“So, you are a dual swordsman. If you think you can actually defeat me with that, why not test you?” The Goddess of Malice, Kaya said with a sly grin.

Initially, I had planned to use just one of my blades in combat. But if the battle has evolved to this stage, that my magic alone would not suffice then I can no longer conceal the truth - I was a dual sword wielder.

After all, if my magic fails, these swords were the only weapons I could truly rely upon.

Without giving her the time to think, like a bolt of lightning, I lunged forward determined to bridge the gap between us and bring my sword into play. But goddess Kaya, remained unfazed even when weaponless.

“[Chains of Astel]” With a wave of her hand, she invoked a spell.

From the magical portals she had summoned, golden chains with long blades attached to their end projected outward and came hurtling toward me. I used the broad side of my black sword to block them. But the moment I made contact, magical power shot out in spark-like bursts.

The parry was successful as the chains got pulled back.

“It's so heavy….” I said in an anxious voice still feeling the lingering pain in my hands as I pushed them back.

The magic wielded by the goddess was unlike anything I had ever encountered. The chains she summoned appeared deceptively lightweight, but their inertial mass was far greater than what they seemed. It was no ordinary manipulation of gravity, and Al quantified that the immense weight of the chains had been drawn from another dimension altogether.

So, even Al could not help me, since his current restrictions only limited it to the deciphering of the magic of the current world.

First, her special magic that allowed her to control not just the gravitational forces of her surroundings, but also pull and push away the very fabric of magic itself, rendering my own magical abilities useless. And now on top of that, she could do this. How did mother even defeat her?

While Kaya was still empty-handed, I had gotten close to her and had my two blades. Without hesitating I swung my additional one straight for her neck.

Kaya stepped back as though in a dance, the strike passing her by with only

a finger’s width gap. With minimal movement, she stepped forward once

more with the intention to grapple me like the last time.

Reflexively, I kicked the ground, leaping backward ⸻only realizing my mistake when I saw her launching another chain at me.

“Tear her apart.”

I leaped to the side to dodge the deadly chains. But turns out, these chains could freely move to follow their prey.

I whip up some fusion spheres to push the weapons back. Hopefully, the chain itself did not negate my magic and I was saved a second time. The fact itself that my blade could not cut through these chains meant that they were some kind of divine weapon almost on par with my weapon.

Goddess Kaya didn’t waste a second before following through as she suddenly appeared behind me. I could not help but find this odd.

Usually, someone with a long-range weapon like this would keep their distance from their opponent, but the Goddess instead of being interested in fighting looked more concentrated on my swords.

Even though I was being pushed back, I decided to take on her challenge. I quickly teleported myself right behind her. For a moment I thought I saw a surprised look on her face.

“—!” But before I could follow through with a strike, golden chains gouged deep gashes through the ground.

I paused to regain my stance and circled around goddess Kaya to dodge the barrage.

For a second my breathing stopped and so did the attack.

“Tell me you have never actually had experience fighting a real strong opponent with those swords. Every move you make seems so calculated and yet imitating someone.” The goddess suddenly questioned me.

I did not reply, knowing that she was right. I had always relied on my magical powers and only used these swords in practice matches against mother or to fight monsters.

“I see. Still, I feel those swords are familiar. Where did you acquire them? What happened to its previous wielder?” The Goddess Kaya's eyes narrowed as she spoke, hinting at a mix of suspicion and curiosity behind her assertive tone.

“I don’t know what you are talking about. I just found them one day and they have been with me since then.” I don’t know what made her curious but I saw no reason to lie to the goddess. Nevertheless, it was a bit embarrassing for me to accept the fact as they were.

“Don’t play around with me. A mortal weapon would never stand a chance against mine. Those are principium weapons; you can’t just get your hands on something so precious and divine so easily like that. Much less a mortal wielding them is impossible. For the most part I think it’s a fake or a cheap imitation.” she sneered, her voice echoing through the air.

“⸻A fake!?” The expression on my face dulled.

I had previously learned of the principium weapons and that they could easily be written off as the strongest weapons in the universe, and not even Gods were a match for them.

I know mother had always acted suspiciously by not answering any of my questions regarding the origin of the swords or how she knew so much about them. After all, she is the one who taught me about all of its abilities and how to wield them.

These swords were not just mere objects to me; they were my only possessions when I was trapped in the cold and monstrous dungeon in this unfamiliar world. And someone discrediting their value and calling them fake, it felt as though she was mocking the only source of comfort I had.

“Take that back… I won’t allow anyone to slander them like that.” I cried.

“Ohhhh…” The goddess looked down on me.

Letting my emotions take over, for a brief moment I allow the black sword to consume a bit of my power.

The number of chains that targeted to corner me kept on increasing. But with teleportation magic, I got past them all.

“The same trick won’t work again. Just a little close and I will be sure to end you.” The goddess yells. A sharp energy releases from her hand manifesting a strong gravitation field around us.

She planned to slow my movements just like before and stop me from teleporting by warping the space using gravity.

“And you are exactly where I want you to,” I said with confidence. Even though the gravity field dulled my movement by slowing down the energy of magic particles. And with my magic energy being blocked for the moment. But with the sword’s ability I released the magic stored in the black sword.

[REVERSE GRAVITY WELL]

A purple sphere from the tip of the white blade expands under the effect of the already existing gravitational field. And it does until we both are engulfed in it.

Neither the Goddess nor I were able to move now.

As the two forces collided, they created a vortex of energy that pulled in everything within its reach, causing the ground to crumble. It felt like I could see the very fabric of space-time warp and twist, as the two forces fought for dominance.

Goddess Kaya was so taken aback that her response became delayed. On the other hand, I was prepared and by manipulating the gravity on myself, I slowly fall back before the curvature could rupture.

And exceeding my expectation the phenomena started to extract the extra gravity from the other dimension the goddess had opened.

“Ahhhhhhh!” The goddess shrieked in pain as she struggled to resolve the problem by closing the portals she had herself opened.

The shockwave from the explosion rocks the battlefield. A final shockwave managed to knock me far away as for the fate of the goddess remained unclear.

With a faint smile on my face, I looked at my bruised hands, arms, and legs. Even I could not escape something like that without a few cuts. I quickly cast healing magic and also mend my torn suit.

But as the dust settles, the cheers from Regis, Hana, and the adventuring party stopped. The goddess was still standing, she had somehow managed not to become a part of that flattening by wrapping herself in her own chains.

“But why?” Everyone could not help themselves but ask the same question.

After seeing me try so hard, they most probably thought that the goddess would have been done for with that heated explosion.

“She held back?” Galen was the first to speak to everyone’s surprise.

“Holding back, you don’t make sense?” Asher asked, knowing well that even with all her magic power at her disposal she wouldn’t have been capable to pull off something like that.

Galen continued explaining, “I don’t know why, but miss Alicia, after showing her two swords stopped using her magic or aura completely until the last moment. And also, I felt like she was holding back on using the black sword for attacking even when she had the chance.”

“Alicia is that true…” Regis asked not believing in what Galen had to say. She still regretted her decision for leaving everything to me at my request.

“Well, I certainly held back on the last attack by not using the full extent of my magic.” Even though, I have a self-preservation policy of not getting myself hurt.

I did not wanted to use it; a power I did not understand how it would affect others, so I limited its use only on the strongest monster of the abyss.

“The human is right. Tell me why not fight with both the swords.”

“It’s because I felt a zing from the swords.” Of course, to others, it wouldn’t make sense, that how can a sword have feelings. But I feel them and most of the time they never like it if I wield any other weapon.

The truth is as I was right now, I was still not strong enough to defeat her.

Mother was right in saying that winning just one battle today, never meant I could win tomorrow’s battle as well.

“The last person who I fought said to me that she would stop anyone who takes away people’s smiles. Do you have something similar in your mind? Your fighting style, it reminds me of the True Hero even though its sloppy and seems copied. But this only makes my blood boiling even more.” The goddess remarked.

“No, I am certainly not a hero. The only thing in my mind is to eliminate anyone who gets in my way of what I want.” I said.

“Don’t we think too alike! So, why don’t I give you a small incentive to fight.” The goddess smiled gently, betraying the sadistic pleasure she took in causing pain and suffering to her opponents. By putting both her hands together a laser of purple haze lightning launches to where Regis, Hana, and others were standing.

The gloomy light that the laser cast upon them was enough to make them scared for their lives. Certainly, it was powerful enough to break through my barrier as well.

But before it could hit them, I intercepted it with my black blade, and the intense light ray disappears. All that tremendous amount of energy was devoured by the black sword in an instant like it had been hungry for years.

“Now… What happened?” Everyone yelled in surprise.

“The light… it got absorbed into the sword!” This time Thorne pointed it out for others.

As everyone watched, a black haze started leaking from the sword.

“I take my words back. From what I have seen so far, those are the real swords of White and Black. But it still does not explain why a human wields them?” The goddess’s eyes glinted with a dangerous glimmer but it almost looked like she was hiding some kind of pain inside her.

“Hey Alicia if you were really playing around, then stop and do something or do you want me to take care of her myself,” Regis complained shouting non-stop.

In a way, Regis was right, that If I don’t do this seriously, this war-monger goddess would really murder everyone.

“You have hurt me twice now, and I now know that this is no longer a coincidence. I don’t think it will do you any good to hold back after this.” The goddess scoffed at me.

“I hate doing this to a god, but if this is what it takes then I will show you. Just remember this will no longer be by any chance.” I had my reservations before about using such a fatal power against a goddess that might kill her or taint their divinity.

I focused only for a short duration and the swords as if responding to my will, unlocks their ability. The black sword rapidly feeds on my magic, and the concentration of black aura intensifies that even the magicless now could see it.

“I feel it. Now it has become this dense… that’s black miasma.” Leafa holds her chest tightly as she shuddered.

“But didn’t Alicia use healing magic on Galen? So, she has the light element. It would be certainly impossible for her to possess a dark element. And isn’t black miasma a residual energy from the underworld, why would there any be present in this world?" Asher argued.

“It’s the swords doing it. They are manipulating and refining her magic to its maximum level. Its awe-inspiring and so overwhelmingly dark.” Galen said out loud, his all focus was now on the fight.

“Gwahhh…Ahhhh.” Suddenly Hana cried in pain and falls to the ground almost in shock. Everyone in surprise wondered what was happening to her. While Regis knew it was because I decided to use the swords Hana was in pain now.

“Hana please bear for a while; I won’t let it last long.” It would take a while for Hana to get accustomed to such crude magical energy.

“Yes, master.” Hana tried to speak by collecting her full strength even if the pain had become more than she could bear.

“Don’t worry, I will cast healing magic on her to ease some pain.” Leafa decided to lessen my burden even by a bit.

“Please do.”

“Now show me what you can really do with those swords. Come forth ⸻Sword of Astel.” Goddess Kaya finally revealed her real weapon. From a portal underneath her leg, a triangular sword entangled in golden chains manifested itself. As soon as the goddess grab holds of the swords, the chains unlocks and the otherworldly energy of the sword was unleashed in this world.

The strange otherworldly power that emanated from it had already started to interfere with my magic and the pressure also made sure that I cannot use my speed and agility to my full advantage.

“This is the best I have ever felt since I decided to come to this world.”

“You are welcome and good morning.”

“And goodnight to you forever.”

---- [Here's a surprise] ----

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