“Rest in peace brother. I hope we find each other in this life and make amends.” Volt whispered as he laid the charred corpse down gently.

He closed his brother Yor’s haunted eyes and made a short prayer before turning his attention to the fragmented staircase and continuing on his path. As Volt fought through the seemingly endless amount of foes, memories from the past bubbled up within him.

At a young age, I trained till I could no longer feel my limbs, until I saw double, until I couldn’t even breathe and passed out.

A swing, a step, the sound of a head dropping.

Although my master was a fiend when it came to training me, she was still a good master.

Another swing, another head, another step.

I lost her and then I lost myself in revenge. But what’s so wrong with revenge? Is it the people you’ll hurt along the way? Is it the person you will become? Is it the things you have to do to achieve it?

Thump, thunk, splat.

I lost my chance at revenge thanks to that slimy bastard. Even if I ended up with a family, became a king, and had everything one would want to be happy...

Volt stepped over yet another corpse as the stairs before him showed more and more ruptures with each step he took.

I lived well. I left behind a legacy. But was I truly happy? Truly content? Was I satisfied to leave the thought of revenge festering in the back of my mind? To not carry out my master’s last wishes? Volt contemplated as he slowly crushed the skull of a particularly annoying assassin instead of giving him a quick death.

After blowing off some steam, he kept moving along crumbling steps.

No. I wasn’t.

I couldn’t truly be happy. I wasn’t content with my choices, able to let bygones be bygones. Revenge wasn’t a want, revenge was a NEED. I needed to finish what my master decreed.

More heads fell as Volt quickened his steps on the now shattered mess of floating, fragmented steps.

I had the talent and the drive to reach the peak of power in my old world, and with a little luck I could have even become a god. It was all within my grasp, but because of that dragon, because of that bastard prince, I had to settle for much less.

Thump, thunk, splat.

I love my wife, my children... But.

Thump, thunk, splat.

Sometimes a man has to be selfish.

Thump, thunk, splat.

In this new world, I won’t compromise anymore. I will become the strongest magic swordsman.

Thump.

Volt stood before a small platform of floating glass, on the final step before the stage. He slowly looked up and saw his fatal rival.

Peak of Rank 4 - Ice Dragon Akull

“This time I won’t be a coward and rely on poison to kill you!”

Breathing in and out, Volt prepared himself for the most important fight of both his lives. Would he breakthrough or be stuck and remain as nothing more than a piece of trash for the rest of his new life.

“No. I will not fail. I cannot fail. I refuse to fail!”

Then go. Make your name known throughout the world, my disciple.

As a whisper sounded in his ear, Volt felt a hand pushing him forth from behind.

His eyes widened for a moment before he closed them with a smile.

Thank you, master. I’ll make you proud.

Volt’s eyes opened, shining with determination as lightning gathered around his body, coiling around him like dragons.

“Time to surpass my LIMIT!” He roared as he stepped up on the platform.

>Lightning World<

Lightning exploded from his body, shooting into the sky to form black clouds that struck with force, electrifying the air and charring the ground.

Volt left all his bubbling worries and thoughts behind as the dragon began to move after feeling the lightning licking its body. It roared, sending out a massive wave of frozen energy to combat the lightning.

Tens of magic circles appeared in the sky around Akull as it roared at the tiny foe who dared to challenge it.

It took mere seconds for the magic circles to form and begin to rapidly shoot large chunks of ice at the tiny speck named Volt.

Volt laughed as he grabbed lightning bolts out of the sky and used indwarven speed to cut down each and every chunk heading his way.

He calmly began to talk as he kept cut through the ice and grabbed new lightning bolts every so often when the old ones were overpowered by ice energy and froze.

“Ya know bastard, I thought long and hard about how I could kill you.”

Volt murmured as he tossed yet another lightning bolt away, adding it to a pile off to the side.

“I thought and thought of a way to overcome my weakness.”

The pile of lightning bolts shimmered with power instead of fading away after exhausting their energy, being devoured by the foreign power invading them, or collapsing from the collision wrecking their structure.

“I reflected for a long time and thought hard about what options I had at my disposal. You see, thanks to talking with my king, Urist, I thought of a few interesting things. Did you know that lightning is just a superheated flameI? I didn’t until he told me. Who am I kidding, you wouldn’t understand what I’m saying. But let’s follow through with the explanation anyways.”

If one looked closely around the smiling Volt, they would notice that the lightning energy surrounding him wasn’t acting normally but was instead consuming the ice energy colliding with it to form fist size orbs of energy.

“Now, knowing that and having experienced the special properties of my king’s flames, it gave me an idea.”

The storm of ice and lightning around Volt and Akull clashed violently, yet the lightning began to eat waves of coldness to create balls of energy, which then joined up with the slowly transforming pile of lightning bolts balls behind Volt.

“Now I didn’t create a technique like his because it wasn’t what I wanted. No, I wanted a bastardization of it.”

Thousands of energy balls that were only randomly floating around suddenly began to move.

“My technique cannot buff anyone. Its temperature cannot change. It cannot stick to anything. It’s not even the same concept from where this idea began anymore.”

The orbs clashed against one another, forging and folding into one another until they took the shape of a sword. Then lightning struck the sword, one after another, causing thunder to ring out as the blade was refined.

“The only thing it can do is devour… and amplify. This ability is tailor made just to kill things above my power level that lazily chuck spells... like you. Honestly, it’s too slow, has too many steps and kinks for it to be usable in any real battle. If this was a fight against the real you, you wouldn’t have given me a chance to pull it off.”

Volt blocked the dragon's unceasing attacks with the lightning bolt in his hand while gradually unsheathing his sword.

“But you know what? Once I’ve perfected this technique, it’ll become the perfect killing move against bastards like you.”

Volt had the biggest grin on his face as he placed his sword into the middle of the twenty meter long compacted energy sword.

“This has gone on long enough. If I ever see you in the real world... I promise you. Next time you won’t have such a clean death.”

>Lightning Shield<

Volt summoned a shield to block the incoming ice for a moment, as that's all he needed.

His voice then boomed across the void, filled with force and conviction as he dropped his lightning bolt and gripped his energy blade with both hands.

>Lightning world - Imperfect Great Lightning Beheader

He swung.

The blade of the frosted lightning expanded rapidly as the sword moved.

20 meters...

50 meters...

100 meters...

250 meters...

500 meters...

1,000 meters.

The massive blade crashed down upon the dragon, cutting through it like a knife through hot butter. The strike had the power equal or close to what a normal Peak Tier 4 powerhouse could unleash, so...

In one move...

With one slash...

Volt had killed the demon that had haunted his dreams for dozens of years.

With the largest smile of his life on his face, Volt watched the fragmented world crumble around him.

…

BOOM

Dust and dirt exploded away from Volt as he opened his eyes to the real world.

“I’ve done it.”

He rose to his feet.

“I am a Tier 4 Expert.”