In a flash of silver streaks, Asher and Virelass appeared on the branch of a tree. The very moment they reappeared, Asher collapsed to his knees as his body completely gave out. He had been in peak, constant movement for two full hours without rest, and now it showed.
Immediately after their arrival, snakes, as usual, lunged at them, but Virelass wouldn’t allow anything to get near her master. However, she didn’t kill them, as Asher had ordered her not to.
She simply severed the branches they were on, instantly dropping them to the ground. The snakes, startled and terrified, slithered away in fear.
Asher’s current location was the same spot where he had woken up at the beginning of the trial. It was the tree he had climbed for the first time, the place where he had killed the first snake.
Unknown to all, Asher had left a Position Marker on that very tree, just in case a situation like this ever arose.
The Position Marker allowed him to mark up to three different locations. His first was his room; now, this tree had become the second. The third remained unspoken, reserved for another unknown contingency.
Asher now laid on his back across the branch, panting heavily, his chest rising and falling with every breath. The last attack he made was nothing more than a gamble, one based entirely on the element of surprise.
If it had failed, he had planned to teleport immediately, but it hadn’t. It had succeeded. Asher stared at the pale moon in the sky above as he lay there motionless, like a fallen log.
’System, how much time is left?’ Asher asked mentally.
[Four hours and thirty minutes]
The system replied without hesitation, its voice calm and efficient.
Over the past six months, while Asher had been grappling with the weaknesses in his ability, he discovered that blood was one of the major limitations. Without blood, Crimson Pact was utterly useless. But Asher had found something else, Virelass could also store the blood it drank.
Virelass didn’t necessarily need to use the blood she had consumed immediately. She could store it for future use, and this discovery had been critical.
During his preparation for the True Awakening, Asher knew that it would involve numerous injuries. He knew pain would be a constant companion. So, anticipating the worst, he made sure to fill Virelass with blood in advance, just in case something happened.
And something had happened.
That was why, earlier, when he stood up and hid behind the tree, it wasn’t only to prepare an ambush. It was also to hide and heal, because if the assassins had seen him healing, they wouldn’t wait and simply kill I’m instantly. This had been his trump card all along.
Virelass could still heal him using the blood of fallen enemies, without tapping into her stored supply, which was exactly what she had been doing throughout the True Awakening until now.
Asher didn’t yet know the full limit of Virelass’ storage capacity, but to him, it seemed almost infinite. Virelass had been drinking blood nonstop for over a month without showing any signs of reaching her limit.
’I have an hour and a half to two hours to rest and recover,’ Asher thought, his gaze still fixed on the moonlight filtering through the forest canopy.
Returning to this location was a strategic move. Although the assassins now knew where he was, they still had to make their way back here. And they had just spent two full hours chasing him at near full speed.
That meant he had approximately two hours before they could return, unless they chose to sprint with all they had.
But Asher knew better.
Some of them might consider it, using Astra augmentation and abilities to cover the distance quickly, but doing so would be foolish. Upon arrival, they’d be exhausted, with stamina and Astra reserves nearly depleted or halved.
So Asher was confident they wouldn’t. Even if they spent two hours tracking him back here, they still had two more hours remaining to eliminate him. They wouldn’t risk arriving completely drained.
It was all calculated, from the very beginning.
Asher stared at the moon once more. He was slowly regenerating stamina, but if he wanted to reach his peak faster, he would need to do one thing — sleep.
He weighed the decision he was about to make. To sleep in an enemy’s domain, at his weakest state, surrounded by threats... it was reckless. But he had no other choice.
His Omni Perception would alert him to anything nearby. Though it had weaknesses, it didn’t mean it was useless simply because it wasn’t infallible. And besides, Virelass was there, floating silently above him, like a quiet, ever-watchful guardian.
Another thought crept into Asher’s mind, and a faint smile formed on his lips. Then he laid down more comfortably and slowly closed his eyes.
His mind drifted to the huge bed and feathered duvet back in his room. The temptation to teleport there just to sleep was overwhelming. After all, even as an orphan in his past life, he had never once slept in a forest teeming with assassins and wild beasts.
He thought of Lyra, wondering how she was doing in this moment. But the thought was fleeting. It vanished just as a natural phenomenon called sleep claimed him.
Even in this state of unconsciousness, his mind remained half-active. His ability; Instinctive Adaptation seemed to reach its peak during such a moment.
Virelass floated gently above Asher, her entire form humming like an ethereal sentinel. She was ready to shred anything that dared approach her master, to rip it apart down to the smallest atom.
Deep within the forest, the assassins moved with agile and fluid motions. Their figures tore past trees, the world turning into a blur in their vision. Each step echoed with frustration and fury. They cursed beneath their breaths.
They had waited so long for the Tenth Sun to reveal a second ability, only for it to turn out to be a teleportation skill instead of an offensive one.
And what baffled them even more, they couldn’t understand how the Tenth Sun still had Astra left.
Their minds raced with questions. They concluded that the rapier had likely been gathering Astra for the teleportation earlier.
That would explain it. Otherwise, why wait for that particular moment to gather Astra and teleport? Why not teleport at the beginning before the injuries had piled up?
They wanted to increase their speed, to dash through the forest at maximum capacity. But they knew better. This was a battlefield. Anything could happen. They needed to conserve stamina. That was rule number one. So, they didn’t use their abilities, nor did they tap into their Astra reserves.
They estimated it would take an hour and a half to two hours to reach Asher’s new location. But they weren’t worried. They still had two hours left to kill him. In their minds, there was no way the Tenth Sun could recover in just two hours.
Ironically, their thoughts aligned perfectly with Asher’s own calculations and strategy.
But the real question was, when the assassins finally arrived, who would they meet?
Would it be the same Asher they had left behind, low on stamina, battered, barely breathing?
Or... would they meet something else entirely?
Perhaps they wouldn’t meet him at all.