F-ranker Sword Saint: My Soulbound Sword is Secretly SSS-tier!-Chapter 248: Way Back Home

Daru stared at the sword...Key? In his hands.

The relic’s appearance was a bit of both — a sword, because of Rocante’s relic, the Broken Sword, which made the handle a scaled-down version of the giant stone greatsword’s.

The shattered blade was wrapped in a sweet leaf, and impaled at the fragmented tip was an eyeball.

It gazed back at Daru, seemingly well and alive despite a sizable thorn embedded deep into its back.

Then, hovering above the entire thing, as if suspended by divine forces, was the crown, spinning mystically — neither too slow nor too fast.

Daru appreciated the beautiful yet unsightly relic for a while.

Only once he was satisfied did he notice the notification that appeared:

[You have obtained the Key of the Vile Five.]

[Soulbind? Y/N] 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

[Warning: If not bound within 60 seconds, the item will be destroyed.]

Daru’s eyes widened momentarily, then he grimaced.

He still had a bit of time, though, so he quickly checked the key’s description first:

==

Name: Key of the Vile Five

Type: Relic

Tier: SSS

Level Requirement: 60

Description: A key born of the Five Vilest in Limbo, its purpose older than memory. It binds the condemned and the daring alike, guiding some to freedom, hurling others into torment, and tempting the bold with paths none were meant to tread.

Innate Abilities:

[Gray Decision] – Opens a portal to a linked region of the Underworld. The portal may be closed at the whim of the key’s wielder. (No cost. 60-second cooldown)

[Wretched Return] – The wretches have labored long and earned their freedom. Opens a portal from a linked region to the Surface, delivering those who pass through to their chosen location. (No cost. 60-second cooldown)

[Courting Death] – The mad wretches crave more suffering than fate wanted them to. Opens a portal to a random Underworld Region. (Requires 10 Underworld Essence; 7 days cooldown)

[Monochrome Rescue] – The Key resonates with its source region, invoking divine law to open a portal from any Underworld Region back to the Surface, guiding the desperate wretch to salvation. (Underworld Essence cost varies with distance; No cooldown)

Underworld Essence: 0 (+1 essence every 24 hours, link to more regions to increase absorption rate.)

Linked Regions: Limbo

==

Clearly, this was their only way back to the surface, so what else could he do except accept what was coming and bind the relic to his soul and reserve a permanent slot for it in his inventory?

[Y]

The moment he tapped on yes, thick streams of inky-black aura crawled through his entire body, then disappeared somewhere in his chest.

[Key of the Vile Five has been bound to your soul!]

Daru waited a bit more, expecting another notification...but there was nothing.

’That’s...it?’

There’s no way he wasn’t cursed this time!

After all, aside from the ones that he was automatically afflicted with, he had been cursed two more times, both of which came from moments where he entangled himself with something no mortal should.

Consuming a soul, obtaining a Demon King’s mark...how could soulbinding a divine relic that allowed one to go to and fro Underworld Regions without restrictions and even granted access to random, unexplored regions, albeit with a few limitations, be a lesser feat?

However, that was the reality.

He really wasn’t cursed.

’Well...that’s good, I guess?’

Why did he feel that somehow, this was worse? It was as though something strange was going on behind the scenes.

But really, how was he not cursed?

He should’ve earned the ire of a Demon King, or something, no?

In the end, Daru shrugged impassively.

’I’ve probably just spent way too much time with Caleb.’

The older bladeborn’s overly anxious nature was rubbing off on him!

Daru scanned his eyes over the Stone Altar, noticing that the pentagram at the center of the stone table and the insignia of The Five engraved on the stone cairns were gone.

His brows rose.

Maybe what he did was allowed? After all, why would there be such a one-time setup if the Underworld was off-limits?

No...why would there be Underworld Keys in the first place?

Daru suspected that they, the bladeborns, were actually encouraged to visit.

Baal was even giving free sustenance and a book about demonic ABCs.

’The demons...maybe they’re not that bad?’ he mused before turning around and descending the stone steps.

"Onimaru!! What happened to you earlier?! Wait...you are...you are Onimaru, aren’t you?"

Elara sighed at the loss of composure again, but didn’t have the energy to reprimand the older bladeborn.

Instead, she just waited for the explanation.

"What do you mean? Why would I not be me?"

One of Daru’s brows rose in puzzlement, then he decided not to pay much attention to the nonsensical question and continued:

"Well, I underwent a heretical ritual and got a key that could open a portal back to the Surface. It’s annoyingly bound to my soul, though...here, take a look."

Caleb instantly recognized that he was indeed Daru, simply based on the way he spoke.

The SS-ranker was finally able to breathe easy.

Together with the two ladies, he checked the profane-looking divine relic.

"Well, it’s quite unsightly, isn’t it?" Elara unhesitatingly voiced her thoughts. "But if it serves its purpose, I guess it’s fine to keep such an ugly thing around..."

A brief silence ensued.

Daru noticed that the three were looking at him — two with burning impatience.

"What?"

"What do you mean, ’what’, you dull man? Try it if it works, what else?" Elara shook her head in disbelief.

"Ah, right."

His response made Caleb and Lesha tremble, an unexplainable emotion assaulting their vulnerable hearts.

Long have they waited for this moment...

At last. At last with one final toil, they will be free.

The two wretches deeply yearned for at least a glance at their way out. Daru granted their wishes.

As if the recently bound relic had accompanied him for ages, he stabbed it at the ground.

The Key of the Vile Five pierced through as though its crown tip existed on a different plane than the ashen ground.

Black veins crawled out from it like shadow vipers, twisting, turning, and coiling.

A few moments later, a black pentagram appeared — a scaled-up duplicate of the one that disappeared in the stone table.

It began pulsing once it was done forming.

Then, without warning, stone stairs burst to the gray heavens like a mighty, sky-devouring beast, latching somewhere behind the thick clouds.

Caleb and Lesha stood petrified. There it was...their way back home.

Only, they could feel it. The divine restrictions. The two of them could not leave in their current "Damned" state.

They must toil one last time to recover their status as "Visitors" first, and only then would they be permitted by the heavens to see their motherland.