NOVEL WEB Chapter 23: Insignificant
Still on top of the Van, the bullet comments beside him floating stream-view were exploding in activity, bright neon fonts dancing over the side of his field of vision like a chaotic chatroom in the depths of the underworld.
Holographic usernames shimmered in every corner.
[WaffleCrusher99]: Is he… is he meditating while that guy screams?
[UwuMageSlayer]: LMFAOOOO bro said "emotional support" and then went AFK IRL
[ZzzZzzZzz123]: Wait wait wait, rewind—Vonjo LITERALLY turned to him and said, "You'll be fine." Bro, that was sarcasm wasn't it?!
[BlitzedOnMana]: THE LAUGH. THE DISRESPECT. THE ABSOLUTE CHAOS KING VIBES
[SheepDestroyer]: Round-face man built like a steamed bun and Vonjo just left him in the steamer room.
[LOLInfernoQueen]: I cannot. I just CAN'T. This man sat down like he's waiting for a concert while everyone else got trauma.
Vonjo laughed. But he wasn't laughing out of his cruelty and their comments. Or maybe he was. But beneath the amusement, there was something bubbling hotter than the violet flames licking around him: anticipation.
It had been seven years.
Seven years since House Sutterfouse discarded him like a cracked gemstone. Same father. Different mother. And therefore, according to their doctrine, lesser blood.
He remembered it clearly. He always did.
"You haven't awakened? Still nothing? That's five times you tried awakening" his half-brother Ralden had said, wearing that perfectly noble smile, lips curled in polite contempt. The Sutterfouse crest gleamed like judgment on his chest. "A shame. Even the servants have sparked some ability by now."
They didn't hurt him physically. That would have sullied their refined hands. No, their weapons were elegance, wit, and expectation.
At twenty, Vonjo was the last of the bloodline to remain "empty." He stood surrounded by them in the golden sunroom of the manor, surrounded by crystalline windows, surrounded by the house that was never his.
"You know," said Isverra, his cousin with eyes like frostbite, "perhaps your mother was mistaken about your father. Wouldn't that be… unfortunate?"
Laughter.
He clenched his fists then, felt his nails dig into his palms, drawing blood. But he didn't cry. Not once. Because even then, something inside him whispered "Endure."
And then came the exile. Banished to the far district of Garmhold, sent with a trunk of rags and a single silver mark. "Grow strong," his father said. "Or disappear."
Well.
He'd grown strong.
His bloodline had awakened at last. Seven years too late for their expectations, but right on time for his own revenge.
Now they wanted him back? Not to welcome him. But to kill him. To make him a cannon fodder on a mission so he could die? Just like what they usually do to the abandoned ones like him who didn't awaken their bloodline ability?
"Oh, I'll meet you alright," Vonjo whispered under his breath. "And I'll show you exactly what I became in the shadows you threw me into."
Suddenly, a fresh wave of bats swooped in like miniature meteors, violet flames trailing like comets. Round Face shrieked again, his voice cracking like glass.
"Aarrghh!! NOOO!"
Vonjo opened his arms.
The bats slammed into him one by one.
And nothing.
Not a scratch. Not a burn. The flames caressed him like breeze, dancing over his skin with reverence, not harm.
Round Face, meanwhile, got flung across the back of the hell Hound he was riding on, a burning bat stuck to his back. "IT'S IN MY SHIRT! IT'S IN MY SHIIIRRTTTT—"
[Goblin4Hire]: Can we talk about Vonjo tanking all those hits like he's getting a massage? Devouring power looks cool.
[ClawDaddy666]: The bats are giving him a spa treatment while giving the others a horror movie.
[BigChungusSpells]: Somebody please. That poor man just bit a bat. I REPEAT, HE BIT A BAT.
[Sutterfouse_Spy]: Does Vonjo even KNOW how cool he looks?!?
[TrollZilla98]: This gotta be a social experiment. "What happens when you let Vonjo near helpless idiots: Episode 12."
[HalfSutterClown]: No wonder the House of Sutterfouse abandoned him. They knew he was built DIFFERENT.
[WeNeedPopcorn]: Did you guys hear the scream? Replay at 00:47. That wasn't a scream. That was a soul leaving a body.
[TraumaTubTV]: Round face guy's gonna develop six phobias and a therapist addiction.
[GraveyardOfMyHope]: Vonjo be like: "Not my problem, not my blood, not my flames."
Vonjo chuckled quietly, the flickers of flame from the bat swarm painting his smirk in flickering shadows.
He tilted his head lazily as the fire-lit chaos bloomed in the van.
The bats shrieked with hellish screeches as they flung themselves at everyone—everyone but him.
They flapped like possessed razors wrapped in violet fire, crashing like a tidal wave of infernal wings.
Each impact left smoldering burn marks, and the smell of scorched hair and panic filled the air.
Round Face was flailing, screeching louder than the bats. His clothes were torn, singed, his chubby cheek lined with claw marks that glowed with an eerie purple ember. "AHHHHHHHH, MAKE THEM STOP! HELP ME, PLEASEEE—"
Vonjo only exhaled, long and amused. "I'm helping. I'm giving moral support."
Eugene, driving the Van, looked like he was caught in a nightmare, his hands frantically slapping at a bat that seemed to attack while he was driving the Van they were on. But he's not saying anything. Too busy to do that!
Vonjo, seated in meditation pose, relaxed himself. And then, he lifted his head and grinned. "Oh, they like me."
More comments erupted.
[ViolentOats]: "They like me"—that's what a serial killer says after befriending demons.
[SpicyTissue]: That laugh wasn't just disrespect. That was generational trauma in audio form.
[LOLBOI314]: I swear, if this man doesn't get a Netflix series I'm rioting.
Soon the shrieking dwindled into moans.
The Hell Hound collapsed, its fur singed and its breathing labored. Its fiery glow dimmed into smoldering embers.
The round-faced guy—what was his name again? Didn't matter—was crawling on the hell floor, his face unrecognizable under soot, bruises, and blistered patches.
Then came the small helllings.
Imps. Twisted little gargoyle-things, barely a foot tall, with claws that clinked against the metal floor. Dozens of them, pouring in like cockroaches in the dark.
They swarmed toward the fallen.
Looking back as the Van they are riding rode off, Vonjo watched them crawl over the round-faced guy and the Hound with a detached interest, as if watching a nature documentary. "Well, that escalated."
"SIIIR!" Eugene screamed, looking behind while driving. "They're being dragged away!"
Vonjo didn't even turn around to look as he already saw the little demons hauling the bodies back earlier, as if he already knew what would happen to them, pulled into the creeping fog they had passed.
Eugene looked back again while driving, they were only silhouettes now.
One final scream echoed from the round-faced guy, a warbled, echoing plea that faded like a skipped track.
Vonjo blinked.
"Well," he said, "they should've strengthened their bones by drinking milk. But because they didn't, they collapsed."
[MyLegIsOnFire]: NOT THE CUSTOMER SERVICE RESPONSE.
[CasualVillainEnergy]: "They shouldn't have sat at the back"—bruh this ain't a school bus, this is Hell Uber.
[BiteMeVonjo]: New fandom rule: If you ride with Vonjo, sign a will.
The van kept rolling.
The hell bats dispersed, fading into the darkness like they'd completed their task.
The crimson smog parted ahead, revealing a path once again.
Silence followed. Except for Eugene's trembling breath.
Vonjo stretched his arms as if waking from a pleasant nap.
The system interface flickered for a moment—no warnings, no damage taken, no alerts.
Finally, he leaned back, still on top of the moving van, adjusted his boots casually, and tapped the van to make a sound so Eugene would notice, a smirk on his lips.
"Oh look, kid," he said, pointing out the window at a faint wall of lights in the distance, glimmering like a fractured star.
"We're near human territory."