Sword Princess, Do You Hate Me?

In the Void Realm, atop a certain legacy islet, flames raged across the land! "Flames mount high, burn my crippled husk!" Clad in heavy armor, the slash-axe sorcerer let out a roar. Blaze engulfed his entire body, turning even his pupils into fire. He exhaled plumes of scorching flame, and boiling magma oozed from the seams of his plate! Flowing fire ignited along the slash-axe's blade. With a loud shout, he swept it horizontally. Sonia leaped back immediately to evade, but he suddenly rolled forward to the left, his slash-axe morphing into its slash-sword form in fluid motion as he thrust it savagely toward Yaxiu, who had been ambushing from the flank with Heart Sword! Yaxiu instantly plunged his sword into the ground, driving the two sorcery spirits Earth Sword and Wind Wall to form a miracle—Sword Wind Rampart! A bright yellow barrier of sword forms enveloped Yaxiu flawlessly! *Clang!* The clash between slash-sword and Sword Wind Rampart produced an ear-splitting detonation. Yet until the sword's flames were ground down completely by the sword wind, Yaxiu did not take a single step back, and the rampart remained entirely unscathed! This defensive miracle, powered with a two-winged sorcery spirit at its core, was virtually an impregnable fortress in the Sea of Knowledge! His attack thwarted, the fire in the slash-axe sorcerer's eyes burned just as intensely. Letting out a low growl, his slash-sword erupted with boiling magma as he stabbed it viciously against Sword Wind Rampart! "Joy, fury, sorrow, grief—all fall to dust!" *Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!* With every explosion, the magma-spewing slash-sword battered Sword Wind Rampart like heavy artillery. Yaxiu's sorcery power drained away almost like a waterfall, and the luster of Sword Wind Rampart dimmed, teetering precariously as though ready to shatter at any second! This was the slash-axe sorcerer's offensive miracle! "Sword Princess!" At Yaxiu's shout, Sonia finished her preparations. The tip of her wooden sword flashed with the gleam of steel, slicing into the slash-axe sorcerer's armor like hot iron through butter! Simultaneously, the wooden sword unleashed sharp fluctuations that formed spinning, expanding rings of blades, slicing the slash-axe sorcerer into dozens of pieces! Only after acquiring Slash Sword was Sonia's Ripping Wave Slash truly complete. Because Wave Sword excelled at concussive impact rather than slashing, and Splitting Sword sacrificed attack power in exchange for wider area coverage, her earlier Ripping Wave Slash had looked intimidating but actually lacked damage. Now, bolstered by the sharpness of Slash Sword, Ripping Wave Slash overcame its lack of offensive power. Combined with broad area coverage and mid-to-short range reach, it could easily be called the most practical swordplay miracle available to a one-winged sword sorcerer! The only problem was that Sonia had just acquired Slash Sword and was not yet adept at combining them. She needed some time to coordinate and prepare, and previously had found no opening to unleash it. Now that Yaxiu had drawn the aggro, she finally had enough casting time to pull it off. Of course, as to whether she had deliberately wanted to see Yaxiu take a beating, no one could say. "Pity all living beings, for suffering is vast and manifold..." With that final lament, the slash-axe sorcerer snuffed out like spent flame, leaving behind four sorcery spirits and a sorcerer manual. Neither rushed to collect the spoils, however. Yaxiu looked at Sonia with some confusion. "Why haven't you said a word all night? Sore throat?" Ever since entering the Void Realm, Sword Princess had been dead silent. Yaxiu had assumed she was in a bad mood, but not even dropping a remark or two after the battle was distinctly out of character. In the past, she would first detail what contributions she had made in the fight, then point out the mistakes Yaxiu had committed, making him unconsciously feel his own contribution was minuscule and filling him with gratitude toward her... Wait, hold on? Thinking back carefully, had Sword Princess been using conversational manipulation all along to belittle him and make him dependent on her? Just as Yaxiu's corporate-drone radar started pinging, Sonia shook her head, pointing angrily at Yaxiu and then at her own mouth. Yaxiu understood. "You mean that Random Sorcery Spirit Summoning Card took effect, and you're in the middle of a summoning ritual, so you can't speak?" Sonia nodded. "Then you can write. Whatever you want to say, just write it in the sand." Realization dawned on Sonia. She clapped her hands hard and used her wooden sword to trace a few words in the sand. *"Watcher, I curse you, you little trumpet."* Yaxiu stared at Sonia, and Sonia stared at the words in the sand before speaking: "Turns out not only can I not lie with my mouth, but even when writing, I can't go against my true feelings." Through Sonia's explanation—which was punctuated by a curse every five sentences—Yaxiu quickly came to understand. She had rolled the summoning ritual for the sorcery spirit Sincerity. The ritual was exceptionally simple; it didn't require shedding buckets of sweat like swordsmanship, nor did it demand hours of study like other sorcery factions. The sole condition was that one had to be honest and could not tell a lie. Truth be told, Sonia's luck wasn't bad. Not only was a mind faction sorcery spirit like Sincerity exceedingly precious, but this summoning ritual wouldn't pose much of a problem for most ordinary people. Take Yaxiu, for example: he spoke the truth every single day, yet no one believed he was a wrongfully accused cult leader. Any other ordinary person forced to tell the truth each day could simply stay cooped up at home as much as possible and keep their mouth shut when out in public. Sonia alone couldn't. She was a prominent figure at school, her every move scrutinized by countless eyes. Even if she didn't look for trouble, plenty found its way to her daily—people currying favor, plotting schemes, from both inside and outside the campus. If she had cultivated an aloof, unapproachable persona from the beginning, it would have been fine. The problem was that she had always maintained the persona of a well-behaved student and sweet young lady—graceful in public and fierce in the training hall, the picture of perfection, widely regarded as the first-year Sword Flower. If she suddenly couldn't lie, people would think her facade had collapsed—that Sonia had let success go to her head, growing arrogant and no longer bothering to maintain social niceties! Yaxiu laughed as he listened, making Sonia genuinely angry. "What is wrong with you? I'm in trouble, and you're not rushing to stop this ritual for me?!" "Sorry, I haven't received professional training. Seeing you this unlucky, I just can't hold it in," Yaxiu snickered. "But if I stop the ritual, you won't be able to summon Sincerity yourself, nor will you advance your mind faction to the Silver realm. Are you sure that's what you want?" Sonia hesitated. "If I continue the ritual, I'll offend a lot more people over the next few days. But their value compared to the mind faction... the mind faction is obviously more important." The moment the words left her mouth, Sonia froze. Was that really what she thought? Was she truly the sort of person who prioritized personal strength above all else, not caring if it ruined her social relationships? "See? You said it yourself." "Then at least pause it for one of the days! In a few days, I have to host the mixer gala. I'll have to lie then, or else I'll offend a ton of people!" "I can't do that." Yaxiu spread his hands. "Once I schedule your plan for the week, even I can't cancel it. At most, I can temporarily add special events for you; I can't remove items already on your schedule." "Useless! You weakling who can only control me through despicable means!" "You're right. After all, the one controlling you really isn't me, but Aurora... the gift from my past life." Yaxiu shrugged. Sonia had actually anticipated this. The Watcher's ability to control her was far too disproportionate to his actual combat strength, meaning he wasn't controlling her through his present abilities. Since it wasn't his current power, it had to be a legacy left behind by his former legendary self before his amnesiac rebirth. Perhaps that was why the Watcher had clung to her all along: he couldn't use that legacy at will, and it had randomly chosen her. Thus, the Watcher had no choice but to help her grow stronger, waiting until Sonia reached a certain level of power to repay him. Sonia's verbal barb earlier hadn't been an impulsive outburst. From the moment she entered the Void Realm, she had been setting up this play, using the premise of "I can only speak the truth right now" to utter slightly overstepping accusations. This nudged the Watcher into divulging more information voluntarily without earning his resentment. Even "honesty" could be exploited. Just as Sonia was carefully digesting the information Yaxiu had revealed, Yaxiu suddenly asked, "By the way, Sword Princess, do you hate me?" "No." Sonia slapped a hand over her mouth the second she said it, her willow brows arching high—she was genuinely furious this time. "I'm warning you, if you take advantage of this to pry into the secrets of my heart," she said sternly, "I will hold a grudge against you for the rest of my life." "Sorry, my apologies, my bad," Yaxiu fired off three quick apologies in succession. "You get first pick of tonight's spoils... Huh?" As he spoke, the four sorcery spirits dropped by the slash-axe sorcerer had crept onto Yaxiu unnoticed. The most outrageous was a one-winged sorcery spirit shaped like a kitten, which kept rubbing itself against Yaxiu's armpit as if it smelled delicious. Noticing Sonia's bewildered look, Yaxiu explained, "I used a sorcery spirit excitement potion. Its effect is even stronger than the sorcery spirit delight potion you took, so the sorcery spirits are all clinging to me." "Does that potion make sorcery spirits seek us out on their own?" "I don't know, but it raises their affinity toward us. Maybe that's why?" The four sorcery spirits were Slash Axe, Incineration, Magma, and Crippled Husk. Slash Axe was an essential sorcery spirit for a slash-axe sorcerer, effectively boosting the destructive power of both slash-axe and slash-sword forms. Curiously, it actually took the form of a cat. Incineration and Magma were fire sorcery spirits, and the miracle they formed had nearly blown Yaxiu's Sword Wind Rampart apart. Meanwhile, Crippled Husk belonged to the ascetic faction. Its specific effect was that the heavier the damage sustained, the stronger the body's recovery and resistances became, while also significantly dampening the sensation of pain. Thus, the slash-axe sorcerer's earlier "natural miracle" had actually been a regular skill. This battle also made it clear that the sorcerer projections they encountered were growing increasingly formidable—from the gun sorcerer who initially had only a single sorcery spirit, to this slash-axe sorcerer possessing four sorcery spirits and mastering two miracles. The rapid growth of their sorcery power caused the Gate of Truth to plunge deeper into the Sea of Knowledge. Unless one chose to lie flat and run away, the Void Realm would forever chase after sorcerers. Sonia skimmed through the sorcerer manual with a couple of glances before tossing it to Yaxiu. Yaxiu caught it, looked it over, and found it was titled *Loot Catalog*—had the slash-axe sorcerer been a bandit in life? No, Yaxiu quickly dismissed that notion. The slash-axe sorcerer had likely been a religious mercenary—or rather, a mercenary with religious convictions—since most of the loot had been offered up as supplies to the mentioned "Holy Temple of Calamitous Fire." If the loot consisted of supplies, it was offered to the temple; if intelligent races, they were converted into followers; if sorcery spirits or miracle sorcery procedures, they were handed over for the temple to distribute. Whether due to the slash-axe sorcerer's stellar virtue or the temple's strict rules, the slash-axe sorcerer had almost never pocketed spoils for himself—except... "Sword Princess, take a look at this." "I'm not like you, accepting anyone and everyone like a Veela with no standards whatsoever," Sonia said, spreading her hands. "As you know, I can't lie right now." Though Yaxiu felt she was taking the opportunity to openly insult him while stripping him of any right to talk back, he had no proof. "It describes a way to trigger a Vortex." "Oh, a Vortex, no wonder... Trigger a Vortex?!" Meeting Sonia's pleasantly surprised gaze, Yaxiu nodded. "According to this, a Vortex is actually a Void Realm mechanic that can be triggered artificially!"