The System Awakens: Rise of the Champion - Chapter 69

Chapter 69: Chapter 69: Dominating The Rankers – 2

Damian watched as Antonio vanished in a speck of light, then the cracks in his Eclipse Sword spread and broke apart into hundreds of pieces, with only the handle holding its form.

Even that had cracks.

Damian sighed, looking at the broken sword. “You were a good sword… you will be missed, my friend.”

[The Power Rankings have been updated.]

[The Awakener ‘Infinity’ has obtained the 20th position in the Power Rankings.]

Damian looked at the realm announcement of his ranking.

Everybody in Solarta was watching the battles; he knew he was attracting way too much attention now.

Just from the Awakeners gathered in the arena, the arena was filled to the brink, and he could hear the chattering of everyone.

He knew his own competence.

Damian understood that he had grown extremely strong and that he might already be the strongest in the entire First Tower Realm.

Just the fact that he was even close to being exhausted made it clear to him.

He was not afraid of attracting too much attention.

In fact, he hoped he attracted more, because the more people who wanted to fight him, the more he would get the chance to improve his strength and power.

He wanted to become the best at everything, and he couldn’t be called the best unless he defeated everyone else.

More than anything, he loved fighting.

He wanted to fight, he wanted to shed blood.

But he had enough conscience not to simply shed blood without reason.

He was hoping that people would come here and give him a reason to cut them down.

Damian wasn’t afraid of losing to someone if he pushed Awakeners like this.

So what if he was defeated?

He could always take that defeat as motivation to grow stronger again and challenge the same thing that defeated him.

But if he was going to lose, he would lose after giving everything he had.

For some unknown reason, he had developed a love for fighting, and the sense of defeating people with overwhelming power became irresistible to him.

He couldn’t get enough of it.

Maybe it was a memory of a dream where a gentle voice of a woman kept repeating in the back of his mind, motivating him to constantly grow and pushing him continuously toward the path of invincibility and power.

Damian turned his gaze away as he challenged the 19th position in the Power Rankings.

In the next five seconds, a new figure appeared, just as another person from the [Lord’s Disciples] faction showed up.

This time, it was Teresa Lombardi, another general of the Vatican, and now a leader of the [Lord’s Disciples].

The timer went off, and in five seconds, the fight would begin.

Damian simply crossed his arms and observed his opponent.

His opponent, Teresa Lombardi, was also watching Damian with a fearful gaze, but she shook her head slightly as she remembered what her superiors had asked her to do.

She took a deep breath and spoke. “Um… You are from Earth, right? Then you should know who we are… We are people of the Vatican. My superiors have made the decision to make you one of the generals of the [Lord Disciples] faction.”

“J-joining our faction w-will benefit y-you greatly.”

Damian tilted his head and narrowed his eyes, not even caring to respond.

Teresa Lombardi gulped a mouthful of saliva upon seeing how Damian wasn’t taking her seriously.

If it were anyone else, she would have gone into full “angry mode” and punished them for being so arrogant.

But she couldn’t do that to Damian.

He was simply too scary.

He had been fighting for a day now without rest, as if he had infinite stamina.

Not to mention, he didn’t even seem like he was using his full power.

She didn’t even want to imagine the unimaginable pain she would endure if he got angry and decided to torture her.

Then the timer hit 0.

As soon as it did, Damian didn’t wait a single second.

He immediately unleashed his strongest technique.

The bracelet-like chain, which was green in color with golden accents around his upper arm, began to glow with a green light before transforming into a 6-foot-tall broad sword made of green-colored metal with golden accents and a golden handle.

This was [Darmung, The Devastation Bringer], one of the four martial weapons he had obtained from spinning the roulette.

As soon as he held the sword, it began to release waves of energy outward in all directions, making the air thick with sword intent.

“How?… Just how?”

“Who the heck is this guy?”

“He had a weapon like this this whole time?”

“If he had a weapon like this all along, why didn’t he use it until now?”

“Maybe it’s because the swords he was using broke, and now he has no choice but to use it?”

Shiru, who had been listening to the remarks of the Awakeners watching Damian’s battle all day, felt her face turn bright red with frustration.

“Bless me, the heavenly gods,” Shiru prayed unconsciously, which she had never done before.

“What else has he been hiding?”

Within seconds, Damian channeled his qi reserves, and his figure became enveloped in raging sword Qi, which he diverted into his ultimate-grade sword, [Darmung, The Devastation Bringer].

When Damian performed this technique with [The Eclipse Sword] and [The Monster Slayer], they didn’t react to his power or technique.

But the sword he was holding now was different.

As soon as Damian channeled his Qi through the sword, the Qi became violently unstable, and Damian felt resistance from the sword.

It took an awful lot from him to keep the technique from failing.

His eyes glowed with a neon blue hue as extreme willpower surged like a waterfall, and the resistance from the sword decreased, but only by a minuscule margin.

The Qi radiated in all directions, and even Damian, the user, felt small specks of Qi cutting through his own body.

Teresa Lombardi, Damian’s opponent, watched this with widening eyes and a dropped jaw.

She felt an insurmountable pressure, and it hadn’t even been ten seconds since the battle began.

She already felt like she had lost.

She looked at the figure in the air with the giant broad sword, which painted the surroundings with thick sword aura and intent.

Her legs felt heavy and weak. “How… how can I fight against something like that?”

Damian, using all his strength to control the technique and prevent it from failing due to the sword’s resistance, executed his move.

[Heaven Shattering Sword: Sword Technique Activated]

Damian made a simple vertical slash.

A giant green sword Qi ray manifested, painting the sky green, and it landed on his opponent with a crackling sound.

Then, everything went quiet, followed by an explosion that sent shockwaves, pushing everything in its path.

Even the Awakeners sitting in the bleachers felt the fierce sword intent in the air.

After a minute or so, the effects of the attack subsided, and the arena showed a giant sword trace in the ground.

Teresa Lombardi lay unconscious, covered in blood.

Her entire clothes had been obliterated in the attack, and although her naked body was exposed, no one was focused on it.

Her body seemed to have been cleaved in two, with a giant deep sword wound on her chest, exposing her insides.

But she was alive, and Damian was surprised by that.

Damian slowly landed on the ground and looked at the sword in his hand, which was releasing faint sword aura along with heat and faint smoke.

“Thank god I held back. I didn’t expect Darmung to magnify my attack like that. If I hadn’t reduced the amount of Qi I channeled, I would have killed her,” Damian said, a small grin forming on his lips as he felt the connection between him and [Darmung, The Devastation Bringer] grow stronger.

[Your synchronization rate with [Darmung, The Devastation Bringer] has increased.]

[The more the synchronization with your ultimate-grade weapons increases, the more efficiently you can control and release their power.]

—–

[Synchronization Rates]

-Darmung, The Devastation Bringer (2%)

-Recna, the Spear of Torment (0%)

-Mercy, the Sword of Salvation (0%)

-Judgment, the Sword of Punishment (0%)

—–

[The Power Rankings have been updated.]

[The Awakener ‘Infinity’ has obtained the 19th position in the Power Rankings.]

Damian then looked at the next Awakener he had to fight, the Awakener holding the 18th position in the power rankings.

His eyes showed irritation when he noticed it was yet another member of the [Lord’s Disciples] faction.

Damian gritted his teeth.

After fighting two people from the Vatican, something that had been locked away in the depths of his mind began to resurface: his immense hatred for the Vatican and the reasons behind it.

He despised them.

He couldn’t stand the sight of them.

He had never hated anyone as much as he hated them.

Maybe it was because of the betrayal he felt from the orphanage he grew up in, which was controlled by the Vatican.

When he turned 14, they kicked him out.

Not just him, either.

At least Damian didn’t have any physical disabilities apart from extreme weakness, but he still remembered the other kids who were cast aside with him.

Children with severe disabilities.

Kids with genetic disorders, autoimmune diseases.

The orphanage abandoned them all.

Why?

Selfish reasons…

They could have at least kept the children with serious disabilities for a little longer.

This was the first seed of hatred that had been planted in Damian’s heart.

Or maybe it was because of the things he later learned, how the Vatican misused its power, how funds meant to help the needy, like orphanages, were instead funneled elsewhere.

Or how high-ranking Vatican officials mistreated children, using helpless kids for dangerous medical trials, organ trafficking, human trafficking, and other horrors he didn’t even want to speak of.

When Damian worked for the Italian Awakeners Association, he had researched everything.

The corruption, the atrocities, all committed under the guise of doing God’s work.

There were many nights before his regression when he couldn’t sleep, his blood boiling just from thinking about them.

His hatred had grown without limits.

Damian was not a hero.

Hell, he was nothing but a normal Awakener who had grown immensely strong through hard work and the talents he awakened after regression.

But did that mean he had no right to ask questions?

Did that mean he had no right to take revenge?

Did that mean he had no right to water the tree of hatred in his heart?

Did that mean he had no right to punish them for what they did?

Maybe not for others, but at least for himself.

Before his regression, he had been weak, powerless to do anything about the injustice, unfairness, and betrayal he and the other orphans had suffered.

His lack of talent and frail body had kept him shackled.

But that was no longer the case.

Now, he was strong.

Now, he could do whatever the hell he wanted.

Damian shook his head.

“Maybe this is fate,” he muttered.

But even as he thought that, he realized something unsettling: this hatred of his, this all-consuming rage, was becoming an obstacle in his path to power and invincibility.

“I can’t… I won’t let this hold me back…”

Suddenly, Damian’s aura surged.

The entire arena felt the rapid shift in the air as a thick blue aura enveloped his figure.

It wasn’t Sword Qi.

It wasn’t Mana.

It was simply his presence alone exerting an overwhelming force.

His opponent, Stefano Barone, another Awakener from the [Lord’s Disciples] faction, felt an unnatural chill spread through his body.

A mountainous pressure bore down on him from all directions, crawling beneath his skin like an unseen force.

He instinctively took a few steps back, his legs growing weak as he stared at Damian.

The presence standing across the battlefield was suffocating.

“S-Something is very w-wrong…”