CLEAVER OF SIN-Chapter 582: Tragedy Of The Highest Order

Asher stared down at the battlefield from above as he floated effortlessly in the air, suspended with an almost unnatural stillness that made him appear detached from the carnage below. After a couple of seconds, he gradually floated downward, his feet finally kissed the earth with graceful ease.

His purple eyes shifted to the left, then to the right, then behind him as he assessed the battlefield with a calm and calculating gaze. Although he was still within the forest, the side he had fought in had been reduced to absolute devastation. Nearly a three-kilometre radius had been reduced to ruins, the once vibrant wilderness now resembling the aftermath of a catastrophic calamity.

Ravines, craters, and sinkholes had been violently torn open from the overwhelming power and might of those who stood at the Swiftstar Life Rank. The very land itself appeared to have been ripped apart by invisible hands of destruction. He could see the shattered mountain that Number Two had initially teleported to him.

A vast pool of blood from over a hundred dead bodies had formed upon the ground. The crimson liquid slowly gathered into shallow depressions and trenches created during the battle, until it rose to Asher’s ankles.

Asher stared down at the blood before him, his mind and body completely unbothered by the stomach-wrenching scene before his eyes. Organs floated above the pool of blood like grotesque debris drifting upon a crimson sea. He could feel his blood-soaked shoes and his wet feet as he stood within the thick liquid, the iron scent saturating the air around him.

Asher’s eyes shifted toward the side. Without missing a beat, he began walking. A few moments later, he arrived at the corpse of Number Five, alongside the bodies of his Rank Five tamed monsters that lay scattered around him in twisted and broken forms.

Asher had to be truthful with himself. He indeed loved the abilities of Number Five and Number Six. Their abilities possessed far greater potential than the rest of the Numbers he had fought against. There was a depth to their powers that fascinated him, the kind of potential that could reshape battlefields and even influence the fate of nations if developed properly.

If Number Six had been allowed to live long enough to further develop her golden box ability, she might eventually have been capable of leaving a golden box in an entirely different Empire and teleporting directly to it from anywhere within the world. Such an application alone would have been terrifying in both warfare and infiltration.

But sadly, her current control over the ability had only allowed her to teleport to golden boxes that she created at the moment and that remained within a limited range around her.

Hell, perhaps she might even have reached the stage where she could teleport directly to the boxes without needing to travel from one golden box to another in sequence. Not to mention the rebounding force feature the boxes possessed, which did not seem to show any upper limits whatsoever. The concept alone was astonishing. Her ability was indeed remarkable.

As for Number Five, only his ability to possibly substitute himself with one of his monsters without even opening a portal, and without any form of preparation beforehand, already made his beast-taming ability extraordinarily formidable.

Asher admired the fact that Number Five’s taming ability appeared to possess no upper limits. Even the Ducal family, who were famous for their bloodline ability to summon one beast per Life Rank, did not possess such a terrifying feature. Although, in compensation, the Ducal family could permanently inherit one ability from each of their summoned monsters. In doing so, they could potentially accumulate a staggering total of ten abilities over time.

In comparison, a normal awakened individual only possessed a single ability, or two if they were exceptionally fortunate, such as Vice Commander Cassandra of the Wargrave Knight Order.

However, the most remarkable skill within Number Five’s arsenal had been his ability to merge with his monsters. Asher could not help but imagine the overwhelming power one might possess if such a transformation were achieved while maintaining full control of one’s mind. The mind of a man, fused with the body of a combined beast, a terrifying and magnificent fusion of intellect and monstrous might.

The reason Number Five had fallen so swiftly despite possessing such a powerful merge ability was because of his unstable mind. If he had possessed mental stability along with his battle acumen, the man could have perfectly combined every ability from each monster and maintained control over the transformation. Under such circumstances, he might have survived far longer in their battle.

But his greatest ability had also proven to be his greatest weakness.

Before Asher could continue reflecting on Number Five’s potential, he suddenly felt space twist and bend around the decapitated corpse lying upon the ground. His eyes narrowed with immediate suspicion. Without hesitation, his figure vanished from where he stood, reappearing several meters away from the corpse in an instant.

The next moment, more than ten portals violently tore open in the air. From within them, endless waves of monsters and beasts began pouring outward in droves. Their roars and screeches filled the ruined battlefield as their massive forms emerged one after another.

Asher immediately recognized the portals; they were Number Five’s monster storage portals.

’Isn’t he dead?’ Asher thought to himself, his mind automatically running through every moment of his battle with Number Five as he attempted to decipher whether the man had employed any hidden technique or deceptive maneuver that had escaped his notice.

Yet the more he thought about it, the more certain Asher became that Number Five had indeed died. After all, he could clearly see the man’s corpse lying on the ground from his current position.

But the scene unfolding before him told a completely different story.

Number Five truly possessed the talent and potential to take on the entire world of Crymora if he had been intelligent enough and given enough time to grow. His ability was far more dangerous than most people would ever realize.

Imagine a man standing at the Crownstar Life Rank, endlessly taming Myth-Class, Void-Class, and End-Class monsters without limit. With each monster he tamed, he would automatically gain whatever subordinate creatures those powerful monsters commanded beneath them. The chain reaction alone would create an exponentially growing army of terrifying proportions.

Now imagine such a man unleashing his endless wave of monsters upon four different Empires simultaneously. He would not even need to step onto the battlefield himself. He would simply open his portals, release his armies, vanish into safety, and watch the world burn from wherever he chose to observe it.

What was currently happening before Asher’s eyes was Number Five’s final ability, an ability he had once referred to as the "Death Trigger."

True to its name, it was an ability that only activated upon his death.

Death Trigger summoned every beast Number Five had ever tamed throughout his entire life, regardless of whether those beasts were dead or alive. Those that had already died would be forcibly resurrected by the ability itself, while the monsters that were still alive within his summon space would be violently expelled into the outside world.

Immediately, the corpses of the wolf, bird, and snake monsters that Asher had killed earlier began to resurrect as though they had never died. Their flesh knitted back together with unnatural speed as bones reformed and organs regenerated. Moments later, the creatures rose from the ground once more, their eyes burning with renewed life.

Their bodies suddenly vanished, only to reappear beside the other monsters that had already emerged from the portals and were still continuing to pour outward in massive numbers.

Now, imagine Number Five standing at the Crownstar Life Rank. Even if he were eventually defeated and Crymora emerged victorious in battle against him, with the Death Trigger ability activated upon his death, could Crymora truly be said to have won?

Whatever organization had once controlled Number Five had clearly lacked the vision to properly cultivate such a man. They had failed to recognize that they possessed an individual who had the potential to wage war against the world twice, once while alive, and once again even after death.

But alas, it seemed that even Number Five himself had never fully understood the terrifying extent of his own potential.

Truly... a tragedy of the highest order.