CLEAVER OF SIN

Within a cavern shrouded in impenetrable darkness, where countless Emovirae prowled in frenzy, two figures stood amidst the chaos, a boy and a girl. The boy bore striking purple hair, while the girl's flowed in a vivid pink.

Side by side, they carved their way through hordes of monstrosities, their blades and abilities reducing hundreds to nothing more than fleeting shadows of existence.

Explosions erupted in endless succession, their echoes rolling like thunderclaps within the cavern. Abilities flared and flickered, one moment sound roared in deafening crescendos, the next it was swallowed entirely, leaving behind an unsettling void.

The stench of blood saturated the air, heavy and suffocating, as these two youths, barely beyond childhood, no older than eighteen, ruthlessly annihilated every creature that bore a pulse and was not human.

Asher moved with the swiftness and lethality of lightning cleaving the heavens, his momentum sharp, unbothered by the suffocating blackness. But no matter how many Emovirae fell beneath their onslaught, more surged forward, spilling endlessly from the shadows like a tide without end.

The ground became a morbid canvas, soaked in blood of myriad hues, each step Asher took splashing into the ichor that pooled like a grotesque ocean.

Strangely, no corpses remained, only the ever-spreading rivers of otherworldly essence, as though the cavern itself consumed the fallen, leaving behind nothing but their lifeblood.

When an Emovira was slain, its body disintegrated into fine dust, crumbling into nothingness as though it had never existed. This strange phenomenon had persisted for as long as their kind had plagued the world, and no scholar, sage, or warrior had yet deciphered the cause.

In truth, most had come to accept it, many even welcomed it. After all, who could fathom the horrors that might emerge if such abominations left corpses behind?

Would monstrosities evolve from their remnants, half-human, half-Emovira hybrids? Perhaps even chimeras that defied all logic and nature? To many, their vanishing was not a mystery to unravel but a mercy to cling to.

Suddenly, Asher's Omni Perception stirred, his heightened senses catching the slightest distortion in the air. A claw tore through the wind with lethal velocity, the attack of a Grade 3 Emovira arcing straight for his skull.

But Asher moved with effortless precision. With a sidestep as fluid as it was lethal, he let the blow pass harmlessly, his expression unchanged.

Then, with nothing more than the faintest wave of his hand, reality itself bent to his command. Gravity shifted, twisting and coiling at his will, before unleashing a crushing force that slammed into the Emovira. The creature was hurled off its feet as if swatted by an invisible titan.

The cavern shuddered as the Emovira's body collided with the stone wall, the impact detonating in a resounding boom that sent shards of rock scattering like shrapnel. The creature roared, its guttural cry reverberating through the pit.

The grotesque eye embedded in its chest flared with an eerie light, then unleashed a concentrated beam of searing blue energy that lanced through the darkness, aimed directly for Asher.

But Asher did not so much as flinch. His gaze remained steady, calm, almost insulting. When the energy beam neared, the air warped, space itself bending under his control.

The attack veered abruptly, twisted from its path, and collapsed upon another unsuspecting Emovira that had crept too close. The blast consumed it instantly, reducing the monster to ash as the cavern trembled with the echo of its demise.

Before the Grade 3 Emovira could so much as twitch from the wall, Asher closed the distance in an instant. His fist shot forward with the brilliance and finality of a dying star.

The impact resounded like thunder. His strike connected with the grotesque eye embedded in the creature's chest, and in the next heartbeat its entire form detonated into fragments. Flesh, ichor, and dust erupted outward, splattering the cavern wall in a grotesque mural of crimson and shadowed gore.

A mural of blood.

Asher's head snapped to the side, instinct and precision weaving together. A massive tentacle whipped through the darkness, shattering against the cavern wall where he had stood an instant before. He did not even spare it a glance.

With the barest wave of his hand, an affinity answered his call.

A tidal shockwave of purple radiance exploded from his gesture, arcs of crackling lightning unfurling like the wrath of a storm-god. The cavern was drowned in searing brilliance, the darkness torn apart as blinding streaks of purple lightning danced across every surface.

The stench of charred flesh clung to the air, acrid and suffocating. Dust billowed in thick clouds, smoke roiled and churned, until the cavern itself became a crucible of devastation.

For an ordinary man, to step foot within this place would mean suffocation, blindness, and death; the destruction was too absolute, the atmosphere too violent to endure.

'Should I have chosen another mark on the map?' Asher mused, his steps unhurried, almost leisurely.

To him, these Emovirae were nothing more than fragile nuisances. Six months ago, perhaps, their presence might have stirred his blood, ignited the thrill of combat.

But now? No, against such pitiful opponents, there was neither challenge nor satisfaction.

He had long since abandoned the use of his rapier, preferring instead to manifest an array of elemental affinities with the precision of a seasoned mage. In truth, this was the only amusement left to him, the liberty to wield his elements without restraint, a reward born of a month's continuous training.

Darissa stood at another side, locked in combat with a Grade 3 Emovira.

Unlike Asher, who reduced his foes to dust with a single effortless strike, she could not boast such overwhelming dominance. For her, each confrontation demanded nearly everything she had, every ounce of focus, strength, and technique, just to bring down a single creature.

She was painfully aware that if not for Asher holding back the hordes of Grade 1 and Grade 2 Emovirae, she would already have been overwhelmed, battered, and forced into retreat with various injuries.

Her chest rose and fell heavily, each breath ragged as her gaze flicked toward Asher.

What she witnessed unsettled her: golden cross-shaped beams of light cascading like judgment from the heavens, shifting seamlessly into a tempest of blinding purple lightning, before unraveling into spatial distortions that tore through the battlefield itself.

He wielded his abilities not as one pressed into survival, but as though these creatures existed solely for him to measure his progress, mere instruments for experimentation.

To Darissa, Asher seemed like a max-level boss NPC character that was inserted into a beginner village to torture the level-one beginner players.

'Just how large are his Astra veins to sustain such monstrous reserves?' she thought grimly, her knuckles tightening around her weapon.

Her bloodline granted her dominion over sound, a rare gift, but it did not afford her the godlike extravagance Asher displayed. Every note of her ability required careful calculation, every expenditure of Astra weighed and measured.

Unlike him, unlike the Tenth Sun, who squander it away before her eyes as though he possessed an infinite reserve, she could not afford such reckless brilliance.

Perfect Astra Control ensured that Asher wasted not a single mote, not even the faintest flicker of Astra, with each strike he unleashed. Every attack was exact, every motion deliberate.

With Star Energy amplifying the potency of his abilities, it appeared as though his vast reserves remained untouched, his strength inexhaustible.

The Star Core Fragment had not merely bestowed upon him the affinity of the stars, it had transformed him. It had expanded the capacity of his Astra veins, swelling them to hold an immense ocean of energy.

When coupled with his flawless control, Asher had become nothing less than a walking reservoir of nigh limitless energy.

His gaze shifted briefly toward Darissa, catching the moment she felled the last of the Grade 3 Emovirae. Then, with an almost casual air, Astra surged from his frame in a wide, rolling wave. A faint smile curved his lips as he whispered a single command:

"Kneel."

Space and gravity bent to his will. The weight of his month-long refinement manifested in an instant, and every Emovira froze where they stood, their movements stifled before they were violently slammed into the earth. The cavern trembled beneath the force, dust and stone raining down as the monsters writhed helplessly under invisible chains.

Asher lifted his hand, and a sharp snap echoed through the cavern, echoing like a death knell.

Space instantly twisted once more throughout the entire cavern under his command.

What followed was carnage.

In successive, rhythmic intervals, heads burst apart one after another, an orchestrated symphony of destruction. Blood, bone, and brain matter painted the cavern in grotesque blossoms before silence fell, broken only by the heavy thuds of collapsing corpses.

Moments later, the aftermath vanished. Flesh, and bone disintegrated into dust, the remnants scattering and fading into nothingness, as though the Emovirae had never existed at all.

And at the center of that massacre stood Asher. His expression was one of sheer indifference, boredom, even, as though what he had just accomplished was nothing extraordinary, nothing worth the awe or horror it would have inspired in anyone else.