42.

I woke up only to see a wooden ceiling.

'I see, I lost huh. What a massive gap.' I thought

Even though I lost, I'm not discouraged about it as it made me realize that there is a sky above the mountain.

'I can still improve, I can still get stronger.' I also realized that Ryusui Gansai-ken can still be improved. I was mulling about our fight when I heard a swing of a sword, I can tell it was a sharp sword and a powerful swing, as I got up and headed outside.

I am surprised to see my father swinging a wooden sword.

'I thought that he was using a really sharp sword.' I thought but seeing him swinging a wooden sword, I once more realized the gap we have between each other.

'Even though he sealed his powers into three parts, to think he is still this powerful. How many years have he been sharpening his sword skills ever since he sealed himself?' I thought.

'To think that I've been confident after just training for decades, it looks like I'm slacking in training.' Having no opponents that have a high level of martial arts and weapon arts, he was bound to stagnate and hit a wall.

"Oh, you're awake huh. You've been sleeping for quite a long time huh. Don't lose your confidence, you're already strong in terms of hand to hand combat. How about you show me what you've reached in swordsmanship?"

Seeing a chance to fight a legendary sword master, my battle intent was raised.

'Looks like my battle junkie attitude started showing itself again' I thought as its been a long time since I've had this excitement, I think it all started when Vergil beat me down every single time when I was still training back in that space and seeing my improvements made me want to fight him more to improve myself.

I took out Yamato as I positioned myself in my usual stance but before we started.

"Do you have my sword with you?" He asked as I summoned force edge.

"What about it?" I asked.

"I'll use it." he replied.

"No way, you're a legendary craftsman, surely you've made another sword greater than force edge." I immediately refuted.

"Why not? Its my sword after all." I thought about it and I decided as I wanted to see the full potential of the sword when he uses it and threw Force edge to him.

He forcefully broke the seal and it turned back to Devil Sword Sparda. The sword shook as if excited to see its former user.

"Its been a long time partner." he said to the sword as he positioned himself by pointing his sword to the ground.

I immediately started off by sending waves of judgement cut to him, he dodged them all easily even though I cut off his escape routes. He rushed to me as I did the same and we clashed swords, I felt the heaviness of his blow and it seems he is still holding back.

He raised his sword and swung it down and as I was about to block it, the sword immediately transformed into a scythe, I used my Darkslayer Arts to dodge the incoming blade, but he changed the direction of the scythe by sliding it to the blade of Yamato.

I immediately summoned the Demon-Dweller sword to block it, surprising him and immediately changed its form to spear as he rotated and aimed a stab at the arm holding the Demon-Dweller sword as I immediately unsummoned it and used Yamato to slash back at him.

He dodged it with his own version of Darkslayer arts, his version of it was smoother than mine and he retaliated by smashing the spear to me and immediately turning it back to the original sword but I'm prepared for it and summoned back the demon-dweller sword blocking it with an X guard.

"To think that you've reached this level of mastery of swordplay. I'm proud of you." He said to me. 'To think at such a young age, the divinity of the sword is forming within him at a fast pace.' he thought

"Well, to fend for myself, and live the life I wanted, I trained to have the power to protect myself and those close to me." I said as I broke the stalemate and unsummoned demon-dweller and replaced it with my scabbard and rotated as I used it as a blunt weapon.

He blocked it by turning the greatsword into a spear as he sent a flurry of stabs at me and I used the scabbard to block the unavoidable stabs and used the yamato to redirect the others.

"That's enough. I've seen the extent of your swordplay." He said as he jumped away from me.

"What? I'm not done yet." I said but he quickly replied.

"You've already lost." he said as holes started appearing in my body. Usually I would just shrug of the wounds in my body as my body's regeneration is high, but the stab wounds aren't healing itself.

'Anti-healing?!' I thought and continued

'I thought I blocked the stabs?! What happened? Why does it seem similar to judgement cut?'

He started approaching me and healed my wounds with his demonic energy. He also laid down the Force Edge as he sealed it once more without the use of the amulet.

I then laid down as my thought acceleration kicked in and reflecting on the match just now.

"At the rate you're improving, you can fight Great Red and Ophis to a standstill in 6- no 5 years if you continued training and forming your divinity. I can already sense the forge and fire divinity in you, although on the low level side. Your swordplay can already slay a God and when your divinity to sword is formed, you can already rule the world, though I don't suggest that. Its boring." He said.

I closed my eyes once again to ponder what he said and continued refining my swordplay in my mind.

-------

Yeah made a chapter but I feel like this is not a chapter I'm satisfied with, the quality is just not there and felt like forced. You may as well treat this as an experimental one.

I am invited to a friend's wedding celebration as the emcee and wrote this chapter in between breaks as I don't know much of the people in there aside from 3 of my friends.

I think I will rewrite this chapter but I want to know your thoughts about it. I'm tired as f*ck but I finished this chapter as soon as I got home. I'm going to rest.

"Hold up. Where the f*ck do you think you're going?" -Coffee☕