Dragon Knight Resonance
Sword Mastery cap unlocked to Level 26. That's insane.
Dragon Swordsman was a broken class that unlocked sword mastery all the way to Level 26. Without a related class, ordinary weapon mastery maxed out at Level 10. Even equipping gear enhanced enough to bear the name Extreme couldn't push it any higher. That was precisely why I had never bothered raising my sword mastery until now. I already had two Extreme Iron Swords — anything past Level 10 was impossible anyway.
A related class typically unlocked the cap to Level 15. Classes that raised it to Level 20 were almost unheard of. They existed, but obtaining them was extraordinarily difficult. Beyond that?
Anything past Level 20 only comes from inherited classes.
A unique weapon, a transcendent human, or succession from some great being that elevated the class's very rank — that was the only way. A mastery cap of Level 26 sat at the absolute peak even among inheritable classes. To go beyond twenty-six, you would need to devour a related star and transcend.
"Where did Azure Radiance go?"
Come to think of it, Sword Saint Ryleigh was said to have wielded a Unique-grade blade — Azure Radiance itself. But its whereabouts had long been a mystery.
"It was inherited by someone."
"So the Sword Saint's succession is complete?"
"Yes. The inheritance of the title and rank I bore in my human days is finished."
Sword Saint. Only one name came to mind.
Gracia.
The only person who openly walked around calling himself the Sword Saint was Gracia. If he truly had inherited Azure Radiance, I found myself a little curious what his mastery cap as Sword Saint actually was.
"But that was a title measured by human standards. Dragon Swordsman is the class I awakened while facing a Demon King, just before I sank into the Abyss. Regrettably, I never became fully one with that shell…"
So that was it. Dragon Swordsman was the class he had awakened the moment he began to control his dragon blood while fighting a Demon King. He had ultimately failed, been defeated, and sunk into the Abyss — but the regret in his voice suggested he believed the outcome would have been different if he had achieved full control. Which was exactly why he wanted so badly to face that shell, the Supreme Dragon, himself.
No wonder the name felt unfamiliar.
Ryleigh was famous as the Sword Saint. I had never once heard the name Dragon Swordsman. If he had only awakened it at the very end, of course no one would know.
Basic sustain function of the Radiant Throne of Light will deactivate in 20 seconds.
But I couldn't yield. To inherit Dragon Swordsman, I needed Ryleigh's recognition.
"You must not underestimate the Supreme Dragon. That dragon is pure evil — nothing left but the destructive instinct of its blood. No one but I, who endured it for so long, can face it."
Soul and body separated. The Supreme Dragon was a shell with only its destructive instinct remaining. And yet it was still himself — and he called it pure evil.
"Master of the Throne. I pray you make the right choice. It is not that I dismiss you — but that vessel is too heavy a burden for one who has never walked the path of the sword."
I understood Ryleigh's feelings. I ignored them anyway and slowly loosened up.
Basic sustain function of the Radiant Throne of Light will deactivate in 5 seconds.
My body trembled. Every cell felt like it was waking up. How far could I go? Wilhelm's memories, inherited through a star — how far could this body reach with them?
Sword Saint Ryleigh, one of the greatest among the Six Heroes of the ancient Gu Empire. I was desperately curious what limits I could touch by borrowing his power.
I gripped a sword in each hand. Then, slowly, I drew a deep breath.
Basic sustain function of the Radiant Throne has deactivated.
I parted the light and stepped forward.
Spheres of mana poured down like rain. Each one carried enough force to shatter a fortress wall. But the real problem was the arms of the Abyss rising from the floor — attacks that filled every inch of space, leaving nowhere to plant a foot. Physical strikes did nothing against them. Sword Qi could cut them, but it was inefficient.
"Sinking into the Abyss has made the shell even stronger. Those arms of the Abyss… be careful."
Even Ryleigh seemed unfamiliar with the Supreme Dragon's attack patterns. Those Abyssal arms had never existed before. Something new had been born. And I, seated upon the Throne of Light, had already identified what those hands truly were.
Destroyed the Supreme Dragon's Mystery: Deep Abyss
In an instant, the countless arms of the Abyss vanished. Just as I thought. Occasionally you ran into monsters that hid a Mystery and passed it off as an ordinary ability. The reason they blurred the line between ability and Mystery was always the same — they had something to conceal. They wanted it to look like a power of the labyrinth itself, no different from the walls of the maze.
The annoying hands are gone. Now…
With nothing but rolling hands left on the floor, my movement was free. I batted aside the raining mana spheres with sword barriers and looked up at the Supreme Dragon floating in the air.
Let's fly.
"…"
Ryleigh stared at the man in a daze. Not only was he wielding the power of Dragon Swordsman as if it were his own — he destroyed the Mystery the Supreme Dragon had gained from the Abyss, deflected every last shot of that dense barrage without missing a single one, found an opening, kicked off the labyrinth wall, and soared upward.
Kyaaaaah!
…And left a long sword wound across one of the Supreme Dragon's wings. The entire sequence flowed so naturally, so seamlessly, that Ryleigh lost his words and could only watch in blank silence.
"…"
Easy to say. Impossible to do. Barely two minutes. Adapting to a transformed body, blocking the Supreme Dragon's assaults, and mapping out a counterattack route in that span of time was simply not possible. By all rights, he should have been obliterated the moment his body failed to keep up with the change. Ten thousand out of ten thousand. A hundred thousand out of a hundred thousand. No exceptions.
…There should have been no exceptions.
Kyaaaaaaah!
The Supreme Dragon, crashed to the ground, screamed in rage. A circular wave of flame erupted from it and flooded the entire space. That fire, spreading with a shockwave, tore through exterior and interior alike. Simply cutting it with Sword Qi would not stop it.
Randolph gripped both swords again. And then—
"Hup—!"
He brought them down hard on the oncoming flames. Still the shockwave and fire were not destroyed. They simply passed through Randolph and continued on.
Ryleigh could not believe what he was seeing.
"Resonance…?"
Resonance with the sword! He had become the blade itself and let the attack flow past him. But that resonant swordsmanship was a technique beyond merely raising Sword Qi. How could someone who had never walked the path of the sword possibly use it?
What followed was even more overwhelming. Randolph became the sword. And then he became the dragon. The form of the Supreme Dragon rose across his entire body. It was no trick of the eye. The shape of his Sword Qi had begun to take on the very likeness of the Supreme Dragon.
"Resonating… even with the Supreme Dragon…?"
Beyond the sword, he was resonating with the very nature of the Dragon Swordsman. The Dragon Swordsman class that Ryleigh himself had only barely awakened while facing a Demon King — and never completed. Because Dragon Swordsman could only be completed by becoming fully one with the dragon. Only through perfect resonance could it be finished.
But was that truly possible? To pioneer, in this fleeting span of time, a path he himself had never managed to walk? Talent that surpassed even him — a member of the Six Heroes, once called the Sword Saint?
It isn't talent. That cannot be called talent.
What he was witnessing defied even the word talent. It was like walking a road already traveled — not creation, not pioneering, but simply running faster along a path already known. The road Ryleigh had only just begun to build… this man already knew it. Had already completed it.
………………Was that even possible?
The relationship between Sword Saint Ryleigh and the Supreme Dragon. It was much like the relationship between Wilhelm and me. He was a character I had raised, and yet he was not me — a vague existence I could never fully call myself. When Ryleigh spoke of the Supreme Dragon as a shell, it was probably the same idea.
Then am I Wilhelm?
It wasn't a philosophical question. Just a quiet curiosity about whether Wilhelm — whom I had raised and inherited through Star's Memory — could truly be called the complete "me." The dissonance that came from the gap between reality and this world. Ryleigh must have wrestled with the same doubt. But Ryleigh had rejected the Supreme Dragon and defined it as evil.
…What does any of that matter.
I set the thought aside. I am not Wilhelm. But I can become Wilhelm. I can become anyone. And I will reach beyond even that.
Interesting.
For now, simply moving my body and swinging a sword was pure joy. There was no room for fretting. Movements I could never have imagined before. This corrected body let me recreate everything I had only ever pictured. When my own play fused with Wilhelm's memories, I became Wilhelm entirely.
Reproducing Earth of Creation of Heaven and Earth
I resonated. With everything that existed upon the earth. The Earth of Creation of Heaven and Earth — the swordsmanship that resonates and lets every attack flow past. As naturally as breathing, I nullified the Supreme Dragon's assaults.
More.
With every step I took, my heart roared as if it would burst. But it wasn't enough.
Just a little more.
I wanted a limit beyond the limit. This much could not fully unravel the encounter before me. So push me harder.
Come on. Do better.
Throw everything you have at me. The harder you drive me, the further my limits will stretch. At the very least, past Earth and into Opening. If I could just touch that realm, it felt as though the fog in my mind would clear.
How long did I swing my sword in that trance? At some point, a colossal dragon stood before me. The Supreme Dragon. The shell of pure destruction, the thing he had defined as evil — had stopped attacking.
Why?
Why had it stopped? My thirst was still unquenched. Then my eyes met the Supreme Dragon's. It looked down at me in stillness — not a mere shell, but a living creature capable of expressing will.
"That… can't be…"
Sword Saint Ryleigh spoke as if he could not believe it. Because the blood-starved dragon had ceased its assault. Not once, in all the time it had taken dragon form, had the Supreme Dragon ever stopped destroying. It had never fixed its gaze like this. He simply could not accept what he was seeing.
The Supreme Dragon gazes upon you.
And the Supreme Dragon was looking at me — not at Sword Saint Ryleigh. Only then did I understand. Why Ryleigh had been able to awaken as a Dragon Swordsman. The Supreme Dragon's blood — Ryleigh's cursed other half — had reached out to him countless times. But Sword Saint Ryleigh, as a human, could never accept the Supreme Dragon. He regarded the dragon's blood as a curse, and could never think of the Supreme Dragon — which transformed at will and wrought destruction — as a part of himself. He was one of the Six Heroes. A great hero.
"Ryleigh. Do you truly believe your awakening as Dragon Swordsman in that final moment was mere coincidence?"
An awakening achieved by pouring everything out against a Demon King? That only happens in comics. For a single instant, Ryleigh had simply accepted it. The Supreme Dragon. Because even if it meant using the power of his cursed blood, he wanted to stop the Demon King.
"…So I was the problem?"
"Because you turned away, your other half had no choice but to understand the world in a different way."
It was never a problem that split as cleanly as light and dark. Yet Ryleigh had defined his other half as evil. Split blood, split self. That sharply divided thing could never learn properly — except by taking everything as the opposite of Ryleigh. From the start, in human society, dragons were always objects of fear. Unless taught otherwise, a dragon that fed on human terror and became a bringer of dread was only natural.
Which meant—
Dragon Swordsman was only a half as well.
Dragon Swordsman. A class that used the Sword Saint's techniques through dragon blood. Even that, right now, was only half. In the end, Ryleigh had never truly used the dragon's blood. He had never fully accepted it. A half-finished awakening.
I slowly reached out and touched the Supreme Dragon. Through countless exchanges of offense and defense, I had already begun to resonate with it. The nature of Dragon Swordsman — even as a half-awakening — was more than enough to resonate with the Supreme Dragon.
"This is…?"
But this time, the resonance included Ryleigh as well. Through my body as the medium, I had bound Ryleigh and the Supreme Dragon together as one.