Villain Hiring: Help! Author Wants Me Dead-Chapter 214: Fallout (2)

I couldn't breathe.

I couldn't think.

All I could do was stare at her, Pixie on the floor, her skin cracked like dried clay, eyes dripping with blood.

The girl who used to tease me, who always stayed by my side, who laughed in a way that made even the heaviest days lighter, she looked like a corpse dragged out of the underworld.

And Venus…Grandpa Venus…stood in front of us, arms crossed, speaking like this was all part of some twisted plan.

"The only way," he said, his voice steady, his eyes heavy. "This was the only way I could justify killing her, Noah!"

My heart snapped as I let out a loud shout.

"WE COULD HAVE THOUGHT OF N ALTERNATIVE!

WE COULD HAVE SAVED HER—"

I felt something inside me collapse, and then something else replace it, a storm of heat, fury, and despair that I didn't even know I had.

"You…" My voice shook. My fists clenched so hard that my nails drew blood. "You simply wanted her to die, didn't you. Your hate for Hollow's could never go after all."

Venus didn't deny it.

He only sighed, stepping closer, his black robe brushing against the floor like waves of night.

"I did what had to be done."

I roared, charging forward, the pale energy of gluttony I thought had been sealed inside me bursting out so violently that the walls cracked.

The air around me trembled as the floor beneath me caved from the force of my steps.

I didn't care about consequences. I didn't care if the world burned.

I only cared about making him pay.

Venus raised a single hand. His aura exploded outward, an invisible wave pressing down on the hall.

The heirs, my cousins, my teammates...all of them collapsed instantly, pinned to the ground, their bodies trembling under the crushing weight of his mana.

But me?

I didn't fall.

I didn't even slow down.

Because this aura wasn't meant to crush me. It was meant to protect them, from me.

That realization only fanned the flames inside me hotter.

"You're not saving them," I growled through clenched teeth as I pushed forward. "You're underestimating me."

Venus's expression finally hardened.

His calmness faded, replaced by sharp focus.

A ripple of darkness spread from beneath his feet, shadows twisting and rising like smoke.

The sky above us dimmed.

And then his shadow swallowed the ground whole.

My breath caught when I felt it, the pure shadow mana, dense and suffocating, spilling from his core.

It wasn't like the fire or water or wind mana I had seen others use. This was cold and invasive, clawing at me like it wanted to drag me into the abyss.

His voice echoed through the shadows. "You're too reckless, Noah. You can't fight me."

Black tendrils burst from the floor, spearing toward me like blades. I tried dodging them, but they kept coming...endless, faster and sharper.

"SHUT UP!" I screamed, unleashing a blast of the pale energy so raw it cracked the floor and shattered half the shadows around me.

But Venus didn't flinch.

He only raised both hands now, and the ground itself split open as a tidal wave of darkness rushed forward, swallowing the hall, swallowing me.

The force was unbearable.

My skin stung, bones feeling t like they were about to snap, and my mana circuits screamed in protest.

I was being crushed, drowned and erased.

And yet…

Something inside me refused.

Something deep, twisted, and hungry.

'Take it,' a voice whispered in my mind.

'Don't resist it—'

I trembled, falling to one knee as the shadows wrapped around me like chains.

My vision blurred as darkness surrounded me.

And then, like a spark in the darkness, the same voice spoke to me softly.

'Mana Drain.'

I grinned, lips splitting as blood dripped from my mouth. "Fine then…if you want me dead, you better be ready to lose everything first."

I slammed my hands into the ground.

And I pulled.

The shadows around me shivered as if alive, and then they were dragged into me, into my veins, and into my core.

Venus's tidal wave of shadow mana bent, twisted, then was torn apart as I devoured it whole.

The surroundings shook violently.

Black rained from above me as the sky and everyone else also became visible to me.

I did not even realise when Pixie's figure appeared beside Venus.

The heirs pinned to the floor cried out in shock as the darkness that had been suffocating them as well vanished, ripped out of existence and sucked into me.

Venus's eyes widened, for the first time showing something I had never seen from him before.

Surprise.

I laughed.

The sound was spilling out of me without control.

It felt good.

Too good.

The power that had once been crushing me was now mine, flooding every part of me, burning through my blood, ripping at my mind.

I could feel my own broken mana core groaning, struggling to contain it.

But I didn't care.

"Do you see this?" I screamed, my voice echoing, distorted, half mine and half something else.

"Your shadows…your power…they were all drained by me.

Venus's frown deepened.

His hands moved as more darkness coiled around him, but I could see it in his eyes.

He wasn't calm anymore.

He was cautious.

And that made me laugh even harder.

My body trembled as the absorbed shadows flew violently around me, merging with that pale liquid, twisting into something unstable, something darker.

My skin prickled, my vision blurred, but everything felt so alive.

I staggered forward, my smile stretching too wide, blood dripping from my teeth as I clenched my fists.

"Grandpa…" My voice cracked, splitting between rage and madness. "…you shouldn't have hurt her.

You shouldn't have hurt Pixie."

Venus's gaze narrowed, as if he sensed something changing in me.

And he was right.

Because in that moment, I felt something inside me break.

A crack in my mind.

A second voice, low and sinister, laughing with me, through me.

It wasn't just my fury anymore.

It was something else.

Something that had always been there, waiting.

And now, as the shadows danced around me, as my chest heaved and my grin twisted wider, I realized—

I wasn't Noah anymore.

Or maybe I was.

But not the Noah anyone knew.

The split inside me had opened, and there was no turning back.

"Let's kill him," the other voice whispered, perfectly in sync with my laugh.

And I couldn't tell if it was mine anymore.

***