"Asher! Wait!"
Asher turned around to see Kai catch up to him. Asher chuckled a bit, "My bad. I was a bit exhilarated to fly for the first time." Kai smiled, "Well, of course! I was the same when I could first fly. It really is an experience!"
Asher nodded brightly, turning front. Due to his Attribute evolving, Asher could strangely fell as if his head was clearer. Even now, he could keep pace with Kai while idly cycling open his runes.
"Right."
His jaw tightened as a familiar screen unfurled before his eyes:
Name: Asher.
True Name: Echo of the Abyss.
Rank: Dreamer.
Class: Monster.
Dream Core: Dormant.
Soul Fragments: [1004/2000]
Dream Fragments: [12/1000]
Memories: [Second Skin], [Box O' Plenty], [Spirewind Mantle], [Cicada's Cry]
Echoes: [Boomlet].
Attributes: [Spectral Sight], [Flame of Divinity], [Nimble Intellect], [Soul Veil], [Dreamspawn], [Within the Unseen].
Aspect: [The Eighth Exile]
Aspect Rank: [???]
Aspect Description: [Seven were born of -Unknown-. Fate, Destiny, Imagination, Repose, Oblivion, Dread, Desire. But the eighth was never written. There is no title for what you are. You were an avatar that couldn't be possessed. Yet, the -Unknown- tried. Exile is not your punishment, but your freedom.]
Innate Ability: [Event Horizon]
Ability Description: [The weight of the world hums, and you listen. Where mass gathers, where space trembles, where silence bends beneath unseen force—you feel it. Nothing heavy moves unnoticed. Nothing immense hides from your gaze.]
[Aspect Ability Name: Unbound]
[Aspect Ability Description: The force around you seems more malleable.]
Aspect Legacy: —
Flaw: [Emotional Amplification.]
Flaw Description: [Every feeling, from joy to sorrow, is amplified twofold.]
Another core… He had truly gained one after surpassing 1000 soul fragments. That all but confirmed it: his Aspect had reached divine... or further. And grimly enough, his suspicion about [Soul Veil] was right.
Killing Gunlaug had given him a thousand fragments.
He didn't know what they meant, only that they were tied to the evolution of [Within the Unseen]. Was it something he triggered unconsciously? Or something beyond his control?
Normally, he'd have gone to Dahila for answers. But… she was gone. Or rather, she had slipped into some strange slumber the moment his Attribute shifted. Now she simply floated, half-submerged in the waters of his soul sea, unmoving.
'Damn that thing…'
Asher exhaled, shaking his head. All he could do was wait—for her to wake, and for her cryptic half-truths to guide him again.
"Hey Asher..."
Asher turned to Kai, who looked front with a bleak expression. "You might want to look front."
Asher had already felt it—the shift in weight, the buzz of thousands of wings pressing against his gravity sense. He looked forward anyway. A black cloud of locusts was barreling toward them.
He swallowed hard, glancing at Kai. "Hey, Night… buddy. Do you happen to know why Nephis sent me with you?"
Kai summoned, his elegant bow, nodding. "Because she was confident you can protect me in case of danger right?"
Asher nodded, looking around. "Well... yes. But please don't think I am going to fight."
Kai's brows raised as he charged up the blood arrow Sunny had given him Asher turned back, catching the archer by the collar, making him yelp a bit, causing him to let go of the arrow. The half- notched arrow whistled forward, bursting in a crimson flare. Few of locusts dropped from the sky, scattering through the labyrinth.
"Asher! But we have to go that way!"
Asher shook his head, lips quirking into a grin. "Night, let me teach you the single skill that kept me alive two months in this damned place."
Behind them, the locust tide surged closer. Asher summoned Boomlet, gravity shifting around his ears. He compressed the air near his ears, thinning it into a fragile bubble—a near-vacuum. Not perfect silence, but enough. Any tighter, and his eardrums would rupture.
He looked at Kai.
The archer would need some sort of protection since he is a sleeper, but Asher doubted Kai's ears were as sensitive as his.
"Cover your ears."
Kai did just that, trusting Asher judgement fully.
Asher closed his eyes for a breath. Then Boomlet shrieked. A piercing note split the air, sharp enough to make the labyrinth itself shiver.
The swarm convulsed mid-flight. Their screeches mingled with the echo, and then—chaos. The locusts wheeled, abandoning their charge, scattering wildly fleeing the the direction Asher was heading.
Kai lowered his hands slowly, blinking as the last of the horde disappeared into the distance.
Asher released his grip on the archer's collar, exhaling with a crooked smirk.
"Lesson one: never fight an enemy head-on."
Kai blinked and hurried after Asher, who was already flying on as if nothing had happened.
"W–What was that?"
Asher shrugged, "Echolocation. Remember seeing a video about it in the academy. Since I was a sleeper, I could hear the sound."
Kai tilted his head, puzzled. "No, I mean… why did the locusts run away like that?"
Dismisssing Boomlet, Asher sighed, glancing at him."Bats are natural predators of locusts. Over time, the bugs adapted—learned to recognize ultrasound, which bats use to hunt. It's basically their danger signal. Boomlet's cry was broad enough to mimic the call of something massive, so they thought there was a colossal bat in our path and fled the other way."
He gestured ahead with both hands. "So yeah. That swarm won't be bothering us again."
Kai's eyes grew wider the more he listened. By the time Asher finished, he looked completely awestruck.
"Asher… you're incredible. I really don't understand why Lady Nephis and Sunny call you an idiot. You're so smart!"
Asher froze mid-flight, an eyebrow twitching. "…Wait. They call me an idiot even when I'm not there?"
Kai nodded earnestly. "Yes. For example, after you defeated the Bright Lord, Lady Nephis came to check on you every single day while you were bedridden. She'd always ask the same question: 'Is the idiot awake yet?'"
Asher felt a sharp, invisible arrow pierce his chest.
Kai went on, smiling faintly as he remembered. "And once, when everyone was talking about your incredible deeds, one of the Sleepers said you had 'balls of steel.' Sunny got this really serious look and said—" Kai dropped his voice into a gloomy imitation of Sunny:
'If he keeps pulling stunts like that, the only thing those balls will get him is killed… maybe even pass on some of his idiotic genes.'"
Kai tilted his head, frowning gently. "I think… that was another way of calling you reckless. Which is kind of like calling you and your genes stupid. It wasn't very kind, though." He stopped himself, looking at Asher's tired face.
Asher's face went pale. He raised a trembling hand, voice low.
"Kai… I think that one hit me in the balls, too."
Kai blinked in confusion, slowing in the air. "…What?"