Assassin

It has been a while since Aster had used this skill. The demons and angels all had different soul structures than humans so it was hard for him to decipher the contents etched on the soul.

He could make out parts of it at best but it was quite useless even then.

He believed that it would change once it leveled up with enough proficiency so until then, he just had to keep working hard.

Inspecting every corner of this mysterious person's soul was also a step to achieve that goal along with finding out why he gave Aster this strange sense of familiarity.

With the activation of the skill, the body of the assassin grew dark and an orb inside his chest became illuminated.

He peered upon the orb and inspected the surroundings and he was correct. The assassin was indeed human and he could understand the engravings on it.

It was like being in a foreign country with a language different from what he knew to finding a book written in his language.

He carefully studied the engravings and summarised the contents he had managed to extract.

The person in front of him was a human and not an ordinary one at that. He was an earthling who arrived with the same batch as Aster did.

Just like any other earthlings, he was a normal civilian who worked in a decent job, responsibly paid his taxes, had a girlfriend, and was saving up for his dream apartment in a distant city.

That was until the sudden announcement made by President Arco. His life was flipped upside down since that day.

Even his arrival to this new world was filled with death and suffering. It was truly a foreshadowing of what was to come.

Instead of being a normal civilian, he had become a talentless bum who could only scrape by at the kindness of others.

In a world where god-like entities that even nukes could not kill them, he was as insignificant as an ant.

In a world where human rights were nothing but a fabrication, a world where strength reigned supreme, he felt truly hopeless.

For three arduous months, he lived like a beggar.

Eventually, he stumbled upon a job offer by an androgynous man who was willing to hire earthlings, especially earthlings who had experienced the universal storm that marked the start of this hellish life.

The pay was good, much better than what he had seen before so he gladly took the job.

The events after that were hazy to the point of indistinguishable as if someone had tampered with his memory. It seemed the job was a top-secret one.

Whatever it was, it marked the beginning of this strong assassin who could only be described as fearsome.

Hell, even [Overwrite] or the other unique skills didn't work on him for some reason. That was terrifying, for a human at least.

He could use magic, aura, excellent dagger mastery, and extremely high attributes all around.

He reminded Aster of himself. Most people chose one specific path to go down as the resources needed were truly immense. Becoming all rounder was inefficient both in the short term and the long term.

He obviously had his area of strength but he was not lacking on other areas at all. Something was suspicious.

'The emergency mode notification mentioned a fragment. It is what caused it to activate.

The reward for the quest also mentioned a system upgrade as a reward.'

The images of the system's spiritual manifestation sprouted in his mind. The state the system was in… it could be addressed with a few words.

Defective, incomplete… fractured.

Aster got an idea of what was happening and he didn't like it one bit.

His entire thought process was boosted thanks to his thought speed hastening skills which greatly reduced the time needed to make a complete observation.

Just as he finished thinking, the assassin finally collided with the ground.

Not bothering to give him a break, Aster greeted him with spears of fire, slashes of wind, and spikes of earth.

His enlightenment phase had been cut off so his control over his aura returned to what it was before which was the reason he did not dare to engage in close combat.

He didn't have confidence in beating him in a melee contest and he was proven correct. The assassin weaved through his magic like a fish in water and counterattacked with even more aura slashes.

Aster sprinted to his left side to evade the slashes while putting distance between them while he contemplated potential actions.

'I barely have 2 minutes left. I have to kill him now.'

The decreasing time limit signaled that death was near. As death got closer, it kept driving Aster into desperation.

He used his desperation to fuel his negative fireballs and fire stream which grew in strength.

'It's still not enough. Dammit!'

He racked his brain for solutions as he played a game of tag with the assassin. They were roughly equal in speed but the offensive power differed greatly.

'What do I do? What can I do?

What can I use to turn the tides? Can I use retribution? But the usage of retribution is restricted and can only be used depending on how sinful a person is from my perspective and I depend on true sight to judge if a person is sinful or not.

I didn't have the full picture but from what I have seen, I can't judge that guy as sinful, I just can't.

Maybe he was mind-controlled when he took on the job. Maybe he was experimented on and tortured, maybe he is being forced to do this because some suspicious people like his employer took his family hostage? Can I judge him fair and square as of now?'

Aster thanked his lucky stars that the room he was in was spacious as hell which allowed him to run as fast as he could.

His eyes darted around as a habit and they landed on the small fireball that had been created that rotated around him which kept his shadow at bay to prevent further backstabbing.

Then it moved unto the room that was quite dark. Aster could only see because of his perception attribute.

Suddenly, he had an idea.

He had no way it could work but his brain was reaching its limits. Being impaled multiple times in the head does that no matter how good the regeneration was.

'He certainly has high attributes. But does he have as many types of attributes as me?'

He closed his eyes and conjured a firestorm, not for damage or an aoe attack but for maximum lighting.

Bright radiance filled the room.