Literature / Disciple of the Holy Sword

To Leon, a wannabe swordmaster, the world is unfair.

His commitment to training every single day seems meaningless compared to the pedigree of the nobility and the talent of geniuses. Lionel, whose name is so similar to Leon's, is the worst of them all. A boy gifted with looks, personality, and skills straight out of a fairy tale, Lionel has beaten Leon in every bout they've had with a fraction of the effort.

After three years of failure, Leon is ready to sink into the depths of despair when the unthinkable happens. A holy sword descends from the sky and shatters the ground before him. The holy sword Elsyd, the very same wielded by by hero king Rodrick three centuries before, speaks to Leon. Elsyd agrees with the boy's sentiment that life is unfair, that some people have it all while others lose what little they have. But he goes on to say that only those who have poured their blood, sweat, and tears into their lives have the right to say this. So he asks the trembling boy one question:

"Do you think you have the right?"

Leon doesn't have to think twice about his response. "I do!"

Satisfied with his answer, Elsyd offers Leon the opportunity of a lifetime, to wield the holy sword and turn himself into a hero for a new generation. With the greatest weapon and the best teacher in-hand, will Leon be able to carve out a place for himself in this world?

Disciple of the Holy Sword is a webnovel written by MKR. It follows Leon as he trains to become worthy of Elsyd's power as the newest Warrior. While he has enthusiasm and determination in spades, Leon has a long way to go before he can truly call himself worthy of the mantle. A webtoon adaptation began in 2022 and can be read on Tapas here.

Disciple of the Holy Sword contains examples of:

• Action Girl: As an A-Rank adventurer, Karen is an elite among adventurers and considered a fighting force all on her own. She massacres most of the members of Wicked she runs into in the City Swallower incident and is considered one of the strongest people participating in the operation.
• Ambition Is Evil: Discussed. When Leon declares that he's going to become the Warrior and prove there's no one as special as him, Elsyd laughs at him for being so materialistic. But he goes on to say that there's nothing wrong with Leon being materialistic, as desire for things like fame, wealth, and prestige are what drives people and makes them human.
• Bad Powers, Good People: Karen's aura is "Shadow" aligned, allowing her to manipulate shadows at will to entangle and skewer her foes. But she's also an outgoing adventurer who mentors and protects Leon throughout the City Swallower mission. This is further emphasized by her past as the assassin Undertaker. While she doesn't regret what she did to survive, she doesn't want to continue being an assassin either, hence her decision to become an adventurer and later becoming Leon's first companion and ally on his journey become a worthy Warrior.
• Bag of Holding: Accessories like earrings and armbands can be enchanted to have a small pocket dimension to hold items for the user. After the Swallower incident, Leon is gifted a bracelet with this function. Karen's earrings serve the same purpose, revealing where she keeps all of her daggers when they're not in use.
• Back In My Day: Elsyd houses the soul of the sage king Rodrick. As a result, he's prone to making comparisons about what the present-day is like compared to when Rodrick was alive. He calls Blaine practically a poorly managed village town compared to the enormous cities of centuries past. On the other hand, he's impressed by how an adventurer's guild like Blaine's is able to bring together races from all walks of life that were once at each other's throats.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Leon has the unlucky version with Chloe. They've known each other since they were kids and it's implied that Leon harbors feelings for her. However, it's clear to him that she has eyes for Lionel and he accepts that he won't win her heart by calling Lionel her boyfriend. They still part on good terms and she prays for Leon's safety and success.
• The Chosen One: Elsyd chooses Leon to be his wielder, marking him as the next Warrior and the successor to the sage king Rodrick. Originally, Lionel was prophesized to be chosen, but Elsyd chose Leon instead because he feels Leon's grit and determination made him a better candidate.
• Church Militant: The Army of the Holy Iron Chain is the Holy Order's elite peacekeeping force deployed to destroy heretical and evil threats wherever they appear. They're considered the most powerful fighting force on the continent. Each member is as capable as a B or A-Rank adventurer and their faith lets them use divine power to combat heretical xeno magic.
• Cool Teacher: Trollish behavior aside, Elsyd genuinely cares for Leon and is constantly supportive of him. He only puts Leon through the wringer because he believes he can handle it and stops Leon from putting himself down, giving Leon the validation and support he's craved for years. Leon acknowledges this despite his gripes over Elsyd's Training from Hell regimen and is grateful for Elsyd's counsel.
• Death by Secret Identity: Discussed. Leon realizes that an assasin's true identity is their greatest secret. So he tries hard not to give away that he's learned Undertaker's Secret Identity lest he kill him to keep his secret. Sure enough, when Leon reveals that he knows who Karen is, she's tempted to kill him then, only relenting because of the threat of the City Swallower. In the end, Karen grows to like Leon, who gives her a second chance when he reveals himself as the Warrior and she repents for her former lifestyle. She instead swears fealty to him as his first comrade and a mentor to him.
• Determinator: Leon is defined by his willingness to go through hell to achieve his goals. Even as a child, he fought a boar three times his size for ten hours to eventually kill it. While he may grouse and gripe about it, he will put up with Elsyd's Training from Hell, face down giant monsters, and stare death in the face if it means completing his mission or helping someone he cares about.
• Devious Daggers: Karen wields short daggers in combat, both for throwing at her enemies and to cut them to pieces. She's also a rogue-type adventurer, preferring to catch her foes off-guard and ambush them rather than taking them head-on. The deviousness of her daggers is further emphasized by her past as Undertaker, one of the most feared assassins around.
• Diligent Hero, Slothful Villain: Leon is incredibly hard-working but suffers from Hard Work Hardly Works until Elsyd chooses him to become the next Warrior. Leon's rival, Lionel, is much more talented than Leon. While Lionel does work hard, he's so praised for his skills that he parties with his peers instead of spending all of his time training alone like Leon. Leon's first goal in the story is to surpass Lionel, with their final duel at the academy ending with Leon shattering Lionel's sword, as Leon had broken so many training swords that he understood how much punishment a sword could take whereas Lionel did not.
• Disposable Vagrant:
  • Karen was recruited and trained to become an assassin specifically because she's an orphaned vagrant. As a result, no one would be able to trace her back to her organization as she has no blood or political ties to anyone and no home to go back to.
  • In the territory of Count Lubena, Leon and Karen notice that the slums are a ghost town with not a single person, poor, homeless, or otherwise, in sight. This is because the count has been feeding the poor to the captured vampires in order to sacrifice the vampires to gain unfathomable power.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: Under normal circumstances, Elsyd would provide his wielder with near-invincibility, tremendous destructive power against evil, and an enormous boost to his wielder's aura. But since Elsyd descended a year before he was supposed to and chose Leon instead of Lionel, these abilities are sealed until Leon becomes strong enough to unlock them.
• Entertainingly Wrong:
  • Due to Leon and Elsyd keeping the source of their holy powers a secret, people are prone to mistaking Leon for a high-ranking member of the Holy Order. Given how dangerous it would be to clarify matters, Leon is prone to just rolling with the assumption to either take advantage of it or change the subject.
  • Lionel challenges Leon to one final duel on the condition that if Leon loses, he will become Lionel's vassal. While Leon thinks nothing of this at the time since he plans to win, Elsyd speculates that Lionel is doing this so he can order Leon to give Chloe to him. This angers Leon, who is sick and tired of the games of nobility and the idea that his Childhood Friend could be reduced to a Trophy Wife. However, when the story shifts to Lionel's perspective, it's clear that he sees Leon's potential and wants Leon specifically to be his knight and ally.
• Epic Flail: Father Cesare's preferred weapon is a spiked morning star flail. In addition to its use as a blunt object capable of crushing stone and caving in people's skulls, he tangles up weapons and enemeis in the flail's chain.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: In the webcomic adaptation, Leon gets his hair trimmed into a neater, less spiky style after the Swallower incident is resolved. This is reflective of his growing maturity as he goes from just training for the role of being a Warrior to understanding what it means to be a hero after Elsyd is forced to go dormant for a month as a recompense for taking control of Leon's body and saving his life.
• Fake-Out Make-Out: When Karen believes they're being spied upon, she uses her shadows to create the illusion of herself straddling Leon in bed, with the spy at the window quickly fleeing in embarrassment.
• Fantastic Race Weapon Affinity: Discussed and subverted. Leon expects father Cesare, a wood elf, to wield a bow in combat like in the stories. Elsyd calls Leon naive and asks if he looked at the calluses on Cesare's hands. Leon is confused until Cesare pulls out a morning star flail capable of shattering stone with ease.
• Finishing Move: Rodrick's Sword of the Seven Stars techniques are imbued with his aura to incinerate his foes with ultra hot light and flame like the sun itself. While they're normal attacks to Rodrick, Leon can barely muster a single use of the first technique before keeling over from exertion, relegating these attacks that can kill all but the most powerful foes to this.
• Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: The heroes are surprised to learn that Tepes, the last heir to the Nosferatu clan of vampires, is in fact one of these, having chosen not to side with the Demon Lord against humanity 300 years ago. They even have official documentation proving that they performed community service for the Holy Order for 250 years to prove their innocence. In fact, the vampires residing in Count Lubena's territory are being used as Human Resources to power a ritual that would make the count an unstoppable mage.
• Glamour: To avoid drawing unnecessary attention, Elsyd uses his power to conceal his true appearance. To anyone but Leon, Elsyd looks like a bog-standard sword compared to the shining, immaculately white and ornate blade he really is.
• God Is Good: The world is said to have been created by a benevolent Goddess who loves all creatures in her world equally. The priests who worship her develop the ability to use divine power to heal and banish evil forces like xeno magic that summons Eldritch Abominations from beyond the borders of reality.
• Good Is Not Soft:
  • Cesare is a pious, kindly priest whose parish feeds the poor and hungry. He's also a retired Church Militant who takes pleasure in smiting evil wherever he goes, caving in the heads of villains with his morning star flail.
  • Karen is a cheerful, outgoing A-Rank adventurer who quickly takes a shine to Leon and mentors him as his senior. She's also ruthless to her foes, skewering them with her shadows and slicing them to pieces with her knives. She is also the feared assassin Undertaker, having adopted her current identity in an effort to distance herself from her past.
• Half-Breed Discrimination: Karen is the orphaned daughter of a human and a dark elf, resulting in her silver hair and tanned skin out of place in Blaine. This, combined with her status as a Disposable Vagrant, led to her being ostracized by others in the slums.
• Hammer of the Holy: Father Cesare is a kindly priest of the Holy Order and a retired member of the Army of the Holy Iron Chain, the most powerful fighting force on the continent. When he decides to return to the battlefield, he brings out his old morningstar flail to smite his foes with blows powerful enough to shatter stone.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Leon fails to catch up to his rival Lionel and the members of the nobility despite working his ass off for three years. It's not until Elsyd shows up in Leon's life and shows him how to optimize his training (and giving him Training from Hell) that Leon's fortunes begin to change. Even still, Leon continues to work hard every day while trying to absorb Elsyd's teachings and the techniques of sage king Rodrick.
• Healing Hands: Mages and priests are able to use their spells and divine magic to heal others. Weaker spells can quickly clear away fatigue and minor injuries like bruises and cuts. High-level magic can save someone who's been Impaled with Extreme Prejudice.
• Heroic RRoD: Leon suffers when he tries to use abilities that his body isn't prepared for. When he first uses Accel for the first time, he suffers intense muscle pain in his legs from using it before his body has gained aura to let himself handle it. Later on, the spirit of Rodrick inside Elsyd saves Leon by controlling his body to perform the Seven Holy Sword techniques against Wicked. Leon suffers a Power-Strain Blackout soon afterward and doesn't wake up for three days. Leon is then wracked with indescribable pain when he does finally open his eyes, leaving him bedridden.
• Holy Burns Evil: Divine magic is the most effective counter to the dark arts and xeno magic. Divine magic used by a sufficiently powerful priest can outright nullify uses of lower-level heretical magic in its vicinity, causing demons to recoil in pain from the burning sensation of divine magic.
• Honey Trap: Karen tries to cozy herself up to Leon when she mistakes him for a high-ranking priest in the Holy Order, tying her hair back and posing to emphasize her figure. Leon doesn't fall for it and stays focused on the mission. He even lampshades it by muttering that he won't fall for such an obvious honey trap.
• Hyper-Awareness: Rodrick trained himself to be able to rapidly process everything in his line of sight with just a glance, which Elsyd refers to as "Rodrick's Vision". Elsyd trains Leon to do the same, letting Leon predict his opponent's movements and not be caught off-guard easily so long as his foe remains in his field of view.
• In-Series Nickname: While just starting out as an adventurer, Leon becomes known as the guild's "Cat" for hunting so many rat men down as part of his training and to accrue money. He later becomes known as the "Sweeper" for taking so many odd jobs and clearing the streets.
• Insufferable Genius: In life, Rodrick was a genius Master Swordsman gifted with the most powerful form of aura and developed some of the most devastating sword techniques ever devised. He's considered the greatest hero who ever lived and knows it, resulting in his enormous (but somewhat justified) ego. While Leon is grateful for Elsyd's impeccable guidance, Rodrick's smugness and sarcasm continually rubs Leon the wrong way.
• Logical Weakness: As Leon himself points out, the Hyper-Awareness granted by Rodrick's Vision is only useful if his foe remains in his line of sight. Since he doesn't have eyes in the back of his head, Leon is still vulnerable to ambushes and those whose tricky footwork lets them move into his blind spots. During the Swallower incident, Karen warps him toward the altar via her Shadow Walk skill, but he isn't able to see the Arc Villain's tentacle skewering him from behind as he gains his bearings.
• Meaningful Name: Elsyd's name is homophonous to El Cid, the famed Spanish knight whose title meant "The Lord", whose prestigious military career led to him being romanticized in literature as a Knight in Shining Armor. Given his holy and heroic connotations, it's the perfect name to give to a holy sword housing the soul of the greatest hero the world has ever known.
• Mistaken for Romance: After being hired on for the same escort mission, Leon and Karen wind up sharing a wagon together. Given that they're the only members of the convoy to get a wagon to themselves, the mercenaries on the same trip start to wonder if Leon is Karen's boy toy riding her coattails. Leon denies this and is embarrassed by the implication. Unbeknownst to him, Karen does have some feelings for Leon because of his kindness, bravery, and willingness to accept her.
• Muscles Are Meaningless:
  • Zigzagged. As Elsyd points out, genetics determine how much muscle people are able to build. However, while size does matter, definition alone isn't directly correlated to strength. In addition, the power of one's aura greatly increases one's physical capabilities. So while bigger, more muscular people tend to be stronger, they aren't always the strongest. In short, muscles do matter, they're not the only thing that matters.
  • After a month of training with Elsyd, Leon is surprised when he suddenly starts outpacing his peers in a foot race despite having no notable changes in his physique. That's when Elsyd explains explosive muscle power to him. Leon's Training from Hell and the Harmless Electrocution Elsyd has been putting him through bolstered Leon's formerly inactive nervous system, letting him put out more exposive bursts of strength and speed without putting on more muscle mass.
• Mundane Utility: Thanks to Elsyd's purification powers, Leon asks him to subsitute for a bath when he's covered in grime and guts from monster hunting. Elsyd doesn't particularly like being used this way and tells Leon to hurry up and get stronger so they can go fight dragons instead of rat men in sewers.
• No-Sell: While fighting rat men in the sewers of Blaine, one of the evolved rat men tries to curse Leon. Unfortunately for it, Elsyd's holy power causes said curse to harmlessly dissipate when his blade touches it, rendering it useless. The last thing the poor monster sees is Leon taunting it about how unlucky it is before it gets carved up for loot.
• Overworked Sleep: Elsyd's training regimen has Leon nodding off in class from how much energy he's burning. This makes it difficult for him to concentrate, which leads into Elsyd honing Leon's ability to rapidly observe his surroundings.
• Patron God:
  • The Goddess said to have created the world serves as a source of power for all of her most pious followers, who are able to use divine power to perform magic capable of healing and protecting others while counteracting the effects of heretical magic.
  • On the other hand, xeno magic is powered by Eldritch Abominations lurking at the corners of reality. Groups like Wicked derive their demonic powers by performing human sacrifices to these monstrous beings.
• The Power of the Sun: Leon's aura possesses the sun attirbute, which is associated with holy light, heat, and justice. While materializing its power, Leon's blade glows white with the heat akin to that of a star's, turning Elsyd into an ultra-hot weapon that incinerates as well as cuts. This is also the same attribute wielded by Rodrick centuries prior.
• Protagonist Power-Up Privileges: As the Warrior and wielder of the holy sword, Elsyd, Leon is the only one able to use the long-lost technique of converting the life energy of the monsters he slays into aura. This lets him perform Level Grinding by slaying tons of monsters to add their energy to his own, letting him grow at an accelerated rate compared to a normal adventurer. In addition, he will gradually gain the ability to use Rodrick's unrivaled sword techniques that no one else can use.
• Purely Aesthetic Glasses: While instructing Leon on how to use aura, Karen puts on a pair of librarian's glasses, complete with a silver chain. Given how she doesn't need them at any other point, they're clearly just for aesthetics.
• Reformed, but Not Tamed: Karen, the A-Rank adventurer has gone fully straight after leaving her criminal past behind. But that doesn't stop her from viciously murdering her enemies, blackmailing crooks into giving her information, and running a betting ring to make some money at Leon's expense.
• Retired Badass: Fifty years prior to the events of the story, Cesare was a member of the Army of the Holy Iron Chain, the most powerful military force on the continent. He has since retired to a life of charity and piousness as the leader of Blaine's branch of the Holy Order. But he hasn't lost his touch at all and readily agrees to help Leon root out Wicked.
• Samus Is a Girl: Undertaker's low, raspy voice and concealing Plague Doctor's outfit conceal that he's in fact an extension of Karen, the cheerful, beautiful A-Rank adventurer who's trying to leave the life of an assassin behind.
• Screw Destiny: In Episode 15 of the webcomic, Elsyd admits to Leon that Lionel was the one prophesized to become the Warrior more than a century ago. But Elsyd wound up picking Leon a year before Lionel was due to receive the holy sword because he felt that Leon's willpower and dedication made him more worthy than Lionel.
• Secret Identity:
  • Elsyd instructs Leon to keep his identity as the newest Warrior a secret for his own protection. He's too inexperienced to face Rodrick's old foes alone, so hiding his identity to keep away unwanted attention is his best bet to live long enough to properly handle the mantle.
  • Similarly, the Undertaker is a top-class assassin who keeps his identity a secret wrapped in an enigma. No one knows who he is and he conceals himself in robes and a Plague Doctor's outfit whenever he's forced to make an appearance. In truth, he's Karen, one of Blaine's A-Rank adventurers and a dungeon-delving rogue. She keeps her identity a secret to distance herself from her past.
• Secret-Keeper: By the end of the City Swallower arc, Leon learns that Karen is in fact the feared assassin Undertaker and promises to keep this a secret. Cesare also puzzles out Leon's true identity as the newest Warrior, while Leon also reveals it to Karen as a show of trust while giving her an opportunity to atone for her past actions as his friend and ally.
• Secret Identity Vocal Shift: Undertaker is a Strange-Syntax Speaker whose voice is implied to be low and raspy. He pauses creepily between phrases and laughs at the thought of being confronted by a former member of the Army of the Holy Iron Chain. This is in stark contrast to the bubbly Karen's distinctly feminine voice, which helps her keep up the masquerade that she and Undertaker are two different people during the City Swallower incident. Leon only catches on because of how similarly Karen and Undertaker kill their foes. His suspicions are only confirmed by Elsyd pulling up her stat screen to prove it.
• Shonen Hair: Leon's hair is as spiky as a Shonen Jump protagonist's at the start of the story, emphasizing his immature, Hot-Blooded personality. After the City Swallower incident, it gets trimmed into a neater, less spiky style, illustrating his growing maturity.
• Smiting Evil Feels Good: Father Cesare is a genuinely kind and compassionate man who is willing to help those who've gone astray repent for their sins. But when heretics and the dark arts are concerned, he takes unnerving pleasure in crushing the skulls of evil doers. Both Leon and Elsyd are creeped out by how much satisfied Cesare is when smiting members of Wicked.
• Speed Echoes: Karen is able to produce afterimages of herself thanks to her impeccable footwork. These range from two to more than a dozen depending on how much effort she puts in. The sheer number of echoes can overwhelm Leon's Vision and leave him open to get his neck pricked during a spar.
• Stock Shōnen Hero: Leon is the plucky, Hot-Blooded messily-haired teenage protagonist. His goal is to become worthy of the mantle of "Warrior" by training with the holy sword Elsyd. While he's a little Book Dumb, he's got several heaping scoops of Heroic Resolve and the dedication to train every single day.
• Talented, but Trained: Rodrick was a self-taught genius who became the greatest hero the world has ever known three centuries ago. But he also trained long and hard to develop his techniques and picks Leon as his successor specifically because the boy shared his work ethic.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Leon initially tries to spare the thieves who come after the cargo he's been hired to guard, reasoning that the thieves haven't commited an iredeemable crime yet. But overhearing the thieves' co-conspirators bragging about killing the parents of a child just to watch the child die of thirst and hunger in the desert leads Leon to declare the thieves unforgivable. He and Karen soon lay waste to the entire lot of them.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Downplayed. Leon will kill to defend himself or others, but he would prefer not to unless his opponent has proven himself iredeemable because Elsyd taught him that a Warrior has to do more than just kill. When thieves come after the cargo he's been hired to guard, he initially chooses not to kill them because they don't have any blood on their hands yet. But while tailing the other thieves from the same group to their hideout, he overhears the thieves laughing about murdering the parents of a child just so they could watch the child slowly die of thirst and hunger under the desert sun. This is all the confirmation he needs to start massacring the rest of them.
• Training from Hell: Elsyd trains Leon's observational skills by giving Leon a painful shock whenever he fails to answer one of Elsyd's questions about their surroundings. In truth, Elsyd planned on shocking Leon repeatedly no matter how well he did in order to wake up Leon's untrained nervous system to help boost Leon's explosive muscle power. The idea of a punishment was a Motivational Lie to help Leon focus on his vision training.
• Two Aliases, One Character: The Undertaker is considered one of the evilest and most dangerous criminals to ever come out of Blaine thanks to his incredible skill at stealth and assassination. Given how he melts into shadows and is always wearing a Plague Doctor outfit, no one knows who he is. In truth, his real identity is the plucky A-Rank adventurer, Karen, who wants to distance herself from her former profession in hopes of finding some real happiness. She applies her skills as a tracker and assassin as a dungeon-delving rogue. Her ability to operate her Undertaker identity as a shadowy familiar conceals her identity by making her seem to be in two places at once.
• Wall Run: Karen is able to apply her aura to her feet to run at full speed along walls and ceilings. This lets her catch foes who have No Peripheral Vision off-guard.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Downplayed. Elsyd is already proud of Leon's progress by the item he leaves the academy, but continues pushing him further and further to help him grow. Leon is equally determined to prove himself worthy of Elsyd's guidance and is clearly delighted when Elsyd congratulates him. In addition, his years of trying and failing to compete with his peers at the academy make Leon very receptive to praise in general, blushing and lighting up when his efforts are acknowledged.
• Wingding Eyes: In the webcomic adaptation, excited characters are frequently depicted with four-pointed stars in place of their eyes. For instance, in Episode 25, Leon's eyes have stars in them in anticipation of his coming payday after Elsyd's power nullifies the curses aimed at him by evolved rat men in Blaine's sewers.
• Wrecked Weapon: Leon's first use of the Sword of Eclipse leaves Cesare's morning star flail in pieces during their spar.

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