As Tenma's trembling fingers closed around the Reaver's drifting core, a new warmth surged through his chest.
His chipped sword — worthless, nameless — shivered in his grasp as ancient runes flickered faintly along its dull blade, like ghostly veins of light. For a second, it felt alive.
Takumi clapped him on the back, grinning wide despite the blood on his lip. "Look at you! The weakest sword, huh?"
Tenma barely heard him. The power felt different — not just strength, but something deeper, like the blade itself had whispered: This is only the beginning.
Akari sheathed her slender B-Rank sword, its edge now washed clean by a single swipe of her gloved hand. Her cloak — dark blue, trimmed with silver runes — fluttered as she turned toward the temple's shattered archway.
Beyond it, the Isekai world stretched out before them — a horizon of crimson forests, modern towers fused with towering gothic spires, and a distant floating castle with spell-scribed rings circling its spires like orbiting moons.
> "Don't stand there gawking," Akari said sharply, though the corner of her mouth twitched, almost approving. "You just made enough noise to wake every scavenger and half-turned Reaver in this sector. We need shelter before nightfall."
Takumi adjusted the cross-strap of his leather chest guard, the silver plates on his shoulders catching the fading crimson light. "You know a place?"
Akari nodded once. She pulled out a small glass shard from the pouch strapped to her thigh. Inside, a flickering map shimmered — a spell compass, its surface covered in tiny moving runes.
> "There's an old watchtower west of here — built before the merge. It's part castle, part research lab. Reinforced walls, magical barriers, maybe even supplies. We hold up there, plan our next move."
Tenma finally tore his eyes from his blade and looked at her. "Before the… merge?"
Akari tucked the shard away, her cloak swirling like a mage's mantle. "This world wasn't always like this. Pieces of different realms got pulled together — medieval kingdoms, modern cities, even some places that shouldn't exist at all. Magic runs through the land like veins now — that's how these swords were born."
Takumi let out a low whistle, peering at the drifting crimson sky where the fractured moon glowed like a dying lantern. "So… castles next to neon towers. Dragons and rail guns. Magic and machine."
Akari's eyes flicked to him, amused. "Exactly. It's beautiful. And deadly."
---
As they stepped out from the temple ruins, the cracked marble gave way to an overgrown path lined with glowing blue mushrooms and crystalline vines that pulsed softly under their feet. Strange glyphs hovered in the air where old spells had long since decayed, drifting like fireflies.
They weren't alone. Ahead, a group of students — or what was left of them — fought a massive beast that looked like a cross between a wolf and a steel golem. Its fur shimmered with arcane wards; its claws glowed with a hexed enchantment that left burning marks on the stone.
Akari pulled them back behind a ruined statue of a robed mage.
> "We don't have the power to take that thing on yet," she murmured. "We'll circle the perimeter."
Tenma nodded silently, clutching his runed blade. He still felt the pulse of the Reaver's core inside him, like a tiny heartbeat. His sword might still look dull, but now it glowed faintly when it touched the light — proof that even the weakest had secrets in this world of magic.
Takumi's eyes scanned the sky, where spell beacons floated like holographic orbs above distant towers. "So what's the plan? Get stronger? Find more S-Rank swords?"
Akari's eyes narrowed, her voice low and sharp as the wind. "We'll gather power — yes. But not just by hunting blindly like the others. We'll find out why these swords exist, why this world chose us. And we'll keep an eye on the Eclipse."
At the mention of that name, Tenma's breath caught.
Somewhere, in one of those distant floating castles, that boy — the Eclipse wielder — was out there, watching, waiting, his black blade resting across his shoulder like a king's scepter.
---
They slipped past the howling monster and moved west through the glowing forest, the faint ruins of ancient towers rising like teeth in the mist. Cracked neon signs from long-dead shops flickered among ivy and stone — a strange marriage of magic and ruin.
As they walked, Tenma fell back a step, staring at the runes that now pulsed weakly on his blade. He wondered if there was a spell hidden inside, a locked potential only he could awaken.
And for the first time, a spark of determination flickered in his chest — stronger than fear.
> I won't be the weakest forever.
Far above, the shattered moon shifted, its broken shards drifting like pieces of a puzzle. Somewhere within that moon's shadow, Eclipse turned his head — and for a moment, his cold smile curled just slightly.
> Run, hide, awaken your power.
In the end, only the strong can stand in the light.
The hunt was only beginning.
---
To be continued…
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