Reborn as the Fated Villain

The bandits watched in fright as the vampire defended the kobold and himself from arrows with simple waves of his hands while a fog of chaos surrounded the kobold, breaking down spells into raw mana.

"I'm dreaming, right?" a terrified man said in between sobs. He grabbed a woman next to him and shook her shoulder. "Linda, please…tell me this is a dream!" The woman had a frozen expression as she watched the scene.

"How can humans ever fight against such a thing?" the woman muttered while being shaken by the man. She looked down the bridge at the bundle of flesh and organs that used to be their leader.

She just shook her head in disbelief. "He had no idea what he was up against. That vampire saw us as nothing more than rats that had invaded his home, pests that he had to deal with, and nothing more."

The knights screamed as the vampire that looked like an angel of death descended upon them like a vulture. Surrounding the vampire was a dense swarm of metal cards that rotated at high speeds and shredded anything that entered their range. Spells were deflected, and archers were either decapitated or blinded by flashes of light.

It was a one-sided massacre.

Near the end of the slaughter, a beautiful woman emerged from the black carriage with an amused smile plastered on her face.

It was Fay. She had noticed a bleeding knight using the bridge's side rail for support, a perfect fool for target practice. She raised her arms and said, "ᚹᚨᛏᛖᚱ ᚲᚨᚾᚾᛟᚾ (Water Cannon)." Blue mana enveloped her hands and water cascaded out. It was surprisingly weak and only irritated the knight. "Tsk," Fay clicked her tongue, "I'll have to finish him off the old-fashioned way."

To the bandit's surprise, the girl ran up jumped up, delivering a roundhouse kick to the knight's face, sending him spiraling in the air before landing in the lake with a splash. His heavy enchanted armor dragged him down to the murky depths below.

Only his helmet returned to the surface, peacefully bobbing on the water, surrounded by a pool of blood.

The vampire was terrifying like death incarnate, the woman was ruthless, but the kobold was possibly the most bloodthirsty creature here.

The little guy jumped straight into the middle of the knights' formation, surrounded by chaotic mana that was toxic to the mages. Whenever they attempted to cast spells within Varn's domain, their mana became corrupted and uncontrollable within their own bodies.

His small frame allowed him to weave effortlessly inside the formation, ripping heads and limbs off anyone he came in contact with. Varn's magic was B-grade, already making him a terrifying existence. His raw strength alone was inhumane and allowed him to crush the knights' enchanted armor with only his claws.

Within minutes, the majority of the knights had perished and lay in pools of red as dismembered corpses.

Damien calmly observed the two remaining survivors.

Compared to C-grade knights were mere cannon fodder, B-grades were like higher existences. The real fight would be against these two. Damien, Varn, and Beldroth stood side by side and faced off against the middle-aged man and young women.

Beldroth had focused on protecting Fay as she went on her murderous rampage. His body itched in anticipation. There was nothing he loved more than killing traitors. Then, in disgust, he spat to the side and said, "Lloyd and Kristie…why?"

These were people he had personally trained years ago, yet now they stood on opposite sides of the battlefield.

Lloyd snorted and said, "Beldroth, do you believe anyone would willingly become a traitor? Not that it matters, as Duke Nightshade correctly noticed either you die or I die today."

Beldroth scoffed. "It's three versus two. What's the first thing every mage learns in combat school? Never become outnumbered. Even the strongest mage will fall when confronting multiple opponents."

Lloyd nodded at his previous teacher's words. "It appears so…" It was true. In a mage-on-mage battle, there were two types of combat.

The first and most popular was killing your opponent by using a lethal spell, such as an ice spike through the heart. The second and less common method was overwhelming your opponent's mana circuit with invasive mana. This was the less popular route as it only worked on those weaker than the mage, and it was terribly inefficient, as the defender had the home advantage.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

For example, Damien would have to send ten times the amount of mana to overwhelm Lloyd, then Lloyd would have to spend defending.

But what happened when a mage was outnumbered? Now the mage had to defend against invasive mana and lethal spells simultaneously. Since Damien was a B-grade mage, the closest to the A-grade as possible, and Varn was a wild mage that excelled in using his mana to destroy another mage's mana. Lloyd and Kriste had absolutely no chance.

Lloyd stepped back with a bloodthirsty grin. "How about a duel, old friend? Leave the girl to the boys…"

Kristie had a horrified expression as Lloyd pushed her forward. "W-wait…I was forced here."

Lloyd was also a wind mage and dashed toward Beldroth. "You're twenty years too early to fight me, boy!" Beldroth shouted as he smacked Lloyd away with a palm surrounded by high-pressure winds.

Varn whispered to Damien, "Master, are you sure we should kill this woman? She looks so pitiful."

Damien looked toward Kristie. She seemed to be around twenty years old and had light purple hair in an emo style over her eyes. She did resemble an abandoned kitten.

He turned toward Varn. "Let me teach you something, my dear disciple… There is nothing more dangerous than a cornered animal."

Varn tilted his head in confusion, but Damien walked toward the shaking girl. She looked up toward Damien and stuttered, "S-sir, my family is being held hostage by the prince. I didn't want to come here…"

Damien shook his head. "An Oscar-level performance, but alas, it's impossible to conceal your bloodlust before me, little girl…"

The girl's pitiful appearance vanished as she lunged forward with a silver-coated dagger in her hand, screaming, "Die, you fucking monster!"

Damien's glove emerged from his pocket and shot forward to grab the girl's wrist. He made a twisting motion, and she cried out as the dagger fell to the ground with a clang. "Kristie…there's only one punishment for trying to assassinate me."

Kristie looked up with crazy eyes and met Damien's smiling gaze.

"Eternal servitude…"

Damien lifted Kristie using his floating gloved hand. She struggled with all her might and desperately gasped for air. He said to Varn, "Overload her with your mana."

Varn nodded, and his Wild mana surged forward. Its untamable wrath slammed into Kristie's mana circuit like a hurricane. She barely managed to resist the invasion with her darkness affinity mana, yet suddenly she felt a pain in her neck.

Damien greedily drained her blood and funneled his Blood affinity mana into her. Fighting against two fronts, across two separate circuits within her body, became impossible. Her body quickly gave in, and she passed out. Damien extracted his dripping fangs and used the silver-coated dagger on the floor to lightly cut his finger. He then allowed a single drop of his crimson blood to fall into Kristie's open mouth. Kristie's body convulsed in pain as Damien's blood destroyed the poison inside her.

While she might not appreciate his methods, he had saved her from death.

"Blood contract made between Noble Vampire Damien Nightshade and Human Kristie. Blood slaves affinities (Darkness) is unlocked."

For the second time, Damien heard the voice in his head. He then muttered, "I now have four different affinities: psychic, blood, spatial, and now darkness. The known limit is five. Although that limit is passable with an S-rank item, that item is guarded by a dragon on the eastern side of the continent, past the Kazimir Mountains… So I must pick my final affinity very carefully."

He looked down at the passed-out woman by his feet. He debated killing her now since he had unlocked her affinity, but that would be rather wasteful. So, instead, he was tapping his chin and looking at the many corpses around him. He then glanced at the terrified group of bandits, which gave Damien an idea. Walking across the bridge as if he was taking a casual stroll, Damien approached them.

"You are all free to leave," he said, dumbfounding them all. "You can return to your pathetic little lives and live out your final days," he said with disdain.

"However, for those that wish to never return to such an insignificant life, I have a job opportunity. Sign a soul contract with me and become my private army. In return, I will provide magical knowledge, weapons, armor, and a decent wage. The choice is yours."

The group of starving refugees wearily eyed the bridge that had been dyed red with blood. Sounds of a battle between Beldroth and Lloyd echoed in the distance. They began to realize they had never witnessed what true power was until today.

The strong got to decide their fate. Although they would be soul-bound to Damien, the chances of them living even a few more days out there with no home were zero.

Damien stood still for a while and noticed that nobody stood up to leave.

"It seems you have all made the right decision."

One by one, he bound the bandit's souls in golden chains. Then, glancing at the many corpses with mostly intact armor, he shouted toward the car, "Thar, fix up the armor and resize them for my new knights here."

Thar exited the car and pried the armor from the corpses. Using his C-grade Metal magic, he fixed dents and removed holes. But unfortunately, there had been only thirty knights, and half of the armor was unusable.

Damien walked over and shook his new blood slave awake. Once her eyes opened, she emotionlessly said, "What are my master's commands?"

He smiled and replied, "You shall be known as Zero, the commander of my private army. Train them well for me, will you?" he said while pointing to the ragtag group of dazed refugees that had just signed away their souls.

Zero stood up and bowed. "It shall be done, my lord."

Damien nodded in satisfaction and patted Zero's shoulder. "She will be your commander and trainer." He then rubbed his chin while looking around at the overgrown castle and desolate lands. "There's so much to do…but first let's clean up this battleground and then visit Blackthorn for supplies to fix this castle up."