Reincarnated as the Final Villain's Vessel

The sounds of fighting stopped and the place went silent, at that moment everyone stared at each other, processing the sudden realization of what’s happening.

And there at the edge of the forest were thirteen people... twelve now after I’d just removed one.

Their expressions were a mix of amusement, like they’d been watching a group of rats fighting inside a glass cage... or that’s how they were, because their faces had just twisted with surprise and fear when the essence beam passed and eliminated one of them in a moment.

But I hadn’t targeted that unknown kid from the start, but the person at the front... the one responsible for this situation.

Trying to get his confident smile back, Theo Arlin stood in front of his group after dodging my attack at the last moment, which made him lose his grip on the illusions.

”Wow... let me praise you, Caius Astroweild, I didn’t think for a moment my illusions could be discovered this fast... I thought I could hold onto them for a few minutes at least, but like I said... impressive.” He stepped forward like he’s declaring himself king here, his blue eyes catching the light of the sunset left in the sky.

I looked around, my eyes meeting some of my team members who’d started getting their footing back.

Nobody was eliminated luckily, but some of them had been injured... and among them was our blonde healer.

It doesn’t take a genius to realize what’s happening here, while I was asleep Theo was leading this group to our island, covered by a veil of illusions that made spotting them with the eye impossible.

He snuck closer to the camp, and spread his illusions over us while half of us were asleep... like me, I’d chosen to sleep during the day so I could keep watch at night when the others can’t see.

So, with the sudden attack of the monsters who were my teammates, he made us fight each other, maybe it didn’t last a full minute, but the effect of the fight had happened, throwing off everyone’s balance here.

The essence moved like a flood through my body, the sword in my hand broke apart and faded into sparks of light, replaced by a sword of hard steel from my ring.

Theo nodded to the group behind him, another ball of essence formed between the fingers of my hand, shining like a small star under the night sky, at that moment the ground trembled under me and opened like the jaw of a monster wanting to swallow me.

But I’d already moved, getting away from there, a thin thread of light leaked out from between my fingers like a laser beam, in a moment it reached one of the Erebus members, passing through the stomach of a girl who was rushing toward Sarah who’d just started creating distance to use her bow.

And like the one before, she didn’t get time to feel the pain before she disappeared from in front of us.

At that moment the ground rose in front of me like a tsunami of black mud, trying to swallow me and Ivan and Garon inside its stretch that went past ten meters.

But a flash of blinding light passed near me, burning the air itself, the plasma mass Ivan fired crashed into the wall of liquid mud in a booming explosion, making a rain of mud and burning smoke... I bet I heard Ivan screaming angrily in a string of long curses.

Everything was happening fast.

A bunch of different abilities were colliding at the same time.

The dust rose, and the blinding explosions flared... the sounds of metal and the screams of cursing and pain rose.

It was real chaos when the two groups clashed, no longer held back by the veil of illusions.

Sarah’s arrows whistled, piercing the ice shields with a momentum that looks like it’ll go on forever, or until their owner falls.

Garon’s armored body wrestled with a giant carrying a hammer of burning steel, the ground broke apart under their feet like it’s made of cardboard.

The space around Ivan burned in blinding explosions of plasma, melting the ground and the metals, evaporating the tide of mud controlled by a tall young man from Erebus.

I doubted the edge of the island would collapse at any moment, sending us in free fall downward.

Without delay, I moved through the chaos of the battlefield, my eyes didn’t see anything but the blinding light and a mix of mud and smoke, that’s when I caught something, the tip of a sharp sword rushing at me from my right, trying to stab me.

Instead of dodging it or defending, I just let it... let it reach me and stab me in my ribs.

There was no pain, nothing... because there was no sword from the start.

The metal faded into nothing, that’s when I raised my sword, wrapped in raw essence I brought it down, like I’d sentenced the empty space in front of me to death.

But instead of the sword cutting the air, it stopped on its way down, a loud clang of weapons colliding echoed in the place while the dust and the mud scattered around us from the shockwave.

In front of me reality twisted and the illusions were lifted, holding his sword under mine, Theo smiled widely.

”Good!... good, Astroweild.”

I raised my eyebrow. ”What are you babbling about?”

I pulled my sword back and balanced myself on one foot while I twisted my torso, delivering a kick aimed at his side, but Theo was a rank above me, stronger than me and faster, so he managed to put his free hand in the path of my foot.

I hit his palm... he was trying to wrap his fingers around my foot and grab me... but when my foot touched his hand the essence exploded out of me.

I caught his eyes widening before his body disappeared from in front of me, the impact of the kick pushed him several meters away from me, his feet digging trenches into the ground trying to stop himself... and he did.

He looked at his hand with smoke rising from the pierced skin, the world twisted around him as he cast his illusions again.

But it wasn’t useful... yeah, he’s fooling my eyes, but not my sense.

So, when he pulled back to the tree line far from the chaotic battlefield, I followed him... it wasn’t wise to leave this bastard alone.

Maybe his illusions don’t affect me... but of course they’d affect the others if he cast a wide-scale illusion.

On my way to him, I came across a girl in front of me trying to block me, with a shield in one hand and a sword in the other, she looked like a knight from the stories... I mean only a few still fight this way.

What’s the use of shields at the higher ranks?

More importantly, she was very slow, so slow that she only realized I was in front of her when my fist wrapped in essence came down on her raised shield, the explosion I made was enough to break my fingers and dent the steel like paper.

The girl flew backward, the sound of her screaming faded into the noise of the explosions, it was like a fireworks show over there.

I didn’t care whether her hand broke or not, I just rushed out of the battlefield, reaching close to the barrier of trees.

There Theo stood, with one hand covered in charred skin, and the other carrying the long sword with two sharp edges, he was putting himself in a battle stance, his essence covering the edge of the blade and making it sharper.

He smiled mockingly, but it looked like the mockery was aimed at himself.

”Tsk... bad luck for me, if only I’d known illusions don’t work on you.”