Path of the Demonic Villain

Meanwhile...

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Dante suddenly felt his head throb as if his brain was trying to burst out of his skull. His vision kept expanding and shrinking and before long, it became tinged with red.

This made him see everything through a red filter as if he was looking at the world through a sheet of thick glass submerged in crimson dye.

At the same time, he felt extremely dizzy and lightheaded, like one who was suffering severe blood loss.

This made his bloodlust spike out of control, and there was nothing he wanted more than to just lash out at the person closest to him.

If this was a status effect, his Lucid Braid would have helped him out, but the fact that it did nothing told Dante that he was on the verge of being tainted.

He needed blood, and he needed blood soon as his reserves had run out.

Just then, while he was beginning to feel like he was losing his mind, he heard Edward’s voice in his head.

’Breathe, master. Breathe. You don’t need to worry. We’ll soon have enough blood to feel better.’

Hearing Edward’s calm voice, Dante was able to get hold of his sanity. He closed his eyes and after taking a few deep breaths, he felt the crimson fog recede slightly.

When he opened his eyes again, he smiled. ’Thank you, my little one.’

’It’s no problem, master! I’ve got you.’

...That was definitely reassuring.

’Apparently, healing extreme injuries cost more than half of my reserves. Depending on how much I have at the time, it’s not supposed to be surprising if all my reserves end up being used. This time, I didn’t even have enough blood in my reserves to begin with as it’s been long since I drained a full human of their blood. After healing myself, I felt that my reserves had finished, but because I could not let that man escape, I had no choice but to use my powers without blood in my reserves to create those spider limbs so that I could chase after the man, causing him to run in the path I wanted while redirecting him into Michael’s path.’

Dante made a quick analysis of what was happening to him.

At that moment, he heard Michael’s voice. "Thanks for luring him to me, boss."

Dante lifted his gaze to Michael but didn’t say anything.

He remained quiet until Michael finished monologuing with Thomas and got ready for battle.

Only at that moment did Dante finally warn. "Be careful. He has an artifact that reverses lethal damage. Try not to kill him or cause him irreversible damage. Only weaken him for me, and I will do the rest."

’An artifact that reverses lethal damage?’ Michael’s brow twitched. ’The only way to find that out is to actually deal lethal damage and have it reversed. Did the boss deal him damage and have it reversed?’

As he began to quickly overthink, he studied Dante, who was standing calmly through the corner of his eyes.

Only now did he fully discover that rather than the suit Dante was wearing before, he was now wearing a black attire. The long gray coat, black vest, black trousers, and black boots made him look like an aristocratic hunter.

However, there were lots of cuts on the outfit, and it was heavily bloodied.

’So he really did receive lethal damage? How does he look okay? An artifact or that’s part of his power? Heh. I think I really need to see boss in action.’

Michael, who still didn’t even know what rank or tier his boss was, found himself growing curious about the young man.

Just then, however, Thomas yelled and lunged at Michael.

"Do you think I’m afraid of you?!"

He now had a greatsword in his hand which had appeared in that brief window when Michael was in his thoughts, likely from a spatial artifact.

Michael snapped his attention to the man, and he leapt backward, dodging the downward slash which sliced cleanly through the air and sent ash-colored sand spraying in all directions.

"Yes you are." Michael smiled as he lunged at Thomas. "If you were not, you wouldn’t run like a coward."

He brought his axe down in a downward slash, but Thomas was quick and raised his sword to block the blow.

They both recoiled from the clash, but Michael seemed to have been pushed back even more from the force of the impact. Seeing that, Thomas quickly pressed his advantage, driving forward with a brutal thrust aimed straight for Michael’s chest.

Even though he was off balance, Michael managed to leap back in the nick of time, dodging the tip of the greatsword by inches.

’Tsk. As expected. We might be of the same tier, but he’s using a weapon artifact that boosts his power output,’ Michael thought as he swung his axe, clashing with the heavy blade again, after which he gritted his teeth and spoke aloud. "I offer my sense of taste to boost my strength."

Hearing that, Thomas, who was about to follow up with a lethal side-slash, leapt backward to immediately put distance between them.

Based on what he knew about those with Divine Skill: [False Arbiter], their powers centered around creating advantages for themselves when they were facing a stronger opponent.

The domain itself was evidence of that.

Through the corner of his eye, Thomas could see the obsidian statue by the side, which had its hands in its mouth, rip out its tongue and smile a grotesque, dark smile.

Just then, Michael lunged at him and their weapons clashed again. This time, Thomas was pushed back, and in that opening, Michael brought his sand axe sweeping toward his throat.

Upon seeing his life flash before his eyes, Thomas yelled. "[Wind Burst!]"

Michael’s eyes widened and he leapt back as a gust of razor-sharp slashing wind blew out in a circle from Thomas’s body.

Despite backing off quickly, several cuts appeared on his tanned skin.

Thomas didn’t give him any room to breathe and used the second skill of his weapon. "[Wind Blades!]"

He slashed downward, and the air shrieked as a wind blade tore straight through the air toward him. Michael immediately rolled to the side to dodge the deadly arc, and the blade slammed into the dune behind him, spraying gray sand high toward the pale sky.

Thomas didn’t stop and repeated the slash two more times, causing Michael to scramble across the sand as the arcs ripped through the dune in rapid succession. At the end of it, Thomas didn’t waste any time and turned the blade, then stabbed the ground. In his left hand, a blue mana-gem had appeared, and he had begun muttering something under his breath. By the time Michael got up to lunge, he extended his right hand with his five fingers extended outward and bolts of lightning shot directly from his fingertips towards Michael.

Michael bent over backwards, and the crackling blue streaks of lightning scorched the air mere inches above his face. At this point, he let go of his axe, and as he rolled again to dodge a secondary arc, he yelled. "I offer my sense of touch in exchange for a boost to my speed!"

Almost immediately, the statue that had been hugging itself suddenly smiled and extended its arms wide as if trying to hug the air.

After the last roll, Michael lunged with explosive speed towards Thomas. Thomas, who was now sweating bullets, gritted his teeth as he continued to channel mana through his gem, but Michael moved too fast for the spell to track.

Before Thomas could abandon the gem and pick up his sword again, Michael got to him, held Thomas’ wrist to the side, wound his own arm back, and punched Thomas in the face.

That blow shattered Thomas’s nose and caused his head to snap back, but because Michael was holding his wrist, he couldn’t fall back to escape the punishment.

In the same breath, Michael delivered another punch and another before finally kicking the man in the gut, causing him to tumble backward several meters across the gray sand.

Michael quickly stepped up to him before he could recover and got on top of him, then he began raining blows down onto his face.

Some time during the brutal, relentless assault, Thomas passed out, but Michael continued until Thomas’s face was reduced to a bloody, unrecognizable pulp.

Only then did Michael stop. He drew in a deep breath of the gray, dusty air and exhaled before slowly rising.

"I’m done, boss."

He then turned slightly to see Dante slowly approaching from the sand dune.

When his boss finally reached them, he raised his hand, pointing his open palm toward the unconscious man.

There was a bullet wound on Dante’s palm.

Apparently, Edward had not fully healed that wound while taking care of the others.

"Drain him, Edward."

Suddenly, what began as thin streams of blood emerged from the wound, enlarging into two thick tendrils of blood with mouths at the tips.

They lunged at Thomas, biting down hard at different spots on his neck to start pulling out his blood. The tendrils swelled and pulsed as they drank greedily, and as the seconds went by, the body began to shrivel into a dry, hollow husk.

’Damn... that’s scary as hell.’ Michael swallowed as he watched his boss drain the man in a horrifying manner.

Due to having used his powers in the fight, he was sober right now. And seeing this with clear eyes filled him with a bit of fear.

Without wasting time, he reached into his coat pocket and took out a hipflask, unscrewed it, and began chugging down the alcohol.

Meanwhile, once Dante was done, the tendrils retreated into his flesh. At this moment, he suddenly felt euphoria wash over him as he escaped the suffocating sensation of being tainted.

The crimson tint over his eyes disappeared along with the feeling of blood loss.

With a small smile, Dante muttered under his breath. "Heal me, Goddess."

In response, the wound on his palm, along with the others that didn’t heal properly, closed up and vanished without leaving a trace. Dante took a deep breath and exhaled as he suddenly felt better.

He then lifted his gaze to a screen that only he could see.

Faith: [0%———-[48%]-————100%]

’Not bad...’

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