It’s me, Zelyse de~su!」

It was Zelyse who had just escaped. But when Fran saw her, she tilted her head.

(Is he really Zelyse?)

『No matter how you look at it, it is him, right?』

(…Something felt strange, is he Zelyse’s younger brother?)

Fran seemed to feel something strange about the Zelyse in front of her. But before she could question him about it, Zelyse opened his mouth first.

「You seem to be interested in this sword, aren’t you?」

What he held up was unmistakably that Pseudo Fanatic Sword. The blade of that sword was missing from the middle.

I was pretty sure that it was that Pseudo Fanatical Sword that we had chased before.

「What is that sword?」

「This sword is an Intelligence Weapon that we created. The name of this sword is――The Transcendence Invincible Strongest Sword――well, it’s a bit long, so let’s just call it the magic sword, Zelyse, shall we?」

The moment Zelyse said that the Pseudo Fanatic Sword’s appearance changed. Like a piece of candy, the supposedly hard sword expanded, stretched, and deformed.

A few seconds later, Zelyse had a sword in his hand that did not resemble the Pseudo Fanatic Sword.

It had a poisonous-looking purple hilt and a huge knuckle guard. It was a short sword with a flashy fluorescent pink blade. No, maybe it was even shorter than that. The blade was thick and looked sturdy, but the base of the blade was thicker than the tip, it was basically something like main-gauche.

The blade, which had been broken, had been completely repaired in its transformation process.

What bad taste, that was all I had to say of it. However, it had a tremendous presence. It seemed that it wasn’t just a change in appearance.

There were also changes in the information that was visible in my appraisal.

The part of the name that had been “None” was changed to Magic Sword, Zelyse. And the skills and other information became completely invisible.

Perhaps the naming process had raised the sword’s status. It might be a phenomenon similar to how I named Urushi and evolved him.

「That sword, is an Intelligence Weapon?」

「That’s right! It’s the sword with a will, the one that sealed me in before!」

Could it be that he had created his own Intelligence Weapon? After all, he has been experimenting with various things using Zelos Reed as his test subject…

It was almost legendary if I do say so myself. It could even be considered rarer than the Divine Swords.

What was more, he said it sealed him in before?

「I don’t get it」

「Fufun? Want to know?」

「Nn」

「Then I’ll tell you!」

Zelyse exclaimed proudly. He really was an easy guy, wasn’t he?

「You see, I’ve been researching the possibility of creating an Intelligence Weapon for a while now. Well, I couldn’t figure out how to seal a soul into a specific vessel, so my interest shifted to the Chimera」

I was created by the Gods, so I’ve never really been aware of it, but I thought it was difficult to seal a soul, which was usually under the authority of the Gods.

「But I still collecting research materials and conducting simple experiments on it」

「Hmm」

「Then, I’ve made a lot of new discoveries over the past few years. Well, it’s thanks to the data of Zelos Reed-san that was provided by me from that timeline though」

Zelyse then stared at the jet-black sword that Sierra was holding. “By me from that timeline”, So this was Zelyse from this timeline!

「Plus this Pseudo Fanatical Sword. This thing is really interesting. After all, it was capable of thinking for itself like an Intelligence Weapon, albeit a temporary one!」

Marquis Ashtner, who had acquired Fanatics, was connected to the Kingdom of Raidos behind the scenes. And Zelyse had taken refuge in the Kingdom of Raidos. It seemed that the information had been passed on to Zelyse through that channel.

But the Kingdom of Raidos also seemed to be in a state where the various forces are fighting each other, so I don’t know how far Zelyse was cooperating with the Fanatics’ plan.

However, they were probably related to each other to the extent that he had access to the research materials on Fanatics and the actual Pseudo Fanatic Sword.

「I’ve been doing a lot of research based on the data “I” remembered and the fact that Zelos Reed turned into an Intelligence Weapon since then」

It seemed that if someone lived with a Pseudo Fanatic Sword embedded in their body, not only did their body but also their soul would think that that state was normal. I guess it meant that the Pseudo Fanatic Sword had been mistakenly seen as part of their body.

When their body perished in that state, the soul that struggled to survive somehow seemed to get absorbed into the Pseudo Fanatic Sword.

「Of course, I had to implant the same type of magic stone on both sides to create a channel of passage, and there were many other prerequisites as well! Well, as a result of my hard work, I have succeeded in becoming an Intelligence Weapon in this way. Uwaah~. The me from that timeline is happy too. After all, it’s not every day in history that a person becomes an Intelligence Weapon! And the only thing left to do was to transfer my soul to the sword, but after you guys killed ‘that me’, he decided to give it a shot, and I’m glad it turned out so well」

「Is that the same sword that ‘that Zelyse’ used to fight us with earlier?」

「Yup!」

It seems that ‘that Zelyse’ volunteered himself to become a sword. So, he used himself as a tool for his experimentation… What a mad fellow.

But now I knew why Fran felt so uncomfortable with this Zelyse. The previous Zelyse and this one were different in ages. Just as there was an eight-year age difference between Romio and Sierra.

However, in Zelyse’s case, since he was a half-demon, it would hardly show in his appearance. Rather, it was just Fran who sensed even the slightest unusualness in him.

(…Nn?)

Fran tilted her head. She must have been confused by what he said before and what he said now.

『The Zelyse that Fran just defeated was the one from another timeline, and now he has become a Pseudo Fanatic Sword. And the one in front of us is Zelyse from this time. That’s how it is』

「I see」

「Oya? Did you believe me? I was going to give you a lot more evidence though… Fran-san, aren’t you being too naive? You’ll be deceived by bad people if you’re like that, you know?」

「You’re one to talk」

「Ahahahah! Well, you’re right! But take a look! Cool, isn’t it?」

Zelyse said so and raised the Pseudo Fanatic Sword―――no, the Magic Sword, Zelyse, above his head. His face looked just like that of a child who found a cool branch.

「’That me’ says hello again to you guys」

「I can’t hear him」

「Oh, right. Sorry sorry. I didn’t know you guys couldn’t hear ‘that me’」

Hmmm, with it not moving, I couldn’t tell if the sword was really conscious or not. But seeing how it moved in the water and the air before, I’m pretty sure it was.

This guy had really created an Intelligence Weapon.

What was more, my fears were about to come true.

「Can Intelligence Weapons be mass-produced then?」

「I have a concept, but it’s still a long way to go. I’m still relying on chance. Hmm? Ah sorry, sorry. That’s right. You want to be active too, right?」

If we didn’t know anything, he was just like a bad guy who suddenly started a conversation with someone we couldn’t see. I would have to make sure that Fran was more careful in the future if we came across anyone like that.

「I think “that me” is getting bored, so I’m going to stop chatting for now and ask you to join me for a bit」

「…For what?」

「Ahahahaha! It’s just for my last little experiment!」

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