Chapter 227: Ashen Soul (2)
The next threat fell even faster. Even with just one soul under his control, Zarek felt the difference in his Ash instantly.
He didn’t even need to use the Imperial Wind Lance. With a flick of his finger, his Ash formed into a flying dagger through the air. Just before it hit a Turned that had tried to sneak up on him by swinging down from a tree, the soul of a hawk formed, its call filling the forest.
Interestingly enough, the monkey Turned lit on fire before the dagger even hit, collapsing into a pile of Ash on the ground.
’That was... different.’
Zarek tilted his head to the side, observing the pile on the ground. He walked over and then dragged a finger through the Ash, and then looked back at his shadow.
’Hm. It’s gone.’
Zarek had been very casual about that strike, experimenting, testing boundaries, trying to see if there was something different about the Skill he had now, awakened through Axiograft, and the one he remembered.
As far as he could tell, there was no real difference. But what he hadn’t known was that he could actually kamikaze his Ashen Souls like that.
Zarek looked to his shadow and the hawk had been replaced by the monkey Turned, and his brow couldn’t help but raise.
’No. There’s no way I wouldn’t have felt that before. Something has to be different. Is it—’
Zarek’s eyes widened, his heart skipping a beat.
This was huge.
’It’s Comprehend. It’s definitely the Comprehend aspect of Axiograft...’
Zarek cast Harmonic Recall on himself, trying to feel out exactly what had happened just now before everything slotted into place.
Setting aside the fact he could seem to use Harmonic Recall like a perfect method of recalling the exact state he had just been in, even better than that was the almost natural action he took.
He didn’t throw the Ash like he would have a dagger usually—he just flicked a finger as though he expected it to fly true, despite his Godsfall control being limited.
But deep inside, it was like he knew the hawk soul would take control and curl the path of the blade properly—and that was exactly what it had done.
’Ha...’
Zarek couldn’t help but laugh. He hadn’t known that after all this time there would be such a shocking aspect of Ashen Gate he had never understood, but it became obvious why to him in an instant.
He had simply killed too much.
How could he be expected to Comprehend or even feel a connection with his Ashen Souls if there were millions of them? At some point, it had all just become white noise to him.
But Axiograft changed everything.
The Ashen Souls spoke to him now in ways they never had before. And because of that, Zarek comprehended them instantly, allowing him to use them not just as casual boosts to his Ash’s strength, but in actual attacks.
’Meaning...’
Zarek continued forward, almost hoping to be attacked now.
Well, he already had been hoping before because the rage in him was still billowing strong. But now it was even more exaggerated than before.
He didn’t have to wait long. The number of threats seemed to be skyrocketing exponentially every few seconds, and soon it would be difficult to spend even 10 minutes without running into another threat.
This one came in the form of a real Turned—not one in the form of a beast, but a black-skinned, two-headed behemoth with four arms in the form of rotating clubs and scythes.
It looked more like a golem than a living creature, a mechanical creation right out of a child’s horrible nightmare.
Still, it was B Class, albeit a B Class that seemed a lot closer to A Class than the first two Zarek had run into. The problem was that the forest terrain wasn’t well suited to it. Its body was too large.
Likely because the Turned had only just been released, they had yet to spread out into their ideal environments. But Zarek hardly cared—that wasn’t his problem.
His figure vanished in a blur of wind. Alone, his wind movement technique could only instantly help him cross 10 meters. With the Imperial Wind Lance, though, it was closer to 15.
A scythe passed right through where he had been just moments ago. However, not only was he already long gone, his finger had already pointed out.
So focused on Zarek, the golem Turned didn’t even notice the swinging monkey Ashen Soul coming for it. Much the same way it had tried to sneak up on Zarek, Zarek simply allowed it to copy the same trick.
The golem Turned didn’t even have any defenses up. It was taken completely off guard. It looked as if Zarek’s Ash had even gained aspects of the stealth the monkey Turned had had.
Chi.
Silent and deadly. The Ash collided with the golem, but there was no large combustion. It just silently seeped into its joints.
As subtle as its Ashen Soul, it crept in, and then the golem suddenly stopped moving.
BANG!
Then came the explosion.
Flames descended in all directions, and a new shadow appeared in Zarek’s shadow.
If he was in a better mood, he just might have grinned.
With this sort of power, he didn’t need to enter long, protracted battles with these B Classes. So long as he set up the battlefield to properly pick up on the strengths of his Ashen Soul, one strike was enough for one kill.
The power of the B Class he had killed and the boost of his Ash... when they came together, it made it a nigh foregone conclusion.
Zarek had never really thought about why Ash Reborn was named as such. But was that why? Was this the way it was always meant to be used?
And if that was the case... was there another layer here that he could take even more advantage of?
A Reborn ability as a Rebirther... was this Skill that had now followed him for four lifetimes more related to Time than he knew?