Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 583: Death Trigger

Death Trigger was somewhat like a revenge ability directed against whoever had killed Number Five. The minds of every tamed monster would be imprinted with the identity of the enemy that Number Five had faced immediately before his death, and at this moment, the revenge target was Asher Wargrave.

Asher stared at the impossible scene before him. He could hardly believe what his eyes were showing him, and for a brief moment he even doubted the system’s so-called protection from illusions and mental manipulation skills. After all, the monsters he had personally killed only moments ago were now standing before him once again, each of them seething with unmistakable hatred and murderous anger.

He had already lost count of their number. Number Five had lived for an unknown number of years, and during that time he had certainly tamed an immense number of monsters and beasts. Even now, the portals continued to disgorge them in continuous waves.

Asher could not help but imagine what might have happened if this ability had allowed Number Five to tame the Negative Emovirae, creatures that were considered impossible to tame by any known method.

The very thought alone was chilling.

The next moment, the air itself seemed to bloat unnaturally, as if the atmosphere had swollen under unbearable pressure before collapsing in on itself. The sky trembled as bird-type monsters flapped their enormous wings high above. Wolves blazing with different elemental affinities emerged from the portals, their fur crackling with fire, lightning, and frost. Massive bears lumbered forward with thunderous steps, sleek panthers prowled like shadows made flesh, and monsters of countless shapes and categories poured onto the battlefield.

Some were creatures Asher had encountered before, while others were completely unfamiliar to him. Even massive arachnids scuttled forward, their countless legs tapping rhythmically against the shattered ground, the sheer diversity of the creatures was staggering.

Then, without hesitation, they all surged forward with a single target in mind and a single mission etched into their vengeful minds; the death of Asher Wargrave.

The ground awakened beneath their charge. It shattered violently as a monstrous stampede erupted. The pool of blood beneath Asher’s feet trembled and boiled as the beasts rushed forward in an endless tide, driven by blind vengeance and completely devoid of fear.

Asher slowly closed his eyes for a moment and sighed quietly, then he opened them again. His body lowered slightly as he dipped forward, his hand curling firmly around the hilt of Virelass, who trembled in excitement beneath his grip. His muscles coiled like tightly wound springs, ready to erupt at any moment.

For an instant, Asher was tempted to use his rapier technique. He had long wished to test it in a real battle. But he refused to let the first use of such a technique be wasted against opponents he deemed unworthy.

With that thought, Astra energy exploded from his body, Light affinity blossomed across his entire form, wrapping both him and Virelass in a radiant golden sheen. The ground beneath his feet cracked violently as power surged outward, then, without hesitation, he launched forward like a rocket, the blood pool beneath his feet erupted into a ridiculous tidal wave due to the sheer force of his movement.

In less than the blink of an eye, Asher had already crossed the distance between himself and the charging monsters. Before any of them could even properly react, their bodies were carved apart in a single flash of golden brilliance.

At that moment, Asher seemed less like a man and more like an apostle of death itself. Wherever he passed, monsters collapsed to the ground with thunderous crashes.

Their ranks did not matter. Their abilities did not matter. Their scales, hides, claws, and towering forms did not matter.

Whenever life stood before him, Virelass was there to offer it to the God of Death. Asher seemed to have become one with his blade. He and Virelass moved in flawless synchronization, their movements so perfectly aligned that it seemed impossible to separate wielder from weapon. His speed now surpassed anything he had displayed until this very moment.

His Light affinity pushed that speed even further beyond its previous limits, blood splattered against his body as he moved, wind barriers collapsing and sound barriers shattering simultaneously as his velocity continued to climb higher and higher.

Slash! Slash! Cleave! Cleave! Thrust! Thrust!

The way Asher moved made it seem as though he had entered a completely different state of existence. He appeared locked within a moment outside of time itself. The deaths of the monsters became the rhythm of a silent song, and their collapsing bodies became the dance partners to which he moved.

Then, in the next instant, Asher vanished from the ground, he reappeared high in the sky, his body drenched in blood and reeking of death. The bird-type monsters that had previously lost track of him due to his overwhelming speed immediately sensed his presence.

But before they could even screech or flap their massive wings forward, Asher moved, his hand and rapier blurred into invisibility, for a single moment, the sky itself seemed to turn golden as his blade slashed at a speed incomprehensible even to monsters built for aerial supremacy.

Then the aftermath followed.

Feathers exploded outward in every direction. The once blue sky was suddenly filled with drifting feathers, falling corpses, and spraying blood, as though the heavens themselves had transformed into a storm of death. Hundreds of bird monsters had been diced apart through nothing but pure swordsmanship.

Asher vanished again, tge sky lost him once more as he reappeared within the battlefield below.

Corpses rained down from above like a grotesque meteor shower. Blood of many different colors poured down as if the heavens themselves were weeping crimson tears while witnessing the Absolute Cinema unfolding below.

The falling blood struck Asher and the remaining monsters alike with a soft pattering sound, but neither side paid it any attention. The land monsters unleashed every ability they possessed. Flames erupted, lightning flashed, venom sprayed, and elemental attacks tore across the battlefield.

But Asher did not teleport, he did not need to, was there anything faster than light? To him, their movements appeared as slow as crawling insects. He simply dodged them as though they were moving at a snail’s pace, even the snakes, relying on their thermal vision, attempted to track him, but it was useless, all they saw was a fleeting golden flash before their vision abruptly went dark forever.

Fatigue seemed like an unknown concept to Asher as he continued moving. His muscles strained under the tremendous pressure of his speed, his body becoming little more than a phantom streak across the battlefield.

Beneath the heavens, his blade appeared utterly invincible.

The endless swarm of monsters slowly dwindled, thousands became hundreds, hundreds became tens.

And tens eventually became nothing more than lifeless corpses scattered across the ruined land.

The last monster died exactly as the first had died, without meaning.

Asher’s body suddenly came to a halt, his eyes closed once more, his form standing perfectly still as though his mind and body were slowly returning to reality from whatever strange dimension of battle he had entered.

Then his purple eyes snapped open again, at that exact moment, the carnage beneath his feet, the vast ocean of blood formed from creatures of countless species, began to tremble violently, the ground shook, the ocean of blood quaked and rose upward toward the air, then, as though pulled by an irresistible force, the massive sea of blood rushed toward Asher.

In the next instant, it poured directly into Virelass. The rapier devoured the blood without hesitation, drinking it with insatiable hunger as though it were a bottomless abyss capable only of swallowing endlessly.

Previously, Virelass had not bothered drinking their blood. To her, and at her master’s current level, it had been of inferior quality and not worth consuming.

But now, after these monsters had chosen to court death so eagerly, she consumed every last drop, since they had desired revenge but ultimately failed to achieve it, their blood might as well serve some purpose for her master in the future.

When the process was complete, not a single drop remained upon the battlefield. Only dried organs, shattered bones, and countless corpses remained scattered across the devastated land.

And with that, Asher stood alone in the silence of his own making. The Death Trigger, an ability meant to drag whoever killed Number Five down to hell alongside him, had ultimately been rendered completely useless.

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AUTHOR’S NOTE: Super gifts? Golden tickets?