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It was a fleeting moment. A time so insignificant that one might wonder if people even noticed it, as if splitting a second into a thousand pieces.

But if there was someone who could make such a time meaningful, who could possibly stop them from doing what they wanted?

And at this very moment, Sophia’s longsword did just that.

By the time everyone realized what was happening, Kukunis’s finger had already fallen to the ground, covered in dust.

{What… what is this…!?}

Kukunis was left speechless by the absurdity of the situation. It was easy to say that his finger had been cut off, but Kukunis hadn’t even noticed the moment it happened.

Thanks to his martial arts skills, his body had reflexively moved in that split second, allowing him to avoid losing his most important finger. However, Kukunis couldn’t even feel the pain of the severed finger, only the creeping chill rising through his skin.

“Tsk, you dodged that?”

Sophia clicked her tongue in disappointment. She had been on high alert, searching for the cause that had turned Menorca Island into a dungeon. Thanks to her superhuman senses, she had just pinpointed the location of the dungeon core.

Sophia’s gaze fixed on Kukunis’s left index finger, which still had a ring adorned with a green gem—the seal ring of Hayreddin. The origin of the dungeon’s energy was emanating from that very ring.

It seemed that Hayreddin’s ancestor, who had first established the pirate base on Menorca Island, had unknowingly used the dormant dungeon core, mistaking it for a precious gem imbued with power, and set it into the seal ring.

As Sophia’s eyebrow twitched again, another one of Kukunis’s remaining four fingers was severed. Once more, Kukunis’s reflexes saved the finger holding the dungeon core, but cold sweat dripped down his spine.

‘I didn’t feel it again. I didn’t even feel the pain of being cut.’

Only the bleeding and burning pain from the severed part gave him any clue of what had happened. In this bizarre situation, Kukunis felt an overwhelming sense of helplessness.

Seeing this, Sophia clicked her tongue again.

“I tried to end it painlessly in one go. You’re making this troublesome.”

{What did you do? How did you attack? That attack felt like the result appeared without any process.}

More than pain or fear, Kukunis’s mind was filled with the question of what her attack method was. If he couldn’t figure it out, it was obvious that he would only last until his last finger remained.

Even if he did figure it out, what would change? Sophia, seemingly thinking the same, nodded and answered. This was also a sign of respect for Kukunis’s martial arts prowess, as he had managed to protect the finger holding the dungeon core by sacrificing others against her Heart Sword technique.

“There are three elements needed to learn and practice martial arts. Do you know them?”

{Do you think I’m a fool? The technique, the body of the practitioner, and the spirit of the practitioner, right?}

“Correct. Indeed, you must be a heroic man who has reached the level of a master. Few can distinguish these so clearly.”

After praising Kukunis, Sophia continued.

“Technique, body, and spirit—when these three elements are harmoniously combined without conflict, it is called the realm of a master. But in truth, this also means that these elements can limit each other.”

{Are you saying these elements limit a warrior’s potential? But without them, the foundation of a warrior cannot exist.}

“Of course. So you can’t remove them. But it is possible to refine them, removing impurities to make them as pure as possible.”

What Sophia was referring to was the practice of emptiness.

Filtering out the distractions of the senses—sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, and thought—and removing ego and desire, leaving only the purest foundation of the mind, which in Buddhism is called the True Self.

Sophia explained that this could be applied to any of the three elements: mind, energy, and body. When refined to their purest forms, they no longer hinder each other.

When technique is not bound by form, the body is not limited by physical constraints, and the mind is not confined by thought, one can execute the most complete and appropriate reactions even before conscious recognition.

“Martial arts finally function as a path (道) that brings the microscopic world into reality.”

The Heart Sword was a realm that entered this microscopic world, achieving the desired result with the mind first (成), and thus not needing the process since it had already been completed. It was the belief that all necessary processes had already been fulfilled at the stage of possibility before recognition.

{A fire that has already gone out doesn’t realize the moment it was extinguished… is that it?}

Kukunis sighed. Even if he understood the nature of her attack, he couldn’t think of any way to counter it.

The only possible method would be to constantly hide the position of his left index finger from Sophia’s senses to prevent her will from crystallizing. But the presence of Sophia’s piercing blue eyes, glowing with a reckless light, made even that option impossible.

Relying on reflexive reactions to dodge direct hits would eventually reach its limit. For all he knew, the nun knight before him had already figured out his reaction patterns.

“Then let’s end this.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Sophia’s gaze pierced through Kukunis once more. And at that moment, something unexpected happened.

A sharp clang echoed as Kukunis’s spatha clashed with Sophia’s longsword, which had flown in with the Heart Sword technique.

{If recognizing and reacting is impossible, then I have no choice but to swing before recognizing.}

Kukunis’s sword swing was clumsy, almost awkward. Yet, it clearly parried Sophia’s longsword.

Sophia’s eyes sparkled with interest.

‘Oh? Reacting to the Heart Sword?’

In the next moment, almost simultaneously, five sword strikes rained down from all directions around Kukunis. He managed to block three of them with his spatha, but the fourth strike cut his right thigh, and the fifth his left arm.

Yet, Sophia could clearly see what he had just done.

“Unbelievable! Did you just get a hint to enter the microscopic world from our earlier conversation?”

{Thanks to you. But this new sword is still hard to handle. It feels like boarding a newly launched ship and entering unknown waters.}

Sophia was amazed by his genius but also inwardly pleased. She had created the Origin Core, completed the Reverse Muscle and Reverse Brain Techniques up to the 4th Banding, and reached the realm of the Heart Sword in swordsmanship. Yet, she still lacked the confidence to face the Great Demon and the rising Demon Clan. To gain that confidence, she needed to recover even a bit more of her past life’s enlightenment.

The best stimulus for recovering enlightenment was, of course, battling strong opponents.

Through fights with those who could match her, she could push her abilities to the limit and, in the process, create new means to surpass those limits. Each time she did this, the enlightenment of her past life would transform from vague memories into something tangible in her current life.

But paradoxically, after reaching the realm of the Heart Sword, she had almost no opponents who could push her to her limits. Her martial prowess, which transcended the constraints of mind, energy, and body, was something that those still bound by these elements could neither understand nor keep up with.

In this situation, the appearance of someone who could clumsily follow her sword strikes was more than enough to make Sophia happy. The problem was that it was a dungeon boss, not a human.

“Let’s see how far you can follow.”

With a sharp sound, Sophia’s longsword began to move like a winding snake, unleashing creative and infinite variations. Soon, the sound of clashing swords echoed from all directions around Kukunis.

Kukunis, though clumsily, began to follow Sophia’s sword strikes like a guide. Even as his movements faltered and he sustained injuries, he avoided any fatal wounds and steadily improved his own movements. He was growing through battle.

Sophia could guess the reason.

‘The number of pirates has definitely decreased.’

According to Esras-Hermes, Kukunis grew stronger each time an ancient pirate died.

Under normal circumstances, this would only increase his physical abilities, but this time, having received a hint about the essence of the Heart Sword from her and focusing on countering her relentless attacks, the blessing seemed to work more on technical development than hardware.

Anyway, Kukunis’s movements had become quite smooth and natural. Though the disjointed, abrupt movements of a sword swung without the usual flow of intent were unavoidable, the gaps between his movements had surprisingly diminished. Watching this, Sophia felt a pang of regret, but she knew she had to make a decision soon.

This was a dungeon, and her opponent was a dungeon boss. No one could predict what would happen if left unchecked.

Sophia organized her senses and steadied her breathing. In a moment, time seemed to slow down. Her heightened perception stretched the speed of the world to a crawl. In this slowed flow of time, as if time had stopped.

Sophia appeared right in front of Kukunis, her longsword now in her hand.

She straightened the sword in her heart, which had been lax.

 

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