Chapter 25 - Truly Sharp! (1/2)

As he stood there on a ground blanketed in snow Will had a sudden thought, an epiphany if you will. Killing intent was the aura his body released when he intended to kill a bit. The more he intends to do so, the more killing intent his body would release. It was because of this that Will came upon an idea.

Killing intent is for when you want to kill something. Swords were made to kill. In other words, sword intent should not be much different from killing intent, right? Ah...wait...no it can't be that simple. Killing is the connection, but sword intent itself has to be unique.

As Will's mind kept going through a multitude of thoughts, he released the restraint he had placed upon his killing intent. Due to the fact that he was still unfamiliar with such actions, Will couldn't control how much killing intent leaked out, but this was merely for a fraction of a second. This was not his intention, but it was very beneficial for him because it stopped the movements of the Helios Warhawk.

Looks like it's afraid, well I can't really blame it, even I'm afraid of myself.

Now then I don't just want to kill this bird, I want to cut it, so doesn't that mean sword intent is a sharp killing intent? Let's try this out.

As Will tried it out, he carefully observed the Warhawk for any sudden movements. He was relieved to see it temporarily retreat, giving him time to adjust himself.

Sharp. Sharp. Sharp. Sharp. Sharp. I need it to be sharp!

Many ideas popped through the young man's mind, but one seemed to stick out above the others at that moment. Will didn't quite know why, but he felt like he was being guided by an invisible hand. He decided to follow his gut and started focusing on that idea, or rather that memory.

It was the memory of the first time he had attempted to do a Suijin no Ikari. At that time all he could remember was feeling the water. Making it thinner, faster, and imagining it as sharper.

This time he tried to apply a slightly different approach. Instead of water, he was feeling out his killing intent, as if it was something tangible.

Something he could control.

Slowly but surely, second by second, Will could tell his killing intent changing from being a blunt form of suppression to being what he wanted; sharp.

As he looked down on the snow below Will would spot hundreds of micro cuts forming all around the snow around him. At first, he was surprised, and then this surprise quickly turned into excitement.

The manual had said I should be close to death. That means the Dao of the sword itself is close to death. Sword intent is merely another form of killing intent!

This valuable insight changed the way Will saw the Dao of the sword. In the past, one could say Will treated his sword like a tool with no purpose. It was just there to help him cut. Now his sword was burdened by glorious purpose, now his sword had a reason to exist; now his sword had a Dao, and that Dao was to kill.