Path of the Demonic Villain

It had now been quite a while since Dante had unfortunately had his head separated from his body.

The head, which had an arrow piercing through it, lay some meters away with his lifeless eyes staring into nothing, while his body remained slumped in the dirt.

However, contrary to what one might expect after such a clean execution, the High Priest was not fully dead, because even at this moment, his heart was still beating.

All of a sudden, his finger twitched.

A second passed, then another, and then... his headless body suddenly sat upright.

For a brief moment, it just sat motionlessly. Then, something bizarre began to happen.

Blood flowed upwards out of the severed neck in thick, sluggish waves. But instead of spilling onto the ground, the crimson fluid bubbled into a large, formless mass that writhed and bulged over the open wound like a living beast.

One moment, it would look like a smooth, round sphere, only to instantly warp and strain as thick, unnatural lumps bulged out from every direction, struggling against the surface. Soon, other frightening features began to emerge. Several mouths split open along the shifting flesh before dissolving back into the mass. All the while, the amorphous mass kept growling like a rabid dog.

While this was still happening, the body suddenly stood upright. Then, like a puppet pulled by invisible strings, it slowly walked over to where its severed head lay and casually picked it up.

It raised the head, and an eye opened on the crimson mass to study the face in its hand. After a moment, the creature lowered the hand and scanned its surroundings. Instead of heading toward the exit of the labyrinth, the body turned and began to walk toward the portal leading to the second floor.

Once it reached the massive tree, it paused briefly before stepping through, emerging on the second floor.

The body then continued its march toward Lucian’s corpse. From time to time, it would stagger as if on the verge of collapsing, but somehow managed to regain its balance.

When it finally reached the body, a wide, razor-fanged maw split open across the bloody mass atop its neck. It leaned down, preparing to devour the remains. But just before its jaws closed around the flesh, it halted.

The mass growled in an agitated rumble, sweeping its gaze across the area until its attention landed on Thalia. It lingered for a second, then shifted its focus again, settling on the corpse of the woman lying not far from her.

A moment later, Dante’s body turned and walked toward her.

Upon reaching the dead woman, the amorphous mass surged forward, and its mouth stretched wide, swallowing her head whole. The liquid flesh expanded, steadily enveloping her torso, her limbs, and finally her legs, consuming her completely into its writhing mass.

Shortly after the woman was consumed, the mass of blood growled before finally spitting out what remained of her body. It was a corpse so pale and withered that it was obvious there was no longer a single drop of blood left inside it.

Thick tendrils of blood then surged outward and detached from the main mass, orbiting Dante’s body in a steady, floating ring.

He slowly extended a hand, pointing toward Thalia. In response, one of the blood tendrils glided over, wrapped around her, and lifted her into the air.

Turning toward Lucian’s corpse, the body pointed once more, prompting a second tendril to reach out, bind his remains in the same manner, and raise him up.

With both bodies in tow, the corpse slowly began making its way toward the door leading to the first floor. As it moved, the floating bodies, wrapped in the tendrils of blood, floated behind it.

Dante’s corpse reached the massive rock and passed through it. A second later, both captured bodies emerged behind him.

The journey took a while, and the entire time, the mass of blood continued to growl. Its form continued to writhe, exposing horrifying features from time to time.

Along the way, a small child’s voice suddenly echoed from within the writhing mass. "Hungry... I’m getting hungry. I don’t like dead people... they taste poisonous!"

With every passing minute, the mass of blood shrank slightly, almost as if it were losing its power over time.

During this time, two harpies approached the three figures, but when they saw the large mass with its shifting eyes and mouths, they halted, turned around, and flew off.

At this point, the mass of blood looked at the corpses, and the child’s voice sounded again.

"Should I eat them? They’re poisonous, but I can’t help it. I’m getting really hungry."

The mass growled, and after a few seconds, the voice whimpered in frustration. "No. No, he’ll be upset. He"ll be upset if I eat them. But... but if I keep holding back, then I’ll be devouring him instead. In the end, he might be tainted. Argh. This is hard!"

***

Sometime later, the three corpses finally reached the massive tree with white leaves.

Only then did the tendrils lower the bodies of Thalia and Lucian, laying them gently at the base of the tree.

By this point, the mass of blood was no longer as large as it was before. In fact, it had shriveled down to a fraction of its original size, barely larger than a human head.

The tendrils that had been carrying Thalia and Lucian flowed back like ribbons into the main mass.

Meanwhile, Dante’s hand, which had been holding his severed head, raised it upward and fed it into the mass above. However, no crunching sounds echoed as it was devoured. After a few seconds, the mass spat out the arrow that had pierced it. And a brief moment later, the blood mass began to recede back into the neck. As it shrank away, it knitted flesh and bone together, revealing Dante’s head fully restored upon his shoulders.

He then reached for the arrow embedded in his shoulder and, without a single trace of pain on his face, snapped the shaft. Slowly, the remaining arrowhead was forced out of his flesh, pushed free by the slow regeneration beneath.

Once the projectile clicked against the ground, every open wound on Dante closed up a bit, just enough to not be life-threatening.

At this moment, even though his eyes were open, he still seemed lifeless. After a few seconds, however, Dante gasped as air rushed back into his lungs, and his chest heaved violently as life flooded his veins once more.

His breathing was harsh and ragged, and he swallowed hard as he immediately began to whip his head around to regain his bearings.

He then reached up and touched his neck, tracing the seamless flesh where the blade had cut him in two.

Although there was no longer a visible line there, an uncomfortable sensation still lingered, almost as if the wound couldn’t fully heal.

Even the other wounds on his body caused by the arrows also throbbed with a nagging pain.

Dante groaned as he bent over and rested his hands against his knees to support himself.

"That... that was close," he muttered breathlessly in a voice that sounded off and slightly painful.

To be honest, Dante almost couldn’t believe what had happened over the past several minutes.

He was alive, yes. But more than that, he had survived an arrow to the head, and a fuckin decapitation!

That was insane!

It took him a full minute to wrap his mind around the reality of it.

’I’m alive... I’m alive, thank Goddess!’

But then, he suddenly began to feel lightheaded. It was the same kind of feeling one would get after losing too much blood.

’I don’t feel too good though,’ he thought as a bout of dizziness made his vision tilt. ’Fuck, I feel like shit.’

At the same time, he began to feel other emotions.

After a few moments, he forced himself to stand straight and looked down at the bodies in front of him with a heavy, conflicted expression.

’They both died unkindly deaths.’

He closed his eyes and sighed deeply.

After a brief pause, he shook his head to clear the fog and thought, ’I need to get out of here.’

He opened his now-purple eyes, stepped forward, and grabbed both of them by the collar. Focusing his mind on exiting the floor with the two bodies, he dragged them forward. His frame passed through the shimmering tree, and the familiar world he knew suddenly came into view.