CLEAVER OF SIN

"Asher Wargrave wins," the supervising Instructor's voice tore through the air, instantly silencing the battlefield with absolute authority. With nothing more than a passing thought, he removed the Astra-forged shield, and the very moment he did, the heat trapped within the battlefield slammed into every student present like a physical force, causing them to gasp as though they had suddenly been thrown into the heart of a volcano.

The battlefield had turned into liquid lava as Asher's attack had torn, burned, and liquefied everything in its path without discrimination of any kind, reducing stone, metal, and earth alike into a molten wasteland. The ground bubbled and hissed like an angry sea of fire, distorting the air with unbearable heat. Everyone instinctively raised their personal Astra-forged barriers to protect themselves, translucent shields flickering into existence around their bodies as survival instincts kicked in without delay.

The Instructor didn't even waste time, the moment he announced Asher as the winner, he vanished from where he stood in tandem with Vaelric, disappearing so seamlessly it was as though they had never existed there at all. No one asked where they were headed, as they all already knew.

With that prompt, the students rose to their feet and scrambled away in disorder, running as though remaining there for even a second longer without the presence of the supervising Instructor meant certain death, their footsteps echoing frantically across the heated stone as fear drove them forward.

'It seems the gap has gotten bigger again, or perhaps I never truly understood the gap to begin with,' William mused to himself as he sat calmly, not following the other students who were fleeing in a panic, his gaze steady and contemplative.

"It seems he has gotten freakishly stronger again in just the few days we didn't see him," Finch stated quietly as she gazed at Asher, her voice carrying both disbelief and reluctant admiration.

"Sigh... if I could break our soul bond and bond with him instead, that would be fantastic," Lior stated with a dramatic sigh as he sat beside Finch, his red eyes locked onto Asher with undisguised envy.

"Don't even bother, why would someone as talented as him need someone like you?" Finch replied bluntly, his tone sharp, but Lior simply shook his head with another sigh as though fate had personally scammed him by making him bond with Finch instead of Asher.

"Let's go," William's voice echoed calmly, earning a nod from both Finch and Lior, and with that, Finch placed a hand on William's shoulder, activating the teleportation ring. A faint glow enveloped them, and they vanished as though they had never been there in the first place.

Asher floated down from above, his foot touching the earth below, or at least what was left of it. The once-solid battlefield now resembled a scarred wasteland of cooling magma and fractured stone. His point card vibrated faintly, prompting him to take it out of his space ring with a casual motion.

'Hoo... a huge sum of over thirty thousand points,' Asher thought to himself with a faint smile. The punishment for challenging a higher rank and losing was the payment of half of their point balance.

Over thirty thousand points meant the Prince had possessed over sixty thousand points prior to their spar. Asher didn't dwell too much on the ridiculous amount of points. The boy was a Prince after all, and Asher himself had taken advantage of his Tenth Sun title to gain more points from missions.

The Prince, who was obviously of far higher social standing and influence, would naturally gain even more points from various clients.

But none of that concerned Asher, the fact remained that he could now train more freely, and that was all that truly mattered to him. His eyes shifted toward the seats within the coliseum, but he could see that every student was already gone, well, the sole exception of Ryaen Silvershade, of course.

His purple eyes shifted to her position, their gazes meeting across the ruined arena, and with that, he vanished from where he stood in a blur before appearing directly in front of her as though space itself had folded.

"I guess the entire thing is over," Asher spoke with a calm expression. He had arrived here with Ryaen, and since she was the only one left, she was probably waiting for him.

"It seems so," Ryaen stated as she nodded with her usual expressionless face, "and it also seems I shouldn't bother challenging you," she added as she rose to her feet.

"Don't worry, if you challenge me, I would take it easy with you," Asher replied with a playful wink as they stepped out of the coliseum together.

Ryaen's silver eyes shifted to Asher, then she shook her head slightly as she knew he was clearly joking. She knew the Tenth Sun didn't care about gender or familiarity when it came to battle, everyone would fall to him regardless as long as they fell under the category known as "enemy."

"You should smile often, it makes you more beautiful," Asher continued casually, his purple eyes sliding toward Ryaen.

Ryaen walked with the same calm steps as she heard Asher's words, she didn't suddenly blush or stammer or lose her composure like some girls might, she simply walked as though she hadn't heard him at all, her demeanor unchanged, but she didn't smile either, she would only do so if there was truly something worth smiling about.

"You truly are a weird Wargrave, Asher," she replied, and with those words, a small smile appeared on her lips, faint and fleeting, but genuine, before it vanished the next instant.

"I guess I am," Asher replied with an amused tone, completely unbothered.

"Also, I will soon be done with my teamed mission with Lady Darrisa Camber and Princess Vaelra Lux Vanthelmor, from then on, I will be moving solo. If you ever need a teammate for any mission, you can ask me," Ryaen Silvershade said as she continued walking.

Asher simply nodded without any change in expression, he doubted he would ever truly need her help. He understood that Ryaen was one of the few people who didn't actually require a teammate for missions. To Asher, she was meant to be Rank 2 in the class ranking, but because they had met, she had fallen all the way to rank 9.

Ryaen Silvershade was an all-rounder, possessing pure speed, pure strength, ridiculous endurance, immense battle acumen and IQ, hand-to-hand combat mastery, absurd bone manipulation ability, and enormous Astra reserves. She could even sense enemies before they approached by detecting the bones within their bodies, and she could use her own bones to achieve healing effects. Long-range, close-range, and area-of-effect attacks, she had them all with frightening proficiency.

She was basically a walking army of her own.

She was essentially a hax that was still growing.