"The Seal of Unlimited Courage."
It was terribly named, but this seal had left a significant mark on history, if only because it was Karwenz’s Soul Imprint.
"As long as you resolutely believe you won’t lose, you’ll become stronger? Are you the hot-blooded main character type? Also, what’s with this terrible naming sense of yours that sounds like it was plagiarized from somewhere? Should I help you come up with a new name?"
"No need; precedents indicate that if you come up with a name, it’ll definitely be a forever humiliating one. I’m not that foolish."
Back then, Karwenz had answered me like that, but from a certain perspective, I wasn’t wrong. This ability was indeed just like one that belonged to the main character of a legendary story.
Never giving up and becoming stronger and stronger as long as he didn’t give up in his heart. When he was pushed to the brink, when fate forced him to face armies by himself—this would be the most suitable ability of all.
If this ability was possessed by an ordinary person, well, humans had limited courage and willpower so the rise in strength would be limited. But in the hands of Karwenz, who didn’t know fear and difficulty, this was the mightiest Soul Imprint in the world.
"God rank? Great Demon Lord? Won’t they all die if I slice off their heads? As long as they can die and feel pain, what’s the difference?"
As he proclaimed such, Karwenz was maniacally laughing on the battlefield with a mountain of bloody corpses behind him. In front of that insane bringer of death, even the demons who never knew fear became afraid, even the beastmen who still had a War God protecting them became afraid, and even the human allied armies that were attacking the Mist Kingdom became afraid.
"Legend-rank beastmen? Behemoths? Won’t they all die if I slice off their heads? As long as they bleed and feel pain, how are they any different from ordinary humans?"
The young Princess Knight’s solitary figure could be seen on top of the fortification as she single-handedly blocked the beastmen’s charge; her silver armor was stained entirely red with the fresh blood of her enemies. Innumerable beastmen corpses surrounded her, making it troublesome to take even a step forward.
And right now, impaled on her longsword, was the corpse of the Wolf King! Inconceivably, not far away was the body of the beheaded behemoth.
"Next!"
The furious Princess Knight stood upright as she clutched on to her sword, while the beastmen warriors in front of her were beginning to hesitate about whether to retreat. Thirty minutes ago, this seemingly weak girl had shouted "Next!" and many beastmen warriors had rushed up to fight her, only to be slaughtered.
"Next!"
Twenty minutes ago, a behemoth caused earthquakes as it roared and rushed to her by itself; it had decided to crush the tiny human before it. Yet a single slice was all it took for her to crush its throat. It died a painful death.
"Next!"
Five minutes ago, the pride of the Wolf Tribe, the strongest of them all, the Wolf King Sostilo, had charged towards her along with his personal bodyguards. He was killed with a single swing of her sword.
"Next!"
When they heard the shout of the silver-armored Princess Knight once more, the brave beastmen finally retreated. While they weren’t afraid of sacrifice, the sacrifices had to, at least, be meaningful.
"Our princess! The world’s greatest princess!"
"Princess Knight, may you live forever!"
Reyne’s vision was currently blurry, and her blood was boiling. The cheering from behind her seemed to be distant, and only one thought was coursing through her mind.
"I need more power; I want more power!"
She was seeking more power within her soul—for her Soul Imprint.
When the light of the Incantation of Law Great Judgement lit up the entire city, the Gold-ranked Law Knight Reyne was promoted in rank by the Forbidden Spell, but this type of forced promotion shouldn’t have been able to aid her in creating a Soul Imprint.
But not only did she succeed in creating a Soul Imprint, it was a Soul Imprint of unimaginable strength—the Seal of Unlimited Courage!
Yep, Reyne’s Soul Imprint was exactly the same as Karwenz’s, in both name and power.
Logically speaking, this was supposed to be impossible. Soul Imprints were the accumulation of a person’s experience and understanding and constituted the foundation for their future growth. It was impossible for entirely identical Soul Imprints to appear unless the two people had exactly the same lives, personalities, and souls.
Yet this theoretically impossible occurrence did indeed materialize, and something even more abnormal happened right afterward. After the effects of Great Judgement receded, Reyne’s power level should have returned to normal, but the current Reyne did not only not return to the Gold rank, but her strength was actually increasing further.
"This definitely isn’t an ordinary Legend’s strength; perhaps not even divine warriors could be her opponents. Her battle experience and power level are perfect; I had never expected Princess Reyne to hide her power to such an extent!"
Many aspects went into a person’s real combat power, such as experience, strength, combat wisdom, special abilities, and basic stats. An overall balance was exceedingly rare, yet not only were Reyne’s basic stats growing at an astonishing rate but her combat experience and combat insticts—abilities that could only be accumulated over time—were also improving at a staggering speed.
"Oh, so continually swinging a sword like this must be the trick to becoming a Sword Saint. Identifying the location of the enemy’s sight must be what Roland meant by anticipating the enemy’s moves."
This type of growth had far surpassed the limits of human knowledge—it was as if Reyne’s body already known all this to begin with and she had only forgotten it all. It seemed like her memories were re-awakening.
Amid the numerous cheers, Elisa was the only one feeling doubtful. Everyone believed Reyne to be showing off her true power, but Elisa naturally knew the level that Reyne’s strength was supposed to be. Instantaneous growth to this extent was unexplainable.
"The Wolf King Sostilo was a wolf tribe warrior almost at the Saint rank. He’s much more difficult to deal with than a dragon or a behemoth, especially on the ground, and even he was slain in a single blow."
Elisa already had her guess as to what was happening. She was hesitating whether or not to give this body up and kill the Reyne before her, to prevent Karwenz’s malicious plot from coming to fruition.
Reyne suddenly turned towards Elsia as if she had noticed Elisa’s thoughts. The killing intent in Reyne’s eyes caused Elisa to tremble, while her dark yellow-colored eyes could only be explained by one thing.
"…This feeling—it must be the Demon Prince!"
The black wings were materializing, and the black demon was already laughing in midair as all his preparations had finally completed.
With the descent of Karwenz’s will, Reyne’s own consciousness became hazier and hazier. She felt like she wanted to just have some sleep.
"…I must protect this city! This place is critical to the safety of the entire Northlands… my body is getting hotter and hotter, but I feel like I’m becoming stronger. Right, I want more power, more…"
"You want power? Do you want enough power to overcome any dire situation? Would you like strength so powerful that it can destroy everything?"
Through the haziness, Reyne heard an intimate voice from the will residing deep in her bloodline. Even though she was half-unconscious, Reyne gave her reply.
"…Can I become stronger if I obtain power? Brother Roland always calls me an idiot. Maybe I don’t have the talent to become strong."
"No, don’t look down on yourself. The strength of your bloodline is that of the strongest. You have the ability to become even stronger. No, it should be said that you were born with the ability to stand on top of the world! As long as you sign a contract with me, you’ll have the most powerful strength in the world!"
"…No, no, forget it. Brother Roland has said before that if anyone mentions signing a contract, I should directly refuse. I shouldn’t listen to any advertisers’ sales pitches as they’re all a bunch of scammers that want to fool you into signing a contract. And I also think my current power level is enough…"
Even though her mind was already in a daze, her half-conscious reply caused Karwenz to be struck dumb. When he spoke up again, it was apparent that he was in a rush and was beginning to get angry and panic.
"As a descendant of the Mist, can’t you have more of a backbone? With power, you can have everything! You can defeat those damned beastmen, you can protect your own people, you can become the hero of the world, you can control your own fate, you can have everything you want!"
"…Can I have Roland praise me? He always says I’m stupid, but Reyne isn’t stupid at all."
Karwenz was stunned speechless again. His following statement was made out of helplessness.
"Yes, Roland will praise you. I promise."
"Okay, I’ll sign the contract then."
With the agreement of her will, her bloodline transformed into the most robust connection of all, forming an indescribable link between the two souls. A tremendous will then descended upon this world.
"Oh my, it’s so difficult to come here."
Reyne—no—"Karwenz" made his first comment as he returned.
There is no such thing as coincidence—there is only the inevitable. Many things that seemed like coincidence were actually "well-prepared" plans.
Looking exactly like an ancestor after countless generations of genetic inheritance? How could that possibly be a coincidence?
From the very start, Reyne didn’t look like Roland but resembled Karwenz instead—that familiar figure was the result of the Abyssal Prince controlling his own bloodline from another plane. From the very start, Reyne was a vessel that Karwenz had prepared for himself!
From a certain standpoint, apart from the different gender, this body was genetically identical to the body that Karwenz had possessed when he was still a human. It was basically a magic clone, which was the best possible vessel for his soul.
"This body has grown to the Legend rank? This is much nicer than that Fismer’s body."
The Abyssal Prince was far too strong, and even the descent of his will was capable of distorting the world. His previous descent had only been for a few short minutes, but it had utterly destroyed Fismer’s body. If Karwenz wanted to control a physical body and roam around freely in this plane, the body needed to reach certain specifications.
"With this Soul Imprint, there’s no need to worry about combat strength, nor is there any need to worry about this body over-exceeding its physical capabilities and collapsing."
Having Reyne reach Legend rank in strength and awaken the exact same Soul Imprint constituted the most critical part of Karwenz’s preparations. The Seal of Unlimited Courage would vastly increase the growth potential of this body, to the point where it could truly host a strong will such as his own.
In a way, Roland’s efforts actually created the path for Karwenz’s descent.
Reyne would not have reached the Gold rank so quickly if it weren’t for that system’s speed-growth mode. She consequently would not have benefited from the Incantation of Law Great Judgement to such an extent, and she wouldn’t have entered the Legend rank at this point and fulfilled the requirement for Karwenz’s will to descend upon her.
Right now, the black mist around "Reyne" was swallowed up, and "she" stood back up as the space around her distorted.
When "she" opened her eyes, the entire world suddenly changed. The snow stopped, and countless clouds shrouded the clear moonlight. Thunder and lightning began lashing out from the skies, and the snow mountain in the distance started trembling. The fire on its mountaintop seemed to bear witness to its transformation into a volcano.
The hyperactive ground started trembling yet again with a new round of earthquakes. An untold number of birds and beasts escaped from their habitats—it was as if they were aware of the arrival of the apocalypse and that it would be difficult to escape with their lives.
Merely his existence could change the world. Even if this was only a vessel of will, it was power at the level of a True God.
At this moment, Karwenz pulled out his sword, lifted his head, and chuckled at the assassin coming at him from above.
"Roland, I said that we would meet each other really soon, but I bet you never thought it would be this soon."
The Roland Sacred Sword produced a lustrous arc in the air as the two silver swords viciously clashed against each other. The smiling "younger brother" provided a contrast to the naked older brother who started to shout angrily.
"Reyne, I told you not to believe the salesmen! Those combo deals are never good deals—they are just scams! See, now your voice is a man’s, but your body is still a woman’s—how disgusting! If you want to be a man, you can tell me; I have the secret medicine from the spring of a drowned man¹. It’s painless, harmless, has no dangerous side effects, and will take effect in just one second!"
Okay, after hearing a response that he definitely did not expect, Karwenz’s smiling face changed to one of confusion.
Note:
1. This is a Ranma ½ (Japanese manga series) reference, not an actual location. The water from the mystical spring of a drowned man can turn anyone into a man. In Ranma ½, the main character falls into the spring of a drowned girl and turns into a girl.