Villain Hiring: Help! Author Wants Me Dead-Chapter 226: Redemption (2)

For so long, I convinced myself that all I did, all I sacrificed, was for humanity.

That my sins would one day balance out in the scales of history.

But tonight, here on these cold stone paths, I finally understood.

I wasn't saving humanity.

I wasn't saving the world.

I was only trying to save him...

My grandson.

***

"Fight me if you dare!" I shouted.

My voice echoed in the courtyard, through the rising dust, and even the Kalki paused, tilting its horned head towards me with eyes narrowing into slits of judgment.

I knew I couldn't hope to match its strength directly.

We'd all seen how that fared the last time we clashed.

The creature radiated decades of perfected power.

Every strike, every move it could make would kill men, soldiers, and perhaps only I over here could even try to defend it.

But I had to try.

Not for glory, not for pride, but for Noah.

For my grandson.

The memories of all I had done, all I had sacrificed, weighed on me.

My life had been a series of choices, each one a knife in the darkness.

I had taken the villain's role in his story, and in doing so, I had condemned myself to guilt.

To the silent burden of knowing that what I had done today by trying to assissinate Pixie shamelessly today, what I was doing, would make me hated by the very boy I loved.

I gritted my teeth, forcing my shadow form to pulse with energy.

The air around me seemed to tremble, my own presence warping slightly as I prepared to strike, knowing it might be meaningless.

Every step toward the Kalki felt like walking through centuries of ash and fire.

"Leave him," I growled. "Or I swear—" The Kalki laughed, a sound like cracking mountains, a deep, rumbling echo that made my teeth chatter.

"Foolish mortal," it said, voice dripping with old power, grief, and anger.

"Do you not see? She is mine.

Your grandson is nothing.

Move, and she dies."

Pixie.

My eyes drifted to her pale form, lying helpless on the stones.

The thought of her being harmed sent a shover through my chest. I clenched my dagger tighter, knowing that if anything happened to Pixie, Noah would practically kill me even maybe.

I had no choice.

Not anymore.

I glanced at Noah, who was barely able to rise to his knees, face covered in blood, and body trembling.

The boy had always been reckless, brash, fighting monsters twice his size, but now he looked...powerless.

He looked stripped of all that made him dangerous, and I knew…he was the most vulnerable at this moment.

And yet I knew, he would try.

That stubbornness, that defiance, it mirrored something I once had.

Something I had almost lost.

I exhaled slowly.

It's my duty.

Not to the world.

Not to humanity.

But to him.

My grandson, my blood and my family.

For so long, I had balanced the scales of morality and necessity, forcing myself to take the harshest path for the sake of everyone else.

But now, with the Kalki before me, I realized something: there is nothing more necessary than saving the boy in front of me. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Nothing more urgent than shielding him from the consequences of a world that does not care.

I stepped fully into the Kalki's presence.

Its eyes narrowed, but I could see it hesitate, after all, with the way this creature seemed to be worshipping Pixie, it was unlikely that he would kill her.

Not to forget that it did not know me, did not know what I carried, what I powers I had, what I was willing to do.

And that gave me an edge in the situation, small as it was.

"Move aside, or I will stop you myself," I said, my voice steady but low, heavy with a promise.

The words were not threats.

They were a vow.

Every muscle in my body tensed.

The dagger's edge gleamed blue and red in my hand, and the shadows of my form twisted around me, a proof to centuries of skill, mastery, and survival.

But it was not enough.

And I knew it.

I was only a human, mortal and fragile.

But I had something even the Kalki could not touch: love.

And for that, I would fight.

I could see the soldiers behind me hesitating, unsure whether to intervene, whether to follow my command, whether to believe I could stop a being like this.

But I didn't care.

My eyes stayed on the Kalki, my mind on Noah and Pixie.

Noah may have been powerless, Pixie unconscious.

The odds impossibly stacked against us.

And yet, I felt a spark of clarity in the chaos.

I would carry the weight. Every sin I had ever committed, every life I had sacrificed, every deception I had spun for the sake of the world…yes, it all came down to this.

If Noah was to survive, I would become the villain, the shield, the wall between him and death itself.

I inhaled, feeling the dust in my lungs, the stone beneath my feet, and the heat of fear in my chest.

"Come," I whispered, dagger raised, my shadowed body trembling with controlled fury.

"Try me."

***

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