Crown Of Blasphemy: Rise Of The Legendary Villain

Time passed; how much remained elusive, Mr. Valen lost count after the first month.

Apparently, keeping count is difficult when you don't have a fully functioning brain. "Shocker," he muttered dryly.

What he was up to now was rather boring: he was walking, clothed in a leather shirt and pants.

He found this to be the most comfortable amongst all the other clothes the cannibal clan had to offer.

A bone knife hung at his side, tucked securely into the rope he tied around his waist.

When he had first looted the cannibal clan, he had a whole big bag of supplies, but he lost some after being chased by a pack of about two hundred Skilions.

He then lost more after encountering other humans who he registered to be much stronger than he, as strong as Luna in his previous world.

Fortunately, they didn't seem to be interested in him and just took his stuff.

He found himself being chased by a lot of things recently and he often opted to run despite having the ability to fight back.

One reason being that anytime he healed from an injury, he got hungry quicker, but if he remained uninjured, he could go weeks without food.

And by food one referred to sucking the life out of living organisms like some kind of parasitic being, only then would he actively hunt.

Right now, he was hungry, which meant he was not just walking, he was hunting.

The sky was still covered by an endless mass of pitch black clouds creating an eternal night, and below his feet were rows upon rows of black soil.

But it wasn't all black soil, there were rock formations sprinkled here and there, the terrain was shadowy and complex, it was land that would be difficult to hike through for some people.

To top it all off it was wet, the constant rain becoming a source of discomfort more than anything else.

Suddenly, Mr. Valen's ears twitched, forcing him to look in a certain direction. "What is that sound?" He muttered under his breath.

It sounded like a series of sharp breaths overlayed by shrill screeches.

Additionally, the breaths and the screeches seemed to be coming from two separate entities suggesting a fight between two creatures.

Such was rare but it meant injured prey, and injured prey was easy prey.

Mr. Valen, not wanting to miss such a well-presented opportunity, quickly accelerated, dashing faster than any human could ever dream of.

He reached in an instant, and upon reaching the scene, he saw a short-haired woman running towards him and away from something.

"It's a human?" Mr. Valen thought to himself as he observed the approaching woman with glowing red eyes.

Immediately, one could tell that something was different about her.

The moment his eyes brushed past hers, he felt a shock rush through his system, a kind of resonance that he found inexplicable.

"Whoosh!"

A sound could be heard as she rushed past him at double the max speed of a human, and not far behind her was something that looked like a headless dog, which had obviously changed its focus to him.

In a split second, it lunged towards Mr. Valen, with movements too quick for the average human to react.

But from Mr. Valen's point of view—the man whose eyes darkened slightly, its speed could be called decent at best.

A wet gutty sound could be heard as Mr. Valen drove his hand through the gaping maw of the beast clutching something in its insides.

Pain exploded through his system as the thing's jaws clamped down, threatening to sever his arm, but he reacted fast, hardening the limb, which turned pitch black.

Food had been served in the form of a limb kabob and Mr. Valen wasted no time biting into the torso of the thing.

Wordlessly, he sucked some unseen force out of it, for the thing which previously struggled with all its might grew weaker by the minute.

It soon stopped moving at all, its formerly grey skin visible under patches of wet hair, turning deathly pale.

A sludge could be heard as Mr. Valen discarded the thing, his arms regaining their original color while in turn healing from the wound that the beast had caused.

One must not be surprised by how strong Mr. Valen was compared to the thing, for he was only lucky, as he was with the people who planned to eat him.

Furthermore that woman, the one who ran past him, was only slightly weaker than him, he could tell, so why did she run?

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As Mr. Valen pondered, the red-eyed woman with short hair sprinted through the complex terrain of the land.

She covered ground in large strides, averaging over seventy miles per hour, but after moving for a while, she came to a sudden halt, her breath coming in large, steady exhalations.

"You're fast," a familiar voice spoke to her in clear English, and in an instant, the woman turned around swinging a short blade in the direction of that sound.

"Whoosh!"

The air tore as Mr. Valen dodged, ducking quickly, the blade cutting off a few strands of his hair.

Now crouching, Mr. Valen braced his weight on his right hand before kicking violently at her shin. It was too quick to respond to, even with her speed.

But a split second before Mr. Valen made the motion to attack, the lady muttered, "Vímata Psevdésthisis!"

It was like she gained wings, the glow in her red eyes intensified slightly, and in that same split second, she flashed backwards, dodging Mr. Valen's attack.

Both parties were now a safe distance away from each other, as safe as they could be at least.

"_2&-@+,?" The woman suddenly spoke, her tongue as alien as the people who had tried to eat him.

Observing this woman, Mr. Valen was at a loss for what to do with her; frankly, he didn't trust her, he no longer trusted anyone, as the last time he had made that mistake, he was eaten alive.

She was different from the people he had met before though, for starters, her attire was much more refined.

The rain hissed as it fell on her.

Unlike the crude hides of the cannibals, her hood was low, her cloak pinned tight. Her attire seemed oiled in some way, as it shed the downpour like an otter's pelt, the wool beneath steaming faintly with trapped heat.

It was the perfect attire for this kind of environment, no skirts to snag, no straps to whip in the wind, and despite being wet and dirty, Mr. Valen felt the faint urge to steal it from her.

Another thing to note was the fact that her blade was made of some kind of metal, not of bone like the ones he had seen before, suggesting some degree of advanced metalwork in this world.

At least they weren't all savages.

Like her peers, her skin was overly pale, her eyes larger than those of a normal human's. She was born in this world.

As Mr. Valen could deduce her origins, the woman seemed to be able to deduce his and in an instant the look in her eyes went from vigilance to vigilance and confusion.

"Whoosh!" Mr. Valen suddenly moved towards her but the woman responded by turning tail, or at least she tried.

"Argh," the poor woman grunted heavily, as she felt something yank her into the air, her breath hitching in her throat as she felt her world tumble.

She was then pulled closer to Mr. Valen by that strange force, still hanging upside down, her form dangling haphazardly as she struggled.

"&#+#-&?" She screamed in confusion, and her first instinct, as one would imagine, was to look up as one would yearn for salvation.

She immediately noticed a black rope or spine-like thing coiled around her ankle, and upon tracing the source of it with her eyes, realized that it stemmed from the man she was running away from, specifically his backside.

"Clang!"

A collision could suddenly be heard as sparks flew.

The woman had attempted to use her blade to cut off the tail, unfortunately for her, it was stronger than she anticipated.

Her struggles seemed to peeve Mr. Valen, who, with narrowed eyes, moved his tail.

"Bang!"

Dirt flew as the woman collided violently with the ground, her breath hitching as she was raised up and slammed once more.

The tail that bound her by the ankle then let go and wrapped itself around her torso, binding her arms while the razor-sharp tip of the thing pointed at her throat.

Mr. Valen then brought the exhausted woman closer to himself, looking deeply into her eyes, and sure enough, the moment their eyes met, he felt that faint jerk that confused him.

The woman, on the other hand, rambled quickly, most likely begging for her life, but Mr. Valen was not sure.

Noting that her ramblings were futile, the lady began to use her head, nodding at him, then nodding behind her as though she was having a seizure.

For someone unfamiliar, it would have been difficult to understand what she was saying, but having gone through this before, Mr. Valen had a general idea.

He brought her to his back and lifted his shirt, revealing the eye-like rune imprinted on it. He also released her arm, and quickly, the lady firmly planted her palm on his back.

[Become my slave, and you'll be free from your pain-]

"Bang!"

Mr. Valen suddenly hit her against the dirt again before bringing her to his back, he hardly even looked at her.

Now heavily disoriented the lady once again placed her palm on his back.

[Please] she rasped, blood trickling from her lip. [Not a slave—a pact. You cannot hurt me, and I cannot hurt you, but be aware that the penalty for breaking this world deal is death.]