I Am The Game's Villain

"I've… never seen something like this."

Crenan stood frozen in front of the glowing monitor, a nervous, twitching smile pulling at his lips. There was a strange mix in his expression—shock, disbelief, and an almost childlike glee that made my skin crawl. He was thrilled. Not in a good way. The kind of thrill a butcher gets when he finds a particularly rare animal to cut open.

When the scan finally powered down with a faint hum, the cylinder slid open with a hiss, and I stepped out, still sitting on the bed. Crenan turned toward me slowly, smiling like he'd just won the lottery.

"We'll need to run further investigations," he said. "We might need to remove your armor. Just a quick look—"

He reached for my chest plate with a gloved hand.

I caught his wrist mid-motion, my fingers curling around his forearm.

I knew that look in his eyes. It wasn't curiosity. It was vivisection-level obsession. He wasn't going to study me—he was going to tear me apart to see what made me tick.

Without another word, I reached up, grabbed the spiraled horn jutting from his forehead… and twisted.

-CRACK!

A wet crack echoed through the room as the horn shattered in my grip. Blood burst from his forehead in wild jets, veins bulging like they were trying to escape his skull.

"ARGHHHHH!!!" Crenan screamed, his face contorted into pure agony as he stumbled backward, hands clawing at the place where his precious horn had once been.

"What—what the hell is happening?!"

"Catch him! Don't let him escape!"

The room exploded into chaos.

Technicians and guards scrambled into action. I dropped from the scan platform. My boots hit the floor just as I launched a brutal side-kick into Crenan's gut.

-BAM!

He flew across the room, slamming into a row of glowing monitors and shattering them into sparking debris. He slumped in the wreckage, coughing blood and whimpering.

"C–Call reinforcements!"

Too late.

"Anathemas Fire," I whispered.

A ring of purple flame ignited instantly, sputtering to life across every machine, console, and server tower in the lab. Screams rose as the flames devoured data and steel alike, the fire licking across circuit boards with eerie hunger. They couldn't recover anything from this now.

One panicked man tried to run for the door. I'd already sealed it.

The second he touched the handle, a blossom of purple fire surged up his arm. He shrieked as the blaze engulfed him, his body reduced to a collapsing heap of ash in seconds. His scream echoed through the now-dead-silent lab.

The others stepped back, frozen in a mix of horror and awe, too afraid to move, too shocked to think.

My eyes locked on the desk near the scanner—on a neat pile of papers still untouched by fire.

The scan results.

I strode over, the flames parting for me, and snatched up the pages. My eyes darted across them, page after page of anatomical data—charts, scans, biometrics, even neurological patterns. I could barely make sense of most of it, but the images… the images told a story.

One page in particular stopped me cold.

A scan of my brain.

Or rather… what shouldn't have been there.

"What the hell…?" I muttered, staring.

There was something embedded in the core of my brain. Not physically—no chip or object. It was more like… a second structure, superimposed over the original. Like a shadow brain, layered on top.

It looked organic.

It looked alive.

And it wasn't human.

No wonder Crenan looked like he'd seen a god. Or a devil.

My amber eyes stayed fixed on the pages in front of me—blank, unmoved, not even a flicker of emotion breaking the surface. The papers trembled in my grip, crumpling at the corners as my fingers slowly tightened, heat pulsing from my palm as I hovered on the edge of turning them to ash.

"Nihil…" I muttered under my breath.

I didn't need to flip through every page or overanalyze the content. The stench of his work was all over it. That bastard had done something to me—I knew it already but I didn't know what exactly, not yet, but it was there.

Later, I'd ask Cleenah. When I had the time. When I could breathe. But that moment hadn't arrived yet. Right now, everything was far from peaceful.

Sliding the documents into the spatial ring on my finger, I turned toward Crenan. He was slumped over on the floor, coughing and convulsing, barely able to hold in the bile and pain twisting through him.

"Y-You…" He choked out in pain. "Ugh… Who are you? How—"

"Where is Medusa?" I cut him off coldly.

He looked up at me through half-lidded, bloodshot eyes—and grinned. Painful, broken laughter escaped his throat.

"Ahah… So that's it," He rasped. "You came here to kill her? What a shame. She would've loved to dissect you. I could've wrapped you up as a little present for her…"

I didn't reply. He wasn't worth it.

Turning away, I spotted a lab coat draped carelessly over the back of a chair. A stitched-on name tag read someone forgettable. I slipped it on, buttoning it slowly, pulling on a pair of gloves.

Then I walked to the metal door at the far end of the room. Pressing my hand against the cold surface, I whispered, "Anathemas Fire."

The door slid shut behind me with a quiet click.

Inside, a soft purple glow bloomed. Then the heat came—an inferno swallowing everything behind that door. No screams escaped. Not even a whisper. The walls were soundproofed, reinforced, a fortress of silence meant to protect secrets. Instead, it became a tomb.

Down the corridor, life continued as if nothing had happened. White coats shuffled. Voices muttered. Machines hummed. Not a single head turned.

I kept walking, but my mind wasn't with my feet.

That image. That cursed image. It kept flashing through my thoughts like a warning etched in my brain. My heart thudded harder, each beat louder than the last. What was it? Why was it in my file? And more importantly… what was it meant to do?

I barely noticed where I was going, until a hand wrapped around my arm.

I blinked. It was Roda.

"Where are you headed?" She whispered.

"Did you destroy it?" I asked her.

"Yes," she nodded. "But someone's bound to find out. We're running out of time."

I paused, my voice dropping slightly. "Roda… I killed Crenan. And everyone else in that room. Sooner or later, someone's going to notice. And even if we somehow manage to take out Medusa, one of these lab rats will slip a message to Behemoth outside. If that happens, the element of surprise is gone. We're screwed."

We both stood there for a second, not saying anything. We already knew the truth. The plan was never solid. It was stitched together with desperation and guesswork.

Roda looked at me. "Who cares? If we take Medusa out, we'll cripple their entire operation. That's worth the risk, Edward."

The core objective of our mission had always been clear: weaken them. Break their power from within. And there was no question—killing Medusa would deal a massive blow. She wasn't just a cog in their machine; she was the entire engine room.

But…

A darker thought stirred in me.

"What if we killed everyone here?" I asked suddenly.

Roda blinked, caught completely off guard. "W–What?"

I turned to her seriously. "I mean it. What if we didn't just stop at Medusa? What if we wiped this entire place clean? Every single one of them. No survivors. No one left to sound the alarm. Even if Behemoth sends someone to check in, it'll take time. And that time could be the edge we need."

She stared at me, blinking again like she was trying to figure out whether she misheard me or if I'd finally lost my mind. "You want to kill… everyone?"

"Is that so wrong?" I asked, defending myself. "You've seen what they're doing here. You've seen what they're capable of. These people in their white coats—they're not innocent. They're not civilians. They're cogs in the machine that's about to roll over your country. Every single one of them could be responsible for the death of a man, a woman… a child."

I didn't flinch when I said it. It wasn't guilt that clung to my throat—it was clarity.

Roda fell silent for a few seconds, just watching me with her white eyes so reminiscent of Celeste and Nevia.

"Did something happen?" Roda asked me.

"What?" I blinked, caught off guard this time.

"You look different. Agitated. Like something got to you back there. That guy—did he say something? Do something?"

"You think I'm suggesting mass murder because I'm in a bad mood?" I asked with a laugh.

"No, not at all," she said quickly. "But we have priorities, Edward. We didn't come here to play exterminator. We came for Medusa, remember?"

I let out a slow breath and clenched my fists. "Yeah… yeah, you're right. Sorry. I got carried away. First Medusa. Did you find her?"

Roda nodded, her expression brightening a little. "Yeah, and we got lucky. She's here—somewhere deeper inside. Follow me."

With that, she turned and started walking briskly down the corridor. I fell into step beside her. A few scientists gave us passing glances, but nothing more. Just mild curiosity—nothing like suspicion.

We were ghosts in plain sight.

Apparently, the idea of two intruders boldly strolling around their lab like they owned the place was so absurd, it hadn't even crossed anyone's mind. Then again, Roda and I weren't your average intruders.

"Keep your guard up," Roda saidquietly as we turned a corner. "Medusa is more dangerous than anyone here. Don't underestimate her, not even for a second."

I glanced sideways at her. "Are you sure you're in good enough shape to fight?"

She gave me a crooked grin. "I'm strong enough to help. Don't worry about me. Worry about yourself. You ready for this?"

She didn't know exactly what I was capable of—not yet. But she'd seen enough to trust that I could hold my own. The fact that she even agreed to this plan told me she knew I wasn't some rookie stumbling into a death match.

Still, she asked.

And I answered with a nod. "Let's kill her."