Side story: The Mentor's Hand (2)

"glad you could make it, bell..." Called Sino, an evil grin on his face as he watched the silent swordmaster climb the temple steps.

He himself was resting on an alter, Bell's dead brother planted on top. The man was long dead, and Bell knew it.

"...why?" Asked the prodigy, "why would you do this? I thought we were friends..."

Sino almost felt something tug, something at the back of his head pull and give out. Regret seeping in and shame flooding behind it. Almost.

Sino had long since crossed that line in his mad quest for power, anything to crush Bell, after all, that was why he had done all this.

He didn't want to kill an innocent man, he had not committed the same sin as his sister, but Sino knew she would never fight to the death if he didn't provoke her. And this was the best way to do it. Simple logic.

"We were never friends, Bell," Sino's voice dripped with malice as he spoke, his eyes blazing with a fervent desire for power. "You were always just a stepping stone on my path to greatness. Nothing more,"

Silently, as tears streamed down her face, Bell drew her sword. It's crimson sheen glinting in the orange sky.

Sino responded by drawing his own silver blade, crafted from a myriad of divine beasts, the Mentor's hand was just as powerful, if not more so than his opponents khopesh.

As Sino charged forward, his movements swift and calculated, Bell remained eerily calm. With a fluid motion, she sidestepped his attack, her blade cutting through the air with deadly precision.

With a swift counterattack, Bell struck out, her sword slicing through Sino's defenses with a single, decisive blow. In an instant, the battle was over.

Sino's eyes widened in shock and disbelief as he felt the searing pain of Bell's blade piercing his chest. His grip on the Mentor's Hand faltered, and he staggered backward, his strength failing him.

With one last look of pity, Bell turned and walked away. Sino felt empty, he had discarded his very humanity for strength, and yet his sword couldn't even hope to cross the boundless gap between the two of them.

But he wasn't done... Sure, he lost in this life, but that's why he made such a unique blade. It would naturally find it's next user. And it's next user would naturally find whoever was granted the magic ticket of talent....

And they would kill them. They would end this cycle of the weak being trampled on. They had to...

As Sino's vision blurred and his consciousness began to fade, he whispered a final command to the Mentor's Hand, sending it forth into the world to fulfill its grim purpose.

The sword, now infused with Sino's malice and thirst for revenge, vanished into the shadows, its destiny intertwined with the fates of those it would encounter.