Chapter 15 - Villainous (Patreon)

33.26%, nice increase. Mon-hun gives good experience. Viers  was doing a casual check on something inside him. Seeing the number  steadily rising every time he checked was very gratifying.

“...Done,” Viers let go the hand of a girl he had been holding for quite some time.

“Thanks,” Paina replied.

After  the discussion with his fellow adventurers, Viers returned to his room  in the inn and did some soul maintenance for the girls. He had just  finished with Paina’s share after Farley and Clarissa.

“You look  like you have something to say. Just say lay it out, it's not like we’re  strangers,” Viers calmly said, hoping to clear the heavy air between  them.

“...Why are you so cruel to them? Not just them, but to the assassins from before too.” Paina meekly asked.

Ah, so it's about that.

The thought that his cruelty towards his enemies might be too much for the girls slipped through his mind.

Viers  closed his eyes and started thinking. In this White Flowers Meadow,  Clarissa and Farley were never far. The topic seemed to interest them  also.

“...The time was just after the fight with the Cockatrice…  ominously, someone crept out from the shadows. ‘Apologies, but that  Cockatrice belongs to us,’ the man said.”

Viers told them the future he had foreseen and prevented.

“...and so the survivors returned. Stronger, wiser, more prepared for the challenges ahead… The End.”

He opened his eyes and saw the girls were giving him a dubious look.

“There’s  another thing. We only know this later but turns out Wollter got a  guardian devil, some gang leader named Ajoss. In the timeline where I  didn’t ambush Wollter, he would die fighting us; me, Lena, and the gang.  Somehow, Ajoss –who most likely be at least Level 2– will get wind of  it and I will have to deal with that shit.”

“You saw the length I go and how extensively I erased signs of my presence at the scene of the crime right? That paid off. It's exactly to  deal with situations like this. The case of Mr. Shit is an asshole so  Mr. A killed him, but there’s Mr. Big Shit behind Mr. Shit and he sets  out for revenge against Mr. A. The good Mr. A got inconvenienced, hurt,  struggled, got saved by someone he helped in the past, yadda-yadda, but  triumphed in the end… Guess what’s next after Mr. Big Shit?”

“Mr. Big Big Shit?” Clarissa with her peerless intellect answered.

“Thus,”  Viers made a gesture as if he had just opened a hand of royal straight  flush in poker. “I changed the future. Quite well, I might add.” Viers  felt very pleased with how things unfold.

“...Lord Viers, can you actually see the future?” Farley asked.

“Nope.”

“So it's a guess then,” Clarissa the lamia said.

“An educated guess,” he replied confidently.

“How can you be educated about it?” The lamia pressed further.

Those  who read as many wuxia and xianxia novels as I do also can make the  same deduction as me. It's not a special ability or anything, just  ‘education’.

“I read a lot of books,” Viers grinned.

The girls knew Viers well enough if he didn't want to answer then he won't.

“Fine,  maybe that might happen but what meaning is there to brutalize their  remains?” Paina asked the thing that disturbed her the most.

“What  about it? They were already dead. It's not like they were still alive  when I dismembered their body. I don’t do torture unless I’ve got a very  good reason to. I get that the sight might be disturbing but that’s  just it, in my opinion.”

When I soul searched, the souls still  got hurt a lot… but I am getting better. The memories become clearer  and they hurt less when I wanted it to. Therefore it’s not torture, it's  practice. No need to feel bad, it is necessary… For Science!

Viers rationalized his take on human soul experiments.

“But still… It's too cruel,” Paina protested.

Sigh,  another one with the bleeding heart. Among the three, Paina is the most  normal. Is her opinion the general consensus of most people? Viers mused.

“...Fable: Clover, B, C-238,” Viers stated a code, which was incomprehensible to the girls.

“What? What is that?” Clarissa said.

“The  villain had the hero in his grasp. The bad guy was too strong for the  young wind prince. Then the supposed to be great villain stabbed him in  the chest and left his bone sword there before vanishing without a  trace… Tell me, will the hero survive?”

“Err, no?” Paina answered.

“Yes?” Farley said.

“I think… yes,” Clarissa said.

“The  answer… is yes. Fucking YES! That is a world of magic for god’s sake!  There are healing magic and recovery items there, just like in this  world! Imagine that, the villain is practically too inept to kill  someone he just stabbed through the heart!”

The girls were  surprised seeing Viers spoke in such a fiery and passionate manner. They  had never seen Viers act like this before.

“What do you think  would happen next? Well, the hero made full recovery, got stronger in a  VERY short time, then kicked the villain’s ass. THE END!”

Viers was huffing, the trio didn't know what to do except for letting him cool down on his own.

“...I’m  not like that guy. I’m the Anti-Existence of villains like that! When I  decide to kill someone, I kill them. Then to prevent their coming back  in my Fable, I kill them in body and soul as thoroughly as  possible. Now, tell me how do you revive a guy with his head stuffed  inside his stomach and have his innards on the outside and his soul in  my Soul Prison?”

“...”

The girls could only be silent.

“That’s what I thought. And that’s number 13 on the Evil Overlord List.”

“By  the way, about that Clover Fable, I don't intend to demean it. I even  enjoy it. It's just I have something to say about that particular  villain… It's like the glory of plot armor in full majesty,” he muttered  the last sentence very softly.

“...Viers, I think you’re mad.” Clarissa frankly told that to his face.

“I don't deny it, call me mad if you wish. Besides, sanity is overrated.” Viers smiled defiantly.

“It  is crazy. Besides, why do you always talk as if death isn't a big deal?  How can you talk of revival and resurrection like it's easy?” Paina  exclaimed.

“Paina, look at our own situations at the moment. We  are for all intents and purposes, dead. But we are still aware, able to  think, have emotions, and can talk with each other. Yes we don't have a  body but Lord Viers has given us a priceless boon. Do you think other  dead people can experience what we have?” Farley tried to soothe her  friend.

Farley’s words got Paina's thinking.

“Anyway, that’s  why I destroy the corpse of the people I killed. Villains that failed  to kill someone weaker than them have the mark of small fry on them.”

“Lord Viers, why are you so obsessed with the concept of heroes and villains?” Farley curiously asked.

“Good question Farley! Look at me and tell me what you see, villain or hero?” Viers opened his arms wide.

“Villain,” the three unanimously answered.

“Mm,” Viers nodded. “In the Fables, small fry villains got defeated then fade into obscurity.”

“I see. So Lord Viers strives to be the great ones amongst his peers, isn't it?” Farley got a flash of an idea.

“Heheheh…  As for great villains, they ALSO got defeated! They just don't fade  into obscurity like the small fries.” Viers let out a big har-har.

“...Uhhh, so you think you’ll get screwed no matter what in the future?” Paina was confused.

“Nay!  There exists another classification… the Exalted Ones… above the  greats, those who truly succeed in their Fable despite their villainous  standing.”

“But people aren't split between heroes and villains.” Paina insisted.

“Indeed,  but the ones who matter are the superhumans. And those superhumans  easily fall into the category of either heroes or villains, with a  minority residing in the grey area.”

Whether it was the  marvelous universe and the D-C in the west, or the shonen mangas,  xuanhuans, mahwas, and novels in the east, the focus is the superhumans!  Heroes and Villains!

“Why don’t you become a hero instead?  In the first place, why do you view good people so negatively?” Paina  now became the angel in Viers’ shoulder.

“You see, I like heroes but I don't want to become a hero.”

“How come? What’s the reason?” Farley asked.

“MEEEEEAT!”

Viers screamed to the sky. Inviting another round of confused look.

“Now  there’s a plate of meat in here, juicy and delicious and fulfilling.”  Viers gestured as if he carried an imaginary plate of meat on his hands.  “A hero will share the meat with others. I want to eat the meat for  myself.”

Since they had been a resident in Viers’ mind, they had  witnessed many of Viers’ antics. Sometimes, Viers descended into  something that they eventually dubbed Insanity Episodes. This was one of those times.

“Hahaha, look at your faces. Hilarious,” Viers broke into a laugh.

“Would you take this seriously?” Paina was a little annoyed.

“Well,  that’s just a part of it. The main reason is their ‘route’ to power. As  Pathseekers, we walked the Path of Power. Whether you’re heroic or  villainous, the farther you get, the stronger you are. Villain’s route  has less restrictions… It has more freedom.”

“I think I get it…  power.” Paina analyzed his motivation from every action and word she  knew about Viers since they met. “That’s it? You seek power for power’s  sake? Sounds like a petty and sad way to live.”

The mood took a  180-degree turn. The air turned heavy because of Paina’s armor-piercing  question. Farley and Clarissa were looking worriedly, afraid this turned  out to be a fight.

After some time of silence, Viers just smiled.

“I  don't deny I seek power, but power for power’s sake? Come on, that’s so  third rate villain. I seek life. Not just any life, a life of quality.  For that, having power is a prerequisite for a lot of things.”

His tone was amiable, gentle even.

“Take  your own situation for example. You got killed by some nobody because  you don't have the power to prevent it. Your very existence right now is  because I have the power to hold your soul,” Viers said the harsh,  undiluted truth.

Paina felt like her heart was cut in two.

“I’m not a good person Paina, but don't be so arrogant to sum my way of life in just one sentence.”

“I… but-” Paina looked distressed.

Viers turned his face above and stared at the perpetual starry sky for a while.

“I should go. Goodbye girls,” Viers’ body started to fade, leaving the girls on their own.

“...Paina, are you okay?” Farley put a hand on her shoulder.

“I’m fine… I just want to be alone for a while.” Paina walked away.

Viers’  consciousness returned to the real world. In the quiet room he closed  his eyes and contemplated the earlier discussion. He wasn't bitter about  Paina, not one bit. He knew he was a deviant in most people’s eyes.  Paina’s reaction and response were very normal, in own his opinion.

Exalted Ones...

Earlier,  when he was looking at the ocean of stars, he imagined those lofty  figures were looking at him from the high heavens. Three figures stood  out in particular.

One was a Necromancer. The lord of death who  has slain death, a Calamity of Yggdrasil. He ruled over Midgard after  banishing the gods from his domain. He escaped Hel and imprisoned her in  turn. The deathless snake god of Nastrod.

One was a Warlock. The  sovereign of sins, greatest of Magus and Gods. With his super A.I. that  had fused with his soul, the man walked the path of the bloodline. He  broke free of his bloodline limits and became the patriarch of the  Targaryens. Immortal, infinite, and eternal.

One was a Venerable.  The one who refined the heavens, destroyer of Fate. Using time travel,  hard work, wisdom, power, and cold-blooded ruthlessness he clawed his  way to the top of the Five Regions and Two Heavens. Mortals couldn't  defeat him, Immortals died at his hands, other Venerables unable to  suppress him. A demonic human who sought eternal life.

What are the common things between these men, Viers thought.

They  all sought immortality, pragmatic, ruthless to others and ruthless to  themselves. Without saying, they all have their cheats… and they all are  reincarnators.

What do they have that Viers don't?

Viers  thought of this and he had his answer: nothing! He opened his eyes and  it glinted with burning ambition and unyielding resolve. Hotter than  hellfire. Firmer than diamond.

I will become like them... Become the Apex in my Fable!