Separation

With Reida taking a nap on his back, Paul slowly meandered his way through a forest on the northern side of the Donati Region. Nearly four months had passed since the start of his journey, but due to his decision to walk and their intermittent stops for training, Paul had only managed to cover a distance of around 1400km. He would be lying if he said it hadn't been an enjoyable experience, but there were times when he just wanted to bash his face into a tree.

"You guys seeing this? It's a little shit walkin' around with a dame on his back."

"You think he brought her here for us?"

"I don't give a rat's ass why he brought her here. Neither of them is going anywhere."

"That's right. Just look at the lad's face. A few swallows of grog, and he may as well be a lass."

Seeing the group of middle-aged assholes surrounding him with a bunch of poorly kept daggers and swords, an exasperated sigh escaped Paul's throat. Not because brigands were surrounding him, but because Reida had tightened her hold on him, purring, "Good luck..." instead of getting off his back.

Since the Water God Style focused on defense and counters to protect yourself and others, Reida had been making Paul fend off monsters and people while carrying her on his back. She would get off if anything truly dangerous showed up, but a bunch of peasant bandits who didn't even appear to possess Intermediate Swordsmanship might as well be inert stones on the side of the road.

"Drop the woman and take off all your clothes. Make for your sword, and me and my men will skewer you like a fucking pincushion."

"Yeah, yeah..."

A stark contrast to his casual, almost lazy-sounding words, Paul's mind was focused to its limits as he waved his hand towards the man that had spoken. The action caused the yellow-green Vision attached to his belt to pulse, thorny vines suddenly erupting from the ground to entangle the man's feet. In the same motion, Paul's somewhat malicious-looking Black Sword manifested, flying from his hand and stabbing the bewildered man in the chest before disappearing into motes of light as the latter's body collapsed without being able to fall to the ground.

"Holy shit! This bastard's a Mage! Attack! Attack! Attack!"

Despite the instantaneous loss of their leader, the group of highwaymen didn't retreat. Turning your back to a Mage was the same as asking to be struck in the back by a ranged attack, so the most common tactic to deal with them was to charge wantonly. So long as you could interrupt their chanting, Mages were often even weaker than normal people.

What the poorly educated brigands failed to consider was the fact that Paul had neither chanted nor made use of a ranged attack spell to deal with their boss. The thorny vines were the ability his Dendro Vision had granted him, and while the sword strapped to his lower back was more so a seat for Reida than anything more practical, he was most definitely not a Mage.

With his Black Sword reappearing in his hand, Paul leaned to the side in a manner that almost made it appear as though he was faltering. Instead of falling to the ground, however, he spontaneously accelerated halfway through the fall, reversing direction like a whip as he slipped past one of the men, casually slicing open his stomach in the process.

Though the act of killing had caused him to vomit and have the shakes the first couple of times, Paul had never felt guilty about it. He knew what would have happened to him if he were an ordinary person, so even if the men had wives and children waiting for them back home, Paul cut them down regardless. Those who exploited, tormented, and claimed the lives of others didn't get a free pass just because they behaved differently at home.

With the 'cooldown' of his Elemental Ability up, Paul stopped one of the three remaining assailants with his vines while casually raising the tip of his sword to intercept another's charge. The man had performed a full-force overhead swing, so Paul just needed to sidestep the attack and let gravity do the rest.

Without realizing he was essentially the only one left, the shortest of the five assailants, a man Paul was pretty sure was a Hobbit, jumped at him with daggers in hand. It was a stunning display of agility for someone so small, but Paul wasn't in the business of handing out compliments to his attackers. His enhanced kinetic vision and virtually superhuman senses, refined over years of training, allowed him to track the man's movements as if they were in slow motion. More importantly, he didn't need to pull his sword out of corpses like a normal person.

Raising his empty left hand towards the ostensibly suicidal Hobbit, Paul's Black Sword disappeared from his right before reappearing to impale the diminutive, middle-aged man through the chest.

Though Paul initially intended to fling the man away to prevent a possible counterattack, it proved unnecessary as a small shockwave erupted from his blade the moment it pierced into the man's body. As a result, not only was the man blasted away, but a gaping hole the size of a grapefruit ran clear through his body.

Suppressing his urge to throw up, Paul's expression remained cold as he shifted his attention to the last remaining assailant. The man had noticed this and immediately ceased trying to hack away the resilient vines that had wrapped around his legs, stammering, "P-P-Please b-b-be-"

Without waiting for the man to finish asking for a mercy he would have never afforded another, Paul hurled his Black Blade through the air, its absurd sharpness allowing it to sink up to the hilt as Reida opened her eyes to remark, "You know I hate seeing you throw your sword around like that..."

Recalling the aforementioned sword to his hand, Paul promptly stored it within his Vision before turning toward the direction he was previously walking in and saying, "Rules and techniques are reserved for duels..."

Exhaling an exasperated sigh, Reida decided not to press the matter and simply tightened her hold on Paul. She would have preferred it if he just stuck with the Water God Style, but Paul's use of Healing Magic and his Vision made him better suited to the North God Style. More annoyingly, his inhuman drive to achieve any goal he set for himself made him better suited to the Sword God Style than any other...

"At this rate, you'll end up becoming a Saint in all three Schools without mastering any..."

Catching Reida somewhat by surprise, Paul refuted her words, saying, "I won't stop until I reach the Rank of Emperor..."

Recovering from her momentary shock, a teasing smile developed across Reida's face as she asked, "Not God...?"

Shaking his head, Paul surprised Reida a second time as he adopted a teasing smile of his own and said, "I'm not braindead enough to be the Sword God, shameless enough to be the North God, and I like the Water God too much to see her replaced any time soon..."

"You..."

Feeling a fluttery feeling in her chest, it took a fair amount of restraint for Reida not to put Paul into a chokehold. Instead, she planted a kiss on his cheek and affirmed, "You're definitely shameless enough to be the North God..."

...

..

.

With the nearly impregnable Red Dragon Mountain Range surrounding the territories of the Asura Kingdom, the only conventional method to travel to other countries was passing through the massive, fortress-like checkpoints known as the Red Dragon's Upper and Lower Jaws.

As the only routes in and out of the Asura Kingdom, the Red Dragon's Upper and Lower Jaws were exceptionally well guarded. Every person attempting to pass through would need to have their identities checked, and, in the event you were trying to enter the nation, you would need to pay a rather hefty toll.

Fortunately for Paul, Reida's status as the one and only Water God not only allowed them to stay at hostels and Inns for free, she was able to pass through virtually any checkpoint for free. After all, if she wanted to pass through, who could stop her?

"This is it, boy. From here, you just need to keep traveling Northwest, and you'll eventually reach the Sword Sanctum."

Though she was tempted to escort Paul the entire way, Reida wasn't on friendly terms with the current Sword God, Gal Farion. He was one of the people she wanted to kill more than any other, so if the two met without the King ordering it, she would either kill him or die trying.

Since Reida had revealed bits and pieces of her past to him during their travels, Paul wasn't too surprised by her words. He was a little sad, but instead of making things more difficult for them both, he adopted a smile and said, "I'll savor every moment of it..."

Though she was momentarily confused by Paul's words, it only took a few seconds for Reida to recall his comment about hating to see her go but loving to watch her leave. A smile immediately developed across her face, and, instead of slugging him in the arm like she originally intended, she half-turned away from him and said, "Burn it into your eyes, brat..." before slowly and seductively meandering her way back to the entrance of the checkpoint. When she finally passed through and looked back, she found Paul still staring at her in the distance, her heart fluttering one last time before they both turned and walked away...

...

..

.

"They've finally separated..."

"Yeah, but he's no longer within the territory of the Asura Kingdom. If we follow him into the Holy Land, we'll be violating the treaty..."

"He's a ten-year-old Advanced Swordsman who received the personal tutelage of the Water God. If we let him walk away now, there's a good chance he may return as a King or an Emperor in the future. The Prince's orders could not be clearer. We are to eliminate Paul-"

Before the beautiful female assassin could finish her words, everyone in the group tensed as an overwhelming bloodlust pressed down on them like a mountain. In the very next moment, the breathtakingly beautiful figure of a woman with short black hair and cerulean blue eyes appeared in their midst, declaring, "That man is not yours to kill..." in a cold, bone-chilling tone.

Unfortunately for the group of Maid Assassins, the woman, Sword God Reida, wasn't there to give them a warning. The moment her words fell, each and every assassin within the group collapsed, their bodies sliced into neat chunks that briefly crackled with purple lightning.

Brandishing the predominately blue and white longsword, the fierce look on Reida's face melted into a smile as she muttered, "Alley Flash...a very fitting name..."

As someone who had grown up in the slums of the Asura Kingdom, there was a time when Reida was referred to with names such as Street Urchin and Alley Rat. Now, thanks to the Vision and sword Paul had granted her, it wasn't too much of an exaggeration to say her attacks were as fast as lightning.

Allowing the longsword to dissipate and return to her Vision, Reida's eyes wandered to the Northwest as she wistfully uttered, "Come back strong, Paul..." before placing her hand on her abdomen. She would never admit it, but she was pretty sure he had reshaped her insides to be a perfect fit for his ostensibly insatiable manhood. At the very least, that's what Reida believed as, even now, she could feel Paul's lingering presence inside her abdomen, gently pulsing as a feeling skin to longing filled her bosom...

...

..

.