Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 600: Four Minutes

Asher moved with ridiculous speed and efficiency, his velocity skyrocketing him beyond any bounds he had ever touched in both his present and past lives.

His rapier flowed like a calm yet paradoxically erratic river that knew no stop, a relentless current of precision and destruction that refused to falter. He didn’t dare stop, he didn’t dare hesitate, he didn’t dare blink, as that motion alone would make him lose sight of his opponent, and in a battle of this scale, losing sight even for an instant was equivalent to death itself, a mistake he could not afford to make under any circumstance.

He thrust forward with power enough to reduce noble territories to cinders and embers, the sheer force behind the motion warping the air and tearing through the environment like a descending calamity, but Debro simply shifted the rapier with his own katana as though he had already seen it coming from a thousand miles away, his movement effortless and precise, as though such an attack was nothing more than a predictable inevitability.

Debro retaliated, his katana wrapped in Astra energy, his motion a blur of gold, his power catastrophic, and with graceful annihilation, he slashed at Asher’s neck without hesitation or the mercy that he once showed prior to this moment, his intent now absolute and devoid of restraint.

Asher’s eyes brightened in a mixture of pure golden and purple radiance as he watched the attack close in, his perception stretched to its utmost limits. He could follow it, but his speed was starting to lag behind, the difference becoming increasingly apparent, but still, Instinctive Adaptation and Optimal Movement Efficiency erupted like supernovas, his body tearing to the side like a missile as he dodged at the very last millisecond, the slash tearing past where his neck should have been, leaving behind a chilling reminder of how close he was to death.

Asher didn’t need anyone to tell him, he was lagging behind, the realization settling heavily within him. Even with all his boosts, he still seemed slower, he still seemed weaker, the gap refusing to close no matter how hard he pushed himself.

Before, his Instinctive Adaptation and Optimal Movement Efficiency couldn’t save him because he didn’t have enough speed, but now he did, yet it still wasn’t enough to dominate the flow of battle. But Asher knew he couldn’t rely on these two abilities forever, this was a different scale of battle, they were monsters, beings that defied conventional logic, and a single slip, a single miscalculation, could end him instantly without a second chance.

He parried another thunderous attack, the force rumbling through his body with seismic impact and violent madness, threatening to tear him apart from the inside, but his body held firm through sheer will and reinforcement, and he counterattacked in one motion as though redirecting the momentum and energy, turning defense into offense with calculated precision.

Asher couldn’t understand how the gap between him and Debro was simply this vast, this overwhelming, this insurmountable at its current state. It was simply too enormous, far beyond what he had anticipated when stepping into this battle. He had once ended a Rank 6 Monster in his Star Form, an achievement that stood as a testament to his overwhelming power, yet, at this moment, he couldn’t even end a being that stood just one Rank above that.

He was using Star Energy, Star Form, Lightning Armour, Light affinity, he was using almost every boost he could muster, stacking power upon power in a desperate attempt to bridge the gap, yet he could barely match the man before him, his efforts only allowing him to survive rather than dominate.

It felt... mind-boggling and numbing, a sensation that clawed at his thoughts, threatening to disrupt his focus, yet he forced himself to remain composed despite the overwhelming pressure.

The Star Form couldn’t last forever, he could only use it for five minutes, a strict limitation that loomed over him like a ticking countdown to his potential demise. If he couldn’t break through in five minutes, he might be needing a third chance at life, a thought that lingered ominously at the back of his mind.

If he survived, Asher knew that from this moment onwards, he couldn’t easily fight across realms like he usually did with casualness and ease, the reality of this battle forcing him to acknowledge the limits he had yet to overcome.

With a thought, another affinity flickered into existence in order to solve his speed problem, a calculated decision made in the midst of chaos. The next moment, gravity obeyed his call, and immediately the laws of gravity acting on him were reduced, the invisible force loosening its hold on his body, and the next moment, his speed skyrocketed to an immense degree, his movements becoming even more fluid and explosive.

But Asher didn’t just increase his speed for nothing; no, the moment he did, he acted as he moved to catch Debro off guard with his new velocity that was now almost double of what it once was, his timing precise and decisive. His rapier flashed with blinding death, the tip screaming towards Debro’s throat with immense power and velocity that tore through the air barrier and seemed to stretch space to the point that it looked as though it was about to tear apart entirely.

Debro’s eyes widened, his mind almost collapsing in numbing shock, a rare crack in his otherwise composed demeanor. He had thought that Asher had shown everything he had, aside from maybe the second ability of his rapier, he hadn’t expected the sudden increase in speed at all, the unpredictability of it catching him momentarily off guard.

As the rapier tip was about to sink into his throat with lethal precision, the already slowed world around him seemed to slow even more, this time, it seemed as though it had been halted entirely, as though the world had entered a state of unnatural drag. His Astra energy roared like never before, surging violently, and in less than a blink, he blipped out of space, his body vanishing as though reality itself had deleted him from that very moment.

Asher’s rapier tore into nothing but empty air, an overwhelming cascade of purple lightning streaks tearing outward in ear-shattering cacophony, Star Energy storming outward like a vortex as everything within a thirty-kilometer radius was reduced to cinders, the aftermath of the missed strike still devastating beyond measure. Molten earth tore backwards with ridiculous force under the influence of ruinous energies, reshaping the battlefield once more.

Asher’s purple eyes widened in pure shock, as though he and Debro were taking turns to be shocked within this battle. He had thought he had at last caught the man off guard, even if he didn’t kill him, he could at least graze him and injure him just this once, a small victory in an overwhelming fight. But no, Debro had done the impossible yet again, he had dodged and escaped with zero injuries, leaving Asher with nothing but disbelief.

Within that brief moment, Asher’s thoughts, heightened by Star Energy, Star Form, and lightning augmentation, churned with impossible speed as he tried to arrive at a conclusion of how such a thing was possible, his mind racing through countless possibilities in an instant. But his mind could only arrive at one answer; Debro had finally used his awakened ability, a power that had remained unseen until now.

Although he had used it, Asher didn’t even know what it was. Yes, he had sensed the Astra energy fluctuation at the last moment before Debro vanished, but that didn’t tell him what the ability was, leaving him at a dangerous disadvantage.

Although he had finally managed to make Debro use his ability, it was useless if he didn’t know what the ability was, knowledge being as crucial as power in a battle like this. And by the looks of it, it seemed as though increasing Debro’s speed was just a basic function and not the main function... or perhaps not even close to its true potential.

And to make matters worse, a minute had already been shaved off Star Form, the continuous passage of time working against him, he had only four minutes to handle this, four minutes to find a solution, to overcome, to survive. Four minutes, and he would have to kiss his new family, a family he never had, goodbye, a thought that burned within him, fueling both his desperation and his resolve.