Galaxy's First Ruler

A few moments before

When the hammer hit him the first time, Aldrich felt a searing pain in his body. His Defence, though high, wasn't enough to thwart the combined power of the Giant Crawler and the hammer.

"Daddyyyy…."

The second hit broke a few bones, and by the time the hammer came down for the fifth round, Aldrich had already lost all sense of pain. Only Sha's deafening cries kept ringing in his mind.

Aldrich struggled to open his eyes and tried to move the tips of his fingers. The pain coursing through his body was unimaginable, but it still wasn't enough for him to lose rationality. And compared to his first encounter with the Will of the Banished Golden Devil, it was nothing.

His mind thought of ways to handle this problem he had found himself in. There were many, but he only found one which was the quickest and efficient. But it was also the costliest among all the solutions.

He closed his eyes and willed an item from his Inventory to come out. A vial appeared in his tied-up hands, having a purple-golden potion in it. Though he could not see because of the rubble over him, he could sense the Giant female Crawler trying to lift the hammer. Aldrich's right hand glowed blue as he delicately controlled Rumok's Push and Pull and brought the vial over his mouth. He eyed the potion and, along with half a smile, Boomie's face flashed in his eyes.

"So, it's time to use it, huh?"

This potion was among the Rewards he had got in the Bellerophon Dungeon from the Elite Crawler.

The Heartburn Venom.

[…

Item: Heartburn Venom

Type: Potion

Rank: Rare

Durability: NA

Minimum Usage Condition: Strength 55

Description: +25% Strength, +25% Agility, -50% HP

Warning: Dreamer would die if the potion is consumed when the current HP is less than 20% of the Max HP

…]

"Change."

The vial tilted, making the solid stopper vanish, and the entire potion came pouring down in Aldrich's mouth.

Aldrich felt a burning sensation in his heart and saw his HP drop to 30% of its maximum value. And along with it came the boost in Strength that he much needed. But what happened next, even he hadn't expected.

Sensing the drop in Aldrich's HP, the one-leafed Dark Sapling roiled around in his head and projected its image behind Aldrich. Just as the blurry image of the sapling hovered behind Aldrich, the Devil's aura on his greatcoat got stimulated and churned like a gas. Aldrich heard the cheering howls of the Creatures of Darkness, but Aldrich could feel that the stimulant and the projection weren't enough to bring a drastic change.

As he sensed the hammer coming down from up high, he couldn't help but smile, seeing the change in his Strength and Agility.

[…

Strength: 202 (+92 +40)

Agility: 87 (+17)

Perception: 188 (-92)

…]

*

Aldrich walked out with his hand holding up the enormous stone hammer. He looked in the eyes of the Giants, who were looking at him as if seeing a dead man had come alive. But there wasn't any disbelief, as if it was a common sight for them, just not one related to Dreamers. Aldrich clenched his muscles and made a fist, shattering the hammer instantaneously.

Bang!

The shock waves from the blast sent the female Giant flying away. The eagle too flapped its wings to distance itself in the sky, but Aldrich had other plans for it.

"Absolute Pull."

Crrrkk!

The eagle struggled furiously but got pulled towards Aldrich, anyway. Even the Giant couldn't hold his footing from this close to Rumok and slipped forward.

Bang!

Aldrich's fist hit the android-eagle straight on, shattering it into metallic pieces and twigs. The Basajaun's crown glowed and countless wooden branches came running, enveloping the Giant Crawler in a wooden armor. Aldrich jumped towards its humongous chest as a smile came upon his devilish masked face.

"It's useless."

BANG!

The 30 ft tall Giant's chest caved in and his wooden armor was nowhere to be seen. The way it flew away like a ball, it felt like it wasn't Aldrich's kick that had hit him, but an unrealistically large sledgehammer. Aldrich landed on the ground and strolled towards the Giant Crawler, who had dropped into a thick layer of bushes.

"Let me show you the beauty of Strength."

Aldrich's calm voice reached to the furthest corners of the ruins. The Devil's aura around was at its highest churning point, and the dark sapling behind him kept swaying slowly. It was time to take out his deadliest Item and finish this nuisance off once and for all.

No, it wasn't the Broken Faith.

A vein from the mask reached Aldrich's hand and, as it bloomed, out came a heavy sword. It felt like it was made of black stones and other than its weight; it didn't seem any special. 

Aldrich's deadliest weapon was the Stone Splitter.

"All Proficient."

[…

Skill All Proficient is under Penalty

Consumption: 6 MP per second (x2)

…]

The sword Stone Splitter wasn't an ordinary sword. If there wasn't much Rank difference between it and the Dreamer, then its original version could even be called a growth weapon. The only major defect or weakness of the weapon was its Durability. As with higher Ranked Dreamers, there were high chances of it getting broken before even consuming much of Dreamer's Strength.

But now, it was different, as the concept of Durability didn't exist for the Shadow Homunculus. It was only a matter of how much Strength can the Dreamer feed it to. And the faster the execution of the Skill, the better.

ROARRRRRR!!!

The Giant came jumping out of the bushes and roared at Aldrich. Its hands twisted and became overly large cannons. Its head also rotated and when it stopped, it too had become a cannon. Other small and large cannons popped out from the body of the Crawler. It seemed like even the Giant was nothing but an android made of metal and wood.

The crown, which was on its head, now hovered above the three cannons aimed at Aldrich. Green Mana particles came rushing towards the crown from all over the Ruins and all the cannons glowed with an eerie and menacing green.

Thump!

Aldrich dragged the Stone Splitter behind him and took in all the changes that had happened with the Crawler's body. He turned back to look at the buster-sword and remembered the question he had asked himself when he had got it.

'Why is the Skill of the sword named Megaton Crusher?'