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"Ahem, so anyway, I think you should take them to that monastery again," Yaga said. "Right?"
"Yes, I was thinking the sa thing," Elayne nodded. "Let’s go, everyone."
The entire group left the mansion and headed toward the monastery. This ti, Elayne was free from Blank’s watchful eyes, which always stopped her from buying whatever caught her interest. Before reaching the monastery, she and her group entered the marketplace again and approached a seller of rare, rusty-looking swords. He was an old Asura warrior, a tall, muscular man with three arms, sharp eyes, a bald head, and a long black beard. He wore praying bead necklaces and bracelets, and his body was covered with countless scars from the battles he had endured.
Elayne’s gaze fixed on the bone sword, the strongest weapon anyone was selling in this marketplace. It was hidden from plain sight, its energy unreadable to most, but Elayne could sense it clearly. She needed a good sword, a powerful weapon.
"Oh! Isn’t that the lady from before?" the Asura man greeted her with a warm smile. "You’ve returned, just as you promised! Do you still want the sword? The Bone Beast Blade. It has slain many creatures and warriors. I’m letting her go because I found sothing better. But I usually don’t sell her to just anyone. She has to choose soone she likes."
"Eh? Really?" Elayne asked.
Mark looked confused. "Elayne, who is he?"
She glanced back at Mark and explained. "He’s a weapon seller I t when we first arrived here. Rember when I got lost for a mont and Yaga got angry?"
"That’s right, now I rember!" Yaga’s eyes widened. "How much was that sword Elayne was so interested in, anyway?"
"Eight hundred Nether Stones, right?" Elayne asked, pulling out a bag containing them. "Here, I’ve brought them, sir."
"Oho!" the man nodded, rubbing his beard. "I see, I see. You’re not too shabby, girl. This will help stock up on alcohol. But before I accept, you have to ask her if she wants to join you. Lately, she’s been angry that I’m leaving her for another. Yet she has to understand she can’t help anymore. She needs to go out and aid soone else instead, right?" He spoke not to Elayne, but to his sword, gently caressing it. "Co on now, zombie girl, touch her. If she accepts you, she will glow."
"O-Okay..." Elayne nodded, reaching her hand toward the large, beautiful bone sword.
FLASH!
In an instant, part of her consciousness was pulled inside the sword. She found herself surrounded by a vast white void, with floating islands made of the corpses of giant Bone Beasts, a sea of phantoms ford from Ghostly Beasts, and a sky filled with nether clouds composed of Nether Beasts.
It wasn’t just forged from a hundred Bone Beast Souls, but from many other beasts as well, of all shapes and sizes. This Bone Sword was crafted from Nether and Ghostly Energies, blazing with power akin to a legendary weapon, though its strength seed sealed.
Within this strange Internal Mindscape that revealed the sword’s Soul and History, Elayne ca face to face with its true identity, the being that embodied its mind and consciousness.
A giantess. A bride. A skeleton clad in a dress of countless pelts, with long ghostly hair of dark blue and white phantasmal energies. Her empty eyes glowed with red flas as she stared at Elayne with deep interest. Within her surged the aura of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of creatures.
"You..."
A shiver ran down Elayne’s spine. She stepped back instinctively upon hearing that voice. Confusion flooded her—one mont she was in the marketplace, the next, inside this mysterious sword’s soul.
"You’re afraid of , aren’t you? Everyone is... Uuuhh... Waaahhh... Master... Why do you want to sell ?"
The giant skeleton, sensing her fear, seed angered, as if deeming her unworthy. Yet at the sa ti, Elayne noticed black miasma tears streaming down, revealing she didn’t want to part from her master.
"I don’t want to be separated from you... You’re my one and only master..."
Elayne stood perplexed as the giant skeleton bride continued weeping. Through her words, Elayne realized the Asura was likely a seasoned warrior, perhaps even a legendary figure disguised as an alcoholic weapon seller.
"Um, excuse ...?" Elayne slowly approached. The giant skeleton bride kept crying. "You... are you the Soul of this Blade?" She reached out, trying to touch her shoulder.
"D-Don’t touch !!!" the skeleton bride roared, opening her monstrous jaws as countless specters surged forth, attacking Elayne.
"Eek?! Are you serious?!" Elayne cried, dodging back as the specters—shaped like giant beasts such as wolves, lions, dragons, lizards, insects, and more—lunged at her.
She had to defend herself, or her soul would be devoured!
Without hesitation, Elayne dismantled her left arm, a Soul Projection, and reshaped it into a sword.
She swung her Soul Sword, slicing through the specters one by one while evading their soul-draining attacks.
"...?"
The Skeleton Bride slowly stopped crying as she watched Elayne fight desperately, struggling to reach her. Her red fla eyes flickered.
"Please, you don’t have to cry! Your master might not want you anymore, but I do! And I promise I will never abandon you!"
"...Who are you to say that?!"
"I am the one who will beco your new Master... So please, let love you."
"Ahhh!"
The Skeleton Bride trembled violently at the word "love," then clutched her skull with her hands.
"N-No...! You’re all liars! All swordsn are liars who discard their blades...! Ahhhh! I just don’t want to be alone...! For how long, oh dear father? For how long you will make suffer?"
Her aura erupted with countless shadows, forming giant black skeletons that attacked Elayne from every direction.
Elayne pressed forward, swinging her Soul Blade and unleashed Hero Swordsmanship Techniques. Blinding light burst forth, vanquishing the darkness.
Each strike released starlight attacks, techniques the Skeleton Bride had never witnessed in her long existence.
"...?!"
Her blazing eyes widened, but she shook her head again. From her own bones, bone beasts erged and charged, pushing Elayne back with their incredible durability, easily withstanding her blows.
"Nnnggh...! Please give a chance! That man has clearly found a better sword...! But that doesn’t an your life has to end...! Please believe !"
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