Building My SSS-Rank Universal Empire: From Trash to Cosmic Overlord-Chapter 24: Do you surrender?

I shook my head. I pointed to the bed I was sitting on and the chair beneath Kade. "Tool. Everyone is a tool to the next power. I use my bed, but do I have to intentionally start jumping on it? Do you leave your blade to rust?"

"Your blade can turn on you if you don’t handle it well."

I thought of my father. He was feared but also respected. He did things as he wanted but was never cruel for the sake of cruelty, unless it involved me. "How will your blade turn on you if you are a blade master? You guide it as you wish."

"So, you want to dominate the weak but still give them free will?" Kade laughed. "You are so hypocritical and it seems you haven’t seen the world for what it is. But enough of all that. You killed one of mine, so I’m here to kill you in return."

My heart skipped a beat, but I didn’t let my expression change from the mild smile I was wearing. This was the first time someone had outright said they wanted me dead, and it was a bit strange to hear something like that.

I let a bit of essence flow into my eyes, making them glow a bit. "Will you give it a try?"

My eyes glowed bright green in the yellow lighting of the room, gleaming like the edge of a sharpened blade.

Kade shifted and smiled even wider. "Oh no, because I came with a better offer, be my subordinate."

I paused, then raised my brows slowly and didn’t bother to hide my surprise in my voice. "I should be your subordinate? Why? That’s not part of my plan at all."

I pretended to think about it but then I shook my head. "I decline. There’s no reason to."

Kade’s eyes tightened and warning tainted his voice. "What? Do you think because you are a Squire we are now equals? Even among Squires, we have people that are powerful and I am powerful! I am giving you your life, you’d better take it. I won’t ask again."

The air in the room bristled with tension as we stared at each other. Something sparked in the air, making the hair on my body rise on edge. "Did you just say you are giving me my life? And I’ve never heard anyone who’s truly powerful say they are powerful. Either they are or they are not."

I smiled at him.

Kade’s face shifted from his smiling facade to dark and glaring, but I didn’t feel fear. My blood shimmered in my veins, and my heartbeat picked up a pleasant rhythm as I got ready for whatever’s coming.

"I will make you regret this," Kade said in alow voice.

Then he raised his right hand casually as if to greet me, lightning flickering between his fingers with a low, vibrating hum.

He flung the lightning forward.

Already prepared, I projected a shield in front of myself. Generous with my essence, I created a half-dome, triple-layered shield.

The attack collided with a hiss as the shield shuddered but it held firmly. I was more surprised than Kade. How was he using aspected essence if he was only a Squire?

"How is your shield that strong?"

I spread my hands and stood. "I could ask you the same. How are you using lightning?"

Kade smiled, and without warning or replying, the space between us exploded with lightning again, thick bands of twisting energy that covered the distance in a blink. I was caught off guard!

How did he perform a technique without moving any body parts?!

I rolled instinctively, projecting a shield and layering it as I dove onto a bed across the room.

The shields collapsed with little resistance, and the lightning slammed into the bed I’d been on moments before. Metal screamed and twisted, and the bed burned with a bluish fire that died quickly.

I registered the smell of burning fabric but didn’t wait to survey the damage. Without hesitation, I reached within myself and drew essence deeply into my body.

Strength surged through me as I flung myself forward, a streak of brown blurring across the room. Kade didn’t seem surprised and rose to meet me, his eyes burning with flickers of lightning. This time, the lightning around Kade blended with his limbs, making him faster, much faster than me, who was still learning.

Kade twisted away and sent a punch that cracked the air toward my head. I bent at the last moment, grimacing as the force stirred my hair. But I hadn’t been the top of my class for nothing.

I gathered essence and pressed my will down, shaping and twisting it. Four swords of essence hovered around me, blue-white with gleaming compressed edges.

I smiled and picked one up. "Let’s see if I still have my skills left."

Kade’s face tightened as he concealed his shock. He knew now that he had bitten off more than he could chew, yet his body twitched with anticipation. He was enjoying this. Lightning gathered around him, more than he’d conjured so far.

I didn’t wait. I projected another dome shield, but not around myself but around Kade. The shield snapped into place just as Kade unleashed his attack.

It was my strongest shield yet, but it shattered like glass under the assault, but the lightning collapsed and fizzled with a hiss as well, and the shockwave blasted Kade out of the tent. He was jetted backward, slamming into another tent.

I followed quickly, holding two swords now as my essence reserves dwindled. Workers flinched and ran, though some stayed to watch from a distance.

Tiber and Slya stood among them, watching in stunned silence.

Kade staggered to his feet, unwounded except for a thin line of blood on his forehead. He felt the burn of something on his neck and focused.

Green eyes glowed with intensity, and a sword of essence rested against Kade’s neck. Another floated ominously near me.

"Do you surrender?"