Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 570: Number One To Number Six

Asher stood with a calm expression on his face, as though he had not just wiped out over a hundred people as if it were nothing more than a casual stroll through a quiet park. There was no strain in his posture, no tremor in his breathing, no flicker of hesitation in his eyes.

He had done so while utilizing his Astra energy only once, and even then, it had merely been to pin down the woman who had stolen his speed from him. As for the rest, he had slaughtered them all with nothing but pure physical strength, unadulterated, unassisted, and terrifyingly efficient.

As for the last rapier technique he had displayed earlier, it was the same technique he had copied from the Knight named Hillary, which did not exactly require Astra energy to execute.

Asher’s eyes shifted toward those who stood ahead of him. There were about six of them, each emitting a formidable presence that pressed against the atmosphere like an invisible tide. Unlike the cannon fodder from earlier, they did not rush toward Asher like mindless madmen. They remained exactly where they were, as though silently inviting him to make the first move instead.

Silence enveloped the battlefield that had once been filled with the chaotic symphony of clashing weapons, dying screams, and flesh being grotesquely torn apart. The air still carried the metallic scent of blood and the acrid residue of destruction, but no one spoke. Even the wind seemed reluctant to disturb the tension that now hung thick and oppressive.

Asher’s purple eyes shifted slightly to the side as he recognized one of the six standing before him. He remembered her clearly. She was the one who had poisoned his food and ’knocked him unconscious’ earlier when he had been staying at the inn.

’So the Life Rank she displayed earlier wasn’t her actual Life Rank,’ Asher mused internally as he observed her more closely. She now stood firmly at the Firmstar Life Rank, positioning herself as one of the strongest present, second only to Debro himself... in terms of Life Rank at least.

The more Asher considered it, the more sense it made. It was only natural that they would send one of their best to kidnap the villagers. In the event that unforeseen circumstances arose, there would need to be sufficient power on the field to handle whatever threat emerged.

’Golden boxes are her ability. Although, with her standing here, I suppose her ability goes deeper than what Virelass told me,’ Asher concluded. However, he did not fault Virelass. It did not truly matter. He did not even know the abilities of the remaining five, and besides, Virelass had only witnessed her use that ability once.

’I will call them Number One to Number Six, then,’ Asher decided calmly in his mind as he prepared to move.

But before he could even take a single step, his senses erupted like blaring alarm bells. Instinct overrode thought. Asher did not hesitate, nor did he waste even a fraction of a second attempting to process what was coming. With a mere thought, space and Astra energy bent under his will. The fabric of reality warped around him, and he vanished in a streaking blue blur as he teleported away from his original position.

The instant he disappeared, an overwhelming, titanic explosion tore through the landscape and the battlefield. The impact carved violently into the distance, spreading for kilometers in every direction as it engulfed everything within its radius. The ground fractured, the air ruptured, and debris was launched skyward in catastrophic waves of devastation.

Asher saw the shockwave tearing toward him with annihilating momentum. But t he didn’t panic. He had not known the exact range or nature of the attack; he had simply teleported away from his previous position, recognizing it as the focal point of danger. When the shockwave and blast wave reached him, he seamlessly tapped into his spatial affinity and phased through the destructive force without missing a beat. The energy passed through him as though he were nothing more than a mirage.

Once the shockwave subsided, Asher waved his hand casually. Pure wind erupted outward from the sheer force of his physical motion alone, violently parting the smoke and dense clouds of dust that obscured the battlefield. When visibility returned, the terrain was unrecognizable. Ravines split the earth open like fresh wounds, and destruction blanketed everything in sight.

Asher did not need to guess the source of the attack. He had already sensed it earlier but had not had the time to fully process it due to the immediacy of the danger.

Blood Manipulation.

One of the six had seized control of the blood from those he had slain and forcefully triggered a massive explosion by weaponizing the accumulated carnage scattered across the battlefield. Every drop of spilled blood had been turned into a volatile catalyst.

Asher’s purple eyes shifted toward the location where the six had originally stood, but they were gone. They had used the explosion as cover to vanish from sight. Asher did not believe they had fled. If escape had been their intention, they would have retreated earlier, not now. No, they were still here, concealed and waiting.

He made no move to actively search for them. This was a battlefield, not a game of hide-and-seek. They would attack again; he was certain of it.

His Omni Perception surged to its peak capacity, expanding outward in a three hundred meter radius. Every shift in air pressure, every tremor in the ground, every distortion in space fell within his awareness as he waited for the first to act.

Suddenly, his senses screamed once more, sharp and urgent. Asher vanished again in a burst of motion.

But when he reappeared, nothing happened.

No explosion. No strike. No distortion. Literally nothing.

Asher narrowed his eyes slightly. He refused to believe that there was truly nothing. He trusted his senses implicitly. Something had occurred. He simply had not perceived it fully.

’But if an attack had happened, there should have been some form of air displacement,’ Asher reasoned internally. Still, he chose to temporarily shelve the thought until he gathered more information. Abilities of this nature were rarely transparent at first glance; they were often intricate, layered, and deceptively subtle.

Before Asher could take further action, crimson swords forged entirely from blood shot forward from the distance at terrifying speed, aiming to impale and tear him apart where he stood.

Asher did not move. His Astra energy flowed steadily through his veins, luminous and potent, as he erected an Astra barrier around himself. The translucent shield shimmered faintly with golden brilliance. With battering force and thunderous impact, each blood construct slammed into the Astra barrier. The collisions reverberated violently, tearing apart the earth surrounding the barrier and fracturing the ground outward in jagged lines.

Asher’s purple eyes narrowed as he calculated the magnitude of force behind each blood-forged blade. The pressure was immense, coordinated, and relentless.

Before he could utter even a single word, his senses snapped sharply to the side. Someone had entered, no, teleported directly into his barrier. Alongside him were dozens of additional flying blood constructs, suspended mid-flight and poised for lethal assault.

The moment the teleporter appeared, he vanished again.

Asher did not hesitate. His hand flashed toward Virelass as his body blurred into motion. His movements were so swift that they fractured into afterimages, each strike precise and devastating. One by one, he obliterated the blood constructs in mere seconds, shattering them into harmless splatters before they could converge upon him, while his Astra barrier kept the blood construct outside at bay.

His Omni Perception immediately detected another presence behind him, the same individual who had appeared moments earlier. Without delay, Asher’s entire body erupted in blinding golden brilliance. Light-force and radiant energy exploded outward from him in an incandescent wave of apocalyptic magnitude, sweeping across tens of meters in a devastating surge.

The vanisher, sensing the impending annihilation, vanished instantly to escape the expanding tide of destruction, leaving behind only fractured earth and lingering echoes of violent light.