Chapter 46 Exchanging Dangerous Word

Kenta.

His real name. From the world before this one. 

He stared at her — heart pounding so loud he couldn’t hear anything else. His sword trembled in his grip, the glow of Aether Rend flickered and faded.

“How…? How do you know that name? No one should know it. Not here. Not in this world. I… I only ever said it once… to one person. That was… Aura.”

Her eyes slowly opened, gaze flicked down to the Hero blade. Its edge hovering a breath from her throat, then back up to Rein’s face.

“I know more about you than you think. The day before I left on that ‘expedition’ to kill the Demon Lord… the day we promised to meet so I could tell you something important… this was it. I’m not from this world either, Rein. I’m from the same world as you.”

His eyes open wide, but she didn’t let him speak.

“I was that girl with messy hair you met at the school backyard. I was bullied by other college students just because I was a quiet petite girl and they found it funny. I’m sorry… back then, when you protected me from them, I just ran. I didn’t even thank you. But how could I? I liked you even then, Rein. That day… when I ran after you helped me. I didn’t get far. I… I got hit by a train.”

Her breath caught, and for a moment, she looked more like the girl from his memories than the Demon Lord before him.

“The next thing I knew… I woke up as a baby. In a village I didn’t recognize. In this world. I thought I’d never see you again. And yet… here you are.”

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High above the shattered battlefield, Liora’s eyes locked on the scene below.

Rein stood there, sword at the Demon Lord’s neck — yet unmoving, magic glow fading. His shoulders were tense, his expression out of sight from this distance. But to her… it was obvious.

Words were exchanged, dangerous word. Her stomach twisted with anxiety.

"No… no, no, no. Why did he stop? He had her. One more inch and this would have been over... Could it be…? Did she finally get through to him...? No... This is bad. If they keep talking—I need to stop them. Now! No matter the cost."

Her body dissolved into shards of light and tore through the sky. She reappeared hundreds of meters above the battlefield, standing atop a radiant, spinning magic circle, each line glowing brighter with every word she spoke.

 "Oh, spear of winter eternal… forge thy edge in the breath of the First Storm. From the bones of the frozen earth and the veins of the northern sky, shape for me the blade that sunders worlds!"

The clouds above tore open.

From the breach, ice condensed out of the very air, swirling into form — a sword, impossibly vast, stretching upward until its tip pierced the dark canopy of clouds above the Demon Plains.

Liora’s eyes blazed with mana as she raised her fist, the magic circle beneath her expanding until it lit the entire sky in pale blue radiance.

“Tier 5 Magic—Heaven-Piercer: Prominence... GLACIAL JUDGMENT!”

She swung her fist downward.

The colossal ice sword descended like divine punishment, its arc cleaving the black storm clouds wide open, sunlight flooding down for the first time in centuries. The sun’s rays spilled over the battlefield, blinding, holy — and in their center, the falling blade shrieked toward Rein and the Demon Lord with the force to shatter continent.

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Rein felt it before he saw it — a bite of cold on his skin, sharp enough to raise the hairs on his arms even through the heat of his own magic. His breath puffed white.

Then the light changed.

He glanced up. The black ceiling of clouds above the Demon Plains was splitting.

“What the hell…?”

The air trembled as the impossible shape finished forming — a sword of ice so massive it made the mountains in the distance look small. 

 “What the hell is she doing?!”

Demon Lord’s gaze lifted to the sky. The massive blade of ice reflected in her red-black eyes, but there was no fear there — only a quiet, almost mournful sigh.

“Ah… poor Liora. Pushing herself this far… Arthur must have her under his thumb tighter than I thought. She doesn’t want this. She’s just afraid you’ll learn the truth, Rein. She panicked. I don’t blame her… she’s not a bad person. She’s just… trapped. Pressured by everyone.”

The air itself seemed to freeze. Frost crawled across the shattered battlefield in veins under the suffocating weight of magic. A shadow swallowed the land as the sky split.

It descended from the heavens like a god’s judgment, so vast it blotted out the horizon. The ice sword’s edge shimmered with blinding light, slicing open the oppressive cloud cover, and for the first time in decades, sunlight poured down on the Demon Plains. 

The sword fell.

The ground buckled before it even hit. The air howled, tearing soil from the earth. Knights and demons alike got flung away like leaves in the wind.

And in the center of it all… Demon lord didn’t move.

As the mountain-sized blade crashed down, she simply lifted one arm. Her black-gloved fingers opened, palm facing the heavens.

When ice met her hand, the sound was a deafening crack — like the world itself had splintered. The impact threw out a shockwave so violent, nuclear explosion ran way in shame and hid. The air pressure carved trenches in every direction, flinging soldiers into the air.

Yet there she stood, unmoving, one hand holding back the impossible weight of Liora’s ultimate magic. Frost spread across her arm and shoulder, spiderwebbing over her cracked obsidian armor, but her knees did not bend.

She looked almost sad.

Her gaze slid past the sword, past the sky, until it met Rein’s.

“Poor Liora. So desperate. All this effort for nothing. You see? Even this isn’t enough to end me.”

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Mari’s jaw dropped, her usual smirk gone for once. She clutched at the rubble beside her, eyes wide as the sheer force of the ice sword and Demon Lord defense blew the battlefield apart.

“Holy—did she just drop a damn mountain on her?! And she caught it—WITH ONE HAND?!”

Kaia shielded her face from the storm of ice shards and steam.

“That… that wasn’t magic. That was something else. If Liora’s strongest spell couldn’t even scratch her—then what are we supposed to do?”

Selene bit her lip hard enough to draw blood.

“Damn it… Rein’s in there, fighting that. If even Liora can’t break through… then—” she stopped herself, shaking her head. 

“No. Don’t think it. He’ll find a way. He has to.”

Sareth, leaning on her spear, gave a bitter laugh.

“Ha… so that’s the famed human Saintes’ true magic? Impressive. Wasteful, but impressive. To think she’d unleash it here…” 

Her smirk faltered, voice dipping to a murmur only she could hear. 

“…and even that wasn’t enough.”

Verron brushed ash from his shoulder. His usual easy smile carried a strain this time, eyes following Demon Lord silhouette under the falling ice.

“My, my… I knew our lady was powerful, but this… catching the heavens themselves like a bauble tossed her way. If that doesn’t break the humans’ hope, nothing will. And yet…” 

He exhaled, almost amused. 

“…that boy. That young Hero. He’s still don't believe her.”