Crown Of Blasphemy: Rise Of The Legendary Villain

«It has been twenty eight days, and my hunger has grown to a maddening degree so much so that it's corroding my judgement, fascinating, no? We have also run out of rations not that I was given any, if I truly needed food to survive such starvation would be considered cruel, but I suppose it does speak to my identity as a slave.»

"Boom!"

A sonic blast swept through the terrain with so much force that it caused ripples in the mud, making it seem like water.

The dead trees swayed strongly, but Mr. Valen's fingers dug even deeper into their barks never losing his grip.

"What is that?" he groaned, treating the blast like an attack. Cerberus turned to face the blast, taking the brunt of it, while Sophia remained protected behind him.

Olga on the other hand, lowered her stance, covering her head with her arms.

But that wasn't the end of it, another similarly powerful blast swept through soon after, disorientating the team, then another followed and it did not stop.

"It's the Infernal Warlord and Hellfire Overlord, this must be the residual shockwaves from their fight," Cerberus groaned.

"What are you talking about we aren't anywhere near the Unyielding battlefield," Mr. Valen groaned, noting that the battlefield was hundreds of miles away.

"You obviously can't fathom such a level of power," Olga scoffed, a hint of awe in her tone. "They have reached the peak of Nethercraft."

"What do we do?" Sophia yelled, her voice barely audible over the reoccurring blasts.

"We have no choice but to keep moving, we're almost through," Cerberus muttered under his breath, a mist coating his words.

And so the group continued to move and after a while, the shockwaves reduced before slowly stopping.

"Have they stopped fighting?" Sophia asked quizzically, her eyes looking in the direction of the blasts, but there was nothing to see but mist.

"It could also be that they have moved to a position where their fight can't affect us at the moment, High Scioness," Olga said.

The group then lapsed into silence, before continuing on their journey.

"What's that," Mr. Valen suddenly said, alerting the group to something in the distance.

The branches and weathered trees formed a complex maze that made the terrain of the Misty Marsh a pain to traverse.

Something had torn through this maze, breaking these trees and branches in the process, but the extent of the damage was too much for them to fully access.

The mist hindered their vision, after all.

"Argh!" A loud groan sounded out, and slowly, the silhouette of a human (a man) became clear.

In that moment, Mr. Valen felt every hair on his body stand on end, he felt his heartbeat slow as though it was scared to be noticed.

Mentally though, he was not scared, this was all an instinctive reaction from his body as primal as the blood that flowed through his veins.

Was this really a man? He did look like one, but something was wrong, he was too much of a man, too perfect.

His dark skin, rare in this world of constant cold, seemed to drink in the dim light.

The rain dared not linger upon him; each droplet hissed into steam before it could even kiss his flesh, as if his very presence rejected the touch of something as mundane as water. His very form radiated heat.

His body was a masterpiece of contradiction, slender like a dancer, yet corded with muscle that spoke of raw, untamed power.

Every line of him was honed, every curve so unbelievably defined.

His white hair fell in thick, intricate afro braids, cascading down his back like a mantle of snow against the night.

They swayed with an unnatural weightlessness, as if the air itself refused to drag them down.

And his eyes, (glowing red), like embers in a forge held a boredom so profound it felt dangerous.

He stood upon the mud, yet his bare feet left no mark. No imprint, no stain, as if the earth beneath him recoiled at his touch.

His posture was relaxed, almost lazy, but there was a tension to him.

When he spoke, his voice was deep, smooth, yet edged with something inhuman. "Such violent people those two, I was only trying to defuse, why double team me?"

"Oh my," Sophia muttered as she saw his naked form, hiding her face in Cerberus's shoulder, a blush coating her cheeks.

"Who are you, speak," Olga commanded, drawing her blade as she narrowed her eyes.

'Why is she drawing her blade? Can't she feel this pressure?' Mr. Valen thought, cold sweat flowing down his forehead, his eyes narrowed.

«This man... this feeling... I don't like this..»

Mr. Valen knew all too well when he was no longer in control, and with the arrival of this man, that time was here.

"SPEAK!" Olga yelled, shocking Mr. Valen, who visibly flinched.

'She'll get me killed," Mr. Valen thought.

The man on the other hand paid them no mind, rather, he continued to think out loud, "Now that he's fighting I could definitely steal the Codex shard from his clan."

Suddenly, the man raised his brows and looked into the distance, before shaking his head resuming his thought process.

At the same time both Olga and Cerberus turned, their face paling as they noticed a group of burly men riding hounds towards their location.

"Oh, no!" Olga exclaimed, while Cerberus frowned, the Cigil Clan had found them.

Mr. Valen also noticed the approaching threat and had an idea, one that could very well be a death sentence.

"Let's move, everyone get behind that man," he said as he leaped from tree to tree before landing a distance behind the man who seemed to be in deep thought.

"What are you-"

"There's no time to argue with the kid," Cerberus interrupted, sprinting past the man who paid him no mind.

Olga followed soon after, her breath light as she asked, "now what?"

"We wait," Mr. Valen answered. "We cannot outrun them; therefore this is our only option."

"W-why don't we run?" Sophia, still clinging to Cerberus's back stuttered, her breath coming in rapid exhalation, her face pale.

At that moment, Vorg arrived at the scene with the rest of the group and smiled as he saw Olaga and the High Scioness.

His eyes then fell upon Mr. Valen, Cerberus, and the man muttering to himself like a deranged person.

"Haha, you have been formidable," Vorlag said as he leaped from his hound his breath accompanied by mist. "But your time has come to an end, Olga."

"Hahah," the men behind him laughed and dismounted their hounds brandishing their weapons in delight as they slowly approached.

Olga had unsheted her blade, her eyes narrowed in determination while Cerberus turned to Mr. Valen and said, "get down here kid."

To those words Mr. Valen raised a brow but heeded them nonetheless.

He understood Cerberus's thought process and agreed with it, even though it was futile, the plan created an illusion of hope.

"Thud!"

The mud parted, welcoming him with a wet sludge as he landed, and so he took Sophia from Cerberus's back and onto his own.

He could feel her rapid heartbeat, her short breath at the back of his neck, he could tell she was afraid, but he offered no words of comfort.

Silently, he turned back to observe the tense situation.

The warriors of the Cigil Clan had begun to approach the strange dark skinned man, and yet he still seemed unfazed, trapped in his own little world.

"Go!" Cerberus yelled, noticing Mr. Valen's hesitation. In response, Mr. Valen kicked off from the ground, speeding into the distance.

"We won't make it, will we?" Sophia muttered, her voice barely audible.

Still sprinting through the complicated terrain, Mr. Valen answered with light breaths, "Our deaths is most assured, my Lady."

"Hic," Sophia made a strange sound at the confirmation of her impending death. Mr. Valen was especially amused by the fact that he could feel her heart skip a beat.

Her fear was... refreshing. But then she spoke, her tone grim, shocking him: "If we are cornered, with no means of escape... I command you to kill me."

Meanwhile, as Mr. Valen ran, Olga and Cerberus waited behind the strange dark-skinned man.

By now it was just abnormal that he could remain disconnected from his surroundings for so long.

Vorlag approached him first, but he did not tower over him as one would expect, he certainly was bigger but both stood at about seven feet.

"I am Vorlag, a Warrior of the Cigil Clan," Vorlag spat looking down at the dark skinned man. "You are a red eyed Wizard so I give you the chance to leave this-"

"Can you quiet down little one, I'm busy," the dark skinned man said before resuming his unintelligible mutterings.

Vorlag felt his eyes widened at the words of the dark skinned man, his expression then transitioning to one of anger as he reached for the hilt of his reaper's blade.

"Whoosh!" He swung it down while jumping back, an attack that was guaranteed to decapitate the man but-

"Swoosh!"

The air tore as the mist in the surrounding landscape was pushed back.

Olga and Cerberus had planned to attack together with this dark skinned man, but their eyes widened as they stopped in their tracks.

The sight before them warranted it.

Before them was the man, without a speck on him holding Vorlag's blade between two fingers.

If he looked bored and unfocused before, then that was a mistake, for Vorlag now had his annoyed and undivided attention.