CHAPTER 226: ASHEN SOUL (1)

Zarek’s shadow shook and the outline of a hawk took form before vanishing. He only gave it a glance before he continued onward.

Technically, he wasn’t supposed to be able to do this until he awakened the Ashen Gate Talent, but as he had said, his understanding of the Ash Demon path was far deeper than anyone else.

Well, he also hadn’t run into any other Ash Demons on Earth, so he didn’t really have much competition until now. Though, he also wasn’t sure how seriously Jiade planned to take the Ash Demon path, or if he was just taking it on in order to block Zarek.

As far as Zarek knew, though, Jiade shouldn’t be aware of the progression from Skill to Talent. But after what had happened with Suki and Priya, he wasn’t confident enough to claim that for certain.

He had been outmaneuvered once in this game, and there was no guarantee that he wouldn’t suffer the same again. He had to open himself more, otherwise it wouldn’t just be he who suffered, but those around him.

Zarek’s eyes flashed with coldness as he continued to tread forward.

On the surface, the Ash Demon path just looked like any old flame path with a few extra steps. But this was far from the case.

The most obvious difference was that Ash was far easier to control than fire. It didn’t have the same unruly temperament, it didn’t flicker and constantly change, and it wasn’t always trying to light something on fire unless Zarek himself wanted it to happen.

For Zarek, who had always been a bit weaker in Intelligence Growth Potential, this was invaluable. There were definitely mage paths out there with people talented enough to not have to second-guess this at all, but Zarek preferred to spend his time honing his raw combat ability, and finding time to drill Godsfall control exercises would have bored him to death.

Of course, over time, his control over his Ash often ended up putting most mage types to shame, but that had taken many lifetimes and was his fruit to bear as a Rebirther.

This, however, wasn’t what made the Ash Demon path so special.

To call this a flame path was to misunderstand its true core. This wasn’t a path of flames. It was a path of death.

The Ashen Gate was a door to hell. Those souls trapped on the other side wanted nothing more than for those in the world of the living to come and suffer with them.

When people combusted into flames when touching Zarek’s Ash, what was really happening was that their souls were being corrupted, their life force converted into the very energy being used to burn them alive.

Zarek’s Ash triggered flames of death from the core of life itself.

And the more Zarek killed, the larger the pull of those souls became, and the stronger the combusting ability of his Ash was.

The Ashen Gate was a curated method of controlling these souls and making sure that they didn’t devour your own body. Being an Ash Demon also meant that you were constantly having to guard against your own body turning to flames.

While Zarek coated his skin easily with his Ash now, it had taken many centuries in his first life before he was capable of that. In fact, it had taken decades before he could even apply his Ash to the edges of his blades as well.

Because treasures—especially powerful ones—had a direct line to the user, coating a blade’s edge was like putting your soul up on a silver platter if you weren’t careful.

At the start, doing this for a few seconds was fine, but then Zarek would have to dismiss it because the drain on his Charisma and Godsfall to control it all was too much.

But now?

Zarek turned away from his shadow and continued forward.

Not only was Zarek capable of coating his treasures and his skin with ease, he could take it a step further and bolster the power of the \[Ash Reborn] Skill without Ashen Gate.

He wouldn’t be able to store as many souls in his shadow as he could in a true Ashen Gate, but it would certainly bolster him considerably nonetheless.

Alone, [Ash Reborn] was a good A-Class Skill with what was currently B+ Mastery.

With a soul, though?

By Zarek’s calculations, if he could manage to sustain ten B-Class souls, it would display the power of an S-Class Skill. Though the Mastery wouldn’t catch up as there were still too many limitations...

He bet that his former greatest weakness—attack power—would not only become his greatest strength, but it just might be the trump card he needed to kill an S-Class in a single blow.

Unfortunately, as Zarek moved, he realized that wielding the one soul was easier said than done without Ashen Gate.

The Ash was continuously leaking, and if he focused on it too much, it started to eat into his Charisma.

This was a method that Zarek had used in previous lives before, but he had never done it with such powerful souls. After his first life, he had gotten his hands on Ashen Gate quite quickly, and B-Class threats had only just started appearing back then. He had gotten it even quicker in his third life.

As for his first, he didn’t have enough familiarity with the Skill to even know of this method to begin with, and once he had Ashen Gate, there was no need for it.

’Ten would be impossible... in that case...’

There was another way to achieve the same result.

Ten B-Class souls? Why not just have one A-Class soul instead?

Though the A-Class would be far stronger, the result would be manageable because he would only have to consider the one.

For now, though, Zarek was a ways away from being able to deal with an A-Class threat strong enough to give him a chance against the A-Class. So, he would have to practice first.