The Villain's Story



Alan took a moment to sit on the cracked ice, waiting for his wounds to heal. The Phoenix bloodline, although powerful, was failing to meet his expectations nowadays, The stronger the creatures he faced, he had trouble healing from the injuries inflicted by them. Perhaps...he was just getting too wild for the bloodline.

Perhaps.

Laying down on the cold ice, which felt very nice to him, he looked at the corpse of the Minotaur king.

"?"

A confused expression came on his face, he could see the Minotaur King's body slowly evaporate into light, or perhaps turn to dust. He thought his eyes were playing tricks on him.

But it was true.

"Wait... I was going to sacrifice that to the Altar."

The only reason Alan went through the hassle of opening a big portal beneath the sea to retrieve the body was for two reasons... Strive fear into the remaining Minotaur's hearts, and finally sacrifice it to the Altar at the Jade Palace. Alan was going to use it...

But Alas, the body evaporated, turning to dust that would roam around Gigantum for an eternity. However, the light did leave behind something. Straining his pained body to get a good look... Alan found a small, silver crown in place of the large body now, it paled in comparison to the magnificent body of the Minotaur king... But it was...fitting? Alan felt that

way.

"Huh...?"

He realized... It all made sense now. Monsters present on the outside, hailing from dungeons

or nature itself, would leave their bodies behind...but not beasts from Labyrinth.

He laughed.

It all made sense now!

"Labyrinth city... of course it was an actual labyrinth."

He couldn't stop laughing, He had named it 'Labyrinth city' on a whim...because it was underground and whatever...he didn't expect the thing to actually be a labyrinth.

"Shouldn't there be a core, though?"

He questioned, and decided to look for it later on. Perhaps the Labyrinths on Gigantum were different? It shouldn't be like that. He didn't see any core in the room of the Minotaur king.

Finally healed to his peak, Alan stood up from the cold ice, and walked over to the crown, he put a simple black vest on, disturbed by being half-naked most of the time. Hell, half-naked? Even the garments on his lower body were ripped to shreds. He looked more like a beggar. Putting on a new set of pants, he walked over to the crown picked.

"Alright...you better be good, or you're being another sacrifice."

[Dragon Eyes has been used.]

Slowly, the information of the crown unraveled before him, in a rain of runes. [Name: False Crown.]

[Rank:SSS]

[Description: A crown made by a monster who fell to hubris, believing himself to be a mighty king, but was nothing more than a scared coward. Behind everything. The crown is the opposite, it harbored hatred towards its master. The crown will give you the qualities of a true king, as long as you are in front of your army, leading the charge, they will be bolstered by your might, and vanquish your enemies.]

"Quite simple...for an SSS ranked artifact."

Alan muttered. Thankfully, the crown didn't have a long description like many of its rank did, He preferred simpler descriptions, and artifacts that weren't so confusing to use because they had a myriad of abilities.

Those descriptions hurt his head. He had heard from somewhere that the simpler the description of an item was, the stronger it was... But that wasn't always true. Was it? His memory was hazy.

Throwing those thoughts aside, Alan put the crown on his head, it was odd, mainly because of two bumps on his head. Those were his horns, still in their infancy stage. Alan still managed to put the crown stably on his head. He touched the bumps on his head.

It felt itchy, he left them alone and opened another portal. By this point, after this tantalizing and horrifying fight, all he wished to do was go back to his dorm and sleep for a day or two, but unfortunately, he had some business to attend too...and even more after that.

He felt incredibly busy nowadays.

'So...tiring.'

He got rid of these thoughts as he stepped into his portal, distracting himself by testing out his new artifact. So what if he couldn't sacrifice the Minotaur king's body to the altar? There were plenty of strong Minotaur left.

*******

Appearing in front of the army, Alan looked at the large gate at the front. His army continued to batter it with a myriad of spells, mainly from his mages. They were expensive for a reason. The Jade Army had noticed the number of Minotaur's decrease on the other side of the wall. It was probably because they went to check on the commotion on the lowest floor... Alan wondered how the morale was doing, with them finding out their king gone, and his throne room, thrashed.

It shouldn't be too high...right?

No matter, the strongest being been dead, and the other side of the gate wasn't filled with as many Minotaur. He wanted to see the effects of this crown.

In fact, he could already tell. His army, behind him, was growing more restless, as they couldn't wait to go to battle, the mana within them was increasing, and their ranks were advancing. They were growing stronger.

"That's the power of an SSS-ranked artifact for you..."

If things really did go rough, Alan figured Richard would understand if a particular floor...was thrashed by a sudden dragon transformation, he wanted to finish this labyrinth quickly.

Without wasting even a second, he transformed himself slightly, to that of a Draconian, resembling his troops more.

He dashed towards the door, breaking it apart with his spear and body, then as he distracted the stunned Minotaur, his army rushed in, in a bloody rage, bolstered by the False Crown.

There was a reason his army had managed to conquer these monsters so fast...they were

simply.

Simply an army, that did not tire. That did not truly 'feel pain'. A soldier's head could be ripped off, but the scaly body would still move, trying to kill.

An army with infinite stamina, and an infinite desire to kill.