My F-Rank Sagea is Secretly an EX-Rank Calamity

Chapter 31: Execution III

The spatial rift that Asher opened tore through reality, dumping them onto a desolate, snow-covered mountainside far from the burning walls of Ravenwood.

The howling, razor-sharp wind of the mountain side hit Asher like a physical wall. Snow and icy frost whipped wildly through the pitch-black sky, blinding against the dark peaks.

Miles away from the screaming crowds and crumbling stone of the academy, the high-altitude wilderness was deathly quiet - save for the roaring gale and the crunch of snow.

Soren Dax manifested mid-air, floating effortlessly. A cruel smirk never left his lips.

Opposite him, Asher hovered in the sky, his pale, ice-blue hair whipping around his face.

Above his head, the crown of solid light cast a haunting, ethereal glow onto the untouched snow below.

’We made it...’ Asher thought, his mind echoing internally with Nova Vesta’s velvety resonance. ’No students. No crossfire. Just us.’

Nova’s presence buzzed at the back of his mind, heavy with urgent warning.

"WARNING: Host Asher. System stability is currently sitting at 68%. The spiritual fusion is imposing severe strain on your nervous system. You have approximately seven minutes before bodily rejection forces a manual disconnection."

’Seven minutes is more than enough to deal with one madman,’ Asher replied, his eyes flaring with translucent red mana.

Soren let out a dry, chilling chuckle. "Tell me, anomaly... did you really think pulling me out of the arena would preserve the lives of others?"

"I may not be certain," Asher’s dual voice boomed, sending a shockwave through the falling snow that flattened the drift fifty meters around them, "but it’s the least I can do for the time being."

Soren didn’t flinch. Instead, he threw his head back and laughed - a cruel, echoing sound that bounced off the jagged mountain cliffs.

"Oh, Asher. You poor, foolish boy," Soren purred, clapping his hands together twice in mocking delight. "You actually thought you were trapping me in a 1v1."

Suddenly, the ambient temperature plunged. The air felt suffocatingly colder, despite the already freezing altitude.

CRACK!

The air behind Asher split open in three distinct places.

Asher’s eyes widened. Before he could even turn, three towering, dangerous aura signatures manifested in a sharp triangular formation around him, sealing off every single avenue of escape.

To his left stood Vanya, her pale skin gleaming beneath dark, intricate tattoos that slithered across her neck like living shadows. Her hand rested on the hilt of a curved, pitch-black blade dripping with corrosive mana.

To his right, Damon stepped into view. Crimson sparks danced across his knuckles, emitting a heat so violent it instantly vaporized the snow within ten feet of him into thick, hissing steam.

And directly blocking the cliffside behind him was Lyra, her eyes glowing with a cold, predatory violet light as floating, razor-thin barrier rings hovered silently around her fingertips.

Asher’s heart slammed against his ribs. The eerie, calm equilibrium granted by Kaito’s Radiant Nuzzle shattered in an instant.

He hadn’t drawn Soren away to protect the academy.

Soren had baited him into isolating himself.

"What a waste of our time. To think we have to take you out all at once," Vanya’s voice sliced through the blizzard, smooth as silk and cold as ice. "The Grim Prodigy doesn’t fight fair, little crown."

Asher gritted his teeth, feeling the suffocating, crushing weight of four supreme-grade auras slamming into his body at once. Snow hissed and melted into mist under the sheer force of their combined killing intent.

"Four against one, then," Asher spoke, his dual voice reverberating across the mountain range like a war horn. "Let’s see if—"

BOOM!

Before the words could fully leave his mouth, a devastating, unseen force slammed directly into Asher’s back. The kinetic impact shattered his defensive barrier, sending him plummeting out of the sky like a falling meteor.

He smashed violently into the mountain slope, plowing through dozens of feet of rock and frozen earth before coming to a halt in a crater.

"You talk too much for an heir!" Lyra yelled from above, her violet aura flaring violently.

Damon and Vanya let out small, amused chuckles.

"Let me take him on first," Lyra insisted, her eyes locking onto the crater. Without waiting for approval, she blurred downwards at sonic speed, landing near the edge of the pit.

"Looks like our plan worked. She’s got it handled," Damon suggested, crossing his massive arms as he hovered over the ridge. "We should probably head back to Lord Morgaunt."

Soren’s eyes narrowed at the thought of leaving Lyra behind with Asher, but he remained silent, watching the crater below.

"Hey, Lyra! We need transport!" Vanya shouted down from the cliff edge.

Without even turning to look at them, Lyra flicked her wrist dismissively.

A massive, jagged spatial tear split open behind Soren, Damon, and Vanya. Before they could react, the vacuum of the spatial rift pulled all three of them backward, exporting them directly toward the distant coordinates of the Bleakstone Maw.

Lyra wanted the glory of killing the crown for herself.

Down in the crater, Asher coughed up a mixture of blood and melted snow, slowly dragging himself to his feet. His body throbbed with intense agony.

"WARNING. Host Asher, you have four minutes before bodily rejection forces a manual disconnection!" Nova’s chime warned in haste.

Asher straightened his spine, wiping the crimson from his chin. He couldn’t fight a prolonged war of attrition. He needed raw power right now.

"I call upon the eternal pact! Kaito!"

With a flash of brilliant white radiance, the Sol-Aura Beast manifested from thin air, standing defensively in front of Asher. Its majestic mane glowed with soft, ambient heat, its body bristling as it glared at Lyra.

"Ha! Is this a joke?!" Lyra scoffed, pausing as a look of deep frustration crossed her face. "I think we got the wrong heir. That pathetic creature is your trump card?"

Asher didn’t waste a second on her taunts. He took immediate advantage of her momentary distraction.

"Kaito! Phantom Shift!"

In an instant, Kaito’s physical form dissolved into a blinding stream of pure photons, reappearing instantly in Lyra’s blind spot to strike.

But Lyra’s combat instincts were terrifying. With inhuman speed, her arm shot back without her even turning around.

Her hands clad in violet barrier-mana clamped down hard - grabbing the Sol-Aura Beast directly by its golden horns mid-dash!

"You still plan to fight?!" Lyra snapped.

With a brutal twist of her wrists, she applied crushing pressure.

CRACK!

A sickening sound echoed across the peak. One of Kaito’s glowing horns was snapped clean off at the base.

The Sol-Aura Beast let out an agonizing, heartbreaking screech that pierced the night sky, its divine light flickering wildly as blood-like mana sprayed onto the white snow.

"NO!" Asher’s heart seized with absolute terror.

"KAITO, GLITCH NOW!" Asher commanded desperately, terrified of losing his beast forever.

Kaito’s body glitched violently into erratic code-like static, slipping out of Lyra’s grasp. The weakened beast remanifested at Asher’s feet, collapsing into the snow and dragging itself slowly behind its master, whimpering in pain.

"I warned you, kid!" Lyra growled, her violet eyes flashing with lethal intent. "Nyx! Awaken!"

The air cracked open above her. From the rift emerged a gigantic, multi-winged arachnid creature.

Its colossal, needle-sharp legs slammed into the mountainside, casting a massive, terrifying shadow over Asher and the entire blizzard. Corrosive venom dripped from its fangs, melting the stone beneath it.

"Host Asher... you have two minutes left," Nova warned internally, her voice carrying a rare trace of urgency.

Asher stared at his bleeding beast, then up at the terrifying monstrosity looming over him. His body was failing. His mana was depleted. The fusion was tearing his veins apart.

’I just can’t seem to do anything right after all...’ Asher thought bitterly, closing his eyes. ’Nova Vesta. I yield control.’

He forcibly shattered the spiritual fusion from the inside.

BOOM!

A pillar of divine, heavenly light tore through the storm clouds above, striking Asher directly. He let out a tortured scream as the Primordial spirit was violently unmerged from his physical body.

Asher’s eyes rolled back, and his limp, exhausted body collapsed backward into the snow. Kaito wrapped its remaining horn and body around Asher’s unconscious frame, acting as a living shield.

Lyra paused, her eyes widening in genuine shock. She had never witnessed a spirit un-fusion of this magnitude in her life.

Standing right in front of the unconscious Asher was a fully materialized, divine entity.

Nova Vesta.

Her pale hair floated in zero gravity, her golden eyes devoid of human emotion—filled only with absolute, primordial wrath. She stared down at Lyra and her towering arachnid beast like an deity looking at an insect.

"Now... I will undo you," Nova chanted, her voice resonating through the sky itself. "Genesis of Destruction."

Nova extended her right arm toward Lyra.

Instantly, the air around the mountain ridge tightened so violently that space began to warp.

The storm clouds above Lyra turned a sickening, blood red. A massive, ancient rune circle - spanning hundreds of meters - manifested in the heavens, slowly twisting counter-clockwise.

CRANG!

CRANG!

A deafening, metallic grinding sound reverberated through the sky, as if invisible, cosmic gears were locking into place to erase the landscape.

Lyra remained rooted to the spot, the sheer pressure pinning her feet to the ground. Yet, her pride refused to yield.

"Kill them, Nyx!" Lyra screamed, her face twisting in desperation. "Death Venom!"

The multi-winged arachnid screeched, opening its massive maw to release a tidal wave of pitch-black, lethal poison straight toward Nova Vesta - just as the red rune in the sky ignited with catastrophic light.