The Villain's Apocalypse-Chapter 37: Consequences

Chapter 37: Consequences

Time seemed to have frozen still under the influence of Genesis’s might, halting the entire war temporarily. The two divine-rank individuals, Uravis and Valegrith, blanked out, their eyes widening with shocked expressions visible on their faces.

Woosh-!

The first to react was Valegrith, whose body dropped down and landed on the surface of the golden sun, erupting his entire body with massive flames. A bone-chilling scream reverberated across the battlefield, sending a shiver down everyone present there, whether they were from Vrahans or Zheraths. His body burned brightly under the immense heat, causing his skin to melt away first.

Due to being a divine-rank individual, his endurance and willpower were beyond the mortal limit, surpassing even geniuses of similar strength. Sadly, the sun flames burning his body were far from any ordinary power—it was a power created through a cosmic treasure.

The sun erupted even more, channeling every ounce of its power to burn this lowly creature that dared to challenge its might. Pitiful screams mixed with agonizing pain tearing through his body caused Valegrith to lose his sanity completely, turning into a soulless puppet with a single desire flashing within those empty eyes—death.

However, just as he was about to turn into ashes after being completely engulfed by the flames, a new change appeared on the battlefield.

Across the starry skies, countless cracks started to form, appearing like a broken piece of a mirror. Uravis glanced at those cracks, having a vague premonition about what was currently happening around them. His tightly clenched hands loosened up, and the aura around him changed, returning to his usual aloof nature.

"This time, it seems we have a clever challenger." Uravis smiled, turning toward the direction of the unusual mana fluctuation.

His eyes easily caught Cassian’s figure, a deliberate flaw Cassian had knowingly ignored, understanding that it was impossible to hide from the great Magus Elementus himself.

His eyes flickered in surprise as he sensed a familiarity within Cassian’s bloodline.

"It seems fate has its own plans."

His thoughts stopped abruptly as the shadow of a massive silver-scaled serpent became visible through those cracks. The serpent’s reptilian eyes bore down on Uravis, attempting to intimidate him through its own might.

"Genesis? I see..." He nodded, his eyes shining with recognition. The Uravis trapped in this pitiful illusion was a shadow of his true self, repeating countless illusions with a single mission in his mind—a worthy inheritor of his legacy.

"Child of the Sun, you’ve truly amazed me with your cleverness," he whispered, continuing, "You truly are the descendant of ’Him.’ How unexpected...I thought he would die alone without leaving anything behind, but it seems I was wrong."

His voice slowly turned ethereal as the silver serpent glared at him with its menacing eyes.

"I don’t have much time left, so...congratulations on passing through the trial."

Marking those final words, the silver serpent finally tore down the illusion, causing everything from battle, war, soldiers, etc., all to vanish like a finger snap. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Cassian just stared at Uravis’s visage with confusion etched over his face.

"Did he say something? I couldn’t really hear him due to this bastard draining the entire energy within my body. I swear he was doing this deliberately!" He muttered a few curses at the sword that was peacefully hanging on his waist.

[He praised you.]

"Hmm... you sound quite fishy. I don’t know if I should trust you." He narrowed his eyes, suspiciously looking at the system panel.

[...]

Sigh~

"Whatever." He shrugged it off, glancing around the empty void he found himself in after completely destroying the illusion. His eyes were still distant, wondering about the words that Uravis said before vanishing.

"I should have paid more attention." He muttered, recalling information about Uravis from his memories. One piece of information, in particular, was still stuck in his mind.

"It’s still crazy how he plotted for millennia simply to find a worthy inheritor for his beloved weapon. I feel there is more to it than what meets the eye. Hey System, what do you think? Is he still alive?" He asked, sensing some uneasiness enshrouding him.

[...]

Tch.

"Useless as always."

He clicked his tongue with annoyance, finding the system more useless than usual nowadays. It seemed something had gone amiss with the system after his encounter with Genesis, but he couldn’t pinpoint the exact details, nor could he force the system to talk about it since it was an entity beyond his comprehension.

He ignored the random messages popping in front of his eyes and noticed a sudden shift in space around him.

Twist—!

His body blurred out and returned to the massive hall, the same hall where he was resting before the beginning of the trial. The hall still looked magnificent at a glance, but the mana permeating through the air felt quite lackluster—as if something had siphoned a massive chunk of mana from here.

"Where is the fairy?"

His question was answered instantly as a tiny fairy appeared before his eyes, hovering silently using its cute butterfly-like wings.

"You passed the trial?!" She exclaimed, her mouth wide open from the shock she felt watching him standing before her eyes. She had tweaked the trial a little to make it difficult, but looking at the result, she instinctively rubbed her eyes.

He had scored a perfect score and successfully destroyed the illusion, a monumental task for someone like him—a star-rank individual.

"How did you do it?!" Her eyes sparkled brightly with curiosity. She circled around him and started pestering him with her questions.

"Can you see this?" He asked, pointing toward the Genesis that was tugged gently on his waist.

"What? Am I supposed to see something?" Ara replied confusingly, earning a smile from him.

’Guess not.’

"Anyway, I’ve completed the trial, so where are my rewards?" He spread his arms, a smirk slowly stretching across his lips.

"R-Rewards? Yes, there are rewards!" Ara swiftly vanished and seconds later, reappeared with countless objects floating around her.

"Here, this is Uravis’s Grimoire—a book that holds almost all of his knowledge and enlightenment regarding mana." She placed an intricate leather-bound book before him, proudly explaining its usage.

"Not this. Show me the real reward."

"R-Real? Oh right! This is the Slavein Robe—the robe worn by Uravis himself during his long journey. It’s a powerful artifact with countless features such as mana amplification, presence-hiding, auto-repair, etc., and many more that you can unlock after increasing your rank. This will suit you perfectly." She flashed a smile, holding the robe gently above her.

Cassian felt annoyed at her repeated attempts to scam him out of his original reward. He lifted his finger and pointed toward the far end. "Bring that thing out."

Ara immediately froze after hearing his words. She could naturally see what he was pointing at, as it was the most overpowered artifact among those she’d brought before him.

"W-What can you even do with a staff? You’re a swordsman, so naturally, a sword like this would be fitting to your needs." She quickly brought out a long, sleek-looking katana with a dark blade on it.

Her attempts to distract him from the reward were quite cute, but Cassian was having none of it.

"Of course, it won’t be useful for now, but after learning the way of a magus, it will surely be helpful to me, right?"