WIEDERGEBURT Act V: Chapter 12

Jonatan Gardner was a swordsman from the renowned Divine Sword Sect. They were not a large sect, but a small group of elites who trained only in sword techniques. Everything, from their Spiritualism to their Spiritual Techniques, dealt specifically with the sword and nothing else. Erica even heard a rumor once stating that none of the swordsman within the Divine Sword Sect were below the Second State of Spiritualism.

Erica held her claymore in front of her, gripping it with both hands as she spread her feet shoulder width apart, placed her dominant foot forward, and squared her shoulders. Her battle corset was tight. She felt it press against her chest as she breathed in, but fortunately, she was wearing breast bindings that kept herself from spilling out of the top.

“I’ve always wanted to fight you,” Jonatan said as the battle started. It looked like he wanted to have some pre battle banter before they began. That was fine with Erica.

“Have you now?” asked Erica, raising a delicate eyebrow.

“You are the personal disciple of Alexis Mutig, the youngest person to ever reach the Third State of Spiritualism. You have been trained in how to use the claymore from a young age. What’s more, you are incomparably beautiful. Why wouldn’t I wish to do battle with such a woman?”

Erica pulled her lips into a smile. “You flatter me.”

“What do you say we make this competition more exciting,” said Jonatan.

“Oh?”

Erica would admit to being curious as to what this man wanted, but really, there were only a few things men like this wanted from her. They could be counted on one hand. In fact, she only needed two fingers to count them.

“A wager. If I win, I want you to become my woman,” Jonatan spoke in a loud voice—loud enough that everyone could hear him.

The arena stands became silent at this declaration. Erica could not quite see the faces of everyone since they all tended to blur when they were pressed together like that, but she could well imagine the kinds of faces those people were making. Some might be expressing admiration, others disgust, and a few might even be confused about why a man was trying to make Erica his woman in the middle of a tournament.

Erica pretended to silently deliberate, but she already knew what her response would be. There was only one response she could make to such an outrageous wager.

“I apologize, but when you make a wager, both parties must be giving up something of equal value,” Erica said in a voice that was soft but nevertheless carried throughout the entire arena. “You wish me to give up my freedom and become your woman, but you have nothing of value that is equal to my freedom. I’m afraid this wager is something I will have to decline.”

While her words weren’t unreasonable, men like Jonatan were not the kind who understood logic and reason. The swordsman’s once glittering eyes became hard and cold. Erica was unbothered by his expression, which was the kind men wore when someone trampled upon their pride.

“Fine,” he spat. “In that case, I will simply subdue you and make you my woman!”

With a shout, Jonatan drew his longsword from his waist. It was a single-edged sword that was maybe a foot away from being the same length as Erica’s claymore. The hilt was made to look like a dragon’s mouth. It was a very intricate weapon, but Erica thought all those gaudy decorations were wasteful. A weapon was a device for killing, not for looking pretty.

A powerful Spiritual Aura erupted from Jonatan, lightning skittering across his body in arcs before, like his body had become a whirlpool, all the lightning was sucked back in. A soft blue glow covered the surface of his skin as he entered the Second State of Spiritualism. The weapon in his hand also began flowing. Several bolts of lightning shot from the weapon as if it couldn’t contain all that power inside of it.

Jonatan finally moved after all of his preparations were complete. His feet shuffled along the ground in an odd pattern, a dance that was both rhythmic and offbeat. Every time he took a step, the ground beneath him turned pale blue with lightning. The speed of his movements increased, until it looked like his legs had become invisible.

Then he vanished.

At least, he did to most of the people watching in the stands.

***

“Oh?”

I perked up when I saw the Spiritual Lightning Technique Jonatan was using. To most people in the stands, it probably looked like he had disappeared, but I could follow his movements easily enough. Watching with keen eyes, I leaned forward and studied Jonatan’s movements as he danced around Erica like a flash of lightning.

“Lightning Movement,” I said at last.

“Excuse me?” asked Alexis.

“It’s the name of his Spiritual Lightning Technique,” I continued.

“How does it work?” asked Fay, more interested now than she was before.

“It’s all in the movements of his feet,” I explained. “That strange dance he did before channeled lightning to the bottom of his feet, which allows him to skate across the ground as though he was walking on air. This exponentially increases his speed. It’s a great technique for a swordsman who relies on speed to attack.”

At this point, Jonatan had not attacked. He was merely moving around Erica in a constant circle, his movement now so fast he created a series of afterimages. Most people would have been confused by such an intense technique. However, when I looked at Erica’s calm expression, a smile crossed my face.

“Of course, a Spiritual Technique like this is only useful if the person you are using it against cannot keep up with you,” I finished.

***

Erica remained calm as Jonatan continued trying to confuse her with afterimages. She closed her eyes since they were useless and reached out with Spiritual Perception, tracking the man as he traveled around her in a constant circle. Like that, she remained still and waited for him to attack.

She didn’t have to wait long. Jonatan must have been getting frustrated by how she wasn’t moving, or maybe he was simply impatient. With a roar that could shatter a person’s eardrums, he appeared behind her and swung his sword. The movement was so quick it looked like his blade was a mere flicker of lightning.

Erica spun around on the balls of her feet, her own weapon igniting with flames so intense they turned white. She compressed the flames along her blade. They didn’t even look like flames because of how much she had compressed them. Like that, she slammed her own weapon into Jonatan’s, but there was no clang of metal, no clashing of steel. Jonatan’s sword was sliced straight through.

Jonatan didn’t even have time to be surprised. As the upper portion of his sword spun through the air, Erica twisted her wrists and struck him with the flat end of her blade. Jonatan was wearing armor. However, the steel cuirass shattered the moment her weapon struck it. A scream of agony escaped from Jonatan’s mouth as he found himself being lifted off the ground, sent flying backwards, and striking the arena stage so hard he cracked the tiles.

The crowd went silent as everyone saw what happened. Erica did not say a word as she waited to see if Jonatan would get back up. Meanwhile, the sword portion that had been lazily spinning through the air struck the ground with a clatter.

Jonatan didn’t move for the longest time, making Erica wonder if maybe he passed out from pain when she shattered his armor, but then, as if to disprove her theory, he struggled to sit up. It took a lot of effort. His face was red and he was gasping for breath as he placed a hand against his chest. Erica was certain she had cracked one or two of his ribs.

After sitting up, Jonatan began looking for his sword, which he had dropped. It was several yards away from him. However, even if he could stand up and grab it, it wouldn’t matter since the sword had been cut through.

Erica walked forward with slow, leisurely steps, causing Jonatan to look up, his pale face growing even paler. She walked until she was standing right in front of him. Then, using only one hand to hold the massive claymore, she pointed the weapon at his face.

“This battle is over,” she declared. “You have lost.”

No one spoke, which made the words she said reverberate across the entire arena. Everyone held their breaths. They were all waiting to see how Jonatan would react.

Jonatan’s face twisted with reluctance, but as he stared at the sword being pointed at his face, he found himself at a loss. His expression soon relaxed. With a sigh, his shoulders slumped as if all the fight had gone out of him.

“I surrender,” he said at last.

One moment passed. Then two. Finally, the announcer who had been watching from the sidelines shouted into his microphone.

“Ladies and gentleman! The winner of the first round of the Council of Six Selection Tournament is Erica Kjærlighet!”

***

“That was a good fight,” Fay said as the battle concluded. Jonatan was having trouble standing up, so a pair of medics had come onto the stage and were helping him walk off. Meanwhile, Erica walked off herself, presenting an imposing and noble image as she hopped off the stage and walked to the exit with her claymore resting over her shoulder.

“It ended too quickly,” Lin said with a huff and crossed arms. “That Jonatan fellow was pathetic. This princess cannot believe someone so weak was allowed to participate in this tournament.”

“Actually, Jonatan is ranked as one of the top 100 strongest Spiritualists in the Northern Plains,” Alexis informed them.

“What?! Seriously?!”

“Seriously.”

Lin looked shocked, but the rest of us understood the simple truth of Alexis’ words. We were an anomaly among people. You couldn’t judge the Spiritualists of the Northern Plains by our standards because that simply wasn’t fair to them. Of course, Lin, as the person who had spent the most time training the Nevarian Braves’ forces, had even stricter standards than everyone else, so it wasn’t like I blamed her for having such skewed perceptions.

“It looks like Erica won’t have any trouble taking first place,” Kari said as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

“That is assuming Fritz doesn’t have a good grasp of his element,” Alexis said with a shake of her head. “Both of them have reached the Third State of Spiritualism, which means neither has the advantage of power. However, Fritz entered the Third State at least half a year ago. Erica only entered a month ago. If he has a more solid grasp over the darkness element than she does her fire, the victory will go to him.”

“Hmmm…”

I hummed a bit as I thought about Fritz and his abnormal power. I still sensed there was something off about his Spiritual Powers, but I couldn’t figure out what…

“Ladies and gentlemen! It is time for the second match!” the announcer suddenly shouted, bringing my focus back onto the stage. “Will the competitors Karen Airelight and Fritz Anderson come up?! Your battle begins now!”

The announcement of who was fighting sent a slight chill down my spine. Alexis also seemed worried for she leaned forward and penetrated the arena floor with an intense gaze.

At that moment, Karen and Fritz both walked onto the arena stage and stood on opposite sides of each other. The feeling of wrongness I’d been sensing became even worse when I saw Fritz come on stage. There was a cocky smirk plastered on his face, twisting it into something truly unpleasant. His expression reminded me of a Demon Beast instead of a human.

I glanced at Karen. Her face was pretty pale, like it had been drained of blood. Her shoulders were also shaking a little. She knew of the rumors regarding this man, so I wasn’t surprised by the worry I sensed coming from her.

The announcer either didn’t feel the tension hanging in the air, or maybe he just didn’t care. Silas came onto the stage and raised the microphone to his mouth.

“All right, you two! Get ready! Your battle begins in three, two, one, and… fight!”

***

Karen did not want to admit she was nervous, not even to herself, because she knew all of her nerves would leave her if she did that.

Fritz was standing in front of her. He was just a few meters away. She could see his face perfectly. He wore an arrogant smirk on his ugly face. He looked like he was already anticipating his victory in this tournament, which pissed her off, but that anger was offset by terror. She couldn’t explain why she was so afraid, however. There was just something wrong about this man.

“Are you ready to lose?” asked Fritz.

Karen bit her lip, but she gripped her broadsword and slid into a combat ready stance as she said, “I am ready to win.”

“Ha ha ha! Good! Good! I like confident women like you!” Fritz reached behind him and unsheathed the broadswords from his back. “One of the greatest pleasures in life is breaking confident women and turning them into my meat toilets! Gya ha ha ha ha!”

Karen curled her lips in disgust, not only at his vulgar words, but also had his grating laugh. She’d never met a more unpleasant individual in her entire life. Just being near this man was enough to make her skin crawl. However, listening to him talk about how he liked breaking women made her mad enough that she overcame her fear with anger.

Without hesitation, she unleashed her Spiritual Aura. Water bubbled around her skin. Swirling motes appeared in the air, sparkling in the sunlight. The motes did not remain there for long, however, as Karen quickly sucked in her Spiritual Aura to enter the Second State of Spiritualism.

Fritz did not make any move to stop her. He wore the same amused smirk on his face that he had since before the fight even began. It was clear to Karen that this man was looking down on her.

“Are you finally ready?” asked Fritz. “You’ve been making me wait so long I was starting to fall asleep.”

Karen gritted her teeth, but she did her best to remain calm. She could not let herself get heated. If she lost herself to anger, she wouldn’t be able to think clearly.

“Here I come!” she shouted before bursting off the ground and sprinting forward.

She closed the distance between her and Fritz within a few seconds, swung her sword, and watched without surprise as Fritz merely stepped aside to dodge it. This did not deter her. She swung again, spinning around and attacking from the other side. It was dodged again. However, Karen continued to attack, her movements never ceasing even once. She flowed from one attack into another like water.

As she attacked, her blade began glowing a bright blue. Water swirled around the edge, creating what appeared to be a miniature tornado. The water moved faster and faster, increasing her blade’s cutting power. If she struck Fritz or anyone with this weapon, it would tear through their flesh, muscles, and bones with ease.

Not that it mattered right now.

After all, that was only if her attack hit.

Fritz proved how talented he was by avoiding all of her attacks like he had precognition. His movements were fast and precise as he stepped around her swinging sword, laughing all the while.

“Gya ha ha ha! Is this all you have?! I heard the Battling Valkyries were one of the strongest sects in the Northern Plains! How could they have such a weakling in their ranks?! Gya ha ha ha ha!”

Not only was he speaking casually as if he wasn’t in combat, but his words were insulting to both Karen and her sect, causing the woman’s anger to grow. A red haze fell over her eyes as she found herself wanting to do nothing more than beat this man until he was a bloody pulp.

But desires were just that. Desires. They could not be achieved unless someone had the strength to achieve them, and Karen was beginning to realize she did not have the strength to fight against this man. This fact became more and more clear as the battle continued. Thus far, it had been Karen doing all the attacking, and Fritz had merely dodged each attack with ease.

Since it looked like her sword arts were doing nothing, she tried something else, spinning around in a circle and drawing patterns in the air with her sword. Water left a sparkling trail through the air. The streamer of water separated and transformed into many droplets. On her return swing, the droplets shot forward faster than the human eye could blink. This was one of her Spiritual Water Techniques: Water Bullets.

Fritz merely snorted and remained standing in place. The water bullets slammed into his body and disappeared. Karen gawked when she saw each bullet vanish. What… what just happened?

“Is that all you’ve got?” asked Fritz.

Karen snarled as she tried to push back her fear and began dancing in place, water swirling around her, moving faster and faster until it turned into a fierce tornado. She held out her sword and the water moved toward it, moving around her blade, which she thrust forward.

A massive tornado of water erupted from her sword and raced toward Fritz. Once again, he did nothing, letting the attack slam into him, only for it to disappear. However, this time, Karen was able to see what happened. Small distortions of darkness swirled around his body and devoured her technique.

It was the darkness element.

“Hmph. If this is all you have, then I think I’ll attack now,” Fritz said, finally getting ready to attack.

Karen did her best to prepare herself to receive his attack. She didn’t know what he was going to do, but she knew he had reached the Third State of Spiritualism and possessed the darkness element. Surely that meant he would attack using the shadows.

No matter how prepared Karen thought she was, no amount of preparation could get her ready for what came next.

She leapt back to protect herself from whatever Fritz wanted to do, but the moment she backed off, a sharp pain pierced her back.

***

I stood up from my seat the moment I saw what happened. A black orb had appeared behind Karen, turned into a bolt of black lightning, and pierced straight through her back. It had been such a quick and vicious attack that I was certain no one but the people in this room and the other VIPs like Rainere had seen what happened.

“How could he unleash such a vicious attack?!” Alexis shouted as she also stood up, her eyes wide in horror. “Is he trying to kill the members of my sect?!”

My wives were also watching the arena with rapt attention, lips drawn into a thin line. It was easy to see what all of them were thinking. This man, Fritz, had clearly attacked Karen using this method knowing how much damage it could do. If that attack pierced her vitals, it could kill her, and if it pierced her Spiritual Pathways…

“That man is truly vicious,” Lin said. “This princess does not like him.”

Kari nodded. “He reminds me of Grant Leucht, but unlike that man, this Fritz actually has the power to do whatever he wants. Few people in the Northern Plains can stop him.”

“I hate people like that,” Fay said, biting her lower lip.

While the women were talking, I decided to quietly slip out of the room. Only Siv, who stood quietly by the window, seemed to notice me leaving. Yet she did not say a thing as she watched me walk out through the reflection in the window.

***

A gasp escaped Karen’s lips as she stumbled forward. She was so shocked that the pain actually didn’t hit her at first. All she felt was a sense of deep confusion. She just couldn’t figure out what had hit her.

On the ground barely half a meter from her was a small hole, which had not been there before. As she stared at this hole, she finally noticed the wetness leaking down her chest, staining her torso. She raised a hand to her chest and felt the wetness. When she pulled her hand away, she saw that it was covered in blood.

There was a hole in her back and chest.

That was when the pain hit her.

“Ah! Ahhh!”

Karen’s scream echoed around the arena, but before she could really start, something powerful slammed into her chest with the force of a ten ton boulder. Her scream was abruptly cut off. She couldn’t even gasp as she was lifted off her feet. The world around her flew by, and then she nearly swallowed her tongue as her back hit the arena floor.

As she lay there gasping, Karen attempted to curl her body around her wound. She never got the chance. Fritz appeared in that moment and stomped on her chest. He had stomped right where the hole was, which caused more blood to gush from the wound, while at the same time, the pain she’d been feeling returned with vengeance.

“AAAAHHHH!!!”

Fritz wore a smile as though he was enjoying her screams. He looked like a connoisseur sipping in her anguish as though it was a fine wine.

“That’s right! Scream for me! Let me hear it! I want to hear your tortured cries! Gya ha ha ha ha!”

Everyone else in the arena was dead silent. No one spoke as this terrifying scene played out. Many had swallowed their tongues. Quite a few of them had grown pale, and some even looked green as they watched this woman get tortured by Fritz.

“AHH! AHHHHH!!!”

“Gya ha ha ha ha! This is a sound that I never get tired of hearing.” Fritz revealed his ugly yellow teeth as he grinned at the screaming Karen. “You might not know this, but when I was younger, I used to listen to my mom screaming like this whenever my dad came home drunk. At the time, I didn’t understand why my old man enjoyed torturing my mom so much, but once I tried it for myself, I understood. Its power. The power you hold over someone else. Knowing you have the power to do whatever you want to someone, knowing they can do nothing against you, is the greatest feeling in the entire world.”

He spoke with incredible nonchalance, even as he ground his heel into Karen’s wound, even as her screams reached a crescendo. He was speaking like he wasn’t torturing her at all. Many people gulped as they listened to him, their tongues dry and swollen.

Silas should have made the announcement to end the fight. It was clear that Karen was finished, but he stood several meters away, gaping instead. He was simply so shocked by this turn of events that he couldn’t even speak.

“Gya ha ha ha! Well, this has been fun, but I think it’s about time I end things.” He gazed at the screaming Karen with reluctance, like he wanted to keep torturing her. “Don’t worry. I won’t kill you, but… heheheh… I’m afraid you won’t be able to practice Spiritualism once I’m done with you. See, I need that Spiritual Power of yours, so I’m gonna take it. Hope you don’t mind.”

Fritz stepped off Karen’s chest, but the woman didn’t seem to even notice, such was the pain she felt. Fritz licked his lips.

“It’s such a shame. You’re a beautiful woman. I would have preferred having my way with you as I did this. It’s so much more fun that way, but I can’t do that when everyone is watching.”

Reaching out with his hand, Fritz was barely ten centimeters from grabbing the woman by the head—when something powerful slammed into him.

Fritz screamed as he was sent hurtling backwards. His entire body was covered in arcs of blue lightning. He moved so fast all that most people saw was a blue streak as he slammed into the arena wall. The barrier that had been set up to prevent the viewers in the stands being injured shattered like fragile glass, the wall broke like it was made of paper instead of several meter thick stone. Cracks spread from the point of impact as the arena shook like it had been struck by a meteor. Everyone was screaming at the sudden feeling. Some people crouched on the ground and covered their ears, while others trampled on each other as they ran like headless chickens.

Karen, who was still lying on the ground, gasped and panted for breath as she looked at the figure in front of her. She couldn’t figure out who it was. Her vision was blurry. However, she thought she recognized the blue and white outfit. She lifted her hand with monumental effort, but then sighed and let the hand fall back to the arena floor as the world around her became dark.