SSS Rank Sword Mage: Awakening Starts with Weakest Mana Affinity-Chapter 120: THE BRAINS BEHIND THE TERROR..

Author’s Note: Path animals were usually all about power; something about their very nature relied on strength above all other qualities. And yet—neither was Taz free of fault. Power, once acquired, breeds confidence, and confidence invites danger. One must always beware an opponent who is not merely strong, but resilient. No path animal embodied that truth more than Bagu, whose most underappreciated ability was not his strength—but his intellect.

Taz struck again and again.

The rhythmic shing-shing-shing of the obsidian blade was the only sound in the clearing, a terrifying melody of deconstruction. Countless cuts rained down upon Bagu with surgical precision, until the battlefield itself became a grotesque wasteland of severed flesh—or whatever primordial substance the Dragon had evolved into.

Limbs lay scattered across the scorched earth like rejected remnants of failed truths, twitching as they lost their connection to Bagu’s core. Despite the Dragon’s frantic regeneration, he was losing the war of attrition; he was being unmade faster than he could remember how to exist.

Taz’s breathing was heavy now, his single remaining eye fixed on the beast with a cold, predatory focus. He shifted his stance, the violet light of Vhaegon bleeding into the soil and turning the dirt to ash. He didn’t look at Bagu’s head or heart. He angled the tip of the Absolute Blade toward the base of the Dragon’s massive, leaden tail.

This was the pivot point. This was the moment where the "Meat" would finally lose its foundation.

Inside the barrier, we all believed the audit was over. But Bagu—true to his nature—remained a stubborn bastard.

He didn’t dodge. He leaned into the blade.

The obsidian edge of Vhaegon bit deep into his ribs, carving through the leaden scales, but Bagu didn’t flinch. Instead, he contracted his massive internal muscles, clamping down on the steel like a vice and trapping the Absolute Blade within his own body.

"I AM NO MEAT!" Bagu roared.

In that heartbeat of entrapment, Bagu swung his massive head with a ferocity that ignored all pain. He slammed his snout into Taz’s face with a force that shattered the sound barrier, the shockwave rippling through the clearing. The impact was cataclysmic. Taz was launched backward, his feet carving deep trenches into the earth as his grip on Vhaegon slipped for a fraction of a second.

When Taz finally rose, Blood poured from his nose, and his left eye had gone a milky, sightless white—blinded.

It wasn’t just a physical wound; it was the spiritual backlash of a Calamity-rank will refusing to be erased, a head-on collision between a dragon’s pride and the laws of the sword.

"No way... Taz actually got hit?" Tobias muttered, his voice shaking. For a moment, we had all believed Taz was an untouchable god, but Bagu’s will to exist was more persistent than any of us had imagined.

Taz coughed, spitting a mouthful of crimson onto the ash. He adjusted his grip, pulling a strip of white cloth from his sleeve to cover his blinded eye. His remaining eye narrowed, focusing on Bagu with a grim, final intent that felt heavier than the sword itself.

"Impressive," Taz panted, his voice raw. "You still believed—after I carved you apart, after I toyed with you—"

He tilted Vhaegon, the obsidian edge indicating the leaden limbs strewn across the clearing.

"After I wrote the proof of your mortality into the dirt."

Bagu laughed. It was a low, grinding sound, like stones dragged across each other, and the air itself trembled with it.

"The game is becoming clear to me now," he said. "At first, it was a test of strength. I thought this Second Truth was the same—another contest of power. But had I continued to rely on brute force alone, I would have lost."

His eyes burned with understanding.

"That Authority of yours would always favor you once the first round was decided. In a contest of raw power, I was already behind. Isn’t that right?"

Taz did not flinch. The obsidian blade in his hand hummed softly, a low, mournful resonance, as though it sensed the end drawing near.

"According to the laws of the blade," Taz replied, "I am required to answer. Yes. You are correct."

Bagu’s grin widened, his teeth stained with his own essence.

"The second truth," he said, spreading his arms wide, "was never about strength."

It was about meaning.

About purpose.

"I am no meat," Bagu declared.

"I am living."

The air hummed in agreement. The sword acknowledged Bagu’s declaration.

"The sword agrees," Taz admitted, his voice a low rasp. "And as my punishment for ’lying’—for treating you like mere meat when you still possessed the spark of a living being—I have lost my sight. Not permanently, of course. Only until the game is won."

Confidence returned to his tone, steady and dangerously sharp.

"So then, Sword Mage," Bagu rumbled, the sound vibrating through the very earth. "What is your final truth?"

A heavy, suffocating silence fell over the clearing. Inside the barrier, we held our breath as doubt began to creep back into our marrow. We could only watch, hearts hammering against our ribs, wondering what final, impossible condition Taz would set to end this nightmare.

Then, Taz gave a reply that came completely out of nowhere. "My final truth is... Huh?"

"Huh?"

The word hung in the air, absurd and jarring. We were all caught off guard—and in that split second of confusion, the world made sense again. From the void of the shadows, a presence materialized. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

"This is for Zuchin. I hope you burn in the Shadow Realm, you bastard!"

Before Bagu could react, a makeshift spear impaled his chest from behind. It was a brutal, genius construction: a massive wooden log used as a shaft, with a familiar sword driven through the tip so the blade protruded through the dragon’s back and out his chest.

Morgana.

"I have done many stupid things in my life," she hissed, her face contorted with a grief-stricken, jagged rage. "Things no ears should hear. Things that have stolen my sleep for years. The only person who gave me hope, who kept me on the right path... you took her from me. For this, I will sacrifice whatever it takes to bring you down!"

The realization set in as Taz exhaled, the killing tension vanishing from his shoulders as he leaned back. "I had no idea you were even here, Morgana. But that presence... it felt familiar."

"Thank you for buying us time," Morgana replied. Her voice was as cold and sharp as the steel she held. Her knuckles were white as she shoved the wood-steel spear deeper into the dragon’s leaden heart, the wood groaning under the pressure of Bagu’s collapsing mass.

Perhaps the third truth was that it was finally over, I thought to myself, leaning my head against the cool surface of the barrier.

Bagu roared, "You insect!" He swung a massive, leaden claw with enough force to level a building, but Morgana dodged the strike with fluid, predatory grace, landing neatly beside Taz. The synchronization between them was absolute; it was clear now—they were allies who had planned this long before the first line was drawn in the dirt.

Bagu chuckled, even as the blade remained lodged in his chest. "You think piercing me with this will kill me? You fool, I will simply evolve once I am dead! Death is merely a cocoon for my next form!"

"Who said anything about killing you?" Morgana retorted, her eyes glowing a more primal red than I had ever seen. "I sacrificed everything I have to put you into that sword. Now face the consequences, you monster!"

The sword began to glow with a sickly, rhythmic light that pulsed like a dying heart. Like a dry sponge dropped into water, the blade began to soak Bagu in. The dragon’s massive, fourth-dimensional mass started to distort and liquefy, his physical form being pulled into the very metal of the sword by an irresistible metaphysical vacuum.

"Don’t underestimate an elf," she spat in Bagu’s direction, her disgust raw and unhinged.

Bagu’s screams turned into distorted static as he began to vanish into the weapon stuck in the wooden log—my Woodsteel. He was being absorbed, sealed away by the very element he thought he had conquered. It was actually working. The impossible deicide was happening right before our eyes.

Lord Zedd signaled to Tobias, who finally dropped the barrier. The shimmering wall dissolved into a shower of fading sparks, and they rushed toward the center of the devastation.

"I can’t believe it... You did it!" Greyjoy shouted, his usual arrogance replaced by a frantic, hysterical relief. For a moment, we all stood there, finally feeling the weight on our chests lift as we stared at the struggling, diminishing form of Bagu. The once-mighty dragon was being folded inward, forced into the very anchor that had pierced his heart.

But the victory was bittersweet. The moment the seal took hold, Morgana’s strength vanished. She collapsed instantly, her body falling limp. Taz caught her before she hit the ash, his hands steady even as he felt her breathing become ragged and irregular. Whatever forbidden ritual she had performed to tether a Calamity-rank beast into a physical object had clearly drained her to the very brink of death.

Suddenly, a massive explosion of energy erupted from Bagu. He let out a roar like a madman, a sound that vibrated the very marrow of our bones. "I SHALL NOT BE REDUCED TO THIS STATE!"

He roared again, a desperate, final surge of power fighting against the sword’s inexorable pull. The log—my Woodsteel—began to groan and crack at the far end under the sheer pressure of containing a collapsing god.

The only thing left was the chilling sound of a god realizing he was no longer one—only a prisoner.

From within the log came a faint, metallic scratching. Bagu was clawing at the inside.

His muffled curses echoed weakly, growing thinner and more distorted, like a dying radio signal slipping out of range, as he was slowly dragged into the cold, lightless prison of the blade.

"It’s... it’s really over," I whispered.