Yuuki stared at the stone wall before him, lifted his right foot, and pressed it firmly against the ground.
The moment his foot made contact—
Crack, crack, crack!
A surge of mana transformed into ice, erupting from the top of his foot. A thick pillar of ice shot up from the ground, crashing explosively against the stone wall ahead.
Boom!
The impact shattered the wall, revealing a hidden chamber beyond.
Yuuki stepped inside, and his eyes immediately fell on a rusty longsword planted firmly in the center of the room.
The sword was less than a meter long, surprisingly nimble in appearance. A straight groove ran down the center of the blade, ending at the tip and forming a cross.
Among all the glittering gold and treasures of the palace, this rusty iron sword looked utterly unremarkable.
But Yuuki knew better than anyone the true power of the Demon-Dweller Sword.
Of the three Demon Swords, it was by far the most practical.
Its main ability: it could absorb magical attacks from enemies, storing the energy within the blade to be unleashed at will.
The wielder's own mana could also flow into the sword, producing slashes or shockwaves.
Moreover, the sword's own attacks carried a certain anti-magic property.
This "anti-magic" differed from Asta's magic-nullifying anti-magic.
Instead, it functioned like Jack, captain of the Green Mantis squad in the Magic Knights, using his Destruction Magic to break magic. It did not nullify it completely.
To Yuuki, this meant that Asta's use of the Demon-Dweller Sword was a bit of a waste. Lacking mana himself, half of the sword's power was effectively lost.
The sword's most crucial ability—the absorption of enemy magic—was nullified in Asta's hands. His anti-magic seeped into the blade, rendering it incapable of absorbing any magical attacks.
Thus, in Asta's possession, the Demon-Dweller Sword functioned more like a nimble "magic-breaking" sword, useful only against fast, small-scale spells—or in coordinated team combat where others supplied the mana for its strikes.
This explained why, in the anime, Asta rarely made full use of the sword. Only later, after mastering anti-magic completely, could he infuse it into the blade to unleash anti-magic slashes.
Even then, its absorption-and-release ability remained impaired by anti-magic.
Yuuki stepped forward, gripping the hilt firmly. With a surge of strength, he pulled the Demon-Dweller Sword free.
"As expected… as long as it hasn't been tainted by anti-magic, anyone can wield this sword," he murmured.
He swung it a few times. The sword was far more agile than he had anticipated.
A thought struck him.
Mana surged through his body, flowing into the sword with each movement of his arm. A faint silver light shimmered along the length of his arm.
After a moment, he paused and examined the blade again. The rust had diminished slightly.
"Hmph… restoring the Demon-Dweller Sword fully in one go isn't possible… not yet," he said softly, a hint of regret in his voice as he made a mental comparison.
Originally, the sword had gleamed silver-white. After taking it from Asta, Elf Clan Chief Licht had easily restored it to its original state using his terrifyingly dense mana. He had then utterly defeated both Yuno and Asta.
(A note: the Licht leading the Eye of the Midnight Sun is a different person. His real name is Patry; he merely calls himself Licht.)
Even among the powerful Elf Clan, Chief Licht was a force to be reckoned with. By comparison, Yuuki could sense the magnitude of his power.
Boom!
A deafening roar echoed from outside the treasure palace, snapping Yuuki back to reality.
"Have they made contact already?"
"Good thing I came early. Otherwise, getting in now would be difficult."
From the sounds of clashing outside, Yuuki guessed that the Diamond Kingdom's forces had likely encountered Yuno's Golden Dawn. Asta and the others should be arriving soon.
"We need to speed this up."
Turning, Yuuki tossed the Demon-Dweller Sword into the air.
A black spatial portal appeared.
He placed the sword inside and expanded the portal's opening. Moving quickly through the palace, every treasure along the way was swallowed into his pocket dimension.
The pleasant sound of jingling coins filled his ears.
Since advancing to the Fourth Domain—and having long prepared for this Dungeon—Yuuki had enlarged his pocket dimension to a full 100 cubic meters. The process nearly drained his mana completely, but finally, the dimension stabilized.
Expanding it further would require exponentially more mana.
Mountains of treasure glittered with dazzling golden light.
Yuuki maneuvered the portal back and forth across the palace. Even so, he felt slightly slowed. He wished the portal could consume automatically—it would have made the task far easier.
Among the loot, he also spotted several ancient magical items. He didn't bother inspecting them, tossing them straight into the portal. There would be time to examine them later.
Before long, his pocket dimension was packed to capacity. Still, a small portion of the palace's treasures remained.
"Enough."
He shook his head lightly. The leftover gold no longer stirred any excitement in him. The priceless ancient magical tools were already in his possession; the remaining coins were insignificant.
One item, however, remained untouched: a scroll laid out on a wooden pedestal.
Standing before it, Yuuki could feel the wind-elemental mana radiating from the parchment.
It was a mysterious scroll containing one of the Four Great Elemental Spirits—the Wind Spirit, Sylph—and one of Yuno's future aids.
It wasn't that Yuuki didn't want it; the scroll was simply useless to him.
Elemental Spirits were intelligent beings. Rather than Yuno having obtained Sylph, it was Sylph who had chosen Yuno.
(End of Chapter)
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