Unlimited Power 03: The Sinful Ruler

Jake opened his eyes widely when he heard that. Was the enemy lying to make him think too much? That possibility was high, but… what would be the point? Would the enemy need that when he had the upper hand and barely suffered any damage?

"My mother was the current ruler of that world, and she was very popular, a fair leader that made all kinds of advances possible for our people. From that amazing person, a failure that took her life was born… That was what everyone thought and said about me for many decades. After that, our family began to decline. Lineage is important when it comes to the powers a child would obtain, and when I took the throne, revolts started, and keeping our bloodline wasn't possible since no one wanted to risk giving birth to another failure like me. I endured all that madnesses and injustice to fulfill my duty, but what I only got in return was the rage and despise of billions of ungrateful pieces of shit. When they finally tried to take my life, I struggled and fought back, and despite almost dying, I survived and killed them… and obtained their powers."

No wonder the enemy was so strong… he was born with that power in a world of espers… the ability to cancel magic was probably what he used against everyone.

"Once I got stronger, they changed their opinions of me, but they were only fearing for my power. Useless scum… I wanted to wipe them out so much, but in the end, before I could do that, our planet was assimilated by what you know as the system."

Jake had assumed that the enemy was the one controlling part of the system, but it seemed that his assumptions were off the mark. He can certainly mimic a part of the system in a certain area around him, but completely control he didn't have…

"Worms will always be worms. They can't think for themselves and will always wait for the better men to show them the path. As such, they followed me despite what they did to my life… they had no other choice, and neither did I, so we were forced to fight together. Still, even my powers weren't enough to make us endure for long, and just like your allies that ran away, many of my followers left the battles to hide. Can you see the pattern here? You can't rely on anyone other than yourself."

"Don't force your own misconceptions on others… you were unlucky for not finding real friends and allies, but we are different," Louise said.

"You would think so, wouldn't you? Did you miss the part a few minutes ago where your allies hit another to try to kill me? He is certainly blessed with good allies and friends. Allies that didn't care about his life and friends that didn't stop those that hit him."

Louise went quiet… she couldn't say anything. She could have attacked those who hit Jake, but that would only have caused more confusion on the battlefield. In the end, she only assumed that he could take it thanks to the dark flames' armor and used her magic to stop those that would hit him with one hundred percent of certainty.

"Eventually, we began to lose the war. I have yet to understand the system completely, but we became a part of it too late… there were those much stronger than I could get in a short period of time out there. They eventually fight off and destroyed the whole universe, but I watched everything from the shadows, and I learned their methods… They were unable to kill each other, but they headed to other universes to obtain more power and defeat each other. However, they were eliminated by some hunters… those who completely outclassed me were almost defeated instantly. You couldn't imagine the shame that I felt when that happened…"

Was that the third party that Jake had been thinking that was acting behind the scenes? It was hard to say… if that was really the case, why would they leave the enemy do as he wanted and destroy one universe and then head to another? As far as he could tell, they were aware of his existence already.

"If you knew about them, why did you let them destroy my universe? You had the power to stop them, and you did nothing… once I realized that the hundred were just a bunch of hypocrites, I found another purpose in life… I will kill them and destroy their universes as well. When I decided that, my power grew again, and I became able to swallow entire stars."

That didn't seem like a hyperbole anymore… considering what he did to their Earth. It seemed really the real deal. He just landed there and then crushed the whole planet, and yet… he gave up on all that power and came to another universe.

"... Where is the power you obtained?" Jake asked.

"Are you finally getting interested in my story? No matter… the reason why my first enemies were killed was the fact that they didn't hide and they didn't know that others could defeat them. The hunters can show the power that goes beyond anyone's understanding… but their power is situational. They have their own base where they can show their true strength, but in other universes, their powers have limitations… they can only show the right amount of strength that rivals the strongest beings of that universe."

"Why?" Lana asked.

"Imagine that the universe is a huge ocean and everyone in it becomes a small block of ice when they are able to wield mana. The stronger you get, the bigger the block of ice will become, and the colder the ocean will also become. They can only become a 'cold' as the universe allows them. If they go beyond that, they might destroy time and space just by existing in this plane of existence."