Chapter 82

Chapter 82
## Chapter 82: Dragon Swordsman’s Resonance

‘A sword proficiency ceiling of level 26. This is absurd.’

The Dragon Swordsman was a terrifyingly dominant class, pushing the boundaries of sword mastery all the way to level 26.

Under normal circumstances, without a specific specialized class, one’s skill with a weapon was hard-capped at level 10. Even if a warrior equipped high-tier gear or earned legendary titles, that limit remained immovable.

This was the very reason he hadn’t prioritized grinding his sword skills until this moment.

Since he was dual-wielding a pair of Ultimate Iron Swords, level 10 was already the maximum he could achieve anyway!

Typically, possessing a relevant class might bump that ceiling up to level 15.

Those rare vocations that allowed progress up to level 20 were the stuff of myths.

They were known to exist, but the requirements to obtain them were monumental.

But anything exceeding that?

‘Reaching beyond level 20 is a feat reserved only for those who have inherited a legacy through succession.’

Whether it was through the acquisition of a sentient weapon, the guidance of a transcended mortal, or a pact with a supreme entity, succession was the only way to elevate a class to such heights.

A mastery limit of level 26 placed this class among the absolute pinnacle of inherited legacies.

To go any further than 26, one would likely have to consume the essence of a celestial body and achieve true transcendence.

“What happened to the Blue Aurora?”

Thinking back, the legends said Sword Saint Riley once commanded a blade of unique rarity.

The Blue Aurora.

Yet, its current location remained a total enigma.

「It has passed to a successor.」

“Does that imply the Sword Saint’s lineage has been officially handed down?”

「Indeed. The prestige and the station I held during my mortal life have found a new bearer.」

Sword Saint.

Only a single figure occupied that space in his mind.

‘Gracia.’

She was the solitary figure who openly claimed the mantle of the Sword Saint.

If Gracia had truly come into possession of the Blue Aurora.

He found himself curious about the proficiency limits of her version of the Sword Saint class.

「However, that designation is measured by the metrics of humanity. The Dragon Swordsman is a manifestation that occurred while I stood against the Demon King, just as I was being pulled into the dark void. Sadly, it never truly merged with that hollow frame……」

It made sense.

The Dragon Swordsman class had flickered into existence when he attempted to harness the draconic essence in his veins during that final struggle with the Demon King.

In the end, the attempt faltered, resulting in his downfall and descent into the abyss. The lingering regret in Riley’s voice suggested that had he mastered that power, the conclusion of the war might have been different.

This was precisely why he felt such a driving need to confront that empty husk—the Fallen Dragon—personally.

‘No wonder it didn’t ring a bell.’

Riley was a household name as the Sword Saint, but the term Dragon Swordsman had never crossed his ears.

If it was a power born at the very brink of death, it was logical that history had no record of it.

《20 seconds remain before the primary protection of the ‘Throne of Brilliant Light’ ceases.》

But he couldn’t back down now.

To truly claim the Dragon Swordsman class, he needed Riley’s formal validation.

「Do not take the Fallen Dragon lightly. That creature is distilled malice, a slave to the primal urge for ruin dictated by its blood. Only I, having suffered alongside it for ages, possess the capacity to face it.」

The spirit had been ripped from the flesh.

The Fallen Dragon was nothing more than a physical shell fueled by a drive for carnage.

And yet, it was still a part of him—that personified shadow.

「Regent of the Throne. I trust you will make a wise decision. This is not born of a lack of respect for your skill, but because that power is a burden too heavy for one who has not dedicated their life to the blade.」

He recognized the concern in Riley’s words but chose to move past it, beginning to stretch and loosen his limbs.

《5 seconds remain before the primary protection of the ‘Throne of Brilliant Light’ ceases.》

A tremor ran through his frame.

Every fiber of his being was surging to life.

How much potential could he unlock?

The memories of Wilhelm, passed down through the celestial stars.

How much could this physical vessel endure?

As one of the legendary Six Heroes of the Empire, Sword Saint Riley was a titan.

He was gripped by an intense desire to see how close he could get to those legendary heights with his current strength.

He tightened his grip on the hilts of both blades.

Then, he drew in a long, steady breath.

《The primary protection of the ‘Throne of Brilliant Light’ has expired.》

He stepped forward, emerging from the radiance.

A deluge of magical spheres cascaded down like a torrential storm.

Each projectile held enough raw power to level a fortress wall.

However, the more pressing threat was the shadowy appendages of the void sprouting from the ground.

The onslaught saturated every available inch, leaving no safe harbor to stand upon.

Standard physical strikes were useless here.

While sword energy could carve through them, it was a wasteful use of stamina.

「Sinking into the depths of the void has made the shell even more potent. Those shadowy limbs…… stay alert.」

Even Riley seemed caught off guard by the Fallen Dragon’s evolved tactics.

Those abyssal arms were not part of its original arsenal.

This was a new corruption.

But as he sat upon the Throne of Light, he had managed to decipher their fundamental nature.

《The Fallen Dragon’s secret technique ‘Deep Abyss’ has been dismantled.》

In a flash, the myriad of shadowy arms dissolved into nothingness.

Just as he suspected.

Certain entities concealed their ultimate secrets, masking them as standard traits.

They blurred the boundaries to keep their core powers hidden.

Much like the shifting walls of a maze, it was designed to look like an inherent property of the environment.

‘The nuisance limbs are gone. Now then……’

With the floor cleared of those grasping shadows, his mobility was restored.

He parried the falling spheres of magic with a defensive sweep of his blades and fixed his gaze on the soaring Fallen Dragon.

‘Time to take to the skies.’

「……」

Riley could only watch the man in a state of disbelief.

The stranger wasn’t just using the Dragon Swordsman’s abilities; he was wielding them with a mastery that felt second nature.

He had neutralized the secret technique the Fallen Dragon had developed within the void, parried an undodgeable barrage of magic without a single error, identified a gap in the defense, vaulted off the chamber walls, and took flight.

Kiyaaaa!

……And he successfully carved a deep gash across one of the Fallen Dragon’s great wings.

The entire display was so seamless and fluid that Riley found himself temporarily speechless, watching in a daze.

「……」

It was a sequence that was simple to narrate but impossible to perform.

In under two minutes.

To calibrate to a changing body, neutralize the Fallen Dragon’s offensive, and orchestrate a perfect counter—all in that span of time—was a feat beyond human capability.

The mere physical strain of the transformation should have caused him to collapse.

In any other scenario, a hundred thousand warriors would have failed.

There were no exceptions to that rule.

……Or at least, there shouldn’t have been.

Kiyaaaaa!

Plummeting back toward the earth, the Fallen Dragon let out a piercing, rhythmic scream.

An expanding ring of fire surged from its body, engulfing the entire arena.

The resulting blast of pressure and heat threatened to incinerate everything in its path.

Basic sword energy wasn’t enough to withstand this.

Randolph adjusted his grip on his twin swords once more.

And then.

“Hup—!”

He brought his blades down in a powerful arc against the encroaching wall of fire.

Strangely, the heat and shockwave didn’t break.

They simply glided through Randolph as if he were a ghost.

Watching this, Riley was struck by a moment of pure shock.

「Resonance…?」

He was vibrating in harmony with his weapon!

By becoming one with the blade, he allowed the force of the attack to pass through him without impact.

But that level of resonance generated a sword aura that transcended simple skill.

How could someone who had not spent a lifetime training in the way of the sword achieve such a state?

What followed was even more staggering.

Randolph became the blade.

And then, he became the dragon itself.

The silhouette of the Fallen Dragon began to manifest around his entire form.

This was no mere trick of the light.

His very sword aura began to mirror the essence of the Fallen Dragon.

「Is he resonating with the Fallen Dragon too……?」

He wasn’t just in sync with his swords; he was in sync with the core identity of the Dragon Swordsman.

This was the very class that Riley had only caught a glimpse of while fighting the Demon King.

But Riley had never reached the finish line.

The Dragon Swordsman required a flawless synchronization with the dragon’s nature.

Only through absolute resonance could the class be perfected.

But was such a thing even achievable?

Could this man forge a path that Riley himself couldn’t complete, and do it in such a brief window of time?

Did he possess a genius that outshone one of the Six Heroes, the man titled the Sword Saint?

‘This isn’t just talent. You can’t label this as simple aptitude.’

It went beyond giftedness.

It looked more like someone retracing a route they had already traveled.

This wasn’t an act of discovery; it was a sprint down a road that felt intimately familiar.

The path Riley had only just started to clear.

The stranger acted as if he already knew the destination, as if he had already reached it before.

……Could that really be possible?

—

The dynamic between Sword Saint Riley and the Fallen Dragon.

It mirrored the connection between me and Wilhelm.

He was a persona I had developed, yet he wasn’t quite me.

An indistinct entity that defied easy identification.

Riley referring to the Fallen Dragon as a “shell” struck that same chord.

‘In that case, am I Wilhelm?’

This wasn’t a deep dive into philosophy.

It was a simple curiosity: could the Wilhelm I played, whose memories I had gained through the stars, be considered the “real” me?

That sense of detachment from one’s own existence.

Riley must have struggled with that very same ambiguity.

However, Riley had chosen to reject the Fallen Dragon, branding it as nothing but evil.

‘……What does it actually matter?’

He pushed those heavy thoughts aside.

He wasn’t Wilhelm.

But he had the capacity to become Wilhelm.

He could step into any role.

And then push even further.

‘This is enjoyable.’

In this moment, the simple act of moving and striking with the blade brought him genuine happiness.

There was no room for overthinking.

He was performing movements that were previously beyond his reach.

His bolstered physique was now executing every maneuver he had once only visualized.

By blending his own combat style with the depth of Wilhelm’s memories, he had effectively become Wilhelm.

《Executing the ‘Earth’ phase of ‘Heaven and Earth Overturn.’》

Resonance.

A complete synchronization with the ground beneath him.

The ‘Earth’ aspect of the Heaven and Earth Overturn technique.

A style of combat that used resonance to glide through any incoming strike.

He was countering the Fallen Dragon’s fury as naturally as he drew breath.

‘More.’

With every stride he took.

His pulse quickened in a rush of pure adrenaline.

But it wasn’t enough.

‘Just a little more.’

He was hungry for the territory that lay beyond the limits.

This current level wasn’t sufficient to fully resolve this clash.

So, force me to go further.

‘Come on, give me everything.’

Strike with your full strength.

The more pressure applied, the further his potential would stretch.

At the very least, he needed to move from the Earth phase to the Opening.

If he could break into that territory, the mental fog would finally lift.

How long had he been lost in this hypnotic dance of steel?

Standing before him now was the massive beast.

The Fallen Dragon.

The avatar of ruin, labeled as pure malice, had suddenly ceased its assault.

‘Why?’

Why had it stopped?

His craving for the fight was nowhere near satisfied.

He locked eyes with the Fallen Dragon.

The beast stared back at him in silence.

It didn’t look like a hollow shell anymore; it looked like a sentient creature trying to communicate.

「That’s… impossible……」

Sword Saint Riley whispered, his voice thick with shock.

The bloodthirsty wyrm had called off its attack.

Never in all its time as the Fallen Dragon had it paused its cycle of destruction.

It had certainly never looked at anyone with such clarity.

Riley couldn’t wrap his mind around what he was seeing.

《The Fallen Dragon is observing you.》

And the Fallen Dragon wasn’t focusing on Sword Saint Riley; its eyes were fixed on him.

Then, the realization hit.

The reason Riley was able to manifest as the Dragon Swordsman in the first place.

The draconic blood. Riley’s shadowed half had tried to bridge the gap countless times.

But as the paragon of human virtue, the Sword Saint, Riley could never bring himself to accept it.

He viewed the dragon’s blood as a stain, a curse, and could never see the rampaging Fallen Dragon as a part of his own identity.

He was one of the Six Heroes.

A savior of the people.

“Riley. Do you truly believe that your transformation into the Dragon Swordsman at the very end was just a stroke of luck?”

A sudden power-up sparked by desperation against a Demon King?

That was the stuff of fiction.

In that final moment, Riley had actually accepted it.

The Fallen Dragon.

He wanted to stop the Demon King so badly that he was finally willing to use the power of that “cursed” blood.

「……Are you suggesting that I was the obstacle all along?」

“Because you chose to look away, your other half was forced to interpret the world through a different lens.”

It wasn’t a simple case of black and white or good and evil.

And yet, Riley had categorized his other self as a monster.

A split in the blood led to a split in the soul.

It never had the chance to be guided.

It simply embraced everything that Riley rejected.

In the eyes of humans, dragons were synonymous with terror.

Without a steady hand to guide it, it was inevitable that the dragon’s nature would feed on that fear and become a source of nightmare.

In other words.

‘The Dragon Swordsman was only half a class as well.’

Dragon Swordsman.

A vocation that tried to force Sword Saint skills through a draconic filter.

This, too, was incomplete.

Ultimately, Riley had never truly utilized the dragon’s power.

He had never fully integrated it.

It was an unfinished awakening.

Quietly, he reached out, laying a hand upon the Fallen Dragon.

Through the heat of their battle, he had already established a resonance with it.

Even an incomplete Dragon Swordsman essence was enough to find a frequency with the Fallen Dragon.

「What is this……?」

But this harmony now extended to Riley as well.

Using his own body as the bridge, he was now anchoring both Riley and the Fallen Dragon into a single, unified whole.