SSS Talent: From Trash to Tyrant Chapter 601: The Calamity Cartographer

The damaged cargo seal sparked again behind Merisse.

That sound sliced through the wagon, a blaring alarm that had long since lost patience. Ghostly white-gray lines now manifested in the air, tracing paths across wires, capsules, shattered runes, and crimson stains, each marking a hidden threat with disdainful clarity. Every trap Merisse had meticulously placed within the wagon—each explosive charge concealed beneath a crate, every tripwire lurking under a deck panel—had been starkly revealed by Eldric au Veyr's formidable magic.

Merisse paused, her gaze fixed on those pale, spectral lines for a single, drawn-out moment.

Her smile tightened, losing its warmth.

"That is an exceedingly costly maneuver," she remarked.

Eldric offered no immediate reply, his attention methodically sweeping across the interior of the cargo wagon. He assessed the condition of the wounded guards, the fallen attackers, the partially compromised mithril seal, and the precarious cargo formations teetering on the brink of collapse under the immense strain.

"Three charges secreted beneath the left rail," he stated, his voice calm and measured. "Two pressure-activated capsules hidden beneath the fourth cargo frame. Wire anchors affixed across the ceiling. And one failsafe trigger linked directly to the mithril lock."

Narak materialized behind him, took a single, swift look at the illuminated lines, and let loose a curse laced with genuine ire.

"That woman deserves to be tossed into a furnace!"

Merisse inclined her head slightly. "Rude. Perhaps accurate, but nonetheless rude."

Trafalgar tightened his grip on the hilt of Maledicta.

"She speaks excessively," he commented dryly.

Merisse's smile flickered back into existence.

Suddenly, the wagon lurched violently.

A thin strand snapped from somewhere near the ceiling, and simultaneously, three hidden capsules ruptured. A thick, oily black smoke billowed out, cascading across the floor and surging towards the gravely wounded guards and the gaping maw of the cargo seal.concurrently, Merisse executed a sharp flick of her wrist, unleashing a volley of wires aimed directly at the mithril lock. Simultaneously, two of the remaining attackers lunged forward, intent on creating a diversion and buying her precious time.

Caelum moved with blinding speed.

He sidestepped one of the charging attackers with fluid grace and then executed a low, swift cut, severing the man's knee joint from the side. The attacker crumpled to the floor with a guttural scream, and Caelum's follow-up dagger strike silenced him permanently before his cries could alert anyone further away.

Ilyra's rifle barked from its elevated position above.

A crackling shot of pure mana seared through the wrist of the second attacker just as he raised a volatile capsule in Trafalgar's direction. The vial dropped, bounced once on the metal floor, and Narak, with a guttural snarl, rapidly kicked it into a far corner before utterly annihilating it beneath the solid plate of his reinforced boot.

"Do not fling your mystery glass near my lock," the dwarf growled menacingly.

"Your lock?" Ilyra’s voice echoed down from the breach in the roof.

"It is mine for as long as I am attending to it."

Trafalgar seized the momentary advantage.

He invoked [Morgain's Requiem], and Maledicta came alive in a whirlwind of six perfectly executed, flowing slashes that unleashed torrents of dark, cutting energy around him. The initial two strikes sliced through the obscuring smoke, tearing it apart like ragged banners. The third and fourth strikes cleanly severed the clusters of wires snaking precariously towards the cargo seal. The fifth strike intercepted an attacker attempting to flank one of the bewildered guards, bisecting him cleanly from shoulder to hip. The final, sixth strike carved a devastating arc across the floor, forcing Merisse to abruptly halt her movements away from the lock as the shadowy blade's reach threatened her very boots.

A spray of dark blood spattered across the distressed cargo frame.

Merisse clicked her tongue in annoyance.

"That particular sword is rapidly becoming a significant personal inconvenience."

She withdrew a new item from the depths of her coat.

It was a small, orb-like sphere crafted from brass, no larger than a man's eye.

Instantly, Eldric's spectral white lines converged and tightened around the intriguing object.

"Weight distortion," he announced, his voice tight with grim understanding.

Merisse disregarded his warning and hurled the sphere with considerable force.

The sphere impacted the floor and abruptly unfolded into a rippling, localized field of intense gravitational force that violently dragged everything in its vicinity downwards. One of the nearby guards was forced to his knees. A heavy crate groaned audibly under the sudden, immense pressure. Trafalgar felt the crushing force clamp down on his legs, attempting to pin him to the floor as if subjected to a punishment meted out by gravity itself.

Merisse, however, navigated through the field with practiced ease, her feet equipped with small, glowing metal plates.

Naturally, she had anticipated the need for specialized footwear to complement her own devious contraption.

She propelled two thin wires directly towards Trafalgar's exposed throat and a third towards his sword-wielding hand. The wires moved with astonishing speed, their thinness making them almost imperceptible until they were far too late to avoid.

Trafalgar executed a flawless [Severance Step].

His form became a blur as he rapidly maneuvered around the distortion field, carving a swift, curved path through the intense pressure before reappearing directly beside Merisse. Maledicta descended in a lightning-fast arc, aimed directly at her shoulder.

Merisse twisted violently to evade, but her reaction was fractionally too slow.

The ancient blade bit through the fabric of her coat, leaving a stinging red line along her upper arm. She hissed, her reaction driven more by anger than pain, and instinctively snapped her injured arm backward. A concealed needle launcher integrated into her sleeve promptly fired three dark darts directly towards his face.

Trafalgar reacted with impossible speed, leaning back and cleanly slicing two of the projectiles from the air.

The third dart, however, grazed the side of his mask.

A noxious acid hissed aggressively against the filter material.

An exceptionally irritating woman, he thought.

He ripped the compromised mask away before the corrosive substance could melt through to his skin and tossed it carelessly aside. The noxious gas within the cargo wagon had already significantly dissipated, and his Primordial Body was more than capable of withstanding the lingering fumes.

At that precise moment, Caelum appeared directly behind Merisse.

She responded with lightning reflexes, even without turning, yanking a wire from her belt and snapping it backward like a vicious whip. Caelum instinctively ducked beneath the primary strike, but the wire, splitting into finer tendrils mid-motion, managed to slice across his sleeve. Crimson blood immediately welled up along his forearm.

For a fleeting moment, Caelum's demeanor shifted almost imperceptibly.

A flicker of displeasure crossed his features.

Merisse, observing this, let out a grin. "Oh, excellent. It seems he feels pain too."

Caelum responded with a swift dagger thrust.

She narrowly dodged the attack.

Trafalgar intervened once more, pushing her back toward the demarcated areas set by Eldric. Merisse's carefully laid traps were now faltering, not due to their simplicity, but because the sheer number of combatants desperately needed more maneuvering space than she could afford.

Eldric raised a single hand.

The translucent map rearranged itself.

"The left path offers safety for three steps. The right flank will collapse if the red charge is triggered. Narak, disarm the pressure anchor under the second frame. Ilyra, the individual positioned behind the blue crate possesses a detonation trigger."

Ilyra's shot was precise.

The man behind the blue crate suffered the loss of two fingers and the trigger mechanism.

A pained scream erupted from him.

Toval entered the cargo wagon, two wounded guards trailing behind him, his mana shield fully deployed to shield them from the swirling smoke and errant projectiles. Saaren followed closely, already kneeling beside the guard who had succumbed to significant blood loss.

The First Concord members moved with an almost unnerving efficiency, ensuring the wagon never felt overly congested.

That was the unsettling aspect of their coordinated movement.

Each individual seemed to assume a designated role, commanding the very space around them to comply.

Merisse also perceived this shift. Her expression transitioned from annoyance to sharp calculation.

"Very well," she murmured, her voice laced with frustration. "A veritable sea of costly complications."

With a sharp movement of both wrists, she snapped them outwards.

Every remaining wire within the confines of the wagon instantly went taut.

Crates shifted precariously. Device components clicked ominously. The reinforced mithril seal emitted a high-pitched whine as hidden internal mechanisms were forced open by the immense, unseen tension. A portion of the cargo door creaked wider, revealing a narrow aperture and the edge of a dark case nestled within the heavily fortified compartment.

Merisse lunged instinctively towards it.

Trafalgar moved with equal speed.

She hurled three capsules between them. One dispersed a cloud of white powder, another erupted in green flames, and the third released a barrage of needles that caromed off the cargo frames in a deadly, unpredictable arc. He severed the fiery burst with his [Severing Fang], the diagonal slash tearing through the space separating them and deflecting the needles sufficiently that only two managed to graze his shoulder.

A jolt of pain shot through him.

He resolutely ignored it.

Merisse's fingers closed around the dark case.

Maledicta, Trafalgar's blade, reached her wrist.

He halted its trajectory just millimeters from severing her hand.

For a single, suspended moment, they were close enough for him to discern the sheen of perspiration beneath her vibrant red hair.

"Release it," he commanded, his voice firm.

Merisse offered a slow smile.

"You first."

A small crystal embedded in the case flickered to life.

Eldric's voice resonated from behind them, calm and measured.

"Should you complete that sequence, the case will self-destruct, taking your right arm with it."

Merisse's smile faltered, freezing in place.

Eldric continued in the same even tone. "Potentially your left arm as well, depending on how highly you value bilateral symmetry."

Trafalgar cast a sideways glance at him.

"Timely intervention."

"I prefer to arrive before any detonations."

Merisse’s jaw clenched tightly.

Caelum materialized at her opposite side, the tip of his dagger resting lightly beneath her ribs.

The window for her choices had definitively closed.

Merisse relinquished her grip on the case.

Narak caught it mid-air with both hands, holding it as if it were a delicate, yet offended, infant.

"No one touches this now but me."

Merisse attempted one final gambit.

Her boot shifted subtly.

A concealed wire along the floor twitched, moving towards a concealed charge situated beneath the cargo rail.

Eldric's ethereal lines instantly converged around the motion, encasing it, and Ilyra’s subsequent shot pinned the wire firmly to the floor before it could activate the charge. Trafalgar propelled Maledicta forward, pressing the blade's edge against Merisse's throat.

A thin trickle of blood welled from beneath the steel.

"Enough," he stated unequivocally.

For the very first time, Merisse's smile vanished completely.

Eldric approached, his presence commanding.

"Merisse Varn, by the decree of the Council of Sages, you are hereby placed under arrest for assaulting a protected transport, causing civilian fatalities, sabotaging Council-regulated infrastructure, and the attempted theft of sealed cargo."

Merisse’s lips curled into a wry grimace. "That does sound rather dire when enumerated so precisely."

Caelum stepped forward, securing her hands behind her back with a cord stripped from one of the fallen assailants. Narak, meanwhile, deactivated the remaining charges near the locking mechanism, accompanied by low, disgruntled grumbles. Saaren maintained the wounded guard's stability, applying a glowing red seal to his fractured ribs. Toval stood guard at the far entrance, while Ilyra provided aerial surveillance of the wagon.

The cargo car was secured.

Trafalgar finally lowered Maledicta.

Eldric turned his attention towards him.

His gaze meticulously examined Trafalgar, mirroring the intensity with which he had studied the map, as if simultaneously assessing vulnerabilities, optimal paths, potential dangers, and inherent worth.

"Trafalgar du Morgain, I presume."

Trafalgar met his gaze directly.

"That depends entirely on the asker's identity."

Eldric's expression remained virtually unchanged.

"The individual who arrived subsequentially, only to discover you had already neutralized a significant portion of the threat."