Hard Carried by My Sword-Chapter 120

Leon didn’t understand what Irexana meant. It wasn’t that he doubted his theory or found it shocking—it was simply that he didn’t know what “Chaos” referred to.

Sensing his confusion, El-Cid explained.

—It’s one of the sects that make up the Evil Order. They even went and split themselves into sects. Those trash with delusions of grandeur.

The Evil Order?

Only then did Leon grasp the gravity of the situation, and his eyes widened in alarm. The Evil Order, also known as just “Evil,” was poison who would sell out the world to satisfy their own desires.

Betrayers of the world. Beyond redemption, they were the sworn enemies of any true Hero.

The ones who attempted the City Swallowing in Blaine had been part of it too, but he never imagined their reach extended even into the Kingdom of Jugend. Whether he understood Leon’s concern or not, Irexana finished his message.

—I doubt the agents of Chaos will deliberately target the expedition or lay traps for you, but please be cautious. I’ve stationed some of our brothers in M13 to assist you in an emergency. If you speak to Sir Geoff, he’ll be of help.

That was the last message. When Leon instinctively turned his head, he saw Geoff already looking his way and nodding politely. It wasn’t the way one greeted a mere adventurer. Irexana must have given him advance notice.

If I’m remembering correctly, Unit 11 was made up of three Inquisitors and one spirit mage.

And the spirit mage was likely another agent dispatched by the Church, which meant that Leon effectively had twice the support power at his disposal if needed.

He had no complaints. What he needed more urgently was information about Chaos.

El-Cid continued, —The Evil Church is split into three major sects: Destruction, Despair, and Chaos.

The Evil doesn’t worship gods. Even their demon worship was merely a means to gain exolaw power. At its core, it was all transactional.

For those reasons, the sects weren’t defined by religious beliefs. They were defined by types of madness, each sect distinguished by the kind of insanity.

—Destruction is the simplest. Most of the atrocities people associate with the Evil Order come from them. Their one and only goal is to annihilate the world. I’d bet a decent sum that City Swallowing was their doing, too.

Why would they want to destroy the world?

El-Cid answered bluntly, —Who knows? Don’t try to understand the mind of a lunatic. If something can’t be justified under any circumstance, then there’s no need to consider its reasons. Just destroy them.

So that’s why they’re heretics... Because no mercy can be granted.

—Exactly. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

The core doctrine of the Holy Church was mercy. Even if one sinned, if their actions hadn’t gone too far, they were to be given a chance for trial, time to repent, and an opportunity to make amends. That was the Church’s principle.

Thus, being labeled a heretic meant no such chances would be given. No mercy.

—Despair is even crueler than Destruction. Think of it this way: they prefer torture over killing.

Ah.

—It’s said the exodimensional god they worship derives pleasure from the suffering of sentient beings. That’s probably why the followers of Despair tend to be sadists or masochists.

If Destruction sought efficient annihilation, Despair preferred inefficient means that drew out as much pain as possible.

Some even tortured themselves to receive power. Followers of Despair often looked completely deranged. Some deliberately infected themselves with disease or harmed their own bodies into ruin.

None of them is sane...

Leon grimaced at the incomprehensible behavior, while El-Cid moved on to the third and final sect.

—Chaos are just lunatics.

That’s it...?

—That’s the most accurate way to put it. There’s no pattern to their actions or goals. They’re completely and utterly insane, every single one of them. Their crimes lack any clear “why.” Why there? Why that way? Why do it at all? Nothing makes sense.

Their randomness was what made them Chaos. Their only purpose was to throw the world into further disorder.

Unlike Destruction and Despair, whose warped ideologies still followed a consistency of twisted logic, Chaos had no such thing. Their power and brutality might be lesser by comparison, but the unpredictability made them far more dangerous. That was likely why Irexana hadn’t sounded entirely sure.

—Unit 11, entering M13-1.

—Unit 14, heading into M13-5! See you in a bit.

Just then, the voices of the two unit leaders snapped Leon back to attention. He’d been so focused on El-Cid’s explanation that he hadn’t noticed that they were already approaching their respective branches.

The time to enter the mineshafts had come. Leon followed suit and reported their own status.

—Unit 8 entering M13-2. See you guys inside.

After giving a nod to the other two leaders, Leon turned and led his team into the shaft where lamps hung at even intervals overhead. Unlike in B38-5, everything here seemed well-maintained. None were broken or unlit, and visibility extended roughly fifty meters. Since the path wasn’t straight, every corner created a blind spot.

From here on, the true expedition began.

“Karen,” Leon called.

“Yeah.”

Just as they had discussed beforehand, they assumed their formation. Karen took point as the scout, Leon followed as the vanguard, Hazel the Witch took the center, and Garlond covered the rear, guarding against ambushes. The four advanced in that formation.

M13-2 was a mithril mine. Their defining feature was that there was a significant amount of mana accumulated across the entire vein, suffusing the air with a faint glow. It wasn’t for nothing that top-tier artifacts required mithril as a core material.

“In here, both Aura and mana will recover faster. Spells will hit harder, too. But...” Hazel explained, warning them that it wasn’t all upside. “Mana saturation reduces the precision and range of detection magic. Don’t expect much from my sensing abilities.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Leon said as he nodded and took a few more steps forward.

Then, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

“Karen, halt.”

At once, Karen froze. Without question, without objection.

This was something the two of them had done dozens of times before, but there was clear confusion in the two newcomers.

Regardless, Leon closed his eyes. Then, he raised his right foot and stomped once, making a soft thump.

The Aura that flowed from his sole rippled outward in concentric waves, swept through the area, then returned to him. He had used Wave-Reverberation Technique, one of the derivative techniques of Spacework.

“Karen, throw daggers where I mark.”

“Got it.”

They showed a bond of trust without a hint of hesitation. When Leon pointed to four places along the tunnel wall, Karen slotted daggers between her fingers.

The Shadow Bow could fire up to four daggers at once. She used her index and middle fingers, ring and pinky, from both hands as supports.

Four daggers shot out at supersonic speed, slicing through the tunnel walls with deafening force and spraying dust.

Though it looked like a meaningless barrage at first, the series of rumblings that followed showed that it, in fact, wasn’t. The Crag Mutants hidden within the mine stirred to life, their mithril-infused bodies shimmering with a silvery-white sheen.

There were fewer of them than in B38, but each was at least three times stronger. Still, having been hit by Karen’s pre-emptive strike, some of them had broken parts and looked a mess.

Hazel cried out in shock, “How did you detect them? I was taught that dormant Crag Mutants can’t be found, even with high-level magic!”

“One of the secret techniques. Let’s talk about it later,” Leon said as he took a step forward. “After we’ve dealt with these things.”

He quickly scanned their numbers. Seven were fine. Three were damaged. One had been unlucky—perhaps a dagger had struck its core. It had collapsed halfway through rising. Noting that there were eleven in total, he pulled knowledge from the guidebook.

Crag Mutants in mithril mines store mana in their bodies and can use one to three primitive spells. But to do so, they must form their mana core near the heart, which is a weakness.

Garlond stepped up behind him and said, “Leader, give us your orders.”

“Hazel, bind their feet with low-tier magic. Karen, do whatever you want while keeping to mid-range. Garlond, take the front line with me and strike whenever you see an opening.”

“Understood!”

“Got it.”

The moment the four of them shifted into battle formation, the Crags leaned forward and stepped in. Though lighter than the ones from the black iron mine, these still weighed hundreds of kilograms. The mithril Crags closed a thirty-meter gap in seconds, charging like an avalanche to crush the swordsmen, but Hazel’s magic landed a beat ahead.

“O, wind, become my arrows.”

With just a few words and a wave of her wand, the air condensed into sharp spearpoints. Thirty bolts—as expected of an A-rank mage, even low-tier spells had volume.

The thirty wind arrows fired like a crossbow barrage, hammering the Crags’ balance points and halting their charge. Seizing the moment, the swordsmen dashed in to close the remaining gap.

Leon’s Holy Sword caved in a Crag’s torso, sending it staggering several steps back. Its durability was at least three tiers above that of those from the black iron mine. Aura Sword alone wasn’t enough to cut them down in one swing.

Eclipse could do it, but...

The amount of Aura it would drain would be ridiculous. Clicking his tongue at the density of their defense, Leon switched tactics.

Cuts worked in lines, while thrusts struck in points. Against Crags with a clearly visible weakness, stabbing would be more effective. Still, it would take at least three thrusts. More, if he made a mistake.

Wait a second.

A new thought flashed through his mind.

If I already know where the core is... and I have a technique that can push power past its outer layer and into it...

Why struggle to break through their physical defenses when he could destroy the mana core directly? If he applied Spacework, it might just work.

His golden eyes gleamed brightly. The mana flow surrounding each Crag’s core twisted visibly. It was something only the Stigma of the Observer could reveal.

That vortex was the weakness. Unlike the black iron variants, these Crags had enough mana for even their pulses to be traced.

“Hup!”

In a split-second opening, Leon’s sword shot out like lightning and struck a Crag square in the chest.

Aura lingered around the blade, then shivered once before surging inward through the point. Though the thrust was clean, the external wound was minor. Only a few centimeters deep, barely enough to say it “stabbed.”

However, the internal explosion couldn’t be withstood. Following a crack, the Crag trembled, then collapsed to the ground, no longer moving. To the others, it was an unbelievable sight.

“It works.”

Leon grinned after felling it with one blow. His four days of training had paid off.

Injecting Aura using Spacework turned out to be easier than expected. Unlike Wave-Reverberation, this technique compressed the Aura into a point and detonated it inside the target.

If he’d faced a human, they might’ve blocked the intrusion with their own Aura, but monsters that relied on brute force had no such defense. And since he already knew where the core was, it would be weirder if it didn’t fall in one hit.

“These are stronger than the Crags from B38, but they’re actually easier to deal with.”

Compared to the black iron ones, where he had to first locate the core, this was a streamlined fight. He could definitely save strength this way.

El-Cid spoke.

—Void Shatter, huh? Not a bad little trick.

Void Shatter?

—The name of the technique you just used. Injecting Aura to destroy from within—like internal implosion. It only works on nonliving things for now, but with more training, you could use it to break wards or compressed forces like Aura Weapons.

Though it couldn’t surpass physics-defying powers like Aura Blade, it was still a practical tool beneath that level. Leon took it to heart and leveled his sword again.

More than half the Crag Mutants still remained, but they were no longer a threat.

Guess I’ll get some practice in.

Glancing at his teammates holding their own just fine, Leon lunged at a lone Crag. With another crack, it fell instantly once again. The tide of the battle had tipped.

Unit 8’s first engagement wasn’t a very long one at all.