Maybe I really am a Villian

Chapter 136: Surprise

NO. 2 turned his face toward NO. 1, who was lying beside him, equally heavily injured. He then looked at the forty masked men and said in a tone filled with disbelief before turning back to NO. 1,

"You lost? How?"

NO. 1 simply looked at NO. 2 and replied,"Because they were stronger. What else?"

Then he looked at the black fog on Asher’s vessel’s mana blade and continued in a grave tone,"And because of that black fog."

While NO. 1 and NO. 2 were having this conversation, all of Asher’s vessels gathered around them. One of the vessels then walked toward the corpse of the vessel who had struck the last blow on NO. 1 but had been cut in half and died due to heavy blood loss and not having enough mana to regenerate himself.

The vessel healed the corpse, restoring it to its perfect state.

NO. 1 and NO. 2 watched the process with confusion apparent on their faces, unable to understand why the masked man was healing a dead body. He was not even a necromancer.

Then the masked man touched the dead body, and after a few moments, the corpse opened its eyes and immediately began focusing on recovering its mana.

After witnessing this, the expressions of NO. 1 and NO. 2 changed from confusion to utter disbelief.

NO. 1 looked at the nearby masked men with disbelief, and then a look of realization appeared on his face, as if he had finally found the missing piece of the puzzle he had been unable to understand before. He looked at the recently revived masked man, then at the others, and said in a trembling tone,"Yo...u are all the same person, not different people."

The masked men did not answer and simply ignored him. Some began recovering their mana, while those who still had enough mana kept their gazes fixed on NO. 1 and NO. 2, ensuring that they could not try anything funny.

After receiving no reply from the masked men, NO. 1 spoke again in a confident tone, though it was still filled with fear.

"I am certain now that you are all the same person. Otherwise, those identical skills, coordination, and that level of mastery would not make any sense."

The masked men still did not answer, and NO. 1 continued.

"You are like that madman from the past, right?"

The masked men still said nothing, as if they did not care about anything he said.

NO. 1 became enraged at being ignored like this. He had been reduced to the state of a living corpse, and now the one responsible for his current condition was acting as though he did not even matter. In a loud voice filled with anger and frustration, he shouted,

"You are just like that man! Do you think you are immortal now? You will slowly become like him as well. Do you think this technique is without flaws? You will soon go mad, gradually lose yourself, and become a crazed monster. Then you will start killing each other, just like that mad Grandmaster!"

One of the masked men, who was Asher’s vessel, looked at NO. 1 and said in an indifferent tone,

"I don’t care about what you are saying. Just enjoy your last few moments of life, because you are going to die soon."

NO. 1 tried to stand up, but before he could, the masked man summoned a mana spear enveloped in black fog and stabbed it into NO. 1’s leg.

As soon as the spear pierced NO. 1, his expression became indifferent and blank. He looked at Asher’s vessel with an expressionless face and said,

"You will regret it later."

Meanwhile, NO. 2, who had remained silent the entire time, looked at Asher’s vessel, then at NO. 1, and spoke in a tired yet serious tone.

"He won’t go crazy. He can destroy the remnant of the living being that remains within their body after death. That man became insane because those remnants of will and consciousness kept clashing and mixing with his own. He gradually began becoming a different person, and eventually lost himself. In the end, every vessel became an entirely new person, which caused them all to go mad."

He paused for a moment before continuing,

"Though I still wonder how he got that black fog capable of destroying the will of living beings"

Asher’s vessel merely looked at NO. 2 and did not answer him.

NO. 2 met his gaze and said,

"There is still a long way ahead of you. As soon as those of higher authority sense your existence, they will begin hunting you. Keep living in hiding for as long as you can, but sooner or later you will be discovered, and when that happens, they will kill you."

NO. 1 looked at Asher and then said,"So what are you waiting for? Kill us."

Asher’s vessel looked at NO. 1 and replied,"Not now. You cannot die yet and let the other Grandmasters and higher-ranked cultivators know that you have died."

When a person reaches the Grandmaster rank,other Grandmasters and higher-ranked cultivators can sense it. This is also the reason why no Grandmaster in the past was able to escape the Noble Houses and the Church. As soon as a cultivator forms their domain and reaches the Grandmaster rank in an element, it causes a reaction that can be sensed by other Grandmasters and higher-ranked cultivators, allowing them know if a new person reached Grandmaster Rank.

After that, Asher’s vessel manifested several more mana spears, enveloped them in black fog, and stabbed them into the injured bodies of NO. 1 and NO. 2, targeting non-lethal areas so that they could not do anything.

These spears ensured that they could neither recover their mana nor take any action.

As soon as NO. 2 was pierced by the spears, his face also became expressionless and indifferent.

Like NO. 1, he lost his senses and emotions and entered the same vacant state.

If they had been at their peak condition, they might have been able to resist the effects of the black fog to some extent and continue fighting. But in their current condition, they were nothing more than living corpses.

After making sure that NO 1 and NO 2 could not do anything,and then some vessels started finding any information they could in the headquarters and other just focused on recovering their mana.

After some time, almost every vessel had fully recovered their mana and returned to peak condition.

One of the vessels looked at the barrier covering the entire headquarters and asked,

"Found a way to dispel this barrier?"

Another vessel replied immediately,

"Nah, I didn’t. The only people who knew are already dead,"the vessel said while looking at the corpses of the Master-rank members of the Reaper Guild.

Then he turned his gaze toward NO. 1 and NO. 2, who were still in the same vacant state, and continued,"And those who are still alive probably won’t say anything. We also can’t kill them here yet—they still have some use."

The vessel then looked at the others and ordered,"Half of you erase any sign of spatial magic that was used here. The other half will help me destroy this barrier."

Half of the vessels used the black fog to erase every trace of spatial magic, while the other half began forming giant black mana spheres to destroy the barrier.

After some time, they finally succeeded in shattering the massive barrier.

After the massive barrier shattered, the surrounding space trembled violently, and the concealed headquarters was finally exposed to the outside world.

The vessels walked out of the headquarters one by one and then looked around.

What entered their sight was an enormous forest stretching endlessly in every direction. Towering ancient trees blocked most of the sunlight, and the cold wind carried the smell of damp earth and wild beasts.

One of the vessels looked around and said,"So this is where they were hiding."

Another vessel spread his mana sense across the surroundings for several kilometers before replying,"No traces of human settlements nearby. We are deep inside a large forest."

Then one of the vessel tried sensing the location of other vessels and then said "We are at North Eastern part of Continent"

Another vessel then said,"Our work is done. Let’s get out of here now. Some guests will probably reach this place soon, and we also need to prepare a surprise for their welcome."

The other vessels simply nodded, and all of them returned inside the headquarters.

Meanwhile, at a branch of the Church in the territory where the assassination of the Viscount’s daughter had taken place.

A tall old man with a huge build was sitting on a chair inside one of the rooms of the Church.

It was Agler, the Grandmaster under the Church and the person in charge of handling the case involving the assassination of the Viscount’s daughter.

His face was tense due to the gravity of the incident. He was being pressured from higher ups of Church, and every passing moment only increased the burden on him.