Broly was delighted as he felt the power of his ki return to his body. Now he was back to having full control of his body. He had closed his eyes as he relished in the feeling, completely ignoring the two guards.
The guards had their widened eyes fixed on the sword Broly held. Shock was written on their face. "This is…" The blue guard spoke out for the first time with a trembling voice.
Broly opened his eyes and looked at the sword he was holding and felt the power inside of it. The swords that were hovering on his side, suddenly shrunk in size until they became blinking floating lights.
Solutus' sword, however, first trembled slightly before it did the same as the other swords.
Without a warning the sword lights shot towards Broly's sword and merged with it on different places. On embedded itself at the bottom of the hilt, one into the cross-guard and the last merged with the blade of the sword.
The former crystal sword changed to a black that seemed to absorb every bit of light that touches it. Only the edge of the blade was shimmering in a blue light. The energy of the sword was somewhat masked, only Broly who held it was still feeling the full tremendous power it hid.
He felt like he was holding a bomb that could go off any second, but he still felt no threat coming from it, like it was meant for him.
"It has finally appeared!" The red guard blurted out and brought Broly's out of his daze. Broly shot him a glance. "Is this sword something special?" Broly felt that it held significant more power than Solutus sword. It was on a completely different level.
"...It is the First Sword which has been wielded by the king. There had been several imitations that tried to recreate its power, but no sword came close to it. After the king fell, his sword shattered, and the pieces turned into swords of their own. The one you are holding is the foundation of the First Sword! Even if all the other swords fused, it would only be on the same level!"
"Is that why Solutus wanted me on this island?" Broly mumbled as he inspected the sword.
"Solutus wanted you on this island?" Broly looked at the red guard.
"Yeah, he is the reason I was able to get here in the first place." Broly suddenly came to a realization.
"Can you try to convert a second time?" Broly asked the red guard, who now seemed willing to answer some questions.
"Indeed, you can. A sword grants you one attempt to convert, so if you absorb another sword you can try again."
"How can one acquire another sword?"
"You can't enter the island of trials a second time, but you can get another sword by killing its owner in a duel. The rights of the sword will automatically transfer to you after the owner is dead."
"Hm? But I did kill Solutus, why did you tell me to get another one from the island of trials?"
'Was he not dead? I cut him in half and burned his remains! I even used my vision of truth to confirm it numerous times that the corpse was indeed his.'
"Yes, you did, but it wasn't a duel. You can challenge another sword wielder if you wield one yourself. If you kill one without challenging him first, it is not considered a duel. So, even though you killed him, you didn't get the rights to his sword."
"But I did absorb it just now."
"Indeed, usually a swordsman can only absorb another sword if he has the rights for it, however, what you wield is the foundation of the First Sword, its essence. It doesn't need the rights to one of its own sword pieces to absorb it."
"So, Solutus wanted to challenge me to get another sword piece?"
"Probably, after all if you had acquired a normal sword piece your powers wouldn't have returned."
'They wouldn't have?'
"Even without my powers I would still be stronger than him after absorbing those black spots of the statues outside."
Broly felt that his victory was assured even without his ki, magic or lifeforce. The guards looked at each other after hearing what he said. They had a bitter smile on their face. The statues outside were strong and weren't meant to be beaten.
A normal challenger would have all his power suppressed with only his soul to work with. One was meant to avoid fighting them and escape inside. There wasn't an actual need to clash with them.
Of course, it was difficult to escape their attacks but to actual beat them and steal their source of power, that wasn't supposed to happen! That was also why they had attacked them the moment he stepped inside, they wanted to test and vent on him a bit but unexpectedly, he was able to completely defend against them.
Broly asked them what went wrong with Solutus conversion. Usually they weren't supposed to give information, but it seemed because Broly wielded the First Sword, they made an exception.
After answering that question the guards urged him to convert now. They told him what to do once the process of converting began.
Only after their explanation about Solutus failure and the process of conversion did he realize what this conversion meant for him. He didn't ask more questions but went to the sheath on the pedestal.
He took the sword and sheathed it. The moment he did, a portal opened in the wall behind the throne. Broly went ahead and directly jumped into it.
The moment he did, he felt like he was submerged in something. In the distance he saw a blue light. Broly wanted to move towards it but he couldn't. Broly tried to use his energy to move towards it but to no avail. Only after using his soul, was he able to crawl his way towards it.
After what felt like days, he reached the blue light. It looked like a shimmering pearl. Broly didn't hesitate and grabbed it. The moment he did, intense pain ran through his body.
The pain spread towards his magic- and lifeforce-core and to his soul itself. He knew that this was the conversion they were speaking off, so once the pain had spread, he circulated the techniques to absorb the crystals all at the same time.
As soon as he started, he could feel how his lifeforce and magic core slowly broke into pieces and headed for his soul.
The cores he got from the crystals were slowly dissolving and turned into energy that nurtured his soul. It was an excruciating process.
Every piece of core that was broken off made Broly tremble in pain, but he knew that he had to preserve. If he lost his conscious, he would fail the conversion and the consequence would be dire, not something he would be able to manage.
Solutus had failed to convert as he had a flawed technique of absorption. Although he was able to create cores as well, in the midst of the conversion a tiny flaw made itself known and instead of fusing his energy with his soul, his soul fused with his lifeforce.
After coming to that realization, he must have stopped the conversion before more damage was inflicted.
Broly figured that was why he wanted to fight with him in the first place. His lifeforce technique was flawed and with the fight with Broly, he would be able to figure out what the problem was.
Afterwards he would have challenged Broly after Broly got a sword and try the conversion once more. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to escape Broly's hands and died before his plan took on fruitions.
Now Broly only needed to preserve through the pain of the conversion. If he succeeded, his soul would be the source of his magic and lifeforce power and not his body.
With his soul gaining the power of these energies, even if he was fatally wounded, it would barely inflict his strength. Even if he died, his power would be enough to ignore the laws of the afterlife.
Time passed for Broly as the energies turned into strength of his soul.