Sword God Style

"A 『Sword God』 isn't something that you can become simply by memorizing a skill or something, you know? Even though someone special like me didn't get special treatment, why is there a need to treat Sword Saints that way?"

Sword God Gal Farion

Sword God Style (剣神流, Kenshin-ryū) is one of the three major schools of swordsmanship, and considered to be the strongest.

Characteristics

For those of the Sword God Style, their motto is ｢Victory goes to he who moves first｣. It is a style of swordsmanship that emphasizes speed and aggression, where the main focus is to strike down the opponent first. As a result, many of the practitioners develop to be short-tempered and belligerent. In order to be able to react swiftly, there is discouragement for practitioners to wear heavy armor and instead opt for light clothing for maximum mobility.

Given the philosophy of defeating the enemy with a single blow, this style usually renders its users inept at defense and leaving with no counter-attacks. Due to this, Sword God Style practitioners find it difficult to fight a Water God Style practitioner as they are, conversely, adept at defense and countering. Contrarily, this style can overwhelm the North God Style as they mostly rely on the environment to fight.

Known Techniques

Longsword of Light

Ghislaine using Longsword of Light in the Anime

Longsword of Light (光の太刀, Hikari no Tachi): The ultimate technique of the Sword God Style.
In this technique, the sword is held steady with both hands, and all the force of the sword is put into a single swing. This technique is extremely difficult to evade or defend against due to the speed of the slash, which can reach the speed of light when fully mastered, and the power to cut a heavy-armoured enemy in half.
The existence of this technique is the reason why Sword God Style is called the strongest of the three schools.

Used by Eris Greyrat, Gal Farion, Nina Farion , Jino Britts , Ghislaine Dedoldia , Orsted

Light Reversal

Light Reversal (光返し, Hikari-gaeshi): The only known technical countermeasure against the Longsword of Light.
In this technique, it is a requirement for the user to have exceeding reaction speed; before the enemy's Longsword of Light reaches its maximum velocity, it is countered by the user's own Longsword of Light by cutting off the wrist of the enemy.

Used by Eris Greyrat

Longsword of Silence

• Eris using Longsword of Silence
• Paul using Longsword of Silence in the Anime

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Longsword of Silence (無音の太刀, Muon no Tachi, lit. "Longsword of Absolute Silence"): An advanced technique of the Sword God Style.
This technique is a slower variant of the Longsword of Light where the blade is swung at a velocity beyond the speed of sound. A characteristic of this technique is that leaves no sound behind.

Used by Paul Greyrat ,Eris Greyrat

Arm Chop

• Rudeus using Arm Chop in the Anime
• Rudeus using Arm Chop in the Manga

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Arm Chop (腕落とし, Ude Otoshi), fully known as Sword God Style - Initial Strike, Arm Chop is one of the basic techniques of the Sword God Style. The user aims at their opponent's forearm to slice it off or if they are wearing armor will break the bones of their arm which in both cases loses their ability to use their weapon on that arm.

Ranks

There are seven ranks in the Sword God Style.

Sword God

The Sword God is the most powerful practitioner of the Sword God Style and leader of the school and as such he oversees training and operations of the school. Practitioners who are of Saintly level and above may call themselves a Saint, King, Emperor or God of the Sword God school. Similar to the system of Water God Style, there can be only one swordsman of the God rank while the there can be multiple practitioners who can assume the rank of Sword Emperor and below.

"You've gained the title Sword King, but I already have nothing to teach you. I'll give you the proof of mastery. Though it'd also be fine to jump you straight up to Sword Emperor but... you'd have to fight Ghislaine here. If you want to jump up to Sword God then you'll have to kill me."

Gal Farion to Eris

When a swordsman of the Sword God school defeats a Sword God, he can assume the title of Sword God - the strongest and the head of the school. If the Sword God dies for any other reason, the next strongest of the Sword God school will assume the title of Sword God. Therefore, a generational change of Sword God means a civil war in the Sword God school.

Sword Emperor

Sword Emperor rank is attained when two Sword Kings battle against each other with the Sword God as the witness and the winner is promoted to Sword Emperor.

Sword King

Practitioners with rank Kingly level are granted special titles by the Sword God and is given a Sword from his collection as proof of mastery. Judging from Gal Farion's sword collection, Ghislaine is the only Sword King before Eris, Nina and Jino ascended to the position.

Sword Saint

A standard Sword Saint is being able to completely control their Battle Aura and to be able to use the Longsword of Light but there are exceptions like Eris who attained this by defeating Jino and Nina despite being unable to use Longsword of Light but still granted the rank by Gal. When a Sword God Style practitioner reaches Saint Rank, they are given a dark leather jacket that has a white fur trim collar and a pair of white belts on each end of the sleeve similar to what Gal, Ghislaine and later Eris are wearing.

Advanced

Paul Greyrat, An Advanced Sword God Style user consciously applying Battle Aura to a wooden sword

A standard Advanced Sword God Style Practitioner can self consciously use their Battle Aura. Until the the Advanced rank, the focus for lower rank is learning the foundations.

Intermediate

Intermediate Sword God Practitioners are those who advance the path of the sword after teaching them the foundation for at least 3 years and are able to sharply and swiftly cover their body with Battle Aura. An Intermediate Sword God Practitioner are able to contend with an average Knight.

Beginner

Beginner Sword God practitioners is the starting rank where its practitioners begins learning the foundations of the Sword God Style including children who cannot wear Battle Aura yet. A known training for this rank is the practice swings of the Arm Chop technique by hundreds of thousands.

Known Practitioners

Various Sword Saints, Sword Kings and Sword Emperors in the Sword God Style Dojo

• Sword Gods: Gal Farion, Jino Britts
• Sword Emperors: Timothy Britts, Nina Farion
• Sword Kings: Ars Greyrat, "Black Wolf" Ghislaine, "Mad Dog" Eris, Nina Farion (Former)
• Advanced: Paul Greyrat, Soldat Heckler, Bigott Mercenal
• Intermediate: Rudeus Greyrat, Norn Greyrat, Luke Notos Greyrat
• Unknown Rank: Orsted (King or above, possibly God), Defense of the Holy Sepulcher Knights including Therese Latreia (at least Advanced Rank)

Trivia

• Orsted is the only known person that could unleash the Longsword of Light technique with his bare hands.
• The headquarters of the Sword God school is located in the Holy Land of Swords on the far north-west corner of the Central Continent.
• The Holy Land of Sword was initially owned by Sword God but was claimed by Water God. The current Sword God reclaimed it back from the previous Water God.
• Sword God Style is similar to Jigen-ryū which originates from Satsuma Prefecture, 16th Century Japan where their teachings state that a second strike is not even to be considered.