Death… And Me

Chapter 3550: You Know What?

The training continued, and the twins got used to the new Intent Weapons. Kentucky, the poor guy, was even forced to participate in their tests. Sure, the Intent Weapons passed right through Rean’s real weapons, but what about the Celestial Bloodline Minokawa?

Well, Kentucky had to go all out just to prevent himself from getting deeply injured. Each slash of Rean and Roan’s weapons broke through his Blade Feathers and the Dragon Scales under it, opening cuts right, left, and center. But then again, the evolution of his Regal Bloodline into Celestial Bloodline proved the enormous jump it was. He got injured, but those were all superficial. By using Rean’s Instant Recovery straight away, he healed himself faster than he was injured.

He still hated it that his defenses could be broken that easily with those new weapons, so he retaliated, trying to get back at the twins. Roan couldn’t be happier, though. For him, that was more training, and Kentucky’s Kawa Blade Domain truly made it difficult to fight near the Minokawa. Not to mention that Kentucky was unmatched in the sky when he tried to keep his distance.

By the time they were done, Roan couldn’t help but ask. ”Have you never considered trying to understand a Blade Intent, or maybe a Sword Intent? Those Blade Feathers of yours would benefit greatly from it.”

Kentucky, gasping for air and cursing the twins in his mind, shook his head. ”I haven’t. I’ve never heard about a Demon Beast using a Weapon Intent. Besides, a Blade or a Sword is different from my Feather Blades. I wouldn’t be able to reach this Stage Six of Weapon Intent since my Feathers, as strong as they are, aren’t really crafted weapons.”

Roan knew that. ”That’s what I’m talking about. When you use your Kawa Blade Domain, the Feather Blades you summon through it aren’t the real deal. They are made of energy, even though your Domain makes them almost as strong as your real feathers. In a certain way, they are crafted weapons. Actually, the same goes for your normal feathers once they detach from your body. You created them... kind of. You could even say they are kind of swords, where the quill is the handle, and the rest of the feather is the blade.”

Roan extended his hand. ”Give me one of your Feather Blades.”

Kentucky plucked one from his body. Of course, he hardened it beforehand since his feathers’ original state was actually very fluffy.

Roan held it, concentrating and trying to use the Fifth Stage of Sword Intent while holding the feather. The surprising thing about it was that while the Feather Blade was out of Kentucky’s body, it wasn’t as strong. Roan’s Intent Weapon would easily cut through it, completely different from when he fought Kentucky and had to use his full strength just to barely cut through.

Roan tried for a few minutes, but even though he was trying to see it as a sword, he couldn’t activate the Fifth Stage of Sword Intent with it. That was quite weird in his eyes. Why? That’s because Roan could go out, collect any stick from the ground, and easily use Sword Intent with it if he wanted. ”That’s odd...”

Then he switched to a Blade Intent, but the results were the same. Kentucky’s feather could definitely be considered a proper weapon, but neither intent seemed to take hold.

Curious, Rean also asked for one of Kentucky’s Blade Feathers and tried to use his Sword Intent. ”Could this be why we have never seen a Demon Beast using Weapon Intent?”

”That’s not entirely correct,” Roan shook his head. ”If Kentucky held a normal sword, he could learn Sword Intent with it. In fact, he fought with us so many times that I believe he would be able to use the First Stage of Sword or Blade Intent straight away.”

”Really?” Rean looked at Kentucky, pulling out a sword from the many forged in the Dimensional Realm. Zangeshu had made quite a lot of them during the time he trained Blacksmith with Rean. ”Go back to your humanoid form and give it a try.”

Kentucky sighed, seeing he wouldn’t be able to run from this. He changed back to his humanoid form and held the sword. It took a few hours and a lot of insistence from both Rean and Roan. Nonetheless, they were right. Kentucky ultimately managed to use the First Stage of Sword Intent, the Sword Intent Seed, with that sword. Nothing surprising there, the very first level was the easiest, and his experienced played a lot in that outcome.

”Try it with one of your Feather Blades now,” Roan said.

Kentucky held his Feather Blade, and tried to do exactly that. However, the Sword Intent Seed simply didn’t take hold. ”See, this is a waste of time. It doesn’t work. It would be faster if I just held a real sword and used it. But then again, I’m a thousand times better served with my Feather Blades as they are.”

The twins knew that, but they still felt like they were missing something.

Rifindio was also there, looking at that development. ”Our Camazotz Bat Race has a firm grasp of our Universe, and I also have never heard about a Demon Beast using a Weapon Intent with what is essentially a part of their body. Using a Weapon Intent with a real weapon won’t make any sense either, since we are stronger with our bodies and natural abilities.

Kentucky changed back to his Minokawa Form. ”So, that’s basically it. We are better off with our bodies.”

Suddenly, Roan had an idea. ”Better off with your bodies... The Fifth Stage of Weapon Intent has a part where you need to think about the weapon as a true part of your body. The Feather Blades, however, are already part of Kentucky’s body to start with.”

”So?” Kentucky and the others asked.

”Kentucky,” Roan continued, ”try to do the opposite. So far, you tried to use blade and sword intents with your feather, but got no response. I believe that’s because you still see it as a demon beast part. The conception that Demon Beasts can’t use Weapon Intents with their bodies, even though so many of them have body parts akin to weapons, might be the real barrier here.”

Elsie was listening to it all and couldn’t help but laugh. ”Hahaha! Do you see what you are asking? You are pretty much asking Kentucky to learn the Sixth Stage of Weapon Intent right from the get-go. It’s very similar to giving up your material weapons. You are asking him to give up his feathers, or, to be more specific, what he believes they are. Of course, the Sixth Stage is a lot more complicated than just that, but the difficult of your task is probably almost as hard.”

And yet...

*Zum!*

A feather blade, floating in front of Kentucky, suddenly reached the First Stage of Weapon Intent! ”Oh! It does work!”

Elsie’s Body Projection collapsed straight away, unable to keep it intact due to her shock. She quickly rebuilt it, but the shock didn’t disappear. ”You know what? Go fuck yourselves!”

Elsie felt like she was saying these curses quite often recently...