Chapter 427: Platinum-White Sword: Why Am I Always the One Getting Hurt?!
"Purple Caricature may not be the real person, but its strength shouldn't be inferior at all… So why was she pushed back so easily?"
This was not how things were supposed to go.
There was no reason Luke should be that much stronger than Edelweiss.
"If this were the real Edelweiss, I certainly couldn't push her back this easily."
As though seeing through Sara's thoughts, Luke shook his head and explained.
"It isn't because I'm stronger than Edelweiss."
"It's because I'm stronger than you."
"In terms of raw strength, this Twin-Wings truly possesses power comparable to Edelweiss herself."
"Her sword strikes, presence, strength, and speed—you reproduced all of them almost perfectly."
"That's precisely why I was so excited to fight her for this long."
A trace of lingering satisfaction remained in Luke's voice.
This match had genuinely pleased him.
After all, he doubted he would ever get another chance to fight an "Edelweiss" like this.
"But if you think about it carefully, the answer is obvious."
"A Blazer can possess only one ability. That is one of the rules of this world."
"No matter how versatile your ability appears, everything it does must ultimately stem from the same fundamental power."
"The true nature of your Brush of Demiurge is the manifestation of fantasy…"
"Or rather, the manifestation of impressions. Am I right?"
It was phrased as a question, but Luke's tone was completely certain.
He had already seen through Sara's ability.
Trick Art projected Sara's impression onto a puppet, transforming it into the person she imagined.
Color Magic manifested abilities from the associations Sara drew from different colors.
Purple Caricature was even more direct.
It manifested the "impression" contained within a painting and turned it into reality.
In other words, Sara's ability was not imitation or replication.
It was genuine creation.
This "Edelweiss" was not a copy of the original.
She was an entirely separate individual based on Sara's impression of Edelweiss.
Put simply, it was the difference between copying something and creating something inspired by it.
And precisely because of that, Luke could defeat this "Edelweiss" so easily.
If Sara had truly created an imitation of the real Edelweiss, the battle might actually have been more troublesome for Luke.
The reason was her second fatal flaw.
Thought.
The most obvious manifestation of that flaw was combat experience.
Even an inferior imitation would be terrifying if it possessed both Edelweiss's strength and Edelweiss's accumulated battle experience.
But Sara's Purple Caricature did not work that way.
What she manifested was her own impression.
The thoughts within it belonged not to Edelweiss, but to Sara herself.
As the world's greatest painter, Sara could reproduce strength, mana, physical ability, presence, and even swordsmanship.
But combat experience could never be understood through observation alone.
The subtle changes within each technique, split-second choices between offense and defense, and the tiny reactions made during battle—
Even tactics, strategy, thought patterns, and the order in which decisions were made.
Those were things Sara could never truly reproduce.
Thought, battle experience, or perhaps even one's realm of mastery—
These belonged to a domain impossible to understand without personally experiencing it.
Anything Sara could not reproduce had to be filled in with her own mind.
And those things happened to form the innermost core of a person.
That was why Luke called Sara's ability "creation" rather than "replication."
The core was fundamentally different.
The "Edelweiss" created by Purple Caricature was merely another equally powerful person who happened to bear Edelweiss's name.
"It isn't that Edelweiss can't defeat me."
"It's that you can't defeat me."
Luke had known this from the very first clash.
Their swords had crossed?
Yes, they had.
But Luke had felt no trace of the power of a contract wrapped around "Edelweiss's" platinum-white swords.
"In the end, that isn't a living human being."
"It's simply an incredibly powerful weapon being controlled by you, Sara."
Therefore—
"So what?!"
Sara glared at Luke and cut him off.
Even so, the frustration on her face made her shaken state obvious.
Sara clearly had no intention of giving up.
That was only natural.
Their agreement stated that if Sara won, Luke would become her model.
She absolutely refused to surrender!
"Even if… even if my battle experience can't compare to yours, so what?!"
"Whether she possesses genuine thoughts doesn't matter!"
"As long as I can manifest Edelweiss-sama's unparalleled strength, I can still win even without her combat experience!"
Sara shouted at Luke almost as though trying to convince herself.
At the same moment, "Edelweiss" vanished once again.
Twin-Wings Sword Style carried her silently toward Luke!
"I see. That argument isn't entirely wrong."
Luke sighed.
He knew Sara had almost completely lost her composure.
Against Luke, reaching that state was practically equivalent to defeat.
"Overwhelming skill with sheer force is certainly possible."
"But for that to work, your strength needs to overwhelmingly surpass your opponent's."
Watching the flash of white sword light approach, Luke swung Starfall Sword exactly as he had throughout their previous exchanges.
The scene was identical.
The result was completely different.
Crack—!
This time, there was no clear clang or deafening roar from colliding swords.
Instead, a piercing sound of breaking steel echoed through the venue.
The familiar sight stirred Luke's memories.
At the same time, Sara and everyone watching fell into stunned silence.
Blue starlight scattered through the air.
Under the effect of Severing, Starfall Sword shattered the platinum-white blade directly.
Then it continued onward.
Together with the completely unprepared "Edelweiss"—
She was cut into countless scraps of paper!
...
"H-He defeated her!!!"
"Luke Ashburn! No—Sword Emperor!"
"Even if she was an artificial creation, the Sword Emperor just cut Twin-Wings Edelweiss in two with a single strike!!!"
After a brief silence, earth-shaking cheers erupted throughout the venue.
Truthfully, many spectators had not understood how the battle had suddenly shifted.
But that did not prevent them from understanding two things.
Twin-Wings had been terrifyingly powerful.
And Luke had won!
The sword light passed through "Edelweiss."
At the final instant, Luke switched Starfall Sword into illusion form and drained all of Sara's remaining stamina with the same strike.
The girl collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
At the same time, the referee formally announced the result through the microphone.
"The winner is Hagun Academy first-year—Falling Star Sword Emperor Luke!"
...
The match was over.
It had been the final battle of the day.
With that, the third round of the Seven Star Sword Art Festival—the quarterfinals—officially came to an end.
Next—
The semifinals!
…
…
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