"Ahhhhh!"
The match started, and Lucia instantly dashed toward Shito, swinging down her sword that was covered in a gold light. The swing was powerful and gentle yet if it connected with a person, it would slice through them like butter—a precise strike filled with her mana.
A swing that was wide but perfected, hiding most of the visible weak points. Shito was a genius in battle and immediately parried her strike with one of his own. His sword was filled with enough power to cancel out her strike.
"A perfect counter…!?"
After saying that, she noticed that she was in the range of his attacks and immediately took a step out of his striking range.
"You seem to know a lot about this… have you been trying to perfect the perfect counter?"
Lucia smiled. "Of course, I have been trying to learn that attack. It's an attack that allows a swordsman to counter any attack that they can physically block. Every swordsman yearns to be able to use perfect counter, but—..."
"The truth behind the skill is that one would have to use a force that is equal to the person that they are fighting. That would be true for the skill-perfect counter, but what would happen if someone were to upgrade that skill…?"
"Hmmm…. Is there such a person that ever upgraded the perfect counter?"
Smiling brightly, Lucia immediately appeared in front of Shito, swinging her sword once more. The strike was enough to destroy an entire building, a swing that could completely kill a normal swordsman. A normal person would try to dodge her sword, Lucia's weapon was a long sword, a heavy weapon, which was made up of her mana.
But he was not an average person, and he liked to take attacks head-on. Being able to fight an interesting person once in a while was something he enjoyed doing and avoiding direct attacks would make the match less interesting.
He has many skills in his arsenal, even with most of them being sealed away by the seven seals, and he still had some of his skills. And one of the skills that he had was—
"Instantaneous Counter."
Chanting the name of his spell, his hands moved on their own, blocking the attack that had just been sent at him.
—Instantaneous Counter. A skill that allowed him to completely block attacks that were sent at him in an instant. It can be the first time that someone tries to attack him. No matter how strong the person is… as long as he has the skill active, then he would instantly dodge and counter his opponents' attacks. Although he always had the skill, he never really used it because his opponents were not strong enough to fight against him. A skill that was based on his range and instincts. No matter how fast his target was, his body would automatically dodge them. Even if they transcended space-time.
Shito was a person that could upgrade skills, making them stronger. Even though he could do the same thing with his knowledge, he created a skill that upgrades abilities since he didn't like wasting his time doing it. The skill that upgraded abilities that he copied so he could make them stronger. In a sense, the upgrade skill was like the ones that a person would receive when they are playing a game.
"Wh—, What the…. hell…!?"
Lucia's hand was knocked above her head, but she still had a firm grip on her sword. Her sword style allowed her to block her weak points from the front of her body. But now, every single weak point that she had was currently exposed. He broke her guard with an attack that was slightly stronger than hers.
Mana filled the tip of his blade, and he was contracting to make sure that he got the attack strong enough to knock her back without harming her.
"Now, let's see how you dodge this."
Saying that Shito tapped her chest with the tip of his blade. Normally his blade would pierce through anyone's body, including the gods, but he kept his blade from doing any damage to her physical body, directing a shockwave into her body.
All of Lucia's organs are protected by her mana, so none of her organs ever got damaged in a battle, but she felt some sort of pain from being hit by the attack.
"Aghhhh!" she groaned, feeling something inside of her body creaking. Her body was locked by some sort of chain, and now she was not restricted to what abilities she could use.
The attack had knocked her back, and she fell on her back. There she lay looking at the beautiful blue sky.
His eyes glowed in a black light. Via Void Eyes, he could sense the magic flow and blood flow of other people. The main ability that made void eyes possible was the ability to reduce anything to nothing.
He was currently looking at the magic flow of the girl who was lying on the ground before him. He could see that the ball of mana that was centered in her chest had finally been broken, allowing her mana to flow through her body freely.
"How does it feel to have the power that was locked in the depths of your body unleashed…?"
Lucia smiled as she was lying down on the ground before a sudden golden aura started to burst from her body. Blue specks shined brightly in her aura. It was almost like looking at the starry night sky.
"It actually feels good. I have never felt so full of power in my life. I could feel that something was holding me back from using my full power but having these limits on my body broken… the power that I have accumulated for all my life is finally in my hands."
"The power that was locked so deep into your body was the power of the hero. The hero keeps reincarnating to prevent the destruction of the world. As long as there are threats in the world, you will keep reincarnating. Just from looking at the sword Excalibur… I knew you had an interesting power in you, but I didn't expect you to be the reincarnation of the hero."
"After you broke the seal on my powers, my memories started to come back to me. The memories of all the countless lives I have lived and all the experiences that I have accumulated. Every time the hero reincarnates, the memory of her previous life goes with them so that when the seal is broken, they could gain their abilities."
The hero was a person who was equal to the demon king in power. The person who fought for the sake of keeping the world peaceful. The demon king cast a spell that kept him from dying, so every time the hero died, the hero would have to come back forever and ever because he was a threat to the world. It was a trap that the demon king set to make the hero keep coming back to fight with him.
Now that Lucia, the last hero, was reincarnated with her memories intact. She would be able to use her abilities. The holy sword arts were a sword still that she created throughout the countless lives she lived as the hero.
However, it has been over a hundred years since the hero came back to fight against the demon king. The world has gained more powerful people that she didn't know about, and of course, Shito was the first person that she had ever seen to be able to withstand her aura. An aura that would physically crush anyone who sensed it but sensed the barrier was over the arena. The crowd was protected from her aura.
"This is the first time that a human has ever been able to stand before me. This might be a fun battle; it's been a long time since someone from the human race dared to fight with me."
"You are still Lucia, right…?" he asked in a simple though clear voice. His facial expression never changed throughout the whole time they had been fighting, but he was curious about the person that was standing before him.
"Yeah, I'm still Lucia… I just have the knowledge from all the other countless lives that I have lived. After seeing all those lives, I have been able to gain knowledge about all the skills that I have, and my power has transformed my body into that of light."
The hero is the embodiment of light. Her body is based around attacks of the light element, so her attacks are strong depending on how much mana for the body she uses. The light element that was in the hero's body was one that could be brighter and stronger than the normal light element.
Shito gripped the longsword in his hand, "We have been talking for too long now. Let's go ahead and start this battle right now." he said, pointing his sword at his opponent.
Dashing forward, Lucia was ready to start her battle with her opponent, swinging down her sword, now covered in a translucent white light. The swing was perfect and elegant, even to the regular humans in the audience. She had gained all of the knowledge of how to use her skills and a body that improved all of her physical abilities. The name of the body was 'Holy Body.'
In an instant, he swung his sword upwards, completely knocking away the hero. The strength of the hero was nowhere near his, even with the holy body and the knowledge that she gained from her countless lives.
The hero, Lucia, landed on his feet approximately ten meters away from him.
"Now that you have unlocked your abilities, let's get a little more serious in the little duel that we are having against each other."
"Ok! I couldn't agree with you more!"
They stood in front of each other with a firm grip on their swords. A battle that had only just gotten interesting was going to become even more fierce.