One Year Later (3)

'What exactly was Arkenvalle?' The question suddenly popped into my head.

She was a Divine Weapon I had manifested in my past life, and Divine Weapons were directly connected to the Heroic Path, and only the Heroic Path. Hence, if one stopped Treading the Heroic Path, they would in turn, lose their divine weapon.

So how exactly did she keep her connection with me, and even follow me through rebirth?

Now that I had started thinking about it, Arkenvalle was way more mysterious that I thought.

◇◇◇

There was a temporary silence. Arkenvalle had her brows furrowed, as she seemed confused. After a while, she spoke.

"I don't have any master other than my Lancelot." She stated as if telling a fact.

The voice got enraged further as it didn't even bother to use mental communication this time.

"INSOLENSE!!! HOW DARE YOU FORGET OUR SAVIOUR!!! HOW DARE YOU MOCK HIS EFFORTS AND SACRIFICES!!! YOU UNGRATEFUL FLAWED SWORD!!!" He yelled, but he didn't attack us. Hate was visible in his tone.

He then continued. "AS YOU WERE HIS BLADE, I WILL NOT KILL YOUR CONTRACTOR AS YOU WILL DIE IN TURN...BUT DO NOT EXPECT HELP FROM THE DIVINITIES EVER AGAIN!!!"

Suddenly, I felt the connection between Arkenvalle and me getting interfered and modified as the divinity kept talking.

"FROM NOW ONWARDS, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO USE ANY DIVINE AID AS YOUR SPELLBLADES SHALL BE SEALED!!!"

"AND YOU WILL NOT GAIN ANY POWER FROM THE GREAT REALM EVER AGAIN!!!" He added further as if planting as curse.

And so, I suddenly felt my body getting weaker as the passive boost from Arkenvalle suddenly disappeared along with the active summoning bonus.

'Shit! What the hell happened?!' It was bad. Arkenvalle was currently at Level 5, and gave me a passive boost of 60% which doubles everytime I summoned Arkenvalle in her sword form.

As I was grimacing from the loss of power which I craved so much, I suddenly felt Arkenvalle's magic circuits—a pathway for mana to record spells and spellblades—start disappearing.

'Damn! What now?!' I panicked as the Spellblades on Arkenvalle were the only spellblades I had—other than Void Slash— since it was what I was used to the most. Spellblades were created when mana repeatedly flowed through the same circulation pattern over and over again. This connection is refined and improved over times of usage, thus becoming stronger and mana efficient.

The spellblades on Arkenvalle was the spellblades I had refined for over a decade and were top class techniques, especially the One-Chant Spellblades, which were the most mana efficient and had been refined to have strong power despite the nigh absence of chants.

Arkenvalle had her eyes widened as she also felt the changes in her sword form.

However, she kept her silence as she seemed focusing on something. After a few seconds, she exuded an extremely powerful aura as it then broke the shackles that bound me and I felt some of the strength she passively provided.

The voice wasn't pleased by the spectacle, as he said. "To even use the authority the Saviour had bestowed upon you this way...You are a lost cause...LEAVE!"

And the next instant, I felt space around me becoming extremely chaotic as we were then teleported away.

◇◇◇

"Lancelot..."

I heard a voice...

It was a voice that had traces of worry in its tone...

"Lancelot..."

I heard it again...

I wonder...

What is this pain in my chest?...

Why do I feel sad?...

"Lancelot! Wake up!..."

Ah...

I remember now...

I see...

"Lancelot! You must wake up! Don't fall asleep! Else you won't wake up!!"

I have to wake up...

I have to get stronger...

I have to...

◇◇◇

I gently opened my eyes as Arkenvalle's face was the first thing I saw in my vision. She sat on the ground as my head was laid on her lap.

She heaved a sigh of relief, and then spoke. "Thank goodness. You woke up, I was worried."

I smiled at her and thanked her. "Thank you, for waking me up. I owe you yet another one, huh?"

She smiled back as she then gently shook her head. "It's fine. If it's you, I don't care even if it's ten, or a hundred, or a thousand favours more."

I sighed in her extreme loyalty to me. It was way beyond what a normal human would do. Honestly, I'm glad she was the one I manifested in my past life.

I then looked at her again and asked. "So? Where are we?"

She shook her head and said. "I don't know. I don't recognize the place, and it's not even within your past memories."

"I see. Well, I might have wandered the world, but it was a world with nothing but melted earth and craters after all. The difference is way too huge, right?" I said. And she agreed. "Yeah."

I then sat up from her lap, and then asked. "So, what about you? Did you gain those back?"

Her face darkened at my question as she lowered her head. She then shook her head and spoke apologetically. "I...only regained the connection to wherever I'm getting power. The Spellblades are lost."

I sighed. It wasn't something I had high hopes on recovering, as it was completely erased. So I would have to start over again if I wanted to use it.

"I see. Don't blame yourself too much, I was thinking it was time to make Void Spellblades anyway, so perhaps it was fate telling me to focus on making those. Haha!" I told her with a laugh.

What I said seemed to have lightened her mood as she smiled a bit but then said "Idiot." as she turned her head away.

My smile grew deeper as I could feel that she was embarrassed. For a sword, she was as human as she could get.

"Well." I said as I stood up and added. Let's get going, shall we?"

She then stood beside me and nodded. "Mn."

It was time to check wherever we were.

◇◇◇

"So? What are you doing here?" I asked 'that' without hiding the displeasure in my voice.

"Oh! What a truly fated meeting this is, yeah? It's been a year, grand disciple!" That, Randel answered. He still had that annoying grin on his face, and behind him, looking surprised was mom.

"Cut the bullshit, Randel. What are you doing here?" I asked him one more time. This scheming manwoman must have anticipated that I'd arrive here.

"Oh come on! Just what do you see your grandmaster as? It's just a—" He wanted to deny my accusation, but the moment he saw Arkenvalle, he suddenly stopped as he asked a question in a grave voice. "Hey...Is that yours?" He said as he pointed to Arkenvalle.

Before I could answer, Arkenvalle answered in my stead. "Yes. I am his, and he is my Lancelot." She said. And then...

"What?!" A certain mother was shocked at the declaration. It was mom.

She then hurriedly approached me and clenched my shoulders as she asked. "Lancell. Tell me, how and when did you meet such a fine girl. Now." She said.

'Mom. Your eyes are scary, please stop this. Arkenvalle's laughing inwardly already!' I complained inwardly.

"Err...uhh...It was a while back, I was searching for my most suitable partner, and then she came for me, we bound each other with an eternal vow ever since." I explained in a way that mom would misunderstand. It was a lot easier than explaining about my past life after all.

"You're married?!" She asked in shock, but I denied her.

"Mom, please don't compare our bonds with such flimsy and fragile thing such as marriage. We go far deeper than that. It's an eternal promise." I said.

"..." She was speechless as her mouth gaped.

Arkenvalle's face was a bit red as she refused to meet mine and mom's eyes, so silence continued for a while until a manwoman spoke.

"Oho...Someone finally called his mother 'mom'..." the manwoman said with a cheeky grin.

"No I didn't." I denied, but mom interjected.

"L-Lancell, I didn't hear that quite well. C-Can you say it again?" She said.

'Oh come on, when will she ever act mature? Even just for once...' I thought, but I had to be mature for now. I wanna roast Randel.

"Mom, how's your levels?" I asked. She stiffened. Perhaps because I called her 'mom' or perhaps she didn't want to admit she's still stuck at the First Wall.

"Never mind. Anyway, Randel! It can't be a coincidence that you're here, right." I asked. But he then answered with a question.

"I'll answer that question if you answer mine first. Do you know what she is?"

"No. But I know she's special. She must have been first used by a divinity, right?" I said.

"I see. So that's as far as you know." Randel muttered. I then asked him.

"Do you know what exactly is Valle's identity?"

"She was once used by a divinity." Randel said. And I answered. "I know that." But he then elaborated.

"But she belonged to the Great One."

"The Great One? Am I in trouble with this Great One?" I asked. If the divinities were calling him the Great One or Saviour, he should be a powerhouse even among divinities.

"He's long dead." Randel informed.

"Then why do the divinities hate me for making a vow with Valle?" I asked. It was something I needed to know. I at least needed to know the reason for the future hostilities I'd face.

"You see, there was a war a long, long time ago. And that was a war between divinities." He said.

'A war between divinities? Just how much destruction would that cause?' I thought as I had a glimpse of a divinities' power.

Randel continued. "And that war destroyed the Divine Realm, a place where divinities reside, and where divinities are born. As it was near destruction, a certain young divinity created a third faction."

"And that tiny faction gathered all the divinities who were swept along by the great war that had already destroyed countless universes and cosmos."

"The young divinity led the entire faction all by himself as only a few people were capable of supporting his burden."

"And so, in every battle, he fought alone, he fought against the tides of war, and he overturned the entire war all by himself, corrupting his divinity in the process, and in the end, he died but still managed to save his entire faction from the war. All by himself." He concluded the story.

"And that divinity is?" I asked. But Randel shook his head. "I don't know." He said.

"Now what does that story have to do with my question?"

"Oh. It has everything to do with it. The divinities that are in this world are all divinities that the Great One had saved. And they think that as respects for saving them, they would at least protect this world, the world the Great One had created, and make sure what belonged to him, belongs to him forever."

'I see. I understand now. So they're binding Valle into someone who's long dead, and someone she doesn't even remember.' I thought as rage started to fill my head.

"Lancelot. Calm down. I'm not going anywhere." She said. So the fear of losing her might have made me angry huh?

I calmed down and conveyed.

"Thanks Valle. Let's continue to get stronger from now on. And then let's kick those divinities' asses."

"Mn."

As we were conversing in my mind, Randel suddenly spoke.

"Now then! Onto business. Lancell, I want you to take your mommy with you back home. By the way, this is an order from your grandmaster so you have no rights to refuse, okay?" And then, Randel waved his hand as his sleeves fluttered along, and the next moment.

We were back at Oaken town.

With mom behind us.

◇◇◇

We went inside the house with mom, but then I heard an interesting conversation.

"Hey, Lina. Do you really have no idea about where Lancell gets his information every single time? I've never seen him interact with anyone else after all." Sally voice reached my ears as I stopped. Now this was interesting, I wonder how they see me, and how much they know.

"...Yeah...Me too..." Shin added. Looks like he's quite curious too.

"Like I said, I really don't have any idea. I don't even see him talk to anyone." Lina answered.

"Hey, Valle."

"Yeah?"

"Am I a loner?"

"Don't worry. You have me."

" I see. Thanks." I thanked Arkenvalle as I thought. 'Yep, I have Valle. I'm not a loner.'

"Come on! He's got to have something on you, right? I mean, that time we pleaded him to save us, he said he'd only take you." Rayle spoke with an accusation.

"Like I said, it's not like that!" Lina denied. Keep it up, healer.

"Then why would he save you? Give it up girl, Lancell's not here. You can't avoid the topic further." Sally said. Hmm, I guess I might've overdone it with the topic shifting.

"Lancell said..." she said as she then paused and continued."...it was his mother's request." Lina confessed.

"Forgive her. She was gonna get 'roasted', as you call it, is she didn't answer." Arkenvalle conveyed.

"...Fine." I accepted.

"""HUH?!""" Everyone was shocked at the declaration. Is it that shocking that mom's alive? Look. Even mom's face is twitching.

"Yes, his mother is ali—"

"What lame excuse! Even I wouldn't use an obviously fake reasoning like that!" Rayle said.

"I think they're misunderstanding something." Arkenvalle commented.

"I think so too." I agreed with her.

Argos then added. "Yeah...Even I think that was a bit too much." And even Shin made his comment. "...Didn't know...master was...this bad at love..." he said.

"Valle?"

"I know. Give them a piece of your mind."

Arkenvalle materialized, and then walked inside along with me. Mom was following us behind.

I released a bit of bloodlust, and spoke. "And what exactly are you talking about, idiots."

It was roasting time.