[A/N: holy shit. I really asked for 50 reviews and ended at 58. Thank you everyone!. Now... enjoy the chap! I shall upload continuously for five days so enjoy!]
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"I–It's him."
The words rippled through the grand hall like a spark in dry grass.
Dozens turned, eyes wide. Some froze in disbelief. Others, trembling, raised their communicators — recording the impossible. Within seconds, the air filled with a storm of whispers.
"Despicable! How dare he interrupt this auspicious ball!"
"What an abomination!"
"Kill that fool at once!"
"He dares interrupt this event?!"
Voices crashed over one another, outrage blending with fear.
And through it all, Asher said nothing.
He simply raised his arms.
The hall fell silent.
Only then did they notice what he was holding.
Two severed heads dangled from his fists, each gripped by the hair. Blood ran down his arms, pattering onto the white marble floor, staining it crimson.
He let them fall.
Thud.
Thud.
The heads rolled across the marble, leaving a pair of glistening trails behind them. The nobles recoiled. Even the hardened Awakened felt a chill crawl up their spines.
When the heads finally came to rest — their faces turned toward the crowd, as though displayed for judgment — a strangled cry broke the silence.
"Hiwer!"
A beautiful woman in silk collapsed to her knees, her trembling fingers reaching toward the blood-slick marble. Her voice cracked into a scream, raw and shattering. "Hiiiiiwer!"
Gasps spread like fire.
"Those are Hiwer of the Dar Clan—and Martin of the Aegis Rose Clan!" someone shouted.
For an instant, the entire hall froze. Then, fury erupted.
"Kill him!"
Dozens of Awakened lunged forward, memories blazing into existence.
BOOM!
The floor shattered. A shockwave rippled through the hall, hurling debris and light in all directions.
When the dust cleared... Asher was still standing exactly where he had been — unflinching, untouched, eyes locked on the woman sobbing before him.
"What are you doing?!" one of the awakened roared, stepping forward through the haze.
And then—
The curtain of dust fell away completely.
Grey eyes — cold as forged steel — glared back at the attackers. A faint shimmer of light surrounded Asher like a barrier, flickering in rhythm.
"Changing Star!"
Around Asher, five figures stood — Sunny, Nephis, Cassie, Kai, and Effie — forming a tight dome of defense. The air crackled with essence as dozens of awakened prowled around them, ready to strike.
Effie exhaled sharply, her spear held low. "You don't look very prince-like anymore, Ash," she muttered, voice grim despite the joke.
Kai's eyes darted across the crowd, "We hold formation! Defend Asher for now — no matter what!"
Sunny's jaw clenched, his shadow rippling underfoot. "What the hell were you thinking," he hissed, "walking into a hall full of Awakened like this?!"
"I count ten awakened… and at least four masters," Cassie murmured, her sightless eyes covered by a blindfold.
Nephis glanced back, her silver hair glinting beneath the chandeliers. "You'd better have a good explanation later," she said coldly.
Asher didn't answer.
He only looked at her for a heartbeat — then turned away, eyes fixed on the woman kneeling amid the crimson stains on the marble.
He stepped forward.
Every sound in the hall died away as Asher knelt before the grieving woman, his blood-soaked hair dripping onto the floor.
Her hands trembled, her tear-streaked face twisting into fury. "Monster!" she spat. "What did my poor Hiwer ever do to you?!"
Asher's expression barely shifted. His vermillion eyes, hollow and burning, watched her like a dying flame.
Then, he slowly reached forward. His hand brushed against hers. The woman flinched, but he only lifted her trembling hand and pressed it to his cheek. Blood smeared across her pristine evening gloves.
"I'm not sure," he murmured, voice low and even. "But his blood… should be in this."
The crowd's expression turned grim as light flared into the lady's hands. "You disgusting mongrel!" A elegant rapier headed for Asher heart as Nephis' tried to act, knowing it was too late.
Yet... the rapier never reached his chest, instead stopping mere millimeters from his heart. The woman looked shocked but before she could push the rapier in further, Asher closed his hand over the blade and snapped it as if it were glass.
Light scattered like dying stars.
The broken memory flickered, the weapon vanishing into nothingness.
Asher raised his head, his bloodstreaked face inches from hers. "Why," he asked quietly, "did he try to kill me?"
The woman stared back — eyes wide, lips trembling. Then, slowly, she shook her head. Her breath hitched.
And she screamed.
It was the scream of someone who'd just realized the thing before her wasn't entirely human anymore.
Asher stood, his shadow stretching across the marble as he walked forward. The woman stumbled back, flailing, until she fell — and the crowd, silent and terrified, parted before him.
Not one dared to stand in his way.
"Enough."
The single word rolled through the ballroom like thunder.
Every murmur died.
A suffocating pressure descended, making even the awakened stiffen in instinctive fear. On the grand staircase stood a man draped in an immaculate suit of deep gray, each step he took down echoing like a hammer on stone. His eyes, cold and cutting, swept the hall before settling on Asher.
Asher stopped mid-stride. He looked up through the rain of dust and light.
The man's voice was calm — too calm. "I assume you are… Zerei? Or perhaps I should say—" His gaze sharpened. "Echo of the Abyss."
The title hung in the air, heavy and old.
Asher didn't respond. His crimson eyes simply watched the man in silence, reading the faint tremor in his aura. He knew him. Everyone did.
Madoc of Valor — the Whispering Blade, current head of the Valor Clan.
Madoc adjusted his cuffs, his tone deceptively polite. "I believe there's been a… miscommunication. You said they tried to kill you? What exactly do you mean?"
Asher's expression didn't change. "As soon as I woke from my second nightmare, they attacked — two masters, three more in the shadows, and a dozen awakened. I came here to ask why."
For a moment, silence.
Then, it was all discord.
"Second nightmare?!"
"Did he really say he challenged the second Nightmare as a sleeper!?"
"He did that all alone!?"
"Crazy. Crazy. CRAZY!"
The cohort looked on with wide eyes as they turned to Kai, who looked equally shocked. Sunny gazed at him, his eyes narrowing at his core while face paled.
beneath him, instinctively recoiling from Asher's presence.
"…Tyrant," he breathed.
The word barely left his lips, yet Nephis heard it. She turned toward him sharply — her usually calm eyes reflecting the same realization.
She was perhaps one of the three people in the world that knew the meaning of that.
Asher was the fourth divine aspect user.