Shadows of Ascension

90. Shadows of Ascension

The ground trembled beneath their feet as the five bounty hunters charged in unison. Each one, a lethal force in their own right, closed the distance with deadly precision.
But Aiden stepped forward.

“Do not interfere.”

His voice was calm—but the echo of it pulsed inside Luca and Riona’s heads like a command etched into their very souls. Before they could even move, Aiden blurred forward, intercepting all five attackers with a single movement.

His aura exploded outward.
A storm of pure power. Shadow and flame and force wrapped around him like a living cyclone. The pulse of his energy echoed across the entire desert wasteland—so far, in fact, that distant hunters and bandits turned pale.

“That’s no ordinary aura…”
“What kind of monster is fighting out there?”

None of them dared approach. Not anymore. That battlefield had become forbidden.

“Impossible…” thought Owen Parawell, eyes wide.
“That’s… the aura of an A-rank hunter… Could it be…?”

Aiden screamed—raw, primal, and soul-rattling—as he unleashed his full power.

Luca stood frozen, mouth slightly open.

“Today marks the day that I’ve realized…” he said quietly.

“What?!” Riona shouted. “I can’t hear you—Aiden’s aura is too loud!”

Luca didn’t take his eyes off the storm of power.

“Today… I’ve learned the limit of my strength. No matter how strong I get—10 years, 20... no matter how many techniques I master…
This is it. This is where I stop. Aiden’s power now is just a fraction of what he’s truly capable of.
And that… is my limit.”

“I… I don’t understand, Luca. What do you mean?” Riona asked, voice shaky.

Suddenly, a gust of energy forced everyone back. Aiden’s clothes tore away from his upper body, revealing a B-rank mark on his chest—morphing.

The mark twisted, flared, and ignited into a glowing A.

Riona’s eyes widened.

“I get it now. Luca… It’s because Aiden has finally reached A-rank.
That’s why you said it’s your limit. He’s crossed into something… else.”

The bounty hunters were speechless.

“Impossible…”
“I can’t even perceive it…”
“This is my first time… watching a live A-rank transformation…”
“He’s one of the few true A-rank hunters I’ve ever seen…”

Aiden’s eyes turned pitch-black. Scarlet-red aura streamed from every inch of his body, crackling like lightning and shattering the air with its weight. His very presence was crushing.

As the last wave of his ascension faded, Aiden gently lowered himself to the ground and sat in silence for a moment. Then he stood, calm and composed.

“Behold… my new power.
The power that will end Shadowbane’s threat.”

In a blink, he vanished—reappearing in front of Maxwell.

Before the knight-turned-hunter could react, Aiden’s hand clamped around his throat.

“Th… that speed…” Maxwell choked out.

Aiden slammed him into the earth with a boom that shattered the ground beneath. Without pause, Aiden leapt skyward, aura gathering and spiraling around him in colossal waves of black and red.

He held one arm out, forming a colossal beam of pure shadow energy. The sky darkened around him.

“After I’m done with all of you… Shadowbane is next!”

He pointed his palm downward.

“Behold my power…
The Shadows of Ascension!”

The battlefield was about to be consumed.