The Whispering Woods had never been so quiet. Even the nocturnal insects and hidden beasts held their breath, completely suppressed by the lingering, suffocating aura of the S-Rank Shadow Sovereign.
Victor Nightshade stood elegantly in the center of the clearing, holding the glowing blue Starbloom Herb. His immaculate black and gold-trimmed uniform was a stark, almost mocking contrast to the mud, blood, and despair surrounding him.
He didn't look at the weeping protagonist at his feet. Instead, his glowing violet eyes shifted toward the edge of the clearing, landing on the two trembling commoner students.
Tim and Mark.
They were pressed tightly against the mossy bark of a giant oak tree, their faces paler than a corpse's. Tim was clutching his broken ribs, while Mark was dragging his poisoned, bleeding leg. Both of them were staring at Victor with a mixture of absolute terror and religious awe.
They had just witnessed a Tier-8 Iron-Hide Bear—a monster that had nearly slaughtered them—get instantly lobotomized by a single, casual thrust of Victor's bare hand.
And now, the Duke's heir was looking at them.
"Now," Victor's voice was smooth, carrying a dark, magnetic resonance that sent shivers down their spines. "Let's see if your loyal followers still believe in your 'Light'."
Hearing this, Leon Bright, who was lying in the mud with a shattered collarbone, violently flinched. He forced his head up, his bloodshot, manic eyes locking onto his friends.
"Tim... Mark..." Leon coughed, a thick glob of black blood spilling from his lips. He reached out a trembling, mud-caked hand toward them. "Help me... Please. He's alone. His shadow magic must be drained from killing the bear... If we attack together, we can take the herb back!"
Victor didn't interrupt. He simply stood there, gently swirling the Starbloom Herb in his hand, a look of profound amusement on his aristocratic face. Drained? He hadn't even used one percent of his mana pool. But he wanted to hear what the "hero" would say next.
"We swore an oath, remember?!" Leon screamed, his voice cracking with sheer desperation. "We swore to stand together against the corrupt nobles! We are brothers! The heavens chose us! Help me kill him!"
For a moment, there was dead silence.
Then, Mark, the boy with the poisoned leg, slowly pushed himself away from the tree. He leaned heavily on his staff, limping forward.
Leon's eyes lit up with fanatical hope. "Yes! Mark! Use your earth magic—"
Thud.
Mark didn't cast a spell. He didn't walk toward Leon. Instead, he threw his staff away and collapsed directly onto his knees. He crawled through the mud, dragging his ruined leg, bypassing Leon entirely, until he was three feet away from Victor's polished leather boots.
Then, Mark slammed his forehead into the dirt in a deep, desperate kowtow.
"Lord Nightshade!" Mark cried out, his voice completely broken. "Please! Have mercy! Spare my life! I beg you!"
Leon's smile froze. The hope in his eyes shattered like fragile glass. "Mark...? What are you doing? Get up! We are the Light—"
"Shut up!"
Another voice echoed. Tim, clutching his broken ribs, also stumbled forward and fell to his knees right next to Mark, bowing so low his nose touched the mud.
"Shut your delusional mouth, Leon!" Tim screamed, tears streaming down his chubby, bruised face. He looked at Leon not with brotherly love, but with absolute, venomous hatred. "Light? Brotherhood?! You dragged us into the inner zone to fix your own broken core! You used us as meat shields against that bear!"
"I... I didn't..." Leon stammered, his mind short-circuiting.
"You did!" Mark spat, glaring at the protagonist. "You're a fraud! You're not a hero, you're a madman! You almost got us killed for a weed!"
Mark turned back to Victor, pressing his face into the dirt again. "My Lord! We have nothing to do with this maniac! We renounce him! We renounce the Light! We were forced to follow him! Please, Lord Nightshade, your power is absolute. You are the true genius of the Academy! Spare us, and we will be your loyal dogs!"
Leon lay there, completely paralyzed. The physical pain of his shattered collarbone was completely eclipsed by the agonizing, tearing sensation in his soul.
His brothers. His loyal companions. The people he had sworn to uplift... were now kneeling in the mud, begging for mercy from the very villain who had ruined his life, while cursing his name.
Why?
Victor watched the pathetic display unfolding at his feet. A low, incredibly dark chuckle rumbled in his chest, vibrating through the cold forest air.
"You see, Leon?" Victor said softly. He took a slow step forward, purposefully placing his heavy, custom-made leather boot directly onto Leon's trembling, outstretched hand.
Crunch.
Leon gasped as Victor slightly shifted his weight, grinding the protagonist's fingers into the sharp rocks beneath the mud.
"This is the reality of your 'righteous' Light," Victor whispered, his violet eyes glowing with predatory cruelty. "It is an illusion. A fragile fantasy built on the premise of your success. The moment your Light fades, the moment you are no longer the strongest... your little followers scatter like roaches, desperate to find a new shadow to hide in."
Victor looked down at Tim and Mark, who were still violently trembling with their heads pressed to the earth.
"Loyal dogs?" Victor mused, his tone utterly dismissive. "The Nightshade Dukedom does not accept stray mutts who bite their former masters. However..."
Victor withdrew a small pouch of silver coins from his spatial ring and casually tossed it into the mud beside Mark's head.
"Consider this payment for your... enlightening performance," Victor said. "Take it, and crawl back to the Academy. Tell everyone what happened here tonight. Tell them how the great 'Son of Fortune' led you to your deaths, and how the 'corrupt noble' had to clean up his mess."
Tim and Mark scrambled like starved animals, desperately grabbing the silver coins from the mud. "Thank you, My Lord! Thank you for your profound mercy! We will tell everyone! Leon is a fraud!"
Without another word, the two commoners limped away into the dark forest, not once looking back at the bleeding blonde boy they had once called a brother.
The clearing was empty again, save for the Ultimate Villain and the broken Protagonist.
Leon didn't scream anymore. He didn't cry. His eyes were wide, staring blankly at the dark canopy above. His Dao Heart—his core belief in his own righteousness and destiny—had been completely, irreversibly pulverized.
Victor looked at the empty shell of a man at his feet. He felt no pity. Only the sweet, dopamine-inducing rush of absolute victory.
He didn't kill Leon. Death was a release. Victor wanted Leon to live with this humiliation, to let the hatred marinate until he could be harvested again.
Victor turned around, his black coat fluttering in the cold wind. He didn't cast Shadowstep. He simply walked away into the darkness, leaving the protagonist alone in the cold, bloody mud.
As Victor disappeared into the shadows, the mechanical voice of the System chimed wildly in his mind, sounding like a symphony of triumph.
[Ding!]
[Host has masterfully orchestrated the Betrayal of Comrades!]
[Protagonist's Dao Heart is completely shattered! His belief in the 'Light' has collapsed!]
[Major Plotline altered! Protagonist's 'Son of Fortune' status has dropped to a critical low!]
[Reward: +5,000 Villain Points!]
[Bonus Reward: Hidden Title Unlocked - 'The Mind Breaker'!]
Two hours later.
The cold midnight rain began to fall in the Whispering Woods, washing away the blood in the clearing, but unable to wash away the absolute despair.
Leon Bright lay exactly where Victor had left him. He was shivering violently, his body temperature dropping dangerously low.
"Light..." Leon whispered, his voice hoarse and broken. "It's a lie... It's all a lie..."
The heavens didn't answer him. The Goddess of Light didn't send a miracle. Only the freezing rain hit his face.
As he weakly shifted his body, his numb fingers brushed against something hard inside the inner pocket of his torn robes.
Leon paused. He slowly pulled it out.
It was a thick, ancient book bound in black leather that felt unnervingly like human skin. He had found it years ago in a ruined temple but had never dared to open it, sensing an overwhelming, evil aura from it.
The Abyssal Codex.
Leon stared at the dark book. The memory of Tim and Mark groveling at Victor's feet flashed in his mind. The memory of Victor's suffocating, absolute dark power. The memory of Victor grinding his fingers into the dirt.
Light cannot defeat the Darkness, Leon thought, a twisted, manic smile slowly creeping onto his bruised face. To kill a monster... you must become a worse monster.
With trembling, bloody hands, Leon Bright flipped open the first page of the forbidden book.
A whisper from the deepest pits of hell echoed in his mind.
"Do you desire power, child?"
"Yes," Leon rasped, his eyes turning entirely black. "I want to watch the world burn."