Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 252: You’ve Improved

Asher’s chest rose and fell rapidly as he panted, drawing in the air as though the very oxygen around him was on the verge of running out. His clothes clung tightly to his body, sticking to his skin like a desperate, clingy ex-lover. Sweat drenched him entirely, tracing down the contours of his frame, glistening under the dim light of the battlefield. The shimmering purple lightning armor that had once coursed around him had vanished, leaving his full form exposed to sight, weary, yet still emanating a faint trace of power.

He stood perfectly still, motionless, as if his mind was still processing the whirlwind of events that had just transpired. His gaze seemed unfocused for a moment, distant and thoughtful, the faint hum of residual lightning fading into silence. Then, almost unexpectedly, a soft smile curved on his lips.

In the heat of that life-and-death struggle, he had discovered something new, a way to enhance his speed by manipulating gravity itself. It wasn’t something he had ever considered before, yet in the chaos of battle, inspiration had struck him like a revelation. The thought felt foreign and exhilarating.

’Is this why people grow stronger during or after battles?’ he wondered. ’Is this why those who never fight, who never gamble their lives, remain stagnant?’

Back in his past life as Ethan, on Earth, he had read numerous novels about cultivation, where characters hit bottlenecks, unable to progress until they experienced real combat. Only through battle, through blood and danger, did they achieve true breakthroughs. Now, standing here, he finally understood that truth firsthand.

During his fight, he had managed to merge pure physical speed with brief flashes of teleportation, combining both into a seamless flow that increased not only his movement speed but also his lethality. Every attack had become unpredictable, a phantom strike of gravity and lightning.

Asher’s purple eyes slowly turned toward the mutilated corpse lying nearby. Doris’s body lay motionless on the scorched and frozen ground, headless, her left arm missing, deep gashes marking her flesh. Blood pooled beneath her, spreading in a dark red puddle that reflected the faint purple glimmer of his lightning. It was a grotesque sight, one that would have disturbed most people. But Asher simply observed in silence.

He wondered, not with pity but curiosity, how someone like Doris had fallen so far, what choices had twisted her into this monster. Despite all the novels he had read in his former life and all the depraved stories he’d encountered from deranged Authors online, those who wrote ”harem” or ”smut” under the guise of fantasy, he had never once seen something so vile. Not even the most unhinged Author had written about a woman forming a reverse harem of kidnapped boys, children barely ten or eleven years old.

His expression darkened. He imagined the parents of those children, their grief, their rage, their despair upon discovering what had been done to their sons. How must they have felt, knowing their missing children had been defiled by a woman who hid behind the mask of humanity?

A faint sigh escaped his lips. ”At least she’s dead now,” he muttered softly. There was no need to dwell on her sins any longer.

Asher’s gaze shifted to the figure standing a few meters behind him, Thalric. His older brother stood there calmly, his eyes fixed on Asher with an unreadable expression. But beneath that calm facade, there was a flicker of disbelief.

Thalric could not understand. To him, Asher should not have been capable of such overwhelming strength. A person of Asher’s Life Rank was not supposed to possess such destructive power. Even though Thalric had witnessed Asher’s True Awakening over half a year ago, even though he had known his younger brother was talented, this level of devastation was beyond comprehension.

It wasn’t just the power that unsettled him, it was the depth of it. Asher’s reserves of Astra energy were absurdly vast. True, the Wargrave bloodline granted a higher Astra capacity than most, their bodies enhanced by ancestral bloodline, but even by their standards, Asher’s energy was monstrous for his Life Rank.

’When did he even acquire the Space and Gravity elements?’ Thalric thought, his face still calm. His mind flickered back to that day, Asher’s awakening. Back then, he had only wielded lightning, nothing more. The revelation gnawed at him, a growing question forming in his chest.

Questions tore through Thalric’s thoughts, one after another, yet he remained silent. He would not ask, not now. In time, he would uncover everything. His gaze drifted toward Virelass, the elegant rapier floating beside Asher. Astra energy from the surroundings surged toward it in a steady stream, as though drawn by a vacuum. The weapon devoured the ambient energy with a quiet, gluttonous hunger, its metallic frame shimmering faintly.

When Thalric’s dark eyes met Asher’s purple pair, silence lingered between them for a moment, thick, heavy, yet strangely calm. Then Thalric finally spoke.

”You’ve improved,” he said simply. His tone carried neither mockery nor envy, only blunt honesty.

Asher didn’t respond immediately. For a moment, his mind sifted through fragments of inherited memories, the memories of this body’s original owner. The boy named Asher Wargrave had been tormented endlessly by the brother standing before him. But, the current Asher, Ethan, didn’t feel the same hatred. He had long decided not to inherit the original boy’s grudges or enemies.

It sounded selfish, perhaps even cruel, but Ethan had his reasons. He, Ethan, hadn’t caused the original Asher’s death. The boy had taken his own life long before his soul crossed into this world. There was no guilt to bear, no debt to pay. Still, Ethan had made one silent promise to himself, if Thalric ever showed the same cruelty again, he wouldn’t hesitate to end him.

He wasn’t going to play petty games or indulge in pointless family drama. If Thalric changed for the better, then Ethan would acknowledge him as a brother. If not, he would erase him without hesitation.

In time, Asher had come to understand why Thalric had acted the way he had, the pain, the resentment, the burden that twisted him. The boy had begun to change, little by little, and though the shift was small, it was genuine. Because of that, Asher chose to keep his distance, to wait and watch until everything became clear.

”Why are you here?” Asher finally asked, his voice calm and detached, completely ignoring Thalric’s earlier remark as though he hadn’t heard it. His gaze was steady, the purple glow in his eyes faint but sharp, like crackling lightning beneath calm waters.

Thalric didn’t answer immediately, but Asher already knew the look on his brother’s face, curiosity mixed with confusion. He could almost hear the questions that Thalric was holding back.

If Thalric asked about his multiple elements, Asher would tell the truth. He wasn’t hiding his affinities from anyone. But as for how he acquired them, that secret would remain his alone. Neither the Primarch nor Malrik would ever know the truth behind his evolution.

He had learned long ago that some truths were meant to remain unspoken. Power, after all, drew attention, and in this world, attention was as dangerous as any blade.

Asher’s eyes softened briefly as the wind carried away the last traces of blood and lightning. The battle was over, but the silence it left behind carried a weight only he could feel.