The Villain Is Destined to Die: But as the Creator, I know All Endings-Chapter 240: Day - 2: Better do what she says...

Slowly the cracks on Bronze’s body multiplied.

His eyes, his nose, his ears, and every region of his body was on the verge of coming apart, it was dissolving at the edges like paper left too long in water.

Leon remained kneeling and looked into those emerald pupils one last time.

They met him.

Leon still had several questions sitting unasked in his throat. It felt to him as if this person had known. He had known about what had happened to him, he had known about his existence in this world, about Shin’s fragmented memory inside him, about things Leon himself had only begun to suspect.

Before he could think it through, his hand moved on its own.

He reached into his dimension and pulled out a [Drop of Limitless].

’Haru? What are you doing?’

Rumi’s voice came as startled. Leon ignored her.

He opened it and poured it carefully over Bronze’s lips.

He waited.

"...?"

Nothing happened.

He reached in again, pulled out another one. Poured it the same way.

Nothing happened.

"...!!"

Again... And again... And again.

"...Why?"

Leon’s lips trembled as the word came out, muffled and low, barely a sound at all.

No matter how many he used, nothing was being restored. Nothing was closing. The cracks kept spreading in silence as if they had not noticed anything being poured into them at all.

Maybe it was not enough. Maybe he needed more.

"Maybe... few more—"

"Haru!! Stop!!"

Leon’s hand stilled.

He listened to her this time.

"Rumi." His voice became quieter than he intended. "What did he mean by that? How did he know about me? The Creator? I need to ask him, I need to—"

’It is not going to work.’

She said, ’His soul. It is already gone.’

"His soul?"

Leon looked down at Bronze’s body, or at what remained of it.

The clothes were intact, as if whatever had consumed him had known exactly where to stop. But beyond that, where the man had been, there was only black powder and the faint suggestion of human shape. Few half dissolved bones, organs that had already begun returning to nothing. And still, despite all of it, a glow, black and purple still remained sitting together in the hollow where his mana core had been.

Leon stared at it.

The core had been completely consumed by his own body. By all logic, a core of that density burning out that fast should have taken half the ship with it. Should have taken the sea around them as well.

Leon had no explanation for why it hadn’t, except that somehow, in the last moments, Bronze’s body had held it.

He had never seen anything like this.

He had never even imagined anything like this was possible.

’His soul has left the body,’ Rumi said again. ’It has gone to the higher realm. To the Astral Domain.’

’It is impossible to bring back a man whose soul has already gone there. Even with a hundred more of those drops, Haru. There is nothing left here to save.’

It took him a few seconds. Leon glanced at the ashes before standing up.

He voiced his words out and asked Rumi.

"Rumi, did you—"

’I did not.’ Rumi answered him before he even finished.

"..alright."

He used his skill, and returned back to Lumina’s face and body.

Still holding the Moonblade, Leon looked around the room.

Unlike before, it was quiet, even the waves were a little less gentle. The two captains were on the ground, unconscious.

Leon walked up to them. He checked both of their pulses.

"...they are alive." Then he glanced to their left, and found a bottle of wine.

Leon picked it up, before examining it briefly. It was a vintage wine, a premium one.

He opened the cap. Then without hesitation, and without any particular expression on his face, he upended half the bottle directly over the first captain’s head.

The man sputtered awake immediately, flailing, and grabbing at nothing.

Leon was already moving to the second one.

"Bhaaa–?!"

The second captain sat bolt upright with a sound that was half scream and half confusion, the wine still running down his collar, he for some reason even tasted it.

Both of them stared up at Leon, then looked behind him, trying to locate the threat they had apparently just survived.

Leon set the bottle down on the desk.

"Get up," he said flatly to both of the captains. "We need to talk about where this ship is going next." 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

The two captains looked at each other.

Then without any further delay they both scrambled to their feet and stood at attention, the wine was still dripping from their hair.

"Y-Yes ma’am!"

Leon spoke in Lumina’s voice, he made it sound calm and unhurried, as if the last hour had been nothing more than a walk in the park for her.

"Set the ship to five degrees south. Fourteen more kilometres, and wait for my next command."

Both captains were drained. It was visible in every line of their faces, in the way they moved, in the way neither of them asked a single question before turning to follow the order.

They had watched the pirates die, they had watched it happen with their own eyes, up close, at the hands of power that had no name in any category they had been trained to recognise. And then they had woken up on the floor of their own cabin with wine in their eyes and a white haired woman standing over them looking completely unbothered by all of it.

Questioning her was not something either of them was prepared to do. So, they got to work. The communication devices were already damaged.

Leon reached into his dimension and pulled out an envelope. It has no name on the front.

He held it out to the nearest captain without looking at him.

The captain took it carefully.

"A letter?" he asked, turning it over once. "What is it for?"

Leon looked at him.

"Give it to Ayaka," he said simply, in Lumina’s voice. "And tell her exactly this. "You owe me big. Do not forget.""

"..."

"..."

Both captains went very pale.

The one holding the envelope looked down at it. Then back up at the white haired woman standing in front of him. Then sideways at his partner, who was looking back at him with the same expression of quiet alarm.

This woman had just addressed Lady Ayaka Rudward by her first name.

Not even by her family name. And in the same tone someone might use to remind a friend about a borrowed book.

And the way she said it, It sounded considerably worse than that.

"U-Understood," the captain said. His voice came out steadier than he felt.

He tucked the envelope into his coat with both hands and decided, firmly and permanently, that he would deliver it exactly as instructed and never think about any of this again.

Leon turned around and walked toward the door. But before stepping out he paused.

He looked one last time at the place where Bronze had been.

The black powder. The faint glow that had already begun to fade. The hollow where something ancient and exhausted had finally chosen to stop holding itself together.

"This cycle belongs to me now," Leon muttered.

The words came out quieter than he intended. He was not sure who he was saying them to. Maybe to the ashes. Maybe to himself.

He bit his lip.

Then stepped out.

"Hey, are you alright?!"

The voice hit him the moment he cleared the doorway.

Leon turned toward it and found Ethan rushing down the deck toward the captain’s room, blade still drawn, he looked like a man who had made several very fast decisions in a very short amount of time. Just behind him Cyan was keeping pace, both of them sweating, both of them wearing the particular expression of people who had talked themselves into doing something they had been told not to do.

They stopped when they spotted Leon.

Ethan’s eyes swept over him quickly, checking for damage out of habit.

"What are you two doing here?" Leon asked, looking between them. "I told you not to come out before your task was done."

Cyan pointed at Ethan immediately.

"He said there was a demon inside the captain’s room."

"Ah."

Leon understood now. He glanced at Ethan.

"What happened in here?" Ethan asked. "I sensed an insane amount of dark mana coming from that direction. Was there an arch demon?"

His eyes moved across Leon’s face and body. He had no injuries.

"No need to worry about it now," Leon replied. "It is already dead."

"Dead?!" Cyan straightened. "You killed a demon?"

Leon nodded once.

Ethan leaned slightly to the side, trying to get a look past Leon into the cabin. The two captains were at their posts. Neither of them spoke, and were sailing the ship. Both of them behaved exactly like people who had decided that efficiency was their best remaining personality trait.

"What rank was it?" Ethan asked.

"It did not announce its rank," Leon said. "But based on the output they displayed, I would say... somewhere close to white core."

Cyan stared at him.

"The heck? And you killed it alone?"

Then something crossed his face and he nodded slowly to himself.

"Right. I keep forgetting how vulnerable they are to light mana."

Leon looked at him for a moment. Then exhaled quietly through his nose.

"The ship will sail where we need it to now," Leon said, turning and walking out before pulling the door closed behind him.

Ethan nodded.

"Understood. We will talk about what happened here after we reach the destination. Now is not the time, we might get attack by these pirate ships." He glanced to his side.

"Cyan, give it here."

Cyan nodded and passed him a hand sized box without a word.

Ethan took it and held it out to Leon. "Here. The thing you asked for."

Leon’s eyes dropped to the box.

"You already finished your task."

He took it and opened it.

"Yeah, it was easier than you made it sound," Ethan said. "With Cyan helping me, it became a walk in the park. And before time, it was done."

He paused. "But how did you know this ship had that in here? You know, this could be a national treasure."

Leon grinned, and looked down at the Elven core sitting inside the box.

He picked it up, turned it once between his fingers, and glanced at Ethan, and said—

"It’s elementary, my dear Watson."

.

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[A/N: Support with Power Stone. If we hit 100 PS in 24 hours, then --> 2 extra Chapters]