Reincarnated as the Final Villain's Vessel

Chapter 273: A Pinch on the Cheek

It was a busy evening in the Hanging Islands... busy enough that the recording and editing room turned into chaos for a few minutes.

Four big battles broke out with the sunset of that day, and all of them exciting enough to bring in tens of millions of views when they’re published.

It looked like a waste of promotion for all of them to happen at once like this, which forced them to put them in one clip for that day.

Silas’s strategy of luring part of the fractured Erebus into his trap, by tricking them with a fake message from one of their teammates so they ended up surrounded at the edge of the island.

With one bridge behind them and an empty sky welcoming any slipping foot, Erebus was in a deadly position with a strong enemy surrounding them... after all nobody denied Silas’s ability to turn their bodies into his own, turning them into weapons working for him, let alone the dozens of people who’d fight with him.

So, among the four battles, that was the most chaotic and bloody... because within a few minutes part of the island itself was wiped out under the clash of dozens of Awakened.

In the end it was obvious Erebus lost there, some of them barely got a chance to escape, only to be chased by Luminar, like they’re little rats being hunted.

And as an expected result of a miniature war, Luminar didn’t come out clean either and got some eliminations, but not many compared to the enemy.

And led by Silas, they split up, claiming every piece of land Erebus left behind them on this side.

And up above led by his sister was a small team, aiming to purge a path to the higher levels, attacking the island at the western end, alone on every side except the eastern one that connects to Caius’s island.

And of course, the choice of timing and target wasn’t random, Riven’s movements were coordinated by Silas who’d gotten information a day before that, spotting Theo moving in a certain pattern, and with some thinking, he worked out his target being the island Caius controls.

It happened to be the one next to Emeris... or maybe it wasn’t a coincidence, he just gave them something to bite so he wouldn’t get bitten from two sides.

At roughly the same time, on the other side, Dana was splitting off from her group and climbing to cut Solaria’s lands off from each other... but by chance Theo knew, after he’d stolen one of their bracelets... and as the other one knew, Silas knew too.

It was an organized chaos, built on layers of watching and movements, each aiming to force its own outcome on everyone.

But what was the outcome... Riven losing miserably and escaping to the fourth level through the anchor she’d placed, and because of Riven’s quick loss Emeris was able to support Caius who was about to fall, turning a certain loss into a crushing win, only Theo got a chance to escape from there.

On the other side, Dana partly succeeded, before Elliot appeared, who’d been positioned on the island closest to them... and surprising everyone he crushed them with brute force, removing twenty people from the equation.

With the moon appearing in the dark sky, the results of those clashes appeared on the screens of the people inside the safe lands.

Even though Solaria was attacked from three fronts at the same time, it wasn’t the most damaged, the total eliminated from their side was only 16... and none of the notable members were in that number.

After them comes Luminar losing 18 people, and Riven injured, then Auerlion with 21 eliminations, on top of the fall of one of their pillars, Dana.

Finally with 37 members from Erebus, counting both those who followed Theo and those who fell at Silas’s hands, more than a third of what they had... by every standard, it was a harsh slap in the face that might change the way they think in the coming days.

All of this will be seen by the people of the four Empires tomorrow, after the footage is taken care of and published... but a lot of other eyes had already seen it.

Whether those stationed at the fortress, or far away separated by thousands of kilometers.

...

Gross, what a gross feeling, strange.

I sat on a fallen tree trunk, it was high enough to let my legs hang, and it was nothing but one of those trees that collapsed in my fight with Theo at the edge of the forest.

A few hours had passed since the fight ended, Emeris had already left and gone back to her island after giving support, then there’s this destruction that wiped out this part of the island.

Everywhere as far as the eye could see, the purple grass had disappeared and been replaced by blocks of black mud, dozens of craters were spread everywhere like a rain of small meteors had landed there.

A whole part of the island collapsed and fell... well compared to its full size it was nothing, but the results of this battle had still turned our camp to dust.

”Ah!... ah, slowly please!” A few meters away from me Ivan groaned with the tears gathering at the corners of his eyes, threatening to fall at any moment.

Bent over near him was the blonde healer, holding his arm and wrapping her hands around the big wound while a beautiful white glow covered her palm... her skin was pale, the result of hours of healing the others.

Our number that had been eleven had shrunk to only 7 now... all that was left was Garon, Valia, Ivan, Sarah and the healer plus one other person... it was a big loss, but it was bigger for Erebus.

All of them had already received treatment, lying on the ground on a temporary bed of exhaustion, as for me I was fine, I didn’t need her treatment because my body was fine.

So why do I feel gross?

First because of the miserable loss, and this feeling was mental and not physical... a blow to that wonderful ego I’d been growing.

Second, is the cold that settled in my chest... and this wasn’t physical either, it was much deeper than that, not painful enough to affect me, but it leaves me not comfortable at all.

Let’s hope this goes away in the coming hours, because it’s obvious there are other battles waiting for us in the near future, after all this was nothing but the end of the tenth day.

It’s great to hear that Elliot removed the unexpected threat on their side, and it’s obvious that Auerlion or maybe all the groups don’t know much about the range of his abilities... well he was hidden from the spotlight the whole past year.

And now there was nothing to do but sit and listen to someone crying while he gets treated, luckily, it looked like Valia had gotten fed up as she pulled at her short black hair, like she was about to tear it out before she got up and stuffed a lump of dirty cloth into Ivan’s mouth, oh... which turned out to be her dirty shirt... wonderful.

Doesn’t matter, maybe I would’ve laughed at him in normal times, but now I couldn’t do that.

So, while everyone was still awake and had some energy to get through the night, I decided I needed some sleep, maybe this would speed up the cold feeling in my chest going away.

I’d combed part of the island and never felt Theo, so it’s obvious he made his way down or up... but since he’s the only one who survived it’s impossible for him to attack again, especially since his illusions don’t work on me, and I know his second ability now.

So yeah, I set up my tent and went into sleep... unexpectedly I fell asleep fast.

...

”Huh?... how many times have I told you—” It was a soft voice, like a pure melody, but the anger made it sharp as a blade. ”Don’t touch everything your little hand reaches, and out of all things, don’t put it in your mouth!”

A soft hand reached out to my cheek, it looked gentle, but instead of tenderness her fingers wrapped around the curve of my face, pinching me hard which made me want to cry. ”Ah... no... sor—”

The pinch tightened until the black card slipped out of my hand, letting it fall to the ground with a quiet sound, while she came close to my ear. ”Which part of this don’t you understand... tell me! Give me a reason not to hang you on one of my shelves... or maybe put you in a glass cage.” And because she was close to my small ear her punishing voice got sharper.

She pulled at my small cheek without mercy, until the tears gathered in my eyes, and I couldn’t help but cry like the little child I was.