“I’m surprised you didn’t cut her blade in half immediately,” I said.
“Powerful swordsman like Mother can infuse their blade with their mana. This works ideally for magic blades, but any blade can accept a level of mana. This will cause it to be reinforced. The reason we were able to annihilate General Nova’s blade so quickly was that you had caught him off guard. He hadn’t expected us to attack which such a powerful sword. Mother is far more cautious.” Alysia explained.
“Can’t you cut mana?”
“Yes, but not easily, and especially not when it’s interwoven with the structure of an already solid physical object. Just because I can cut a string doesn’t mean if you weave all those strings into a rope that I would be able to cut that.”
So, it was like that. I felt a little sad. I had been growing used to cleaving down enemies in a single sweep. I supposed it was only fitting that such a trick would only work on the particularly weak enemies. A stronger enemy had various tricks to defend themselves. Of course, as Alysia grew stronger, and I did as well, our ability to handle stronger enemies would also increase.
Our blades smashed into each other, but it wasn’t clear who was the victor just yet. Xin leaped back, and then attacked again. Her blade moved like lightning, and she reminded me of the Xin I had encountered in the Twilight dungeon. That Xin had aided me in defeating the demon king, and had also given her life for me.
“Alysia… don’t strike to kill her. Concentrate all of your strength into knocking her unconscious.”
“M-master… while it’s true that she was once my mother, that would have died long ago. As you said, this is merely a puppet. I’m not afraid to kill her. For all we know, Aberis planted a seed inside her and once we defeat him, he’ll come back again. I don’t want to take that risk!”
Alysia was far more ruthless than I would have thought. However, she had misunderstood me. It wasn’t because she was Alysia’s mother that I was looking to spare her. Rather, I had a much more selfish reason.
“I can bring your mother back,” I explained as I dodged another strike from her mother. “Rather, it’d be more accurate to say that I already brought her back.”
“Wh-what are you saying?’
“Remember what Demon Lord Aberis and I spoke about? Your mother tried to cut the Demon Lord Aberis from herself to save her two children. That means that for a time, there were two Xin’s. One Xin went north and the other south. The other Xin was trapped in a dungeon, but for various reasons, I’ve recovered a piece of her body and soul. I believe that this Xin would contain another piece. In short, if I combine them, I can bring your mother back.”
“I-is that true?” She spoke in a stunned voice. “Deek, can we afford the risk? What if the personality of this Xin wins out, and you only destroy the other?”
“I… have faith in my Xin. It’s as simple as that.”
“Then, I will do as Master commands.”