Y/N POV
"We're almost there, Omega!" I said to my contracted as we ran our way up the base of the volcano, towards the ending point that marked the finish line of the second phase of the Lava Competition.
"It would've been really helpful it I could fly like Sphinx..." Omega sighed. "At least most of my Magic Power's return is 98% complete, so I can at least buff myself with Akra."
"This is good physical exercises for you, you know? I can't imagine your proportions being so fit back in the day when you literally barely moved." I reminded her of her past 400 years ago, and she sighed.
"I don't get fat, you know?" Omega retorted as she began using Earth Magic to carry her forward from underneath her feet, and I groaned at her act.
"That's cheating... I don't even have the Earth mana attribute..."
"Too bad, so sad." Omega snickered as she continued forward, while I stopped to look down at how much we had climbed up. I can see our battalion like a dot at the starting point, but overall it's been a long climb. I wonder who made this road all the way up, though.
Within ten minutes, we arrived at the finish line, or at least the supposed finish line.
"You're supposed to jump down there?" I yelled at the volcano's inside edges, while we stood on its peak. There were clearly arrows made out of some kind of stone or metal pointing downwards, indicating that we should take that path.
"There's no reason not to..." Omega said as she looked down at the bubbling magma, but retracted her words immediately. "On second thought, it might be a bad idea to do so."
"You just need a sufficient amount of mana protection for us to get down into the lava. Using Zarestia's Zephyr Sphere spell, we can last around 5 minutes in there until the lava starts to seep in. If that happens, I can maintain Prudence's Barrier for an extra 10 seconds and then re-cast the Zephyr Sphere. So in total, we have 10 minutes and By the way, I even sense the Love Sword down there."
"The Sword of Power you were looking for? How do you even know that?" Omega asked me, curious on how I managed to locate it. My answer, however, was not very satisfactory.
"Plain gut intuition."
"Huh-" Omega was about to criticize my lack of effort to think it through, but I grabbed her collar and yeeted both of us down the opening and plunged towards the deadly magma below. "Hey, Y/N, we could actually die from this! I demand life insurance for this kind of dangerous mission!"
"Oh, my life insurance was already paid. I made a clone back at the top, so I could just transfer my consciousness to there. As for yours... find a way out on your own."
"Is this any way to treat your contractor!?"
"I'm just joking, of course. Don't worry, we won't die." I assured as we continued falling. When we reached around 15 meters above the lava, I deployed Zarestia's wind magic spell, and a barrier made of roaring gusts surrounded Omega and I as we dipped into the lava. Surprisingly, the wind sphere started immediately spewing the lava away like how it deflected my attacks. I went through the lava along with Omega for a while, before I had to deploy Prudence's Barrier.
The 10 seconds finished soon enough and we casted the Zephyr Sphere together this time. After a long time, we somehow broke through into a layer of lava that was actually... not lava. I opened the barrier a little and let it leaked in, since I noticed the obvious colour change. After touching and observing it, it was deemed a warm, orange liquid that doesn't actually burn you.
Wait. When there's fake lava, there's usually a secret chamber hidden beneath it, or at least in the realm of games. We're heading down there. The Love Sword might just be hidden past this obstacle.
Omega yelped in surprise when I applied an extra propulsion force on top of our barrier as we zoomed down like an out-of-control elevator, before hitting a large rock on the bottom of the lava lake, where fresh air existed, miraculously.
"What is this place?" I wondered aloud, and Omega began examining the walls, before stomping her staff on the ground as water and earth flowed out to form a magic circle, which eventually projected a layout of the entire dungeon.
"Hehe." Omega huffed in confidence as she lifted her chin up and expected me to praise her, and how can i say no to that?
"Good job, Chid-chan. Hey, can I learn that spell too?"
"Nope. It's for witches only."
"Aw..."
"Fine. I'll teach you it later, so carry me on your back so I don't have to walk."
Without any delay, I lifted up the smol child and began walking in the direction where the final chamber should lie. After many twists and turns, avoiding traps as well as jumping over dangerous pits of lava by stepping on the Samurai's Wind Blade skill I stole from Lye, we arrived at the place where a pedestal sat in the middle of a large room. And on the sword pedestal was my target.
"The Love Sword. There it is." I spoke, and realized my words echoed back at me, as if the walls reflected my sound waves right back. Keeping my mind cautious, I walked towards the pedestal and laid my hand on the handle of the blood-red blade.
I regarded the hand guard, carved as part of the sword in the shape of a heart, and understood it's meaning. Using all my strength, I removed the sword from its pedestal and found its sheath lying nearby.
I sheathed the sword and smiled. "From today, you'll be known as Amorum. I'll take care of you, okay?"
Surprisingly, as if the sword understood my intentions, it gave me a low hum as a response, as if happy about it.
"You can understand me?" I gasped. I didn't know that sentient swords existed in this world. Before I could inquire further, however, a large creature landed at the far side of the room, creating a large cloud of smoke and two golden eyes looked at me through the smoke.
Omega immediately readied her staff and casted Ul Akra on both of us for precaution, and I slid Amorum into the fourth sword slot on my back.
"Human. What is your business here?" The creature asked as the smoke dissipated, and I recognized his species as a wyvern.
"A wyvern? I suppose you're a rare sight these days, considering most dragons are gone at this point except for the Earth Dragons in Lugnica and the Flying Dragons in Vollachia." I replied, scrutinizing at his fiery orange scales.
"Oh. You were here for that sword. Unfortunately, it's my duty to keep it here. The time has not yet come. Her words are not fulfilled yet. So I cannot allow you to take that sword, human. For your bravery to venture to this place and your ignorance of the contract, I will allow you to go."
"No, I don't think so. Amorum was pretty happy to see me, so I don't think it minds." Hearing me say this, the sword hummed in agreement, as if willingly defying the dragon.
"Then I'm sorry about this. My duty and contract is not something I could ignore." The wyvern said as he stomped his left foot, and a large amount of magma spewed out from the walls.
"Goddammit. Periodic Manipulation: Water Exchange."
With a wave of my hand, I reconfigured the atoms in the magma into water molecules, and decided to let the rest fuse on their own, making a large pile of random stone. "Absolute Zero."
Alchemis appeared and activated the spell as I encased the wyvern in water, and the sudden drop to 0 Kelvin enabled the draconic creature to suddenly freeze, before I deactivated the domain and stood against its frozen statue. "You want to keep on going?"
"I don't see why not." The ice melted in a few seconds, and the dragon's body seemed to be covered in lava, seeping out of its very scales. "I'll show you why I'm Jimuna's Guardian, human, since you have decided to entertain me for quite a long time."
"Bring it on, you overgrown lizard." I snarled, taking out for the first time, all four Swords of Power.
The Shadow Sword, Inen.
The Spirit Sword, Ryokyo.
The Life Sword, Zeam.
And now the Love Sword, Amorum.
I first swung my previous three as I equipped them, and swung them with my arms and teeth, slashing one of the wyvern's wings off. To my surprise, it regenerated right back as the lava reformed itself.
Goddammit. He's an elemental creature. This is going to be annoying. More fireballs of sorts rained upon me while I ran across the rocky terrain, dodging the deadly spheres of magma and weaving through the stalagmites that erected from the ground. When I reached the wyvern in an open space, I unsheathed the red blade.
Well, time to test you out, Amorum.
Grabbing the handle with one of my Imperceptible Extensions, I felt the red blade gain power before I spun around and slashed the air. A wave of pink energy was emitted from the blade and was dispelled into the air before it reached the dragon, and for some reason, the wyvern could not regenerate.
"So this is the power of the Love Sword... the ability to counter my own." The wyvern suddenly revealed its ability as I gasped at its usefulness, before it turned into a pure grin.
"Time to utterly cut you, then." I took the Love Sword in my Extension, and began spinning to gain angular momentum as I spoke. "This blow will dissect you for sure."
"Psychokinesis Laser Plane- Spin."
The pink disk accreted through the air and slice the wyvern's torso in half, and he looked at me in shock before his upper body fell to the floor and his lower body collapsed.
"I guess you're really... her descendant..."
With those parting words, the wyvern dissipated into thin air and the Love Sword gave a soft yet somewhat solemn hum. "You're not happy that he's gone? I thought you didn't like him at all."
Hum...hum hum...
"Huh. I guess he's your only friend down here after all. But don't worry, you got me now! And we're going to overcome a lot of obstacles together, so you better be ready, Amorum!"
Hearing my encouraging words, the sword hummed once again before it dimmed, possibly a result of energy shortage. When I turned around to leave, I suddenly realized something wasn't right.
"Chid-chan! Where are you?"
"I'm right here, Y/N." Omega's voice echoed across the cave, and I turned a 360 before she suddenly appeared right in front of me.
"Boo."
"Where did you go? I remember you casting Akra for me earlier, but you just vanished!"
"Well, I casted an invisibility spell earlier to avoid that wyvern's distraction, so its justified in the name of self-defense."
"Fine. Just don't go running off again."
"I'm not your child!"
"Too bad, you look like one right now. Sucks to be you."
"Ugh! Get over here right now!"
"Catch me if you can~ hahahahaha!"
No One's POV:
"I'm stuck. Ugh. How am I supposed to repay Frakinedottir now?"
A lone woman sat in front of over a hundred computers and machinery, tinkering away on her keyboards, trying to create some sort of multiversal anomaly that could potentially repay her debt to the successor of the one she needs to pay it to."
"I have to pay them a visit, I guess. The chances of that boy being her child is possible... but I'm not sure if she will take it lightly. Well, it's not like Order is going to interfere. None of us could do anything against those two, after all."
Code departed her base before venturing into the realm of the void, eventually stopping at a fixed axis point.
"Hello. I know you're there, so come out. I have official and urgent business to talk about." The lone woman with grey hair spoke into the void, seemingly at no one. However, after a few moments, she snapped her fingers thrice, and a rift of sorts appeared out of thin air. Another girl came out of the portal, her eyes in the shape of a piercing star, and gave the requester an evil smile.
"What do you want, Code?" The girl rasped in a glitchy voice, as if trying to conceal her identity. However, to Code, who was the master of all computing programs, it was nullified into a simple, soprano voice.
"You know what it is. It's about the child of your other half."
"Ha! Haha! Which one did you came for? For as long as I know, she gave her essence to many families."
"Order was not really happy about something lately. Apparently an Outerworlder started to mess the timeline up. I figured it was one of her children."
"My other self is too busy dealing with stuff. She's not going to grant you an audience."
"I know full well that Ritatosky was going to be busy. That's why I came to you."
"I don't care. I'm not helping you reach out. It's too much of a hassle."
"What if I told you it's something that will alter the entirety of the megaverse."
"Heheheha! Now we're talking. But I'm the Goddess of Annihilation and Destruction. Do you really want to seek MY advice?"
"It's going to go up in flames anyways. Just help me, please, Möbius."
"Very well. Let all hell break loose then. Geheheheha..."