Reborn as the Fated Villain

Fay, Imryll, and Walter watched Damien casually sit in his seat as if the battle going on outside was of no concern. Despite the soundproofing, the clang of swords, the smashing of bones, and the screams of the dying soldiers outside caused them all to flinch.

Imryll's knuckles turned white from gripping the parchment of Luna Runes a little too tightly. She kept looking between the parchment and Damien. She was sure she could escape with her Spatial magic, but would the princess forgive her if she left behind a man who could read runes? Not only did he know Luna runes, but he was a vital person for the world of magic as a whole.

The car rocked slightly as another full-plated elf was slammed into its side as he died to a ghoul's swipe.

Damien seemed completely calm on the outside, with perfect posture, relaxed breathing, and undisturbed eyes. However, this was all a fake facade due to his [Noble Aura] trait, which forced him to act composed in all situations.

He was, in fact, rather terrified. He had fought ghouls before and likely this exact necromancer in a previous playthrough. Furthermore, he knew how to win and planned to. Not only that, he was glad his body was showing no reaction, but his human soul was struggling with seeing so much death and the grotesque appearance of the ghouls ripping the elves apart.

In the game such a scene was common, but now the stench of blood and their terrified screams were all the more real. In fact, he could even die here.

They had pale yellow skin that was cracked in places, allowing these little black bugs to enter the ghouls, rotting flesh freely and scuttering around below the skin. Even the smell of the ghouls had filled the car. Flies surrounded the bodies in swarms, and Damien even saw a bird with purple feathers land on the shoulder of a zombie and rip its ear off before greedily swallowing it.

Damien was even suspicious that his [Germaphobe] trait was about to ascend because of how badly his body was acting up. He wanted to step outside and help the elves; he really did, but his body refused.

"It's filthy outside."

"Let the livestock die for you."

"Resting in here is much more relaxing than fighting, right? Just sleep."

The battle continued. Eventually, enough elves had died that they broke formation. The car became surrounded and began shaking constantly from the zombies' assault.

Damien's expression became worse and worse. All his traits suddenly switched their opinions now that the battle had come so close.

"THE FILTHY THINGS ARE COMING! KILL THEM QUICKLY!!!"

"THEY DARE TO DISTURB OUR SLEEP?"

"HOW CAN WE CONCENTRATE WITH ALL THIS SHAKING?"

Damien just let out a deep sigh. I'm going to become schizophrenic at this rate. I really need to get more control over this body…

Damien spoke for the first time since this entire battle started. "Imryll."

The girl whipped her head around and answered, "Yes, Master?"

Walter gave her an odd look. Why is she calling him master?

"Sigh…don't call me master in front of others. Now I must kill this guy."

"Oh, sorry…" Imryll responded, her eyes turning from red back to green.

Walter's face paled. "No, Sir Damien, I heard nothing…"

Ignoring Walter's protest, Damien continued, "Imryll, would the princess gift me this car if I defeated the ghouls and saved the captain and maybe even some of the elves?"

Imryll thought deeply for a moment. "The captain is her cousin, so she would likely gift you handsomely, but the car is quite a tall ask…"

Damien sighed again. "How unfortunate. Guess there's no use for you then, Walter," he said with a sad look.

The poor water mage shuddered in his seat. "Please reconsider, Imryll," Walter pleaded.

Imryll's face suddenly brightened up. "Actually, Sir Damien, if you resolved this situation and agreed to tutor the princess in magic, I am sure she would gift you the car."

"Oh, that could work." Damien nodded in agreement. He was planning to save both the situation and tutor the princess to gain her favor anyway, so to get a car out of the deal was just the cherry on top.

"All right, it's a deal. Lean over here, Imryll." The girl leaned over, and Damien sank his fangs into her tender neck. Walter was shaking like a leaf but said nothing.

After a minute, Damien extracted his fangs and let out a satisfied sigh. Imryll fell back into her chair, gasping for air, and promptly fainted.

Damien then glanced at Fay, and she had already moved her jet-black hair out of the way and presented her neck. Her sky-blue eyes watched him, and she wore a smile as she traced her neck with her slender fingers.

"Saving me for dessert, Master?" she asked, and Damien just chuckled, embraced her in a hug, and sank his teeth in once again.

She lasted far longer than Imryll but eventually fell limp in Damien's embrace. He carefully extracted his fangs and laid her down on the car's back seat.

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The car's shaking had become extreme, and he could hear them climbing on the roof as well.

Stop damaging my car with your filthy bodies!

Taking a deep breath to steady his nerves, Damien opened the car door with force. He emerged and surveyed the surroundings. There were nine elves still standing, though none looked like they could keep fighting for long. Damien counted eight males, including the Captain, and one particularly beaten-up female elf to his left.

The ghoul's foul stench filled the air, causing Damien to almost gag, but considering he was about to engage in combat with the things, he managed to control himself.

He had been waiting in the car for a good reason. Although his traits also agreed with his decision at the time, he waited for a more important reason. Although the elves felt like all their fighting had been pointless, that was a lie.

Making the ghouls rise once again after being defeated required mana from the necromancer hiding nearby. It was a human instinct to protect oneself, so the necromancer would always raise the ghouls that were nearby first.

Damien noticed that the ghouls to the south always rose faster than any others. Also, every time a zombie rose, it lost some vitality, became easier to kill the next time, and took longer to stand back up.

The elves never noticed this because they were being exhausted at a similar, if not faster, rate. Therefore, the zombies always felt to be at the same level of strength.

At the start, the elves needed to use skills to repel the ghoul, but thirty minutes later, just a single sword slash was enough to take down a ghoul.

Of course, Damien assumed he was the only one there that knew that. He turned to look to the south, and with his enhanced vision from being a vampire, he could see a slight shadow hiding behind a bare tree. Luckily, it was January, and all the leaves were gone. Otherwise, he could never spot someone so far away.

Damien pushed the captain through the car's open door and slammed it shut. He was certain the ghouls would start to focus on him, but he couldn't take any risks. The captain's survival was important to him receiving this car as a gift.

He looked around and was surprised that all the ghouls seemed frozen with fear. The other knights looked at Damien with confusion.

Since the knights are safe for a moment, I need to draw the necromancer's attention, Damien thought and walked toward the south.

The ghouls seemed to break out of their trance, and all started swarming toward him. Damien could see the black shadow in the distance begin to retreat. He upped his pace while weaving his way through the disgusting creatures.

Fight them? Hell no, just the idea of getting near the things disgusted Damien. Unfortunately, he was quickly surrounded and didn't have a choice.

Pyrokinesis would work amazingly here. Shame it would hurt him more than the ghouls. Damien glanced down at his dagger-like claws and made a terrible decision. Before his soul could even protest, he used Phantom Form on his claws and slashed them inside a ghoul's head.

Phantom Form [E → D]

The claws passed harmlessly through the ghoul's skin and bone, easily entering its brain. Damien then canceled his skill, and his claws rematerialized inside the ghoul's head, causing it to explode from the sudden pressure.

Rotten skin, bone, and brain matter, along with an extra serving of black maggots, flew toward Damien.

In the game, when an enemy was defeated, it just vanished and left behind an item drop and some experience points. But, of course, this was no longer a game; enemies didn't just disappear without a trace.

Damien's soul had cried out before, sometimes even shouted at him. But never had he felt like this. His [Germaphobe] trait went into overdrive. The world seemed to slow down as immense pain entered his brain. Knowledge he never had before was forcefully interjected into his deepest consciousness, and his soul quickly made use of the information.

The power of enlightenment melted away the chains that bound Damien's psychokinesis to the C+ grade.

Damien's only thought was, Why didn't I think of this before?

He was in a dark realm within his own soul. Within the vast abyss, a page of golden words was written.

The world is but a mental construct. What you believe to be true is your own reality. You know this used to be an artificial world, but to the residents of this world, this is their reality, and now it is also yours.

If you believe it should be so, then let it be so.

[Damien Nightshade]

[Noble Vampire]

Schools Of Magic:

[Psychic Magic (C+) → (B)]

Psychokinesis [C+ → B]

Levitation [F] (New) - The ability to float or fly by mystical means.

Clairvoyance [F] (New) - The ability to see things and events that are happening far away and locate objects, places, people, using a 'sixth sense.'

Automatic Writing [F]

Telepathy [E]

Pyrokinesis [E]

[Spatial Magic (D+)]

Phantom Form [E → D]

[Blood Magic (D)]

Blood Contract [F]

=Null Spells=

Mana Control [C]

The black realm of Damien's soul slowly faded away, and the world returned to normal. With his Psychic school of magic upgrading to B-grade, he unlocked Levitation, but before Damien could try and fly, he needed to deal with this wave of incoming rotten flesh and maggots.

The enlightenment made him realize he needed to utilize psychokinesis for defense, instead of only projecting control over objects. Why not have control over his entire surroundings? He quickly spread his control out in a 360-degree circle of about one meter. Within this domain, he could affect anything with psychokinesis. It was incredibly taxing on his mind to maintain his control over such a large area, instead of just on a few objects at a time.

The shower of ghoul bits rained upon him, but they all paused around a meter from his body, locked in place by his domain. He then drained some mana to throw the ghoul bits back at the oncoming horde of undead.

Finally, Damien's soul relaxed; he could almost feel his [Germaphobe] trait clapping in delight at the new level of protection. Enlightenment came differently to all mages and resulted in varying usage of abilities. Damien was sure he was the only Psychic mage to gain enlightenment from the fear of germs touching him.

Damien grinned and willed mana into his Levitation skill. The ghouls tried to claw their way through his domain, but it held strong, although every swipe took a small amount of mana to repel, so he had no wish to stick around.

As the Levitation skill greedily sucked up both his mana, mental power, and stamina, he slowly rose into the air.

Levitation [F → E → D]

Damien couldn't hold back his excitement; it took him hours to raise his Phantom Form to E-grade, but just a single swipe at a zombie had raised it to D-rank. He was worried his Levitation skill wouldn't be usable, but sure enough, using it to escape a life-or-death situation caused it to level up incredibly quickly.

Well, it's wasn't really a life-or-death situation; none of these ghouls had silver weapons, so he could probably sleep in the middle of the horde and wake up tomorrow with no injuries. His favorite red wine suit wouldn't survive the night, though. Not to mention how disgusting these things smelled.

I will come back and kill this horde after dealing with the necromancer, too much free experience for my spells, Damien thought while ascending into the air with Levitation.

Damien stood calmly in the sky, hands behind his back, gazing down at the world. From this vantage point, he could see the necromancer around a hundred meters away, trying to flee to the south.

"Why run, little lamb?" Damien grinned as he dove toward the necromancer. Vampires always enjoyed a good hunt.