Chapter 51

Ashborn glared daggers in the direction of the guy in front of him. Ashborn's attitude appeared to be calm and uncaring, but the horned creature could read everything in his eyes.

The creature's presence was overwhelmed by the soul-piercing purple glowing eyes and the mana oozing from Ashborn's Black Heart.

The King, without a question. The presence which dominated over others. No matter what the horned creature has seen in his quite long life, nothing would compare to this one.

'Amazing, his mana is on another level entirely...' The lizardic creature was already getting energized.

The amount of energy absorbed by the armor he was wearing was astounding.

'To be thinking... this is just from his presence.' The chills ran down his spine. The animal instincts told him to flee, but he had no choice.

Meanwhile, Ashborn, who had already reattached his hand, had a very different thought process.

'This sword and armor of his, it is absorbing my mana.' A person with enough perception of magic would be able to see what was going on with the surrounding magic.

The mana that was leaking directly from Ashborn was absorbed by the opponent's armor. The sight appeared to be hauntingly similar to an electric dipole. The mana was being emitted by Ashborn, while the armor was receiving it.

'I have to stop this forcefully.' The flow from Ashborn's Black Heart was purposely stopped by him.

The lizard noticed this.

"Don't let your guard down!" His figure seemed to spread out into thin air.

The sword he held was untraceable by normal eyes. Ashborn would have to avoid it as it was absorbing the mana.

But however crazily it might sound, Ash deflected it with his fist.

'So it can't absorb hardened magical energy.' Ashborn came to a conclusion after noting that the amount of mana in his hand had not reduced.

The mana hardened to the point when it could be considered a matter. This was harmful to Black Heart, but it's not much damage.

The lizard continued his bombardment with the sword, trying to cut with it through Ashborn's flesh. The sword was leaving black threads after every slash.

The afterimages, merging into a continuous stream of blows, created the illusion that Ashborn and the lizard were bound by a black cord.

Regardless, the lizard accelerated his pace. The absorbed mana in his armor was transferred to him, considerably boosting the potency of his assaults.

But every blow was reflected.

Ashborn seemed to be surrounded by the areolas of black threads, yet he remained unscathed. The lizard's energy was sapped with each onslaught, and it was reabsorbed by its rightful owner.

It was already too late when the lizard recognized what was going on. For the first time, his opponent took a step forward.

The lizard's face became stiff, and he appeared to be concerned. The number of black threads increased as Ash approached closer. In less than a moment, he was already standing right in front of the lizard's face.

The following happened almost instantly. A large hole appeared in the lizard's chest. From the translucent trail in the air, it wasn't hard to realize that Ashborn's hand pierced the attacker's chest.

Surprisingly, the lizard leaped back instead of dropping lifeless. With the gaping hole in his chest.

"Hm, this armor has a lot more enticements." After his devastating attack, Ashborn was surprised to see the opponent standing.

"Grrr." The lizard growled?

'Huh?' Weren't snakes supposed to hiss. The auburn-haired wondered.

The lizard's armor made the user's suffering disappear. It significantly improved overall skills. To the point where, if Uto wore it during the first confrontation with Ashborn, he would be on equal footing with him at that time.

There was, however, a major drawback. Along with the pain, the sense of exhaustion disappeared along with it. The armor created an unstoppable battle maniac, who had to kill the enemy at the cost of the user's life.

'I should aim for the head.' Ashborn contemplated this as he readied for another assault.

By concentrating the layers of magical energy on his sword to later create a singular slash with the swing.

He clenched his grasp on the massive sword and raised it above his head. He flung the black-abyssal weapon at his foe with all of his bodily power. A single black line appeared on the ground, stretching from Ashborn to the opponent in front of him.

And the lizard had already been damaged before any noise could be heard. As his eyes began to lose their colors, the dark thread extended throughout the lizard.

"Is that thing still alive?" The lizard was still upright, but his life energy was dwindling. It was, however, standing and moving.

'Maybe...' The armor was the answer.

By drawing on the user's soul, the armor strengthens itself. This lizard was unquestionably long-lived, thus his energy would be sufficient to injure Ashborn in some way.

Already on instinct, the liz- No, it's now the armor that is fighting.

The armor raised the sword that it held and unleashed the remaining mana of Ashborn. Even these scraps of the total mana reserves of Ashborn would be harmful to anyone.

The mana was blasted forward by the sword in the shape of an arrow. The first few managed to hit Ashborn and leave the deep mana, but the damage was quickly recovered.

"Aghhhhh!" The lizard let out a cry; how it was still able to make noise was a marvel. It wasn't completely dead, though.

'He lost his sanity.' It was obvious that the reptile had gone insane.

At this pace, the fight will go on until the lizard's life energy runs out. This sets Ashborn at a disadvantage, so he had to finish it quickly.

He closed his eyes and completely ignored his opponent.

At the same moment, the atmosphere completely changed. Even the mindless beast could feel the dead cold that ran through the battlefield.

In the black bubbles, Ashborn's dark sword extended. Ashborn was inspired by the concept of the lizard's sword. It cut through his defense by devouring it.

So why not create a blade that devours everything?

The sword's bubbles subsided, and its size changed as it took on the shape of a standard katana. But the most intriguing part was that, it started sucking everything around itself.

The space mended as it was sucked in it.

'The universe itself is trying to fill the void in this sword.' remarked Ashborn in his mind.

With the use of his power, Ashborn created the space of nothingness within the sword. The universe is attempting to fill an anomaly that shouldn't exist by drawing in its surroundings.

'Only a minute.' That was the time Ashborn calculated. He would only be able to hold this sword for the next minute.

If it weren't for the constant stream of mana sheltering him from the blade, the Ashborn would have been devoured as well.

Ashborn chose this to finish the battle with a percentage of a hundred percent. There was no way of countering the sword, for it was sucking up pretty much everything.

'I had my eyes closed. What kind of creativity can lesser beings muster?'

An abyss, darkness, and death were the wellspring of his power. Despite this, he acquired a lot of knowledge about his own power, through being among the inhabitants of this realm for only 12 years.

Meanwhile, the opponent was being drawn towards the blade as he was being sucked into nothingness as well.

In alarm, he jumped back, trying to flee and prepare for another attack. Ashborn didn't waste any time and rushed around in a circle.

The lizard had lost sight of the auburn-haired, but by the trail of mended space, he realized. Ashborn was really close to him, at a distance enough to slice through him.

Behind him stood Ashborn, who had already pulled his weapons and was ready to slay him. Above all, the purple glowing eyes terrified him. As the dark sword curled its way through him, the armor became irrelevant.

Slicing open the chest in a diagonal, the sword came out from the other side of the lizard's body. It's like there was no obstacle.

"This time I'm certain." The lizard's lifeless body dropped down, cut in half, as the sword faded.

Sweat dripped down his brow. The armor caused some trouble, but Ashborn got out of it.

'The asuras knew of me using the enormous amounts of mana in attacks, so they created this armor just for this wasteful battle?' While staring at the lizard's evaporating body, Ash furrowed his brows.

"Before you go, you should give me some information." He picked up the lizard by the head.

He despised having to go through other people's memories, but this time it might provide some insight.

'It's merely armor, as I suspected. Cadell Vritra, one of those lizard blooded. The scythe, while not as powerful as an Asura, might be able to hold its own against non-warriors. Without wearing the armor.' Ashborn inspected the memories of the lizard.

'So, he is the one who assassinated Sylvie's mother. The Dragon Clan's Princess.' In Cadell's memories, Ash even saw kid Arthur for a moment. (We don't know if she died for real.)

'Apart from the facts regarding this armor, there is nothing that could help me. What a waste of time.' He dropped Cadell's dead body on the ground.

Ashborn paused for a moment. If the Asuras mass-produced those armors, he will be at a significant disadvantage. He needed to restore his Black Heart before they struck again, which would happen sooner or later.

"But before this, this dwarf girl..."

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"We won't be able to disperse our forces across the continent! We need to focus on specific places; in any case, we don't stand a chance against them!" Blaine Glayder, the king of Sapin, roared.

"We cannot leave Darv's resources, we need them!" Elenoir's king, Alduin Eralith, stood in opposition to his fellow council member.

"Silence! We are certain that the deities will not pass through our territory on their own! According to the intel we received from Cynthia and spies, Alacryas will be." Virion's strong voice echoed around the room.

"We should abandon at least a few cities and evacuate people. We will concentrate only on major cities. Besides, Cynthia also revealed that the Alacryan's have sentries. We can't fight against the Alacryan's using the hit-and-run tactic." Kaspian, a hard worker, spoke up.

Someone broke through the doors at that precise moment. While dragging the tiny child by the collar, Ashborn made his presence known.

"The Kingdom of Darv betrayed Dicathen. Here is the one you can interrogate." He said this as he threw dwarf Mica's unconscious body to the floor.

He then turned to face Kaspian and hurled two small objects at him. Those were the items that aided silver-core magicians in attaining the white-core stage. But if they were in the hands of Ashborn, that meant he...

That meant he had to seize them by force, as no lance would ever hand over such a valuable artifact to an unknown person.

"Kaspian, those artifacts are now yours. Select only capable people for your own safety."

"For now, I'm cutting the communication with you. I have lost too much time fixing the problem with Darv. However, before I depart, I guarantee you that I will return only when the time is right. Farewell till then." Ashborn vanished, leaving the room deafeningly quiet.

Already outside of the room, the auburn-haired man glanced for the last time at his own castle.

"Seris, you're right on time."

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Sup guys. Merry Christmas to you all. I know I'm a little late, but what to do? I have my own things to do first.

This chapter was a little rushed, that's just my vision of it. I just want to write fight interesting, not utter boring trashing over every character.

Anyway,

Webnovel Second FF: https://www.webnovel.com/book/tbate-%7C-destroyed-beginning_21385481106342305

Wattpad Second FF: https://www.wattpad.com/story/287446607-tbate-destroyed-beginning

Collab FF with (Erebus512, SocioPhobia, Psema): https://www.wattpad.com/story/284711075-tbate-severing-fate

Cyaaa (Twenty Twenty Two)