Never Die Villain

"Ah?"

Anastasiya could only blink as she looked down through the shattered window, watching Ilya free-fall toward the ground several stories below.

She was still trying to understand why the idiot had apparently decided that throwing himself out of the palace was preferable to whatever was chasing him when something behind her immediately set every instinct in her body on edge.

——Lady Anastasiya!

The warning came almost simultaneously with the attack.

A chain burst from the darkness of the ruined corridor and lashed toward her at blinding speed, tearing through the air with enough force that Anastasiya felt it before she properly saw it.

Her body reacted on instinct, aura surging through her legs as Acceleration carried her several meters to the side, and the chain tore past where her head had been before smashing straight through the window.

Crash——!

"What the hell...?"

Anastasiya slid to a stop and immediately drew the borrowed sword, her attention shifting away from Ilya and toward the darkness farther down the corridor.

The chain withdrew as quickly as it had appeared, scraping across the floor before disappearing around the corner, leaving a long trail carved into the stone behind it.

Then the mansion shook.

Rumble——!

Something was coming.

Anastasiya lowered her stance as another heavy impact traveled through the corridor, followed by the rattling of chains dragging across the floor.

Whatever was approaching was large enough that she could feel each step through the soles of her boots, yet the darkness and ruined walls prevented her from getting a clear view of it.

Anastasiya narrowed her eyes.

"So that’s a Distortion..."

In all her life, she had never actually seen one, despite everything she had heard about them. Distortion cases happened occasionally throughout the Empire, and their numbers had only increased in recent months, but Anastasiya had never been among the unfortunate few who had the misfortune of witnessing one with her own eyes.

Until now.

Clink—clink——

The chains dragged across the floor.

Anastasiya remained where she was, watching the darkness ahead as something gradually emerged from it.

She had read reports and heard descriptions from knights and wizards who had participated in suppression operations, but none of them had adequately conveyed just how wrong it felt to look at something that had once been human and still recognize pieces of the person within it.

"Aleksei...?"

She recognized him.

Or rather, she recognized enough of him to know who the creature had once been.

The enormous figure lumbered forward under layers of battered armor, its body bent under the collection of chains and weapons weighing upon its back.

Every step sent another tremor through the corridor, while the chains surrounding it scraped behind like extensions of its body, carving into the floor wherever they passed.

"So it really is you..."

There was no response.

She had spoken with Aleksei earlier that very day, and although they had never been particularly close, she knew him well enough as one of the more promising members of their generation.

He had been smiling, laughing, and drinking alongside the rest of the family only hours ago, yet now she could barely find the man she remembered in the thing standing before her.

Another chain rose from the floor.

Anastasiya’s eyes followed it.

Whatever curiosity she might have felt about seeing her first Distortion disappeared immediately.

"Right."

Aura gathered around her legs.

"I suppose introductions can wait."

The chain lashed forward.

———!

Anastasiya disappeared.

The chain passed through the space she had occupied, but rather than continuing forward, it immediately curved in midair and followed her movement. Anastasiya had barely come to a stop several meters away before accelerating a second time.

——I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you all!

Aleksei’s voice echoed through the corridor, distorted by several overlapping voices that screamed alongside him.

Before Anastasiya could properly regain her footing, two more chains came from opposite directions, one sweeping low while the other curved toward her from behind

"Tsk."

Anastasiya slipped through that opening with Acceleration, her figure blinking from one position to another as the chains immediately adjusted their trajectories and pursued her. It was irritatingly different from fighting a swordsman.

——All of you!

Another chain came from above.

Anastasiya changed direction before it reached her, only for the others to anticipate where she would emerge, converging on the spot almost simultaneously.

"...!"

Her eyes widened, and she accelerated again, this time appearing directly behind Aleksei instead of retreating farther away.

"They’re following me..."

That complicated things.

Speed had always been Anastasiya’s greatest advantage, but Aleksei didn’t need to be faster if his chains could simply keep changing direction until they caught her.

Worse, each successive attack gave her less room to maneuver, gradually forcing her toward positions chosen by the Distortion rather than allowing her to choose them herself.

——You all knew!

Anastasiya’s expression changed.

——You all knew! And yet, none of you did anything!

The chains suddenly stopped pursuing her and spread throughout the corridor instead, surrounding Anastasiya until there was no longer a single direction she could move without entering their reach.

She understood immediately what Aleksei was doing, and for the first time since the fight began, simply relying on Acceleration would not be enough to get her out.

"...Shit."

The chain struck from the side.

Anastasiya leaned backward, narrowly allowing the metal to pass in front of her face, but another was already sweeping toward her legs before she could recover.

She kicked against the floor and launched herself upward, planting one foot against the wall for less than a second before accelerating through the only gap she could find.

A third chain was waiting for her.

"Kh...!"

Anastasiya twisted her body in midair, but without the ground beneath her feet, there was little she could do to alter her trajectory.

The chain clipped her shoulder and sent her spinning several meters through the air before she landed hard and rolled across the floor.

She immediately forced herself onto one knee.

Blood trickled down her arm.

——You sat at the same table!

Aleksei advanced.

——You ate with him! You drank with him! You called him family!

Anastasiya stared at the approaching Distortion, steadily bringing her breathing under control as she tried to understand what the hell he was talking about.

She knew practically nothing about Aleksei beyond what the family openly discussed, and until today, she had never thought there was anything particularly unusual about him beyond his talent and the expectations placed upon him as the heir of his branch.

Apparently, she had been wrong.

——And when she died, you did nothing!

The chains tightened around Aleksei’s distorted body.

——When mother died, you all did nothing!

Anastasiya’s brows rose.

The accusation wasn’t directed at the family for failing to save her.

It was directed at them for knowing why she had died.

"...Your father."

Aleksei suddenly halted.

That reaction was enough.

Anastasiya slowly rose to her feet, keeping her eyes on him while blood continued running down her arm.

"This is about your father, isn’t it?"

The chains began to tremble.

——Don’t.

Anastasiya’s eyes narrowed.

——Don’t you fucking pretend you care now.

The chains snapped taut.

——It’s too late for that.

"...."

Every chain moved at once.

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