BUILDING MY OWN EMPIRE - My Journey from Nothing to Overwhelming Power-Chapter 70 – The Power of the Second-Rank Lord
Time had not passed long...
Nor had it been short.
The mountain peak...
Was collapsing... entirely.
The two fierce fighters continued battling in the sky...
Descending at tremendous speed toward the ground...
Neither retreated... they struck one another as gravity dragged them downward.
Dozens of meters above the ground...
Booooom...
The two axes clashed violently...
Both fighters were hurled toward lower peaks...
Their feet dug into the rock... then they lunged at each other again.
Once more... the peaks began to shatter.
They were only small summits...
And it did not take long before they collapsed beneath the sheer force of the blows.
They leapt to a lower peak and exchanged a torrential storm of strikes...
Then to another, even lower... and the axes resumed their symphony of destruction.
Until eventually...
The two landed below...
Upon the green grassy field...
Joe charged forward.
Once again, cold wind burst from the sleeves of the Second-Rank Lord...
Joe’s movement slowed for a moment... yet he charged again.
He arrived and struck.
The Lord evaded and countered... Joe received it with a firm smile...
He blocked it resolutely.
Every strike consumed stamina...
Every strike consumed accumulated power...
Yet neither man cared.
Their physical strength was immense.
And their blows, though devoid of special abilities...
Were terrifying enough on their own.
After some time...
The green ground beneath them turned white...
More than fifty meters in diameter became coated in frost.
The ice wall rose once more.
It completed itself swiftly... forming a closed white arena.
"What a thrill!" Joe shouted excitedly. "To face a worthy opponent like you."
Booooom...
He delivered a crushing strike...
The Second-Rank Lord was pushed back ten meters.
"Even if your convictions are nothing but nonsense to me..." Joe continued...
"Your blows carry the resolve of a true man."
The Second-Rank Lord lunged.
He raised his golden axe... and struck.
A violent shockwave erupted, blasting Joe backward...
The blow was heavy... and though Joe had endured similar strikes since the battle began...
Each time... he felt their weight increase.
He smiled... and stepped forward.
"What?!"
Joe’s eyes narrowed... his gaze shifted downward...
A white ice pillar...
Covered in crimson blood...
Had pierced through his left side.
"Aaah..." He pulled the white pillar from his body.
He turned back... it had shot from the wall... and then—
Swoooosh...
A slicing wind rushed toward him as well...
Fresh wounds opened across his body...
The old and new alike screamed in agony.
"I thought you were a man of your word..." Joe whispered, swaying slightly.
"Did you have to ruin our manly duel? Damn it."
The Lord did not answer... he never had from the beginning.
But...
His lips curved faintly...
A demonic, mocking smile forming upon his face.
Then...
His voice emerged heavy and cold...
"I did not come here to play with you. We came to kill you and steal the great wealth contained within this space."
Joe straightened his posture... he could see through the hole in his body.
He looked at him.
"What wealth?"
The Lord’s mocking laughter rose.
"You seek information while standing at death’s door? Hahaha. Very well... I shall grant you that wish as a final manly courtesy." 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞
He stepped closer.
"Every Lord who transfers to another world begins with a designated space... he unlocks quests and develops it, but must balance protecting his space, developing it, and developing himself."
He paused briefly... then sighed mockingly.
"Most Lords fail to protect their spaces... they are invaded and their privileges stolen. Every space possesses a special energy that can be added to another Lord’s space, making it larger and higher in quality. The greater the quality... the greater the quality of quests, rewards, and production."
He paused again.
"The fortunate ones... like your Lord..." he muttered.
"Begin with hidden spaces that cannot be sensed or found... granting them time to grow without fear, and tremendous advantages... until they unlock all the spaces within... and then—"
"What?" Joe asked, his eyes barely open.
"Heh... look at you, nearing death and still craving knowledge."
He raised his yellow axe.
"You have a fine axe... but it is no match for my specialized upgraded weapon... the Golden Frenzy Axe."
Booooooom...
A devastating strike descended.
Joe raised his axe...
Then—
For the first time...
He fell to the ground.
"A fight between men..." the Lord murmured.
"A man protects others from the enemy... he does not seek battle for pleasure."
"A man..." Joe whispered, his eyes brimming.
"Protects others."
His body was drenched in blood...
Kneeling on both knees...
He remembered...
"There are... people I must protect."
Suddenly he remembered his wife... his children...
The Second-Rank Lord raised his axe...
Booooom...
Joe lifted his axe with difficulty...
It was suppressed easily...
The blow crashed into his chest...
And a massive trail of blood spilled across the ground.
.......
Dozens of circular wind blades slammed violently into the wall of light...
They left no noticeable effect...
The Second-Rank Lord, with his disheveled hair, released more blue light points from his book...
They transformed successively into wind fans, launching more blades...
Dozens of new blades struck...
Wave after wave...
With little effect.
"Galga." The Lord sent his word toward his companion.
She raised her hands... tore chunks of earth from the ground and shaped them into massive stone blocks in the sky...
More than thirty rocks launched at once...
Like fiery meteors.
The Lord unleashed more blades...
In an instant, the rocks’ speed doubled.
Blades swirled around them—before, behind, and at their edges...
Then...
Booooooom
Booooooom
Booooooom
Dust rose...
Vision vanished...
Finally...
The Lord and his companion ceased their assault.
"You forced me to expend a massive amount of magic points," the Lord snorted, pulling his companion close.
"You told me she was weak... she was not weak at all." He glared at her angrily.
"Sorry..." the girl lowered her head in fear.
"I don’t know how she became like that... she used to be the weakest among her siblings."
"Well then... hahaha." The Lord laughed, lifting her chin and staring into her eyes.
"It’s all over now."
"Over?"
A voice from behind the dust...
Resounded in their hearts before reaching their ears.
"Do you think it’s over... fools."
Behind the dust...
A yellow light grew brighter and brighter.
The Lord released the girl and turned.
The dust began to disperse...
He waved his hand, sending wind to clear the remainder.
His eyes narrowed.
The girl froze beside him.
Before them... the sight was majestic.
Monali sat atop a raised circular platform... supported by several massive yellow light arrows...
The platform hovered ten meters above the ground.
Above it... thick yellow light threads formed protective bow-like arcs...
Beneath those arcs... Monali sat.
Golden light concentrated around her hands.
She formed the motion of drawing a bow.
Her right hand pulled back... her left extended forward.
Radiant golden light burst forth...
An arrow of light gradually took shape...
Its glow dimmed... concentrating into a single lethal point.
Swoooosh...
The Lord barely turned his head...
The arrow had already struck one of the floating wind fans with precision.
It stopped spinning.
Swoooosh...
Another arrow struck a second fan.
Swoooosh
Swoooosh
"What is happening?!" Galga screamed.
The Lord raised his hands.
Arrows continued appearing rapidly... striking even faster.
He unleashed his fans again... wind blades surged toward the princess.
"What?!" His lips parted in shock.
The arrows pierced through the blades... destroying them... continuing onward.
If an arrow met one blade, it cut through... if ten, it cut through all the same...
Numbers meant nothing.
The surviving blades struck the princess...
They hit...
The golden arcs.
And were stopped.
She remained inside, protected...
Firing more and more... destroying the fans one after another.
"Damn it..." the Lord snarled.
He raised his wooden spear.
More blue light points, larger and greater in number, shot into the sky...
They settled higher...
Taking shape...
No longer fans...
But massive circular shields, each with an opening at its center.
From the openings...
Long, broad spears emerged.
The shields moved toward the princess.
More than fifty shields stabilized in the sky.
The fans continued launching blades...
Monali continued destroying them.
Over forty fans had fallen.
Then... her eyes shifted toward the shields.
The Lord raised his hand...
Fifty ten-meter spears shot forward at once toward the princess.
She abandoned the fans.
Tilting her hands... five arrows formed simultaneously.
Swoooosh
Swoooooosh
They collided with the spears.
Booooooom...
The ground trembled violently.
Each arrow destroyed a spear alongside it.
But the spears were far more violent than the wind blades.
After a while...
The balance began tipping toward the Lord.
His shields launching fifty spears per wave... outpaced her output.
By the time the spears reached mid-distance...
Her arrows were less than half their number.
The burden began falling upon the princess.
Even so...
The Second-Rank Lord’s drowsy eyes held no joy.
Several spears had already reached her...
Yet the surprise—
The golden arc barrier was solid and unmoving.
Nothing could pass through.
He raised his spear again.
Released one hundred blue light points...
Greater than any before.
They shot high into the sky...
Then transformed into larger, differently shaped shields.
Black shields adorned with glowing blue threads...
Their central openings far wider.
Each shield spanned twenty meters...
Its opening half its size.
The Lord inhaled deeply...
Sweat streamed down his forehead.
It was clear the next attack demanded immense energy.
The massive shields rotated...
A grinding metallic roar filled the sky.
From their centers...
Gigantic black spears emerged in succession.
The previous spears now seemed like toys in comparison.
And in a single moment...
One hundred colossal spears stood suspended in the sky...
Harbingers of death.
