The vault of the Blackwood family was a cavernous space.

It was stacked high with literal mountains of divine crystals, ancient weapon blueprints, and elixirs that could forge empires.

But Arthur Sterling kept his eyes locked solely on the rogue thief standing in the center of the room.

She was young and lithe. She radiated the sharp nervous energy of a cornered predator.

Her dark leather armor clung tightly to her athletic frame. It was completely devoid of the arrogant glowing insignias that the Apex nobles wore.

In her hand, she clutched a glowing multi faceted sphere that warped the air around it.

The Prismatic Orb!

"Who the hell are you?" the thief demanded.

Her violet eyes darted between Arthur, the icy Arch Mage to his right, and the terrifying Demon Empress to his left.

"The Blackwood guards should have swarmed this place the moment the leylines died."

"The guards have been permanently laid off," Arthur said casually as he took a slow step into the vault. "Put the orb down. That is my property."

The girl scoffed and a desperate cocky smirk flashed across her face.

"Finders keepers big guy. I do not know what faction you are from but you are too slow."

Her body suddenly erupted in a blinding flash of silver light.

It was not a standard movement technique. It was a Divine tier speed art. It fundamentally bent the laws of physics to allow her to bypass the physical space between her and the massive skylight of the vault.

She blurred and turned into a streak of pure starlight rocketing toward the exit.

She was a master of evasion and she was used to outsmarting the arrogant slow moving nobles of the Apex Realm.

But Arthur was not a noble. He was a parasite with a perfect multiplier.

As the thief moved, the crisp sound of the system chimed in Arthur’s mind.

[Ding!]

[Target has utilized Divine Tier Speed Art: ’Stellar Blink’.]

[10,000x ROI Multiplier Activated!]

[Host has gained: Transcendent Spatial Velocity.]

Arthur’s eyes tracked her movement perfectly. To him, she was not moving at the speed of light. She was crawling through thick mud.

He did not just run. He simply stepped forward.

His newly acquired Transcendent Spatial Velocity merged flawlessly with his pseudo ascended Divine Foundation.

The air around him cracked like shattered glass.

"Whoosh!"

Lyra was mere feet from the skylight. She was already calculating her escape route into the clouds.

Suddenly a massive calloused hand abruptly clamped around her throat and choked the breath from her lungs.

Her momentum was instantly and violently arrested.

Arthur stood suspended in the air beside her with a grip like a vice of solid iron.

"You are fast," Arthur murmured as his cold eyes stared directly into her terrified violet ones. "But I have better software."

Lyra panicked.

She reached into her belt and pulled a small glowing metallic cylinder. She slammed it directly against Arthur’s chest.

"BOOM!"

A high tier flash bang artifact detonated point blank.

It was designed to completely overload the sensory organs and spiritual meridians of a Divine Lord. It was a blinding and deafening explosion of pure conceptual noise.

Arthur did not blink. He did not flinch.

His Dimensional Breaker Physique simply absorbed the chaotic energy. It nullified the environmental hazard as if a gentle breeze had brushed against his coat.

When the smoke cleared, Arthur was still holding her by the throat. He looked intensely unimpressed.

"Are you done throwing toys at me?" Arthur asked.

Lyra gasped and her hands clawed desperately at his unyielding grip.

This was not possible!

She had robbed a dozen high tier families. She had humiliated Dukes.

But the man holding her did not feel like a cultivator. He felt like an immovable gravitational singularity.

[Ding!]

[High Fate Target Identified: Lyra of the Stardusk Syndicate.]

[Initiate Binder?]

Arthur smiled.

A high fate target! An Apex equivalent of a protagonist. A rogue who generated massive amounts of chaotic unpredictable experience points.

Another perfect battery.

"Bind her."

An invisible ethereal thread shot from Arthur’s chest and slammed directly into Lyra’s soul.

[Target ’Lyra’ Bound.]

[Initiating System Feedback Loop...]

Lyra gasped violently and her eyes rolled back for a fraction of a second.

She did not just feel the terrifying connection. She felt the sheer unfathomable depth of the monster holding her.

She felt the crushed leylines, the slaughtered Gods, and the absolute predatory dominance of his soul.

It was a suffocating weight that entirely broke her rebellious spirit in an instant.

Arthur drifted down and his boots touched the vault floor.

He released her throat and let the rogue collapse to the marble. She was coughing and gasping for air.

Sylvia and Morwenna stepped up to flank him.

Sylvia looked down at the thief with icy disdain. Meanwhile Morwenna licked her lips as her abyssal aura pressed down on the girl like a physical weight.

"So Lyra of the Stardusk Syndicate," Arthur said and crossed his arms. "You are a rebel. A thief. You hate these arrogant nobles as much as I do. That makes you useful."

Lyra looked up and rubbed her bruised throat.

She was a survivor above all else. She looked at the three terrifying monsters surrounding her and instantly understood her position in the food chain.

"What... what do you want?" she rasped.

"You are holding the Prismatic Orb," Arthur noted as he nodded toward the artifact that had rolled across the floor. "A device capable of creating pocket dimensions. Highly valuable. I am taking that."

Lyra did not argue. She just nodded slowly.

"Second," Arthur continued as he crouched down to look her directly in the eyes.

"You work for me now."

"You will be my intelligence officer. You will scout, you will steal, and you will bleed for my company."

"In exchange, I will let you live and I will let you watch me burn the Apex Realm to ash."

Lyra stared at him. A shiver ran down her spine.

He was not bluffing. He was not an arrogant noble. He was a force of nature.

"I... I accept your terms," Lyra whispered. She rubbed her bruised throat and looked away. She clearly hated the idea but she had absolutely no other choice. A dead thief could not spend stolen gold.

"Good," Arthur stood up and adjusted his coat. "Now get up. Your first task is simple. Show me how to bypass the final door of this vault."

Lyra frowned and pushed herself to her feet.

"The final door? To the Patriarch’s sanctuary? Why? We have the orb and the treasury."

Arthur drew the Ebonheart Sword and the dark metal hummed with lethal intent.

"Because I have an old man to kill."