in this world worthy enough to use me."
The confidence in her voice was honestly incredible.
She wasn’t even pretending to be humble.
Then again, I supposed she had a reason to be like that.
Samui wasn’t an ordinary weapon by any means.
She was a cursed sword that had existed for an absurd amount of time. According to what I knew, she had been around since practically the beginning of history itself. Someone who had lived through that much time probably wasn’t going to be easily impressed by anyone.
In a weird way, she reminded me of stubborn old people.
You know exactly the type of people.
The kind of people who insisted that everything was better in their generation, refused to change their opinions no matter what evidence you showed them, and somehow always managed to win arguments through sheer persistence alone.
Although, in Samui’s case, she was probably strong enough to win arguments by simply vaporizing whoever disagreed with her.
"Then how about I prove that I’m worthy enough to use you?" I asked.
"And how exactly are you planning to do that?" she asked immediately.
I tightened my grip around her hilt.
The texture of the hilt was rough and uneven, but despite that, it fit perfectly into my hand. It felt almost unnatural, as though it had been crafted specifically for me and nobody else.
"Let’s go outside for a bit," I said.
Without waiting for a response, I began walking away.
I exited the place where I had fought against Lucielle.
The surrounding area still looked like a complete disaster.
The terrain remained scarred by our battle. Massive cracks stretched across the ground, sections of earth had been blown apart, and the landscape itself looked like it had gone through several natural disasters all at once.
Honestly, looking at it now, I was starting to wonder how we had both survived.
"What exactly are you planning to do here?" Samui asked.
I looked down at the sword in my hand.
For some strange reason, she felt really comfortable to hold.
That probably sounded really weird to say.
Actually, that definitely sounded incredibly weird indeed.
Still, it was absolutely and undeniably true.
Even though she was continuously absorbing my mana, the sensation wasn’t unpleasant at all. The closest comparison I could think of was getting bitten by a mosquito, except without the annoying itch afterward.
The sensation was so mild that I barely noticed it.
In fact, if I was being honest, it actually felt kind of good.
That was probably something I should have been concerned about.
Unfortunately, curiosity was currently winning against common sense.
"I’m going to try using you," I said. "Let’s see how good our compatibility actually is."
"What?!" she exclaimed. "Do you seriously think I would allow something like that?"
"Well," I replied, "even if you don’t allow it, what exactly can a sword do besides continue absorbing the mana that it’s already trying to take from me?"
For a brief moment, she didn’t answer.
I wasn’t sure whether that meant she was angry, speechless, or simply trying to think of a response.
Hopefully, it was the third option available.
I grabbed her with both hands.
The moment I did, I felt the familiar sensation of her absorbing my mana and life force.
Compared to earlier, though, it wasn’t nearly as intense.
The difference was immediately and clearly noticeable.
It almost felt like she had unconsciously eased up on me.
She was still absorbing a considerable amount, of course, but it wasn’t nearly as overwhelming as when we had first come into contact.
That realization genuinely surprised me quite a bit.
Apparently, it surprised her quite a lot too.
"You bastard," she said. "Do you really think I’m just going to let you do whatever you want with me?"
The irritation in her voice was obvious.
Unfortunately for her, there wasn’t really much she could do about it.
She was a sword, regardless of everything else.
An extremely dangerous and terrifying sword, admittedly, but still a sword.
I decided to stop holding back.
Instead of merely allowing her to absorb mana from me naturally, I actively poured more mana into her.
The reaction was immediate and impossible to ignore.
The blade suddenly began to emit a dark glow.
The darkness wasn’t merely black in appearance.
It felt significantly deeper and stranger than that.
It was the kind of darkness that looked like it wanted to consume the light around it.
For a moment, I could feel Samui become completely silent.
That alone was enough to tell me that she hadn’t expected this.
I tightened my grip even further than before.
Then I swung with all my strength.
The slash cut through the air with surprising ease.
At the same time, a compressed wave of dark mana erupted from the blade.
The attack shot forward at incredible speed.
For a brief instant, everything became strangely quiet.
Then the attack collided with a mound of sand in the distance.
The result was immediate and absolutely overwhelming.
The entire hill split apart instantly and cleanly.
It wasn’t merely cracked or damaged.
It wasn’t simply broken into pieces.
The entire hill had been completely split apart.
The cut was so clean that for a second, the upper half remained suspended before gravity finally remembered it was supposed to exist.
The separated section collapsed with a loud rumble.
Sand scattered everywhere across the battlefield.
Dust filled the surrounding air rapidly.
A heavy and tense silence followed afterward.
I stared at the destruction in front of me.
Honestly, I hadn’t expected that much power.
Apparently, neither had Samui herself either.
"A-Amazing..." she said quietly.
For the first time since meeting her, she sounded genuinely shocked.
"That... that came from me?"
I looked down at the sword in my hands.
The dark glow was slowly fading.
"I guess it did," I said.
She remained silent for several long moments.
That silence felt completely different from before.
Earlier, her silence had been filled with arrogance.
This time, it sounded much more like disbelief.
It seemed that even Samui herself had been surprised by the amount of power she had just released.
And somehow, for the first time since we’d met, I got the feeling that she might actually be reconsidering her opinion of me.
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