Never Die Villain

For several seconds, the only movement in the room came from the thin trail of smoke rising from the cigarette between his fingers.

Aleksei continued staring at the empty space beside himself with an expression that seemed almost peaceful, completely at odds with everything he had just confessed.

Ilya watched him for several seconds before slowly moving his legs over the edge of the bed, careful not to pull too hard against the bandages covering his wounds.

Aleksei noticed immediately.

"Where are you going?"

"To get someone."

"No. You don’t need to do that."

"I’ll get a professional, alright? You’ve clearly been drinking, and whatever you managed to get your hands on was probably stronger than you thought."

"I haven’t drunk a single goddamn thing!"

For the first time, Aleksei raised his voice.

The sudden outburst made Ilya pause, and for a moment, the room fell completely silent again. He placed the cigarette into the ashtray before reaching forward and firmly taking Aleksei by the shoulders, forcing his cousin to look directly at him.

"Cousin Aleksei."

"She says you’re doing it again."

Ilya frowned. "Doing what?"

"Looking down on me."

"...."

Aleksei’s shoulders began trembling, although whether the trembling came from anger or something else was impossible to tell. His jaw clenched as he stared into Ilya’s eyes, and then he abruptly swatted his hands away and stepped back.

"You’ve always been like that, haven’t you? That expression of yours, that way you look at everyone like none of this matters to you."

"...."

"Even when I beat you when we were younger, even when everyone laughed at you, even when your own family treated you like garbage, you always had that same fucking face."

Ilya remained beside the bed, saying nothing.

"I hated that face." Aleksei pressed a hand against his forehead and laughed. "I didn’t realize it before because I thought I understood what it meant. I thought you were pretending not to care because admitting how miserable you were would have been too embarrassing."

"Aleksei, calm down."

"There!"

His cousin pointed at him.

"That. Exactly that!"

Ilya’s brows furrowed.

"You’re standing there half-dead, wrapped in bandages because your own sister nearly took your head off, and you’re still talking to me like I’m the one who needs help!"

Aleksei’s breathing became increasingly uneven as he continued, his spiraling pupils fixed on Ilya with an intensity that hadn’t been there moments ago.

"You lost everything, Cousin. Your talent, your mother, your father’s favor, even whatever place you thought you had left in this family!"

Aleksei’s voice rose with every word.

"No, what am I even saying? You never had a place here to begin with!"

"...."

"You were never one of us, Ilya. You’re nothing but the goddamned son of a whore—"

Ice crackled.

Aleksei stopped.

Ilya had always been indifferent to insults directed at him.

He had heard enough of them throughout the years that there was little anyone could say about his failures, his declining talent, or his position within the family that could still provoke much of a reaction from him, because people would always find something to say regardless of what he did.

But even Ilya had lines he couldn’t allow anyone to cross.

His mother was one of them.

———!

The air exploded.

Aleksei didn’t even have time to finish his sentence before a gust struck him squarely in the chest and ripped him off his feet.

His body flew across the room, knocking the stool aside before slamming into the opposite wall with enough force to shake the paintings hanging nearby.

Crash——!

"Gah...!"

Aleksei slid down the wall, but before he could fall completely, another current of wind pressed against his chest and pinned him against it.

His feet hung several inches above the floor as the pressure continued to build, forcing the breath from his lungs whenever he tried to struggle against it.

Ilya rose from the bed.

The irritation that had been on his face moments earlier was gone. His eyes had darkened completely as he stared across the room at Aleksei, and frost spread below his bare feet before slowly crawling outward across the floorboards.

"Say whatever you want about me. Call me useless. Call me a disgrace. Tell me I don’t belong here, and I’ll probably agree with half of it."

Ilya stepped forward, and the pressure holding Aleksei against the wall intensified.

"But don’t you ever speak about my mother like that."

Aleksei coughed, struggling to draw breath as the wind pressed him harder against the wall, yet even then, the fury on his face refused to disappear, as though seeing Ilya finally lose his composure seemed to delight him.

"So you can get angry."

Ilya’s fingers slowly curled.

The wind surged again, and another impact drove Aleksei into the wall hard enough to crack the wooden paneling behind him.

A nearby vase toppled from its stand and shattered against the floor, but neither of them paid it any attention.

"You wanted a reaction from me?" Ilya said. "Congratulations. You got one."

Aleksei’s grin widened.

And then, strangely, he looked past Ilya.

"...I know."

"...?"

"I know. You were right."

The anger in Ilya’s eyes immediately gave way to caution.

"Right about what?"

Aleksei slowly looked back at him. "That all I had to do was hurt you enough."

The wind faltered.

Aleksei’s feet touched the floor.

He remained against the wall, breathing heavily as he brought one hand to his chest, but the pain seemed almost irrelevant to him now.

His gaze had become distant again, focused on something Ilya couldn’t see, while the unnerving smile slowly returned to his face.

"She said you’d understand once you stopped pretending."

Ilya stared at him. "...Understand what?"

Aleksei tilted his head, listening.

Then he smiled.

"That we’re the same."

———!

Before his eyes, Aleksei’s body began to change. It was almost like watching a metamorphosis take place in real time, and although the transformation had only just begun, it took Ilya no more than a second to understand exactly what was happening.

"Goddamn it..."

Aleksei was Distorting.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!