Chapter 508: Heiress of Theosbane

Thalia couldn’t believe it. She had been watching the Collector the entire time. How did he disappear right in front of her eyes?

Was he an A-ranker? Didn’t feel like it...

Cold sweat drenched the back of her neck as she felt a disturbance in the air directly above her.

She snapped her gaze upward. A thick steel chain swathed in blazing blue flames was quickly descending toward her. "Fuc—!"

Thalia threw herself sideways.

BOOM—!!

The chain smashed into the stone floor, shaking up the entire room.

Chunks of stone flew into the air. The impact cracked a deep trench into the ground. Thalia rolled across the floor and immediately came back onto her feet.

The chain ripped itself out of the crack and writhed before lashing forward, moving like a living serpent.

She barely had time to raise her sword.

CLANG—!

The chain struck the flat of her blade with the force of a moving truck, and her arms went immediately numb.

The punch behind the blow sent her sliding backward a couple of meters. She was just starting to gather her bearings when a second chain, this one also enveloped in blistering blue flames, came screaming toward her from the side.

°°====°°

Thalia gritted her teeth and whipped her sword down, parrying the chain. The impact nearly tore the weapon from her hands.

She twisted her wrists at the last second and bashed her blade into another chain that came shooting for her chest, redirecting it past her shoulder.

It crashed into a large stone pillar behind her instead, decimating an entire section and toppling it.

But Thalia didn’t have time to breathe, let alone witness the sight behind her.

The chain that had crashed into the pillar suddenly jerked backward.

The broken chunks of stone were dragged along with it, grinding against the floor before being flung toward her like a storm of shrapnel.

Thalia parried it, then she parried another blow. Then another. She kept slashing her sword, blocking attacks and deflecting what she couldn’t block.

It was a masterclass in swordsmanship.

And it still wasn’t going to be enough.

Thalia’s arms were beginning to ache. Every chain carried enough force to flatten a small house. Blocking them head-on was like trying to parry a charging beast with nothing but a twig.

She couldn’t keep doing this.

Sooner or later she was bound to make a mistake. It was a matter of odds.

’His ability is like Will’s,’ she couldn’t help but think while pushing aside yet another blow.

The Collector’s ability was indeed like Prince Willem’s.

Both of them could summon magical fire that could reinforce objects and artifacts.

The Difference was that Willem’s flames were warm, radiant, and burned with the authority of the sun.

The Collector’s blue flames were ice-cold and suffocating.

Where Willem used his fire to enhance his and his allies’ weapons. This bastard was using his to not only enhance but also manipulate his weapons with some sort of absurd telepathic weight.

Those chains acted like an extension of his own limbs, controlled with surgical precision. As such, they were moving very unnaturally, making it extremely difficult to track them.

And he wasn’t even standing anywhere in sight.

’He’s controlling them from a distance,’ Thalia realized, her breath coming in ragged, whistling hitches as blood soaked through her slacks. ’If I can’t reach him, I’m dead.’

—WHAM!

A thick loop of chain whipped out from the dust cloud, catching the blade.

Thalia tried shoving it aside, but before she could do that, the heavy steel links coiled around the guard of her cruciform sword like a python, locking her weapon in place.

Thalia yanked backward with all her strength, but it was like trying to pull down a mountain.

A loud, mocking chuckle echoed from the shadows ahead. "Got you."

It was over.

The edges of Thalia’s vision spotted the second chain was coming for her head, burning with that sickly blue fire.

She was trapped. If she wanted to dodge the incoming blow, she would need to let go of her weapon. It would then take her a full second to dismiss and recall her sword.

Surviving a full second against the Collector without her weapon was... impossible.

But if she didn’t let go, her skull was going to be crushed.

It was a forced checkmate.

...For the Collector.

Thalia’s lips curled into a vicious smirk. "Caught you, indeed."

Just like Willem, the Collector’s blue fire was magical.

But it was still fire.

Thalia willed her innate ability upon the blue fire itself.

Her ability didn’t care where a concept came from; if it existed, she could enforce its fundamental nature.

Fire was meant to burn. It was meant to consume, melt, and incinerate.

’So burn!’

The instant her power took effect on the ice-cold flames, their nature warped. Their unnatural blue hue changed into a blinding white-hot inferno.

The heat rose exponentially.

The steel chains coiling around her sword’s guard couldn’t handle the sudden heat spike. The metal turned cherry-red, softened, and liquefied into slag in a fraction of a second.

Thalia pulled again, this time easily snapping the molten remains of the chain apart and yanking the Collector into the light.

He stumbled forward, his pale eyes wide with genuine shock. For the first time, his cool, executioner-like demeanour cracked.

Because his balance was ruined, the second chain that was rocketing toward Thalia’s head missed its mark by a considerable margin.

She ducked low, drew several Enhancement Cards that boosted her speed, and enhanced their effects with [Blessing Bestowal].

She then took one step forward... and disappeared.

"What—!?" the Collector gasped. All he saw was a blur coming toward him. Panicking, he reeled his chain back to defend himself.

But the blur was too fast and too unpredictable.

Thalia kicked off the floor and leapt.

Her body became a hazy streak.

She jumped onto a tall stone pillar and bounced off it, landing onto a weathered wall before rebounding off it to land on a second pillar across the room.

She moved so fast it seemed like she was leaving afterimages, vanishing into the overhead darkness, only to plummet back down like a falling meteor, her sword whistling through the air.

The Collector flinched, instinctively whipping his chain upward to parry.

—BOOM!

The impact blew a wave of dust outward, but Thalia was already gone. She landed on the ground several meters in front of him, spun on her heel, and bounded off the side wall with an explosive burst of speed.

Right. Left. Up. Behind.

She was everywhere at once.

"Stay still, you damn pest!" the Collector roared.

His calm demeanor was completely gone at this point.

Frantic and growing desperate, he abandoned all precision from earlier and began swinging both his chains wildly in every direction.

The heavy steel links swept through the cavern like twin whips of death.

Pillars were sheared clean in half, collapsing into massive piles of rubble. The ceiling groaned as cracks rippled across the stone, raining down chunks of debris.

The room was being torn apart, pulverized under the raw weight of his assault.

Nothing hit Thalia, however.

She wove through the destruction like a ghost through a graveyard, dodging falling rocks and whistling steel by mere inches.

Then, she saw her opening.

As the Collector dragged one of his chains back from a wild wide sweep, his stance was left open for a fraction of a second.

Thalia darted in without hesitation.

The Collector grunted. He barely had enough time to draw his left arm back, wrapping the remaining length of chain around his forearm like a makeshift gauntlet.

Thalia’s sword came straight for his throat.

CLANG—!

He met the fatal thrust with his armored forearm right before shoving her blade to the side.

The momentum threw Thalia off, and the Collector didn’t waste a second to drive his free fist into her face.

—THUD!

The punch connected on her cheekbone with enough force to snap her head back.

She stumbled back a few steps, the sheer impact rattling her skull.

The Collector spat out a harsh breath, his pale eyes burning with fury as he hurriedly began reeling his second chain back to finish her off. "You’re done—"

He didn’t get to finish the sentence.

Instead of retreating, Thalia changed her grip on her sword. She grabbed it by the blade, flipping the heavy golden crossguard and pommel up.

She was holding it upside down, using the hilt as a makeshift mace.

The Collector couldn’t pull his chain all the way back. Because by then, Thalia charged in again, staying low to the ground.

He tried hammering his chained fist down on top of her head, but Thalia twisted her torso in time and used her sword’s pommel to knock his gauntleted fist off course.

That was it.

The Collector’s guard was completely blown apart. He tried to scramble backward, but he was too slow.

Thalia stepped into his personal space and brought the hilt back in a vicious backward swing.

CRACK—!

The heavy crossguard slammed into the side of Collector’s face, shattering his jaw on impact, sending a spray of blood and broken teeth spinning through the air.

His legs buckled on the spot. He fell to his knees before his brain could even process what the hell just happened.

He blinked through a haze of red, blood in his left eye. His head was ringing like a struck bell. Slowly, weakly, he looked up.

All he saw was the heavy golden pommel already speeding back toward his face.

—CRACK!

The second blow broke his nose. He dropped flat onto his stomach.

The Collector gasped, wheezing in pain, his fingers feebly twitching against the stone floor as his world spun wildly out of control. Darkness dragged at the edges of his sight.

What just happened? He couldn’t understand. He was winning.

He was just winning...

What the hell happened?!

He tried to push himself up, but yet another bludgeoning impact struck the back of his head.

THUMP—!!

His limbs went completely limp, the brilliant blue flames on his chains flickering before snuffing out entirely into dead, cold iron.

The Collector lay there, paralyzed and choking on his own blood, as a heavy boot stepped into his field of vision.

Thalia stood over him, her body battered, her slacks soaked in blood, and her chest heaving with every painful gulp of air.

Her golden eyes were completely devoid of mercy.

She leaned down, her voice a low, raspy whisper that sent shivers down his spine. "Don’t worry. Your death won’t be easy."

Then she stood up straight, raised her upside-down sword high, and brought its pommel down again.

THUMP—!!

And again.

THUMP—!!

And again.

THUMP—!!

The Collector was dead by the third.

Thalia didn’t slow down until the twentieth, completely cracking his skull open like a coconut and turning his brain into paste.