***

"Why is Dalton Rothschild here?" one of the masked men asked.

"Get ready to leave," Tom shouted out loud.

"But what about the Boss..?" one of them asked.

"Don't think about things that you cannot help with," Tom replied as he ordered them to retreat to the place where they could set up a temporary Teleportation Gate.

In the air, Dalton saw a black blade collide with his blue sword.

"This damn sword," Dalton muttered as he could feel his aura depleting.

Asher's bloodthirst was spreading all around him as he looked at Dalton.

"Do you think you can defeat me?" Dalton asked as he pushed Asher back.

Asher didn't reply as his indifferent eyes stared at Dalton.

"This will be your end, boy, and I will end this filthy bloodline with my own hands," Dalton said as he raised his sword in the air.

Fortunately, they were far from the actual site where all of Zephyr's members were, so his attack wouldn't harm them.

"Do you think you can kill me?" Asher asked as he looked at Dalton.

"I will," Dalton replied as water droplets started forming around his sword.

He was conjuring one of his Elemental Sword Techniques that was so powerful that he could even destroy cities with one of his attacks.

"Ruler of Mana," Asher muttered.

"What is this skill?" Dalton got alerted as he could feel the changes happening around him.

"You want to end my bloodline?" Asher asked as he smirked.

Dalton, who was in the middle of executing one of his techniques, felt weird as the mana around him was not responding to him properly. Being a SSS Rank Hunter, he could feel this much more clearly than others.

He was in Fashia when the World Association asked him to help them kill Asher Greville whose whereabouts were just spotted on this continent.

'This can't be?' Dalton refused to believe that such a bloodline ability would come out of the S Rank Bloodline that Asher had.

Every piece of information about Asher and his known abilities was made public as he was one of the Most Wanted Criminals in the world.

"Your ability is powerful, but sadly, I am not a mage," Dalton gripped his sword as he conjured his aura, which formed a shell around his body.

"I will show why we SSS Rank Hunters are called humanity's pillars," Dalton said as he disappeared from his place.

Far from their fight,

Tom was looking in the direction where the noises of explosions were coming from. Whenever their swords struck each other, the ground below them would shake.

"I hope he doesn't use that..." Tom knew about Asher's abilities so he was hoping that he wouldn't use it.

"Shit, where is Nate," Tom kicked the ground.

After three hours, Asher, who had wounds all over his body, was walking towards the temporary teleportation gate.

"Is it ready?" Asher asked, looking at Tom, who was still waiting for him.

"Yes, Boss, but did you.." Tom spoke as he looked at Asher's condition.

"Dead, they will like my gift," Asher spoke, but his killing intent was making it hard for Tom to even breathe right now.

Tom looked at the black veins that were reappearing on Asher's hand.

'I need to find Nate, he cannot die yet,' Tom had his own reasons for following Asher.

They were entering the teleportation gate when Asher looked back and felt the presence of another SSS Rank Hunter, but it was much more powerful than Dalton.

"You were late," Asher smirked as he entered the teleportation gate.

The moment both of them entered, the teleportation gate exploded, as Tom had set it to destroy itself so that nobody could trace their coordinates.

"This can't be," a man with silver hair and deep amber eyes spoke.

"S-Silvus?" Dalton weakly spoke as he recognized the voice.

His hands and legs were already cut off and his own sword was piercing his heart. It was a miracle that he was still alive in this condition.

"Did he reach SSS Rank?" Silvus asked.

"N-No," Dalton couldn't see anything as his eyes were filled with his own blood.

"H-He is killing himself...." Dalton muttered.

"We made the wrong choice, tell OsberUGH....." Dalton couldn't complete his last words, but Silvus looked at his condition.

"You made the wrong choice, everyone did." Silvus couldn't help but say it.

"I warned Farnus before that the Records of the Past were warning us," Silvus muttered.

Until now, Asher Greville was only considered an SS- Rank Hunter, so Dalton going after him was enough. But him succeeding in killing a SSS Rank Hunter was something nobody had thought would be possible.

***

The memories shifted from when Asher defeated Dalton to the time he was still bidding at the auction.

"Do you like that blade?" Damian asked as they were sitting in the Ranker's Room.

Asher was invited by Damian to attend the auction with him.

"Yeah," Asher replied, but he bought it without thinking much about it.It was one of the things he thought were worth the investment.

The auction came to the last bid, which was a ring finger armor-looking artifact.

"Things got heated," Damian said as the bid war between Leonard Tarvian and Raelyn Whiteheart was quite long.

"I will go back," Asher said as he stood up.

"Okay, I will join Amelia then," Damian got up as well.

Amelia was attending with the Student Council as she was the First Year Representative.

Asher was walking out, but he was stopped by one of the senior year students.

"You are Asher Greville, right?" The Senior asked with a polite gesture.

"Yes," Asher replied.

"Well, Leon wanted to meet you for a small conversation," he said, looking for Asher's reply.

'Leonard Tarvian?' Asher thought in his mind.

"Not now, maybe later," Asher replied as he was not in the mood to chat with another person right now.

"Okay," The Senior knew that he didn't have the status to stop Asher so he couldn't do anything about it.

The memories changed again as Asher was sitting in front of Leonard who had invited him to the Blood Faction building after the auction had ended.

"Pleasure to meet you, Heir Greville," Leonard greeted Asher.

"Pleasure is mine," Asher returned the greeting with his emotionless face.

"I will come straight to the point, as you look like someone who doesn't want to waste your time," Leonard said,

"Would you like to join the Blood Faction?" He asked with a smile on his face.

"I would like to reject," Asher replied immediately.

"May I ask why?" Leonard didn't give up just yet.

"I don't feel like joining yet," Asher replied as he got up.

"I will provide all the support you need inside World Academy, even Kevin Whiteheart, I can help you overtake him," Leonard said.

"Why would I want to overtake him?" Asher asked.

"He can stay at Rank 1, I don't need it," Asher said as he left the room.

Leonard smirked as he saw Asher leave.

"So he will not take the bait, interesting," Leonard said to himself.

"Well, I am in no rush either," Leonard said as he remembered the plan his father had told him when he joined the Academy.

Asher was heading towards the Research Block, as he had taken a subject that was related to potion crafting, and research around various ingredients that were used in it.

It was a subject that none of the first years chose; only people in their third or fourth year would choose it, and that was only if they were going for a subject to increase their theoretical grades in.

Asher entered the room and saw a pink-haired girl who was sitting alone in the class with a book in front of her.

'Did she choose this class as well?' Asher thought as he took the seat closest to him.

Both of them were sitting in the empty class far from each other, waiting for the Professor to come.