The Sakura Parasol flew up and hovered above her head to shelter her from the rain; despite the fact that she was already soaking wet from the battle prior.
“Master, the patterns on the so-called Cursed Katana took shape by utilizing the runes created from your own resentful thoughts or fixations. Those patterns are called the Soul Patterns. And precisely because of that, they are called the Demon Sword!”
“Soul Pattern?” Lily’s heart skipped a beat when she heard the term.
“The patterns on all the famous swords possessed some degree of Spirit Power. And Soul Pattern is considered one of the legendary sword patterns. Its ancient name in the language of the swords was the Soul Devouring Pattern. It means to bestow the sword with the ability to absorb and devour the soul. And more importantly, to stabilize the Anima Power absorbed by the sword. It can be called the spirit or the soul of the sword!”
Sakura continued, “Only a sword with Soul Patterns can permanently preserve the Anima Power. They will continue to accumulate unless they are consumed in battles.1 Moreover, Soul Patterns can absorb the essence of the animas separately. Those essences will be used to refine and strengthen the blade, gradually increasing the base power of the sword! When a Blade Maiden fights, there would always be an excess of soul essence, it would be a waste to not make use of them at all.”
“Anyway, it’s impossible to create Soul Patterns on a ready-made sword. Although the legend says that the early-day Demon Swords were created after absorbing too much resentment through countless slaughters, it’s just a legend in the end. The chances of success are unbelievably low. And, even if the legend is true, the Soul Patterns of every Blade Maiden are unique. No one else could use the sword after her.”
“The only way to permanently engraves the Soul Patterns on the sword is during the forging progress, the Blade Maiden has to personally draw up the Soul Pattern with their Spirit Power right before the sword harden by quenching! And that’s how a Cursed Katana is made. However, it’s not possible to make them with normal forging procedures. You would require the techniques of a grandmaster and other precious materials like the Grade-Three tamahagane.2 Even if you try to draw the pattern on a normal sword during the forging process, they would break during the tempering as they are unable to contain the immense power of the Blade Maiden.”
Lily gawked at Sakura Parasol’s canopy and nodded, “Oh… is that so…”
At this time, Lily seemed to recall something, thus she asked, “But when I bumped into Uesugi Rei before, she called my Seiwa Tamashi a Demon Sword. Does that mean the Seiwa Tamashi already has a Soul Pattern?”
“That’s impossible…” The Sakura Parasol seemed to contemplate. After a long moment, it continued, “The Blade Maiden was born with strong resentment or fixation. Such vehement emotions would naturally condense into the runes and stick onto a normal sword, granting them a portion of the Soul Pattern’s power. However, those runes weren’t formed during the tempering procedure so they wouldn’t last long…”
“Master, that woman you mentioned must have either misjudged or her intuition is extremely sensitive. Perhaps she sensed the power of the Mountain Imp’s anima on your sword and guessed your Seiwa Tamashi is a Demon Sword,” Sakura analyzed.
“So that’s how it is…” Lily was a little disappointed. It would be really great if her sword happened to be a Demon Sword. However, there’s no way a nice coincidence would ever come true.3 Besides, even if she got a Cursed Katana by some twists of fate, the Soul Pattern on the sword wasn’t from her own. It would hinder her from controlling the sword completely.
In this dangerous otherworld, a life-threatening battle could take place at any time. There was no way people would wait for you to kill some demons to activate the Spirit Tempering skills before the fight, right?
It would seem that if Lily wanted to set off and investigate the secret that put senior sister into a deep slumber, she would eventually have to forge a Cursed Katana that exclusively belonged to her! That was how she could exhibit her full power and travel to a farther, more dangerous land.
But there’s no way a Grade-Three tamahagane and grandmaster blacksmith would be that easy to find right? Those things were beyond what Lily could hope for at the moment.
‘Let’s put that off for some other time and continue the search for Nanako’s whereabouts.’
Lily propped the parasol and continued diving deeper into the mountain.
While walking under the rain, Lily suddenly wondered why she was born a Blade Maiden. A Blade Maiden required strong resentment or fixation, but she was clearly lacking in the resentment department. Then… was it due to her fixation?
If that was the case, then it must be due to the deep affection she harbored for senior sister.4
The carbon content of the majority of analyzed japanese sword historically lies between 0.5~0.7 mass%, however the range extends up to 1.5%.”
