Chapter 46: A Villain's Light
A cold sweat trickled down the Guild Master's neck as Leornars's murderous intent intensified with each passing second.
"I said, speak," Leornars's voice was a chilling whisper.
"May I presume that you are the Nightmare Witch's son?" the Guild Master asked.
Leornars's hand tightened around the dagger. A sudden knock on the door broke the tension. The secretary, a young woman named Dorothy, entered with a stack of documents. She froze, horrified by the malevolent presence in the room.
"Do you want to die, woman?!" Leornars asked her, his voice cold and icy as his gaze fell upon her.
She flinched, dropping the folders. The Guild Master choked, speaking to her with visible strain. "It's, it's ok Dorothy you can just place the folders on the table."
Still visibly shaking, she bent to pick up the folders, her feet trembling as she walked to the desk. She placed the documents down and hurried out, closing the door behind her with a shaky hand.
Leornars slowly stood and sheathed his dagger. He began to examine the documents, his expression shifting from anger to a grim delight.
"We are done," Leornars said.
Outside the office, Dorothy walked back to her station and began to whisper to her fellow guild secretaries about the outsiders.
"He what?!" one shouted.
Nearby, a few adventurers began to eavesdrop on the conversation.
"So he threatened and nearly killed the guild master and you, how barbaric," one of the secretaries said. The adventurers looked furious. Their gazes then shifted to Stacian and Zaryter, who were seated on a bench nearby.
They smirked. "He dares kill our guild master? We'll just beat up his friends," one said.
He walked toward Stacian and raised a hand to strike, but before it could descend, he was kicked backward into a wall, several bones breaking on impact. Bellian, under instructions to watch over Leornars's retainers, had intervened.
"What the hell is that thing?" one adventurer asked.
"Doesn't matter, just kill it," another said.
As they ran to attack, a sudden, murderous intent fell upon all of them. They turned to see Leornars standing on the stairs. His eyes glowed red, and he held a document in his hand.
"If you want to die, take one step. I'm not afraid to kill everyone here to prove a point," Leornars said, his voice cold.
One adventurer, fueled by rage, charged at him with a knife. Leornars sighed. Using Shadow Movement, he teleported a short distance behind the adventurer and instantly decapitated him with his Threads of Abstract.
The adventurers gasped as their ally's head dropped to the floor.
"Now, does anyone else want to be next?" Leornars asked.
Zaryter, who had been silent, stood up and covered the entire guild hall with his Flaming Chains.
"Whoever dares to attack the Lord must die," Zaryter said, his voice empty and cold as his eyes blazed with fury.
"Now, now, we don't need any more senseless deaths," the Guild Master said as he arrived, his voice calm. "Let's all just get on our merry way."
"Keep your dogs on their leashes, old man," Leornars told him, the words a clear threat, not a gesture.
The Guild Master chuckled, a gesture Stacian immediately analyzed.
I guess that's his way of not showing his adventurers that he's terrified, clever strategy but pointless if someone is quick to see, Stacian thought.
Shullah woke up and looked around. Leornars instantly summoned Zhyelena and Zhyier to remove the body.
"Children should not see death or despair," Leornars said calmly. He picked up Shullah, holding her close as he walked toward the door.
"I sincerely hope these files are correct. If not, you are a dead man," Leornars told the Guild Master.
The Guild Master swallowed hard and sighed deeply as they walked out of the guild.
Outside, a demi-human girl the same age as Leornars was waiting. She had purple horns and bat-like wings.
What is that? Leornars thought as he handed Shullah to Zhyier.
"That's a succubus," Stacian said.
"A succubus?" Zaryter said in amazement.
"That's what she said, idiot," Zhyelena retorted.
"Fight me, Leornars," the succubus demanded.
Leornars and his companions looked at her with a bored expression.
"Huh?" Leornars exclaimed.
"I said, fight me," she repeated.
"Not interested," Leornars said, attempting to pass, but she blocked his path.
Huh, and if I killed her, I'd be no different from human beings, he sighed.
"Fight me, goddammit," she repeated.
Leornars snapped his fingers, and Bellian appeared. "If you can beat Bellian, then I'll think about it."
Bellian drew his longsword.
"Hell no, I'm not fighting an undead dryad," the succubus said, backing away.
Oooh! She knew Bellian is an undead dryad, how... interesting, Leornars thought, sharing a smirk with Stacian as the same realization dawned on them both.
The succubus instantly fired a pink powder at Leornars and his crew. Leornars coughed as he saw Stacian looking unaffected, but Zaryter began acting strangely.
"I see, I guess Zaryter lacks the willpower to resist charm magic," Stacian said.
"Charm magic?" Leornars asked.
"Yes, this succubus fired a charm love spell on us which would make us be her servants," Stacian explained.
"So it affects the mind of the target... interesting," Leornars mused.
Suddenly, Stacian pinned the succubus to the ground. "Should we kill her?"
Leornars walked over to the terrified succubus. "What's your name?"
"Succubi don't have names unless they are bestowed by someone they cherished," she said, her voice trembling. "Kill me, please kill me," she pleaded, tears welling in her eyes.
Leornars turned to Stacian. "Let her go," he said. Stacian immediately released her.
"I want you to be my retainer," Leornars said. Stacian looked shocked.
"Me?" the succubus asked.
"Yes, as you can see, we are changing the cycle of the world, fixing the gods' mistakes," Leornars said. "We are helping nations, people in need... pledge your alliance to me, and I shall make you strong."
The succubus looked at him, hope flickering in her eyes. She thought back to her life before she came to Vurnam. She was an only child living with her widowed mother in the kingdom of Seraphim, happy and joyful. But an invasion by the kingdom of Durmount forced them to flee. They ran for miles until a patrol group spotted and captured them. Her mother fought hard to spare her, but it was no use; the kingdom of Durmount hated succubi, calling them 'pleasure demons.'
Before her eyes, her mother was violated by several men and then publicly executed as a warning to the King of Seraphim to surrender. She was 12 years old and was traumatized, reliving the moment for years. She was eventually freed when Seraphim won the war. She wandered the nations until she arrived in Vurnam, where the Guild Master, in his forties, took her in and raised her. Now 19, she stared at Leornars's outstretched hand as a tear fell from her eye. She began to cry.
Leornars walked to her and embraced her.
"You can cry," he said softly. "I will make sure you never shed another tear. I will see to it that the kingdom of Durmount is erased, its soldiers and rulers facing judgment."
"Stacian and Zaryter have gone through almost similar childhood, Stacian was socially abused and sold off as a slave for two thousand years as a slave always waiting for my arrival, zaryter watched his parents die when he was also young and began to care for his little sister Shullah for years, I myself am also not fortunate getting discarded in a well at the day of my birth, disowned by my birth parents,taken in by the nightmare witch my adoptive mother, watching her get executed over half a billion times, getting tortured for nine years and ending up alive. I guess I do attract the unfortunate ones who are like me, those who are isolated,in pain,in grief. I may be a monster ,a devil,a plague but I will not overlook suffering of anyone who needs me, I'll kill millions for a child not to see suffering if I have to. I'll destroy nations if it's the sake of someone who needs me, I destroyed Lurtra and made all demi humans glad ....I'll do it again and again If I have to for as long as noone else suffers,I'll take on the mantle of the villain just for a better world, because history is formed and written only by the hero yet noone asks why the villain did what he did, it's a cruel world in which only the hero is allowed to exist, light will always erase the darkness but also darkness can consume the light bringing forth a eclipse of despair.. you have endured alot ,hated alot but take my hand and I promise you that all your burden shall be mine as well."
Leornars began recalling his time in the dungeon in Kurnov. His cries for help but no one came, his screams in agony, his pain. He recalled the townsfolk he and his mother knew and called friends who later betrayed them and killed his mother and locked him up. The screams echoed in his head.
"WHY ME?! WHY ?! WHY ME??! WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS? WHY MEEEEE???!!!!"the echoes shouted.
"You can never trust anyone too much because even your shadow leaves you in the dark, a dead man can never know who's moaning him and who's joyed he's dead. That's just the way of the world, promises and lies are both just words they can be interpreted as lies if looked the other way or seen as truth if listened carefully. The same implies for people, your mother gave you life,joy and a good childhood but another kingdom took it, but a man you don't know,the guild master took you in as his own ,raised you till where you are now. It's no coincidence because everything happens for a reason and that's called fate ,it's unpredictable and unfair because one can be born into poverty and the other into wealth. One can be crowned king and the other be crowned dead. It's a cruel and unfair world in which everything revolves around our actions,
We can decide on war and break a war killing millions or decide on peace and happiness thus gaining prosperity,yet the ones in charge are not affected in the war or hunger but the poor and the army's are the one's in suffering, fighting a war none of them want. The rulers are the ones either directing us to prosperity or to despair yet the people have the power to overthrow them but none are willing to take on the role of the bad guy. History is edged by the hero, they carve their names for the world to know yet hide the truth from everyone behind a false smile. I'll be the villain who'll end every single problem, I'll uncover the secrets that are hidden for generations. I'll always be a villain as long as the hero tells the story .They'll carve my name into the stones of history like a curse.
Monsters, tyrants, demons — they'll call me everything but right.
Because the quill rests in their hand. The spotlight bends toward their scars, not mine.
Their pain is poetry. Mine? A problem to be solved, a threat to be erased.
But ask yourself who decides what the 'right side' is?
The one who wins, or the one who writes?
They frame me with shadows and silence,
Cut out my reasons, my roots, my truth.
And what's left? A villain. A hollow thing.
But I am not hollow. I am whole.
I wont burn the world out of hate.
I will light the match because it was already on fire,
And no one will believe me.
Not until the smoke reached their doorstep.
So no , I'm not your villain.
I'm just the part of the story you were never brave enough to read. I'll bring the end of all pointless endeavours that are thrown at me and bring an end to the cycle of despair."
The succubus took his hand.
"This is our pledge of loyalty. You shall be my third retainer. Help me with my endless endeavors of a purgatory world, a world that's burning. Pledge your loyalty to me," Leornars said. She knelt on one knee.
"I pledge my unending loyalty to you and you alone. I pledge my resolve, my life, my soul to thee," she said.
"Now rise, as I grant thee a new name," Leornars said. The succubus looked shocked, as did Stacian and Zaryter.
"A new name... that's risky to both servant and master. If broken, both will die," Stacian said.
"What?!" Zaryter shouted.
"Are you sure about this, Lord Leornars?" Zhyelena asked.
"I'm sure," Leornars said, surprising even the succubus.
"But we only met," she said.
"But we share the same scars, the same pain, the same enemy," Leornars said.
"Then, my lord, I accept the name you will grant me," she said, lowering her head.
Leornars lifted her hand to his eyes. "From this day... you are my retainer, and I am your lord and master."
"Yes," she said.
As a servant-master crest appeared on Leornars's and the succubus's palms, the crests he had made for Stacian and Zaryter also glowed.
"Your name from now until the end of time shall be... Ayesha Truelah. Ayesha, meaning a branch that every person in despair clings to. Truelah, meaning your actions are just and true to your personality," Leornars said.
The succubus was instantly enveloped in a black fog. Her wings enlarged, resembling a dark angel's. Her horns grew slightly, and her blue eyes turned a striking purple. Her black hair transformed into a magnificent purple color. She knelt on one knee, astonishing the bystanders.
"LORD LEORNARS, I AM AYESHA TRUELAH, YOUR HUMBLE SERVANT," she said proudly.
From the window, the Guild Master watched with a delighted, fatherly smile.
She has finally found her place in the world. She was traumatized and isolated when I found her. She ate whatever I made without a care, yet at night, she cried alone. I tried to comfort her, but I guess I was never enough, yet I tried. It's my absolute joy to see her spread her wings and fly. Seeing her smile is my joy. Ayesha Truelah, I like that name. Thank you, Leornars Servs Avrem, White Plague, for accepting her, the Guild Master thought.