Asher stared at Sunny for a long moment, teeth sinking lightly into his lower lip, "Exactly what I meant. I saw Mordret."
Despite Nephis leaving the forgotten shore early, her influence did nothing to stop that creep from escaping. It was… unfortunate. Mordret was one of the few key figures Asher still had barely any idea about. After all, his appearances were minimal till volume 5 at least.
"Where?" Sunny asked immediately, his expression sharpening.
Asher shrugged, as he looked straight while licking the ice cream from the spoon, "A park in the eastern district. Three days ago." He paused briefly, then added, "It doesn't really matter now.
Naturally, while explaining what all Asher had missed, the cohort had briefly mentioned Mordret. But, Asher's understanding of him was till too shallow.
Of course, Sunny understood better than anyone that Mordret wasn't the type to linger. Staying in one place was the fastest way to get caught—and Mordret was far too careful for that.
He exhaled slowly, steadying himself, then looked at Asher again.
"You can tell when he's possessing someone?"
Asher shook his head. "Not exactly." He frowned faintly, recalling the encounter. "He wasn't possessing anyone at the time. He was… moving through reflections. A mundane child's eyes, specifically."
Sunny's brows furrowed.
"Though…" Asher trailed off, narrowing his eyes as a thought formed.
Sunny leaned forward slightly. "Though?"
Asher met his gaze. "You said Mordret has a Divine Aspect, right? That means multiple cores." His tone grew more certain as he spoke. "If that's the case… then I might be able to identify his vessels by examining their cores."
Asher wasn't sure... but theoretically, it made sense.
Sunny studied him for a second longer, then let out a slow breath. "Good."
His shoulders eased, if only slightly. Having even a potential method to track Mordret made the situation far less terrifying than blind guessing.
Sunny raised a brow at Asher, "Are you not going to train?"
Asher blinked, the tension breaking instantly. He looked at Sunny, then at his own hands, before lightly smacking his palm as realization hit.
"Oh. Right."
***
It had to be noted that
Asher wanted nothing more than to collapse onto 'his' couch and do absolutely nothing.
Unfortunately…
"Too slow."
Sunny's attacks were relentless. Asher barely managed to keep up, his wooden sword trembling under the pressure. The gap between their swordsmanship had increased by a mile.
At the beginning, they had been close. Close enough that Asher could at least pretend he was keeping pace. But as one would expect, apparently fighting people and fighting monsters were two very different things.
Asher stepped in, augmenting the wooden blade with gravity as he thrust forward with a fast strike. Sunny narrowed his eyes as he slowly stepped back, letting the sword fly past him by a hair's breath.
Sunny's blade came down in a clean arc, striking Asher's weapon at its weakest point.
The wooden sword shattered instantly.
Splinters burst into the air.
Asher exhaled, shoulders sagging slightly as fragments fell around him. Fighting Sunny when he had shadow dance was anything but fair.
Before he could even recover—
–Thwack!
Sunny's hand came down in a sharp chop against his head.
"Fool!" Sunny snapped. "I told you to use soul essence to reinforce your body! Why are using your dormant ability!"
Asher winced, rubbing his head as a vein throbbed at his temple. "I can't help it! Your movements are too hard to keep up with!"
Sunny frowned, studying him more carefully this time.
Asher's swordsmanship was… rough.
No... worse than that. It lacked structure and discipline. All Asher got right was the foundation.
Now that he thought about it…
"Even back in the Forgotten Shore," Sunny said slowly, "you never really fought head-on with a sword, did you?"
Asher tilted his head, considering it.
…And then realized.
He hadn't.
Indeed, he always used some sort of trickery or just an extra flying sword spinning around him. He gave a small shrug. "Well… can you really blame me, Sunny? I was just some outskirt rat until a few years ago."
"And unlike a certain someone," he added with a smirk, "I don't have an ability that lets me analyze and copy other people's sword arts."
Sunny coughed, "You know about Shadow Dance?"
Asher shrugged, "Nope. I guessed. Your Aspect revolves around shadows. It wasn't hard to connect the dots."
Sunny grimaced faintly. "Your guesses are… uncomfortably accurate."
Asher's grin widened.
"Well, considering your luck?" he said, tilting his head. "I wouldn't be surprised if you've got Divine Memories too."
Sunny froze.
Just for a fraction of a second.
"…Yeah," he said, a little too quickly. "Sure."
He didn't need to hide his abilities from him… not really.
But still.
Wasn't that intuition a little too terrifying?
Sunny coughed lightly, pushing the thought aside. "Anyway. Back to your battle art, Asher."
He gestured toward the weapon rack nearby, where rows of wooden swords rested neatly. "Pick another."
Asher complied without complaint, outreaching his hand as a blade flew over. He turned it idly, inspecting it.
"I don't think a sword suits you."
The words were blunt, but not dismissive.
Nephis had once said that the sword was the king of weapons as they were the most versatile, balanced and adaptable. In the right hands, it could become anything.
But that assumed the wielder had chemistry with it.
Asher… didn't.
Sunny's gaze sharpened as he observed him more closely.
Asher was different.
He remembered the siege vividly—the way Asher had controlled multiple arrows at once, sending them slicing through Nightmare Creatures like a storm of blades. He remembered Gunlaug's grotesque mutation, shredded apart by a relentless barrage of splinters.
For Asher, a weapon didn't need form.
If it was sharp… it was enough.
He didn't really even need chemistry with a weapon, he could just make it fly.
Sunny exhaled slowly.
Asher stood there, turning the floating sword in his hand, occasionally mumbling something to Sunny
In all honesty, Sunny wasn't entirely sure of his chances against him. He was someone equally as cunning as him. Especially after learning that he killed 5 masters and 10 awakened the day he woke up.
Sunny clicked his tongue softly.
"Asher."
Asher glanced up. "Yeah, I get what you're saying, but—"
"Fight me."
Asher blinked. "What?"
Sunny summoned [Cruel Sight], raising it as he pointed it directly at Asher.
"I want a better understanding of your abilities," Sunny said evenly. "So let's spar."
Asher studied him for a moment, then let out a quiet sigh.
"…Fine."
[Cicada's Cry] appeared in his hand.
The moment his fingers wrapped around its cold hilt, the warmth in Asher's eyes turned hollow.
He looked at Sunny again.
"I'll say this now," Asher said calmly. "It might be hard to hold back. I'm not used to being a Master yet." He paused, exhaling a bit. "And… my mental state isn't exactly stable when I'm holding this blade."
Sunny's lips curled into a grin.
"Good." His grip tightened. "I'll see how strong you got."
For a heartbeat, both didn't move. Then...
Steel clashed.