Chapter 246: Signets of Vacuity (2)

Kouro looked at Sagaki with a wary expression, the shadow under his feet had widened and revealed Igris, Beru, Hei Xuan and Bia Xuan standing behind him.

Although he felt somewhat inappropriate fighting his father using numbers, but...

He had shared a sense with one of his shadow warriors that showed him that Kiana had turned into the Herrscher of Void because of Fu Hua's actions... No, it was probably Otto who planned all this.

'I must hurry.' Kouro thought and created a straight sword from his shadow and grasped it firmly, letting Igris and the others move first to attack Sagaki.

Beru roared loudly and spread her hands with sharp claws before launching a frontal attack at high speed.

*Clang!*

Sagaki dodged each of Beru's attacks with minimal movement, he moved without even looking at the attack and didn't even turn his head to look at his opponent, his face just staring straight at Kouro.

Seeing that he had been ignored as if he was a weakling made Beru angry and attacked him more fiercely and brutally.

The impact of Beru's attacks destroyed the surrounding buildings just because of the wind impact of his movements, each of his missed attacks punctured the ground, collapsing the ruins and so on.

"RRSSHHHH!!!" Beru shouted hissing with saliva instantly melting the rocks in seconds.

He planned to use his acid-like saliva as one of his deadly weapons.

But even after that, his attack still did not hit Sagaki or even his clothes.

"Attack him together!" Hei Xuan said after seeing Sagaki not swinging his sword at all and only dodging Beru's attacks.

Igris, Hei Xuan and Bai Xuan then formed a triangular formation before attacking from various points to reduce his scope of movement so that he could not dodge at all.

The three of them both used their ultimate abilities to attack Sagaki, this could be seen from Igris's sword which was enveloped by a dark aura, then Hei Xuan and Baik Xuan whose swords were also enveloped by blazing purple flames.

"HAH!!!"

Sagaki stood still because the black blindfold he wore made him unable to see, but he could feel the wind blowing against his face and buzzing in his ears because of the swings of his opponent's swords from many different directions.

Just then, as if time stopped, Sagaki raised his head before holding his katana while striking an Iaido pose with his hand holding the handle of his katana intending to make one quick attack.

True, for Sagaki himself, one attack was enough to defeat his current opponents.

No need to use the power of the Herrscher of Shadow and so on.

Just one attack.

*Swoosh!*

No one could see when Sagaki withdrew his katana, only the slashing sound was heard.

Time then returned to normal, suddenly Igris and the others seemed to be instantly split in two and fell to the ground unable to move.

Sagaki turned to look at Igris and the others before speaking calmly.

His attack caused Igris and the others' regeneration to slow down even more than an ordinary person.

"They are great warriors."

After saying that he walked slowly towards Kouro.

Kouro on the other hand seemed to be gritting his teeth in a cold sweat, perhaps people could not see Sagaki's slash because it was too fast.

But he was able to see it even if it was only for a moment, the reason people including Igris and others were unable to see Sagaki's slash was because he cut off space.

Since he cut through space the concept of 'distance' became non-existent, moreover his slashing speed was extremely high which was probably the reason he could cut through the concept of space.

'I don't know what power is contained in father's strange card for him to be this strong...' Kouro thought with his eyes shining calmly.

Although his father had great abilities and skills now, he didn't feel afraid.

After all, no matter what even if all his abilities are sealed, the Herrscher of Salvation ability is still there so his status still reaches five digits especially with a 50-fold increase when entering this Herrscher form.

'Even if I can't beat him in terms of skills and abilities. I can still be confident in my physical strength!'

With a confident expression, Kouro darted straight at Sagaki while raising his straight sword forward that had turned into a spear.

As Kouro's attack was about to hit him, Sagaki immediately drew his katana and slashed horizontally cutting Kouro's spear in half.

Seeing his weapon destroyed Kouro's expression did not change instead it was a golden opportunity for him because Sagaki had entered the scope of his attack range, he then without hesitation immediately raised his hand and threw consecutive punches that had been strengthened by Herrscher's authority.

Each blow emitted fire, lightning, and created a rumble as if space was about to collapse.

In Sagaki's perspective, even though his vision was closed, he could 'see' that Kouro's consecutive punches were so fast that they formed hundreds of millions of 'After images' of fists aimed at him.

Seeing this made Sagaki involuntarily smile a little.

'You've become so strong now...'

...

A few minutes later.

The city where Kouro and Sagaki were, the terrain had completely changed from being full of skyscrapers, now it had turned into a wasteland with not even in ruins as it had been reduced to dust.

Well... This was not surprising at all because the impact of Kouro and Sagaki's battle was truly terrible especially Kouro who has the power of Herrscher's authority.

One of the main reasons this city became a wasteland, was because of Kouro's attack containing Herrscher's authority...

Sagaki and Kouro looked at each other and panted slightly, they were really fighting each other at a very high intensity.

"... Hah... Hah... Kouro... Do you know your grandfather's past?" asked Sagaki suddenly.

Kouro was a little confused by his sudden question but nodded his head anyway.

He knew Ashborn's background because he had met him even though it was in another world.

And now, he was a little unsure if the knowledge of Ashborn's past was the same as that in this world, after all he hadn't even met this grandfather yet.

"Hoo... I didn't expect that you knew about it... I'm not going to ask where you know this stuff from. Do you think... Is his past very dark? "

Kouro immediately raised his eyebrows, he really didn't know why his father was asking him this, but even so he would still answer him.

Putting on a thinking expression, he recalled the past of the Ashborn he met from another world.

... 

Ashborn was the first clone to successfully gain independent consciousness and the power of the Herrscher of Shadows.

According to Ashborn herself, Mobius actually danced when she saw him.

She conducted various examinations on Ashborn but strangely did not perform any operations or experiments.

Well... This is not surprising, after all Ashborn was a very rare specimen for Mobius and it was too risky to directly experiment without doing research.

At that time, Ashborn's body was not made as an adult but as a 4 or 5 year old child and could grow up like any normal child.

He was taught by Aponia about the most basic things, ranging from what is good and evil, common sense, and so on so that he could quickly adapt to the civilization at that time.

Aponia was both a mother and a teacher to Ashborn.

And then year after year passed.

When he was 18 years old, a plague dubbed as the 'Black Death' appeared and spread throughout Europe and took a lot of victims.

Ashborn felt an emotion for the first time when he saw people suffering.

'Regret'.

As a clone, he was not treated as a human by Mobius and some other MANTIS so the emotions that should exist in every human were not possessed by him.

'Regret' was the first feeling he got, it was also what made him decide his actions independently for the first time.

He then came to an organization called 'Schicksal' and disguised himself as a wandering doctor named 'Flandre' who tried to cure people affected by the Black Death.

Ashborn there learned about humanity, despair, catastrophe... And hope.

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It's also where he met Otto and Kallen.

The disguised Ashborn got acquainted with both of them and quickly becomes familiar, moreover Otto and Ashborn become best friends at that time.

Ashborn learned the meaning of the word 'friend' from Otto and Kallen.

But at the same time he learned the shocking fact that his best friend Otto's benevolent actions were only for the sake of making Kallen happy.

It was then that Ashborn learned the words 'obsession' and 'madness' from Otto's actions and goals.

He continued to learn new things from Otto and Kallen even to the point of forming his own view of the world.

Ashborn has the view that sacrificing one person to save many is a noble thing.

Kallen has the view that rather than sacrificing others, it is better to sacrifice yourself and save everyone is a noble thing.

Otto himself has the view of being willing to do anything, even endangering the lives of many innocent people for the sake of one person's happiness.

The three of them each have different views but remain friends because they even complement each other so that even though they will sometimes argue, their friendship remains close.

Here Ashborn learned the words 'naive', 'innocent', and 'pure' from Kallen.

That's how time passed until the day came.

Because he was discovered by Aponia, he was finally sentenced to the World Serpent headquarters without being able to say goodbye to Otto and Kallen.

No, the two of them didn't know his true face... Maybe this was a good thing for him...

Some time later, Aponia suddenly showed him a future where Kallen died, Otto went mad and ended up becoming the leader of Schicksal for over 500 years.

"Are you able to establish that future... Ashborn?"

Those words came out of Aponia's mouth to him.

Making him instantly understand that he was the one who killed Kallen... Although not directly.

"Why did Kallen have to die?" asked Ashborn with a complicated expression.

"Destiny... Leads you to the best possible future... Even if it means you have to accept it with tears." Aponia replied before showing a future where Kallen had stayed alive.

In the beginning it looked beautiful and happy, but the further the future was shown, the darker and crueler it became until the world was destroyed.

Ashborn looked at it all with a heavy expression, but... According to his outlook on life, he would not hesitate to sacrifice one person in order to save the many even if it meant sacrificing the people he cared about.

After that, 'Flandre' had disappeared and there was only Ashborn the legendary deadly assassin who had stepped on hundreds of thousands of people's lives.

He was feared, admired, hated, revered, and so on even his best friendd 'Otto' pursued him with hatred making Ashborn gradually become tired of the world of killing.

Therefore he revealed his true identity to Otto.

For more details, Kouro didn't really know because Ashborn from another world didn't explain in detail.

When Ashborn was planning to hide and escape from World Serpent... He met a small orphaned child on the street.

The little boy's face strangely resembled him so much that he adopted him and named him Sagaki.

As someone who was immersed in the world of assassination for so long, raising a child was extremely challenging.

But it was fortunate that the child was actually intelligent and caring, which lessened Ashborn's difficulties.

Sagaki grew up to be a smart man with the best grades at a university of all time.

Unfortunately growing up Sagaki suddenly developed a strange incurable disease, to cure the disease he had used a lot of resources but to no avail.

Ashborn then suggested something that did manage to cure Sagaki of his illness but also turned him into a Pseudo-Herrscher of Shadows.

Sagaki then married and was blessed with a son named Kouro.

Unfortunately Kouro also has the same symptoms of the disease that Sagaki used to suffer from.

Sagaki tried many things including cloning his son to find the working principle of the disease but to no avail.

In the end he then met Ashborn and mentioned this problem.

The two of them discussed before finally agreeing to steal the core of the Herrscher of Shadows to cure Kouro from another world.

But this plan did not happen because Kouro had healed himself from another world.

That was all Kouro knew about Ashborn's past.

...

Looking at Kouro before him and feeling how strong he was now made Sagaki involuntarily smile.

He felt proud of this child even though he knew that his child's soul was of someone else.

After all, he had been together with Kouro since childhood and even trained him back when he was disguised as Tenji.

Those times had formed a close relationship between him and Kouro and that was more than enough for him to consider Kouro as his own son...

'But such strength is still not enough.'

Sagaki knew that the enemy they were about to fight, the Herrscher of Shadows, was so powerful, the worlds that had been destroyed by the creature were so numerous that they could not be counted.

He also knew that the reason the Herrscher of Shadows wandered around destroying various worlds containing people named 'Kouro' was because it was after the 'system'.

Sagaki knew this because he was told by the person who gave him the Signets of Vacuity.

'That's why... Let me be a little serious!'

He inhaled and simultaneously exhaled,his  aura instantly condensed along with his mind which was focused into a single point.

From the body, mind, and aura gathered together to form a trinity balance, the katana held by Sagaki instantly shone brightly.

Behind the black eye patch, Sagaki's eye sockets were bleeding as if crying and his eyeballs were full of red blood vessels that ran around his irises.

His nose also began to bleed as his heart beat a hundred million times faster pumping blood throughout his body making his blood vessels dilate.

Sagaki wanted to spit out the blood, but he held back and swallowed his own blood.

'Damn... I didn't expect using 15% of the Signets of Vacuity's power to have such a bad backlash...'

Although he had been operated on and had a body as strong as MANTIS, he could only use 15% of it and it had destroyed his body.

'I can only launch one attack before my body is destroyed... This one attack... Is more than enough.'

In a time that suddenly moved very slowly, Sagaki raised his katana vertically before swinging it.

Kouro's premonition of danger immediately rang loudly and decisively chose to defend rather than attack Sagaki.

He created thousands of energy shields consuming all the SP he had, his eyes glaring at Sagaki not wanting to distract him from his movements in the slightest.

*Swoosh!*

Sagaki's slash was colorless and soundless, but a moment later...

*BOOM!*

The sky was split in two, mountains flew and oceans were split in two just because of the impact of the sword swing from Ashborn.

The thousands of energy shields that Kouro had instantly shattered and left him with the last energy shield still trying to withstand the impact of Sagaki's sword swing.

"HAH!!!"

Kouro tried to withstand Sagaki's attack with all his might... But what a pity...

*Crack!*

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