Path of the Demonic Villain

"Loot him. We’ll share the loot between us, later." Dante said casually as he turned to look around.

Michael smiled. "Roger, boss."

Without further ado, he quickly crouched down and began to loot the dead body.

Since the man was now dead, the armor he had been wearing had reverted to being a silver ring on his finger. That was the first thing Michael took from the man’s left index finger.

He then picked up the man’s right hand, then saw a different ring. It was silver too.

’I’m guessing this is the spatial artifact?’ Michael thought as he took off the ring. The moment he took the ring and held it in his palm, the image of the interior of the ring appeared in his mind.

’It’s the spatial artifact.’ Michael smiled. ’I hope boss would let me have this. I don’t have any spatial artifacts.’

The man was also wearing a jade pendant around his neck. Michael reached out and snapped the cord off. Finally, he took out a silver pocket watch from the man’s pocket.

Then he shot Dante a look and asked, "Would you do the honors, boss? Or should I—"

"Just do it," Dante said, not even turning around.

Michael pressed his lips into a thin line and nodded. "Alright."

He turned to the body and began to pray. "O Dion Athamas, Lord of Domains and Unreality. Accept this fallen soul into your embrace, and please, out of love for me, make sure he never finds peace..."

Dante shot Michael a look but didn’t say anything.

Whatever works, works, right?

He raised a hand and a hip flask appeared in it, then he unscrewed it and began pouring alcohol over the husk. Once he was done, a matchbox appeared in his hand.

’He wants to burn the body. Seeing a burnt body won’t draw questions like seeing one that was drained of blood and looking like a shriveled mummy,’ Michael thought as he watched Dante slide open the matchbox.

After striking the match, he tossed the burning matchstick, and the body caught fire instantly.

For a few seconds, Dante just stood there with one hand in his pocket, staring at the burning corpse.

Michael on the other hand walked over to where the greatsword was on the ground. Then he put it inside the spatial ring. After that, he quickly hurried over to where the Crow Feather Fedora had fallen during the fight and picked it up.

By the time he began to return, Dante had turned away from the flames.

"By the way, I’m really curious," Michael said, dusting off the hat before placing it back on his head.

When Dante turned to him, he asked, "How did you know that there was someone upstairs?"

Dante looked at him for a moment before finally replying honestly. "I didn’t."

"Huh?" Michael blinked.

But Dante shrugged casually. "I just had a guess."

He turned to look at the body as it burned. "When you first entered and your aunt began calling for Ada, even mentioning your name loudly, I began to suspect that there was a probability that she was doing so to alert someone."

Michael arched a brow, but Dante continued. "You were a prisoner who was meant to be serving life imprisonment. But all of a sudden, you showed up in front of your aunt. A normal reaction should have been her hurrying to lock the door, then maybe hug you if you two were that close. If you weren’t, she’d probably just begin asking questions, like what the fuck you are doing out of prison. The last thing she would do would be to yell your name."

"Ah..." Michael bobbed his head back in understanding. ’Now that I think about it, that was strange.’

The duo resumed walking, and just then, the world grew hazy. In the next second, the domain dissolved, and they found themselves standing back out on the streets.

Looking back, the duo could see the body burning on the cobblestones. Without lingering, they turned and resumed walking back toward the tavern.

Suddenly, Michael’s mood began to grow sullen.

Seeing him, Dante frowned and asked, "You said that we could trust your aunt and cousin. Why do I get the feeling that you didn’t even trust them?"

Michael was quiet for a few seconds. Eventually, he sighed and smiled bitterly. "I actually suspected that they had betrayed me. You see, I was suddenly ambushed by two Apostles and a few men, including that man, Thomas. Victor doesn’t have Apostles working for him, so they were likely people he brought in to take me down. But that’s the thing. How did he know I was coming for him on that day? Even when we fought, he already knew that I had the Red Divine Skill of the God of Domains. After giving it some thought, I figured out that how else could he know this than from those two women whom I lived with after my brother’s passing? They were the only family I had left, and they did take care of me until I was old enough to begin planning my revenge.

"Although no matter how much I thought about it all those days in prison, it didn’t make sense. Why did they sell me out? Heh. I think I have the answer to that now. It seems that Ada was in bed with Thomas. Tsk."

He clicked his tongue in disgust.

"Though before now, I was in denial and refused to accept it. That’s why I said we could trust them. At least... I wanted to believe we could."

For a moment after that, Dante didn’t say anything and just stared at him. Eventually, he halted, causing Michael to arch a brow.

Then he said in a serious voice, "Right before we got there, you should have said to yourself and to me, ’I believe there is a sixty percent chance of them betraying me.’ It helps to create contingencies where we move on the same wavelength. I can’t have you being in denial because that is very dangerous territory. You hear me?"

"Yes, boss."

Dante gritted his teeth, wound his leg back, and kicked Michael hard in the buttocks as punishment.

"Ow! I’m sorry, boss!"

"Tsk." Dante scowled. ’You are still a naive boy!’

***

Some time later...

——

Aunt Agrafena’s eyelids fluttered open. At first, everything was blurry, but the shapes began to settle little by little.

Groaning, she pushed herself off the ground while clutching her bleeding head. By the time she could finally make sense of her surroundings, she noticed that the world was gray.

But not just that, so many things felt wrong.

To begin with, her cheek was caked with sand, and when she looked down, sand stretched out everywhere.

Just then, something caught her attention.

It was a young, tanned woman lying on the ground several meters away. Her lower face was a ruined mess of shattered bone and torn flesh, and from the looks of it, she wasn’t breathing at all.

"Ada?" Agrafena voice was a whisper at first before breaking into a desperate shriek. "Ada!"

She scrambled forward on her hands and knees until she came to a stop in front of the body. Her hands trembled violently as she reached out, tears streaming down her face as the realization hit her.

"No, no, no." She pulled the limp corpse tightly against her chest, rocking back and forth.

At that moment, she heard footsteps crunching against the sand, which caused her to snap her head up.

That was when she saw Michael, the strange man who had accompanied him, and a small child who looked no older than twelve.

"How could you?!" Agrafena screamed.

She forced herself to her feet, though she didn’t dare step closer, and her knees trembled uncontrollably.

Meanwhile, Dante turned to Michael and asked, "Are you sure you are okay with this, Amico?"

For a moment, Michael didn’t reply and just stared at the woman with a sullen look. Eventually, he sighed and replied, "Yes... boss."

Dante crouched, and a heavy box appeared in his hand, which he set down on the sand. After spinning the dial to the correct sequence, he opened the lid and a cloud of freezing air spilled out.

The interior of the box was lined with glowing magical runes and packed with ice.

More importantly, there were a several empty glass flasks inside, just waiting to be filled.

Dante lifted his cold gaze to the woman.

He was going to fill every single one of those flasks with her blood.

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