CLEAVER OF SIN

William's eyes opened to the vast expanse of sky above the forest canopy, his body descending rapidly as gravity pulled him earthward. The moment he registered his surroundings, a quiet sigh escaped his lips, followed by a muttered curse directed at the Star Academy for orchestrating such a reckless beginning.

For an instant, his thoughts wandered to the other candidates who had undoubtedly been subjected to the same trial. But he dismissed them almost immediately, recognizing that their struggles bore no relevance to his own exam score.

Though he fell from the sky with alarming speed, not a trace of fear or unease stirred within him. Instead, he surrendered himself to the descent, embracing it with calm resolve.

As the towering branches of a tree rushed up to meet him, his figure dissolved into nothingness. In the blink of an eye, he reappeared upon the forest floor, the perilous momentum erased, his landing as graceful and deliberate as though he had merely taken a casual step onto solid ground.

The instant William's feet touched the earth, the ground beneath him recoiled, soil scattering backward as he propelled himself forward with blistering speed. His figure tore through the air like a streak of force, leaving ripples of pressure in his wake.

As he covered a great distance in mere breaths, his senses sharpened, something foreign had intruded into the space around him.

'A stone?' he thought, momentarily perplexed.

The answer came in a sudden flare. His eyes widened as the stone ignited with a crimson glow, before erupting in a violent, localized explosion. The blast shredded trees and earth alike, carving a gaping wound into the forest within a radius of several meters.

But William was no longer there. A few meters away, his form materialized atop the bark of a tree, his teleportation at the final instant sparing him from the inferno. His head snapped forward, gaze narrowing toward the direction from which the stone had been hurled.

William's muscles coiled like taut strings, and with a single explosive push, he launched forward like a bullet. The bark beneath his feet shattered under the force, fragments scattering as his figure blurred into motion.

His black eyes locked onto the woman before him, focus and sharp. As the distance between them shrank, another stone suddenly entered his vision. Instinctively, his form flickered out of existence, reappearing a breath later at the woman's side. His claymore flashed in a deadly arc, aimed with ruthless precision at her neck.

But the woman did not even attempt to parry. With a graceful shift, she slid aside with deceptive ease, her hand darting out like a striking viper to touch his wrist.

William's senses screamed in warning, a chilling premonition flooding him. He vanished once more, reappearing high above her. His claymore descended in a merciless strike, its edge carving downward to cleave her body clean in two.

But the woman only grinned.

A falchion materialized in her hand, and with effortless confidence, she deflected his blow, turning aside his deadly strike as though it were nothing more than child's play.

William's feet pressed against the branch beneath him landing with practiced ease, his black eyes locked on the woman who met his gaze with a crooked grin, her expression twisted with an unsettling madness. His mind raced as he studied her. The Academy would never place someone so deranged in his path without purpose.

He needed answers.

'I have to deal with her immediately,' he resolved.

With a crackling roar, arcs of purple lightning erupted around him, coiling like serpents before condensing into weapons of shifting forms. At his command, they surged forward with blistering speed, tearing through the air in a storm of destruction.

The woman only laughed, a wild, grating sound that rang with hysteria. "Come on, boy, you can do better than this!"

Instead of retreating, she dove into the barrage head-on. Astra coursed through her body, fueling her every motion. Her form blurred, movements sharp yet fluid, weaving gracefully through the onslaught. Not a single bolt touched her.

Behind her, the forest paid the price, trees exploded into splinters as the lightning carved through them, slicing trunks apart as effortlessly as a blade through butter.

The woman closed the distance in an instant, her falchion slicing through the air toward William's chest in a lethal blur. But William had no desire to waste time engaging in prolonged combat with a single opponent.

Space bent under his will, and his figure vanished. But he did not simply disappear, he left behind a small orb of light where his body had been. The falchion tore through it a heartbeat later, triggering a sudden eruption of blinding golden radiance.

The flare detonated point-blank, searing into her eyes and stunning her in place.

That brief window of disorientation was all William required. In a burst of speed, he reappeared behind her, his claymore already in motion. The blade carved through her wrists with surgical precision, severing both hands as though they were no more resistant than parchment.

A spray of crimson ichor burst into the air, droplets scattering across the bark and leaves. A raw, agonized scream ripped from her throat as pain exploded across her nerves, flooding her mind in a white-hot surge.

But before the sound could fully escape her lips, William's hand shot forward, clamping tightly over her mouth, silencing the scream in its infancy. His cold grip sealed her voice, leaving only the echo of her muffled agony in the still air of the forest.

"We will proceed with something simple," William's voice cut through the silence, cold and merciless, harsher than the chill of an ice age. "Answer, and I will grant you a swift death. Resist… and I will make certain you suffer."

Terror seized the woman. Her frantic nodding betrayed the fear drowning her eyes.

It did not take long. Within moments, William had pried from her the knowledge he sought. Without hesitation, his claymore swept in a single, fluid arc, severing her head from her shoulders. The forest fell silent once more, the lifeless corpse crumpling without ceremony.

'Who would have thought the Tenth Sun possessed such abilities…' William mused with a faint smile, not sparing the body so much as a passing glance.

Willaim's talent was one of both brilliance and peril. He possessed the uncanny ability to replicate the abilities of others, but with one key condition, the target had to be the same age as he.

Asher, who was also eighteen like William, was a perfect target.

Thus, the abilities Asher wielded could be mirrored within Willaim's own body.

But this ability was bound by limitations. Each stolen ability endured only twenty-four hours before fading into nothingness, leaving behind no trace. Worse still, he could not replicate the same person twice consecutively.

Mastery too was diminished. At best, William wielded only half the proficiency of the original owner, a mere shadow of their true potential.

Still, the versatility was unmatched. He needed no touch, no ritual, no elaborate condition. A single look, a flicker of will, and the abilities of another became his to command.

Now, as power coursed through him, William felt the resonance of Asher's affinities surge within his veins: Light, Lightning, Gravity, and Space.

But one affinity eluded him. The affinity of Stars remained beyond his reach, though William had not yet realized it.