The Discarded Husband: Lucian Vale - The sovereign Collector

Chapter 3:

The poisoned dagger stopped instantly as if it had struck an invisible steel wall.

Its blade froze just one millimeter from Lucian’s pale chest.

The air in the filthy, foul-smelling alley suddenly felt thick, pressing against the chest.

The raindrops pouring heavily from the night sky halted midair.

"This loser can use magic?" the assassin leader muttered.

"Is there still an artifact left on his body?"

He tried to pull his weapon with all his strength, but his muscles refused to move.

Time itself seemed to be forcibly dragged to a halt within that cursed space.

An ancient existence awakened from its long slumber at the depths of Lucian’s soul.

Lucian’s eyes, which had been tightly shut, slowly opened.

A pair of eyes emitted a sharp golden light that split through the darkness of the night.

"Don’t expect me to die that easily," Lucian’s voice sounded hoarse, yet echoed.

The golden light illuminated the faces of the assassins, who were utterly shocked.

Under that gaze, Lucian could see thick black chains emerging from nothingness, binding the robed assassins without gap.

Those chains were filled with unfamiliar faces that even Lucian did not recognize.

"He is clearly using a magic artifact! What kind of artifact is that?" another assassin growled from the back line.

Lucian did not raise his hand, nor did he chant any protective spell.

He simply stared at the hired executioners expressionlessly.

As if his body had turned into a corpse.

"Whatever it is, I want all of you dead," Lucian whispered softly, piercing through the silence of the rain.

Sraaash!

Their life force and soul essence were suddenly forcefully pulled out from their chests.

"No! What, what is happening to my body?" the leader nearly screamed.

He struggled, but it was useless.

Their life energy was invisibly drawn into Lucian’s pair of golden eyes.

The assassins’ bodies shriveled rapidly, losing vitality and moisture.

Their skin dried like corpses that had been buried for decades.

"Sir... He... He is not entirely a loser..." one of them muttered before his vocal cords failed.

Their hair turned white, fell out instantly, and their bodies aged unnaturally.

Crack! Crack!

The sound of their fragile bones breaking echoed horrifyingly against the silent alley walls.

Three seconds passed, and those dried bodies finally crumbled apart.

They turned into clumps of gray dust that scattered into the corrosive sludge.

Even their deadly weapons were erased from existence as if they had never been forged.

The immense power that had just been stolen flowed violently into Lucian’s veins.

"This power... it’s burning my veins," Lucian groaned while clutching his chest. "What is this? Ugh—"

Not even five seconds passed before Lucian’s body reacted in a far more terrifying way.

His entire insides felt as if they were being forcibly melted by molten lava.

"Arghhh!" Lucian roared, vomiting a lump of foul-smelling black blood from his mouth.

His bones, which had already been cracked from Aldric’s torture, now shattered completely.

Crack! Bam!

One by one, his ribs crushed into fragments under the pressure of that energy.

His muscles swelled beyond the limits of a normal human’s tolerance.

His pale skin tore apart, allowing fresh blood to burst out from every opening wound.

"Stop... you’ll kill me from the inside!" Lucian groaned, enduring the torment tearing his soul apart.

"What is this really? Arghh! What’s happening?"

The pain was a thousand times more agonizing than the beatings from the thugs earlier.

His body was forced to be destroyed only to be reborn again.

Slowly but surely, Lucian felt his organs reforming completely from the beginning.

His cells regenerated at a monstrous speed like a demonic creature.

His new bones grew far denser, preparing to support greater power.

Ssshhh...

The gaping tear on his shoulder sealed shut rapidly.

Leaving behind smooth white skin without the slightest scar.

This forced death followed immediately by rebirth truly tested the limits of his sanity.

Lucian panted heavily, wiping the cold sweat mixed with blood from his temple.

His hearing, now many times sharper, caught the sound of panicked footsteps.

"Who’s there? Please don’t come closer!" a trembling female voice shouted.

The hurried footsteps grew closer toward his hiding place.

With his remaining strength, Lucian moved his hand toward the ashes of the assassins.

He swept the traces of the massacre into the sludge so no evidence would remain.

From the shadows at the end of the alley, a small figure stumbled over a stone.

Thud!

The girl fell onto the ground, her elite academy uniform dirtied at the sleeves.

Her silver hair was messy with dust, and her pale face showed overwhelming fear.

It was Amara Silverlight, one of the academy students.

"Please, I don’t have any money left!" Amara said as she backed away.

Lucian’s golden eyes stared sharply at the pale-skinned girl with a probing gaze.

Behind that genuine panic, Lucian saw a striking anomaly.

A massive fluctuation of magic hidden deep within the core of her soul.

"Mana of that scale... who is she really?" Lucian murmured inwardly.

How could an ordinary student possess such destructive power without the academy council noticing?

Before Lucian could speak, Amara’s gaze fell directly onto his chest.

Her eyes widened in horror at the condition of the man before her.

"Oh my God! Your clothes are torn and covered in blood, you could die if you stay still!" Amara shouted in panic.

Though his internal organs had healed, Lucian’s outer condition still looked horrifying.

"Stay away from me. Leave before you get dragged into my trouble," Lucian warned, trying to stand upright.

But Amara ignored the warning and ran toward him.

She knelt in the corrosive sludge without caring that her skirt got dirty.

"Stop talking and conserve your strength, your blood is still flowing!" Amara exclaimed.

She pressed both her soft palms against Lucian’s chest.

A warm flow of mana streamed from her hands, trying to stabilize Lucian’s erratic heartbeat.

Lucian fell silent, staring stiffly at the worried face of the unfamiliar girl before him.

After his own wife’s betrayal, this unconditional kindness felt like a joke.

"Why are you wasting your magic to help someone cast aside like me?" Lucian asked quietly.

"I will never let someone die in front of my eyes," Amara replied bluntly.

Lucian let the mana sink in, then slowly stood up.

His new muscles responded perfectly, filled with a strength he had never felt before.

"Boss, I hear a woman’s voice from this alley!"

Suddenly, a rough shout shattered the moment.

The heavy footsteps of boots rushed in, blocking the only exit.

A group of thugs who had tortured Lucian earlier reappeared, carrying weapons.

"Look! That crippled dog, the lady’s ex-husband, is still alive!" the leader shouted in shock.

"How did he survive? The master will definitely behead us!"

"To hell with the master, let’s just cut his head off now!"

Another thug pulled out his large sword. "I need some fun!"

"Wait a second boss... look at the pretty girl with him."

One of the thugs grinned disgustingly, pointing at Amara’s pale face.

"Wow, Lady Luck is smiling on us tonight!"

The leader’s eyes instantly gleamed with cruelty and greed.

"How much would this little prostitute sell for on the black market, boss?"

"Enough to keep us all drunk for a whole year in the capital."

Their killing intent spread, poisoning the air of the dead-end alley.

"Run from here, this is not your fight," Lucian ordered Amara coldly.

But Amara refused to retreat; instead, she stepped forward to shield the stranger.

"All of you, back off! Or I will burn you to ashes alive!" Amara threatened loudly.

"Move aside, little girl," the thug leader sneered, dismissing her threat.

He pulled out a black magic artifact shaped like a crystal from his belt.

Without warning, he activated the defense-shattering crystal.

BOOM!

A wave of explosive magic shot forward, smashing through Amara’s hastily formed defense.

"Ahh!" Amara screamed as her small body was thrown violently into the air.

Thud!

Her head struck the brick wall hard, knocking her unconscious.

The thugs laughed loudly, stepping closer to her body.

"Let’s have some fun with this girl at the tavern after we chop off that poor husband’s head."

"My mouth is watering imagining how loudly she’ll scream under me tonight," another thug chuckled.

"Just hearing her scream earlier is already enough to excite me."

They did not realize that the air pressure around them suddenly dropped drastically, like at the bottom of the ocean.

Seeing Amara lying unconscious, Lucian’s golden eyes flared with blinding light once again.