The God-Slayer's Trash Manual

Chapter 4

"Hey! Is there a sign-up sheet, or do I just start blowing smoke?" Renvar’s voice cracked, half-shivering from the Jade Frost water and half-burning from the furnace in his chest.

The lead cultist, a man whose mask was carved into a weeping skull, didn't laugh. He didn't even blink. He just pointed a charred finger at Renvar’s heart. "The Master doesn't want your jokes, boy. He wants the scripture. Hand over the original manuscript of the Heaven-Burning Ash, and maybe we’ll only take your hands instead of your head."

"The original? Buddy, I don't even have a library card," Renvar panted, his skin beginning to steam as the water evaporated off his robes. "It’s all up here. In the brain. And trust me, you don’t want to go in there. It’s mostly memes and repressed trauma."

"Renvar, get back!" Yuexia shouted, her voice like a whip. She snapped her wrist, and a folding fan made of translucent blue crystal hissed open. "These aren't common thugs. They’re 'Cinder-Eaters.' They’ve been hunting this technique for decades!"

"Well, they’ve got terrible timing!" Renvar yelled back. "I'm currently having a mid-life crisis at nineteen! Hey, Skull-Face! Who’s this 'Master' anyway? Is he as ugly as your mask, or is that just a branding thing?"

"Gu Shenyuan does not tolerate the insolence of cattle," the cultist hissed. He gestured to the two men beside him. "Kill the girl. Keep the boy’s head intact. We can extract the memories from his cooling brain."

"Extract memories? What is this, a sci-fi flick?" Renvar’s eyes widened. "System! A little help here? I’m about to be a USB stick for a cult leader!"

[Ding! Warning. Three opponents detected. Average cultivation: Seventh Stage of Foundation Realm. Recommendation: Stop talking and start vibrating.]

"Vibrating? What am I, a pager?"

[Instruction: Activate 'Ash-Step.' Imagine your body is not flesh, but the weightless soot of a dying fire. If you stay solid, you stay dead.]

"Great advice. Truly. If I die, I'm leaving you a one-star review!" Renvar roared, closing his eyes for a split second. He felt the grey core in his chest spin, throwing off clouds of microscopic grit.

The two cultists lunged. One wielded a chain wrapped in black flames, the other a jagged short-sword. The chain whistled through the air, aiming for Renvar’s ankles.

"Renvar, duck!" Yuexia screamed. She threw her fan, the crystal blades spinning like a lethal buzzsaw, intercepting the short-sword with a shower of sparks. "I can't hold both of them off!"

"I’m trying! I’m—whoa!"

Renvar didn't just move. He collapsed. Not onto the ground, but into himself. As the flaming chain passed through where his torso had been a second ago, his body seemed to blur into a localized cloud of grey dust. He reappeared five feet to the left, stumbling as he regained his solid form.

"Did... did I just do that?" Renvar gasped, looking down at his arms. "I felt like a ghost for a second."

"Your skin!" Yuexia shouted, her eyes wide with horror as she parried a blow from the second cultist. "Renvar, look at your arms!"

Renvar looked. Long, jagged tears had appeared across his forearms. There was no blood—only a faint, shimmering grey mist leaking from the wounds. "Oh, god. I’m literally falling apart. System, what the hell? You didn't say the 'Ash-Step' came with a side of self-mutilation!"

[System: The Host’s physical vessel is too 'thick' for high-speed combustion. Moving at that velocity tears the cellular bonds. But hey, on the bright side, you’re currently the fastest corpse in the province.]

"Shut up! Just shut up!" Renvar ducked as the lead cultist sent a bolt of oily black fire his way. "Hey, Skull-Face! Missed me! You’ve got the aim of a drunk toddler!"

"Die, whelp!" the leader roared, his hands glowing with a sickening purple hue. He charged, his movements leaving scorched footprints on the frozen grass.

"Stay away from him!" Yuexia’s voice echoed with a cold power. She began to dance—a lethal, swirling motion that sent waves of crystalline frost crashing into the cultists. "Winter’s Breath: Frozen Petal Gale!"

The air turned into a storm of ice needles. The two subordinates were forced back, their leather armor cracking under the sudden drop in temperature.

"Nice move, Linruo!" Renvar cheered, then immediately winced as a fresh wave of heat scorched his throat. "Okay, my turn. If I'm going to burn out in three years, I might as well make a firework show out of this."

Renvar didn't run this time. He focused on the cultist with the chain. Weightless. I am weightless. I am the smoke after the candle dies.

He kicked off the ground. The sound wasn't a thud; it was a crack, like a whip. Renvar moved so fast the air behind him ignited. He didn't just approach the cultist—he phased through him.

The cultist froze. He looked down at his chest, where a smoking, arm-sized hole had been burned through his leather armor. "How...?"

"Sorry, man," Renvar said, appearing behind him, his sleeves entirely gone, his skin glowing like a dying ember. "I’m a bit of a heavy smoker. It’s a health hazard."

The cultist collapsed into a pile of fine, grey soot. There was no body left. Just ash.

"One down!" Renvar panted, his vision swimming. "Who’s next? I’ve got plenty of lung cancer to go around!"

"You... you monster!" the second subordinate screamed, swinging his short-sword in a desperate arc. "What kind of demonic art is this?"

"It’s called 'Not Dying Today'!" Renvar retorted. He felt a strange surge of adrenaline. The pain was still there, but it felt distant, like a radio playing in another room. "Linruo! Catch!"

Renvar didn't throw a weapon. He threw a punch into the air. A concentrated blast of hot, gritty wind erupted from his fist, hitting the second cultist's feet and turning the ground beneath him into soft, treacherous ash.

The man stumbled. Yuexia didn't miss the opening. Her fan snapped shut, and she lunged, the tip of the crystal weapon piercing the cultist’s throat with surgical precision. She twisted the blade, and the man slumped to the ground, frozen solid before he even hit the dirt.

"That's two," Yuexia said, her breath coming in ragged gasps. She looked at Renvar, her expression a mix of awe and terror. "Renvar, stop. Your eyes... they’re starting to leak smoke. If you use that speed again, you’ll disintegrate."

"Just one more," Renvar whispered, turning to face the lead cultist. "The boss man over there looks like he’s got a lot to say. Don't you, Skully?"

The lead cultist stood alone now, his mask cracked from the shockwaves. He let out a low, guttural laugh. "You think this is a victory? You’re burning your soul for a few seconds of power. Gu Shenyuan was right. You’re not a cultivator. You’re just a very expensive candle."

"Maybe," Renvar said, his voice dropping to a gravelly low. "But I’m the one who’s going to burn your house down. Why does Gu Shenyuan want this? What’s so special about a 'trash' manual?"

"Trash?" The cultist laughed harder. "You fool. It’s not a manual. It’s a key. A key to the gate that the Great Incinerator left behind. And you... you’ve already turned the lock."

"Enough talk," Renvar growled. He felt the System screaming at him, red warnings flashing in his mind, but he pushed them aside. He felt a connection to something massive, something cold and ancient, hiding behind the fire.

He moved.

This time, there was no sound. The world simply turned grey. Renvar didn't feel his feet touch the ground. He didn't feel the air. He was a shadow, a smudge on the lens of reality.

He appeared in front of the leader. The man tried to raise his hands, but they moved like they were trapped in molasses.

Renvar reached out and grabbed the man’s throat.

"Your Master wants the ash?" Renvar whispered. "Then tell him I'm coming to deliver it personally."

Renvar’s grip tightened. The heat from his hand wasn't orange. It wasn't red. It was a terrifying, absolute black.

"Wait—" the cultist gasped, his eyes bulging behind the mask. "That color... it’s not supposed to be—"

Crrr-ack.

The cultist didn't just die. He withered. His robes, his mask, his bones—everything turned into a fine, black powder that smelled of ancient rot.

Renvar stood there, his hand still outstretched, his chest heaving. The silence of the Jade Frost Springs returned, but it was a different kind of silence now. It was heavy. Suffocating.

"Renvar?" Yuexia’s voice was small, trembling. She took a step toward him but stopped. "Renvar, look at me. Say something."

Renvar turned.

Yuexia gasped, her fan falling from her nerveless fingers.

Renvar’s eyes were no longer grey. They were twin pits of absolute, oily darkness. No pupils, no iris. Just a void that seemed to suck the light out of the air. Around his feet, the beautiful weeping willow trees began to turn grey. The frost on the ground didn't melt; it turned into a layer of black, foul-smelling mold.

"Renvar?" she whispered again, her voice breaking. "Please. You’re scaring me."

Renvar opened his mouth to speak. He wanted to tell her he was okay. He wanted to make a stupid joke about how his dry-cleaning bill was going to be insane.

But when he spoke, the voice that came out wasn't his. It was a sound like grinding stones and screaming wind, a language that felt like it was carving itself into the very air.

"...Thal’ka... mor... vath... sula..."

As the words left his lips, the grass for ten feet in every direction instantly rotted away, turning into a sludge of black filth.

[System: Warning! Connection Lost. Synchronization at 15%... 20%... 30%...]

[The Great Incinerator is speaking through the vessel. Protocol: Run. Just... run.]

Renvar’s knees buckled. He looked at his hands, which were now stained a deep, permanent black. He looked at Yuexia, who was staring at him like he was a monster from the deepest circle of hell.

"Lin... rua..." he wheezed, his own voice fighting to return. "Don't... look..."

He collapsed face-first into the black sludge he had created, the sky above tearing open once more to reveal that single, skeletal eye, watching its new favorite toy with a hungry, silent glee.