Slash

"No kid, you're doing it all wrong again!" –Kang was once again frustrated with me for not being able to unleash his technique.

Seriously, there's something wrong with him! He expects me to copy his technique, as if I'm some kind of chameleon, in such a short period of time as this.

"Inject the power of the sun into your blade, and then unleash this power in a wave form to demolish everything within its area of devastating effect."

How in the world am I supposed to unleash a wave?! Not everyone is a master of magic like him.

"C'mon, kid, use your brain a bit!" – Even though I couldn't see his physical corpse, I could clearly sense anger and frustration in his loud shout.

Use your brain? Hmm...

What if I use my brain to send a command signal to unleash a wave?

This sounds illogical, but it's the only notion that I can think of. There's nothing wrong with attempting theories that are likely total failures, right?

I injected the mana empowered by sun magic from my core toward the sword.

The sword heated, reaching an unimaginable strength that can probably burn anything down with just a simple slice.

Signals...Now! 

I sent the order when I injected enough mana into the blade, and suddenly, a wave of orangish color appeared; it felt like it burned the void itself, and the source of it was my sword.

The heat of the wave was probably enough to melt any kind of metal, which means I can probably burn down cities with this devastating technique.

But this strength has its drawback—the exhaustion. 

All this concentration and focus completely exhausted my body. My skin was rotting as if it had been reaping the wrath of the sun, my hands were completely burned toward the inner skin, and this furious heat made my mind go blank. 

"Sir Kang, how were you capable of using this technique countlessly? It feels like I'm on the edge between this world and the other one." – I sought guidance from the being who appointed himself to be my teacher.

"You're just weak. But that is only for now; I'll teach you my sun mana gathering method. For your information, it's the only technique that uses one's magic affection in its cultivation." – He said that, boasting himself again.

But if that's true, then he has all the rights to do so.

"The technique you just learned was the sun slash; you can unleash the slash in diagonal and horizontal directions."

"But what about a vertical slash?" I asked curiously. 

"To unleash a vertical slash, it requires much more mana, and obviously the strength of the slash will be exponentially stronger than the other slashes. Haha, even those pesty dragons used to shit in their pants when they saw me getting ready to unleash this technique, the 7th technique, the Ray of the Sun God."

"Wait, sir, even the dragons?"

How strong was he?

"Of course, you fool! Who do you think I am to lie to a pest like you? And how don't you know me? In my prime, I was Ardania's first star!"

So he's a human like me.

"No, sir, I'm not exactly familiar with the history of our kingdom, and you mentioned stars; what is that?" –  I dropped various questions; I don't expect him to answer, but it's worth a try.

"Sigh, parents these days, they don't even teach their kids the basics!"

"Listen, brat, I am the Sun God, The Great Kang, the first star of the kingdom, back in those days, when me and my brother, the Moon God, The Supreme Lang, the second star, were alive and in our primes, the whole continent feared us and trembled at our presence."

"When me and my brother combined our strengths, to us, it felt like you were all mere ants beneath us."

"The only creature on the continent that was capable of stopping us was the Dragon King; his strength was simply unfathomable." – I could feel a note of regret in his voice.

I suppose the dragon king was the one who tried to stop them but was only able to seal them?

"Sir Kang, what happened to your brother?" – I asked about the bit that he skipped.

"The filthy dragon devoured him completely." – Anger was overwhelmingly increasing in Kang, making the ground of this void shake.

"But how do you not know the stars of the kingdom?" – He asked me, as if this information were supposed to be known to everyone. 

"Stars are the strongest people in the country." 

"Back in my time, there were 5 of us. But I suppose it stayed unchanged, due to the ancient law of five stars."

"So tell, who's the strongest human in your century?" – He asked me this question, but I'm not sure of the answer.

But I suppose it's him.

"The Great Mage Merlin"—I said the only name that I could think of.

"Ahh, a mage? How shameful to us!."

It seems like he looks down on mages.

"A man is supposed to use his sword to slaughter his enemies, not some wand!" – He furiously stated.

"A man is destined to be a swordsman!"

P.S. — "Battlemage" was changed to "swordsman," as it fit better and made more sense.

Well, now that I'm devouring his techniques, I suppose I'm also a swordsman?

I guess even in this world, I chose the path of the sword.