Reincarnated As The Villainess's Son

'How long has it been?'

Legus remembered it like it was yesterday.

When the Dark Trinity had chosen him to be the one to inherit the Dead God in his body.

How everyone rejoiced and beamed in happiness.

Every memory of his last time was filled with happiness.

And Legus could not believe it….

'Why did it have to be me?'

The rain poured over his disfigured form, but he no longer felt it. Not the cold.

Not the sting.

Not the ache of a soul stretched beyond mortal comprehension.

Legus stood within the rotting core of the Dead God, somewhere between consciousness and collapse.

Between what remained of his humanity… and what had become of his gift.

The curse they called salvation.

He remembered the cheers.

The priests chanting his name.

The way his mother had cried… not out of fear, but pride.

The moment the black ichor was poured into his veins, and the world became a kaleidoscope of pain and transcendence.

They told him it was an honor.

They told him he would be a god.

But now—

—he was barely a man.

He was voices screaming in his ears day and night.

He was limbs that didn't belong to him.

He was faces that cried without mouths.

He was everything.

And nothing.

'Why didn't anyone tell me… it would feel like dying every single day?'

He looked through the Dead God's eyes—dozens of them, endless and watching.

And he saw him.

Himmel.

A part of him was destroying the city while the bait he sent him was fighting Himmel in

Windward.

'Why is he so… pure?'

Legus's eyes, which had been merged with the Dead God's eyes, could clearly see it.

The pureness of his soul.

The soul that was so majestic and beautiful that it momentarily relieved him of his pain.

'…It shouldn't exist.'

Legus trembled within the Dead God, though his monstrous body remained still.

A soul like that—untouched, undiluted, intact… shouldn't have survived the world they lived in.

Not with all its filth.

Not with all its cruelty.

And yet Himmel's light cut through it.

Through him.

Through the curse that hollowed him out and filled him with rot.

It burned.

But it healed too.

For a brief, fractured moment, Legus remembered what it felt like to be human.

'Kill me.'

His thoughts weren't prayers, but pleas.

'If you are as pure as I see you to be… then set me free.'

The thought echoed through the hive-mind of flesh and madness.

Even the Dead God recoiled, sensing the fracture in its host's resolve.

Because no god should scream when it breathes.

And no chosen one should cry when it sleeps.

Yet…

The part that had turned insane desired it.

The most beautiful soul he had ever seen.

Legus forced all his mouths to speak in unison.

"….angel…."

The young boy visibly flinched when he spoke.

There was nothing but disgust in his eyes that Legus couldn't understand.

'Why?'

He wondered, trying to talk, but all that came out of his mouth was a scream.

'…I am asking for help….'

The young boy began to attack him, yet all he wanted was salvation.

His body defended itself even though just a bait, Legus wanted Himmel to end his nightmare quickly.

Yet….

The boy didn't.

Even after impaling his gruesome body with the enormous trident, he didn't destroy him.

He just sat there at the base of the trident, looking at him.

'Why!?'

Legus's helplessness turned into rage.

He didn't understand.

Why was he just watching him instead of ending his pain?

'Why won't you end me!?'

A hundred mouths screamed with him this time.

Desperation crept within him as the boy began to move away from him, taking the trident with him.

"WHY!?" his voice roared, the sound layered in a thousand agonies.

The boy didn't even look back at him, ignoring him completely.

'He heard me.'

Legus knew it, that Himmel had heard him.

And still, that young boy decided to just walk away.

He showed neither an act of mercy nor an act of cruelty.

But he treated him as if… Legus wasn't worth saving.

Or worth killing.

That was worse.

That was worse than being struck down.

To be left alive not because of compassion but because of indifference.

He wasn't a god.

He wasn't a man.

He wasn't even a monster anymore.

He was nothing.

'No…'

Legus rasped through shattered mouths, the sound warbling across the mutilated fleshscape of the Dead God's core.

'No—no no no no—look at me!'

As the dragon began to rip his body, he just stared at the boy.

'I will kill you!'

Legus thought, his rage taking over whatever was left of his humanity.

'I will take everything away from you!'

Though he still saw him as an angel, Legus still wanted to consume him.

Because for him, Himmel wasn't what he thought he was….

….He wasn't the Angel of Death.

****

…The thing wrapped hundreds of its arms around her.

Now.

She was gone.

…And in that instant, he faltered.

Himmel's blade, inches from the monster's writhing mass, stopped mid-swing.

The sudden stop before impact created a shockwave that pushed everything aside.

"Wait, wait!"

Himmel screamed as he tried to find her once again.

"Where did she go!?"

[She isn't dead! Get a hold of yourself.]

Inna's voice roared in his mind, but it was distant.

"Huh?"

Himmel came to his senses, and the next instant, something was upon him.

BOOMM!!!

The slap of one of the Dead God's enormous arms sent him crashing into a building.

The debris and dust filled Himmel's vision, but he didn't care.

Himmel stood up, drawing in a deep breath. "What do you mean!?"

[<Her body was covered in chi, she won't die as long as it doesn't break.>]

"Can she suffocate in there?" Himmel asked, moving out of the building.

[<…Yes.>]

"...."

He jumped out of the hole he came from as he looked at the Dead God.

The gruesome body that was made of hundreds and thousands of humans looked at him.

….They smiled at him.

Like taking pleasure in his pain.

'Fuck it.'

His wings unfolded majestically behind him, making him float in the air.

Himmel formed a blade of mana and coated it with void energy, making sure they didn't touch and collapse in on themselves.

'I need to get her out before she dies.'

He rushed at the Dead God.

Himmel blurred forward, a streak of radiant motion cutting through the dark storm.

His blade hissing as the mana and void rippled against one another in chaotic harmony.

"Let her go!"

Himmel roared as he shot toward the Dead God's bloated mass.

The monster responded instantly.

Hundreds of arms lashed toward him, some clawed, others fused with jagged bone, writhing like serpents with minds of their own.

He didn't flinch.

Didn't slow.

"Rejection of Time."

With that whisper, a ripple pulsed around him, time folding just enough to slow the monster's movement.

Himmel weaved between the limbs, slashing with all his might.

Pieces of the monster began to fall away, black ichor pouring like rain.

Screams echoed from its mouths—not just of rage, but fear.

[<Left side, third rib above the spine there. She's there!>]

Inna's voice pierced his mind like lightning.

Himmel's eyes narrowed. "I see it."

He spun in the air and, with a roar, hurled his blade like a meteor.

The weapon pierced the flesh of the abomination, cracking the grotesque armor and exploding.

Muspelh!

BOOM!!!

The force sent chunks of the creature flying, and for a brief moment, Himmel saw her.

Curled into herself, arms over her head, alive—encased in a cocoon of glowing chi, buried deep within the flesh.

But it was fading.

Fast.

[<The chi won't last much longer. You have seconds.>]

Himmel quickly tried to reach her, slashing the flesh around her.

But no matter what he did, this thing kept on regenerating without any problem.

'Fuck! Fuck!'

Himmel began to panic as the thing tried to crack open the shell of her chi.

The Dead God was trying to kill her right in front of his eyes.

[<You have to cut deeper!>]

Inna's voice cracked like a whip in his mind.

"I am cutting deeper!" Himmel roared back, slashing with renewed fury.

But it wasn't enough.

Every wound he opened sealed within seconds.

The Dead God adapted too fast… mimicking every energy signature he used, devouring his void, resisting his mana.

Arianell's chi shell was now flickering.

She was suffocating.

And he was too slow.

Himmel's wings flared again, his breath ragged.

He hovered above the mass, eyes darting to the monstrous flesh that writhed and smiled and mocked him.

Crack!

Himmel's eyes widened as the crack began to turn bigger on her chi shell.

"Damn it…!" he growled.

Himmel raised his mana blade, and his body was thrown away when the Dead God hit him unexpectedly.

Himmel once again rolled in the air, balancing himself.

A side of his eye bled crimson as blood began to cloud his vision.

[<It's a lot stronger than the one you faced before.>]

Himmel bit his lip hard enough to draw blood.

He didn't have time to think with those cracks almost covering her entire shell.

He didn't have time to hesitate or she was going to die right in front of his eyes.

And he'd let it happen if he wasted another second.

He looked down at his bloodied palm, fingers trembling.

Himmel finally made his decision.

"Inna."

[<…Yes.>]

"Look after me."

Raising his mana blade, Himmel cut his own palm to draw blood.

"In my name…."

Himmel stopped summoning goddess Sekhmet as he felt something.

The world had turned completely grey.

Time had stopped, and it wasn't he who did it.

"What's happening, Azariah?"

A voice rang in his head, making him tremble in response.

"…El?"