SSS Talent: From Trash to Tyrant-Chapter 407: The Fall of the Thal’zar [XXI]

Chapter 407: Chapter 407: The Fall of the Thal’zar [XXI]

Trafalgar did not hesitate after Thaleon’s command.

The pressure along the corridor had thinned. Fewer rifts were opening now, and the constant distortion that had filled the air earlier had shifted elsewhere. The battlefield was still dangerous, but it was no longer collapsing around them.

Now that the situation outside had calmed slightly, he made his decision.

He would go after the heirs.

As he prepared to move, another realization settled in.

A long time had passed.

They had been fighting long enough that the sky was already losing light. The gray above had deepened, and what little daylight remained was thinning behind smoke and rain.

He could still feel the effect of the potion Valttair had given him. The steadiness in his body had not faded. The clarity in his perception remained sharp.

That meant the twenty-four hours had not passed yet.

He still had time.

And he intended to use it.

High above the fractured grounds, from the massive branch that pierced through the castle like a living spear of wood and power, Elenara could see the battlefield in its entirety.

Thousands of troops were scattered across the terrain below, formations broken and reformed in uneven lines. Rifts still tore open the air in irregular pulses, fewer than before but far from gone. Void Creatures moved between collapsing structures and defensive walls, spreading chaos wherever resistance weakened.

From that height, nothing was hidden.

Elenara au Sylvanel stood firm upon the branch, her presence steady despite the tremors that ran through it with every distant impact. Across from her stood Kaedor du Thal’zar, claws darkened, armor fractured in places, but posture unbent.

For a brief moment, they did not strike.

"Can you look around you, Kaedor?" Elenara asked, her voice carrying clearly despite the wind and the distant roar of battle. "Can you see what you have done? What you have brought upon your house?"

Kaedor met her gaze.

They paused, suspended between one exchange and the next, as if the weight of the battlefield below demanded acknowledgment.

"And tell me, Elenara," he replied, his tone rough but steady, "what would you have done? What would you have done if your entire family was in danger? What would you have done if all your children and relatives were left bedridden because of Icarus?"

His claws flexed slightly against the wood beneath him.

"I cannot stop now," he continued. "I know I will die."

Elenara did not react to his admission.

"Yes," she said evenly. "Everyone knows that. Everyone outside is watching the outcome."

Her gaze remained steady on him, but her meaning stretched far beyond the branch they stood on.

"The other five of the Eight Great Families are observing. They are already calculating what follows."

Another distant impact rolled through the structure beneath them, the branch vibrating under the force of the clash elsewhere.

"Will there be a power dispute?" she continued. "No."

Her voice carried no hesitation.

"Your house will continue." She did not soften the next words. "Perhaps not as it is now."

Kaedor’s jaw tightened.

"What are you implying, Elenara?"

"One of your heirs will rise to become the head," she answered. "We will choose. The Thal’zar will continue, Kaedor. You do not need to worry."

There was no comfort in it. No sympathy. This was not an offer. It was a decision already made.

Kaedor understood immediately.

The anger in him sharpened, not explosive, but controlled and bitter. He knew what that meant. Thal’zar would survive, but not freely. The next head would sit in that position because Sylvanel permitted it.

And Morgain would stand beside them.

His house would not be erased.

It would be managed.

Kaedor let out a slow breath through his teeth, eyes never leaving hers.

"You know, Elenara... if you fall here, and Valttair falls as well, there will be no one left to protect the others. House Thal’zar can rise again."

There was no hesitation in the statement, only a desperate certainty shaped into resolve.

"That was the promise," he continued. "I made it with Icarus. Once this was over, nothing would happen. Thal’zar would remain. We would endure."

Elenara’s expression did not shift.

"I think you are living in your own world, Kaedor," she said, her voice colder now. "You only need to look around you."

She gestured subtly toward the battlefield below, where Void Creatures tore through soldiers who had once sworn loyalty to his banner.

"They are killing your people," she said. "Your agreement did not protect them."

Her eyes sharpened.

"You were lied to. You were used."

The branch beneath them trembled again as another distant clash echoed upward.

"And you were nothing more than a pawn."

Kaedor did not flinch at the word.

He had known.

Not from the beginning, but long enough to understand the cost. He had seen the cracks in Icarus’ assurances, had sensed the imbalance in the arrangement, yet he had chosen to proceed anyway because the alternative had seemed worse.

He knew he would likely die here, cut down above his own fractured castle.

He knew he might die having achieved nothing personally.

But if his family survived, if the Thal’zar name continued beyond him, he had accepted that outcome.

Even so, one path remained.

If he killed them.

If he removed the ones who now stood above the narrative, the ones who intended to reshape his house according to their will, the future would no longer be dictated from their side.

It was reckless.

It was narrow.

But it was still a possibility.

For better or worse, he had only one option left. He would fight until one of them fell, because in his mind that was the only way to carve a different ending for his family from the one already being written.

"Surrender, Kaedor," she said at last. "I will take care of your family from now on."

For the first time since the battle began, Kaedor’s posture shifted. His claws lowered slightly. His shoulders eased. The tension in his stance loosened just enough to resemble acceptance.

From below, the battlefield roared on, unaware of the quiet change above it.

Kaedor inclined his head.

It was the gesture of surrender.

"You have chosen well," Elenara replied.

She did not advance immediately. Instead, she watched him for a breath longer, confirming the shift in his posture, the lowering of his claws, the slight release of tension in his shoulders. The rain slid between them, thin lines of silver in the fading light.

Only then did she begin to walk toward him.

Her steps were controlled, measured, the massive branch beneath them steadying under her presence rather than shaking. Mana pulsed faintly under the surface of the wood, responding to her proximity. She did not lower her guard completely, but she allowed the stance of combat to soften just enough to acknowledge surrender.

Kaedor’s head remained inclined.

For half a heartbeat, it looked real.

Then his muscles coiled.

The shift was subtle at first, a tightening beneath the skin, a gathering of force in his shoulders and spine. The next movement was not subtle at all. His claws surged forward in a sudden, violent arc aimed at her center, the full weight of his remaining strength condensed into that single strike.

It was not reckless.

It was desperate.

Elenara did not step back.

The wood beneath her feet reacted before the claws could close the distance. Thick roots forced their way upward through the branch in a rapid spiral, reinforced with compressed mana, intercepting the attack mid-path. The impact rang through the structure as claw met living wood hardened beyond steel.

"Did you truly believe that would work?" she asked, her voice steady despite the force driving against her defense.

The roots did not merely block. They coiled around his arms, then his torso, tightening in layered bands as they lifted him slightly off balance, forcing his footing to shift.

Kaedor snarled and twisted violently, his claws flashing again in a brutal cross strike. Mana flared along their edges as he brought them down with full force, splitting the reinforced root apart. Fragments scattered outward, bark and splintered mana dissolving into the rain.

He landed back onto the branch with heavy impact, wood cracking beneath his boots.

There was no longer any illusion between them.

And the final exchange began.