The Second Son of The Marquis Runs Away from Home ~ Lacking Talent, He Abandons Everything and Becomes an Adventurer ~ - 68

Chapter 68: The Pinnacle of Life

It is the one that sits at the pinnacle of all living beings.

Gained powerful flesh and bones to run on the ground.

Gained sturdy scales and tails to swim in the open sea.

Gained enormous wings to soar through the skies.

Gained keen senses to find hidden lives.

Gained powerful jaws and fangs to devour all forms of life.

Gained deep wisdom and magic power to stand at every peak.

Even the breath it exhales becomes a weapon. I am the culmination of life – High-End, in other words, a dragon…

—

Roud, who had caught the black sword, was wearing alabaster armor. A helm with red glowing eyes and a row of fangs like those of a dragon’s adorned his cheekplates, inspiring primal fear.

The heavy yet agile alabaster armor covering his entire body gleamed, almost as if boasting that he was the supreme being.

After clashing swords and leaping back from each other, we headed toward the city’s center. When I tried to create some distance by leaping onto a building’s wall, Roud’s sword’s hilt extended into a spear, and a sweeping strike was unleashed.

The shockwave from the sweep destroyed the building I had used as a foothold. I quickly leaped away, but Roud also leaped toward me with the spear raised.

I swung my Bardiche, a halberd, to confront Roud’s strike. The point of his spear and the axe blade of my halberd collided, and the impact sent both of us flying.

We both wielded our swords and attacked. Every time we clashed blades and moved, the aftermath of our strikes broke buildings, sending debris and dust into the air.

We returned to the city’s central square and locked blades once more. After breaking the impasse, Roud began to speak.

“Chaos Crusader… the Rare Drops that harness the power of countless souls, splendid… you’re on a different level from the warriors and monsters I’ve fought so far.”

We disengaged and created some distance between us. Roud was trembling with delight as he looked at me.

“Fate, I must thank you for bringing me into contact with someone of this caliber! It was worth going along with Fifth’s plan!”

“Who is this ‘Fifth’? What do you intend to do by gathering Rare Drops!?”

“If you want to know, you’ll have to force it out of me. Power is the only means that moves me… I chose this path to fight someone like you.”

“…Is this the end result of the legendary adventurer!?”

I shouted as I gripped the sword so tightly that it might creak, overwhelmed by mixed emotions.

“Hmph.”

Roud gave a wry smile at my outburst and readied his sword, bathed in alabaster light. I, too, enkindled the souls within me and prepared my sword.

The clash of the obsidian and alabaster blades created sparks. As we moved around, exchanging positions, with each crossing of our blades, intense metallic sounds echoed.

I kicked away a downward swing, but immediately after, his thrust was deflected by the surface of my armor, and I was then knocked away by a tackle.

Without delay, I caught the descending sword with my vambrace. In response, I swung my sword, almost as if returning the favor, but it was also caught by his vambrace.

We both released our swords and wielded polearm halberds to sweep. Roud, with his spear transformed from the sword, deftly diverted the point from below.

Roud continued to advance, rotating his spear, and rapidly attacked with the halberd transformed into a hand axe and a short sword. He kept approaching, thrusting the spear, and I parried and intercepted it multiple times.

As I defended with the short sword against the thrusting spear, my counterattack was parried by the handle. Roud kicked his spear into the air, and the spear, the short sword, and the hand axe danced in mid-air.

In the moment when I tried to draw another weapon, Roud grabbed my throat. He kept his grip and ran with me, slamming me against a wall.

“Ugh…”

“Kuhaha!”

While still holding onto me, he crashed through several buildings, and then he leaped upward and threw me toward the square.

I rolled on the ground and collapsed in front of a toppled statue. Roud landed some distance away, changed part of his armor into a sword, and spoke as he approached.

“Berg, come over here too. Abandon the meaningless attachments of ordinary people, seek your true nature through instinct, and the power you’ll gain will make you stronger. You can attain greater power.”

“What will that achieve?”

I replied as I got up. The emotions invested in Chaos Crusader were far from something as shallow as that.

“This power… even if it betrays me, even if it goes unrewarded, it’s entrusted to me for the honor of protecting those who can’t fight! It’s the power bestowed upon me to engage in battles that I can be proud of!

Obtaining power just for one’s own sake… it means nothing!”

“Are you saying that’s meaningless?”

Roud dismissed my words in an instant.

“Honor, glory… they’re nothing more than pretty masks adorned with empty words, used by the weak to leverage the strength of the strong. Many are exposed by those masks and can’t seek power for their own sake.”

Radiant light overflowed from Roud’s body, and the light, while exuding overwhelming power, continued to shine brighter.

“Berg, the mask placed upon you… I will strip it away.”

Wings spread from Roud’s back as he took flight. The light concentrated into a sword, shining like the sun about to approach.

“Kuh!?”

As I immediately leaped away, the light descended upon the square.

The light ran across the ground from the center of the square. The contained power shattered the earth, destroyed buildings, and swallowed both those infested by monsters and those who couldn’t escape.

The destruction’s light surged through Heinlberie’s residential area…