Esme's eyes softened as she stood beside the young man with a composed expression, whispering, "I may be weak, but not weak enough to hold you back."
'....' Ryuk's eyes glanced at the woman beside him with a small smile adorning his face, reciprocating her tone as he whispered, "I know."
"....Then why did you order those men to lock me up?" Not meeting his eyes while looking straight, she inquired calmly.
"It was Lady Drishti's request," Ryuk said as he recalled the words of that woman, holding so much strength yet saying to him this:
::Keep Esme away from battle; things will become difficult if she gets injured by some mistake. I don't want to go through the hassle of giving explanations::
A very kind request from a woman who cared for this young woman, isn't it?
Not at all.
Ryuk was more than sure that Drishti just wanted to decrease the number of advantages he has, just so that she could watch a good fight.
Which he was sure would occur, but he was not going to underestimate Edward in the least.
'System, is it done?' Ryuk inquired about the task he had assigned the system, calmly seeing the shadow of the huge ship slowly falling on the capital city's land, far larger to cover one-fourth of it due to the enlarged shadow.
[Host, Analysis is done. Should I show the results?]
'Yes,' he commanded.
╔─━━━━━━━━━░★░━━━━━━━━━─╗
Name :: Svayantra ( ****** )
Ability 1 :: Devour any sword to reach it's strength, rank, gain ability and sharpness.
( There isn't much information found...)
╚─━━━━━━━━━░★░━━━━━━━━━─╝
'It's more than enough,' looking at the information gathered from the analysis of the Sword he possessed, things became clearer to him.
In both his past life and this one, whenever he held that Sword, it always felt as if it were thirsty for things, wanting to devour something, always trying to influence his mind to kill more — to be drenched in blood, to break weapons, and even to destroy strong things.
However, he never felt overwhelmed or decided to succumb to the sword's instincts.
Now, atleast, he knew that due to the presence of his ability, he was immune from the sword's effect.
Additionally, the System, using the energy signatures of Regina, who is linked with Sword Valley, just like the Sword Maiden—originally the holder of this sword—there arose a possibility to know something about this sword.
'Not you, system. Can you keep quiet for some time?' Ryuk calmly commanded the system, while his mind focused on the sword in his hand.
"It is alive, isn't it?"
'?!'
'....' Ryuk turned his gaze towards the source of the voice, looking at Esme, whose golden pupils were fixed on the sword in his hand. Following her gaze, he inquired, "Can you feel it?"
"....Yes," Esme nodded slightly, furrowing her brow as if she felt something from the sword, which was intensely channeling sharp intent towards Ryuk's hand.
WHOOSH
"What do you feel from it?" Ryuk tightened his grip when he felt the sword bursting out a sharp intent, wanting to come out of its sheath instantly yet remained unshakable due to his strength suppressing it and ability nullifying it.
"It hates you," Esme directly stated, her mana sensitivity feeling the violent revolt oozing out of the sword, trying to break free from the man's grip.
'....'
[It seems Sword and I both share mutual ideology.]
'...Why didn't you translate it?' Ryuk inquired the system about why he was learning this from Esme instead of the system, which can't even tell if the sword was alive, least translate what it was trying to communicate.
[Host, I am not Omniscient. I don't have any data regarding anything, and due to keeping a low key from Nexus Grid, extracting information from it is not possible.]
Once again, Ryuk was reminded of the system's current state, simply understanding the meaning behind its words—it was like a supercomputer without any data of its own—but it doesn't make it weak.
So, the least he could do was, 'System, the moment you get a chance, get whatever information you can from Nexus Grid. I want to know about this sword's origins.'
[I understand.]
"Esme, can you understand the exact words of it?" Ryuk glanced at the woman before inquiring.
"No, I can only sense mana fluctuations of this sword, like its hostile intentions towards you," Esme lifted her eyes, meeting his gaze as she informed, giving Ryuk a sense of the extent of her ability.
ZWOOOO
THUD
Attracting his attention were the two now-landing battleships, bearing marks of heat on the exterior due to a close blast of a ship, causing damage to some extent in the outer shield of the ships.
Regina's grip tightened on her sword hilt as she narrowed her eyes the moment she noticed the gates of the ships opening and several EPIC rankers coming out of it, making her understand the importance of this opportunity.
"My Liege, this could be our only chance to kill Edward Abernathy."