CH248 Legendary Truth
***
Suddenly, every eye turned to a fully armoured human soldier standing in the air at the rear of the Fury army.
Before him, the Half-Legend Orc Chiefâs earth-shattering punch dissipatedâlike snow melting under the first rays of spring.
The soldier slowly removed his helmet.
It was none other than Earl Drake Fury.
[Abyssal Conquerorâs Step: Fourth Step: Tyrantâs Descent]!
Boom!
Step by step, Drake walked across the air toward the Orc Chief, each stride calm, almost casual. Yet for the Wildkin below, it was as though a mountain had been dropped onto their shoulders. The weight pressed harder with every step.
Before long, many Wildkin collapsed to their knees, forced down by the sheer oppression of his presence.
The Orc Chief rose into the sky to meet him. A deep frown cut across his face as he realisedâno matter what he did, the suffocating pressure crushing his warriors refused to lift.
"You should have obediently let the brats have their fun." Drakeâs tone was casual, yet the killing intent locked firmly onto the Orc Chief made it clearâthis man was anything but.
"Now that youâve made your move, I have no choice but to act as well." Drake half-sighed, half-shook his head. "So, what will it be? Will you resistâor spare us all the time and surrender?"
"I have heard of the human Legend who guards the fertile plains to the desert south," the Orc Chief growled, speaking in the common tongue of Pangea. "I came to see if your strength is worthy of such fame."
"Then Iâll take that as resistance," Drake replied coldly. "Do you understand what awaits you when this foolishness fails?"
"I am an Orc. I do not fear death." The Orc Chief straightened, eyes unyielding.
"Death?" An evil grin stretched across Drakeâs lips. "Who said anything about death?"
The Orc Chiefâs expression faltered.
"Do you realise how much your pointless war has cost me?" Drake sneered. "Donât worry. You will. Youâll pay it backâevery last dropâby working as my slave."
"Roar! You dare insult a warrior?!"
"Do I dare?" Drake laughed, his crimson eyes glinting with madness. "Donât you know who I am? I am the Mad Earl! There is nothing I donât dare do!"
[Abyssal Conquerorâs Step: Third Step: Wraithâs Crossing]!
Crack!
In the blink of an eye, Drake vanished in a spark of lightning.
When Drake reappeared, he stood behind an Orc Fighterâjust as the brute was about to cut down a Veteran-ranked Fury soldier.
The Orcâs barbarian sword was no longer in his hands. It was in Drakeâs.
The Orc Fighter spun around, raising a fist to strikeâ
âbut his vision rolled.
Nay, not his vision. But his head.
His severed head tumbled through the air, still wearing the expression of rage.
And he wasnât the only one. Almost every Veteran-ranked Wildkin on the battlefieldâscores of themâwere suddenly dismembered. None of the survivors had seen when it happened.
âWas it... in the instant he moved?â The Orc Chiefâs eyes widened in disbelief.
Drake floated calmly back into the air, meeting his gaze.
"Donât look at me like that," Drake said evenly. "I warned you before not to interfere in the childrenâs fight. This is the result of ignoring me."
The Orc Chief froze. He suddenly rememberedâthat warning glare he felt on the city wall earlier, when he had nearly struck the retreating Fury soldiers.
"Mad Earl!" the Orc Chief roared. "Do you think I cannot do the same?!"
Fury burning, he raised his fist.
A pseudo-Legendary Domain surged from his body, enveloping much of the battlefield. The officers of Exercitus Alexii were instantly caught within its grip. Then his colossal fist came crashing down.
It happened too fast. The Fury officers couldnât even react. And even if they couldâhow could mere Veteran-rankers and Half-Saints hope to resist the full-powered strike of a Half-Legend?
But thenâ
Boom!
A world of lightning erupted across the battlefield.
Everyoneâhuman and Wildkin alikeâwas plunged into a storm of crackling arcs. Illusionary lightning danced across their skin, their armour, their weapons, making the world itself feel like it had been thrown into a raging tempest.
âLegendary Domain!â The realisation struck terror into every Saint and above present.
Unlike the vague, conceptual domains of Saints, a Legendary Domain manifested as a world unto itself, an extension of the Laws a Legend had grasped.
Within Earl Drakeâs Legendary Lightning Domain, the Orc Chiefâs pseudo-Legendary Earth Domain shattered like glass. His mighty strikes dissolved instantly, erased by the stormâs passive arcs without Drake even lifting a hand.
All Drake had done... was unfurl his Domain.
"I see... youâre one of those fools," Drakeâs voice pressed directly into the Orc Chiefâs ears. "Because, by some miracle, you once faced a Saint as a Half-Saint and survived, you now believe you can do the same against a Legend while standing at Half-Legend."
His tone grew colder, sharper.
"Wake up. There is no such thing as a Half-Legend. It is nothing but falsehood spread by ignorant fools. You are either a Legend... or you are not.
"And you... are not."
The Orc Chief flinched.
"Even if you were Legend, it would change nothing. At best, it would take me one minute longer." Drakeâs lips curled into a chilling smile. "But since you are destined to serve as my slave... allow your new master to show you the gulf between a false legendâ"
He lifted the double-handed barbarian sword with one hand, its weight meaningless to him.
"âand a true Legendary."
The blade descended.
"A Saintâs Derived Concepts move their intent in harmony with the world, by its rules," Drake said, his voice echoing like thunder across the battlefield. "But a Legend? A Legend bends the worldâs Laws themselves to their will."
The strike looked deceptively softâso light that even a Class 0 trainee might have believed they could block it.
"Cut," Earl Drake commanded.
The world obeyed.
Slash!
The Orc Chiefâs eyes bulged. He dropped down, stamping his feet into the earth, forcing his Earth-aligned Domain outward. Stone-like barriers erupted, his pseudo-legendary armour gleamed, his Internal Energy surged like a mountainâs heart.
He hopedâdesperatelyâthat he could anchor himself, turn his Domain into a lightning rod to ground Drakeâs Lightening Law-infused strike.
But it made no difference.
His Domain shattered. His armour cracked. His body, his very defences, every last safeguardâall of it was sliced through as if it had never existed.
Splash!
Blood painted the battlefield. The Orc Chief collapsed, unable to rise again. His fateâlife or deathâwas unclear.
Drake glanced down with indifference.
"The Laws are the truth of this world," he said, his voice carrying across the stunned battlefield. "To become a Legend is to fuse with the Laws... and thus, to become truth itself."
He turned his gaze to the chaos below.
"Finish your play. I shall not interfere."
And then he vanished.
To the soldiers, it seemed as though he had simply disappeared from sight again. But the truth was far different. Earl Drake had left the battlefield entirelyâhis focus now elsewhere.
âThose bastards... Even after I revealed myself, they did not appear. That means... I am not their target.â
His eyes narrowed, lightning flashing across his armour.
âIf not me, then the only possible target isââ
His Legendary Domain unfurled once more.
A blinding bolt of lightning split the skies as Earl Drake Fury streaked away, moving at a fraction of the speed of light.
His destinationâ
The Northern Dankrot Fort.
***