"Kahk… Ahem…"
The sound of blood dripping down filled my ears. I slowly reached down and dusted the Mask of Many Faces from the pile of things that were in my Spatial Storage.
After changing into the cleanest set of all blacks, I took a glance at everything else.
Money, corpses, books, useless potions. There was nothing that I could carry myself anymore now that I couldn't use magic.
The mask of many faces transformed into pure black Windsor sunglasses as I rested it on my nose. I felt Catene's presence in the completely dark space as it came over to me and transformed into a small chain that hung around my neck.
"Argh… fuck… Without even going to stage four…"
I ignored all the destruction around me. The dark space cut off from the rest of the world was now cracking apart, as if ready to be swallowed up by the void of nothingness.
"You've become a monster, Eugene…"
I bit my lips and turned back.
Beyond the broken chunks of his Catene, stood a man.
Even though his hair had turned red from the blood he had spilled, even though one of his eyes was plucked out, even though both his hands were left in shreds, even though dozens and dozens of holes adorned his body.
Even though he looked worse than the most grotesque of corpses.
He still stood tall.
Even though I had killed him. I couldn't win against Eugene Hall, the man who didn't collapse no matter the extent of his injuries.
My nails dug into my palms.
"What…?" He muttered, his voice dimmer than the sound of the blood that spilled from his body. "You won't insult me while backing off, will you?"
"You grew weak," I said. I didn't think I deserved to considering it took me a long three hundred years to win our unending duel.
"No… you just grew too strong…"
I took in a sharp breath and turned away from him.
"Good, just go now…"
Eugene continued to cough and eke out weak murmurs on the verge of death. The cracks in the space widened.
Any moment now, he would collapse. And then, the years of training under the strongest being would come to an end.
There was no exit, I only had to wait for him to die.
But I couldn't keep myself to stay. I slowly started to walk away before stopping.
"This place… where would I end up?" I asked, not turning back to face him.
"Consider that… just another of my gifts for you…"
A sound much softer than that of his blood rippled. Strangely enough, a clear drop of water had fallen around my feet.
Words failed me, my lungs didn't seem ready to listen. But I knew.
I knew that I couldn't insult him by turning back. It was a send-off, a chance for him to celebrate. I had to meet him with the same sincerity.
I finally looked back as a smile tugged at my lips.
"Thank you, Eugene… I'll miss you."
Eugene, on the verge of death, widened his eyes at my words. He looked up and stared at me. Maybe it was just my imagination, but his foggy eyes had cleared, I could tell they did.
"Haha…"
He only laughed, a pain, wrenched laugh, but that was answer enough for me.
"Hahahaha… hahaha…"
I closed my eyes and turned away. The smile on my face only grew wider as I tightened my fists and walked away from Eugene.
My hand raised with a mind of its own.
"I'll always remember you! Eugene Hall!"
My screams reached no where as more and more of the place collapsed.
His laughs continued while I left him behind.
Always….
"Hahahaaah…"
The strongest, the one who had achieved that title.
"Was all that enough…?"
The man who had defied fate, time, future, past, and even the present.
"Albert… Luka… all of you…"
While I was just the Weakest Villain of the damned game…
"I did my best…"
He who had become the World's Strongest.
"That was enough… right?"
Always… I would always…
"I am so tired…"
Remember.
ραΠdαsΝοvel.cοm ***
My sight broke. A feeling of weightlessness filled my body as my insides started to push against my skin.
Light had started to appear in the completely dark place.
With the fall of Eugene Hall, the world that his existence had pulled up collapsed all at once.
The light of the many stars all around me in the purple stretches of the world assaulted my body at once.
"Hahaha!" A laugh left me as I pulled the sunglasses higher. I had just put them on since they looked cool, but to think I would be needing them so soon.
The chains on my neck whirred.
"What of it, Catene? No sappiness, this is a beginning!"
—Whirr?
"The World's Strongest has not died, he has been succeeded."
I continued falling from the skies as my senses heightened. How foolish I was back then, thinking that I had to approach the world to sense it, when everything was already coming toward me.
I.
The Weakest Villain of the damned game.
Eugene Hall, Yujin Han, Dusk, whatever name one wanted to take.
It was now I who was the World's Strongest. Now that I was out of that place, I could tell for certain.
The last gift that Eugene left me, it was quite the wild gift.
The laugh filling me up showed no sign of leaving. This place where everything seemed to be one in the universe was a place I had been in quite a long time back.
As I turned around, a giant being of white entered my sight.
The same being that I couldn't dare comprehend, the place that I couldn't dare look at before.
Behind me, in a body I could stare straight at, sitting on a throne that I could clearly see.
"i???m???p????o????s???s?????i???b?????l????e???!"
"Hey there,"
Was the one that had banished me back to Earth.
The most powerful, undisputed.
King of the Outer Gods.
"Missed me?"
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶