Chapter 491: Blind Swordsman

Aether loosened for a second, allowing Merwin to push him back. Staggering back, he almost lost his footing as his eyes fell on the edge of the blade that was coming for his neck. On instinct, he quickly leaned back, the blade just passing by his face.

Falling on his back, he quickly got back to his feet, resting his weight on Voidpiercer, who was planted in the ground

Merwin laughed. "Did that name ring a bell? Should have expected it; you all are connected. In these past months, there have been a lot of you guys, which makes me think it was some sort of plan, but... your intentions are foreign to me. I’m not sure if you are here because you’ve heard the news about us, or for another reason. I also don’t know why you don’t leave, since from what I know, Readers can leave and enter the Wonderland." He took a step forward, putting his blade back into his sheath. "I’ll spare you, but I want answers."

Aether looked Merwin right in the eyes. "Why should I waste my time?" He said, raising his blade from the ground. "After this, It’s either you die, or I die. Even if you don’t kill me now, you will want to after, as well as everyone else." He smirked. "It would be disrespectful to everything I faced if I ran to you when I didn’t with them."

Merwin frowned as he took his blade out once more, dashing forward and swinging his blade. Getting his footing right as fast as he could, Aether intercepted the strike with the tip of his blade, pushing it away.

He hadn’t done something like this in a while... ironic, since the style his master taught him relied on these things, deflections and such. A highly defensive style he was meant to learn; how he ended up with the opposite, a very attacking one, he had no idea.

Stepping forward, Aether brought his blade back, thrusting it right where Merwin’s shoulder was supposed to be, but the guy dodged it at the last moment, bringing his blade down, which Aether blocked, and continued to block as Merwin continued to attack.

When it came to swordsmanship... he was... mediocre. ’Is this how Orion felt when fighting me... I still don’t understand how he lost to this guy.’

Backing away to stop the attacks, Aether let his arm fall to the side. Seeing this, Merwin laughed. "I have to say you are quite good with the blade; however... is that all a Reader can really do? You really disappoint me. All of you do."

Aether sighed, just looking at the man... waiting as Abyssal matter slowly traveled from his foot, and once it did, suddenly turning into a spike that punctured right through his foot. As he screamed in agony, Aether dashed forward, thrusting Voidpiercer in and finishing.

Taking the blade out, he closed his eyes for a second, happy that he was able to avenge Orion... Yet once he turned back... he saw Merwin standing there, with the same smirk as before.

"Well, did not expect that... that’s your... Affinity right? Or something like that. I really don’t understand your system."

Aether stared in shock, turning back at the dead body, and it was still there, but Merwin was also still there, alive.

"Confused, huh?" The man said, as two more versions of himself entered from the shadows, one by one. "Pretty cool, eh?" He said, laughing in one of his bodies, as the others just stood there, without any life in them.

Aether frowned, gripping Voidpiercer. "Not really. I knew someone with a far better ability."

"And he’s dead, right?" Merwin suddenly said. "You said that you knew him, so he’s probably dead... so what did that powerful ability even do...

The master also matters."

He said as he dashed forward with each of the bodies. Aether staggered a bit, not sure which one to go for. Each had their own blade, not anything special, but still probably something that could do good damage to him.

Watching them, Aether noticed that only one was awake at the time... from what he could figure, he could only control one at a time, not more... so he watched until the last second, seeing which was awake, before blocking its attack.

Merwin was surprised to see this. "I’m impressed, good job... but you shouldn’t relax." He said as the eyes of the body closed. Before he could react, one of the other bodies swung its blade into his shoulder, cutting it.

Once he turned to it, its eyes were already closed, as he felt another cut his left arm.

Noticing he was getting overwhelmed, he quickly retreated. This made Merwin laugh. "Though you said you weren’t going to run... what happened to that?"

Aether scoffed, thinking of a way to fight him... It was difficult when he could switch between bodies faster than he could react, and even if he managed to dodge one or two, he was still fighting three people, really.

...

Closing his eyes, he sighed as he fully relied on his ability to sense souls. To his surprise, he saw something: clones; they were... unique. He hadn’t seen one before, only Eden, and not one where they were only clones, and not with an active body in them.

They lacked a soul... something very unique, knowing that he knew that everything had a soul, even rocks. Well, everything until now, but these clones... which was weird... it made him wonder how they existed. But it was probably just because of Merwin’s powers.

...

Still, it was good he had Eden before; if he still had Shadow Sense, he would only be able to see the shadows’ souls, maybe of mundane stuff too. But never of a human. Only after Eden, a skill with complete mastery of sensing souls, to the point that he could choose whether he wanted to see the soul of something, was he able to see humans.

He could hear Merwin chuckle. "Fighting blind won’t help you know."

...

"It will. I’ll kill you fast; that way I can check on A. and help with the others."