SSS Talent: From Trash to Tyrant-Chapter 454: Sylvar’s Funeral [V]

The guard led them through the narrow entrance of the watchtower without wasting time. Inside, the space was tighter than Trafalgar expected, built more for function than comfort.

Stone walls rose in a clean circle around a central platform set into the floor, its edges lined with runes that gave off a faint, cold shimmer whenever the light struck them at the right angle. Beside it stood a waist-high mechanism made of dark metal and mana crystal, smooth at the surface where a hand was clearly meant to rest.

The guard stopped beside it and bowed lightly. "Please, go ahead. You first."

Trafalgar stepped onto the platform with Lysandra beside him. The guard joined them a moment later, then turned toward the mechanism and placed his palm against the crystal plate.

Mana flowed from his hand. The runes along the platform brightened at once as a low hum rose from beneath their feet and the entire structure began to ascend with steady, controlled motion.

Trafalgar glanced at the device as the lower floor dropped away beneath them. "So it works through recognition?"

"Yes, Young Master." The guard kept his hand in place as he answered, his voice carrying a trace of pride. "Each tower has a mechanism like this. Only a limited number of people can activate the one assigned to their post. Every group is attached to a specific tower, and it is our duty to guard it at all times." He paused briefly. "Of course, members of the main family can use them as well. If you wished to activate it yourself, the mechanism would respond."

Trafalgar nodded once. "Efficient."

The platform kept rising in silence, smooth enough that the motion barely reached the knees. Lysandra said nothing. Trafalgar didn’t either. He simply watched the glowing runes and the way the mechanism responded without waste or delay.

The guard was harder to read if one did not look closely. His back remained straight and his posture disciplined, but there was a visible tension in him too. Not fear exactly. More like the restrained awareness of someone who knew this was the kind of moment he would remember for a long time.

It was not every day a man stationed on the Peak shared a lift with two heirs of House Morgain.

The platform reached the upper level with a soft mechanical click, and the runes dimmed as the lift came to a stop.

When Trafalgar stepped off, the first thing he noticed was the view. The upper chamber had windows on all sides, wide enough to give a full three-hundred-sixty-degree look at the mountain outside. Night, mist, falling snow, and distant ridges all lay exposed beyond the glass, the world around the Peak reduced to darkness, white movement, and height.

It reminded him of the watchtowers in old prisons back on Earth. Only this one was far more refined.

Four more guards were already stationed inside, each positioned toward a different side of the chamber as if north, south, east, and west each belonged to one of them alone. All four turned the moment they saw who had arrived, surprise crossing their faces before recognition settled in. They bowed respectfully. Trafalgar acknowledged them with a small nod. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

His attention shifted to the larger mechanism near the center of the chamber. More complex than the lift below. Two flat crystal panels had been set into a dark frame of forged metal, both glowing faintly from within, runes moving across their surfaces in thin streams of light.

The guard stepped beside it, clearly pleased to explain. "These two panels are made with mana crystals. They serve as both power source and projection medium, and they also function as a communication method with the other towers."

Trafalgar leaned slightly closer. The craftsmanship impressed him. This was not simple spellwork. It was engineering.

"This one shows if there are people approaching the mountain," the guard continued, pointing to the second panel. "It detects them as points. As you can see, there’s nobody near the Peak. No sane person would come close to this place."

He let that settle before adding, "And if necessary, we can deploy a barrier over the entire area. It is built to resist direct attacks, even against Unique Skills."

That made Trafalgar’s gaze sharpen. A barrier over the entire Peak. Watchtowers linked through communication panels. Detection. Response.

He stayed silent, but the thought had already formed. ’What if I could build something like this in Euclid?’ If something of this scale protected his city, then what happened with the dragon before would be far harder to repeat.

Lysandra stepped closer, drawn toward the panel now that the explanation had ended. She leaned slightly at the waist, her eyes narrowing as she studied the field of projected light more carefully.

Then her finger lifted. "There’s a red point there."

The guard beside the mechanism froze. "What?" The word slipped out before he could catch it. He leaned in sharply, eyes widening the instant he saw it for himself. A single red point pulsed near the edge of the projection, small but unmistakable. For a man who had likely spent decades on this mountain, that sight was enough to drain the color from his face. "That’s impossible," he muttered. "No one has ever—"

He never finished.

Something crossed the distance before thought could follow it. No great explosion, no thunderous impact. Only a flash of movement so violent it felt as if the air itself had been pierced. One section of the wall gave way with a brutal crack, leaving a narrow hole punched straight through stone and reinforced glass. Smoke, frost, and powdered debris burst inward and spread through the chamber.

Trafalgar reacted instantly. Maledicta appeared in his hand in a pulse of dark mana, the black steel already angled toward the breach before the dust had begun to settle. Beside him, Lysandra summoned her own blade in one smooth motion, shifting from observation to combat without hesitation. The guards moved with the same speed, steel flashing into existence across the chamber as all five drew at once. One of the men nearest the panel reached for the communication mechanism with obvious urgency, mana gathering at his palm.

Nothing happened.

His expression changed immediately. "It’s not working."

That made the room tighten even further. The wind still howled outside and snow still moved across the black glass beyond the intact windows, but the calm of a moment earlier had already been erased. Dust floated through the air, curling around the breach in slow shifting strands as the smoke began to thin.

A shape stood within it. A figure, perfectly still, as though entering one of the most secure places in Morgain territory were no more difficult than opening a door.

Trafalgar’s eyes narrowed. He knew that presence. And as the smoke cleared enough to show the outline more clearly, recognition settled in him at once.