The Villain Bought the Female Lead - Ch. 79
In the novel, the extreme sense of fear was not fully conveyed.
How foolish it was to express her with mere combinations of letters.
The only things moving quickly in Liam’s body were his eyeballs and his heart. The initial shiver that went through him froze his mind, making it impossible to make any judgment.
His hands and feet were cold yet sweat dripped down from them. He was barely able to keep hold of the sword he was gripping.
With rough breathing, Liam looked at the archbishop, Zagan, who took the form of a young girl.
Although it wasn’t possible to see Altife’s status, it was clear even without numerical representation.
It was more like an instinctive intuition—an overwhelming sense that he couldn’t even match her light movements, feeling like his limbs would be severed just by her slight gestures.
“LIAM??!!”
Nikela’s shout was heard.
Nikela and Ophelia, who were looking at the mannequin-like figures, looked up at the presence called Zagan.
That presence was smiling. She looked pleased.
Like a child happy with a new toy, the girl smirked and placed her hand on Liam’s chest, feeling his heartbeat.
[You’re quite scared, aren’t you?]
Feeling Liam’s fiercely beating heart directly, Zagan seemed to enjoy herself. To her, a human heart was like the spring of a toy.
Without a spring, a toy wouldn’t operate. It made its unique sound whenever it moved, indicating that it was working.
As the sound of the spring grew louder and faster, a peculiar pleasure arose, making her happy.
Except for Zagan, no one was allowed to move in this space.
Liam, who was directly connected to her, and Ophelia, who was relatively far away, both wanted to move their bodies to exert force against the opponent, but it was impossible.
“I’ll save you…!”
Except for Nikela, who was the most desperate at this moment.
Whoosh!
A spirit made of red flames appeared around Nikela. The fire was so intense that it was hard even for the contractor to handle.
This spirit was a high-level entity that surpassed Nikela’s current level.
Its mere appearance consumed a significant amount of mana, and it was so difficult to handle that, although she had formed a contract, she had never used it in battle.
The spirit, immediately after being summoned, flew straight towards Zagan and Liam. Just approaching them slightly transmitted a heat so intense that it felt like it could cause burns.
The spirit exuded a considerable presence just by being there.
Looking at it, Zagan smiled again.
“…!!”
[It’s been a while, Ifrit.]
The fire spirit of the duke rank, Ifrit, was easily restrained by Zagan’s bare hand, which had no protection.
Like a child’s hand being grabbed by an adult when it tried to punch, Ifrit couldn’t move an inch.
Whoosh?
Zagan lightly blew as if extinguishing the candle on a cake. Ifrit’s flames spread out like a sprinkler, and a significant portion of the fire from its core was lost.
Ifrit intensified its flames even more.
To Liam, who was nearby, this felt closer to magma than mere flames.
Whoosh!
The flames, raised to a brightness close to light, roared fiercely.
Zagan did not let go of Ifrit, holding it as if it were a slightly hot potato.
The output of Ifrit’s flames was only a defensive measure to delay its unsummoning, without causing any harm to Zagan.
[Have you been stuck in the Spirit Realm for too long?]
Or maybe that human woman’s level wasn’t enough to properly contain you?
Zagan laughed long, looking down at the terrified Nikela.
With her horizontally slit pupils, Zagan indulged in the emotions she saw in Nikela.
Though Nikela’s face turned pale, she didn’t stop supplying mana to Ifrit. Instead, she desperately gathered more mana within herself to provide to Ifrit.
Knowing that she was still inadequate to properly handle a Duke rank spirit, she grew more urgent.
Receiving Nikela’s mana, Ifrit exploded with fiery power, as if angered.
Zagan’s eyes widened like a child watching fireworks, staring directly at the scene.
Ifrit pulled back its fist.
Concentrating extremely dense flames as if heating an engine.
Koo-kooo-ga-ga-kang???!
It launched like a rocket.
The noise was so strange and destructive that it was hard to believe it was coming from the flames.
Liam fell back from the blast, and the huge fire demon engulfed Jagan.
Ophelia, who belatedly came to her senses, quickly expanded her senses to check on Zagan. According to her judgment, it seemed they hadn’t yet defeated her.
She quickly drew her bow and took aim.
She wasn’t sure if it would help in this situation, but she needed to continue making effective hits whenever that monster’s actions were limited.
Shaaak?!
The arrow imbued with the maximum aura that Ophelia could muster left her hand and flew fiercely.
It pierced through the fire demon and hit Zagan’s wrist, nailing it down.
Seeing the advantage, Ophelia immediately prepared the next arrow.
[You’re annoying.]
Zagan, who should have been on the altar, and who should have been suffering in the flames.
She glared at Ophelia with her eerie eyes right in front of her.
Slash.
With a light swing of Zagan’s hand, as if swatting away a fly.
“Ophelia???!!”
Ophelia’s head, a noble of the Laban Kingdom, fell to the ground.
Her severed neck sprayed blood as her head tumbled.
Liam, with unfocused eyes, saw this scene.
Ifrit, who had been fighting Zagan to protect him, had disappeared and was unsummoned.
Nikela screamed in anguish, calling out to Ophelia.
Zagan looked quite displeased. Though it had been a game with lowly creatures, the smile she wore twisted into anger.
So, Ophelia?
Ophelia… Ophelia was….
Roll.
Ophelia’s head rolled across the ground. Liam faced her lifeless body.
She had the look of a hunter who had spotted a slight advantage. The moment when Zagan approached and beheaded her was not even expressed.
Dead….
Dead?
She was dead?
Was she the character who was killed during the first semester finals?
No, no. Absolutely not. There was no way she would die here.
Could it be that he was seeing an illusion?
No, no.
Zagan didn’t have that ability.
Then, really… Ophelia really….
Was dead…?
‘Because of <me>?’
[Wait here for a moment. I’ll play with that human who dared to dirty my clothes first.]
Leaving a brief order to Liam, Zagan approached the weeping Nikela. Still frozen, Liam couldn’t move as if in compliance.
Nikela, terrified and forgetting to run, collapsed to the ground, capturing Zagan’s form with her greatly enlarged pupils.
Gathering magical power.
Summoning a spirit.
However, the magic she managed to gather with her trembling hands dissipated weakly before it even reached Zagan’s body. The spirits refused Nikela’s summons.
With Ifrit, the strongest spirit she had contracted, being unsummoned after suffering a rough ordeal, Nikela’s mental state was unstable, which transmitted to the spirits.
None of them answered Nikela’s call.
No one.
Not even Liam.
‘She’s dead… she’s dead….’
His brain couldn’t keep up with the current situation.
<As if being hindered by something else>, Liam’s mind, overwhelmed by pressure, became increasingly distant, seeking to escape from reality.
A world different from reality.
Death in the world within a novel.
Liam finally felt the weight he had turned away from until now.
Liam, who had possessed the novel world.
Ophelia, who had strayed from the original plot and became a corpse. Now, he wouldn’t even be able to hear her voice or see her smile… her expulsion from the story.
So, what would happen if he himself died?
Would his soul cease to exist both in reality and within this novel?
He was scared…
Scared.
… get it together… Liam!
Liam’s mind, which had been retreating into a world of its own on trembling legs.
In his blurred vision and fading hearing, a voice and form appeared that shouldn’t have been there.
Before Liam’s vision was completely swallowed by darkness.
A man, expressing intense anger, called out to Liam. Using that as a signal, Liam was able to turn back on the dark path.
The voice grew stronger.
Liam’s consciousness returned.
Soon, the gradually clarifying voice rang clearly in Liam’s ears.
“Get up and fight, you idiot!”
“…!”
Liam, jolted by Lucaiel’s sudden anger, finally broke free from the overwhelming pressure he had never experienced before.
Like a space filled with smoke finally being ventilated, Liam’s halted thoughts began to function again.
He saw Lucaiel and Haliana protecting Nikela.
Without even time to question why the two of them were here, the cruel reality before him unfolded.
The sturdy legs that quickly targeted enemies like those of a wolf were shattered, and their insides were hollow like a mannequin.
Haliana, while calling Lucaiel’s name, cast the most powerful elemental magic she could, but it was easily blocked, and she was grabbed by Zagan.
Zagan’s hand, which had been gripping Haliana’s left wrist.
Crack!
The sound of plastic breaking echoed as Haliana’s arm was torn off.
Haliana screamed, not from pain, but from the horror of an unbelievable event.
Zagan, who had torn off Lucaiel’s legs and Haliana’s left arm, smiled as if in happiness.
She was slowly savoring their <bodies>. The fact that their bodies turned into mannequins meant that Zagan had devoured those parts.
“Move!”
Lucaiel shouted at Liam again, but…
[It’s useless. That guy you’re calling is… what do you call it again? A Singular Entity? Strange name. Anyway, he’s been captured by my subordinate priest.]
Singular Entity.
It referred to an Altife among the priest class without intelligence but possessing special abilities.
While it fell short of bishop-level combat power or ability, like other priests, it only moved by instinct without orders.
Lucaiel glared at the ceiling where Liam was.
A large, red creature in the shape of a bat nodded its head. That creature was controlling Liam’s movements.
“Grr…!!”
Realizing that Liam was not subdued purely by psychological factors, Lucaiel approached Zagan using his arms instead of his missing legs.
After the nest was disturbed, they didn’t come to save Liam just to die a meaningless death.
While it was true that they moved more out of emotion than judgment, they came to rescue him, not to meet a helpless, absurd death like this…!
[You’re quite persistent, aren’t you? Interesting. If you wish so much, I’ll devour the rest of your body too.]
Zagan, leaving Haliana behind, knelt before Lucaiel.
Facing an opponent he had no chance of defeating, Lucaiel’s eyes still burned with fierce flames.
Instead, they flared up even more, glaring at the enemy as if to kill them.
Zagan found those emotions delightful.
He reached out his hand. He was slowly approaching Zagan’s head. The head, an important part containing the brain.
Lucaiel extended his sharp claws in preparation.
Before that hand could reach him, he would move first and cut off her wrist. If that failed, he would use his teeth to bite it off!
Just as those two emotions, interest and anger, were about to clash.
Words escaped Lucaiel’s mouth as if leaking out.
“Liam, you bastard. You’re so damn late.”
[Kaaahhhh??!]
Thud!
The massive bat form split in two and fell to the ground.
Zagan’s gaze changed again as she spoke. Although her words seemed accusatory, she appeared to be enjoying herself.
[How do you plan to compensate for this? That was my only Singular Entity left.]
In her gleeful eyes, Liam’s form was reflected, his entire body coursing with electricity.
Crackle.
The source of that lightning was intense anger.
Ding!
Condition: <Death of a Comrade>, Overcoming <Extreme Fear>.
The conditions have been met, and the use of the [Special Skill] has become available.
***
Boom!
Paula used a composite elemental magic to deal significant damage to one of the bishop-class creatures.
Their wounds would soon heal, but as the damage accumulated, the recovery speed slowed.
[Kiehik!]
An Altife pierced through the explosion, extending a sword-like sharp arm towards Paula.
Paula quickly raised her staff, which was shrouded in aura, to block it, and at the same time, caused another explosion, using it to escape.
Other first-year professors around her were also fighting Altifes, and among them, a man with dark circles, Lucien, was nearby.
“This is troublesome…. I thought there were only five average bishop-level ones, but that one wearing a hat is quite a challenge.”
Just because they were of the same class didn’t mean all individuals had equal skill or strength.
The potential of each Altifes varied. Some, while not classified in a higher category, possessed power that exceeded their group.
The priest-class Altife, with the top hat covering the eye on its forehead, was one such being.
“I’m also worried about Professor Louisa’s situation.”
Lucien’s naturally calm and low voice carried a hint of tension. Paula narrowed her eyes and focused even more on the top-hat Altife and other bishop-level enemies ahead.
“There’s no need to worry about Louisa.”
This wasn’t to say she was dismissing her connection with Louisa.
“She didn’t rank 12th among the Heroes for nothing.”
Louisa was among the top-tier in strength even among the Academia professors. Worrying about her was…
Boom!
… meaningless.
A vast release of mana and gravitational waves reached even the professors far from where Louisa had flown. Crimson blood gushed out like a fountain from the direction where Louisa had been.
That blood fell like rain to the ground.
Louisa’s entire body was drenched in that rain of blood.
Her eyes flashed ominously.
Her murderous intent, which transcended distance, was conveyed raw to all the Altifes and professors.
“If you don’t want to die, get out of the way. We need to invade the nest quickly.”