CLEAVER OF SIN
Chapter 80: Freeze

Chapter 80: Freeze

The waning darkness that had cloaked the forest began to dissolve entirely, giving way to the violent bloom of crimson flames and purple lightning that tore into existence.

With a deafening roar, both elements collided, an elemental clash so potent it threatened to cleave the forest in two.

The resulting shockwave surged outward in a brutal tide, hurling trees, earth, boulders, and stone alike into the air. What wasn’t flung was utterly annihilated, swallowed whole by the overwhelming forces at play.

A deep tremor reverberated through the land, as though a meteor had struck the heart of the forest. Lightning crackled violently, twisting through the air with serpentine madness, each thunderclap sharp enough to rupture eardrums.

Flames raged with searing brilliance, the heat distorting the very air, rising to a fevered pitch, as if reality itself might melt under its wrath.

Gaping ravines tore open the earth, their jagged mouths stretching toward the heavens. The ground beneath glowed with molten fury, transformed into a river of lava, while the merciless lightning scorched everything in its path, leaving nothing but blackened ruin.

Within the veil of darkness and swirling fog, two titanic figures, one wreathed in crackling lightning, the other engulfed in roaring flames, collided with a thunderous impact that shook the world.

Their forms, lost in motion, became silhouettes of raw elemental frenzy, one painted in searing crimson, the other in radiant purple.

There was no restraint. Each warrior drove the other to the brink, every clash of their weapons echoing in a blaring crescendo that tore through the silence like a scream from the abyss.

Smoke curled into the heavens, thick and suffocating. The surrounding beasts, seized by primal fear, fled in desperate retreat, instinctively knowing to run, lest they be incinerated by the flames or torn apart by the shockwaves that shattered the air around them.

Their blades met with the fury of a tempest, sparks erupting as though the very air recoiled from the violence. Steel screamed against steel, each strike a war-drum’s beat, echoing like thunder beneath a storm-choked sky.

They moved in a symphony of death, blades flashing like lightning bolts wrenched from the hands of an enraged god.

They did not pause to breathe.

They did not pause to blink.

They did not pause to think.

They did not pause to speak.

They simply moved.

Their bodies flowed with ruthless grace. Eyes sharp, hands precise, feet relentless, they were no longer men, but forces of nature bound in mortal flesh.

Fatigue held no dominion here. No, exhaustion dared not lay a finger upon these godlike beings as they tore into one another with cataclysmic clash, each blow threatening to reshape the world around them.

Another overwhelming force surged between them as their rapiers clashed once more, yet neither yielded. Their feet remained anchored to the earth, unmoved, as though the very ground bowed to their resolve.

The air before them detonated with absurd force, yet they didn’t flinch, didn’t blink, unshaken by the chaos erupting around them.

They traded thrusts like poets weaving verses, each strike a stanza, each cut a line of elegant brutality. Their movements danced like silver rivers under moonlight, fluid, graceful, and deadly.

Parries and slashes wove together into a seamless tempest, a duel so precise it blurred the line between violence and art.

They met and parted like waves crashing upon an eternal shore, every collision pulsing with the raw, untamed force of nature itself.

Asher’s rapier moved with rapturous impulse, Virelass streaking forward like a spear of judgment. Lightning enveloped his entire form, wild, radiant, and unyielding, dancing along the blade in arcs of crackling madness.

Opposite him, Hillary’s flames surged in response, flaring with demonic intensity as his own rapier flowed like the firestorms of the underworld.

Each clash released a cacophony of sizzling energy and shrieking sound, lightning snarling against flame, steel howling against steel, as the two combatants weaved destruction into every movement.

In mere minutes, the forest bore the scars of their conflict, entire swaths reduced to smoldering ruin. Trees lay in charred heaps, the earth was split and burning, as they drove each other forward with nothing but pure, lethal intent.

Hillary’s figure blurred as he launched backward, crimson flames trailing behind him like a comet streaking through the dark. He came to a sudden halt, planting his feet as his rapier rose, its tip leveled at Asher with precise, silent intent.

In a single motion, his arm recoiled, flames surging violently around him, then he vanished. His form tore through the air, surging forward like a blazing arrow loosed from a divine bow. The thrust that followed was sharp, deadly, and merciless, a technique honed for the kill.

Asher’s senses flared, danger screamed in his bones. Whatever Hillary had just unleashed, it wasn’t ordinary. It was a technique, and a fatal one at that. Instinct overruled thought. He didn’t dare parry. He didn’t attempt to block.

Instead, he moved.

A thunderous crack split the air as Asher’s form became a streak of purple lightning, vanishing from sight in a bolt of raw speed, evading death by a breath.

The moment Asher vanished, Hillary’s thrust erupted with cataclysmic force. A torrent of flame exploded outward, devouring the space Asher had occupied, like an all-consuming beast unleashed.

The inferno surged forth, its tendrils licking and incinerating everything in their path, carving a smoldering void into the heart of the forest as if reality itself had been torn open by the sheer ferocity of the strike.

But before the embers could settle, Hillary’s senses flared, something was behind him.

His body moved before thought could catch up. Shoulder, foot, and arm snapped into perfect alignment, his center of gravity shifting with fluid movement honed by countless battles.

His rapier screamed upward just in time, meeting Asher’s descending blade in a blinding clash. The impact roared like a thunderstorm’s outrage, Asher’s strike descending like a judge’s gavel with undeniable finality.

The force rampaged through Hillary’s frame, threatening to break his stance apart, but he held firm.

The earth beneath him cracked and sank under the weight, but Hillary didn’t flinch. Not even for a second.

They vanished and reappeared in flashes of devastation, each movement a storm of unrestrained power. Astra surged through their veins with relentless fervor, as if they wielded an infinite wellspring of energy drawn from the cosmos itself.

Blows rained in rapid succession, thrusts, slashes, cuts, and counter-thrusts, each technique crashing against another in a duel of relentless mastery. Every strike was met with its equal, every motion born from instinct sharpened into perfection.

Their footprints marked the scarred earth, etched deep into the ruined forest like echoes carved into the sands of time.

Their feet danced across the battlefield, brushing the ground with divine efficiency, while their rapiers met and parted, again and again, like the ceremonial kiss of a sacred vow, sealed in steel and sanctified by the heavens themselves.

The sun began its slow ascent, inching above the horizon as if the heavens themselves sought to remind them; time was slipping away. The darkness and fog that had veiled the battlefield began to retreat beneath the golden tide of morning, light bleeding softly into the ravaged forest.

Hillary, catching sight of the rising dawn, made a choice.

For the first time since the battle began, he broke his silence.

His lips parted, and his voice rang out, not merely loud, but thunderous, a sound that cut through the clash of steel and the howl of flames. It carried the weight of authority, of power, of finality. A single word, yet it seemed vast enough to drown the storm that surrounded them.

"FREEZE."