Absolute Cheater-Chapter 300: World Rank II

"She told me he was a being of contradiction. A warrior who hated war. A scholar who mastered destruction. My father was born in a dying world and climbed through its ashes until he carved his name into the fabric of creation. But even at the peak of Universal Rank… he was still searching. Not for power, but for peace."

Valeris continued, her voice a low murmur threaded with awe and mourning.

"He believed that power meant nothing if it couldn't protect what mattered. That to rule was meaningless unless you could carry the burdens of those beneath you. My mother said he used to hold galaxies in his palm and still kneel beside the fallen, weeping for the lives he couldn't save."

Asher listened in silence, absorbing every word. It wasn't just the grandeur of the tale—it was the truth in her tone. The weight behind it.

Valeris's iridescent eyes dimmed slightly, lost in the lingering ghost of memory. "She told me once… when I was a child… that he left not because he wanted to, but because he had to. That something at the edge of all known things had called to him. Something ancient. Silent. A whisper that even the gods had forgotten."

She looked at Asher then. "She said he believed there was a flaw in existence itself. A crack in the foundation of reality. And he couldn't ignore it."

Asher's brow furrowed. "A flaw? In reality?"

Valeris nodded. "He believed that everything—life, death, time, even ascension—was built atop something broken. A fracture buried so deep that even the Mother Universes turned their gaze away. He wanted to find it. Fix it. Or at least understand it."

Asher looked away, his thoughts drifting to the void, to the moments in his own path where he'd touched powers beyond reason. The Dark Existence Realm. The Sovereign gaze. The Eyes that watched but never spoke. Had he too, unknowingly, walked along that same current?

Valeris went on. "She told me his final words before vanishing: If I can't return, then let my silence be my answer. But if I find the truth... I will bring it back, even if it unravels the heavens."

Silence settled between them again.

The sky above, once a quiet blue, now seemed infinite. No longer just sky—but a canvas. A boundary to something greater.

Asher exhaled, folding his arms. "So that's the legacy you carry."

She smiled faintly. "It's not a legacy. It's a promise."

Then she stepped forward, and the very fabric of space shimmered beneath her feet, as if the world adjusted with each motion she made. She wasn't just walking—she was shaping.

"This new world," she said softly, "it's not just mine. It's a sanctuary. A seed. One day, when the storms return, when the devourers wake again and the heavens tremble, we'll need a place untouched. A place born from memory… and forgiveness."

Asher tilted his head, his eyes searching hers. "So what now?"

Valeris reached out, and in her hand formed a crystalline sigil—complex, radiant, carved from the very code of reality itself. "Now, we root this world. Anchor it. Let it grow."

Asher watched the sigil rise into the sky, weaving through threads of mana like a keystone locking into a divine mechanism. The entire realm pulsed once—a heartbeat in the bones of creation—and then stilled.

And something deep around them shifted.

Valeris turned, her voice clear and strong. "This world is no longer a fragment. It is whole. And it will stand long after we're gone."

He smiled slowly. "You sound like a goddess."

She laughed softly—light, real, human. "Not a goddess. Just someone who remembers what came before… and what must never come again."

Asher nodded. "I'm glad I led you here… helped you remember who you were."

Valeris shook her head gently. "Valeria was not selfish. If I were to be revived, so be it—but she never forced it. She only ensured we remembered she existed, and that I was part of her. But she never forced me to be her."

"She didn't need to," Asher said, a faint smile on his lips. "You share something with her, after all."

Valeris nodded, her voice soft. "And yes, I am sure. All the timelines, all the echoes… they were trying to tell me something. She wasn't trying to change me. She was trying to remind me."

Asher chuckled, reaching out and gently taking her hand as Valeris stepped closer, their connection unspoken but unmistakably strong. "You know," he said with a sly grin, "I like my old haughty Valeris. This new one's too sweet."

Valeris raised a brow, smirking. "Careful, after all, you did merge me and Valeria together. If I'm softer now, it's your fault."

Asher laughed, a rare warmth in his voice. "Bearing witness to the best parts of you isn't a punishment."

Valeris smiled at him—truly smiled. "Then perhaps you are rewarded too."

Asher chuckled as he felt the twin laws stirring within him. "Yep. I definitely got something in return from this dungeon dive. Death and Soul Law," he said, nodding with satisfaction. "Both stirred, and now they're starting to stabilize."

"By the way," he added, glancing at her with curiosity, "what laws did you get? You're World Rank now… that means you've stepped into the Law Field too."

Valeris tilted her head slightly, thoughtful. "Remember the Sovereign Keys? The seven of them... each one gave me a law."

Asher raised an eyebrow. "Seven?"

She nodded. "Fire. Water. Earth. Air. Light. Darkness. And the final one… Fate."

Asher's expression sharpened. "Fate?"

A subtle shift in the air occurred as she spoke the word. It wasn't oppressive, but there was a pull—like the moment before a coin lands, where every possibility hangs in balance.

Valeris's voice lowered. "It wasn't just given. It was… inherited. The seventh key didn't teach me Fate. It awakened it—like it had always been waiting for me to reach it."

Asher exhaled slowly, processing that. "Fate Law's no small thing. Most Awakeners would kill for even a fragment of it."

"even though it is only a Great Law, it is one that can foretells the future...of course as long as your enemy don't have protection of Supreme laws like mine"

"I know," Valeris said. "But I think… it was never meant for them. It wasn't meant to be stolen or seized. Just remembered."

Asher watched her in silence for a moment, then grinned. "So now you're not just the architect of a new world… you're also the wielder of Fate itself. Should I start kneeling?"

Valeris laughed lightly. "Only if you want to be rewritten."

"Tempting," he said, stepping closer. "But I like my current role."

"And what's that?"

He leaned in, his hand resting just behind her back, drawing her closer. His breath brushed against her ear as he murmured, voice low and teasing, "The one who rides you~?"

Valeris's eyes widened slightly as the meaning sank in. A flush bloomed across her cheeks. She let out a sharp exhale—half a scoff, half a laugh—but her gaze didn't waver.

Asher grinned, amused by her reaction. "Hah… it'll take some time getting used to this new version of you," he said, still teasing. "The old Dragon Goddess Valeris would've pinned me down and given me a lecture about how it's her who's riding my… well, you know what I mean."

Valeris crossed her arms, looking away for a moment—but her blush deepened. "She would have," she admitted. "Might've threatened to suck you dry, too."

"And this new one?" he asked, leaning even closer.

"This new one," she replied, shooting him a side-glance, "is deciding whether to laugh… or prove she's still the one in control."

Asher raised both brows with a challenging smirk. "I like the sound of either."

Valeris narrowed her eyes—playful, dangerous, but amused. "Keep talking, and I'll show you what happens when Fate Law rewrites your spine alignment."

Asher laughed aloud, stepping back with his hands raised in mock surrender. "Alright, alright. I yield to the Goddess of Fate and Flushed Cheeks."

She snorted. "You're insufferable."

"And yet you keep holding my hand," he said, twining his fingers with hers once again.

Valeris didn't answer right away.

She just squeezed his hand back.

***

Asher and Valeris walked hand-in-hand through the quietening woods, the echoes of their banter fading into the soft rustle of leaves and distant birdsong. Eventually, the horizon broke into familiar shapes—spire-topped towers, cobbled streets weaving between oddly mismatched architectural styles, and the shimmering perimeter ward that marked the boundary of the famed Fantasy City.

A misnomer, really.

The name conjured images of grandeur and legend, of gleaming citadels and magic-infused marvels. But to those who had spent time within its walls, Fantasy City was more myth than miracle. It was a place of potential—a crossroads of lost legacies and half-kept promises. It stood, not because of what it was, but because of what once slumbered beneath it.

The dungeon.

A place without a name, yet known to all.

It had been the lifeblood of Fantasy City—adventurers, scholars, mercenaries, and treasure-seekers all flocked here for one reason: the Dungeon that existed just a short ride east of the city walls. It had fed the city's economy, its tales, its very identity. The kind of place that twisted reality, warped fate, and devoured the unworthy.

And now… it was gone.freewēbnoveℓ.com