13 A Sword Strike And... A System?
Deep within the Great Wildlands Forest, a boy who looked to be 12 years old with godlike features was standing below four mountains with Peak Core Formation masters imprinted on each one.
Each one of these mountains looked as if a meteor shower hit them but were somehow still standing strong, almost as if the very mountains themselves were afraid to do something that the boy below wouldn't like.
At least, that was the case until the voice of the boy was heard by all those around him.
"Before we begin with the real fun part, let's do a quick head count!" Azmond shouted out with an excited look on his face.
"Alright, we have The first big guy whose name was... I think it was Grandmaster Argas or something? Next, is ShitFred or something like that? Then we have that Edging guy who went super Saiyan along with that Biggo dude earlier!"
Azmond went through all of the Goblin's names and mispronounced them as awfully as possible without a care for what remained of their face.
"Alright, that makes a total of four little green piggies!" Azmond spoke with a look on his face that said he was proud of this accomplishment.
"I am not a devil so before we begin, let's see a raise of hands if you don't want to participate in what's about to come," Azmond asked.
"...."
If any of the goblins were still conscious right now, they would be rolling in their graves, fuming in anger at the ridiculous question he was asking.
"Okie~Dokie~ I see no hands raised, so I assume everyone is ready for some fun?!?" Azmond asked again, even though he knew no one would answer him.
"You guys don't have to be so enthusiastic about this; it is truly my honor to give you guys the privilege of testing a new technique I want to try," he said with a wide smile on his handsome face.
"Alright, who here likes swords? I know a few of you do."
His words were followed by his gaze locking onto the three Goblin Asura's who had launched a three-way scissor attack on him earlier.
"Those 3 big ones you hit me with earlier hurt quite a bit, you know?" Azmond spoke with a straight face even when he knew for a fact that he didn't feel anything more than a bug bite when he got hit earlier.
"So~ I thought I should return the favor, since I am such a kind soul, I shall return the favor 10 fold just for you guys."
The unconscious goblins were practically crying tears of blood within their dreams.
"No need to thank me; I love giving back to the community!" Azmond spoke dangerous words with a 'magnanimous' look on his face.
And just as he was about to begin conjuring up something truly devastating, a particular subject was brought to mind.
"Oh, wait a damn second! Silly me! I forgot something important I have to ask first," Azmond said with a sudden look of realization.
"I need one of you Green Piggies to tell me from which hole you crawled out of. You see, I want to find even stronger green piggies from wherever you came from." He began with anticipation building up within him.
"There has to be someone stronger than you guys from wherever you came, right?!?" Azmond asked the unconscious goblins with an expectant look on his face.
He was waiting for a response, even though he knew that none of them were awake...
"Oops, I forgot that one of you guys has to be conscious to answer my questions," he chuckled with a slightly silly look on his face.
Nonetheless, it didn't take long before he stopped laughing and looked toward the four goblins planted into the sides of four different towering mountains.
Following his gaze, he lightly smiled and said, "Innie minnie minie mo, I choose you, Pikkachu!"
Azmond had his finger pointed in a random direction with his other hand over his eyes.
Half a second passed by as he opened his eyes and looked to where his finger was aiming.
"You're the closest Green Piggie to where my finger is pointed, so you shall be the one to answer all my queries."
Following his words, he leaped up to the mountain where the largest goblin, GrandMeister Argas was taking a 'nap' inside as he grabbed him by the back of his head and threw him back to the ground, with a few sonic booms being produced on his way down.
BOOM! BOOM!
GrandMeister Argas got one hell of a wake-up call as he landed face-first into the dirt, where a crater was created from the impact.
"What the hell is going on here?!?!" The now-concussed GrandMeister screamed out loud with his mouth still in the dirt.
FWIP!
Azmond appeared next to the frazzled GrandMeister and shouted, "Good morning, Sunshine! Did you have a nice dream??"
"Wha-!?" Argas couldn't finish speaking because Azmond interrupted, saying.
"Just kidding, I don't care! I just need you to tell me where you and your three green buddies popped out from," he asked with a large smile on his face. A smile that creeped the hell out of Argas.
Nonetheless, regardless of his confusion and fright, he still managed to say, "You're the human boy who we were supposed to kill, aren't you?! How are you still alive?! You should be dead by now!!"
Azmond heard the exclamation made by Argas, as his expression eased up a little before he said, "You're not the brightest, are you? Yes, I am the victim of your stalking, and I am in fact still alive! I don't see why I wouldn't be... Your buddies over there would need another 1000 of themselves cloned to be able to put a scratch on me, Hah." Azmond explained to The GrandMeister while laughing a little at the folley's of those fools.
"Th-This can't be... Our plan was flawless!" GrandMeister Argas, despite the reality being shoved into his face, continued to speak in denial of the facts, even when they were presented right in front of him.
"I don't think I can say anything else to convince your small mind that this is really happening, but I will still need to know where exactly you came from... Now!" Azmond was getting a little impatient as he yelled the last part with an irked look on his face.
"!!"
The GrandMeister became a little scared when he saw the 'devilish' look on Azmond's face, but he quickly regained his composure as he looked him dead in the eye and spoke with a voice as determined as he could make it seem:
"I will tell you nothing of my home, you monster!" He spoke with a resolute expression.
"A monster calling me a monster is ironic, isn't it?? And your loyalty will get you nowhere with me, Piggie," Azmond responded back with an even more annoyed look on his face.
"Torture me if you want to, monster, but my mind won't change! You will never get anything out of me!!" GrandMeister Argas roared out with an even more firm and resolute look on his bloodied face.
"I see..."
Following Azmond's response, he entered a deep state of thinking before he said, "Well, whatever... I will find whichever hole you crawled out from with or without your cooperation, little piggy."
After getting out his piece, his thinking face changed back to his 'excited' expression as he asked, "How did it feel to fly?"
"What?" Argas responded with a confused voice.
"I said, how did it feel to fly!?" Azmond asked Argas with a mildly demonic smile as he suddenly appeared next to him and kicked him straight back into the mountain he just came out of.
BOOM! BOOM!
"Aaarghhhhh-!!!"
A few sonic booms and screams later and GrandMeister Argas was right back where he started, face first in an almost crumbling mountain.
........
"..." Azmond looked at the piece of art he just molded back into a mountain before he muttered, "Well, that was a bust..."
He sighed a little before his eyes brightened up a little before he said, "Whatever, let's just get back to the main task at hand."
Following his proclamation, Azmond started to think to himself:
'The Divine Devil Arts Scripture said something about using the elements in the air to form the technique,' he thought to himself as he concentrated on gathering the Lightning Qi elements in the atmosphere before he molded them into the shape of a sword that he held in his hand.
OOOM!
The energies being emitted from the sword were quite intense; even the grass started to burn a little after the budding sword technique reached a certain point.
'Hmm... I think this is right,' Azmond thought with a satisfied look.
However, it wasn't the time to become complacent, as he still had to commence the next part of developing a basic Qi technique.
'The technique manual says the next thing I need to do is envision the process of holding and swinging it.'
Azmond got right to it, as he started to imagine himself swinging a massive sword made of lightning, decimating everything in its path.
A few minutes passed by.
.....
"I think I got that part down pat, yep yep," he said with a content expression as he swung the materialization of a Qi sword in front of him.
SHING! SHING!
After getting a good feel for the power he wielded, his train of thought focused on the next step of creating a sword technique.
"The next part of the manual says I need to then envision what I want the end result of my strike to look like...'
Azmond began to imagine the end result of his sword strike as the lightning-shaped sword he was holding within his hands began to float above his hand and grow in size.
WAAA!
1 meter... 2 meters... 5 meters... 10 meters... 20 meters... 100 meters... 300 meters... The Lightning sword just kept growing and growing in size until it reached a total length of 1000 meters!
It was a lightning sword that touched the Heavens...
"Oh. This is quite the overkill, huh?" Despite his words, Azmond had quite a delighted look on his face.
"But I think I can make it bigger..." He mumbled.
"It could be dangerous, though..." His cautious side attempted to throw reason into his face.
Nonetheless, it didn't take long before all apprehension was thrown out the window!
"Who am I kidding!? Let's make it bigger, haha!" Azmond exclaimed.
Following his laughter, the lightning sword that touched the clouds, started to grow in size once more.
The lightning sword continued to extend higher and higher... 1200 meters... 1500 meters... 2000 meters... 2500 meters... 3000 meters... 4000 meters... 6000 meters...
It just kept growing and growing until it reached a point at the 9000-meter mark where Azmond just didn't have the necessary proficiency in the skill to make it any larger.
"This is definitely overkill, but you know what they say? Go big or go home... So let's hit a damn home run!!"
That was when something just came to Azmond, a name...
The name of the technique he got from the Divine Devil Arts Scripture. When the name came to him as he was holding the 9000-meter-wide sword above his head, he felt the primal urge to say its name out loud. An urge that he couldn't or wouldn't want to refuse, so he said it.
"Cataclysmic Annihilation!"
Following his proclamation, Azmond swung the 9000-meter-long sword horizontally toward the four mountain peaks the Goblins were stuck on, and then silence...
"....."
Silence; the world was deathly quiet... You couldn't hear the birds, the insects, or the animals in the forest; even the very air did not make a sound.
And then, as a single leaf like any other leaf fell to the ground, the entire world just... collapsed...
The world stopped working for a moment just to register the destruction that was caused by one young boy.
...
The world then resumed as a loud explosion, unlike any other, was heard.
BOOOOOOOOOM!!
Every piece of ground within a 100-mile radius exploded upwards, with no part left untouched!
The trees, the grass, the mountains, the rocks. Everything, without exception, flew tens of thousands of meters in the air as it all came crashing down with extreme speed, decimating whatever little remained of the terrain.
The four mountains where the Goblins were stuck, and even the Goblins themselves, were no more... They were simply eviscerated when the lightning sword made contact!
......
The GrandMeister and the three Goblin Asura's were no more.
"..."
Azmond just stood there in the center of all this destruction with a satisfied and exhausted look on his handsome face, his arms behind his back.
For the first time since he was reincarnated, he felt exhausted from a fight.
If it could even be called a fight, that is…
But regardless of the terminology that one would use to describe the massacre that just occurred, Azmond used an insane amount of energy that no one in the Qi Condensation Realm should ever be able to use, and nearly complete mental and physical exhaustion was the result of such recklessness.
"That really wore me out... I knew it was going to do something to me, but I didn't expect the energy expenditure to be that great," he muttered with a lethargic expression.
"I think I will take a nap right here for now and deal with the rest of the troublesome stuff later."
Azmond proceeded to go to sleep on a large rock, without a care in the world for the apocalyptic event he just caused around him.
......
And while he was sleeping, something completely out of the ordinary was happening in a certain part of his existence.
*Ding!* *You killed four cultivators in the Peak Core Formation Stage!*
*Ding!* *You gained experience +78,000*
*Ding!* *You gained experience +76,000*
*Ding!* *You gained experience +77,500*
*Ding!* *You gained experience +75,000*
*Ding!* *You have leveled up!*
*Ding!* *You have leveled up!*
*Ding!* *You have leveled up!*
*Ding!* *You have leveled up!*
*Ding!* *You have leveled up!*
*Ding!... You have...*
......
A plethora of blue screens of unknown origin appeared in front of the unconscious Azmond, before all of a sudden...
*Ding!* *You have... ERROR!*
*ERROR!! ERROR!!*
*ERROR!! ERROR!!*
*ERROR!! ERROR!!*
Hundreds of red screens with nothing besides the word 'error' on them overwhelmed the space around Azmond.
And just when it seemed like they would never stop coming, the screens started to change...
*Ding!* *Due to Errors involving the strength of the host not being sufficient enough, the experience points and levels shall be withheld from the host!*
*Ding!* *Just like the experience the host gained upon breaking through the mortal shackles of the host's past world, all experience points gained from this point on will be converted into talent for the host!*
*Ding!* *All system screens and system notifications shall be invisible to the host from this point on, but they will always be there in the background!*
*Ding!* *Host will be able to gain full functionality of the system once you have broken through to the Quantum Foundation Establishment Realm! Good luck on your journey until that point!*
*Ding!* *BZZzztt...*
......
The blue and red screens eventually stopped appearing as Azmond lay there, completely unaware of the oddities that had just transpired around him.
