Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 1034: First True War [GT Ranking Bonus Chapter]

”I took a mission from the Wargrave Mission Hall. The mission was to investigate a plague that was spreading in a particular region located near a Baron’s Territory,” she began to speak. ”The Barony couldn’t find out what was happening, so they requested help from the Wargraves, and I was deployed, as it was suspected that an Emovira with the ability to control plagues of various types was behind it.”

Her black eyes met Asher’s as she spoke. As for Asher, he never broke eye contact. He remained standing, his stance unshifting, his Star Energy ready to erupt, with the Position Marker on Azaron’s chest ready to be activated at any time.

”And indeed, the intel was right. A Rank 7 Emovira was behind the whole thing,” Lyra continued calmly. ”The battle took a while, and although I was given an artefact that should make me immune to these plagues, which was effective almost throughout the fight,” she paused for a moment, ”at the end, the Emovira used what seemed to be its trump card, a plague attack that even the artefact couldn’t stop. Hence, I became infected and was on the verge of death.”

Asher listened. Personally, he felt like telling Lyra to just skip ahead and get to the part he wanted to hear, but he knew he had to be patient.

”What of the Knight that was sent to shadow you and guard you? Did he get infected?” he asked, his tone flat.

Lyra shook her head. ”No, he wasn’t affected. According to him, he was simply too strong for the Emovira’s ability to work on him,” she answered truthfully.

”Although I was dying from the last plague attack, I wasn’t bothered, as I knew I could teleport back here anytime with the Teleportation Scroll and be healed,” she continued speaking. ”And with that thought in mind, I decided to explore the cavern. After all, I was still on my mission, and killing the Emovira didn’t necessarily mean the mission was over. But the deeper I walked and entered, the weirder it became. It was too dark, eerie, and space was unstable,” she recounted as she remembered it vividly. ”But after a point, the Knight and I encountered a portal, and due to the mission, I had to enter, no matter what danger was on the other side. After all, I can’t abandon a mission without reasonable intel.”

Asher remained silent as he tried to sense if she was lying, watching her every expression.

”But the moment I entered the portal, the Knight, who was supposed to follow behind me, couldn’t. It was a portal that only accepted a single entrant, and no more,” Lyra continued. ”But on the other side, I met... IT.”

Asher’s eyes narrowed at the word ”IT.”

”What was IT?” he asked, eager to know.

”A monster... an End-class Monster,” Lyra replied as she closed her eyes for a moment.

Hearing Lyra’s words, Asher couldn’t help but instantly frown. End-class Monsters were beings that went toe-to-toe with Crownstar Life Rankers. Simply being in the presence of one could kill anyone who was weaker, yet Lyra had met one and walked out alive.

”The place I had arrived at was pure white, white floors, white walls, white ceilings, everything was just that... white,” she continued calmly. ”But the Astra energy density was simply the highest I’ve ever sensed, and when I asked where that place was, it said it was the...” her eyes met Asher’s as she spoke, ”the Cursed Lands.”

Asher was dumbfounded. He couldn’t help but reason how a mission involving the investigation of plagues had taken Lyra to the Cursed Lands.

’Besides, from Lyra’s story, it seemed as though that Plague Emovira was guarding that portal...’ Asher thought to himself.

He couldn’t help but wonder if the Emovira truly knew what was on the other end of the portal, and even if it knew, why didn’t it enter. Because it was afraid? If the Emovira was afraid, it should have taken off instead of wasting time spreading a disease across a Barony.

”How did you survive encountering an End-class Monster?” Asher asked calmly.

”I didn’t know it was an End-class Monster at first,” Lyra answered as she shook her head. ”When I got into the white space, it possessed a human form, so I thought it was a human, although I still kept my guard up,” she explained. ”And when I asked where that place was, that was when I was told it was the Cursed Lands, and when I asked who he was, he revealed his true form. It was indeed an End-class Monster,” she spoke with a sigh.

”Of course, I thought I was going to die, but it said it wasn’t going to kill me immediately... but instead had been waiting for the another human or monster to cross the portal, and why the Emovira couldn’t cross the portal was because it was neither,” she said, recounting what the End-class Monster had told her.

”Why was it waiting?” Asher asked.

Lyra stayed silent for a moment, then replied, ”It said it was dying and had simply gone to hide within the Cursed Lands, and when I asked how long it had been hiding, it said it had been hiding since the First True War of the Erased Era, which, according to it, happened about nineteen thousand years ago.”

Asher’s eyes trembled at what he had just heard.

’First True War. Erased Era,’ he thought to himself, as though he had just stumbled upon some hidden and erased knowledge of the past.

”When I asked how it had survived for that long, it said it was simply that strong and gave no other explanation but a simple smile,” Lyra recounted.

’That strong, huh?’ Asher thought to himself.

He knew that Crownstar Life Rankers could live for up to a thousand years, but that was their base. The stronger one got, the more their lifespan increased. It was the same way one couldn’t expect Azaron and some random Crownstar Life Ranker to have the same lifespan.

But nineteen thousand years just because one was strong seemed preposterous on every level. To him, not even Azaron could live that long.

”It said I was the first visitor in seventy years, and those who had arrived before me, it had wiped them out and devoured,” Lyra continued. ”It told me that it had been waiting for anyone suitable to pass its ability to, the ability to Devour anything and all things, and it killed all those who had crossed the portal because they either weren’t talented enough or were simply too stupid to wield its power and ability,” she explained as she clenched her fist.

’Just how many overpowered abilities does this planet even have?’ Asher thought to himself.

The ability to devour anything and all things was literally madness. And even being able to pass on that ability made it even more maddening. Asher couldn’t help but wonder how powerful such a being truly was. After all, according to his own knowledge, devouring usually blessed one with all the positive gains and things the devoured possessed.

Yet... such a being was dying and had run away during the First True War.