The Transmigrated Author-Chapter 282: The Lord Of Iron (2)

"He's incredibly strong…"

Rel stood amidst the chaos, breathing heavily but still composed.

He watched as the Iron Lord rose from the rubble, battered but far from defeated.

The tyrant's aura flickered like wildfire around him, fueled by rage and desperation.

"You're strong," Rel admitted, "but not strong enough."

"You arrogant whelp!" The Iron Lord bellowed, pulling himself free from twisted metal with sheer force of will.

"I'll crush you until there's nothing left!"

The Iron Lord roared, charging at Rel with all his might.

His massive frame became a blur of metal and rage as he closed the distance between them in seconds.

The war hammer, still crackling with energy, arced through the air on a collision course with Rel's skull.

"DIE!"

Rel remained perfectly still despite his expression that never changed.

As the Iron Lord bore down upon him, he simply extended his palm forward in a casual gesture, as if greeting an old friend rather than facing imminent death.

The Iron Lord's eyes gleamed with vicious triumph.

There was no visible defense, no counterattack being prepared.

His opponent had clearly given up.

"Pathetic!" he sneered, swinging his hammer with enough force to shatter mountains.

But when the weapon should have connected with Rel's head, it struck... nothing.

The hammer didn't bounce off or get deflected—it simply stopped, as if it had hit an invisible wall of pure force.

The Iron Lord's momentum carried him forward while his weapon remained frozen in place.

CRACK!

The handle of the war hammer shattered, sending shards of metal flying in all directions.

The Iron Lord stumbled back, staring in disbelief at the broken haft in his hand.

"What... what did you do?" he gasped, his voice trembling with confusion and the first hints of fear.

Rel lowered his palm slowly, his blue eyes glowing with an inner light.

"Nothing special. I simply denied your attack the right to hit me."

The Iron Lord's face contorted with rage and desperation.

"Impossible! This is MY zone! MY domain!"

"See? I told you. Your reign ends here today,"

He raised Axel above his head, and the blade began to transform.

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Darkness swirled around it, consuming all light.

Lightning—not the bright blue of natural electricity, but a deep black and blood red that spoke of forces that arced along its edge.

"I declare you, dead as hell."

SLASH!

The movement was too fast for the human eye to follow.

One moment Rel stood with his blade raised, the next it had completed its downward arc.

A line of absolute darkness cut through zone itself.

KYAK!

The Iron Lord didn't even have time to scream.

His body remained upright for a heartbeat before slowly separating along a perfect diagonal line.

But it wasn't just his body that had been severed—the entire zone around them began to crack, fractures spreading outward from the point of impact like a spiderweb across glass.

The iron sky shattered first, pieces falling away to reveal the throne room they had left behind.

The ground beneath their feet trembled and dissolved as reality reasserted itself.

The last fragments of the iron zone faded away and the Iron Lord's body disintegrated into a shower of glowing pixels that scattered across the throne room floor before vanishing completely.

The skull throne crumbled, each bone turning to dust as the tyrant's power dissipated.

"Well that's it,"

Rel stood in the center of the devastation, Axel still gripped tightly in his hand.

The blade's dark energy receded slowly, like black waves pulling back from a shore.

He turned to find Christian and Anouz watching him, their own battles apparently concluded.

Behind them lay the unconscious forms of Lysandra and Vargus, thoroughly defeated but still intact.

"That was... impressive," Christian said, wiping blood from a small cut on his cheek.

"I didn't expect the big guy to just... dissolve like that."

Anouz approached, his eyes wide with a mixture of awe and confusion.

"How did you break through his elemental zone? That barrier should have been nearly impenetrable."

"Was it the fact that he died?" Christian asked, nudging one of the fallen guards with his foot.

"The barrier shattered when you killed him, right?"

Rel sheathed his sword, however he had second thoughts of whether it was him that broke the barrier.

"I'm not entirely sure," he admitted.

"In theory, a barrier like that can only be broken by an equal or greater force"

He glanced at the spot where the Iron Lord had disappeared.

"I suppose it could have been either. My attack may have overwhelmed his barrier, or his death might have caused it to collapse. Hard to say for certain."

Anouz frowned, clearly not satisfied with the ambiguity.

"Well, whatever the case, the tyrant's gone. That's what matters."

***

[Rel's POV]

FWANG!

[Quest Update: The Orb Of Phantasmal]

[Goal 1: Clear the all monsters of the Phantasmal World!]

[Progress Bar: Monster clear 33% ]

I glanced down at my system notification again, studying the progress bar.

Unlike everyone else in this world, I couldn't just defeat monsters and watch my level climb.

My system operated on entirely different principles—one that rewarded completion of objectives rather than individual monster kills or experience points.

In this pocket dimension, I was essentially a spectator with combat abilities, forced to follow the story's progression without the benefit of the standard leveling system.

This 33% monster clear wasn't just my achievement—it represented the combined efforts of everyone trapped in this world.

The fact that we'd already cleared a third of the monsters was impressive, considering the sheer number of beasts infesting the main city and the final boss's territory.

If we were this far along, it meant that Jan, Valencia, and Louise must be making significant progress in their own regions.

"Hey, Rel," Christian called, interrupting my thoughts.

He and Anouz approached me as I dismissed the notification with a casual swipe of my hand.

"What's the plan now? The Iron Lord's gone, but there's still plenty of his goons lurking around."

Anouz nodded in agreement.

"And the people here need protection. We can't just leave them vulnerable."

I considered my options carefully. I didn't want to reveal that my system worked differently from theirs, or that I was essentially just following along because my second system—the one tied to this world—didn't function as I'd intended.

"It's probably best to follow what your system is telling you," I suggested, keeping my tone neutral.

"Mine is... a bit vague at the moment."

"Mine says we need to fully cleanse this area of monsters," Anouz said, glancing at his own invisible screen.

Christian nodded.

"Same here. 'Purge all remaining hostile entities from the Iron Fist territory.'"

"Then that's what we'll do," I agreed.

"We'll stay and help these people rebuild while hunting down every last monster and bandit in the region."