Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

Chapter 252: An Instant Inevitable Death

CH252 An Instant Inevitable Death

***

”You are very perceptive,” a voice resonated within the dark world, cold and commanding.

”I would be blind not to recognise Your Excellency’s presence,” Alex replied, forcing himself to remain calm. ”May I know why Your Excellency has graced this young one with your presence?”

”Aren’t you afraid I am here to kill you?” the voice asked, almost amused.

”Terrified, Your Excellency,” Alex admitted with steady composure. ”However, I can only hope that since you have chosen to speak with me, your goals extend beyond merely taking my life.”

Alex was no fool. The suffocating killing intent radiating from this Legendary existence was not some idle curiosity, nor the whimsical interest of a passing powerhouse like in countless fantasy tales.

This was real. This Legend had come for him.

He knew there was nothing he could do to resist, nothing that could save him—except to stall, to buy enough time in the faint hope that some unforeseen aid might reach him.

At the same time, a cold gleam flashed in his mind.

”Activate contingency #Omega_Parasite,” he ordered through OmniRune.

If this Legend truly was connected to the Kellerman Family—as Alex strongly suspected—then if he were to die here, he would make certain the Kellermans bled as well.

He wasn’t sure if a Legendary Domain could block runic transmissions. But he had nothing to lose by trying.

After all, his greater runes operated on bandwidths(frequencies) that ordinary magical means could never intercept, requiring specialised methods to even detect.

If the transmission was blocked by the Domain, it would only be so long as the Domain covered his current location. The moment the Domain dispersed, the message would resume its journey down the runic channels.

That knowledge brought Alex an odd sense of ease, even in the face of death.

It wasn’t just Calm Madness helping him now—it was pride. Pride that he had grown to the point where even a Legendary being would move against him.

”I admire your courage, heir of Drake Fury—”

”My name is Alex Fury.”

Alex cut him off audaciously.

BOOM!

An immense pressure slammed into his back. His knees buckled, his breath caught, and with every heartbeat, his strength bled away—draining, until even a moment felt like an eternity.

”As I was saying,” the voice echoed, calm yet merciless, ”I admire your courage, heir of Drake Fury. But it is exactly that courage which makes you dangerous... uncontrollable. In another time, under different circumstances, I might have taken you under my wing. Alas—your death is necessary. For the greater good.”

”Greater good?” Alex barked a laugh. ”Whose greater good? Spare me the rhetoric. If you mean to kill me, then do it. Surely a lofty Excellency such as yourself isn’t ashamed to crush an ant.”

”Brave until the end.” The dark Legend chuckled softly. ”Very well. I shall send you off peacefully.”

The darkness thickened. It grew viscous, tangible—swallowing Alex like quicksand. His limbs sank as though trapped in tar.

”Ahh...” He struggled, but it was futile. Inch by inch, his body was consumed.

Peaceful? Hardly. This was suffocation... an intentionally cruel and mentally-punishing death.

BOOM!

”Who dares?!”

A thunderous voice tore across the world. A bolt of lightning ripped through the darkness, shattering it with blinding brilliance.

In that instant, a hand seized Alex by the scruff of his neck and ripped him out of the abyss.

Blinking rapidly, Alex’s vision returned. Before him stood an unmistakable silver-haired mane and broad back.

Earl Drake Fury. His father.

Nearby, Jared lay crumpled on the ground, his condition uncertain.

Above the fort, cloaked in writhing shadows, floated the dark figure who had nearly claimed Alex’s life.

”Earl Drake Fury,” the Legend intoned. ”Unexpected.”

Drake’s voice was like steel. ”So you’re the one reaching your filthy paws toward what is mine? Tell me—what gave you the gall?”

”You overestimate yourself, Mad Earl,” the Legend sneered. ”There are forces at play far beyond your comprehension.”

”I see,” Drake said coolly. ”So even with your strength, you’re nothing but a puppet. No wonder you lack pride. A Legend striking at a weak Intermediate rank youth. Pathetic.” His voice sharpened into a promise. ”No matter. Once I capture you, I’ll make you spill the master(s) pulling your strings.”

”I’d like to see you try, Drake Fury.”

The figure stretched out a hand.

”Darkness is eternal.”

At once, the battlefield changed.

Light vanished. The sun was swallowed. Alex’s grand spellfires guttered into nothing. Aura coats on every warrior dissolved into smoke.

A silence deeper than death spread. Soldiers shuddered as something primal gnawed at their souls—terror woven into the fabric of the dark.

This was no mere shadow. This was a true unfurling of a Legendary Domain of Darkness.

And within it, all was subject to his dominion. None could resist. None, save another Legend’s Domain.

At least... that should have been the case.

Lightning sparked within Earl Drake Fury’s eyes, breaking the influence of the Dark World Domain that had wrapped around him.

Yet, instead of raising his own Legendary Domain as the mysterious Legend expected, Earl Drake merely looked over.

Then—

Crack~!

The world of Darkness shattered.

The sun returned, flooding the battlefield with golden light.

Drip~ Drip~

When Alex lifted his gaze to the sky, where the mysterious Legend had once stood proudly, he now saw a gaping hole carved through their chest.

”How... is this... possible...?” The mysterious Legend’s voice trembled in disbelief. They had lost. And not after a drawn-out clash— but in an instant.

To the untrained eye, it seemed as though Earl Drake had moved only once. But in truth, it was not so simple.

With his heir and his forces present, as well as the proximity to his lands, Earl Drake knew that dragging the fight would be unwise. Instead, he bided his time, waited for complacency to settle over his foe, and ended the battle in a single decisive strike.

He had allowed the mysterious Legend to fully unfurl their Dark World Domain without meeting it with his own Stellar Storm Domain. To an arrogant opponent, it looked like fear.

But rather than expanding his Domain outward, Drake compressed it tightly to affect only himself, seizing full conscious command over his own nervous system.

The Dark World was built to manipulate emotions, to drown its victims in primal terror. Drake simply hijacked the nerve signals responsible for fear within his mind— and when the Legend least expected it, he struck.

The mysterious Legend, convinced of the Dark World’s engulfing nature, dropped their guard. Since Drake hadn’t raised a counter-Domain, they also didn’t even put up Legendary-grade defences.

That was their fatal mistake.

They had forgotten that one of Lightning’s greatest truths was instantaneous inevitability.

With his body defended and his path clear, Earl Drake Fury unleashed an attack coated in Lightning Law, embodying both instant strike and inescapable truth.

Not only did the blow land before the Dark World could react, but even if it had been slower, Lightening Law’s inevitability meant the strike would still have connected.

Such was the tyranny of Lightning— the World Consciousness’s chosen element for heavenly judgement.

-

[Abyssal Conqueror’s Step: Third Step: Wraith’s Crossing]

Earl Drake Fury’s figure blurred, vanishing from sight, and in the next instant he appeared at the Legend’s side. Before they could even register what had happened, his hand tore through their chest, yanking free the Legendary Core— their very heart.

The mysterious Legend plummeted from the skies, their body crashing lifelessly into the earth.

”Tsk!” Earl Drake clicked his tongue in annoyance, realising he had just slain the very person he had meant to capture for interrogation.

He flashed back to the fallen corpse. Yet, before he could pull aside the cloak and uncover the mysterious Legend’s identity, the garment hissed— releasing a sudden jet of steam.

Drake felt his skin sear and peel the instant the gas touched him, forcing him to retreat at once.

In the very next moment, the corrosive vapour devoured everything— the cloak, the armour, and even the once-mighty Legend’s body— reducing them into nothing but a clear, bubbling liquid.

The Earl’s brows knitted into a deep frown.

The body of a Legend was far from ordinary. To damage it, much less to dissolve it in mere seconds, required something that was beyond extraordinary.

And this was not a means a lesser noble family like the Kellermans could possibly possess.

There was only one obvious conclusion.

Drake’s expression darkened.

He turned and strode to Jared’s side. Placing a palm against the Dark Knight’s chest, he sent a surge of crackling lightning into him.

Jared’s eyes snapped open, and he shot upright in shock.

”Master...?”

Before the knight could speak further, Drake tossed him the glowing Legendary Core he had tore from the fallen Legend’s chest.

”Make use of this later. For now, protect the boy. I must pay a long-overdue visit to a so-called peer.”

The Earl’s voice whispered like thunder in Jared’s ears, but the man himself was already gone.

Alex stood dumbfounded, still staring at the battlefield where moments ago his father had casually slain a Legend.

Two truth crystallised in his mind.

The first, Legends were not equal.

The second, just as Earl Drake Fury concealed the true extent of his lands, he also concealed the unfathomable depths of his strength.

---

Earl Drake’s form blurred into a streak of lightning, his body traversing vast distances at clear fractions of the speed of light. Within minutes, he arrived at his intended destination.

[Abyssal Conqueror’s Steps: Fourth Step: Tyrant’s Descent]

Suspended high above the city below, his presence unfurled like a storm. An oppressive aura blanketed the sprawling streets, pressing down on every soul who dared look up.

”Kellerman, meet me this instant!”

The skies rumbled as Warlton City—capital of the Kellerman fiefdom—shook beneath the Mad Earl’s declaration.

***