Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 1095: Altar Of Souls [GT Ranking Bonus Chapter]

’It seems Zarek has such a bad naming sense.’ Asher mused to himself as he said nothing about the naming externally.

’At least five thousand years, huh?’ Asher thought to himself as he looked around.

On the walls seemed to be various people, although he didn’t know who they were, Asher seemed to instinctively understand they were Wargraves of the past who had trained here.

Some of them wore wide grins on their faces, some of them stood upon mountains of corpses, some of them had their limbs missing yet still fought their enemies regardless, and some were covered in what seemed to be depicted as blood.

”As you must have understood, these are various Wargraves that fought in various wars and battles before meeting their end,” Zarek explained, as Azaron had once told him the exact same thing.

”Although the Duke didn’t tell me the specific information about this place, personally, I just assume it’s some kind of training artefact from ancient times that had been passed down from one of the earliest Wargrave Dukes after the Wargrave got their Ducal title for the first time,” Zarek continued as he ran his fingers across the rough wall.

Asher and Lyra said nothing as they simply listened to Zarek speak.

’Maybe Father has always been hiding here whenever he was never around.’ Asher thought to himself.

Soon, they arrived before a huge metallic gate that stood imposing, as though it protected the Wargrave’s greatest secret behind it.

”This is the first gate,” Zarek explained calmly. ”Only a Wargrave can get through this gate, either by placing your hand or leaning on its surface or splashing your blood or whatever. It will always open through whatever method.” He paused for a moment, then continued, ”And methods like an enemy severing a Wargrave’s hand to open the gate, or pouring their blood on it, won’t work, as the gate possesses the ability to sense Will,” he added.

”Will?” Lyra asked unconsciously.

At her question, Zarek turned towards her as though she had spoken out of turn. Personally, he didn’t know how close Asher and Lyra were, but as the head of the butlers and maids, he had to always caution them and make sure such things didn’t happen again.

But before he could say anything, Asher spoke.

”Answer her.” His tone was calm as he continued staring at the gate before him.

Zarek immediately understood their relationship dynamic, and without hesitation, he proceeded to explain.

”The dead don’t have a Will, meaning coming here with a body part or corpse of a dead Wargrave won’t open it, or holding a Wargrave hostage and forcing them to open it won’t work either. Or if a Wargrave goes rogue and wishes to open it for others who weren’t Wargraves for negative purposes, it won’t open either.” His eyes remained on the gate, as no matter how many times he saw it, he couldn’t get used to it.

Asher and Lyra finally understood what Zarek meant by Will.

”Can’t they just destroy the gate?” Asher asked.

Zarek shook his head as he spoke, ”According to the Patriarch, the Gate of Will is indestructible. Not even his Void can devour and erase it.” His tone was filled with fascination.

”Then how did they use an indestructible metal to create the Gate of Will?” Lyra asked with a slight frown.

Zarek shrugged as he replied, ”That I don’t know. You might want to ask any old monsters from ancient times if you encounter any.”

At his words, a peculiar light flashed past their eyes as they wondered if Zarek was trying to get a reaction from them, or if he was just speaking wildly and randomly.

”Anyway, Young Master, touch the gate,” Zarek stated with a flat expression.

Asher nodded after a moment. The moment his palm touched the gate, it shook before the immense gate opened inwards. Without wasting much time, the three of them stepped inside, and within the huge chamber, Asher could see what resembled some sort of dark altar, and ahead was another gate.

Seeing the altar, Asher wondered if his family used to summon some sort of dark god or something. His eyes simply shifted towards Zarek as he stared at the man suspiciously, as though he was about to be used as a sacrifice by the Wargrave family.

Zarek gave a small smile as he said, ”The altar is an artefact called the Altar of Souls. It possesses soul fragments of everyone that has ever been here, and scales in strength to their peak strength before they died.” He explained calmly, ”All the Young Master has to do is drip a single drop of blood on the altar while listing out his purpose for coming here. Then the training facility would send someone to check your current strength across the parameters you want to train, and after checking, it would create the perfect environment for each training you listed,” he stated calmly, his black eyes fixed on the altar.

Asher stared at the altar for a moment as he listened. He wasn’t really bothered about dropping his blood on an altar, after all, all his siblings must have done this. Without wasting much time, he walked forward. He cut his index finger with the fingernail of his thumb. The moment his blood dropped onto the black altar’s surface, he spoke.

”Physical training. Cultivation by Astra vein strengthening. Rapier technique creation. Hand-to-hand and movement technique creation. Elemental training. Swordsmanship training. Combat efficiency and prowess training.” He paused for a moment, then added in finality, ”Star Energy control training.”

Although he didn’t know whether this place would create the perfect environment to increase his Star Energy control, he doubted it could.

The altar lit up with purple light that corresponded to the color of Asher’s hair. It began to shake as Asher felt his affinities flash through it, ranging from Space to Lightning, Gravity, StellarFlame, and Light, gathering the details from his blood alone.

[Ding]

[The system has detected an invasive force from the artefact]

[The altar wishes to take a portion of the Host’s soul]

[Soul protection mechanism activated]

[Invasive force blocked]

Seeing the series of notifications, Asher instantly frowned. Yes, he had anticipated something like this happening, as Zarek said it took a portion of everyone’s soul. But leaving a portion of one’s soul was a recipe for death, and he felt conflicted about leaving such an important part of himself here.

But after a moment of thought, he sighed and heaved another sigh as he decided to just do it. If he died because of this sometime in the future, so be it.

Besides, in the future, the future Wargrave generation would see him through it.

’System, allow it to take the tiniest portion possible, and don’t allow for anything else. Be on guard against anything like an attack,’ he instructed cautiously.

[Affirmative Host]

The next moment, Asher felt something ethereal leave his body. It was a tiny colorless orb. He stared at it as it entered the altar, not taking his eye off it. The moment the soul vanished into the altar, the altar immediately shook as an immense presence descended upon the entire space, as though an unknown being had descended.

_____

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Only one bonus Chapter today. Five Chapters will come tomorrow. I’ll be too busy for the next few days, as I’m registering to serve my country like the Koreans do. It’s compulsory for all Nigerians who completed their university to do this... sighs.