CLEAVER OF SIN Chapter 578: Vine

Number Four swiftly unleashed his power without delay. The instant his palms clapped together, thick vines erupted from the ground beneath Asher’s feet, surging upward with explosive might. Mere force of their breakthrough from the soil was sufficient to wound anyone ensnared in their vicinity. Asher reacted at once, darting aside without pause, his figure blurring into a streak as he faded from his original spot.

Yet the very second he shifted, those vines chased after him like they were equipped with precise tracking. They struck out unyieldingly with fatal power and overwhelming mass, their incredible velocity and power shredding the air around them. Spotting the assaults closing in, Asher promptly accessed his Astra energy. It coursed through his Astra veins before extending outward while he summoned his Light element. In an instant, he disappeared from his position, his form turning into a radiant golden streak of swift movement.

His rapier flickered ceaselessly as he severed and chopped through each approaching vine with astonishing velocity and might, the breeze stirring in shock while Virelass cut through the atmosphere with deadly accuracy. Abruptly, Asher’s gaze darted to the flank, and from his rear, additional vines assaulted him, growing denser with every one, resembling massive coiling tendrils eager to ensnare and pulverize him.

’They seem infinite,’ Asher mused inwardly.

Seamlessly, he leaped skyward, aware that endlessly slashing these woody tendrils wasn’t viable. However, as soon as he hung in the air, Number Four struck again. He directed a finger at Asher, and at once the broadened vines honed into lethal points. They shot forth like projectiles from a firearm, their pointed tips shining as they barreled ahead, determined to shred him to pieces.

Asher fixed his stare on the onrushing threats, showing no visible response. The instant they neared him, the area stilled as all assaults ceased in mid-flight, like time had been halted. Then gravity seized Asher, yanking him earthward rapidly as his body dropped with terrifying swiftness.

Yet prior to his boots hitting the dirt, Number Six’s golden box materialized where he would land. It parted open, poised to engulf him completely, its depths emitting a sinister light that vowed destruction to any intruder.

Asher abruptly stopped his fall, hovering motionless and countering gravity with casual grace. Without hesitation, he propelled himself ahead like a missile, his silhouette streaking through the sky toward the trio. But as he drew near, dozens of Number Six’s golden boxes emerged, suspended in the air like watchful guardians ready for orders.

Not just that, but Number Four, Number Five, and Number Six had vanished, having slipped into Number Six’s golden boxes.

In the following instant, a pair of fresh golden boxes popped up next to Asher, and from inside, Number Four and Number Five burst forth. Their spear and scimitar thrust toward Asher’s flanks with murderous purpose.

Asher stayed unfazed. His frame merely pivoted with effortless fluidity as his rapier twirled in his grip. Through one graceful arc of his blade, he deflected both strikes at the same time, the ring of steel resounding loudly across the space.

However, before he could launch a riposte, the pair dissolved back into their boxes, emptying them. Before Asher could respond, both containers detonated violently with a colossal blast that boomed deafeningly. The woodland trembled fiercely, as if on the verge of shattering apart. Vast craters formed across the terrain like the void leaking into the world, devouring foliage and soil fragments in equal measure.

Asher’s form materialized elevated in the sky, suspended there with tranquil poise and steady demeanor. His thoughts raced through vast data and swift deductions.

’Evidently, Number Six’s golden boxes include spatial properties... though they likely only allow travel between boxes, and she can trigger their explosive release,’ he pondered within, his intellect already devising ways to neutralize such a power.

Suddenly, Asher’s attention jerked skyward.

Up there, soaring high, a avian beast glided across the heavens. Without a shred of reluctance or pity, the creature beat its vast wings. Immediately after, a devastating surge of wind assaulted Asher’s position with ruinous ferocity.

Asher didn’t so much as flinch; his rapier gleamed as he dismantled every wind blade into mere feeble remnants with absurd simplicity, the divided winds scattering pointlessly into the air. He faded from his hover and rematerialized over the avian fiend. His rapier plunged down, intent on cleaving the beast’s head from its body in one precise cut.

But prior to the edge descending, yet another golden box surfaced above him, and Number Five emerged from it, swirling gateways encircling him like chaotic vortices of warped dimension, from which avian beasts flooded out in endless streams, their wings overshadowing swaths of the firmament as their cries reverberated over the field of battle.

Asher’s eyes gleamed with intensity; he disregarded the beasts entirely and targeted their conjurer directly.

With a mental command, he warped straight to the individual.

Yet Number Five appeared adept at detecting warps and sensing dimensional disturbances. The moment Asher materialized in front of him, he plunged rearward into his golden box, the container erasing itself the instant he vanished within.

A chorus of bellows filled the air as if the creatures yearned to rend the skies with their rage. Their growls, shrills, and flapping created a tumultuous roar of noise.

Asher paid the beasts no mind whatsoever, forgoing further swings of his rapier. A single mental impulse sufficed; Astra energy obeyed his directive, the very fabric of space yielded to his authority, and abruptly, the area encircling the monsters’ craniums squeezed with brutal force, causing their heads to burst in horrific sprays of gore, neural tissue, and plumage.

The overhead expanse turned crimson at once from the oppressive amount and odor of shed blood. After all, he had slain more than fifty beasts without a twitch. Right then, their dead forms tumbled from above, slamming into the ground with earth-shaking impacts that rattled the nearby area.

Asher likewise disappeared from his aerial perch, his presence resurfacing below amid the descending cadavers that rained like macabre tributes from on high. It resembled divine provisions granted by the celestial realm itself.

’Number Five acts as a summoner,’ he speculated quietly, recalling the gateways that had swirled near the man, though soon he rejected the notion, given that calling forth over fifty creatures simultaneously was already absurd.

Therefore, Asher reached a different insight: Number Five wielded a Beast Tamer skill. The very moment this idea formed, Number Five reappeared. He perched upon another hovering golden box far aloft.

He flicked his fingers, and countless gateways unfurled around him; this round, serpents spilled forth. Unlike the prior summoning of about fifty beasts, these serpent-like monsters numbered in the hundreds.

Every one extended multiple meters in length, their robust hides gleaming coldly in the sun’s rays. Their narrow pupils fixed on Asher with icy malice as their forms slithered and writhed through the sky, their stares unyielding, their sibilant sounds resounding over the conflict zone, with all of them zeroing in on Asher alone.