Absolute Cheater - Chapter 553
Capítulo 553: Anomaly VI
Asher moved first.
He stepped in before the soul-eater could fully spread. His sword came down in a direct strike, aimed at the dense core again. The blade cut deeper this time. The core shuddered.
The soul-eater reacted fast.
Pressure slammed into Asher like a wall. The ground under his feet cracked, but he held his position. He pushed forward through it and twisted the blade, widening the cut.
A low sound came from the creature. Not a scream. More like strain.
“You are not prey,” it said.
“No,” Asher answered. “I’m the end.”
The soul-eater pulled back and then surged forward again, trying to wrap around him. Shadows closed in from all sides, pressing in on his body and mind.
Asher activated the death token.
The pressure changed.
Where the shadow touched him, it broke apart. Not burned. Not pushed away. Just cut off.
The soul-eater staggered.
“That power—” it said.
“Is not yours,” Asher said.
He advanced step by step, cutting through the mass each time it tried to close in. Each strike weakened the core. Cracks formed across its surface.
The soul-eater tried something else.
It released the souls it had stored.
Fragments rushed out, screaming, trying to escape.
Asher stopped.
He planted his sword into the ground and raised his free hand.
“Enough.”
The fragments froze.
Then they were pulled away from the core, separated cleanly. The pit shook as the soul-eater lost control of them.
“No,” the creature said, its voice breaking. “Those are mine.”
“They never were,” Asher replied.
He drew his sword free and stepped in close.
One final strike.
Straight through the core.
The blade pierced it fully. The dense center cracked open, then collapsed inward.
The soul-eater began to fall apart. Shadow peeled away and vanished. Pressure faded. The pit went silent.
In seconds, it was over.
Asher stood alone in the broken fort, breathing steady.
The emptiness was gone.
Slowly, the air felt normal again.
Asher looked down into the pit.
“Feeding ends here,” he said.
He turned and walked out of the fort as the first light of evening reached the hills.
Behind him, nothing moved.
Asher didn’t stop to rest.
He left the fort and walked down the hill toward the village. As he moved farther away, he felt the change clearly. The empty pressure was gone. The land felt normal again.
By the time he reached the village, people were already coming out of their homes. Some looked confused. Others looked tired, like they had just woken up from a long illness.
The old guard saw Asher and straightened.
“It’s done,” Asher said before the man could speak.
The guard searched his face. “The feeling… it’s gone.”
“Yes,” Asher replied. “It won’t come back.”
Word spread quickly. People gathered, whispering. A woman stepped forward, holding a child who had been unconscious for days.
The child stirred.
Then opened their eyes.
Gasps filled the street.
Asher didn’t stay to receive thanks. He turned away and continued walking.
Outside the village, he stopped briefly and checked the soul network again.
No pull.
No missing fragments.
No active cores.
Whatever had been feeding was completely gone.
“This wasn’t random,” Asher said quietly. “Something prepared it. Supplied it. Covered for it.”
The collectors were finished, but they weren’t the source.
He looked toward the distant horizon.
“If something like this was allowed to grow,” he said, “then others exist.”
Asher adjusted his cloak and started moving again.
His task was no longer just stopping theft.
Now, he was hunting predators.
And he would keep going until nothing was left that could erase souls from the world.
Asher traveled for two more days before stopping.
He avoided cities and main roads. He wanted distance and time to think. What he had destroyed wasn’t a lone threat. It had support, planning, and patience behind it.
That meant structure.
He reviewed everything again.
The collectors didn’t act like cultists.
They used trade routes, brokers, and schedules.
They tried to stay below the attention of rulers.
They reacted when supply lines were cut, not before.
“That means oversight,” Asher said. “Not fear. Control.”
Someone had allowed this to happen.
When he reached the edge of Association territory, Asher changed direction and headed for a secure relay station. Not a public hall. Not a rumor exchange.
An internal one.
He presented his clearance and requested a sealed channel.
The system accepted.
Asher submitted a full report.
Collector network dismantled.
Three supply lines confirmed and destroyed.
Broker eliminated.
Soul-eater core neutralized.
Evidence of coordinated long-term preparation.
He added one final line.
“This threat required approval or deliberate ignorance at a high level.”
Then he sent it.
Asher didn’t wait for a response.
He left the station and continued north.
If someone had signed off on this, they would start covering tracks now. Records would vanish. Witnesses would disappear. New collectors would be warned.
So he wouldn’t chase paperwork.
He would chase behavior.
Asher shifted his route toward regions where soul law research was restricted. Places where experiments failed quietly. Places where people stopped asking questions.
“They’ll make another mistake,” he said calmly.
And when they did, he would be there.
Asher traveled north without slowing.
He chose border regions first. Places where authority was thin and oversight was weak. If someone was hiding illegal soul research, they would use distance and silence as cover.
He kept his presence low. No public requests. No official postings. He moved as a lone traveler and watched how people reacted.
In the first region, nothing stood out. Normal deaths. Normal soul flow.
In the second, he noticed delays.
Funeral rites taking longer than usual.
Bodies held for “study.”
Local officials giving vague answers.
Asher stayed three days.
On the fourth night, a small building on the edge of town lit up after midnight. No sign outside. No guards marked with city colors.
“That’s behavior,” Asher said.
He didn’t attack.
He watched.
People entered alone.
They stayed for hours.
They left looking drained, but alive.
Asher followed one of them the next day.
The man collapsed before reaching home.
No wounds.
No soul damage.
Just exhaustion far beyond normal.
Asher checked the soul network.
Something had been taken, but not removed completely.
“Sampling,” Asher said. “Testing limits.”
That night, Asher entered the building.
Inside, he found equipment. Not collector gear. Cleaner. More precise. Designed to measure, not steal.
And records.
Failed containment attempts.
Notes on soul resistance.
References to “post-core survivability.”
One name appeared again and again.
Not a broker.
Not a collector.
A researcher.
Asher memorized it and destroyed the equipment.
When he left, the building burned quietly behind him.
This wasn’t a feeding operation.
It was development.
Asher continued north, calm and focused.
“So that’s the next layer,” he said.
Collectors.
Then predators.
Now engineers.
Whoever was behind this wasn’t desperate.
They were planning something long-term.
And Asher was done reacting.
From now on, he would move first.