Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 977: Nigh-impossible Goal

Azaron sighed as the memory of that literal hellscape remained vividly etched into his mind. That event had been one of the defining moments that shaped him into the man he was today. It was also because of this that he never truly bothered with Malrik’s obsession with protecting his siblings.

Malrik wiping out a Baron family simply because their Young Master had dared to look at his younger sister with lustful eyes was merely a minor footnote compared to the things Nazak did whenever he was truly angry.

It was from his Father that he had learned to vent his anger upon his enemies.

’I wonder if Overlord Cynthia will be amongst those who would send people after the youngest,’ Azaron thought to himself with an amused smile.

After what his Father had done to the woman, it was enough to traumatize almost anyone. He wondered if she was truly willing to provoke the Wargraves.

The reason Nazak had critically injured Overlord Cynthia was because she had known about the Duke’s scheme, yet tactfully chose to do nothing. He didn’t kill her because he knew a war would erupt, and his friend, Cyrvexis, had always told him not to provoke one.

If not, Cynthia would have been guilty by association in Nazak’s eyes.

But alas, the power of friendship had prevailed in that particular moment.

’It’s a shame I never got to spar with Father before he was killed,’ Azaron thought to himself as he lifted a hand and stared at it.

He remembered when he was little, when he, his Father, and his Mother would spar all the time, when Nazak would always get him almost whatever he wanted simply because he was just that talented, and the man never stopped boasting about it. And just like any child out there, he, Azaron, had confidently told his Father that he would one day surpass him, Nazak, and that they would fight for the title of the Strongest Wargrave.

He remembered his Mother, Celine, constantly telling Nazak to stop boasting or he would make Azaron arrogant, or worse, create a divide amongst the Suns and Moons because one child received more attention and affection than the others.

’Mother...’ Azaron thought.

He remembered the earful both he and his Father had received the day they returned from the Thalvorn Empire after the massacre. Celine hadn’t been having any of it. She had angrily complained about what would have happened if Nazak had died, insisting that Nazak should have at least gone with his siblings.

Azaron remembered his Mother calling him to the training grounds before beating him senseless with a spear under the excuse of spear training, since both he and she specialized in using the spear.

Azaron had tried explaining that there had been absolutely nothing he could have done to stop his Father, who had been consumed by blind rage, but Celine hadn’t cared and simply disciplined him through the sparring session. Azaron even remembered his Mother ordering the healers not to heal him, forcing his body to recover naturally on its own, a process that had taken almost an entire month.

Even Zarik, Azaron’s right-hand man and personal butler, alongside Nazak’s own right-hand man, had each had an entire year’s salary deducted. Although both butlers technically didn’t work under Celine, the punishment had still been issued regardless.

So, basically, nobody escaped punishment.

Celine hadn’t been angry that they had gone to the Thalvorn Empire. Rather, she had been furious that her husband hadn’t told her anything and had also left without any backup. She simply couldn’t afford to lose both her husband and son on the very same day.

But alas... she had been the first to die, not him, not Nazak, and she had died while carrying out a mission.

And unlike Nazak, she hadn’t been at the Crownstar Life Rank but at the Soulstar Life Rank, and she had been the daughter of a Baron, a Noble by birth.

A sad, almost non-existent smile couldn’t help but appear on Azaron’s face. He remembered how he had constantly complained to Zarik that his Mother had been far too harsh on him back then.

’Only if I had been able to spar with him before he died,’ Azaron thought to himself, although he knew that had it happened before Nazak’s death, he, Azaron, would have undoubtedly lost.

Although he had now surpassed his Father, it remained a fact that Nazak had been an absolute monster. He had critically injured Cynthia while taking on multiple opponents at the same time and had emerged with barely any injuries to show for it.

Even Cyrvexis hadn’t complained about what Nazak had done within a foreign Empire. He had merely nodded before telling him that he would handle everything, not as an Emperor, but as a friend.

Celine, his Mother, had died on a mission. Nazak, his Father, had died as the result of an ambush. Lily, his wife, had died during childbirth.

If Azaron’s siblings were to die as well, then he truly would have lost everything.

’I wonder how I will die,’ Azaron thought to himself as he walked, momentarily forgetting that Asher was walking beside him.

It wasn’t that Azaron was looking forward to his own death or anything of the sort.

But he didn’t want to die peacefully in a bed from something as mundane as old age. At the same time, he didn’t want to die at the hands of some random enemy either, only to make it his children’s life’s purpose to avenge their Father’s death.

To Azaron, the ideal ending would be finding someone capable of matching him perfectly, someone with whom he could fight with absolutely everything he possessed until they ultimately killed each other in battle. But before that day ever came, he wanted to witness his children reaching the Crownstar Life Rank.

He also wanted to have one or two grandchildren, children who wouldn’t yet be fully grown, perhaps only a year old, still far too young to understand the concept of death or even begin to comprehend what it truly meant.

Azaron remembered that, in the past, his life’s mission had been to hunt down the Sinvairas and wipe them out completely. He had searched high and low, yet found absolutely nothing. They were simply far too slippery. He could spend years searching for them in one Empire while they casually relaxed in another, or perhaps they were hidden somewhere within the countless unexplored lands of Crymora, making it nearly impossible to locate them or even discover the faintest trace of their existence.

Which was why Azaron’s greatest goal had become something utterly insane and seemingly impossible, something he planned to achieve before his lifespan finally ran out or before he encountered the perfect opponent with whom he would perish in battle.

His main goal was to become so overwhelmingly powerful that he could cover the entirety of Crymora with his Nebula.

That way, he could sense, see, hear, feel, and perceive everything happening across the entire planet as though the world itself had become an extension of his own senses. Once he reached that level of connection, finding the Sinvairas would become inevitable, and when that day came, he would personally hunt every last one of them down.

Yes, it was an almost impossible dream, but he was Azaron Wargrave.

Yes, the Crownstar Life Rank was the highest known Life Rank, but it had never been the true ceiling of power. If it were, then no Radiant Crownstar Life Ranker would bother training after reaching that realm. They would simply spend the rest of their lives drinking alcohol, sleeping beside the opposite gender, and wasting away in comfort.

But regardless of how nigh-impossible his ambition was, he, Azaron, still had well over a thousand years to pursue it... unless, of course, he found and killed his enemies long before then.