Chapter 81: Above It All
A single word cleaved through the battlefield, a realm already teetering on the brink of apocalypse. It struck Asher’s ears with the force of a divine edict, as though the voice of a god had commanded mortals to obey without hesitation, without question.
The moment the word reached him, Asher felt its weight crash down upon his existence. His entire body halted, not with a gradual deceleration, but with an unnatural, absolute stillness. As if time itself had been forcibly arrested.
The crackling lightning that once danced along his form froze mid-arc. His heartbeat, his breath, his very footsteps, everything was suspended.
Even Virelass, ever eager in his grasp, fell silent. Only his thoughts remained, trapped in the echo of that word, reeling as they struggled to comprehend the sheer magnitude of what had just occurred.
Hillary moved without the slightest hesitation, no breath, no thought, only motion. His figure surged forward, rapier already aligned for a single, lethal thrust, one precise strike meant to bring finality.
Asher felt it before he saw it: a thrust so absolute it threatened to erase his very existence. In that instant, time unraveled around him. Memories bled into his vision, his former life before transmigration, the long numbers in his bank account, the woman he had once called the love of his life: Jennifer.
Even fragments of his new life flickered before his eyes, a brief, bittersweet montage flashing like a final tribute to his existence. It was as though his soul had already accepted death.
And then, Hillary’s rapier closed the last of the distance, its gleaming tip mere centimeters from Asher’s head.
In a sudden flash of silver light, Asher vanished from his position, Position Marker had been activated with nothing but a thought. His form reappeared atop the very tree he had marked earlier.
He had chosen this location with foresight. The first time he used Position Marker to teleport to this tree, he had leapt down after healing and resting, intentionally leaving the tree intact. He’d predicted that the assassins might target it if they knew its significance. Now, that decision had proven vital.
His gamble had been correct.