Chapter 357: The Masked Woman [5]
The red woman’s smile widened.
It wasn’t the smile of someone enjoying a battle.
It was the smile of someone who had discovered something fascinating.
Something unexpected.
Something worth taking apart and examining.
And the target of that interest—
Was us.
More specifically, me.
Looking at her expression, I realized something unsettling.
She hadn’t expected us to survive.
Not Ryan.
Not Leo.
Not me.
The possibility that someone could actually stop that attack had never even crossed her mind.
Which meant the thing standing before us wasn’t an enemy we could somehow overcome through determination or teamwork.
It was a disaster.
A catastrophe wearing human skin.
Something completely beyond our ability to handle.
The crimson light began gathering around her fist again.
My body immediately tensed.
"Are you serious...?"
I could barely stand.
Ryan and Leo were unconscious.
Zhao Yuren had already reached his limit.
If she attacked again—
That was the end.
Then suddenly—
A voice echoed through the ruined chamber.
"Ohhh! New face!"
"...Huh?"
Before I could even process what had happened, another figure briefly appeared beside the red woman.
The newcomer moved so quickly that I couldn’t make out their appearance.
The only thing I saw was a hand.
And a mask.
A different mask.
The mask was gently placed over the red woman’s face.
The effect was immediate.
The crimson energy disappeared.
The terrifying pressure vanished.
The madness burning within her eyes rapidly faded.
The entire atmosphere changed.
It was like watching a storm disappear in an instant.
The woman blinked.
Then sighed.
[Oh dear.]
Her voice sounded completely different now.
Calm.
Rational.
Almost embarrassed.
[I went too far.]
A brief pause.
[My mistake.]
"..."
I stared at her.
Honestly, I had been thinking about it for a while.
The uncontrollable madness.
The mask.
The ability to manipulate something resembling blood.
The strange restrictions she seemed to operate under.
This woman...
She was exactly the type of character I would have loved in my previous life.
A transcendent being bound by limitations.
An overwhelmingly powerful existence restricted by rules.
A character concept that balanced absolute strength with absolute flaws.
My favorite type.
Even now, after she had nearly killed all of us, a tiny part of my brain was still thinking:
Damn, that’s cool.
"...I might actually be insane."
The realization made me question my own sanity.
The woman casually walked over and picked up the unconscious former leader of the Twelve Signs.
The person who had appeared and placed the mask on her had already vanished without a trace.
Almost as though they had never been there.
The masked woman looked down at the unconscious cult leader.
Then she hesitated.
As if she was trying to decide whether or not she should explain something.
Eventually, she spoke.
[Actually, I wasn’t originally designed this way.]
"...What?"
I blinked.
That came completely out of nowhere.
Designed?
What kind of explanation was that?
The woman tilted her head slightly.
[To be more accurate, I’m a defective version.]
She sounded oddly unconcerned.
[The original specification was superior.]
"..."
Was this some sort of bizarre trash talk?
"You lost to a defective version of me."
Because if so, it was working.
My self-esteem was taking critical damage.
The woman continued.
[She explained it to me.]
Her voice remained calm.
[The role assigned to me this time was a fragmented form of omnipotence.]
The words felt strange.
Wrong somehow.
Like concepts that shouldn’t fit together.
[Apparently additional settings were required to force my existence into this world.]
My heart skipped a beat.
"...This world?"
[Yes.]
She nodded.
[Another world.]
Everything stopped.
For a moment, I couldn’t hear the wind.
Couldn’t hear the distant rubble collapsing.
Couldn’t even hear my own breathing.
Another world.
Why did those words feel familiar?
The woman looked directly at me.
[Which is why I was told I have more in common with you than with her.]
Something cracked.
Not physically.
Inside my head.
A memory.
A fragment.
A voice.
Suddenly—
A fog that had been covering my mind began to lift.
Only slightly.
But enough.
Enough to see something.
Enough to hear something.
—
This wasn’t part of the plan.
—
A voice.
Familiar.
Painfully familiar.
—
It’s necessary for—
—
The rest was drowned out by static.
My head exploded with pain.
I nearly collapsed.
More memories surfaced.
Broken.
Incomplete.
But real.
—
What have you done?
—
Another voice answered.
Angry.
Defiant.
—
Why? Is there some rule that Ryan has to be the main character?
—
Main character?
What?
Whose memories were these?
Who was speaking?
Why did it feel like—
No.
Why did it feel like I had been speaking?
—
Hey. Let’s stop.
—
Stop?
The second voice laughed.
Coldly.
Bitterly.
—
We’ve sacrificed too much to stop now.
—
Pain shot through my skull.
I clutched my head.
The memories became clearer.
—
This was wrong from the beginning.
—
Yes.
That felt right.
Somewhere deep inside me, I knew that sentence was true.
—
We should never have done it.
—
The argument continued.
Two people standing face to face.
Glancing at each other with hatred.
With regret.
With exhaustion.
—
That’s exactly why we need to fix it.
—
The first voice sounded desperate now.
—
Right now.
—
The second voice laughed.
—
Says who?
—
Silence.
Then—
A reply.
Sharp.
Instant.
Filled with absolute conviction.
—
Says me, bitch.
—
The memory shattered.
Darkness swallowed everything.
My knees gave out.
The last thing I saw was the masked woman watching me quietly.
As though she had expected this reaction.
As though she knew exactly what I had just remembered.
Her voice reached me through the darkness.
Distant.
Fading.
[I’d like to take you with me.]
A pause.
Then a sigh.
[Unfortunately, an obstacle has appeared.]
For the first time, she sounded genuinely disappointed.
[I haven’t been given permission to fight her yet.]
Her figure began growing blurry.
The world itself seemed to distort around her.
[So we’ll have to meet another time.]
The darkness deepened.
My consciousness sank.
The final thing I heard before everything disappeared was her calm voice.
[Until next time.]
And then—
Everything went black.
---
End Of Volume 3.
Academy’s Fake Villain.