Golden Cross: Chapter 13

Chapter 13.  Bertha, the Sword Spirit 1

…..

 “Gosh.  What am I doing, liking someone who is 6 years younger than me.”

 “Gosh.  What am I doing, liking someone who is 6 years older than me.”

As Eugene responded back in like manner, Ava thought that it was a cheap shot.

 “Come on, a man always trying to get the last word in.  Ah, gosh, I really made a bad wish to the spirit.”

 “Spirit?  Wish?  What are you talking about?”

In response to Eugene’s question, Ava got up from the ground and dusted herself.  Then, flicking her finger to signal Eugene to follow her, she led the way.

 “Where are you going, all of a sudden?”

 “You’ll see.”

She led him to a cave on the mountain’s hillside.

 “Wow, there is a cave in the place like this?”

 “Yup.  It’s not that deep.  I used to play here often.  I had an older brother then, so used to come here with him, often.”

Eugene did not ask after hearing the words at that time.  It was because the expression on Ava was quite sad.

 “There resides a spirit here.”

 “What, really?”

 “Yah, really.”

The inside of the cave was a bit dark, but as it was still daylight, moving ahead wasn’t too difficult.  They came to what looked to be a small vacant room after about 10 meters in, and light was entering in through the cracks of the wall.  It felt warm and dry there.

 “There is a place like this.”

 “Yah.  It’s not really sealed in from outside, but except me and my brother, no one else could come here.  Look there.”

When he looked over to where Ava was pointing, he found a rusty sword staked through a boulder.

 “Is, is that the spirit?”

 “Yah.  My dad heard it from a famous sorcerer, and he said that this looks like an old sword, but it was in fact, a spirit.  It could not be removed until the right swordsman of its choice tried it.”

For some reason, it sounded like an old legend.  According to Ava, it was some sorcerer that left the sword pierced into that boulder.  The sorcerer had hidden the sword, on behalf of the sword’s owner who had already died.

 “I do remember hearing something like that when I was younger.”

 “Hohoho.  I know the legend of King Amundal.  But this is not like that.”

 “Oh?”

 “The sorcerer said that you don’t need to be concerned about being a king since that wasn’t going to happen.  It was just that it was for it to choose its master.”

It was an interesting story.

As a swordsman, swords interested him as much as women.

 “My father thought he had to find a master for it, but he soon forgot about it.  Since then, this place has been my playground.”

 “Then you made the wish to this here?”

 “I don’t know…you, fool.”

As if she felt embarrassed, all of a sudden, she flushed.

 “Little girls are like that.”

 “Uh.  Sounds cute for some reason.”

 “Hush.  Ah, by the way!  Eugene, try to remove this sword.  You’re a provo?  What was it?  You said you are a strong swordsman, right.”

I wanted to reach out and try it, so he felt relieved that the owner has given him permission.  Eugene stepped forward, immediately rolling up his sleeves.

 “Oppa, let’s go!”

Ava waved her hand and smiled as if this situation was fun.

 “I’m not an oppa….”

 “Sheesh.”

He decided he couldn’t argue any longer, observing fire in her eyes.  If that was to be done, he won’t get to visit her quarter later this evening.

 “All right!  Let me try it?”

Huffing and puffing, he took a step and grabbed the sword without hesitation.  And at that moment, the world has changed.

It was a white and quiet world.  The sky above him was white, different nature, than any other world that he was familiar with.  Only that, there seemed to be light bluish tone on the ground and small, yellow flying birds were the only other colors.

 ‘What’s going on?  How did I get here?’

Filled with uncertainty and dumbfounded, he took a few steps forward.  The small path, which he was on, in that expansive land seemed to be telling him that that was the road he had to follow.  He came to an elegant house after following that path for a long while.

 “Wow!”

The scenery on the house and its surrounding area autonomously invoked exclamation.  At his unfamiliar location, Eugene came across multitude of colors for the first time.  Tall sunflowers stood above the walls of the house, and there were cute animals and a pond in the front yard.

 “Wung-wung!”

A small dragon came close and barked at me like a dog.

 “Um?  A dragon barks like a dog?”

Eugene curiously looked at it.  It was a small dragon, about 50 centimeters long, and it walked on its fours, and soft fir covered it, here and there.  It did not have wings, and had a short tail as that of a puppy.  Overall, it seemed to be some sort of a hybrid life form of a dog and a dragon.

 ‘Is this really a dragon?’

The dog like, small dragon was barking at him.  It appeared to want to lead Eugene somewhere.  When he suddenly took a step closer, the small dragon spun around on the spot as if it was happy, and then it took off.  And Eugene was able to locate a small girl in the yard.  She was as big as his hand.

Like a fairy in fairy tales, she had butterfly wings, and her face was quite cute.  She had a sullen expression, but interestingly, she was wearing a full body armor suit.  I found her armor suit to be ancient in nature, different than the today’s designs, and it was ostensible as if it was used in parades.

 “Welcome.”

The girl stood up.  However, as if it wasn’t enough, she flew up to Eugene’s eye level.  Being in the air, her golden hair waved. 

 “Who are you?”

 “I’m the sword spirit Bertha.  You?”

He felt confused, learning that the sword spirit was such a girl.

 “I’m Eugene Lamert.  I’m a swordsman of St. Marco’s Brotherhood.  Anyway, where am I?”

 “This is the far away dimension which my spirit resides.  As soon as you touched the sword in the cave, your spirit has been whisked away and fell here.  Truly, you are the first visitor in a long time.”

 “Truly, that sword must be a spirit.”

Bertha nodded instead of replying.

 “A long time ago, a companion swordswoman brought me to this cave.  She had planned to leave me with her successor, but her successor could not make it here.  I’m not sure what happened, but there had been some problem.  Since then a few swordsmen had come into this deserted dimension, but they all had failed.  And from sometime later, no one has visited.”

That was probably after Ava’s father lost his interest in the sword.  Bertha said apathetically as if it had nothing to do with her.

 “Weren’t you lonely?”

That thought just dawned on him, so he threw the question, and it seemed to have hit her where it hurt.  For the first time, Bertha seemed shaken.  However, she shook her head.  The site of a tiny spirit nonchalantly shaking her head was really cute.

 “Not lonely.  Plush is here, and flowers are abundant, too.”

Plush must be referring to the small dragon.  Although Plush must have looked like a huge war horse to Bertha.  Who knows, she might even actually ride on it regularly.

 “Is this really a dragon?”

 “Don’t call Plush, this.”

 “Sorry.”

 “He is a dragon.  He is a special being, called spirit dragon.  As an animal type spirit dragon, he is mixed with a puppy.  He doesn’t speak, but as he is thoughtful, don’t disregard him.”

As if he liked Eugene, he rubbed his head on Eugene’s foot.

 “Hey.  Do you want to go out of here with me?”

Bertha appeared a bit happier when she heard Eugene’s proposal.  However, she did not reply immediately.

 “I don’t mind staying here, but I could, too, if you want me to.  But, if you want to use me, you have to pass a test.”

Eugene asked when he heard the words, if want to use me.

 “You, you were that small sword?”

 “Yup.  I’m the sword’s spirit.”

 “Well, is that useful?  It looked as if it was going to break apart since is so old?”

Bertha seemed a bit bothered by the point made by Eugene.

 “That’s because what you saw was just the skeleton.  Its spirit, the true power is over here, in this remote dimension.  If it was to return to normal, it would have become the sword of beyond your dreams.”

 “I see.  It really wasn’t an ordinary sword.  But how do I pass the test?”

 “Just the fact that you’ve entered this space implies that you are an unordinary swordsman.  Then try to suppress him.”

A light flashed when Bertha moved her tiny hand, and a knight appeared, holding a sword.  Looking close at it, it was more like a moving armor suit than a knight.  Between the edges of the visor and the space in between the joints were fully void.  Eugene looked at her to demand an explanation.

 “He is a magic life form and is a type of a golem.  The capability of a one time a famous knight was copied and placed in him, so he handles the sword quite well.  If you can defeat him, I’ll accept you as my master.”

The Golem before him looked powerful.  He seemed to be on a different plain that those ancient golems which were just large and strong, but cumbersome.

 “Give me a sword, too.”

Bertha moved her hand again when Eugene requested.  Then there appeared many types of swords, before him.  There were many strange types of swords that he, a swordsman himself, has yet to see.

 “Why so many?”

In fact, when Eugene marveled, Bertha appeared proud.

 “These are the swords which I’ve come to know throughout my life time.”

 “I see.”

There were so many kinds of swords.  As he studied them, Eugene was able to pick one that seemed most appropriate.  He chose a grosschwert, about 150 centimeters long, with a wide blade, it was well designed to crush armor suits.  He picked it up with both hands, and he swung it once then nodded.

 “Weight and balance are perfect.  It’s a heavy sword, but easy to manage.”

 “Ho.  You have good eyes, must be a swordsman, I suppose.  That one used to belong to knight Balarian.  Are you picking that?”

 “Yup.”

When Bertha waved her hand again, the other many swords disappeared.  With that as the signal, the fight immediately ensued.  Golem immediately dashed forward and swung down the sword, but Eugene dodged it, by jumping backwards.  At the same time, taking the posture of wrath, he looked for the right opportunity.  The dignity of Eugene was overwhelming when he held the grosschwert in this posture of wrath.  And ordinary swordsman would be shaking with fear, but absent of conscious, the golem approached quickly.

 “Grrrr!”

As the golem did not move as Eugene wanted, he bit down and stretched out his left leg.  At the same time, he unwound his waist and swung down with a powerful swing of wrath.   That was the most powerful slicing that Eugene could execute.  Kwang!

However, golem easily blocked that with the side of his sword.

 ‘Not an easy opponent, as I thought!’

As Eugene was silently lauding his skill, golem showed even more impressive skill.  After pushing away Eugene’s sword with the cross part of his sword, he came at Eugene with the hind, short edge.  Such a skill was impossible to execute without bold determination, and focus. 

 “Kraahk!”

In the end, Eugene suffered an injury on his right shoulder.  However fortunately, as he was hit with the hind, short edge, the injury was not substantial enough to leave him unable to fight.

 “S***!”

Eugene used ‘crouching tiger’, dash skill of the brotherhood, in order to move backwards.  He instantly moved several meters out of the sword’s attack radius.  The dash skill was as useful as the lion’s dash which Eugene often used.  However, his master Manuel had extremely limited the use of it.  When a swordsman took a step back, he would lose attacking time, and when attacking time was lost, he believed that it will certainly lead to a defeat.  However, Eugene had no other recourse as he was injured.

 ‘Gosh!  I can’t move that well.’

Eugene sensed difficulty as he tried to recompose himself to fight, again.  He could not put much pressure in the hand, holing the sword, due to the shoulder injury.  The fact that he was holding the heavy grosschwert, so that he could break through the armor suit, was actually holding him back.

 ‘It won’t be good for me, taking more time like this.’

Finally, Eugene decided to end the fight with a single strike.  As he was being pushed back, continuing the fight in that fashion will do him no good.  He has decided to put the fate of the battle in one single strike.

 “As the wave is rushing towards the beach.”

Suddenly, black energy began forming around Eugene.  This spell was the one used in the last battle with Stralsund, and it was a skill which projects manifestation of murderous spirit to the opponent.

 “Your life, too, will dash towards the end!”