Virelass bergetar di lengan Asher seolah mendesaknya untuk berhenti mengumpulkan aura dan segera bergerak maju, karena musuh masih tersisa, masing-masing menunggu giliran untuk ditebas. Tatapan ungu Asher beralih dari kehancuran yang telah ia perbuat di area Akademi Bintang.
Semua musuh yang berdiri dalam radius hampir dua ratus meter telah musnah, jadi tidak ada alasan untuk berlama-lama di tengah reruntuhan sunyi yang dipenuhi mayat dan batu-batu hancur.
"Sampai jumpa lagi, William," ucapnya tanpa melirik bocah itu sedikit pun, suaranya tenang namun tajam dengan nada final.
Astra berdenyut melalui urat Astra-nya seperti sungai arus bercahaya, energi cahaya berkumpul di kakinya, berkedip dan menyambar di atas tanah yang retak.
Pergelangan kakinya sedikit menunduk, otot-ototnya menegang dengan presisi, terkompresi seperti pegas yang diputar hingga batasnya. Tanah cair di bawahnya melengkung di bawah tekanan kuda-kudanya, tenggelam dan retak menjadi celah-celah jaring laba-laba yang memanjang ke luar dalam garis-garis yang bergetar. Kemudian, dengan dentuman memekakkan telinga yang bergema di seluruh area reruntuhan, sosoknya lenyap, melesat maju dengan kecepatan luar biasa layaknya rudal yang terlepas dari cengkeraman besi jet tempur.
Medan perang menjadi kabur. Angin menjerit saat tubuhnya membelah udara seperti perkamen rapuh yang dirobek dalam satu gerakan. Kecepatannya meningkat di setiap detak jantung, ritme akselerasi yang mematikan, saat kakinya menghantam bumi dengan keanggunan yang mengerikan. Tanah retak dan penyok di setiap langkah, kekuatan murni dari larinya mengukir luka di medan perang. Dalam hitungan detik, ia telah melintasi seratus meter, lalu dua ratus, mencapai pinggiran yang belum tersentuh di luar radius kehancurannya tadi.
Tidak ada keraguan, tidak ada jeda, tidak ada kedipan, bahkan tidak ada bayang-bayang keraguan sedetik pun. Ia bergerak begitu matanya mengunci mangsanya.
Dalam busur perak, Virelass melesat maju, garis kematian yang membelah udara. Tenggorokan seorang kriminal terputus bahkan sebelum pria itu menyadari kehadiran Asher. Darah menyembur seperti geyser, air mancur merah yang melompat ke langit, hanya untuk dilahap sebelum menyentuh tanah. Darah itu terurai menjadi benang-benang merah yang melilit ke arah Virelass, tertarik ke ujungnya, diserap dalam kegembiraan yang buas.
Asher sendiri larut dalam kabur gerakan. Ke mana pun ia melangkah, tubuh tumbang, dan ke mana pun bilahnya berbisik, kepala melayang. Dunia menjadi noda kecepatan dan kematian, pandangannya bergaris cahaya ungu dan kabut merah. Rambut ungunya terurai seperti panji, pakaiannya berkibar hebat saat ia merobek lawan-lawannya seperti sabit melalui gandum matang, mematikan dan tanpa ampun.
Korban jiwa bertambah tanpa kendali. Ia bukan lagi sekadar Asher, ia tampak seperti pewaris sah Dewa Kematian dan Kegelapan, memanen jiwa demi jiwa tanpa henti. Virelass berkilau dengan kilap yang kejam, tepiannya menajam seolah setiap serangan menyempurnakan rasa laparnya, setiap percikan darah menambah ketajamannya, setiap nyawa yang padam dituangkan ke dalam kehendak mematikannya.
Tiba-tiba, insting Asher menjerit. Gelombang energi yang sangat besar melonjak dari belakang, merobek ke arahnya dengan niat memusnahkan. Ia tidak membuang waktu untuk mengangkat senjatanya; ia bahkan tidak repot-repot bersiap. Sosoknya berkilau, runtuh menjadi distorsi sebelum menghilang. Ia muncul kembali di tempat lain dalam sekejap, teleportasinya hanya meninggalkan bayangan dan gema samar dari ruang yang tergeser.
Sesaat kemudian, kehancuran menghantam. Ledakan Astra meledak di tempat ia berdiri tadi, merobek medan perang dalam gelombang kehancuran yang membelah. Parit-parit terukir ke bumi, tanah terkoyak semudah mentega di bawah pisau panas, pecahan cair berhamburan ke udara.
Asher muncul kembali di atas atap, tatapannya yang tajam tertuju ke asal serangan. Di sana, berdiri tak tergoyahkan di tengah kekacauan, adalah seorang wanita yang senyumnya tidak goyah. Udara di sekitarnya mendingin, atmosfer terasa berat oleh embun beku seolah kehadirannya saja mengancam untuk membekukan sumsum medan perang.
Matanya menyipit. Sensasi yang menyapu dirinya lebih dari sekadar bahaya, itu adalah keniscayaan. Ia belum bisa mengukur kekuatan aslinya, tetapi ia tahu wanita ini bukan orang yang bisa diremehkan. Ia tidak melakukan gerakan terburu-buru; sebaliknya, ia berdiri diam, mata ungu terkunci padanya, menimbang, menghitung.
Sebuah katana bersandar di pinggangnya, posisinya disengaja dan tepat, seolah ditempelkan dengan cinta dan perhatian. Rambutnya hitam dan halus seperti sutra tengah malam, membingkai wajah dengan kekejaman yang tenang. Matanya, hijau cerah, bersinar samar dengan vitalitas yang dingin.
Wanita itu tersenyum pada Asher seolah terhibur, lalu ia berbicara.
"Kau tampaknya telah menyebabkan cukup banyak masalah. Sepertinya Akademi Bintang dipenuhi dengan lebih banyak bakat daripada biasanya," katanya, nadanya sedingin embun beku yang menusuk udara di sekitarnya.
"Tapi sayang," lanjutnya, kata-katanya dipertajam oleh penghinaan, "bahkan Akademi Bintang telah jatuh. Dan aku bertanya-tanya... ke mana perginya pelacur itu, yang disebut Dewi Ruang?"
Asher tetap diam. Jika itu musuh lain, ia akan mengakhiri percakapan dengan satu serangan, memenggal kepalanya tanpa ragu. Namun dengan wanita ini, ia tahu kecerobohan seperti itu akan berakibat fatal. Terburu-buru berarti mengundang kematian. Melawan orang seperti dia, seseorang membutuhkan kesabaran, mengamati, mencermati, bahkan kelemahan terkecil sekalipun.
'Apa yang dilakukan orang seperti dia di antara para kriminal di dalam Akademi Bintang?' Pikiran itu menekan benaknya, menolak untuk pergi.
Seolah-olah wanita itu telah membaca keraguan batinnya, ia memiringkan kepalanya dan tersenyum lebih hangat.
"Meskipun kau sedikit terlalu tua," katanya dengan manis, "karena wajah tampanmu, aku akan mengizinkanmu menjadi bagian dari harem mainan bocah laki-lakiku." Suaranya meneteskan kasih sayang palsu, ekspresinya lembut dan penuh cinta, seolah ia mungkin memberikan dunia kepada Asher jika ia memintanya.
Asher membeku, bukan karena malu atau bingung, tetapi karena terkejut dengan dua kata sederhana: terlalu tua.
Ia baru saja menginjak usia delapan belas tahun lebih dari sebulan yang lalu, namun wanita itu menyatakan ia sudah melewati standarnya. Implikasinya mengerikan.
'Dia seorang pedofil. Dan dengan mengatakan
Virelass trembled in Asher’s arm as though urging him to abandon his aura farming and move forward, for enemies still remained, each one waiting in line to be cut down. Asher’s purple gaze tore away from the havoc he had wrought upon the Star Academy grounds.
All enemies who had stood within nearly a two hundred meter radius had been extinguished, and thus, there was no reason to linger amidst the silent ruins of corpses and shattered stone.
"Catch you later, William," he intoned without sparing the boy a glance, his voice calm yet edged with finality.
Astra pulsed through his Astra veins like rivers of luminous current, light energy gathering at his feet, flickering and snapping against the cracked terrain.
His ankles dipped forward slightly, his muscles coiling with taut precision, compressed like a spring wound to its limit. The molten earth beneath him buckled under the pressure of his stance, sinking and fracturing into spiderweb fissures that stretched outward in trembling lines. Then, with an ear-splitting boom that reverberated across the ruined grounds, his figure vanished, shot forward with the blistering speed of a missile tearing free from the iron embrace of its fighter jet.
The battlefield blurred. The wind screamed as his body split through it like fragile parchment ripped in a single motion. His speed magnified with each heartbeat, a rhythm of deadly acceleration, as his legs struck the earth with terrifying grace. The ground cracked and dented with each step, the sheer force of his sprint carving scars into the battlefield. Within mere seconds, he had crossed a hundred meters, then two hundred, reaching the untouched fringes beyond the radius of his earlier devastation.
There was no hesitation, no pause, no blink, not even the ghost of a second thought. He moved the moment his eyes locked on his prey.
In a silver arc, Virelass sang forward, a streak of death cutting across the air. A criminal’s throat parted before the man could even register Asher’s presence. Blood erupted in a geyser, a scarlet fountain leaping skyward, only to be devoured before touching the ground. It unraveled into crimson threads that coiled toward Virelass, drawn to its edge, absorbed in savage exhilaration.
Asher himself dissolved into a blur of motion. Wherever he stepped, a body collapsed, and wherever his blade whispered, a head was sent soaring. The world became a smear of speed and death, his vision streaked with violet light and crimson haze. His purple hair streamed like a banner, his garments whipping violently as he ripped through his opponents like a scythe through ripened wheat, lethal and merciless.
The death toll mounted without restraint. He was no longer merely Asher, he seemed the heir apparent to the God of Death and Darkness, harvesting soul after soul without pause. Virelass gleamed with a vicious luster, its edges sharpening as though every strike refined its hunger, every spatter of blood added to its keenness, every life extinguished poured into its lethal will.
Suddenly, Asher’s instincts screamed. An immense wave of energy surged from behind, tearing toward him with annihilating intent. He did not waste time raising his weapon; he did not even bother to brace. His figure shimmered, collapsing into distortion before vanishing. He reappeared elsewhere in an instant, his teleportation leaving behind only a blur and a faint echo of displaced space.
A moment later, obliteration struck. The Astra blast detonated where he had stood, ripping through the battlefield in sundering waves of destruction. Trenches tore into the earth, the ground gouged apart as easily as butter beneath a hot knife, molten fragments scattering into the air.
Asher rematerialized upon a rooftop, his sharp gaze snapping toward the origin of the attack. There, standing unshaken amid the chaos, was a woman whose smile did not waver. The very air around her chilled, the atmosphere heavy with frost as though her presence alone threatened to freeze the marrow of the battlefield.
His eyes narrowed. The sensation that washed over him was more than danger, it was inevitability. He could not yet measure her true strength, but he knew she was not one to be underestimated. He made no hasty moves; instead, he stood silent, purple eyes locked upon her, weighing, calculating.
A katana rested at her waist, its placement deliberate and precise, as though affixed with love and care. Her hair fell black and smooth as midnight silk, framing a face of calm cruelty. Her eyes, a vivid green, glowed faintly with chilling vitality.
She smiled at Asher as though amused, and then she spoke.
"You seem to have caused quite a lot of trouble. It appears the Star Academy is brimming with more talent than usual," she said, her tone as cold as the frost that prickled across the air around her.
"But alas," she continued, her words sharpened by disdain, "even the Star Academy has fallen. And I wonder... where has that bitch, the so-called Goddess of Space, disappeared to?"
Asher remained silent. If it had been another enemy, he would have ended the conversation with a single strike, decapitating her without hesitation. But with this woman, he knew such rashness would be fatal. To rush headlong was to invite death. Against people like her, one needed patience, gleaning, observing, discerning even the smallest weakness.
’What is someone like her doing among the criminals inside the Star Academy?’ The thought pressed against his mind, refusing to leave.
Almost as though she had read his inner doubt, the woman tilted her head and smiled more warmly.
"Although you are a bit too old," she said sweetly, "because of your handsome face, I will allow you to become part of my little boy-toy harem." Her voice dripped with false affection, her expression soft and loving, as if she might hand Asher the world should he only ask.
Asher froze, not from embarrassment or fluster, but from shock at two simple words: too old.
He had turned eighteen barely over a month ago, and yet she declared him already past her standard. The implication was chilling.
’She’s a child molester... a pedophile. And by saying "boy-toy harem," she means she gathers children, collecting them as prizes for her twisted pleasure.’ The thought hammered into him with growing disgust.
’People like her deserve death on the spot. Why waste the effort of keeping her alive?’ His frown deepened faintly.
Seeing his silence, the woman leaned closer, her voice lilting with mock tenderness. "Are you mute, child? Don’t worry. When I’m done with you, I’m certain you’ll find your first words, drawn out of pure ecstasy, from the bliss of hormones surging through your veins after our moment together." Her eyes brightened disturbingly, sparkling as though she were already lost in her own grotesque delusional imagination.
"I refuse," Asher’s voice cut through her fantasy, sharp and cold.
Her expression soured instantly, the tender facade shattering. "I don’t like being rejected, noble brat."
Asher offered no more words. His answer was Virelass itself, the rapier raised, its sharp tip leveled at her heart with calm finality.
"Then your death it is," the woman declared, her voice echoing with chilling wrath, stripped of all pretense.
The moment her words faded, her katana was already in motion. With lethal ferocity, it tore toward Asher’s neck, the distance between them collapsing as though space itself had been rendered meaningless, nothing more than a rule she could casually dismiss.
The blade came down, swift as inevitability itself, the promise of death carried in its gleaming edge.
________
AUTHOR’S NOTE: It seems there’s been a misunderstanding. The top ten goal I speak about is the one about golden tickets. That is the official top ten rank, not any other rank you see or know about. So we will be needing your golden tickets in any way or form you can support me with.
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