Chapter 20: Undead Phantom Sword
“Lost?”
“What happened?”
“Even if Alexander’s corpse is limited to level 5 by the magic tide, it’s still a level 5 Meteor Shower.”
“With your spirituality, you could easily burn everything down, how could the Night’s Watch withstand it?”
“Tsk, miscalculated.”
“Encountered a tough enemy.”
“A demigod?”
“No, not a demigod, but his swordsmanship is very strange.”
“A supernatural sword technique I’ve never seen before.”
…
The car was traveling on the E90 highway.
This time, the novice driver Peggy was carefully controlling the steering wheel, while Eleanor sat in the passenger seat, helping her pay attention to the road conditions and traffic ahead.
The roads in this world were probably the dream racing tracks for all novice drivers. They were mostly built during the Third and Fourth Ages, standard Solomon-style four-lane or six-lane roads, incredibly wide.
After the great upheaval of the Fifth Age, technological civilization suffered a huge blow. Now, most civilian families didn’t have cars, and the slightly wealthier nobles preferred to travel by plane. As a result, there weren’t many vehicles on the roads, they were empty, and Peggy could completely let loose here, driving however she wanted.
“I feel like you’ve changed a bit.” Eleanor suddenly said.
“Why?” Peggy asked.
“Do you remember the last time you drove?” Eleanor said with a smile. “Your shoulders and neck were hunched, your back was stiff, your whole body was tense.”
“Now you have the feel of an experienced driver.”
“Oh.” Peggy said calmly. “Maybe it’s because I’ve driven more.”
She looked ahead, silent for a long time, and then asked:
“Eleanor, do you know Alexander the Great?”
“Of course!” Eleanor immediately sat up straight. “Hey, he’s one of the three classical military strategists I admire the most.”
“Three military strategists?”
“The first is Hannibal, the commander of ancient Carthage. He defeated the rising Republic of Solomon twice in a row, but ultimately failed in the third.” Eleanor introduced them as if reciting a list. “And his death brought an end to the entire Second Age.”
“The second is Caesar, Solomon the Great, who led troops to pacify Gaul and Iberia, then defeated Pompey in the civil war, and finally took control of the entire Solomon nation, declaring the end of the Republic and the birth of the dictatorship, bringing an end to the Third Age.”
“The subsequent Fourth Age was basically all monarchies.”
“You haven’t talked about Alexander yet.” Peggy reminded her.
“Of course, I’m just about to.” Eleanor cleared her throat and said, “Both Caesar and Hannibal acknowledged the influence of Alexander on their military thinking.”
“Alexander the Great was a figure from the middle of the Second Age, the king of ancient Macedonia, a peerless genius.”
“He quelled the internal strife in Siris, then conquered the East, from Asia Minor and Syria all the way to the Mesopotamian plains.”
“He also spread Siris civilization far and wide, pioneering the precedent of first conquering militarily and then assimilating other countries culturally…”
“Who was Alexander’s father?” Peggy interrupted her eloquent speech.
“I remember, it seems it was Philip II.” Eleanor pondered and said, “He was also a remarkable figure, the first to defeat the Siris allied forces and unify the entire Siris Peninsula, laying a solid foundation for Alexander’s conquest of the East.”
“How did he die?” Peggy asked.
“Uh…” Eleanor said uncertainly. “It seems he was assassinated at his daughter’s wedding by a Macedonian noble.”
“The reason for the assassination is unclear. Some say it was instigated by Alexander’s mother, Olympias, because after King Philip’s death, she immediately executed his concubine and all their children in the name of murder. Historians believe this was a clear act of silencing witnesses.”
“Alexander the Great himself claimed that it was a conspiracy by the Eastern Iranians because they were afraid that Macedonia would conquer them, and King Philip was a firm advocate of war.”
Eleanor said with certainty: “I believe this statement more. With Alexander the Great’s arrogant personality, if the assassination was really done by his mother, even if he reluctantly admitted it, he would never frame the Iranians.”
“I understand, Eleanor.” Peggy whispered. “Thank you.”
“What’s wrong with you?” Eleanor looked at her in confusion and smiled strangely. “You seem to have something on your mind, little Peggy?”
“It’s nothing.” Peggy shook her head, thought quietly for a while, and then continued to ask:
“Eleanor, is Phantom Sword a very powerful sword technique?”
“Phantom Sword is one of the three great supernatural sword techniques.” Eleanor thought for a moment and added, “Including Asker’s Celestial Ninefold Strike, there are four supernatural sword techniques in this world.”
“The so-called supernatural sword techniques are sword techniques that incorporate certain laws. The sword techniques themselves possess supernatural power and can achieve effects that ordinary sword techniques cannot.”
“Alexander the Great’s Phantom Sword, and the later Undead Phantom Sword improved by Hannibal, can create multiple attacks in a short time by splitting off phantoms. They are famous battle sword techniques for one against many.”
“You saw it when we fought the Black Knight before. Phantom Sword can easily reverse the numerical disadvantage of one against many. Although the phantom’s defense is very low, its attack power and attack methods are exactly the same as the main body.”
“The other two supernatural sword techniques, one is ‘Holy Sword’ of Charlemagne and the Twelve Paladins, which is also a very powerful battle sword technique, said to be able to achieve unstoppable effects.”
“The other is ‘Lake Swordsmanship’ of Lancelot, the chief knight of King Arthur’s Round Table. It is a mysterious assassination sword technique.”
“Legend has it that the Lady of the Lake gave the sword Excalibur to King Arthur, but taught the Lake Swordsmanship to Lancelot because she foresaw the inevitable conflict between the two.”
“Stop, stop, stop!” Peggy interrupted Eleanor’s storytelling. “Why haven’t I heard of any of these sword techniques?”
“Because they have long been lost.” Eleanor said regretfully. “If you pay attention to military history, you will know the revered status of supernatural sword techniques in history.”
“Every user of a supernatural sword technique has single-handedly reversed the unfavorable situations of countless wars in history, changing the course of history even more frequently than demigods, after all, the latter are restricted by the magic tide level.”
“There is a saying that supernatural sword techniques were designed to allow lower ranks to challenge higher ranks, to give non-demigods a fighting chance against demigods.”
“If so, why were they lost?” Peggy asked.
“Because supernatural sword techniques are not easy to record in words.” Eleanor explained. “The essence of supernatural sword techniques lies in the laws within them, and any language description of laws will inevitably be distorted, so it is difficult to pass down any supernatural sword technique through pure oral or written transmission.”
“For example, the essence of a supernatural sword technique is A. When you try to describe it, what you describe becomes B, and what the other party understands after listening is C.”
“Because of the huge gap between A and C, it is difficult for learners to understand the essence of supernatural sword techniques through language or words. For example, Asker’s Celestial Ninefold Strike, even if he is willing to teach it to you without reservation, you can’t understand it even if he explains it, and you can’t comprehend it even if you understand it.”
“There is a saying that when you try to understand a supernatural sword technique, it is also trying to understand you. If the two sides cannot establish a connection and mutual recognition, then naturally you can’t learn it.”
Peggy fell silent.
When she learned the Celestial Ninefold Strike, she did encounter a situation where she couldn’t learn it no matter how hard she tried.
So it seemed that, according to Eleanor’s words, it could be explained as “incompatibility.”
However, she had no difficulty understanding the Undead Phantom Sword in her mind.
It was as if she had recited it thousands of times.
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