Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 567: Six Consecutive Thuds

Asher’s purple eyes were ice cold at this moment. His gaze swept across the entire battlefield with detached precision, observing every presence gathered before him. The weakest among them stood at the Brightstar Life Rank, while the strongest had reached the Firmstar Life Rank.

Their numbers barely exceeded a hundred, yet to Asher, none of that held the slightest significance. Rank, quantity, experience, it was all meaningless. They would die all the same.

His hand moved toward Virelass’ hilt, which rested quietly at his waist as though it too were waiting. The instant his fingers brushed against the weapon, the atmosphere shifted. The air on the battlefield thickened almost palpably, pressure mounting as aura surged violently outward.

The invisible force pressed down upon everyone present, suffocating and oppressive. Conversations died mid-breath. Even the wind seemed to falter. Silence stretched between them like a taut wire ready to snap.

And then it did.

The silence shattered the moment Asher took another step forward. But before that step could even fully land, he was already gone.

His body flickered several meters ahead in a distortion of speed, appearing before the group of six who had spoken of raping him six days from now. He remembered them clearly. Their laughter. Their certainty. Their vulgarity. Before any of them could so much as widen their eyes in comprehension, Asher’s rapier flashed in a streak of silver brilliance. The blade moved once, only once, yet two heads were severed in a single, seamless motion.

Blood erupted and splattered across the scorched earth as the decapitated heads soared briefly into the air, expressions frozen in shock. The remaining four stood paralyzed for the barest fraction of a second, disbelief rooting them in place. Then survival instinct seized them. Astra energy roared to life within their bodies, flowing through their Astra veins and bursting outward in violent waves.

But they never had the chance to release an attack, as before they even could, Asher had moved again.

Another silver flash carved through the air. The cartilage-ripping tear of flesh tearing echoed across the battlefield, wet and visceral. A third body collapsed. He did not pause. His motion flowed seamlessly into the next strike as he advanced upon the fourth. His foot left the ground in a powerful arc, his forefoot slamming directly into the man’s Adam’s apple with crushing force. Bone cracked. Breath ceased. The man’s body crumpled before it even understood what had happened.

Without missing a beat, Asher blurred forward once more, appearing before the fifth, a woman whose beauty might have captivated lesser men. He did not spare her a single glance. His hand plunged into her chest with merciless precision, fingers tearing through flesh and bone as though they were fragile parchment. He ripped her heart free in one brutal motion, his arm snapping backward with bone-crushing force. Blood sprayed in a crimson arc behind her.

In the same breath, he vanished again. He reappeared before the final man of the group. His fingers straightened and hardened, shaped like the tip of a spear. With a precise thrust, they pierced through skull and brain with disturbing ease. There was no resistance that mattered. Only inevitability.

Silence fell once more upon the battlefield.

Six consecutive thuds struck the earth in quick succession, each impact heavier than the last.

And there stood Asher, in one hand, he held a still-beating heart. In the other, fragments of brain matter he had forcibly extracted from a shattered skull. His posture was relaxed, almost casual, as though this grotesque display required no more effort than drawing breath. There was no tremor in his hands. No flicker of emotion in his eyes.

As for why he had targeted that particular group of six first, there was no need for explanation. The reason was self-evident.

A collective swallow rippled through the remaining fighters as they stared at Asher as though he were something no longer human. They had not even seen him move. One moment six individuals had stood among them; the next, they were erased from Crymora entirely. Fear tightened throats. But roars and fury quickly followed. Their expressions hardened. Astra surged violently through their veins, crawling across the surface of their bodies in luminous waves.

Without further hesitation, they shot forward in blurs of motion, crossing the distance with roars of rage. They sought to overwhelm him through numbers, to crush the madman before them.

Forgetting, perhaps, that they too were mad.

Asher flicked his wrist casually. Blood and fragments of brain matter splattered onto the ground. Virelass flashed fully into his grasp once more, gleaming faintly under the fractured light of the battlefield.

He did not care about the numerical disparity. This was far from the first time he had fought against multiple opponents simultaneously. If anything, he possessed more experience in such scenarios than in simple one-on-one confrontations.

And so, he moved.

He shot forward in a blur of pure velocity. The air tore apart in his wake as he crossed the distance within a single heartbeat, reaching his enemies before they could reach him. The instant he arrived before the first attacker, his rapier thrust forward with devastating precision. There was a sickly crunch as steel pierced bone. A gaping hole opened through the man’s skull, Astra dispersing uselessly into the air as life vanished.

Asher did not linger to admire his handiwork. He was already gone. His movements were swift, sharp, economical. He passed another opponent in a single fluid stride, and only after he had moved beyond him did a head detach cleanly from its shoulders, spinning upward as though briefly attempting to take flight.

He relied on nothing but raw physical speed and overwhelming power. No elaborate techniques. No complex Astra manipulations. And yet, he tore through their formation as though they were children meddling with forces far beyond their comprehension.

In truth, they were children before him.

Though he stood at the Swiftstar Life Rank, his physical statistics far surpassed the limitations of that realm. He had been a Wargrave from the very beginning. Moreover, his Limitless Physical Growth ability had allowed him to achieve breakthrough after breakthrough, two in total, each one pushing his body into something monstrous.

He was anything but an ordinary Swiftstar Life Ranker.

His rapier carved through the torso of another man, splitting him cleanly in half from the waist. Internal organs spilled into the air in a grotesque dance before crashing to the ground. Blood splattered across Asher’s face, warm and thick, but he made no effort to wipe it away.

His purple eyes shifted abruptly to the side, detecting the trajectory of a dart slicing through the air toward him. With effortless grace, he twisted his body. In the same motion, he seized another opponent by the collar and hurled him directly into the projectile’s path.

The dart embedded itself into the unfortunate man’s skull with grotesque accuracy.

The assailant responsible did not falter at the death of his own comrade. Undeterred, he unleashed another barrage. This time not one dart, but dozens filled the air, slicing through space with lethal intent.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Asher responded instantly, his wrist flickered as Virelass rotated into a blur of circular motion. The rapier spun with surgical precision, intercepting each incoming dart. The metallic clashes rang sharply across the battlefield.

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!

Yet he did more than simply parry. With masterful control, he redirected each deflected dart toward the surrounding attackers. The experienced fighters reacted swiftly, raising weapons and Astra barriers to block the redirected assault. They were not caught off guard.

But that had never been his intention. He did not need the darts to kill them; he only needed them to react to the attack, and they had.

The moment they adjusted their stances and shifted their focus to defend, Asher vanished in an explosive burst of speed, he appeared before two of them simultaneously. Before they could redirect their weapons toward him, before their minds could fully process his presence, all they perceived was a flash of silver light.

Then their world spun violently, disoriented and inverted, as though the sky had abruptly become the earth. Their heads struck the ground moments later.

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AUTHOR’S NOTE: Open the month with a super gift? Or super gifts? Remember, I do super gifts for bonus Chapters, also, still need your golden tickets. And I’d like to say thanks to those who have already supported me, and also thanks to everyone in general. Love y’all.