To Swing

As the night's darkness edged ever closer to consuming the light, Felix was calmly sitting down as he focused all his attention on the sword in front of him. It didn't radiate anything mythical power nor was it loaded with immense mana, in fact, it was only an ordinary metal sword that he picked up from the training grounds to practice with.

"The First Sword: Mind, Body, Spirit." Felix's movements seemed slow yet fast at the same time, he slowly moved his limbs yet the distance he covered with his feet was too vast. The private room he was in was made out of common materials, unlike those training rooms in the Aria Estate, resulting in sword marks occurring on his feet.

The sword marks on the floor started off with one point yet somehow drifted into three different lines, converging once more into one slash. The craziest thing about this was that it seemed as if it was all done in one straight stroke. Felix's sword turned into three for a brief moment before reconverging into an even more terrifying sword mark.

Felix exhaled an immense amount of air as he coughed and hacked out, clearly showing that his body couldn't handle the technique. He felt weakness in his arms and wrists yet the most vital aspect of himself that was struggling the most was his spirit. The contract with Gwen was preventing him from using his spirit due to it being intricately connected to his talent. He knew this was the case and he would be even more free if this contract was gone but due to multiple parties pushing for this, he couldn't lift it without facing any consequences.

"So many sacrifices just to complicate something that could've been done in seconds. I don't understand." Felix moved his strained body as he slowly lay on his back, staring at the ceiling, trying to make sense of everything that the people behind the scenes were trying to accomplish. Even though he knew more than most, he still didn't understand the end goal of it all. He had seen just how powerful his father and Nio truly were, something that the whole realm couldn't even begin to comprehend yet they were still playing this cruel game of chess with their loved ones.

Felix draped an arm over his eyes, trying to rest his weary eyes. As he started to recall everything ever since his first memory, he recalled the plans, the plots, the joys, the evil, and the good, this boy had experienced too many things as a child to the point that he even asked Nio to remove his memories for him. As he started to remember, a familiar voice interrupted his train of thought, "What are you doing down there? Other than being below me, like always." Gwen's cheeky tone never failed to somehow both irritate and ease Felix.

Felix's chaotic mindset eventually settled down as he came back to his normal state of mind, "Practicing."

"Hmm… so why are you on the floor then?"

Felix knew that if he tried to defend himself that she will have enough ammunition to make fun of him for the rest of the night as he just decided to come clean, "I'm tired."

"Really? Ugh, and here I am trying to spar with you. Boring." Gwen grumbled as she also sat down on the floor, trying to figure out what she could do next.

Felix slightly smiled as he continued to rest on the floor, "So, what happened to No. 12?"

"Heh, she got fooled again. Imagine what I could do if I had my Death Artifact instead of this useless Glimmering Dagger. Tch, Tier 4, that's all?" Gwen continued on complaining to Felix but he couldn't have felt more happy. There had been too many things lingering within his mind that Gwen's rants calms him down.

"What's with that smile? You think you're funny? Huh?"

"Actually… yeah, I think I am."

"Alright, that's it, bring up your sword! We're sparring!" Gwen immediately ran to the side where there was a weapon rack holding up a few iron swords. She took the first one she got into contact with and immediately pointed it at Felix who had just recently gotten up.

"Since you're so smug, let's see you defend against my family's signature technique, First Sword: Light the Darkness." From the tip of Gwen's sword, one could see a small point of light that didn't come from mana, instead, it came from a deviant form of it, aura. Her footsteps were as quick as lightning her flashing figure under the darkness showed a blindingly bright strike that briefly illuminated everything.

As Felix saw this flash, he knew that Gwen's movement finally finished and she was about to strike him at any moment. Despite the danger of actually being pierced through by her blade, he just casually moved his sword to his side, as if blocking air yet somehow the crisp clanging sound of metal clashing could be heard. The force and impact between the two blades created sparks in the air, which showed Felix's confidence rising.

"Don't act so cocky! Second Sword: Beyond the Stars." Gwen's sword retained that singular particle of light within her sword yet somehow it multiplied, creating even more small orbs of light that illuminated her blade, reminiscent of the stars. She directly struck in front of her, knowing that this was her opportunity.

Felix's calm expression turned slightly more serious as compared to the First Sword of the Aria family's technique which was more focused on movement, the Second Sword was a brutally terrifying attack that used different sources of power to break through the mist of the enemy's formations.

"First Sword: Mind, Body, Spirit." Felix recomposed himself, seeing that he had to take Gwen's attack seriously. Although he was more skilled and powerful than Gwen, her tricks were more than enough to turn the tides in battle. Especially in this case where she was buffing her physical attributes with magic, although it was nigh imperceptible, he still managed to figure out this small detail.

Felix faced forward, dragging his sword through the ground as it started to split into three different slashes, Gwen snickered and redirected her sword trajectory to hit one of the slashes, specifically, the Spirit. Felix's attack fully dissipated into nothingness as Gwen's sword was about to slash through him.

Gwen's seemingly unstoppable strike stopped just before it hit Felix's neck, seeing Felix brace himself for impact, she went right behind him and kicked down on his leg, forcing him to kneel down. And as to how she would proceed, she leaned right behind Felix and muttered, "Really, why are you forcing the Spirit? You know you can't use it right now so why not ditch it?"

Felix's also thought of this but he still explained the conclusion he arrived to, "My father's technique requires you to blend in all three aspects to unleash your full power."

"Your father's technique? Hahaha!" Gwen seemed to have the time of her life as soon as she heard that. Felix felt a little annoyed at Gwen's usual words, but Gwen continued on. She rubbed her eyes to get rid of the tear that came after laughing so hard, "Are you your father?"

"I'm… not."

"Well, do you want to be?"

Felix didn't answer Gwen as he started to deeply contemplate what she just said when all of a sudden she used the hilt of her blade to slam it down hard on Felix's thick skull.

"Ouch! What was that for?"

"For thinking. It shouldn't be that hard. So?"

"I'm not my father. You're right." Felix felt something unlock within himself as a sudden surge of power suddenly appeared. This small filament stopped his growth all this time but when he realized what Gwen was talking about, he finally broke through.

Felix, under the darkness of the night sky, broke through to the next tier. He felt power he had never experienced before surge through his body, revitalizing his exhaustion away. He looked down at his hands as he continued on to feel the deeply accumulated power that he held within suddenly sprout out.

Gwen's responded in kind, "Tier 5? What the hell? Hey, let me breakthrough too! That's so unfair!"