Transmigrated as the Villain: I Will Destroy Fate

Chapter 160: Lilith [1]

Ronan’s thoughts froze.

The forest, the demons, the broken barrier – all of it dissolved into the background, leaving only the chillingly familiar voice speaking through Mira’s lifeless smile.

Mesmer.

Here.

Not just a distant future threat, but an immediate, impossible one.

Mesmer tilted Mira’s head, his movements fluid and wrong in her body. "You really are more interesting than I thought. More dangerous, too."

An exit.

Ronan needed an exit.

But there was none.

He had to stall. He needed an opening, and the only way to create one was to use what he knew.

A slow, deliberate smile spread across Ronan’s face, a mirror of the one he had used against Brutas. "Can you afford to be here?"

The question made Mesmer’s brow furrow just slightly.

"This is a projection, correct?" Ronan continued, his voice steady despite the hammer of his own heart. "Your real possession is busy at the Academy, isn’t it? Creating this mess. You can’t have much time with this body."

Mesmer’s eyes, still Mira’s brown but now glowing with a faint inner light, narrowed. The amusement vanished, replaced by a cold, sharp focus.

"How do you know those terms?" The air grew heavy. His expression changed, as if he suddenly learned something. "Where did you learn the recipe for that?"

Ronan feigned ignorance. "Recipe for what? I’m afraid I’m not much of a cook."

The temperature dropped. Mesmer’s gaze intensified, his eyes now bleeding into a threatening shade of red.

"Do not play games with me, human. I know what I sense on your soul. My ritual. The five-ingredient Soul Path ritual. I am the only being in existence who knows that recipe. Tell me. Where. Did. You. Learn. It?"

Ronan let out a soft laugh. "Who knows? Maybe you should try to kill me and find out."

Mesmer’s expression darkened. He understood the unspoken threat instantly. If Ronan died, the secret died with him.

"I could simply take you," he snarled, the voice grating from Mira’s throat.

"You can try." Ronan shrugged, a casual gesture that was pure performance. "As I said, your projection won’t last long. And if you aren’t aiming for a killing blow, I’m confident I can escape."

Mesmer’s eyes narrowed into slits. He was weighing his options, the value of the information against the cost of capturing a slippery, knowledgeable target with a limited vessel.

Ronan held his breath.

Then, a blast of raw, unrefined mana erupted from his right.

It was a chaotic surge, a purple-white torrent that slammed into Mira’s body with the force of a battering ram.

Mesmer had been focused entirely on Ronan, and the sudden attack caught him off guard.

Mira’s body was flung sideways. Her head snapped back at an unnatural angle from the impact.

"Ronan!" Elara stormed out from behind a thicket of demon-shredded trees, her gauntlets crackling with residual energy. Her face was furious as she turned to Mesmer. "I don’t know who this is, or what you did to Mira, but you need to back the hell up!"

Thank god for Elara, Ronan thought as he moved closer to her. Any help was good.

Mesmer calmly reached up and grabbed Mira’s head which was bending at an unnatural angle, snapping it back into place with a sickening crack. He turned, ignoring Elara completely, and fixed his gaze on Ronan. The red glow in his eyes was piercing.

"You are correct about one thing," he spoke in a low, dangerous tone that promised future pain. "I cannot stay. But that does not mean I cannot send someone to retrieve you for me."

With that ominous message, the light in Mira’s eyes winked out. The borrowed life fled her limbs, and her body crumpled to the forest floor, a discarded puppet.

"Mira!" Elara screamed, rushing forward.

Ronan grabbed her arm, his grip like steel.

"Don’t. She’s dead." His voice was cold, stripped of all emotion.

Elara yanked her arm free, turning on him with a face contorted by grief and rage. "What the fuck was that? What was that thing inside her?"

"Not important right now."

Ronan’s mind was already dissecting Mesmer’s last words.

Send someone else.

Who? Who was under Mesmer’s control? He knew the demon king was still active, forcing Mesmer to keep his inner circle small to avoid attention.

Bruce was almost certainly after Luca. Another of his lieutenants, a stealth operative named Nel. Considering her skillset, she was probably infiltrating the Academy. That meant...

Suddenly, a piercing, brilliant violet light erupted directly in front of them.

It was not demonic energy, not exactly. It was something else, something purer and far more volatile. It detonated with blinding speed. Ronan and Elara were thrown back like dolls, tumbling through the air at impossible velocity. Ronan instinctively coated his body in mana, protecting his body from the attack.

The impact was immense, but his reinforced skeleton absorbed the brunt of the damage.

He groaned, forcing himself to his feet. Elara was down, struggling to rise from a crater of shattered earth. But Ronan’s attention was fixed on what stood before him.

A girl.

She stood right where the light had been.

She had bright, almost fluorescent, green hair and two sharp horns that curved outward from her temples, not inward like Aura’s. Her eyes were wide, her pupils dilated, and a manic, predatory smile stretched across her face.

She practically moaned when she saw him, a sound of pure, ecstatic hunger.

"You... you really survived two encounters with Lord Mesmer?" Her voice was a singsong, childish and utterly terrifying. "Wow. Just, wow! I just got the order to come find you. Capture you alive. But truthfully," she giggled, taking a step closer, "I was already on my way, trying so very hard to find you!"

Ronan looked over his shoulder. Elara was pushing herself up, dazed but alive.

The green-haired demon tilted her head, her manic grin never wavering as she studied him more closely, her gaze lingering on his face.

"You’re actually very handsome. It’s not fair! You humans get all the good-looking men!" She whined, pouting like a spoiled child. "Wahhhh, I want to be human too! I collected so many pretty human heads, you know. But Lord Mesmer never lets me keep any of them."

Her gaze snapped back to his, a flicker of pure, unadulterated madness in her eyes. Her grin widened.

"But bet he’ll let me keep yours. Hehe."