Chapter 210: How Dare You! [Bonus - ]

Chapter 210: How Dare You! [Bonus Chapter]

"Senior—?!"

?Nicolas whipped his head around frantically toward the elder, only to watch in sheer horror as the old man completely dissolved into a wisp of dark, vanishing smoke.

?"...?!"

?He stood entirely flabbergasted, his mind stalling.

?"A clone had been operating by your side from the very beginning, and you were completely oblivious to it... What an utter fool." Asher murmured quietly, resting his chin in his hand as the twin great daggers hovered menacingly on either side of his shoulders.

?"You?! Who the hell are you, and what are you playing at?!!" Nicolas roared, pointing a trembling, accusing finger directly at Asher’s face.

?BAM!!

?Nicolas’s index finger instantly sliced clean off his hand, flying high into the air in a spray of blood before landing heavily on the floor. Nicolas blinked down at his mutilated hand, his brain failing to process the missing digit.

?The next microsecond:

?"ARGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

?A piercing, blood-curdling shriek ripped from his throat as he grabbed his bleeding hand, staring across the hall at Asher with wide, unmasked terror:

?"What kind of ungodly entity are you?!! Are you even human, or some unholy monster?!" He sobbed hysterically.

?"A literal monster calling other beings monsters... How ironic," Asher muttered flatly, resting his elbow on his knee as he gazed down at the guild leader with a cold, unimpressed frown.

?"Before you die, tell me: who was the man orchestrating your guild’s movements?" he asked calmly.

?"Ah..." Nicolas exhaled a long, shuddering breath. A manic, desperate light flashed in his eyes as he snapped his fingers, summoning ten jagged crimson skulls that materialized in a ring around his massive body.

?"Do you honestly believe I’m going to surrender secrets just because you politely asked?! Think again!" He forced himself to his feet. With a deafening roar, the ten crimson skulls shattered simultaneously, releasing torrents of volatile red energy that violently fused straight into his flesh.

?BOOM!

?A colossal, blood-red pillar of pure demonic light erupted upward from his frame, violently shattering the reinforced ceiling of the grand hall and punching a gaping hole straight through to the sky above.

?Debris, jagged concrete blocks, and shattered glass rained down like hail from the destroyed roof. Yet Asher remained completely unmoving on the throne, not a single speck of dust daring to settle upon his shoulders or cloak.

?"Ahhhhh!! You motherfucking bastard!! I’ve reached the absolute end of the line—I don’t care about anything anymore!! I am going to drag you straight down to hell with me!! If you came here to tear down my empire, you’re going to leave your life behind as payment!!" Nicolas shrieked at the top of his lungs.

?His physical muscles convulsed violently, stretching and tearing as his frame ballooned outward. In a matter of seconds, he grew a full four feet taller, standing as a towering ten-foot muscular monstrosity adorned with four curling demonic horns protruding from his skull and a thick, whip-like tail lashing behind him.

?His skin completely blackened, turning a charred, light-absorbing obsidian tone:

?"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"

?He screamed in an inhuman frenzy as the crimson pillar of light expanded outward in a destructive shockwave. The blastwave instantly pulverized the remainder of the massive guild hall and leveled every surrounding structure and living creature within a hundred-yard radius—yet, miraculously, the grand guild leader’s throne and the exact square foot of stone beneath Asher remained entirely untouched and pristine.

?As the suffocating smoke and dust finally cleared away, Nicolas stepped forward. He now possessed the colossal proportions of a raging ogre, corded with dense, unnatural muscle bundles and radiating waves of suffocating demonic energy. The high-tier gear he had previously worn was entirely gone—either physically obliterated or forcefully absorbed into his mutated body.

?[Name: Nicolas Carnage.]

[Rank: SSS-RANK.]

[Gear: None.]

[Combat Power: 150,000,000 (150 Million).]

?’No matter how high you artificially increase your strength through forbidden sacrifices, without truly completing the requirements, you can never naturally transcend into the EX-Rank threshold... Thanks to the System, I remain the only human in this world who can achieve this.’ Asher thought internally, completely unfazed.

?"How dare you casually step into my sovereign territory and attempt to slaughter me like a dog!!" Nicolas rumbled, his voice vibrating with deep, monstrous bass as he towered ten feet above the floor.

?’The sheer magnitude of the energy is bound to have alerted the Awakened Association by now; I need to conclude this swiftly.’ He calculated, fixing his gaze on Asher.

?Asher merely stared back at him, his brilliant golden eyes narrowing into sharp slits:

?"Is this truly the absolute peak of your power?" He asked coolly.

?"Don’t you dare look down on me with that arrogant, condescending stare just because you managed to butcher my members! People from the First District are universally blinded by unearned arrogance; you already possess everything—pristine lands overflowing with pure spirit energy, endless financial resources to buy whatever you desire, and absolute protection from the Awakened Association. But what about us down here in the lawless Third District? We were given absolutely nothing... Whatever atrocities I chose to commit, I did so solely to ensure that my people and I could claw our way through this cruel world and survive!!" Nicolas snarled, pointing a massive, clawed finger at Asher, who remained entirely silent.

?In truth, Asher didn’t need a speech to understand Nicolas’s perspective—he understood the raw agony of starvation, the biting cold of abandonment, and the pitch-black despair of the world intimately.

?When the Starfire family had ruthlessly cast him out into Silverspire, they hadn’t left him with a single cent. He had been forced to run himself ragged, taking on degrading odd jobs just to secure a crust of bread, eventually driven to strip the very furniture out of the dilapidated, rundown building and sell it off simply to scrape together a thousand pitiful dollars for survival.

?But what choices would have awaited him after getting blacklisted? Or once his cash reserves finally hit zero?

?Would he have descended into a wretched criminal like the men standing before him, preying on the weak just to secure a single plate of warm food?

?If the System hadn’t chosen him as its master when it did, his own path could easily have devolved into a similarly tragic nightmare. But...

?Asher slowly pushed himself to his feet. Regardless of the empathy he held for the cruel realities of the world, one fundamental absolute remained etched into his soul: he would never, under any conceivable circumstance, harm an innocent human life simply to inflate his personal strength or feed his household. He would willingly sell his blood before ever committing such a heartless, unforgivable atrocity.

?"I cannot explain why I was chosen to inherit the System, nor why it selected me out of the millions of souls breathing across this world... I will never arrogantly claim to have suffered the deepest sorrow or walked through the most agonizing grief known to mankind, but there is one single truth I know with absolute certainty..."

?He stepped forward smoothly, his fingers closing firmly around the hilts of his twin great daggers.

?"What meaningless, delusional nonsense are you babbling about now?!!" Nicolas roared, long, venomous claws snapping out from his fingertips as he lunged forward.

?WHOOSH!!

?Before Nicolas’s claws could even scratch the empty air, Asher flickered through space, materializing instantly in absolute silence directly behind the towering monster’s back:

?"...I am Asher."