Chapter 1243: The 'Sponsors' Revealed!

Draco raised his right hand which held one of his two identical Dragorugio swords and thrust it forward. In a feat of near-impossible swordsmanship and skill, he used the very tip of his own blade to meet the edge of Shuro's' katana in the area near the hilt, completely eliminating its momentum and incoming force.

What was even more shocking was that the force from the attack was completely rebounded onto the attacker, causing Shuro to groan in pain as his wrists cracked audibly. The fellow took a few steps back to regain his footing, but Draco was too in the zone to let him go.

He simply stepped forward and gave Shuro a solid kick to the hip, causing him to be sent a few meters away, digging a small trench in the ground since the other fellow refused to go down still.

Draco did not follow this time as he raised his sword to point at Shuro, a mocking smile on his face.

"You are a disgrace to the law of the sword. You and your shit-ass father do not deserve to be called titled gods of the sword just because you can cut through anything. A butcher can also cut through anything but does he consider himself a swordsman?"

Draco's words struck Shuro heavily, but he did not speak, because he did not have the energy to. The earlier outburst and release of power were beginning to weigh on him now that the battle had paused for a short few moments.

Unlike Draco who was pristine and seemed like he had just woken up from a lovely nap, Shuro was akin to a fatty who went to the gym for intensive training for the first time. His hand trembled as he tried to maintain his grip on his katana, fatigued to the extreme.

However, despite his tough words, Draco was secretly impressed by Shuro. It was not easy to contend with him, Draco, in any way and this was very much the case once one remembered that Draco possessed infinite physical stamina underneath a maximum threshold.

Shuro was able to release power slightly above that of an average Advanced Law True God while being Rank 5, a feat that displayed his monstrous talent and ability. If things had been different and Draco was only in possession of Subjective magic at this rank, he might have lost to Shuro not considering his other powers.

No wonder Richmond had been unwilling to accept a successor for so long and hid in that grove while tormenting players in both timelines. It turns out that he knew that anyone he could pick could probably not beat his rival's boy easily, so he pretended not to see anything.

Well, until a little monster walked into his grove one day with meager Rank 0 power and threatened him to the face…

"You… haaa… will… die… haaa…" Shuro squeezed out while panting heavily, his eyes fixed on Draco despite everything.

Draco did not seem moved by this threat. He made a rude gesture with his sword towards Shuro and spoke with a sneer. "Look at you. You can barely stand where you are and that was using your full power plus Daddy's sword. I haven't even used half of my full power yet."

"Not to mention, heh, I have been fighting using swordsmanship, which is your strongest domain. I haven't even used magic yet, just to prove that even in the field you excel, I'm still better than you." Draco added with a provocative glance.

Shuro trembled but still remained as he was, seemingly trying to buy time to recover his stamina. This caused Draco to frown and lose his patience as the only reason this fellow was still alive was that sense of danger Draco sensed from him, meaning that Shuro possessed something that could actually genuinely harm him if he was careless.

He wanted to force the fellow to use that thing, but it seemed that the price to pay was so heavy that even with all of Draco's prodding so far, he was still hesitant. If killing his father in front of him and humiliating him didn't work, then Draco was too lazy to try anything else.

Then, the simple thing to do was…

"Die." Draco said simply, his aura contracting as he disappeared from where he stood forming 9 after images that superimposed on his body when he arrived in front of Shuro.

"Paragon Sword Style! Sword Skill 345: Advanced Afterimage Strike!"

The afterimages all swung their blades downwards with their full force, clashing with Shuro's katana which he hastily brought up to defend himself. However, despite being afterimages, each of the images strike containing actual weight and power, coming from a technique Draco had created at the peak of Rank 6 and with Tier 2 control in the previous timeline.

It required him to push himself greatly and manifest a speed beyond the limits of the human body to launch 10 strikes at the same time with his maximum strength. Now with his current power, Control at Tier 7, and the Semi-Eternal class stats in the hundreds of thousands, the force was not comparable at all.

SHINK!

Despite what one expected, there was no epic clash of power that caused the land the break and shockwaves to occur like before. Rather, a more shocking development occurred, which was the fact the moment the dragorugio sword Draco used to cut down connected with the katana of Muramasa - a Pseudo-Divine item - it completely cut through it!

Before Shuro could even feel shocked that this ancestral sword that had been created and perfected during his father's era had been destroyed in his hands, the unimpeded dragorugio sword connected with his right shoulder, digging into his flesh as it tore downwards to his left hip.

Apart from the sound of flesh ripping, there was the sound of water bursting as blood prayed from the severe wounds Draco inflicted, causing the already weakened Shuro to fall to one leg as his egregious wounds continued to spurt out his life force.

Draco casually flicked his sword and let the blood that stained the blade splay to the side, causing it to become pristine once more. He felt amused at the fact that he managed to actually use sheer physical force to destroy an item that was almost of the Divine Rank, which was usually indestructible as a rule of the game unless one used Destruction Energy.

"This is the end," Draco said simply, aiming to end this battle as he prepared to behead Shuro on the spot.

However, Shuro gritted his teeth as he blankly stared at the broken katana in his hands, the blade shattered at the point of contact so badly that reforging was impossible. His thoughts churned and his memories flashed of his childhood where he yearned to wild this blade day and night as his father trained him, until he was finally bestowed it with ceremonial fanfare.

He still remembered the promise and oath he made that day to protect the katana with his life and pass it on to the next generation of Muramasa. Yet here it lay, destroyed and ruined, all in his hands.

His father, dead.

His katana, destroyed.

And soon, his life would be gone.

The fabled Muramasa clan would end with him. In his time observing and plotting against Draco, he had neglected to leave a seed behind in case of anything, mostly due to his confidence in himself and those supporting him.

But now…

Shuro's heart ached. Even as the sword cleaved towards his neck with extreme force, it was as if a mere backdrop to his internal agony. In a split second, he decided that if everything was ruined, then it was ruined!

He couldn't restore his father, he couldn't restore the katana and he definitely could not restore his clan's line of continuation if he used 'that' thing, but at least, he could also ruin everything for the foe who caused this to him.

With a look of surging hatred, Shuro raised his head up to glance at Draco and his familiar red pupils surged and became a golden-orange color.

BOOM!

Draco was forced to withdraw his swing and retreated a few meters with a frown on his face, the sense of danger he detected growing wildly until it became palpable. Shuro's body was radiating so much power that it formed an aura wave that caused the wind to billow in this ruined wasteland-like area created by their earlier bout.

'As I expected.' Draco thought coldly, recognizing this power that had given him a sense of threat.

He witnessed Shuro, who was now healed and hearty, stand up with a glowing orange aura that had wisps of grayish black within, his now shining eyes full of indifferent will. The previous hatred and anger were gone, replaced by an apathy akin to a human glancing at a random ant beneath his boot.

"Hmph, as expected of her successor. Even though she was unsuited for combat, your talent stands at the peak of the mortal ants. Even this piece of trash couldn't take you down in the end." Shuro said, his tone and inflection nothing like the previous him.

It was as if it was a wholly different person speaking at this time.

Draco simply pointed his blade at Shuro once more, his playful smile gone and replaced with solemnity.

"So my guess was correct. Who else could sponsor this loser to come out of the realm and into the void nexus to hunt me except our noble Origin Gods of the Western Fantasy realm? What's the matter, aren't you going to wait for me to master Refinement then come and save you?"

'Shuro' seemed amused. "You? Save us? You seem to misunderstand something. Firstly, we don't need to continually infuse our strength into the realm for survival. We can completely abandon the realm and survive in this void, but who wants to be a rootless duckweed?"

"Secondly, not every Origin God wants the same thing. Some want to realm to prosper and stand on their own, some want to ally with external forces to stabilize the realm and some… well, some would be happy to see the realm stay the way it is."

Only on m v|le|mp|yr

Draco sneered. "I'm guessing you are part of this loser faction that likes to keep things as they are? And it is this faction that seeks to deal with me using trash like Shuro?"

'Shuro' nodded calmly, not at all annoyed by Draco at all. "You are half right. I am part of the third faction I mentioned, but it's not just my faction that wants to deal with a troublesome bug like you."

'Shuro' shrugged. "The status quo faction sent Shuro to kill you will a little bit of backup in case he failed because it is difficult to deal with you inside the realm since the Realm Will protects you fiercely like a dog. However, the External Ally faction did something even more outrageous if you ask me."

BANG!

CRACK!

WHOOSH!

There was a sudden terrifying quake that shook the earth, air, and sky, causing what remained of the battered wizard realm to shatter and crumble slowly, being exposed to the void. Whatever chance other beings had to survive was now gone as the chilling and malicious energy of the void poured in wantonly and ravaged everything callously.

'Shuro' casually manifested a golden-orange barrier around his body as the ground beneath them crumbed away, while Draco frowned and created a barrier of paper-thin destruction energy using his bloodline that prevented the corrosive void energy from touching him as it was continually destroyed each second.

With the ground below them gone, both beings now floated in the void, watching the rest of the realm turn into cosmic debris as the dark and harrowing void was presented before them in its full and ominous glory.

However, Draco's face soon changed as he saw multiple points of light surging towards his location, each one bearing an aura that was no weaker than 'Shuro' opposite him.

'Shuro' was unfazed by the goings on around him as he continued his earlier statement.

"After all, who knew those fellows would contact the War Maniac Pavilion to dispatch their Origin God directly to deal with you?"

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