Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 628: Arrogance

Yveric stood calmly within his own madness, corpses littered around his feet, the forest, or at least what was left of it, had been turned into an ocean of blood, a grotesque sea of carnage stretching as far as the eyes could see. Although he had wiped out his enemies in a single minute, the rumbling, echoes, earthquakes, and booming reverberations of his power and destruction did not vanish within a minute, instead lingering as though the very world struggled to recover from what had just transpired.

’Maybe I should have held back even more,’ he thought to himself as he stood with an indifferent expression, his gaze sweeping across the devastation without the slightest hint of emotion, ’no wonder the Duke simply erased them all with a single attack each time,’ his thoughts continued as he shook his head in faint disappointment, almost as though he had failed to meet his own expectations.

His plans to have fun for the next five minutes had crumbled due to his own overwhelming power and might... such was the dilemma of the strong, where even the act of restraint required effort, and excess power often ruined what little enjoyment could be found in battle.

Five new presences made themselves known, their arrival subtle yet impossible to ignore; they were the Void class monsters, the five of them having sat back, watching Yveric tear through their ranks as though they were nothing more than paper. To these Void class monsters, the others had merely been cannon fodder and nothing else, expendable lives used to measure the strength of their opponent.

"It seems the Duke is too busy to come this time," the first Void class monster spoke, a ten-foot-tall Orc whose massive frame radiated brute strength.

"We didn’t manage to draw him out this time, huh?" the second spoke, an eight-foot-tall Monkey that stood perched upon a tree as it stared down at Yveric with absolutely no fear in its eyes.

"Hiss!!! The new Lord would be angry with us," a third stated, a massive snake stretching for several meters in length, its voice accompanied by a chilling hiss that slithered through the air.

"It doesn’t matter, with the Lord’s power, we can storm the Duke’s land by ourselves," a fourth added with a confident smirk, the gigantic wolf speaking with an unsettling certainty.

"Sigh... our forces couldn’t even last five minutes as the human had stated earlier," the fifth and final Void class monster spoke, a Peacock, the smallest among those gathered here, yet possessing no less power than the others.

Yveric stayed silent for a moment, his mind spinning as he calculated and listened, processing every word with precision, ’they were trying to lure out the Duke? Why?’ he couldn’t help but wonder, the implications of such a plan stirring a faint curiosity within him.

These Void class monsters were definitely planning something, but he didn’t yet know what, nor did he particularly care at this moment, as the outcome would remain unchanged regardless of their intentions.

’Besides, who is this Lord they keep speaking about, are they the one behind everything?’ Yveric thought to himself, his gaze remaining calm and steady. He was in no rush to act, after all, these monsters and beasts before him were merely Void class monsters, beings he could deal with at any time he wished without the slightest difficulty.

But before he could speak or ask any questions, an oppressive presence descended upon the entire battlefield, a pressure so immense that it felt as though the very air had thickened. Instantly, the booms and resounding shockwaves that were still echoing from the battle that had just ended paused as though they did not dare make any noise at this moment, as though even sound itself feared to exist.

Yveric’s indifferent expression finally shifted into one of pure, unadulterated shock; an End class monster had stepped onto the battlefield.

’I didn’t sense their presence before now,’ Yveric’s eyes flashed sharply as his thoughts spun, his senses heightening instantly as he raised his guard to its absolute peak for the inevitable confrontation that was to come.

"It seems the Duke couldn’t even be bothered to come this time," the End class voice echoed as it stepped into the open. It was a monster that possessed human-shaped features, two legs and two arms, standing nine feet tall with bulging muscles, while various eyes filled its body, each eye moving constantly and grotesquely as though searching endlessly for something unseen.

"We greet the Lord," the five Void class monsters and beasts immediately knelt as they greeted in unison, their earlier arrogance replaced with absolute submission.

The monster’s many eyes shifted toward Yveric, and for a brief moment, they simply stared at each other, an invisible tension forming between the two. But in the very next instant, the shock in Yveric’s expression vanished entirely, his face returning to one of complete indifference, as though what stood before him was nothing worth his concern.

"I will be killing you first, before I make my way to the Duke," the End class monster spoke with a cold, emotionless tone.

But before the End class monster could even make a move, Yveric spoke first, "Don’t move."

At this command, the End class monster froze on the spot, its entire body locking in place as though bound by an invisible force, while the Void class monsters also froze in their kneeling positions, utterly unable to move even a fraction. Without another word, Yveric walked forward with calm, measured steps, his ability holding them firmly in place with absolute authority.

His ability, Word Law, simply made anything he said a reality as long as he had enough Astra energy for it, though its effectiveness also depended on the power level of his opponent, a terrifying ability that turned speech into command.

The End class monster’s expression changed to one of pure shock, its many eyes widening as it struggled desperately to move, yet it could not, even the Void class monsters were no different. In the next moment, their Astra energies flared as they attempted to activate their abilities in resistance, but it was already too late; Yveric’s lance, now covered in Astra, blurred through the air, and in that single instant, six heads soared into the sky before collapsing to the ground with dull, lifeless thuds.

Yet, their corpses did not immediately fall, as they were still frozen under Yveric’s ability. Yveric then cancelled his ability, and the bodies collapsed heavily onto the ground, blood splattering outward as the battlefield descended into a chilling, oppressive silence that lingered in the aftermath.

Mere moments ago, Yveric had been telling Asher that End class monsters were named End class for a reason, and now, he had killed one with just a single move, an act that would have been deemed impossible to most.

"What a disappointment, I got my hopes and guard up for nothing," Yveric spoke, his voice filled with dissatisfaction, as he had initially believed he had finally found a worthy opponent, someone who could keep him occupied and allow him to stretch his abilities properly.

The reason he had killed the End class monster so easily was simply because the monster had broken through and become an End class ranker merely days ago. Yveric was able to discern this with a single glance, his experience allowing him to see through such things effortlessly.

There was no way a monster who had only recently become an End class could contend with Yveric, who had spent centuries at the Crownstar Life Rank; such a comparison would simply be an insult to his name and the power he had cultivated over time.

Even amongst those who stood at the peak of the world, differences in combat prowess still existed. This particular End class monster was no different from a novice, a mere greenhorn when it came to power on this scale, its arrogance far exceeding its actual capability.

’To think it would even be so arrogant as to target the Duke,’ Yveric shook his head slightly, the End class monster having met its end purely due to its own overconfidence. Simply because it had reached the peak rank of the world merely days ago, it had begun to believe itself invincible, a fatal misjudgment.

’It doesn’t matter, the corpse of an End class monster is sure to be very useful,’ he thought to himself, and with a wave of his hand, every monster corpse blitzed toward him under his control, all of them drawn in as though pulled by an invisible force, before being sent straight into his space ring. With that done, he floated ever so slowly before turning and flying back toward the territory, leaving behind nothing but silence and ruin in his wake.

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AUTHOR’S NOTE: I’ve come to announce that I will be burying my aunt (my mom’s sister) on the 14th of this month, so there might not be any Chapters from the 13th to the 15th due to preparation and the event. I will try releasing one Chapter a day during that time if I can, but can’t promise anything. Hope you all can understand. Thanks for reading.