SSS Talent: From Trash to Tyrant

Chapter 422: Chapter 422: The Fall of the Thal’zar [XXXVI]

The chamber filled quickly as Aubrelle entered alongside Lysandra and Garrika, boots and hooves echoing softly against stone that still carried the sterile quiet of a place untouched by battle. Aubrelle’s stag lowered its head slightly as if sensing tension lingering in the air, its breath misting faintly under the cold mana saturation surrounding the heirs’ beds.

Aubrelle’s gaze moved from one unconscious figure to the next before settling on Trafalgar.

”What do you see? Are they infected?”

Trafalgar did not answer immediately. His perception expanded, mana flowing through his senses with surgical precision as he examined skin, breathing rhythm, mana circulation, even the faint resonance each heir emitted. He searched for corrupted veins, foreign signatures, hidden sigils buried beneath flesh or soul.

There was nothing.

He exhaled quietly and turned toward her.

”Aubrelle... can you check? You’ve seen infected cases before and you have also faced them. It doesn’t look like it at first glance.”

She slid down from her stag without hesitation. ”Pipin,” she called softly.

The phoenix dissolved midair, blue flames collapsing until only a pale bird with red eyes remained. And she was already seeing through Pipin, as she always did, the familiar’s vision replacing the world she could never perceive on her own. With a subtle shift of attention, she guided Pipin forward as the pale bird drifted above each heir, inspecting them one by one with careful patience.

Seconds stretched.

Finally, she spoke.

”They don’t seem infected... but according to our information, they should be.”

Lysandra stepped forward, confidence sharpening her voice. ”That means father succeeded. Icarus must be dead. An SSS talent falling would collapse whatever plague he created. They appear safe.”

Trafalgar’s expression did not change.

”Safe? I’m not convinced. With this many void creatures around, remember what I said. The intelligent one could appear at any moment. We need to protect them.”

Lysandra nodded once. ”Agreed.”

Aubrelle raised her hand. Pipin ignited instantly, expanding into his blue phoenix form as flames surged across the corridor entrance. The creature launched forward, burning through the void creatures flooding toward them, wings scattering incandescent fire that erased the advancing swarm.

For the moment, the chamber held.

Kaedor was dead. Icarus was dead.

Only the intelligent void creature remained somewhere inside the place or so they believed.

The change came without warning.

Pressure shifted first, subtle but violent beneath the surface, like the air itself tightening before breaking. Trafalgar felt it an instant before understanding formed, a distortion moving toward them at impossible speed, cutting through the battlefield beyond the castle walls.

Outside the shattered window, the rain had stopped.

Clouds no longer covered the sky. It remained torn open, the scar left behind when Valttair split the heavens still visible above the ruined battlefield below. Fires burned across the grounds, soldiers and summons reduced to distant motion far beneath the castle’s height.

Something was coming.

Fast. Really fast.

Lysandra’s head snapped toward the window, realization striking a fraction too late.

”Down!”

The world exploded.

Glass, stone, and reinforced mana barriers shattered as the intelligent void creature crashed through the wall like a launched weapon. Two massive wings unfolded in the same motion, mass and shifting void tearing through the chamber as impact pulverized half the room.

The wall disintegrated.

A shockwave ripped across the chamber, beds overturned, pillars fractured, debris thrown violently through the air. The ceiling groaned as structural supports failed under the sudden force, cracks racing across stone faster than magic could stabilize it.

The floor gave way beneath Aubrelle.

Stone collapsed under her stag’s hooves, the platform breaking apart as gravity claimed everything at once. Rubble cascaded downward into open air where the chamber had existed seconds earlier.

Trafalgar saw it.

He could have held position.

He could have secured the heirs first.

He could have reinforced the defense line and stabilized the collapse.

But when Aubrelle began to fall, instinct moved before thought.

Calculation vanished.

Trafalgar stepped forward and dove after her.

Lysandra regained her footing quickly and moved toward the heirs without hesitation. Garrika reached them first, confirming rapidly that none showed signs of infection before lifting and dragging them away from the unstable edge of the collapse. Dust and fractured stone continued to fall around them, but the immediate danger to the heirs was contained.

The intelligent void creature stood before Lysandra.

It appeared largely intact. The few visible injuries along its form were already closing, void flesh sealing itself as if the damage had been temporary. Its wings, which had torn through the chamber moments earlier, folded inward and fused back into its body until no trace of them remained.

It looked at them.

”Oh? It seems you arrived before me. No matter. Hand them over, and I’ll allow you to leave.”

Lysandra did not respond.

Her attention shifted past it.

Far below, through drifting debris and open air, she saw Trafalgar diving after Aubrelle. Beneath them stretched the open courtyard, filled with void creatures. Hundreds. Possibly thousands. The mass shifted as they fell, countless forms turning upward.

It looked like a fatal descent.

For a moment, she considered moving to follow. The urge was there. But the intelligent void creature stood between her and the collapse, blocking the path entirely. Reaching Trafalgar would mean abandoning the heirs.

She held her ground.

’Fuck! You need to come back safe Traflagar.’

For now, she would protect what they came for.

Below, Trafalgar caught Aubrelle mid-fall, debris still raining past them as the swarm spread beneath. Above the collapse site, the intelligent void creature watched from the broken edge of the chamber.

Trafalgar caught Aubrelle mid-air.

From above, with the armor fully enveloping him, he looked like a falling mass of black steel, a descending shadow cutting through dust and broken stone. His grip was firm the moment he secured her, one arm around her back, the other shielding her from the remaining debris still collapsing from the shattered chamber above. The fall continued, but his posture shifted in the air, legs bracing instinctively. The height was extreme, enough to crush an ordinary body on impact, yet his strength was more than enough to absorb it.

Aubrelle felt the tension in his hold tighten as the ground rushed upward.

Before they reached it, a surge of blue fire tore across the courtyard.

Pipin burst forward in his phoenix form, no longer pale but wreathed in dark flames edged with deep blue. His wings spread wide as he dove ahead of them, and with a sweeping motion he released a torrent of fire into the swarm below. The flames did not scatter wildly; they carved a path. Void creatures caught in the blast were consumed instantly, their forms collapsing into ash as the blue blaze devoured everything in its arc.

The sea of void shifted violently.

A space opened.

Trafalgar landed in the center of it.

Stone cracked beneath his boots, but he did not stagger. The impact drove fractures across the courtyard floor, dust rising around him while the blue flames continued to burn in a wide circle. Aubrelle remained protected in his arms until the last fragments of debris settled, his body positioned between her and the surrounding threat.

The fire lingered.

Blue flames flickered across scorched ground, casting unstable light across hundreds—perhaps thousands—of void creatures encircling them. The swarm closed the distance but did not immediately attack.

They stared.

Trafalgar slowly straightened, still holding Aubrelle for a moment longer before setting her down behind him. His sword lowered slightly, its edge still dark with residue from previous kills.

The void creatures did not rush.

They hesitated.

There was no command spoken, no visible signal given, yet the effect spread through them all the same. Something in his presence pressed against them, something they recognized instinctively. It was not confusion. It was not caution.

It was fear.

Every void creature in that courtyard felt it.