Bloodviolet

Bloodviolet is a thin, flexible divine sword that Linley removes from the great magical formation beneath the Foggy Valley. Its speed, changing rigidity, and dangerous baleful aura make it one of his longest-serving weapons, and it eventually becomes the Sovereign weapon of his wind Sovereign clone. (Chapters 98, 100, 172, and 802)

History

Release from the Foggy Valley

Bloodviolet had been set into the vast magical formation beneath the Foggy Valley. Linley pulls it free, breaking the formation's seal, then reads the Infernal Realm characters on its hilt with Doehring Cowart's help. He finds a sword as thin as a cicada's wing and weighing about five pounds; Dragonblood battle-qi makes its flexible blade rigid, and even his first test cleanly severs a large tree. (Chapter 98)

Linley spends the following two months studying the sword. He learns to use wind-style mageforce to emphasize its speed and fluidity, while Dragonblood battle-qi increases the force of its attacks. Its ability to alternate between straight and flexible forms makes its attack paths difficult to predict, but Linley's own strength and control remain important to the result. (Chapters 100, 118, and 119)

The baleful aura

Bloodviolet's hidden aura becomes a weapon in its own right. When Linley fully rouses it, nearby creatures are overwhelmed by fear and lose control of their bodies, while Linley experiences the sword's urge to kill and drink blood. The effect has a serious cost: the activated sword resists being stored until it is fed, and the murderous impulse also presses upon its wielder. Linley therefore resolves to invoke the aura only when necessary. (Chapter 172)

Against the Saint-level Stehle, Linley activates the aura through spiritual energy. It attacks Stehle's mind and soul strongly enough to reduce the resolute Saint to roughly half his power, allowing Linley to combine rapid Bloodviolet strikes with the adamantine heavy sword. The sword creates the opening, but it does not by itself overcome the difference in their levels. (Chapters 204 and 205)

Infernal Realm legacy and Sovereign use

In the Infernal Realm, Linley discovers a scryer recording that confirms the sword's former wielder was the famed Bloodviolet Fiend. The recording shows the earlier owner using Bloodviolet in extraordinarily fast material attacks; it establishes the sword's provenance without transferring the Bloodviolet Fiend's personal mastery of the Way of Destruction to Linley. (Chapter 554)

Linley continues to use and retain Bloodviolet even after gaining other weapons. At the end of the cited history, his wind Sovereign clone wields it as a Sovereign weapon and uses it to block Augusta's Lightsaber. Its later rank is thus explicit, although the cited chapters do not explain the complete process by which it reached that condition. (Chapters 655, 727, 763, and 802)

Abilities and properties

• The blade is extremely thin, light, fast, and flexible. Dragonblood battle-qi makes it rigid and strengthens its blows, while wind-style mageforce increases speed and smoothness without independently increasing attack power. (Chapters 98, 100, and 119)
• Its flexible state permits sudden curves around an attempted block and lets it wrap around Linley's waist like a belt when not in combat; battle-qi can make it straight and rigid for ordinary sword strikes. These changing forms make its path difficult to predict. (Chapters 98, 100, and 143)
• Its baleful aura attacks courage, bodily control, mind, and soul. It can substantially suppress even powerful opponents, but activating it also subjects Linley to a murderous urge and requires the sword to drink blood before it will obey and return to storage. (Chapters 172, 204, and 217)
• The sword's effectiveness depends on the wielder and the target. Early in Linley's development it cuts weaker foes rapidly but fails to penetrate a ninth-rank Titanic Black Python, and even much later it cannot automatically breach every superior defense. (Chapters 155, 586, and 656)
• Bloodviolet eventually functions as the Sovereign weapon of Linley's wind Sovereign clone. That later use reflects both the weapon's condition and Linley's Sovereign power; it should not be read as an innate ability the sword supplies by itself. (Chapter 802)

Ownership and custody