“Healer! We need a healer!”
An older, longer-haired Harner lay on the ground, three large gashes on his chest. After the Mecha Dragoon X was hijacked, Harner had taken an attack for Vlan. Despite all his training, assassins weren’t durable. However, even Vlan’s regeneration would have lost to the heavily enchanted super weapon. Blood was pooling around him, spreading like a warm, crimson blanket as the blood on his body soaked into bandages he had, for some reason, been wearing under his clothes.
The healers rushed at Vlan’s command, but none could save him. None could put him back together again. After forcibly destroying his own dragon with a massive ball of dark energy, Vlan rushed over.
Kneeling to the ground, he lifted Harner up, supporting his back with one hand.
“...I’m dead. There’s no saving me,” Harner said, as emotionless ever. Vlan felt tears pricking the corners of his eyes.
“No, w-we can fix this! We can save you! Don’t leave me! I still need you!”
Harner then did something Vlan had never seen him do. Harner genuinely smiled. To call it the brightest smile he had ever seen would be an understatement. The sheer luminescence and uncontained joy in that smile made his heart skip a beat. If Harner wasn’t a guy, then he might have even fallen for him right there.
“No, it’s too late. But, thank you. You… You always tried so hard. You genuinely cared about us… About monsters, criminals, the people that had nobody left to turn to… I think… a world ruled by you… would be a better place,” Harner cut himself off as he coughed up blood. Vlan panicked as he tried a healing spell, but Harner grabbed his arm instead.
“There’s one thing… I always wanted... to tell you… I… I’m really…”
Harner never finished the sentence. Vlan then locked himself in his Throne Room until his eventual death. He’d never forgive the boss monsters who betrayed him and used that dragon to kill his friend…
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Vlan shook his head to keep the memories away. That wasn’t his past anymore. That wouldn’t be his future. He turned his eyes back towards his supplies and checked off his mental list once more. Rations for a few days, a bedroll, a small lantern with a spare flask of oil, and a worn teddy bear that looked like it had been stabbed in the stomach.
...Sir Bearadeath was an important, wounded soldier, okay?!
He finished packing his supplies quickly and quietly. When Vlan had made it through the dungeon before, he was four years older, twenty levels higher, and even then came through it while barely clinging to life. Although monsters and puzzles would be no issue, Monster Control EX had its limits. Monsters that have been programmed, such as golems or the mechanical dragon he once stole, could not be taken over by Monster Control, no matter what rank it was. The standard line of thinking was that a combination of science and magic could only be controlled through science and magic. This was why most people chose to bash them until they stopped moving and then bash them once more for good measure.
Night fell on the village. Although most villages would fall asleep with the setting sun, Beryn Village came alive. Black-cloaked necromancers filed out of the village, excited to practice their arts. Masked men rode out of the village on horseback, using the stars to navigate through the darkness and towards their targets. Some houses were filled with screams of pain, and others of joy as new, dark secrets were created and stowed away. And the crickets, those horrible things, murdered wild dogs and bathed in their blood. Don’t mess with crickets.
“Are you sure your family will be alright with you leaving?” Vlan asked as he and Harner walked out of the village. Harner looked at him emotionlessly, like he always did.
“They weren’t, so I killed them all,” Harner replied. Vlan’s eyes widened in shock.
“R-Really?!” Vlan exclaimed. To do all that for his sake?! He was flattered! Harner shook his head.
“Kidding,” he answered. “I didn’t need to kill all of them.”
Vlan almost asked if he was kidding, but decided against it. Harner got the point across. He would follow Vlan anywhere. They were headed to a small hill outside the village. It wouldn’t take long for them to reach there. As they walked, Vlan regarded Harner.
Short brown hair kept close to the skull and a face feminine enough to be mistaken for a girl’s… Vlan had first met the assassin through his father. Of course, his father was no longer around.
One thing kept bugging Vlan. What was Harner going to say back then? He now had the chance to ask. Jeremy was still sucking on his arm, forming an odd, make-shift monster shield.
“Harner, is there anything you’re hiding from me?” Vlan asked. Harner momentarily stopped walked, but his face remained impassive.
“An assassin always hides things,” Harner answered vaguely before resuming to walk alongside Vlan. The future villain almost shrugged it off, but the thought kept lingering. Something Harner would keep as a secret until the very end...
He had no idea. Did Harner perhaps think that cape really did make him look fat?
Upon reaching the hill, they found a single, unmarked tombstone. Vlan knelt in front of it, touching it tenderly as he recalled his previous encounter with it. Last time, he’d discovered the dungeon on accident. He doubted Harner even knew about the Chrix dungeon, but Harner never was one to speak up or admit not knowing anything. For all Vlan knew, Harner could know everything about the Chrix dungeon or nothing.
Wasting no more time, Vlan kicked the tombstone over. Desecrating the resting place of the dead, committing an act of evil, was necessary. He stepped away and watched as the dirt and grass in front of the tombstone began to descend and form a set of stairs. Motioning to Harner, the two descended. In the future, the hero would discover this place and find something in there that she would eventually use against him. When he first went through, he was solely concentrated on searching for Vilucerin. This time, he’d widen his horizons a bit.
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Chrix Dungeon
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A large, circular room and a single door met them at the bottom of those seemingly infinite stairs. They had no idea how long they’d be descending, but the sheer size of the door was enough to tell them they were more than six feet under. Towering above them and reaching impossible heights was a stone door engraved with countless carvings. Some depicted heroes falling to large, cloaked figures while others were of monsters large enough to crush towns. Even more were dedicated to the staff, Vilucerin. Sometimes it was jutting out of an alter, other times a corpse.
And, standing in front of the door was a ten-foot tall knight made of steel. Thick, crimson armor made up its body and it held in its hands a hammer large enough to crush a full grown man with a single swing. This was the first guardian, the first trial one had to pass in order to enter the dungeon. Through a display of might, one could surpass the golem and prove thyself.
Of course Vlan intended to cheat.
“Those who have come, prepare for thy death. For only that shall be thine destiny of thou choosest to step forward. As a mercy, I shall take both of you at the same time. Come now, prove thyselves in the test of strength!” The golem knight roared as the stairs behind the two suddenly ascended.
A circle of torches flared to life around the room and the golem swung its hammer onto the ground, causing the very earth to shake. It was time.
“No. I will not fight you,” Vlan said with a smirk. Harner already had his knives out and was ready to kill. Upon hearing his friend’s words, Harner still kept his knives out. He would not let harm befall Vlan.
The faceless golem stopped in its tracks.
“...Are you serious?” It asked, breaking the mood it set up. “Damn it, I spent a lot of time working on this whole setup. I’ve been down here for almost two hundred years and I’ve only received a handful of challenges. Come on… I gave the speech and everything.”
Vlan shrugged.
“Sorry, but I simply do not need to fight you when I can do this,” he said as he pulled Jeremy off his arm. The slime left a thin layer of goo on his arm which, oddly enough, smelled like cinnamon.
“Do what?” The golem asked.
“Catch,” Vlan said as he threw Jeremy at the golem knight. The knight, used to taking orders, instinctively tried to grab the small monster. However, the slime was squashed between its two, gauntleted hands.
“Jeremy!” Vlan cried. “Assume control!”
The goo that splattered over the knight suddenly began to move, seeping into the golem’s joints and every small crevice it could find. The golem panicked, swinging its hammer around in a desperate act, every blow that hit the ground shaking the earth surrounding them, yet it could hit nothing. Finally, after one long minute, the golem grew still.
“Vlan… what was that?” Harner asked. Vlan smiled evilly.
“The reason I picked up Jeremy. Slimes are sentient magic in a goo-like form. The ones around our village are pure, so they lack a core. Without that weakness formed from impure mana, one might say it is nearly impossible to kill them. Jeremy is now in every part of that golem, controlling it as if it was his own body,” Vlan explained. He snapped his fingers and gave a mental order to Jeremy.
The golem knight responded by lifting its huge hammer and swinging it at the humongous doors. With an ear-shattering bang, the doors opened.
“Cheaters,” the golem said. Apparently, Jeremy had no control over that function of the golem. Vlan only smiled at the comment.
“To do things the honest way would destroy the whole point of this dungeon,” Vlan commented. After all, this was a proving ground for villains. As he and Harner passed the golem, the assassin pointed at the golem before sliding his hand underneath his neck. All enemies of Vlan would perish.
“Now, Jeremy. Dance,” Vlan ordered.
“W-What?!” The golem cried as it suddenly began swaying from side to side. It circled its arms in the air as it made meaningless steps before suddenly switching into a formal dance with an invisible partner as Vlan continued to mentally guide the slime. Vlan laughed loudly as he turned back around.
“T-This isn’t funny! I am a knight, not a dancer!” The golem roared. “Have some respect for your opponent!”
Vlan frowned. Respect? It was that sort of way of thinking that doomed him down the path that lead to his destruction. Mess with your enemy, toy with them even, but never respect them. Honor was for the weak. And weak was exactly what Vlan had been.
Upon entering the door, Vlan was greeted by a familiar sight. It was yet another large, circular room, however the entirety of the center was an humongous pit. The roars and howls of unholy beasts and enraged monsters reached up from the pit to nearly deafen both of them. Harner’s eyes twitched in surprise.
At the far end of the pit was an unreachable door that led straight to the end of the dungeon. There was also a switch next to it that would cause a bridge to form. Of course, this was just the express exit for when somebody “beat” the dungeon. However, with any luck, he could find a way to reach that door.
They glanced down. Horrifying amalgamations of man and beast, creatures of strength far surpassing anything most mortals had seen, dwelled down there. Upon descending, one could find a single hidden path that allowed them to progress forwards. However, going further through that route required killed every monster. Vlan, of course, knew that that would not do. He needed an army.
“All of you, hear me, for I am your king!” Vlan bellowed. The roaring stopped. No monster could resist him. None could oppose him.
“I desire passage forward! Who shall be my carriage?!” He shouted. Harner covered his ears.
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“Too loud. Head hurts,” Harner said tonelessly. Vlan was about to apologise when a roar came up from the pit.
“Who bloody died and made you king?! This here is a democracy!” One of the monsters from below roared. Vlan cocked an eyebrow and looked down into the pit, but it was too hard to find the source of the voice.
“I-I,” he started, his voice cracking only once, “Am the Archfiend of the future, brought back through time to correct my mistakes and create an even greater evil kingdom than before! Democracy is a lie, you fools! Join me in my kingdom of darkness!”
Saying this, Vlan would soon learn, was a mistake.
“Did you hear what he just said?! He just mocked our political system!”
“Monarchy is the way of the past! A king is nothing more than a figurehead! The true power lies in the parliament to begin with! A ruling noble class with no restraints will enslave the common population!”
“Down with the bourgeoisie, the proletariat can rule itself!”
Vlan facepalmed. Monster Control EX was the highest ranked of its kind, granting the owner of the skill absolute control over monsters. Unfortunately, it possessed a single weakness: Democracy.
“You know what?!” Vlan shouted down. “Let’s put it to a vote! We can vote for who wants to stay in this pit and be democratic, or leave and become a part of my army!” Vlan looked at Harner for approval, who gave him a silent thumbs-up.
“It is the sole duty of the mayor to summon the council in order to conduct the voting process! You don’t look like the bloody mayor to me!”
“Your sphere of influence doesn’t spread this far down! We will not be corrupted by a dictator promising diplomacy and democracy! We will not be subservient! As monsters, we have certain unalienable rights…”
The monsters continued shouting about politics. Looking back to his friend, Vlan sighed. Perhaps he was too young to do this, after all. Maybe he would have to wait a little while longer. Well, he could probably do something to fill the time, right? Train or some crap, right? But what kind of villain trained? He’d take every shortcut possible for power.
“U-Um… excuse me!”
Just as he was about to give up and go home, a voice cried out from above. Looking up, a face suddenly appeared!
“AAAAAAAH!” Vlan screamed as he leapt into Harner’s arms, who caught him with a slight widening of his eyes. Regaining his composure, Vlan looked where he had been standing. In his place was a girl close to Vlan’s age in appearance with long, violet hair that almost completely obscured her charming, purple eyes. She had a pin in her hair in the shape of a skull and even wore a black shirt that had a skeletal ribcage painted on it. Her lower body was that of a black spider’s with a white skull painted on the abdomen. Vlan coughed as he tried to get out of Harner’s arms.
Harner readjusted his grip and held Vlan still, making it nearly impossible for Vlan to escape.
“Dangerous,” Harner warned.
Coughing, Vlan asked, “To whom do I owe the… pleasure?”
“M-My na-name is Skulty!” She suddenly screamed, jittering in a combination of fear and nervousness. Harner winced and Vlan took this opportunity to escape from his arms, sending a victorious smirk back at Harner once he did so. “I will be your loyal subordinate forever, my king! Just please, grant me one wish!”
Vlan grinned. This was more like it.
“And what request would that be?” He asked sincerely as he moved closer to her. Skulty made a high-pitched squeal and suddenly leapt to the ceiling, clinging to the stone with an expression of terror on her face.
“I-I… I WANT TO BE A SKELETON KNIGHT!” She exclaimed.
…
…
…
Pure silence washed over the area. Then, the monsters in the pit began to roar with laughter.
“Same old, Skulty! Hilarious! An Arachne could never be a Skeleton Knight!”
“Spiders don’t even have skeletons inside of them! They possess exoskeletons! You’d never become that human-like Skeleton Knight!!”
“Skulty, dear, come back into the pit. It is well past your bedtime.”
Skulty glared down into the pit and yelled, “S-SHUT UP MOM AND DADS! THIS IS IMPORTANT TO ME! SKELETONS ARE THE COOLEST!”
Vlan crossed his arms and shook his head with a smile on his face. He remembered her now. Skulty Skeletorian picked her own name in an attempt to be as close to her ideal as possible. She previously tried to become the subordinate of his boss of the Undead, but was ultimately sorted into the Insectoid group. She was always a hard working, innocent and, most importantly, loyal spider girl.
He’d come down here hoping to catch another prospective subordinate, but he wouldn’t refuse her. With any luck, he could raise her to be a leader of both the Insectoid group and the Undead. The impossibility of turning a spider into a Skeleton Knight never even crossed his mind.
“Skulty, I will grant your wish,” Vlan promised as he looked up at the girl. Without any warning, she leapt at him and and embraced him with both her arms and all eight of her legs.
“Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!” She was speaking faster than ever before, suffocating him in a hug that threatened to end his life. Thankfully, she let go a few seconds later.
“A-Alright! Make me into a Skeleton Knight!” She cried as she spread her arms wide open. Vlan scratched his head.
“It’s not that easy… Once I’m back at full power, we can begin the process. For now, I need help getting across the pit so I can regain that power and become the ULTIMATE EVIL ONCE MORE, HAHAHAHAHAHAH,” Vlan explained before losing it a little bit. Skulty frowned, but nodded regardless. Turning to have her back face the pit, she extended a hand towards Vlan.
“L-Let’s go, m-m-ma-.... boss,” Skulty said, blushing intensely every time she tried to say ‘master’. This would be so exciting! Skeletons never needed to eat or drink! They were the purest existence! People looked different on the outside, but skeletons were all the same! They were equal! They were ideal! THEY. WERE. AWESOME. And the most powerful type of skeleton was the Skeleton Knight... her goal. Her dream…
As soon as Vlan grabbed her hand, she shot a web from her abdomen across the pit, pulling him and her across the pit in a single movement. Vlan didn’t have a chance to utter a scream as the sudden lurch forward stole his breath away. They landed roughly, with her hitting the wall next to the door and losing a grip on Vlan, sending him sprawling frighteningly close to the edge.
“Careful,” Harner said as he suddenly appeared between Vlan and the edge of the pit. Vlan looked up at his minion friend and smiled. It was good to have somebody dependable under him. Something then dropped from Harner’s shoulder, landing on Vlan’s face.
The villain screamed as his face was encased in the lovable, huggable slime: Jeremy. Skulty, unable to stifle her laughter, fell over on the ground hugging her sides. Harner frowned as he tried to pry the slime off of Vlan.
From across the pit, the knight golem sighed.
“This next generation… I’m not quite sure if they’ll live up to the name,” he said aloud. Despite the foolishness of the group, he saw something in Vlan. A hint of true cleverness, a seed of villainy. Perhaps, if it was this group…
Vlan could surpass the rank of Archfiend and become a true Demon King.
Or he’d fail to get the slime off his head and die here.
The golem shrugged. Maybe his judgement was beginning to fail him.
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Somewhere Far Away
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11 year-old Alize Stratus fumbled, tripping over her own feet and dropping the clothes all over the stone floor. Tears filled her blue eyes as she frantically tried to stop herself from crying. She was a big girl! She stopped wetting the bed last week, ever since she decided to become a squire to Sir Bardroy. The heroic archer was everything she strived to be. Cool, confident, and powerful. He was a hero.
Ever since he saved her village from those orcs, she followed him around like a small puppy (and what kind of awful person could refuse, or even kick, a puppy). Seemingly against his will, he accepted her. She brushed her blond locks out of her eyes and got back on her feet.
The palace’s stone halls were decorated with all manner of carpet, banister and painting. Everything felt luxurious and not an expense was spared to ensure that guests in this place were welcome. Sir Bardroy was visiting with the king and she had very little time before he got back to do his laundry.
As she continued her journey, she heard voices coming from around the corner.
“And he dared to scoff at my appearance! Mine! I am beauty, am I not?!”
“Yes, mistress. You are the very meaning of the word.”
Two females rounded the corner. The first one Alize saw was the maid who soothed the other woman, her short, black hair barely moving as she gracefully strode the the halls. The other was a sight that Alize had seen on the gold coins Sir Bardroy handled. She was the crown princess, Edna Mayvenyan Aster. As for her appearance…
Meh.
She was kinda okay. Her brown hair was a little too stringy, her shoulders a little too square, her eyes just a bit too far apart. Who was Alize kidding? The princess was ugly. Ever since they put her face on the gold coin, the demand for previously minted coins skyrocketed, instantly devaluing any coin with her face on it. Certainly, if prepared right, her face might get a passing score…
Alize shook her head. No. That face looked like cricket poopy. Foul and undeserving to belong in this world. The maid had lied and Alize, filled with JUSTICE, felt a very distinctive urge to correct her. Heroes had to be righteous. Heroes could never lie. Aliza walked over to the approaching princess and bowed her head.
“What is it, servant girl?” The princess asked, mildly annoyed by the obstacle in her way. Aliza raised her head.
“She lied. You’re an ugly bitch,” she said, mirroring what Sir Bardroy had said to describe the woman. Ugly was a word she understood, but Aliza didn’t quite get the meaning of the second one. Maybe it was another name for a princess?
Seeing the princess clench her hands and grit her teeth, Aliza felt happy to have allowed the princess to see the truth. It was no good to have liars working for you. Maybe she’d fire that maid? Aliza was heartbroken over the girl losing her job, but hopefully she would be able to repent one day.
Ah, Aliza was truly on the path of becoming a great hero one day.
“WHAT DID YOU SAY, YOU DAMN COMMONER?!”
...Yep, she’d be the greatest hero.
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A/N: Is this story a comedy? Is it serious? In my opinion, it's a mix of both. It will get serious later on and it will have serious parts currently, but I don't want to write an angsty edgefest. This is an adventure. A villain's journey to becoming all he can be. He'll fall, he'll struggle, he'll meet an odd assortment of friends and minions, but, in the end, I hope to show a character develop to be more than he currently is. What exactly that means, I'll leave to your interpretation.
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