Building My SSS-Rank Universal Empire: From Trash to Cosmic Overlord

Chapter 364: Attack at dawn

Tiber wasn’t feeling good at all. His expression matched his mood, gloomy and dark. His dark eyes lacking the usual luster and now appearing like holes leading to despair.

He was in a cell with Slya, the two of them sharing the same mood, their expressions tight and helpless. It was the first time they would be feeling such a combination of emotions since they joined Vale.

The fact only made them feel more gloomy.

Looking at them, there was no scar on them, no wounds or sign of torture, and yet their eyes told a different tale.

The Akatsuki, Eirikr, had a way to torture. He always has a healer nearby to heal each wound he inflicted, healing and inflicting. This way, breaking the mind instead of the body. The unblemished body began to feel like a prison.

And even though Tiber and Slya didn’t want to admit it, the torture was wearing them down and, even worse, there isn’t a single hope to look forward to. Commander Garran had joined the Ito Clan and the High Chief, proving surprisingly powerful with the Artifact that left everyone in shock, still failed and only managed to wound the WaterLord, ultimately cutting off her right hand.

There wasn’t anyone coming to save them.

And yet they endure torture every day, asking them to state where Vale Athrimir is.

But they really don’t know, do they? The only thing they knew was that Vale isn’t dead and something must be wrong and keeping him. They know him; he would have come to their rescue.

The two sat in uncomfortable silence, watching the door wearily, their essence draining away in the prison.

"Do you think he’ll come today?" Slya asked.

Due to the grand meeting, Eirikr hadn’t come for some days now, but the man is a bastard and skilled. He would usually come at any time, both night and day, unexpected, always to put them on edge and wear them down.

Tiber shook his head. "The meeting needs his full attention. This is the biggest thing that’s happening in the Hinterlands for who knows how long now? They are splitting and distributing the resources of Athrimir."

His voice was flat.

Slya paused and then shivered. "Could he have actually died?"

It was something they didn’t want to talk about. The fact that their powers are working through their construct that is Vale should make them calm, but they are anything but. After all, there is no blueprint about that.

What... what if he’s dead and their powers just continue anyway? That fact made them shudder in fear.

Tiber sighed, his eyes downcast. "How did all of this even happen?"

Slya bit her lips. As the Captain of the warriors sent to the Akatsuki’s territory, she was still blaming herself for not fulfilling her task. She shook her head. "We should prepare for tomorrow..... "

Tiber chuckled darkly. "Tomorrow is the last day of the meeting and when the final lines will be drawn."

"You are good at this, Tiber. Tell me what is going to happen to us," Slya asked firmly, her eyes flickering briefly with her old fire.

Tiber looked at her for a while and took a deep breath. "Tomorrow is the day we die. There is no escaping it. The reason Eirikr holds on until now was to see if Vale has any tricks to play and, since that’s not happening, he’ll go along. Already he has consolidated his powers and he’s just waiting to put the finishing touches. I’m afraid... even if Vale was to show, what power can a single Errant Knight use?"

They sat in silence for a while. Finally, Slya sighed again and smiled with tiredness. "I am glad. I am glad that I at least managed to serve him. He is a Lord worth following."

Tiber smiled in return and for the first time in ages he felt his age. "He is, isn’t he? In my next life, if that is possible, then I will gladly serve him again."

☆☆▪︎☆☆

The attack that Vale was expecting came the dawn of the day they were going to Akatsuki. Vale couldn’t sleep, and it took all of his strength to force himself into meditation instead of pacing.

He hadn’t really expected himself to be so wound up about the fate of his Clan and his subordinates. Tiber and Slya, yes, but in just the few months he spent as Clan leader, Vale was beginning to like the position, his city, and his territory.

He shuddered. Isn’t everything just a tool for his accession to power? Why’s he getting worked up now? Vale did not know.

He was thinking of this when the attack came at the Imprisonment.

Vale sensed the attack before it collided with the Imprisonment. And when it collided, he knew he could block it easily, but instead he let the prison fall, broken by the power of a Master Knight.

He jumped out of his bed, his face filled with impatience and annoyance, but he forced it down and instead looked fearful, his eyes widening. "Wh.. what’s happening!"

He rushed to the center room and saw a man standing there, dressed in black and a mask that covered half of his face. The man raised his hand and little bolts of lightning danced around him. "Are you Vale Athrimir?"

The man’s aura rose to suffocate, almost choking him with the smell of ozone. Vale gasped and went to his knees, forced by the pressure. "Wait... wait!"

"So you are him, I’ve been looking for you!"

The man hurled a bolt of withering lightning that cut the air toward him.

Vale raised his hand and made a shield to intercept the attack. The shield held for three seconds before the attack shattered it and collided with him full force.

Vale groaned as he was thrown backward, his limbs locking as his flesh froze, spasming. Pain filled his vision and he almost blacked out.

Truly, as an Errant Knight, he stood no chance.

He almost returned an attack and destroyed the attacker, but he held himself back, his blood boiling with madness. Madness that made his eyes appear like a blood moon.

The Master Knight stood above him and looked down at him with disgust. "Why so arrogant, young master? Eirikr Akatsuki sends his greeting."

The air around the man hummed with power, lightning gathered around him like thousands of lightning worms, brimming with destructive force.

Danger!

Vale’s eyes widened. And for a terrible moment, he thought he had miscalculated everything and the assassin was actually an assassin and not something sent by the Company Council.

His blood roared and power began to flood into him in great waves as if a dam was on the verge of opening. His paralyzed body jerked free and he jumped to his feet, his eyes bloodshot with anger and the desire to cause destruction.

The madness of the Infernal Dominion was taking over. And it took every shred of him not to do anything too dramatic. Even his aura was kept under tight lock.

But even then, his bloodlust couldn’t be easily hidden. And the pure desire for blood bloomed in the room, so potent it carried a subtle pressure of its own.

The man that was attacking flinched before the bloodlust, his own aura surging up to counter and protect him. In an instant, the full power of his Master Knight came out in an explosion of light and shockwave that sent Vale hurling back, blowing a hole in the roof and sending lightning dancing on the ground.

The Master Knight now appeared cloaked in lightning, coating his body and clothes. And without hesitation, he sent all that power at Vale.

Vale gambled. He did nothing.

His world was instantly swallowed by bright white light and a static roar.

"Noooooo!"

He heard someone shout but it was distant, and all he could feel was the taste of rusting metal in his mouth. For a while he couldn’t feel anything.

And then he blinked.

He was lying on the ground, looking at the sky through the blown roof. Someone was shaking him and he turned his head to see Isolde looking at him with wide eyes, her mouth moving but Vale couldn’t hear her, his ears hadn’t recovered yet.

He didn’t stand and instead lay there, blinking slowly. He used his mental sense to check himself. He had no wounds, nothing at all. All that truly affected him was the shockwave and the pressure from the attack.

Master Knights are truly terrifying.

"You almost died!" Isolde shouted, worry filling her voice. And then to another person that Vale couldn’t immediately see, she said, "Is this the hospitality of Matsumoto?!"

Vale almost felt touched by her words, but it only reinforced the fact that she didn’t want him to die so that she can capture him alive.

Really.

Vale heard a soft voice reply to her. "Our guest is under the protection of the Company Council. Nothing can touch him."