Birthday Presents VIII - Cursed Katana - Curses and Spirits

As Jude approached, the butler stepped forward and presented the long wrapped object to Jude and he grabbed it so that he could give it to Phili personally

Seeing the object, a lot of people already knew what is inside the cloth because they have seen something similar that belonged to Jude

Meanwhile, Philip's eyes were just sparkling because he already figured out what was inside the cloth

"It was today that I learned that it was Sir Philip's birthday, at least a month ago, and I knew I had to procure the best gift for you..."

"..."

"It was thoughtful of Lady Tenshi to celebrate your birthday even if a month has passed..."

"..."

Philip just smiled and chuckled internally

"So, in just less than a day... As a Sword Saint, I used Sword Seeker to seek the most suitable sword for you. I figured that you also don't have a Soul Artifact..."

"...?"

Ken became confused from Jude's words. He thought that Philip always had a Soul Artifact, especially since he's the Sword Concept, and he asked for a Soul Artifact for himself because he also doesn't have one himself

'Who am I kidding... I, the Sword God, doesn't have a Soul Artifact also... It's not impossible for the Sword Concept to have one either...'

"Sword Seeker?"

Philip asked in curiosity since this is the first time he has heard it

"It is an innate ability of a Sword Saint. It allows one to feel the presence of a sword from afar and determine its strength and power... The Sword Concept should have this ability, as well as Sword God Ken"

"That's true..."

Ken confirmed

"I see... So, that's what it is..."

"So, before you find your Soul Artifact, I offer you this gift..."

Jude quickly unravelled the sword hidden under the wrapped cloth as it quickly spun around and the cloth fell on the floor, to which the dexterous butler caught and grabbed and quickly folded it into a square

The sword hovered in between Jude's hands. He wanted Philip to be the one who holds it first on its hilt, other that the blacksmith herself

As the sword was revealed, Philip's eyes brightened and he felt very excited. The sword that was revealed is not an ordinary sword, unlike any other previous swords that Philip has held

The sword is a Japanese curved sword, or a katana. The blade is black in color with its sharp side being slightly dark gray and brown, almost like dark tan or dark golden brown. The hilt and the handle are leather and dark brown in color. The guard is a simple guard that's diamond in shape. The pommel, surprisingly, has an attached Spirit Gem that is shaped into a perfect diamond, unlike ordinary Spirit Gems which are double terminated crystal in shape

Not only that, the surface of the blade also has very intricate pattern on it. It is not engraved or carved, it doesn't look like Jude used his Personal Technique: Sword Limit Treatment on it, it's more like it was expertly forged along with it

Philip's was amazed by the katana, especially the carbed Spirit Gem attached to it, Ken was impressed because of the nature of the katana, and Katara became interested on the katana, even Bari somehow became concerned and worried towards the katana

"This is a Damascus Steel Forged Spiritual Katana! Happy birthday, Sir Philip"

"It's real Damascus Steel!"

Philip exclaimed

"Is it?"

Jude became confused. He knows the legend of Damascus Steel that is forged by several materials into one, but that formula was lost and damascus steel nowadays are degraded version of the real thing

"Yes, surprisingly..."

"Well, I guess I got a good haul!"

"Yeah! You know what that means?"

"What is it?"

"Damascus Steel is a powerful conductive medium of intangible aspectual concepts... There's a reason why there's a Spirit Gem on the pommel. I can't believe that the blacksmith that forged this katana was able to carve this Spirit Gem..."

Philip stood up and reached for the katana. The katana pulled off from Jude and slowly hovered towards Philip

"...!"

Jude was startled because he felt like his Sword Aura around the katana was suddenly and forcefully dispersed, so that Philip's Sword Aura would wrap the katana instead

But Philip's not using any Sword Aura, he's using either manipulating or commanding the katana with his authority

In just a second, Philip grabbed a hold of the katana and it slightly vibrated

"Like all swords, they have secrets and hidden power surrounding it. This katana is not an exception... Right, Ken, Katara, and Bari?"

"..."

"...?!"

"...?!"

The three of them were surprised that Philip knew what they were thinking

"Thank you for the gift, Jude. You can go back for now"

"You're welcome and thank you..."

Jude's words and gratitude was full of meaning as he bowed down, along with the butler. Only he knows what his words contain, but one thing is for sure, he is very grateful that Philip removed his Reverse Sword condition and the katana gift is not enough to show his gratitude in his opinion

Jude went back to his seat and sat down

"This katana... You know the power, properties, compositions, and specialty of this sword, right Ken?"

"Correct... I've never seen anything like it. Damascus Steel is it?"

"Yeah... Katara, this is a cursed sword, right?"

"...?!"

"...!!"

Several people were surprised that the katana is a cursed sword, especially Jude. He didn't realize that the katana he procured was cursed. If he had known, he wouldn't have chose it as a gift

Ken was also surprised because he couldn't sense the curse in the katana. He's a Sword God, even if a sword is cursed, blessed, legendary, divine, demonic, and many more, he would've known it. This also just shows the difference between a Sword God and a the Sword Concept

They just need to wait for Katara's answer to confirm it

"..."

Katara was silent for a few seconds

"Yes... It's cursed..."

"...!"

"...!"

"Did you curse it?"

"Nooo....."

Katara was very confused

"You said earlier that all curses in the universe came from you and must be approved by you, right?"

"Correct..."

"So, the curse in this sword is foreign and made by mortals or spirits?"

"That should only be the explanation..."

"Then, Bari... Do you know anything?"

"..."

"..."

Everyone turned their heads towards Bari in unison as everyone's very interested and intrigued

There's also only one explanation as to why Philip called out to Bari and that's because she's a Spirit King and Philip mentioning curses made by mortals or spirits is a clue

"Yes..."

"..."

"There is a spirit sealed within the sword..."

"...!"

"...!"

Everyone was surprised that a spirit would be sealed inside the katana. Jude didn't expect for this kind of development and he became worried that his gift might be a bad one. Not only was it cursed, a spirit is also sealed within the sword

"Do you know what kind of spirit?"

"Unfortunately, no..."

"Is it passive or malevolent?"

"I-I can't tell..."

"Hm..."

Philip thought Bari could accurately explain the nature of the sealed spirit because she's a Spirit King

"I'm just a Spirit King of Flowers after all... I can't know the existence of every existing spirits in the Spirit World and I just learned the existence of yokais"

"That's fine..."

"Maybe the Lightbringer and Darkbringer can tell?"

"..."

"..."

The gods quickly turned their heads at Bari again. They just couldn't believe that they found the Lightbringers and Darkbringers in this world's Spirit World

"Maybe... But we can't bother them with something this trivial especially now..."

"..."

"I have a way..."

"..."

Ken already knew what Philip is going to do because he did the same on the replica sword

Philip quickly placed the katana in front of him with the blade parallel to his face, facing to the right

"..."

Everyone waited, only for Philip to open his right eye and gaze at Katara

"By the way, do you know what kind of curse this katana have?"

"Curse of Rendered Blood and Curse of Fatal Volatile Vein"

"Two?! Really? Haha, what's up with these blood related things?"

Philip and Alucard smiled wryly. Philip began to see a pattern. He doesn't know why or how, or if fate's playing with him or if this is just the Natural Order of things

Gods, mortals, darkness, light, blood, curses, swords, spears, fire, earth, plants, flowers, books, red, white, blue, gold, and many more

'What's next?!'

「 ... 」

It's like every aspect and concept are interconnected to each other, like how Camille's past is now being connected to the Vamire Kingdom for Alucard to retrieve the Noblesse Oblige Zweihänder, which is somehow connected to the Book of Perfect Blood from the Sword Resonance, which affects and includes Ken and Jude, who gave a cursed katana from the Sword Seeker innate ability, which made Katara also be included in this, as well as Bari because of the indefined sealed spirit in the cursed katana

Not only that, there are also several interconnections from the Saykranians and Sai, obviously, Saykeraborne, Katara once again, Divine Realm, Philip's status as the God of Darkness, which connects him to the past of the Divine Realm, to the Genesis War, Peaceforce, Time Felon, as well as connecting the rampage of the Demon God, where Ariii comes into play

There are also connections regarding the fire sisters, Crystal Flower, Beatrice, Sheena, Rue, and many more, but those are stories in the near future

"Anyways... Hold on a second..."

「 Sword Resonance 」

'!!!!!!!!'

Philip was immediately overwhelmed as his consciousness dove into darkness from resonating with the cursed katana. He felt like blasts of wind was blasting his body as the area is tinted in red

Because of the curses that Katara mentioned, the skin of his body started to be torn and liquify into blood. The veins in his entire body swelled and turned violet like it was clogged and about to explode

What's happening in Philip's body during resonance is being reflected into his body in the real world and everyone became very worried. They tried to intervene, but Tenshi and Ken stopped them

His skin was getting liquified into blood and his muscles were being exposed, the same as the swelling purple veins

Despite this, Philip looked fine and calm in the real world, like there was no pain filling him

Meanwhile, as his consciousness went deeper and deeper during resonance, he passed by the curses and arrived at two orb sitting next to the outline of the katana

The outline of the katana seemed alive. It made sense considering the composition of the true Damascus Steel, but the bright orbs next to it was peculiar

'...'

Philip waited and his skin already regenerated because of Pureblood. It was then that the orbs began to wobble and expand into humanoid silhouettes

'...!!'

Philip's eyes widened in surprise

'Jesus... I thought there's only one spirit, but there's also two?!?!'

Light dispersed from the humanoid silhouettes and revealed their appearances. Unlike Bari and the others, who has a very human like features, these spirits have their bodies glowing with light. They're almost like ghosts, ethereal spirits, or a literal spirits that's depicted in folklore

The spirit to the right is wearing a dopo with a long ethereal ribbon floating around his shoulder, behind his head, around his waist, and around his thighs and legs. His hair is long and half of it is tied into a pony tail. On his forehead is gem or a red paint of a diamond and his eyes are like jewels of the sea and sky. He holds a flexible sword on his left hand and a black sword, that looks like a cultivator's flying sword, is hovering behind his back to the right

He looks like an actual spirit cultivator or a character in a gacha game

The other spirit to the left looks exactly like either a fox woman or an inuit girl. She has big ears resembling a fox, fluffy tail, and eyes that are extremely cold and blue. She wears something similiar to inuit clothing woth bright colors. The hood is pulled up into her head that covers her brown hair. Her fox ears are passing through two holes on the hood. She also wears some kind of blue jeans and winter boots. A necklace of blue jewels and beads is hanging on her neck

She's holding a long light blue staff that is adorned with bright jewels across the top and bottom. The top as the catalyst has a shape of a sharp snowflake adorned with chilling red icy jewels

The male spirit with the dopo looked calm and serene while the fox inuit girl looked venegful and ice cold

Philip gazed at both spirits woth caution and both spirits looked unamused