Chapter 273: Volume 3 Finale - And I Am Strong Enough To Be Cruel! 2

Drake walked forward, his face painted in unbridled disgust and fury. He had seen what was left in the city, what littered the mansion of the town lord.

He had made a mistake. Too many mistakes while entering the town. Trying to give his students room and time to grow had resulted in more than half of them being injured. One misstep taking their lives if he hadn't been there to stop it.

It was his fault, but this man.

Drake looked with disdain down at the man in front of him, looking back at Drake with pure hatred and defiance.

He was so strong yet so weak. His level was truly the first one Drake had met that was inflated. Natto had told him about people using skill stones to progress their skills, how it would help in the short term but quickly hinder their progression, eventually stopping their growth.

Drake never thought he would meet such a person so soon, and so, broken.

He bent down, the man, Xavier, still struggling against Drake's aura on full display.

"Let's see just how over-inflated you really are," Drake said, pulling at the necklace around Xavier's neck.

Drake scoffed, "How many people did you kill… How many innocent people did you take to reach that level?!" he sneered.

[Xavier Thornsworth Level 28]

"Y-you'll regret t-this… you golden prick!" Xavier croaked.

Drake already directed everyone to evacuate. Telling Sarah and the others to gather and leave within ten minutes, but Drake wasn't sure if he could contain his anger for that long.

His blood boiled. He had been naive, he underestimated the true depravity that was allowed to be in this world he was supposed to call home. What lay inside men who gained power.

"Regret?" Drake growled, "The only thing I regret is allowing those kids I care about to fight against monsters like you, thinking they were ready for this life. The only thing I regret is not coming here sooner to wipe you off the face of this planet. The only thing I regret is not being able to let every innocent person you've ever hurt, defiled, and taken advantage of, get their deserved justice."

Drake turned his head, a cowering group of guards they had collected throughout the city shivered in the rain, looking at his exchange with Xavier.

"I know how to deal with sad little men like you. Men who take advantage of anyone they can, beating down on those they deem lesser than, "Drake said, turning his head back down to look Xavier in the eyes, "I'm going to show just how weak you are in front of all those people you lorded your power over. I'm going to make sure that when I'm done with that, I will erase any spec of you being here. Of ever being born, of ever existing. No one will remember you. No one will ever spare you a sing miniscule thought again after today."

Xavier struggled desperately against Drake's aura, a slow realization twisting his face into hopelessness. Until the suppression was gone and he was able to rise, looking at Drake, whose eyes flashed blue, yellow, and green.

"That little voice saying there's still hope," Drake said softly but seemed to silence the surroundings, "It's lying. Your death will be in vain," Drake's aura and mana exploded out, crushing Xavier back down onto the ground, face first into the mud, "And I like that."

Xavier's eyes widened and shook, hearing the bone-chilling voice filled with power right above his head, unable to see Drake.

Drake released his aura once more, reigning in his skills. But he was already on the verge of falling into a battle frenzy. His blood ignited in a turbulent storm, fighting to be let out to teach this worthless insect what true power really was. What it meant to fight someone who was sharpened by life and death struggle.

He shook his head. He was already losing himself again.

Drake was livid, seeing Kalik nearly killed. Finding Atropos passed out after her fight, and finally returning to see Landin almost killed as well.

He would correct his mistake. Here and when he went to the summit in just a few days. When he would finally see Atticus.

Drake came out of his thoughts. Xavier roared loudly as he charged him, his arms glowing red from some kind of skill.

He had already been in a fight technically since he began using his aura, his Asuran's Battle Acuity skill fully ramped up, and allowing him to see Xavier as if moving at half speed.

Moving his head slightly to the side, Drake dodged the straight, and threw his open palm flat into the man's face, throwing him backward several feet.

Xavier wore a look of disbelief as blood dripped down his nose and broken lip.

Drake only sneered back. He could only assume the man hadn't been struck that hard in some time. That or he had a skill that enhanced his defense, that Drake easily overwhelmed.

"To the death," Drake chanted, increasing his own stats further, "For the thrill of battle."

Drake's skills forced his status to balloon, increasing everything by well over 200%.

He didn't wait for Xavier to come out of his stupor and took a step forward, one hand open-palmed. His hand struck the side of Xavier's face, a thunderous impact sounding out , the impact scattering away the rain.

Xavier gave a pained grunt, his eyes going wide as if he couldn't comprehend what had just happened. Xavier's face stiffened and he let out a low growl as he tried to counterattack with a skill-enhanced uppercut.

Drake deflected the blow, using one hand to redirect the flat of his knuckles, much like how Kalik fought while in his Tranquility state. And with his other hand, open palmed, he slapped Xavier across the other side of the face.

Xavier growled, bloody dribble coming from his mouth.

"W-what are you doing?! Aren't you going to fight me proper?!"

Drake's lip curled into a sneer, "I am giving my all. Putting my all into properly embarrassing you. I told you already, you're nothing but a sad little man on a sad little throne. I want you to fully understand just how tiny you are. To know that I could end you at any point, but choose to let you live a while longer."

Xavier screamed, trying to rush Drake with both hands extended.

Drake dropped low, throwing two palms into Xavier's midsection in quick succession, folding the man at the center. Then in one fluid motion, Drake stepped back, spinning and throwing his heel into Xavier's temple, sending the man to the ground.

Xavier screamed, throwing a fist into the ground.

"I-i won't accept this! I worked so hard to get where I am!"

Drake grabbed him by the back of the head, slamming it into the ground, his own face emotionless as he raised Xavier's head again, ramming it into the ground, again and again.

"You don't know the meaning of hard work. You enslaved thousands, taking the lives of innocents for your own gain… Standing on a mountain of corpses, robbing men, women, and children of their futures!!" Drake growled.

"You like to talk like you haven't done the same!" Xavier snapped, throwing a desperate fist at Drake's face.

Drake moved his head to the side, the fist passing harmlessly and grabbing Xavier's elbow in his grip.

"You're right. I've killed thousands. Tens of thousands. And just as many people, like you! But we are not the same!" Drake roared, clenching down on Xavier's elbow, feeling the bones snapping under his grip.

"The people I've killed deserved it, just like you!" Drake growled.

Xavier screamed in pain, grabbing at his broken arm, but snarled back, "That's just an excuse! You like it! Just like I do!"

Drake threw his foot into Xavier's chest, sending him flying back into one of the partition walls.

"I don't need an excuse to take out trash. I will wipe people like you out like cancer from a body. I will exterminate you and anyone like you! I know what I've done and I don't need tojustify my actions to someone like you! The world isn't black and white and I don't pretend to know better. But I do know, right here and right now, you are wrong!"

Xavier didn't move from where he collided with the partition, forcing Drake to walk over.

The man had gone unconscious, not lasting even five minutes against Drake.

"Pathetic," Drake sneered, pulling a red vial from his inventory and throwing its contents on the man.

Xavier gasped as he came through, his eyes wandering until he found Drake in front of him, a large brick of black earth floating between them aimed right at his most intimate parts.

"W-what are you doing?" Xavier stammered.

"Giving justice," Drake said coldly, the brick rising into the air, "Downforce."

The brick ignited in fire, bubbling into magma, yet keeping its form as if it was red-hot metal instead of earth. Then slammed into the ground.

Xavier's eyes crossed, his mouth letting out a silent scream as the smell of burning flesh and sizzling rain fell on the smoldering brick.

Drake dismissed the spell, grabbing Xavier by the throat and slapping him across the face several times until the man came to.

"Now to kill some time for my wife and kids to exit this god-forsaken city. I'll ask you some questions. Who is this Count I keep hearing about?"

"F-fuck you…" Xavier spat.

Drake raised a hand, one finger glowing red from his Martial skill.

"Are you sure you don't want to tell me?" Drake brought Xavier's face close, "Look me in the eyes and tell me."

Xavier's eyes shook seeing the seriousness in Drake's.

"I-I don't- Ahhhh!!!" Xavier screamed in agony, Drake thrusting his finger into his eye socket.

"Don't lie to me. Seeing the things in this city and knowing what I do. I know you have a name. Give it to me."

Xavier screamed, unable to hear Drake's question.

Drake dropped the man, turning to the men and women guards, raising a hand into the air, a red magic circle forming as he gazed down at them with cold eyes.

"How about you lot? Do you have a name?" Drake asked.

The magic circle sparked a fireball that instantly turned a shade of blue, then white, steam hissing off the top, the rain turning to steam instantly as the fireball turned into an infernal sun above Drake.

"I don't know anything!"

"I was forced into this!"

"I-I swear to god I know nothing! Please!"

"Please, please! Don't kill us! We were just following orders!!"

"Why do they always resort to lying and begging," Drake muttered, bringing his hand down in a chopping motion, the massive ball of fire colliding with the people.

Tens of notifications flooded Drake's vision as he turned away, walking back to the man still scrambling on the ground holding his face.

"Are you ready to tell me yet?" Drake asked, fed up with the whole ordeal.

He had suppressed his Asuran blood, leaving him feeling empty and hollow. An expectant fight turned into nothing more than a one-sided killing of immoral, corrupt, liars who let their authority and power over helpless innocents go to their heads.

Xavier didn't answer, only screaming as he rolled from side to side.

Drake grabbed another vial of red, unconcerned with any sort of potion poisoning for the man. Throwing just enough to heal Xavier's eye, but nothing else.

Grabbing Xavier by the hair, Drake summoned a bright green magic circle at his feet, rising into the air with a gust of wind.

They rose into the air and Drake was able to see the city in full view. Looking at one of the gates he saw a mass of people exiting.

"This should be good enough then."

Drake snapped his fingers, conjuring five magic circles of blue, water shooting out of them like tentacles and restraining Xavier. One of them moved to cover his eyes, washing away the blood, then quickly froze over forcing his eyes open.

"This city is your legacy, right? The only thing you have to leave behind," Drake said, his hair reverting back to normal as twenty magic circles formed around him, ten of water, ten of ice.

"Watch as I eradicate it from my planet."

Drake gave a flourish of his arm, summoning four magic circles of soil brown, the twenty he summoned before hovering around him.

"Heretical Endowment, Duo, Ice, Water, Ten Fold."

The spells of water and ice vanished, and Drake's hair turned white with blue streaks swimming through it.

Drake's body wrenched in pain, rejecting the overexertion of his buffing skill. Coughing, a line of blood ran down the side of his mouth.

"I won't forget the pain this place has brought on Quetz, Clotho, and Atropos. And the thousands of others you've enslaved here."

Drake poured power into his spikes of earth, the mana replaced almost instantaneously by his ten times increased regeneration from his water endowment.

The spikes grew to massive pillars of black earth, four pillars the size of buildings hovering in the air.

Drake's arms spread out, shaking as if holding the weight of the pillars up with sheer will.

"W-what are you doing! Hey! S-stop! I said stop!!" Xavier pleaded, his personality taking a turn.

"A great man once said, be strong enough to be gentle. But I am no great man. And I am strong enough to be cruel… Your world, will know pain."

The pillars dropped, planting themselves into the center of the city with thunderous crashes, kicking up debris and dust, even in the pouring rain.

Drake's arms shook as he began infusing his mana into the pillars again, forcing them into the earth below.

"SHINRA TENSEI!!!" Drake bellowed, his voice carrying over the area.

He had embedded half of the pillars into the ground, half still above and towering over the small structures on the ground.

With his words, Drake visibly paled but pushed through, his regeneration kicking in enough to keep the spell, bringing the drain on his status down to a trickle. 

The pillars began to rumble and carve out the ground, shoving the ground out and churning the earth as they began tearing through the city. Anything and everything was overturned and began moving with the massive pillars as if the earth had turned into an ocean and an enormous wave was building across it.

Drake began sweating, his arms shaking with a tumultuous roar of effort.

The sound of earth scraping against earth began to build into a crescendo as if the plates beneath the earth themselves were being forcibly moved.

And after a full strenuous minute, Drake was finished. His body was torn to shambles from the inside from overloading his system with the forced enhancement beyond anything he had attempted before. Blood leaking from every orifice and pore on his body.

The city of Sandal. Was no more.

Left in the aftermath was only a field of rubble and upturned earth, not even the large walled partitions remained.

Xavier was quiet, his mouth hung open, gaping as if he were a fish out of water, in pure disbelief of what he had just witnessed.

Drake could no longer hold him or Xavier up and they began to descend to the ground in a near free fall. And just before they crashed into the earth, Drake summoned two pillars of water, allowing the tops to ripple and break the surface tension.

The two crashed into the pillars falling to the bottoms safely.

Drake dismissed them quickly, pulling his last potion from his inventory and letting the warm liquid slide down his throat as he gasped for air.

Sitting on the ground, a few minutes later he saw a group headed by Sah Ul' run to meet him.

"Patriarch!" Sah Ul' shouted with worry evident on her face.

He waved her off and pointed to Xavier.

"Sit him up," he instructed, "The name of the Count. You have nothing left," Drake said scowling.

Xavier's eyes had gone dull and lifeless. He smirked, laughing like he had lost his mind.

"Haha! You want a name…? Fine! I don't care anymore! That bastard can burn in hell with me for lying to me! His name is Ferdinand Smith, the leader of the New Colonies!"

Drake pointed a hand at Xavier's head, firing a bullet of ice and killing him instantly, a hole between his eyes.

[You have killed Xavier Thornsworth Level 28] [Experience Earned, 761 Nobility Points have been awarded]

[Quest Complete. Bringing the House Down]

[You have claimed ownership of Sandal]

[You now claim ownership of three different Anchoring Crystals]

[Congratulations! You have increased to Elemental Miller Level 29] [140 Free Points have been awarded]

Drake's hand fell next to him, his body completely spent as Sah Ul' slung an arm under him to help him up.

But just when he thought the worst was over, his pocket vibrated. The long-range communication crystal turning on.

Drake struggled but removed it from his pants pocket.

"What is it? Kind of a bad time-"

"Drake…" Natto's voice came out in a cold tone from the crystal.

"What happened?" He replied, hearing the seriousness in her voice.

"Return to the city now. Mikhail just returned…"

There was a long pause before Natto's next words came through the crystal.

"Rvul is dead."