Vaeloria lowered her blade slightly, her white fox tails swaying lazily as she stared in the direction the Ancestor had been sent flying.

Whether Macy had said those words or not... Vaeloria was dead set on testing her powers to the absolute limit.

The Ancestor of all Swords dug herself out of the rubble of the shattered mountain, breathing heavily, dust and small cuts covering her body.

Her eyes burned with a mix of shock, excitement, and growing resolve.

’This is it.... I won’t falter!’ She thought, but Vaeloria didn’t give her time to recover.

She appeared in front of Macy in a flicker of movement, her black-and-white sword already slashing out in a clean, horizontal arc.

SCHING!

Macy barely blocked it, her own blade snapping up with a desperate clang.

The force of the clash sent sparks flying and pushed her back several meters, but this time Vaeloria didn’t send her flying on purpose.

She followed immediately, pressing the attack with precise, controlled strikes that tested every aspect of Macy’s defense.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Their blades met again and again — each collision sending shockwaves that cracked the nearby mountains further.

Macy’s face was tense, sweat already beading on her brow as she parried and countered.

Even though they both were the same in Dimensional Existence... Vaeloria’s movements were far beyond anything she had ever faced.

She was not just faster, but more fundamental, as if the sword itself was obeying Vaeloria’s will rather than the other way around.

"You’re holding back too much," Vaeloria said calmly between strikes, her white fox tails swaying behind her.

"Stop thinking about growth... And just fight! Swordsmen let their blades do the thinking!"

Macy’s eyes flashed with determination. She gritted her teeth and pushed forward.

HUMMMMMM!!!!

In that moment, she activated her Sword Aura... max level.

And instantly, the battlefield transformed.

Macy’s sword aura erupted outward, turning the entire mountain range into her custom domain.

Thousands of phantom swords rose from the ground like a forest of steel, all of them aligned with her will.

The air itself became sharp, every breath cutting like a blade. The floating swords began to move, launching toward Vaeloria in coordinated waves.

Vaeloria’s lips curved into a faint, approving smile as she moved through the storm of blades, parrying some, dodging others, and cutting down the rest with effortless precision.

"Not bad," she murmured. "But it’s still not enough."

In that instant, Vaeloria decided to up the intensity.

She unleashed her own Sword Aura — an evolution she had refined over the millennia, far beyond what she had once shown in the Lower Dimensions.

The change was immediate and absolute.

HUMMMMMM!!!

The entire Reality Seven was drenched in pure, suffocating darkness.

It wasn’t the absence of light.

It was the presence of something deeper — an all-encompassing void that swallowed every ray of sunlight, every lantern, every spark of mana.

The golden skies, the reflective mountains, the floating sword platforms — everything vanished into an endless, oppressive black.

Even the stars above seemed to blink out one by one.

The only source of light left in the entire Reality was the thin, razor-sharp whiteness of Vaeloria’s blade.

It gleamed like a single line of truth cutting through oblivion — cold, pure, and merciless.

And in that moment, Vaeloria blended with the darkness.

But she didn’t disappear..... she became part of it.

Her white fox tails, her battle dress, even her pure white eyes faded into the black until only the glowing edge of her sword remained visible, drifting like a ghost in the void.

Then, with a single thought, swords began to manifest.

Hundreds.

Thousands.

Tens of thousands.

They appeared anywhere and everywhere — floating in the air, rising from the ground, hanging upside down from the darkened sky.

Each one was a perfect replica of Vaeloria’s blade, glowing with the same thin white edge.

Then without waiting....

They moved with a will of their own, slicing through the darkness in unpredictable patterns, creating a lethal labyrinth of white lines in the black expanse.

SHK!

SHK!

SHK!

Macy stood in the center of it all, her breath catching in her throat.

Her eyes widened in raw awe, the sword in her hand trembling slightly as she felt the overwhelming conceptual weight pressing down on her.

"How... is really a Sword Aura?" she whispered, voice filled with both reverence and fear.

"It’s not just power... it’s the sword itself given life..."

Even as she spoke, she pressed on.

She refused to yield.

HUMMMM!!!!

Macy poured everything into her own Aura, trying to counter the infinite white blades closing in on her.

Her phantom swords clashed against Vaeloria’s manifested ones, sparks exploding like dying stars in the darkness.

She moved with desperate precision, parrying, dodging, and counterattacking, but for every blade she destroyed, three more appeared.

Vaeloria’s voice echoed from the darkness, calm and almost instructional.

"Good....But you’re still thinking too much like a swordsman." She said,

"The blade isn’t just an extension of you. You are the blade!"

A dozen white swords converged on Macy at once.

SHK!

SHK!

SHK!

She roared, swinging her blade in a wide arc, shattering several of them — but the rest grazed her, drawing thin lines of blood across her arms and shoulders.

The battle between the two raged on, with Vaeloria not only testing but also guiding Macy.

And... this trip here, it was no random occurrence.

Much like Kaguya, Macy became the youngest Ancestor of this Reality, all thanks to Vaeloria, who entrusted her with the key to all sword knowledge—simply because she was impressed at a mere tournament.

And... currently Macy was in bad shape.

Her clothes were torn in several places, shallow cuts bleeding across her arms and shoulders, and her breathing was heavy and labored.

Sweat dripped down her face, mixing with blood from a graze on her cheek.

Yet she still wore the same determined smile on her face — fierce, unyielding, and filled with gratitude for the lesson she was receiving.

All around them, the disciples and other inhabitants of Reality Seven floated in the skies, stunned into silence by the swordsmanship on display.

Their murmurs spread like ripples in a pond.

"Is... is that really the Ancestor? She’s being pushed back like that?"

"That woman... her sword doesn’t even seem to move like a normal blade. It’s like she’s commanding something above the concept of the sword itself."

"I’ve never seen anything like this. I thought the Ancestor was at the peak?"

----

Macy’s smile widened as she parried another casual strike from Vaeloria, her voice carrying clear admiration despite her exhaustion.

"Thank you for the lesson," she said, her tone sincere. "I never knew the sword could be this... alive."

HUMMMMMM!!!!!!