Chapter 1729: The Collectrix’s Fury

"Are you kidding me?!" Mortra howled in fury. "The Rot Feathers, the Red Weavers, and the Star Vipers?! All three of them have been defeated?! How?!"

It just seemed to be one annoying incident after the other after Mortra the Collectrix decided to go all in on claiming the Axe of Fraden, and finally getting rid of the Storm Singers. ℴ

First, a group of warriors from the Zhen Clan and a pair of weirdos show up out of nowhere and began helping the beleaguered tribe. This wasn’t a terrible permutation, but it was deeply annoying and made the spy she had implemented have to work several times harder.

And despite the assistance provided by these foreign warriors, she was still able to slowly bleed the Storm Singers of their members.

Not in a fatal manner, but in a manner that allowed her to turn the stubborn singing fuckers into more profitable ventures.

She also learned, during these slow encounters that the mysterious warriors were weak to dragon force.

But then, when she coordinated with said spy and figured out a good moment to send the Tremorscale tribe alongside one of her beloved dragon-blooded pets to finally wipe the bastards off the face of the Echoing Valley, even more annoying interlopers appeared to ruin everything.

This new batch, as far as she could tell, were much like the pair of weirdos that showed up with the Zhen Clan. However, this batch seemed to be much more closer with the Zhen Clan than how those weirdos were.

This new batch not only defeated the Tremorscales, but also slaughtered her beloved Citrine-Horn Lindwurm like it was nothing more than cattle to the slaughter.

And to add insult to injury, they fucking ate it for a celebratory feast!

Her spy also got exposed the next day, but that was something she had figured would happen eventually...just not this quickly.

But that was also fine, it just meant that now she had to send more than one tribe to deal with the Storm Singers once and for all.

And, ideally, she would be sending said tribes with the retrieved Axe of Fraden to put in the final nail in the coffin of the Storm Singers.

However...that was never going to happen now.

Just moments ago, a spy had just reported to her the worst possible news she had heard all fucking day.

Namely, that three of the most loyal tribes under her command, the ones she had sent specifically to retrieve the Axe of Fraden, the ones that she was certain would be able to complete the task and then use the momentum to wipe out the Storm Singers, had just been defeated and sent running into hiding.

And to make the entire matter worst, what made this entire defeat the most infuriating thing after everything she had to deal with this past week or so: the Storm Singers took her axe and did something to it.

Mortra had wanted to claim that particular proto-treasure for ages.

She had wanted to claim it for herself and turn it into proper aether treasure.

That axe was the only fucking reason why she came to this backwater valley in the first place!

And that axe was now gone.

Claimed by some fucking kid who she swore she remembered selling off to some slave trader on another continent, transformed into some powerful aether treasure that nobody could get a proper read on, and had been used to sunder a good ten percent of the forces she had brought to heel.

In other words, the carefully laid plans Mortra had spent years on turning the Echoing Valley into her personal proto-treasure farm were being upended by some weird motherfuckers that showed up less than half a week ago.

It was enough to drive anyone, even Aether Emperor like herself to go absolutely ballistic!

The poor scout who reported this to the Collectrix understood this quite well, so he did the smart thing and kept his head low while slowly backing away to the exit.

While he understood that shooting the message would do absolutely nothing to resolve the greater issue, Mortra would more than likely pop his head or turn him into a toy if it meant venting out her frustrations.

Surprisingly, she didn’t do that.

Instead,Mortra took a deep breath before dismissing the hapless messenger.

"Away with you."

"Yes, ma’am! As you command, ma’am!"

Once the poor fucker was out of the room, though, out of earshot, Mortra let out a shriek so loud and powerful that if he had been forced to stick around, his brains would’ve been rendered into a fine pudding and would be leaking from several different orifices simultaneously.

That said, the stone chamber she was in had begun to crack due to the raging pressure of her aura.

So immense and intense was her rage that she even began to unconsciously summon her [Avatar].

A giant woman manifested from her shadow, wreathed in a glittering gold aura, while covered in a myriad of gem-like scales. If one were to look past the gold and jewels, though, they would see upon the woman’s back a pair of wings that were more like giant hands.

An [Avatar] is the embodiment of one’s [Prescence].

It is a manifestation of not how a warrior perceives themselves, but how the world perceives them.

Mortra wore her greedy personality on her sleeve, and her [Avatar] was the perfect embodiment of that.

This world’s myriad of treasures was hers and hers alone, and all who dared to try and take it would be nothing more than another corpse on the ground or another trophy on the wall.

As Mortra raged, an intruder entered her space.

An intruder that was soon pinned to the wall of her private chambers by her [Avatar].

"Who dares to—what the hell?"

At least that is what should’ve happened.

[Well...this is a pickle...]

Her [Avatar] managed to pin down the intruder, but it wasn’t as oppressive as she was hoping.

Instead, the strange intruder was acting as if there was a bubble shield around them as her [Avatar] was doing its best to smash them.

It didn’t really change the situation of her pinning down a dumb fucker in her airspace...but it did prompt her to address the intruder with curiosity as opposed to rage and annoyance.

"Who...no...what the fuck are you?" Mortra asked before she realized what she said. "Wait, why did I swear?"

[If you let me go, I would be more than happy to tell you why you suddenly cursed like a teenager,] the intruder said with a tone that seemed rather flippant given the current situation.

Mortra was slightly amused by flippancy...but she was also pissed off enough and smart enough to think that letting them go wasn’t a good idea.

"How about you tell me now, and I don’t exert additional effort to crush you like a fucking insect?" Mortra said, realizing she had cursed again but she let it go since it honestly fit the situation this time around.

[I would advise against that. You wouldn’t be able to hurt me in the first place.]

"Oh?"

Not wanting to take the little bug’s words seriously, Mortra proceeded to have her [Avatar] slam its free hand against the intruder.

Surprisingly, the intruder was telling the truth.

The fist of Mortra’s [Avatar] bounced off of the trapped bastard like he had a forcefield, despite her not sensing anything like it.

"Huh..."

She kept doing this a few more times, and eventually even busted out a set of aether treasure darts that she knew were able to crack the defensive arts of even an Aether Overlord. Surprisingly, even those attacks failed to injure the captured intruder.

"Interesting..."

Intrigued more than, Mortra manipulated her [Avatar] so that she could grasp the intruder in both of its hands and bring it closer to her face.

"Who the fuck...no...what the fuck are you?" Mortra asked.

Now that she had a better look at the intruder, she could see that they were human...mostly...but there was something extra on top of that.

The eyes of this intruder were off.

They looked like they belonged to a puppet moreso than actual person, and they radiated an odd power that she couldn’t recognize.

And that same power was also coming out of his entire skeletal system.

[I am merely...a friend,] the intruder said. [I used to be known as Gareth. But after meeting the Benefactor, I go by a new name: Tin.]

"Tin?" Mortra repeated. "Why would you...wait...I’m just realizing that you’re not speaking any language I recognize and yet I understand you...why?"

[That...is thanks to the power of Chaos,] Tin answered. [It’s the reason why you can’t really hurt me. It’s also the reason why, those warriors who joined up with Storm Singers were able to trounce all of your forces like they were nothing more than paper boats in the wind.]

Mortra narrowed her eyes at this comment.

"And you’re here to offer me a solution? I already know they’re weak to dragon force."

[Oh no... I’m here to offer that same power.]

"Go on..."