Rogue Villain-Chapter 246: Reasoning With The Sword God

The Sword God stared dumbly as Ackster’s nub bumped against the hilt. He then looked at Ackster’s startled and soon-to-be scared face before changing wrists before Ackster could react. He grabbed Ackster’s other hand and wrapped it around the sword hilt, with Ackster unable to do anything about it.

"Fuck off!"

As soon as the Sword God let go, Ackster took off his hand and pulled away from the sword. Or that’s what was supposed to happen in Ackster’s mind. He didn’t pull away from the sword, but the sword wasn’t in his hand either, at least not in the ordinary sense.

"Mm, as I suspected. It’s parasitic."

The Sword God grabbed Ackster’s hand again to look at the black symbol of a sword on its back. He inspected it closely before looking at Ackster when seemingly satisfied.

"Who are you?"

Ackster sighed, not even bothering to try and get out of the Sword God’s vice-like grip.

"You know how you needed a sacrifice to get to these ruins? I am that sacrifice. After letting a bunch of my blood drip through the floor, I ended up here. We met right outside the throne room."

Ackster gave a slightly more elaborate explanation this time, hoping it would help him more. But halfway through, the Sword God went right back to inspecting and toying with Ackster’s hand. He waved it around like an actual sword without regard for the rest of Ackster attached to the arm.

As if completely forgetting that fact, the Sword God tried to stuff the hand with the sword symbol in his scabbard. He looked up at Ackster when he noticed it didn’t work because of the arm and body attached to the hand.

"Who are you?"

Ackster did his best to suppress an irritated sigh and failed. It was just something about the Sword God that was infuriating.

"Your mom."

"No."

"Really? My bad."

"Can you...?"

The Sword God went back to ignoring anything Ackster might have to say as he started prodding the symbol on Ackster’s hand. He looked at Ackster in expectation.

"No, I can’t. I don’t know how to control a parasitic sword. Sorry. Maybe if you hadn’t forced me to grab it, it wouldn’t have hidden inside my body!"

"I did that?"

"Yes! And aren’t you the Sword God? Shouldn’t you know how to do this?"

"Even if I do know, which I do, how does that help you?"

"You can just tell me how to do it?"

"Okay. Make the sword appear again."

"That’s not how. That’s what you want me to do."

"What’s the difference? Can’t you do it by knowing what to do?"

"I can do things I already know how to do or simple stuff. Getting rid of a parasitic sword, something I didn’t even know existed? No way. Give me a guidebook or something."

"A guidebook? Since you’re so arrogant, I expected you had something to back that arrogance up. I guess I was mistaken. Can you regenerate hands?"

Ackster realized where the Sword God was going at once.

"It takes some time, but yeah, I think it’s possible—"

Less than a moment later, Ackster’s left hand left his arm, cut so cleanly that blood didn’t even spill before his body started healing. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

’Fuck.’

Ackster pointed at his right nub with his left nub.

"Can you trim some here as well?"

The Sword God didn’t even ask why since he was busy studying the hand he had taken from Ackster. But he did listen to Ackster’s request and trim off the tiny growth that he had started regenerating since Tararat cut off his hand. Ackster didn’t bother saying thanks as he sat down and used his feet to hold the hand from his inventory against the stump before it could cover the wound.

It would take a lot of time to regenerate an entire hand, thanks to how much energy his skeleton needed. But reconnecting and restoring his severed and dead hand didn’t take much, and before long, Ackster was back to being one-handed. He flexed it, twisted it, closed it, and opened it until he could confirm that it was in perfect condition.

’I really am not human anymore, am I?’

Ackster was only distracted enough to have one weird thought before he felt something strange happen. He wasn’t sure what it was, but it felt like something brushed against his life force. He was about to look around to see if the Sword God did something. Who else would bother him if not the Sword God?

However, before he could, the Sword God had already cut open his shirt and revealed a black sword icon on Ackster’s chest.

"Shit..."

"Can you regenerate your torso?"

"No."

"Have you tried?"

"No."

"Then how do you know?"

"Can you eat shit and die?"

"No."

"Have you tried?"

"No."

"Then how do you know?"

"I see. Reasonable argument."

The Sword God nodded as if Ackster had laid out a perfect defense against why the Sword God shouldn’t try and cut the sword from his chest.

Ackster had healed the soft tissue inside his chest and recovered from being nothing but a skeleton. But that was when all of his skills were pumped to the max, and he was too pumped full of adrenaline to realize the severity of his state.

Ackster wasn’t sure he could physically muster that much fighting will against the Sword God. It also seemed like the Sword God considered cutting the area with the sword symbol, not just his flesh and organs. So, he would have to regenerate the skeleton there as well. That would pose a problem.

"What do you think would happen to the sword if I killed you?"

The Sword God looked at Ackster while rubbing his chin. He asked the question like he was simply asking Ackster about what he thought the weather would be like tomorrow. The nonchalance the Sword God spoke about Ackster’s life with irked Ackster. But for some reason, it also felt natural. If anything, it was nice to be asked by someone as superior as the Sword God when he could just kill Ackster and find the answer to his question by trying.

"No idea. But I would prefer it if you didn’t kill me."

"What if the sword kills or controls you?"

"If I can’t break free from the control, you’re free to do as you like, I guess."

"How do I know if you can or can’t break free from the sword’s possible control?"

"You just know, no? Can’t you even do that without someone telling you how?"

"You’re awfully impertinent for someone who respects me."

"Yeah, yeah. Are you going to do something about this or not? If you aren’t, can I leave? I’ve got stuff to do."

The Sword God pointed at Ackster with his hand, and Ackster felt his body stiffen as the Sword God’s gaze froze him to the spot.

"You are not leaving."