The sword was decorated with dark blue designs and had a black appearance. It also had blue aura surrounding it.
"T-That is. Not possible." He said in surprise.
"Now then, come at me" I beckoned to him.
He remained still, his body refusing to move.
"Oh, have you finally realized just how worthless your relic is?" I mocked.
"Shut up." He said in a low voice.
"What was that?" I asked in a mocking tone.
"I said SHUT UP!!!" He yelled as he rushed at me.
I smiled as I watched him wield his blade and dash toward me, ready to strike.
"Sword of Rupture" I said.
The dark blue sword hummed in response. I raised it slowly.
"Strike"
Immediately, the knight before me was engulfed in blue energy which consumed his body. His entire self was immediately torn apart in the highly dense slash of my sword.
"The final reason why I believed your blade could ignore distance and evasion is because that is one of my own sword's abilities. How disappointing" I said in a bored tone.
Before he fully vaporized, I touched his head and got the information I wanted. Ignorant and weak things like him had their uses after all.
His entire self faded away, clothes and all. His blade fell down, surviving the hit.
"It must be pretty durable" I said, picking it up.
"Root" I called.
"Store item inside Treasure Space" I said.
"Confirmed" It said, absorbing the blade.
"Failure, item is too weak to be kept as a Special Grade. Reconfiguring. Item will be kept as a miscellaneous under 'Junk'" Root said.
"Harsh" I winced at The Root's bluntness.
If only Gwain could hear how useless his relic was, for it to be placed under junk. How hilarious.
"Eeek" I heard a squeal.
It came from the downcast noble. He had seen his noble knight die in a single half-assed hit. His only chance of survival, dead, just like that.
"Oh yeah, the Noble" I said, remembering he was still in the room.
Well, I was bored already.
"Consider yourself fortunate" I said to him. "I've had my fill of fun for tonight"
"Oh... You, You'll spare me? Thank you! Thank you!" The noble said, even bowing to me.
Desperation and the instinct to survive could drive even the proudest of men to stoop as low as possible at the slightest glimmer of hope.
"Well, I'm not entirely unreasonable" I said to myself, exiting the room.
The Noble wheezed as I walked past him, and finally breathed a sigh of relief as soon as I was out, he was truly happy to be alive.
"Oh wait" I said, popping my head back to the room.
"Eeeep" The Noble said, startled.
"Crap, I almost forgot." I spoke, walking back into the room.
"W-What is it?" The Noble said, still scared of my presence, but more relaxed knowing I had spared his life.
"Anything I can do for you?" He said, smiling nervously.
"Your memories. All of them!" I said in a grim tone.
His eyes immediately switched from hope to despair as his entire face contorted into fright as I used my hand to collect what I wanted.
"ARRRRRGHHHHHHH!!!!" His scream filled the manor.
I exited the manor after I was done with my business there. I saw the damage I had caused earlier in the night.
"Wow, I must have really been stressed." I said, surprised at how much damage I had caused.
However, that much was nothing.
I remembered something I had taken, the Jewel that caused the barrier around the manor. I brought it out of my pocket and looked at it closely.
"Looks like a Grade four treasure, or should I say relic?" I said with a grin.
Of course, to the gods and owners of those relics, they were known as treasures, like the ones I possessed. However, humans had named them relics.
Relics were divided into several categories. They were ranked from Grade nine to one and then there was also the Ultimate Grade. Grade nine was the weakest grade, while grade one was the most powerful. Ultimate grades were even more powerful, however they were rare and as such only royals or those with equivalent powers possessed them.
There were also the Irregulars. Irregulars were relics which did not fall under any of those categories and their full properties and uses remained unknown. Of course the most powerful of them were the Ultimate Relics, whose power, according to the memories I collected, were akin to the gods. I guess these Ultimate Relics would be the weapons or personal effects of the gods I killed and the ones who were destroyed during the war three thousand years ago.
I wonder what grade my own treasures would fall under if I were to classify them by the human standards.
Most likely my special grade would be Grade two or so relics. My divine treasures would be their Ultimate Grade relics. Primordial grade treasures should be non equivalent to any relic since all the Primordials were good and well, if there were any, it'd be my own treasures. Even then, I doubt any human possessed any Primordial treasures. If one possessed such, then the world would have been long destroyed.
"Well, for a Grade three relic to be classified as junk by the Root, maybe relics aren't so big a deal after all." I found myself thinking.
Though, it could have been that the humans who had been using it did not consider refilling the relics with Aspects in order to maintain its original power. If that was the case then the relic could have been more powerful some time ago.
"So the more time passes, the more the proficiency reduces, after all, humans don't know how to refill relics with Aspect properties" I said.
That meant I couldn't underestimate any relic as long as I didn't know its abilities. Some could be trickier than the ones I faced already and could also contain more Aspect concentration.
"Root." I said.
"Store this one also in the Treasure Space" I said, talking about the barrier jewel.
The Root absorbed that too and also put it in junk.
"As expected," I smiled.
Needless to say, I had to research the relics and learn more about the world. Thanks to the memories I had collected from those two, I had a better knowledge of this world now. Their sacrifice wasn't in vain.
"Well, this just got needlessly complicated" I said to myself.
According to the memories I collected, I was in it for the long haul.
[MEANWHILE]
"What did you just say?" A man, appearing to be the one in charge yelled.
"Sir, errm... We lost Sir Gwain. His life signature has vanished." A knight said, flustered.
"And the relic?" The man asked impatiently.
"Also gone. We sent men to check his last known location. There seemed to have been a huge slaughter there. It was Duke Northenheim's manor." The nervous knight said.
"Tch. And Sir Gwain's body?" The commander asked.
"Nowhere to be found, most likely it was taken by the perpetrator." The knight said.
"Any survivors or witnesses?" The commander said, calming himself.
"A-About that. There appears to be two." The knight said a bit nervously and unsure of what to do. "Spit it out! Who are they? What are their conditions?" The commander bellowed impatiently.
"W-Well, it's better you see them for yourself" The soldier said, leading the commander to the shelter where the two survivors were kept.
"We had to place them here since they seemed to be unresponsive. We restrained one though. His behavior was too erratic" The knight said, leading the commander to the room where they were.
"Gahhhh! Arghhhhh! Wiooohnkadhbdalhbedylblawww!!!" Unintelligible words came out of one of the two survivors who were in the room.
The other looked lifeless, his mind was completely broken and only drool dripped from his mouth. A living vegetable.
"My God. Is that who I think it is?" The commander said, walking to the madman who was bellowing loudly, flaunting his fat body and screaming.
"Yes sir, initially we were unsure of what to make of him, but after proper identification we confirmed his identity." The knight said.
"Duke Northenheim" The ommander was shocked to see a member of high nobility in such an insane state.
"Who could have done this?" The commander gritted his teeth.
"Most likely the perpetrator behind the slaughter of the Duke's household and also Sir Gwain's killer" The knight behind the commander answered.
"I know that already!!!" The Knight shouted, silencing the nervous knight.
"But just who would have the confidence to do this to the Emperor's distant relative. His cousin?
[MEANWHILE]
"Atchooo" I sneezed.
Maybe the cool breeze of the night gave me a cold?
"Nah, I'm immune to that" I smiled, laying down on the bed in the inn I had rented and looking at Talia who slept soundly beside me, completely oblivious to my exploits that night.
"Now then, what'll happen next?" I smiled in anticipation as I closed my eyes to sleep.