I Became a Dark Fantasy Villain-Chapter 456

Only then did Ian notice the purple light shimmering through Seren's torn visor. His chaos was spreading across her neck and face like glowing veins, faintly lighting up the darkness.

What the fuck.

He immediately snatched his right hand back from her breastplate, trying to pull back the chaos power he was emitting. However, the bead of chaos essence didn't obey his will.

Rumble… Rumble…

Instead, it spewed chaos even more fiercely, wrapping around Serenlike bindings. Ian felt a strong pulling force from his palm and, at the same time, sensed the overwhelming greed coming from the essence bead.

His frown deepened. This bastard again?

His hand froze abruptly in mid-air. As he fought against the pull, his outstretched fingers curled inward automatically. When Ian held firm, Seren's breastplate lifted slightly off her chest, drawn toward his hand.

If he hadn't been using his left knee to pin her waist down, she likely would have snapped right back against his palm.

Ian clenched his teeth, the muscles in his jaw standing out sharply. The struggle didn't last long.

Fwoosh—

With a sudden burst of strength, Ian jerked his right arm sharply upward. The purple wave pulsing from his hand dispersed, and the heavy throbbing from the essence bead subsided as if it had never happened.

Ian's eyes, returning to their normal color, remained fixed on Seren, who went completely limp like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

"Cough... Hack..."

Thankfully, her convulsions didn't start again. She just coughed up something bloody and flopped her head to the side.

Ian could feel the tension drain completely out of her. The purple light shimmering behind her visor slowly began to fade. Only then did Ian finally let his raised arm drop to his side.

A lazy, questioning whisper followed from Yog.

—Why'd you stop, my friend? Just a little more and you could have made her your subordinate.

A dry chuckle escaped Ian's lips. He realized with certainty now that Yog hadn't been trying to mess with him or trick him. It was the exact opposite. It had genuinely just wanted to save Seren and, in the process, make her Ian's subordinate.

It's learning more and more… But it still has a long way to go in understanding humans.

Ian shook his head slightly.

While he could force a corrupted one into submission by holding their power hostage, he knew that wouldn’t work on the Black Lions, Seren included. Their loyalty to Hyked was practically a religion. They would undoubtedly choose suicide over serving a master they didn't choose.

Even besides that, I can't just steal his subordinate like this.

He still had plenty of reward to claim from Hyked when he got back. And now, the debt for saving this Black Lion's life would be added to the list.

After confirming Seren was still breathing, Ian finally stood up again. His body felt incredibly light, and he knew it wasn't just because gravity was back to normal. He'd felt it during the struggle with the bead of chaos essence—his stats had been lowered overall while they were in the rift.

This is why you always need to make a habit of checking the status window first.

Just then, the area far off to Ian's right seemed to brighten. Moro, standing beside him, cast a long shadow that fell completely over Ian.

Growl!

Moro snorted, startled. At the same moment, Diana's continuous screams, which had faded into something like white noise, finally subsided.

Ian glanced at the shadowed side of Moro's head and said, "Sit down. Don't step on or bite this friend, okay?"

Moro growled low in its throat, turned around, and settled down, resting its head on the upward slope of the floor. The movement revealed an orange flame flickering silently in mid-air just beyond Moro's other side. Below the flame, Ian could see the back of Diana, sitting up now but trembling, and Lucia gently hugging Diana's neck from behind.

"Luci... fer?" Diana's trembling voice came from behind her mask. It was completely hoarse from all the screaming.

"Yes. This isn't your nightmare, Diana. We're back in reality."

"You... You! Ugh..." Gasping for breath, Diana's eyes suddenly flew wide open. She urgently shoved Lucia away, leaned forward sharply, and pushed her mask onto the top of her head.

"Blech! Uuugh... Cough..." With the mask perched awkwardly on her head, Diana began vomiting violently. Lucia, though pushed aside, immediately moved back to Diana's side and started patting her gently on the back. Diana kept coughing and retching for another moment.

"Don't touch me!" she suddenly snapped, throwing her left arm back and slapping Lucia's hand away.

Scowling fiercely, tears welling in her eyes, she glared at Lucia. "Why... Why did you do such a crazy thing? If you wanted to die, you should have just—"

She halted mid-sentence, frozen.

Lucia, her face tear-streaked, had thrown her arms around Diana again, hugging her tightly. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry, Diana. It's all my fault."

Diana's shoulders, which had been held rigidly high, slowly relaxed. Looking down at the top of Lucia's head as Lucia patted her back, Diana finally spoke, her voice low and rough. "Let go... Now..."

"I'm sorry, Diana. I was wrong."

"No," Diana mumbled. "You'll get vomit on you... I can’t wipe it off unless you move."

Looks like they'll be okay.

Watching them for another second, he finally shook his head slightly and turned away.

It was just in time to catch Yog's faint, dying whisper tickling his thoughts.

—Won't you... pick me up? I really... can't get back... on my own...

A sigh escaped Ian as he began trudging up the sloping floor.

It's not like I didn't expect it, but waking up straight into this kind of chaos...

The memory of the dream—the calm, the peace—already felt like it belonged to a distant past. Even Lucia, who had been happily chatting while eating cool, sweet things just moments ago in the dream, was now sitting here covered in dust, possibly with a bit of fairy vomit on her shoulder.

The thought of staying? Bullshit.

A sharp, renewed wave of longing for his original world washed over him.

Fuck.

Even as he silently mouthed the curse, his body faithfully carried out the task it needed to do. He stopped, bent down, and picked up the ominous-looking skull from the floor.

—It’s harder than I thought... I think I need to rest a bit...

Yog crawled out from between the skull's eye sockets and flopped onto Ian's palm with a soft thump. It struggled into a gap in his glove and wrapped weakly around his finger.

Feeling Yog's thoughts fade, Ian took a moment to examine the Skull of the Rift Walker. The entire surface was now covered in a network of fine, hairline cracks;it looked like it would crumble into dust if he squeezed it even slightly. Checking its info window confirmed that its durability was almost completely gone.

So I won’t be able to use this twice.

Still, it was a relief it hadn't shattered entirely. Its durability regenerated, albeit very slowly, and more importantly, all its stat bonuses were still active. Clicking his tongue, he tossed the skull back into his pocket dimension and then took out a storage box.

"But..." Diana, having pushed Lucia away and finished spitting out the last of the vomit, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and murmured, "Where exactly are we?"

"Uh... well..." Lucia, who had been watching Diana with concern, finally blinked and looked around the area herself. "For now... ancient ruins... I think."

The torchlight faintly illuminated the large, sloping hall paved with flagstones. It was quite spacious. Cracked or completely collapsed stone pillars stood here and there. Several meters above, the ceiling slanted downward, mirroring the floor.

Faint patterns, their original designs impossible to make out, were carved sporadically into the surfaces, emitting a weak purple glow.

"You don't know exactly where?" Diana asked, her gaze fixed on the passage shrouded in darkness at the bottom of the slope.

Lucia nodded. "No. It seems like we fell through a rift, somewhere beyond the world's edge, and then somehow came back."

"Beyond... a rift? Then that thing really was a rift being created?" Diana's eyes widened as she whipped back to stare at Lucia.

When Lucia just shrugged, Diana's mouth fell open slightly. "No way... We came back from there? How on earth?"

"Curious?" a voice cut in. It was Ian.

Diana's wide eyes snapped left. Ian was trudging down the sloping floor toward them. In his right hand, he held a thin candlestick with three candles. On his left, he clutched a leather water pouch and a bundle of wrapped rations.

"I'm the only one who knows exactly what happened," he stated.

"Uh... In that case..." Diana stared blankly at Ian for a moment, then shook her head. "It's probably better if I don't know... Right. The important thing is that we made it back safely..."

I Knew you would say that.

Ian smirked and gestured toward them with his chin. "So, have you two made up yet?"

Diana and Lucia looked at each other almost at the same time. The silence lasted only a second.

"I apologize again, Diana," Lucia said first, her voice soft.

Lucia placed a hand over her breastplate as she spoke. "I lost my head back then. All I could think about was that if I was going to die, I wanted to die with you, Sir Ian. I shouldn't have dragged Diana into that with me. It's my fault."

Diana's brow furrowed slightly, her voice still scratchy. "Honestly... If I really felt like it, I'd probably slap you right across the face, but..." She shrugged. "I forgive you, Lucifer. We didn't die, anyway. And thanks to that... I got to see that damn beast finally kick the bucket."

"Thank you for forgiving me, Diana."

"But," Diana added firmly, "now we don't owe each other anything."

Lucia's eyes curved into a smile. "Of course. No debts between us."

"Instead, now you owe me," Ian interjected, suddenly standing beside Lucia.

Diana looked up at Ian, completely confused, then asked hesitantly, "Because you saved my life?"

"Yep."

"No... That's... between us... That's just..." Diana stammered.

I’m kidding, Ian thought inwardly, shrugging.

He glanced up at the orange flame still flickering nearby. "Let's put this out now, Lucy. It looks like we're the only ones here anyway, but there's no point wasting divinity."

"Okay," Lucia agreed readily and waved her hand.

The light vanished, leaving only a faint orange afterimage that quickly faded. As the glow in Lucia's eyes died down, a dreary darkness settled over the large hall. Only the faint, eerie purple patterns glowing on the ceiling provided any illumination.

Flicker—

Just then, a small flame sprang to life, lighting up the immediate area. It hovered in front of Ian's face, his eyes now glowing red. He brought the candlestick close to it and lit the three candles one by one.

With a slight nod, he dismissed the magic flame just as Lucia asked, "Where did you get that?"

"From my house back in the Capital." It was something he kept packed just in case he ended up somewhere without Magic Stone Lamps or torches.

Ian glanced around the now slightly brighter space, and his eyes met Diana's as she looked up at him.

She flinched visibly. Ian spoke nonchalantly. "Why the surprise? You've already seen me use magic."

"Because it's impossible... No... No, I didn't see that. I didn't see anything," Diana blurted out quickly, shaking her head vigorously.

She reflexively pressed a finger to her lips. "What I saw... was you lighting those candles with flint and steel..."

"Oh?" One corner of Ian's mouth lifted in a slight smirk. "Think you can say that in front of His Highness Hyked?"

Diana's eyes snapped wide open again as she stared up at him. A cold smile touched Ian’s lips as he met her gaze, though his eyes shone with mischief.

He added, "Do that, and I'll consider that debt you owe me paid."

Hyked and the other Black Lions couldn't have seen him use magic during all the chaos. Even if someone had caught a glimpse, they would have assumed it was Lucia's power.

That meant Diana was effectively the only real witness. Of course, even if she did try to tell people, Ian doubted anyone would actually believe her.

"O-Of course!" Diana stammered quickly.

Oblivious to Ian's inner thoughts, Diana nodded quickly. "Because that is the truth!"

"Good. Excellent," Ian said with a smile and casually tossed the leather water pouch and the food bundle.

As Diana reflexively caught them, he sat down next to Lucia.

"Do you think you know where we are, Sir Ian?" Lucia asked immediately.

Ian shrugged. "It's definitely not underground in the Shadow Forest, that's for sure. This place seems like some kind of... temple."

"A temple?"

"Yeah." Ian leaned the candlestick beside him and nodded toward the upper end of the sloping hall. "There's a raised platform and an altar up there."

Lucia and Diana both looked up at the same time. High above them, the faint shape of a platform shimmered in the dimness, along with a gentle, pulsing purple light.

"So it's an ancient pagan shrine..." Lucia murmured, her voice holding more curiosity and interest than fear.

"Whatever it is, let's eat before we move," Ian added, looking back at Diana. "Everyone needs to eat right now."

She quickly began untying the string on the food bundle.

As she opened it, a faint foul smell drifted out, making Ian's nose wrinkle automatically. Normally, it wouldn't have bothered him in the slightest, but it was a lingering aftereffect from that incredibly realistic dream.

"Why? Is something... wrong?" Diana asked just then. She glanced back and forth between Ian and Lucia. "What's with those expressions on your faces?"

Only then did Ian realize Lucia was frowning like him. Taking off the mask that covered her nose and mouth, Lucia let out a sigh.

"It seems... I really should have licked the plate clean back there."

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