The Discarded Husband: Lucian Vale - The sovereign Collector

Chapter 2:

Lucian’s body was dragged forcefully across the shattered asphalt roads of the lower district.

Sharp stones continued to tear through the remnants of his clothing and rip apart his skin layer by layer without mercy.

A trail of thick red blood painted the filthy streets beneath the freezing drizzle.

The stench of rusted blood and acidic waste filled the bone-piercing night air.

"This crippled dog is damn heavy," grumbled one of the giant-built thugs.

He deliberately kicked the side of Lucian’s body with the tip of his steel boot.

Thud!

Lucian coughed violently, vomiting a mouthful of fresh blood onto the wet asphalt.

"You think… that hypocritical bastard Aldric will let you live after this dirty job is done?" Lucian hissed with a mocking smile.

His breath came in ragged gasps as he endured the pain of his shattered ribs.

"A sewer rat like you doesn’t need to think about our fate," the thug replied while stepping on Lucian’s knee.

"Just think about how earthworms will chew your flesh in a moment."

The thug leader stopped walking and glanced back with a bored expression.

"Stop for a moment, let’s check the pockets of the lady’s ex-husband."

They threw Lucian’s body onto the rocky ground with a rough motion.

Bang!

"You may be a loser, but your ex-wife must have given you gold coins to survive, right?" another thug sneered.

"Huh, what’s the difference between you and a kept man? Or a gigolo?"

Rough hands reeking of alcohol began to rummage through Lucian’s tattered clothes violently.

They snatched a small leather pouch hidden behind his belt.

"Only ten silver coins? Disgusting," the thug spat directly onto Lucian’s face.

"Where did you hide the rest of your wealth, you poor rat?" he barked angrily.

"All my wealth… that’s all…" Lucian chuckled hoarsely.

"Don’t you dare lie to me!" The thug stomped on Lucian’s chest without hesitation.

"Search his body again and leave him with nothing tonight."

"Hey boss, look at this faded ring on his hand, it looks like it could sell for a good price."

"Take that ring off! That’s mine!" Lucian shouted, his eyes widening in panic.

He tried to grab the thug’s ankle with what little strength he had left.

"That belongs to me! The only remaining gift from my marriage!"

"Yours? Soon this will belong to the keeper of my favorite tavern," the thug sneered.

They forcibly pulled the silver ring off Lucian’s ring finger without caring about his bone.

Crack!

"Argh! Give that ring back, bastard!" Lucian groaned, enduring the excruciating pain in his finger joint.

He thrashed wildly on the gravel ground, trying to reclaim it.

"The lady wouldn’t even bother to look at your face anymore, why keep it?"

The hired leader kicked Lucian’s jaw, sending him collapsing back to the ground.

Lucian stared at the cloudy night sky through blood-blurred vision.

"All of you… will rot in the deepest pits of hell."

"Save your curses for the devils down there, come on drag him to the dumping ground again."

They dragged Lucian once more, far faster and rougher than before.

Until they finally arrived at a dead-end alley isolated from the city’s bustle.

The place was pitch dark and reeked of rotting carcasses mixed with high-level alchemical waste.

"Let’s throw him into that puddle, the air here makes me nauseous."

They swung Lucian’s body into the air like tossing a worthless sack of scrap.

Splash!

Lucian’s body landed hard in the middle of a pool of corrosive sludge in the dumping district.

The toxic wastewater immediately hissed violently upon touching his open wounds.

"Arghhh!"

A searing pain struck every inch of his nerves at once like being hit by black lightning.

It felt exactly like thousands of fire ants devouring his bloodstream alive from within.

"Enjoy your final hot bath, Mr. Ravencroft," the hired leader mocked from the edge of the alley.

"May you sleep well tonight."

The footsteps of the thugs gradually faded away from the dark area.

Their laughter echoed nauseatingly, bouncing off the narrow walls before completely dissolving into the wind.

Leaving Lucian alone submerged in a boiling pool of toxic sludge.

The air temperature dropped sharply, piercing through his body that no longer had magical protection.

His body trembled violently, enduring both the bite of corrosive waste and the bone-chilling cold.

"Seraphina… Aldric…" Lucian hissed, his teeth chattering violently.

"You threw me away like filth after draining my entire future."

His jaw locked tightly as he endured the torment ravaging his mortal body.

His throat was clogged with thick blood that refused to be swallowed into his lungs.

"I can’t die… not in this disgusting place," Lucian whispered into the deaf night.

The foul air burned his nose, carrying an increasingly dense scent of death.

The corrosive sludge began to erode the outer layer of his skin inch by inch.

"Useless loser, failed investment." Lucian mimicked his wife’s words with a hollow smile.

"You’re right, I am indeed a foolish man who believed the sweet words of a venomous snake."

His breathing slowly turned into shallow, desperate gasps filled with agony.

Three hours passed in slow torture within that lightless corner of the alley.

The cold had completely frozen the tips of his fingers and toes.

His lungs struggled painfully just to draw a thread of damp, sulfur-scented air.

"If I had one more chance… I would kill all of you," he muttered deliriously as his consciousness wavered.

Death began to gently caress the back of his neck amid his mounting despair.

"To die discarded in a nameless gutter," Lucian murmured, lamenting his own fate.

"While that woman toasts her victory wine above my suffering with that hypocrite Aldric."

From the darkest end of the alley, an unfamiliar silhouette suddenly appeared, breaking the silence.

Not drunken thugs returning to rob, nor scavengers searching for scraps.

Several figures in long black robes stepped forward without making the slightest sound.

They were an elite extermination squad operating entirely beyond the bounds of written law.

"Target confirmed still breathing, the master demands complete cleanliness tonight."

One of the figures spoke in a flat tone like a soulless killing machine.

"Leave not a single trace."

The leader of the extermination squad stepped forward, separating himself from the deadly formation.

He looked at Lucian’s paralyzed body without a hint of empathy behind his steel mask.

"Your death will remain a secret of this filthy gutter forever."

The assassin drew a deadly weapon from beneath his black robe.

A specially crafted poisonous alchemical dagger used by high-class killers.

Its blade emitted a dense green glow in the suffocating darkness of the alley.

"With a single cut of this poison, your body will melt into the foul waste."

Lucian stared sharply at the tip of the lethal blade through his fading vision.

"Just do it… quickly carry out your master’s order," Lucian challenged hoarsely through the rain.

He refused to avert his gaze even slightly from the threat of the poisoned blade.

The assassin leader was not provoked in the slightest by his victim’s cheap mockery.

He raised the green dagger high into the night air, preparing to execute without witnesses.

"Die and become dust forever."

Sring!

The weapon’s tip aimed straight at Lucian’s heart for a final strike.

The moment the blade touched the surface of his pale chest—

Lucian’s consciousness was suddenly dragged away from his physical body.

Not toward the gates of the afterlife, nor to the court of the highest god of death.

He was thrown into a vast, terrifying void of darkness.

Clang!

An ancient chain that had long slumbered at the depths of his soul suddenly shattered into pieces.

A mysterious primordial energy of unknown origin exploded violently, breaking every limit within his veins.

"Arghhh! What is happening to me?" Lucian screamed as unbearable pain tore apart the remnants of his sanity.

That surge of new power brought him no peace or divine comfort.

This torment far surpassed the agony of the corrosive sludge he had just endured.

His soul felt as if it were being forcibly torn out of his mortal human form without warning.