Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 608: Solaris’ And Malrik’s Bickering

Malrik sat in calm silence; when he had arrived two days ago, the first thing he did was check on Asher personally, despite the words of Jennifer and Yveric saying he was fine. After that, he tried asking Virelass for what had happened, although he couldn’t communicate with Virelass directly, Solaris, his katana, could serve as the bridge between them.

But Virelass didn’t speak; she refused to speak until Asher woke up. After all, she didn’t know what Asher wanted to share and what he didn’t want to share. Although her master wasn’t one who went around hiding his powers, she knew she couldn’t say anything until he woke up and made his own decisions.

Within the past two days, Malrik also spent it drilling Solaris with questions, endlessly and without pause. If Solaris could slap Malrik, he probably would have done so within the past two days without hesitation.

The reason?

Well, as stated previously, Solaris’ abilities allowed Malrik to sense whenever any of Malrik’s loved ones was going to die, or receive any permanent injury that even healing couldn’t mend or restore. It even gave him partial information on who was responsible for the attack, death, or injury, while also providing full information on the location and exact time of the battle.

This was how Malrik had been present during Wuthenya’s battle with the Sinvaira named Orvak, as she was meant to face certain death that day without any possibility of survival.

Malrik normally just watched, and when the loved one was about to die, then he would step in and save them; after all, the best way to grow was to fight through life-and-death situations. Which was why he allowed Wuthenya to fight Orvak first before intervening at the very last possible moment.

But now, Solaris didn’t give any information to Malrik concerning Asher’s battle. Didn’t that mean Asher was never going to die? This was Solaris’ argument these past two days, Asher being here and perfectly fine at this moment was proof of that undeniable truth, but Malrik didn’t seem to believe him, not even in the slightest.

If possible, Malrik might have thrown Solaris into the fire and allowed him to burn for a moment or two just to vent his frustration. Malrik had even gone as far as telling Solaris that if Asher didn’t wake up within a week’s time, he wouldn’t use Solaris in their next two big battles. And so, these two spent the two days bickering constantly, but of course, this was all just banter between two bros who understood each other perfectly.

”What are you thinking about so much?” Malrik spoke as he rose from his seat and walked towards the window where Asher stood, gazing outward.

”Nothing really,” Asher replied with a slight shake of his head, his tone calm and unbothered.

After a moment of pause, Malrik spoke again, ”Tell me what happened and who was responsible.” Although his question seemed innocent on the surface, Asher could sense something deeper and far more dangerous hidden underneath Malrik’s tone.

Asher hadn’t forgotten that Malrik was famous for wiping out entire bloodlines without hesitation. This was the particular reason Knight Hillary had become an assassin, just to haunt Asher during the True Awakening event.

’Is he going to wipe out this organization?’ Asher couldn’t help but think to himself, as it seemed like something Malrik might casually do as though it were a regular afternoon activity. After a moment, Asher shook his head with a soft sigh; it had nothing to do with him. If Malrik wiped them out, it wasn’t his business anyway, those people were sick and utterly deranged.

With that, Asher’s lips parted as he began from the very beginning, how it had been a simple Star Academy mission of saving some villagers, then looking for clues, then him stumbling upon the mind-bending experiment, the sickening members of the organization, and then his battle with Debro. Asher didn’t hide Debro’s words and the twisted love the man had been confessing with disturbing sincerity.

As Asher spoke, he had a sudden idea. Why only speak when you could also show?

And with that, he manipulated the light photons in the air to craft an illusion. But this time, he wasn’t manipulating the light photons that entered Malrik’s eyes; even if Asher tried that, it wouldn’t work. After all, Malrik could literally control the Sun and had light and fire as sub-elements too.

So the illusion was just a normal illusion one could craft conventionally; using it, Asher showed everything. And with his perfect memory, every detail was accounted for down to the most minor and insignificant fragment. He showed his battle with Debro, the grotesque experiments, and everything in between without omission.

After a moment, the illusion vanished as it ended with him falling unconscious.

Malrik stayed silent for a moment, then sighed as he slowly shook his head. Indeed, he had been about to wipe out whoever was responsible for making Asher unconscious. But since it was just a Star Academy mission and Debro was dead, Malrik didn’t feel the need to make any immediate moves. After all, it was a mission, and it wasn’t as though the organization had actively sent Debro after Asher with deliberate intent.

And if the organization decided to later send someone after Asher to avenge Debro’s death, then he wouldn’t mind hunting them to the very ends of the world. A smirk appeared on his lips at the thought, cold and fleeting, then it vanished the next moment as if it had never existed.

His thoughts shifted to his little brother, Asher. Staring at him, their blue and purple eyes met midair, locking briefly, then he sighed again as he spoke, ”To think you are simply this ridiculous at the age of eighteen, not even I was that talented,” he paused for a moment, then added, ”nor did I possess such overwhelming power at your age,” he added once more, his tone carrying both pride and disbelief.

A smile couldn’t help but appear on Asher’s lips, but Malrik wasn’t done speaking, ”And to think you have also created your own technique, you are simply more monstrous than we give you credit for.” His hand rose as he ruffled Asher’s purple hair gently, ”Song Of Virelass, truly a fitting name,” he stated in finality, his voice steady.

”Thank you, Big Brother,” Asher replied. He hadn’t hidden any detail from Malrik, although Asher didn’t want anyone to know about the Star Energy just yet; in his battle with Debro, it had been disguised as Astra energy.

Asher had expected Malrik to ask about his Star Form and Lightning Armour or even question something, anything at all, but Malrik, he was simply happy that his monstrous brother was walking forward. Not even Apollo Wargrave, the Fourth Sun, was this swift, despite him cheating by devouring souls to accelerate his growth.

”It seems you will be beating my record; after all, I became a Crownstar Life Ranker by age twenty-nine,” Malrik spoke again, ”when you get to the Crownstar Life Rank, we might have an all-out battle,” Malrik added with a faint smile, one filled with anticipation.

But at the same time, he couldn’t help but ask himself; how was he supposed to protect his little brother if his junior became stronger than him, surpassing him entirely?