Immortal Paladin

172 The Villain

172 The Villain

I pushed open the colossal doors of the Summit Hall without ceremony. The guards standing on either side stiffened but made no move to stop me. The echo of my footsteps reverberated through the silent chamber, where dozens of powerful cultivators had gathered. My eyes swept over them all before locking onto the only two I needed to see… Zai Ai and Mao Xian. He sat beside her with an easy, cryptic smile playing on his lips, like someone who had already won and was simply waiting for the rest of us to catch up. I didn’t wait.

Flash Step carried me across the hall in less than a heartbeat. Silver Steel sang as it left the Item Box, and before anyone could process what was happening, Mao Xian’s head hit the polished floor with a soft, wet thump. Blood arced into the air and sprayed across Zai Ai’s robes. The silence shattered into chaos. Screams erupted. Gasps sucked the air from the room. Cultivators reached for their weapons or froze in place, stunned by the audacity of it. I didn’t care for explanations, just results. Mao Xian had chosen to be my obstacle. I had no interest in learning his reasoning, no desire to seek the nuance of his pain or justifications. He had taken control of my body, killed me once, and laughed while doing it. That was enough.

I knew I was self-rationalizing at this point, but…

Zai Ai stood slowly, her face a mask of grief and fury. Two weapons manifested in her hands… a short sword in her right and a long, curved blade in her left. The cultivators around us dispersed as she struck me, slashing at me with speeds only possible to a Tenth Realm cultivator. I deflected her short sword and twisted away from the long one, but she was fast, skilled, and heartbroken. That made her deadly and also reckless. I didn’t hesitate. I met her blade for blade, and when she left the smallest opening, I took it. My sword pierced through her chest and exited cleanly. She staggered, breath hitching, and fell to one knee before me to catch her breath.

“Calm down, now,” I said, looking at her pitifully. “If you lose yourself to your emotions, you will die, even if you are a Tenth Realm Master.”

Even as I stood over her defeated form, I felt no triumph… only a hollow, sinking certainty. This wasn’t a mistake. This was necessary. But that didn’t make it any less bitter.

"What are you doing?" Tao Long’s voice cracked as he stepped toward me.

Tian En’s eyes burned with divine light as she took a step forward, voice sharp as a blade. "Just who do you think you are?! How dare you draw blood in these halls?"

I exhaled slowly, not because I needed to, but because I wanted the moment to settle. Then I turned to her, meeting her gaze with the weight of all my regrets. “I am the villain of the story,” I said, letting the words ring. “The God of War at every end of the world. The true enemy you must focus on.”

It was a lie. It was theater. But sometimes, lies were really useful tools. And sometimes, you needed a villain to steer heroes away from atrocity. If they believed I was the monster, then maybe, they’d hesitate before committing another Cleanse. Maybe they’d question themselves, or the people who ordered them to kill in the name of peace. I didn’t know if the people slaughtered were truly refugees or something else, but the way they died... it wasn’t justice. It wasn’t order. It was cruelty dressed in divine mandate.

"You did well with those little ‘Cleanses’ of yours," I spat, the sarcasm in my tone thick enough to choke on. "Killing refugees, exterminating whole bloodlines… truly noble of you. I hope you all sleep well." I laughed then, not because it was funny, but because it was ridiculous, the way only something truly sick could be. I could feel the tension in the air twisting tighter with every word, but I didn’t care. Let it snap. Let them turn on me.

Yi Qiu stood, slamming his hand against the table as he glared. "Explain yourself!"

No more words. I vanished with a second Flash Step, merging it with Zealot’s Stride and Divine Speed, channeling Will through my being until I was moving faster than thought. I reappeared behind Shan Dian, whose Tenth Realm senses should have detected me, should have been enough to react… but she didn’t. She just turned her head slightly, eyes already expecting me, and smiled faintly as Silver Steel carved her down. Her body collapsed the next second.

“Master Shouquan won’t agree with this!” Tao Long roared, his voice shaking with fury, disbelief, or heartbreak… I couldn’t tell which.

I turned to him and gave a little bow, summoning the smirk I used to wear during improv class in college. “Ah. He’s dead. My bad, Long. I killed him.” It was really shitty of me, but I have to play the role I designated on myself.

“We must repent,” said Shan Dian’s head.

As expected of a Tenth Realm cultivator’s vitality, she still had a few words left even after decapitation. But words didn’t make up for what she had done, what she had allowed. I stomped down, heel first, with a wet, resonant squelch. Bone and brain matter caved under my boot, and that was enough to shatter whatever illusion of diplomacy remained.

The chamber exploded into fury.

Spells flew like swarming fireflies gone rabid. Purple lightning, crimson spears, green arcs of divine command. They came from all directions… sky, ground, eyes, mouths. Every technique they’d honed over centuries, flung in unison, not to kill a threat, but to avenge their pride. 

I raised my hand lazily. “Shield of Faith.”

The spell snapped into place like a divine ripple across my skin, golden light cocooning my body. Everything that struck me fizzled, cracked, and dispersed into harmless sparks or blunt ripples. Their expressions twisted in confusion, then rage. Cultivator beasts from wolves, eagles, and reptiles transformed into their feral shapes and lunged at me, but I merely sidestepped their advances.

“You’ll have to do better than that.”

I didn’t shout. I didn’t need to. I was the volume in the room.

I pointed my sword at the air. “Heavenly Punishment.”

One spell slot burned. The energy surged from my soul, and I felt Dave scream somewhere inside me, an anguished cry of protest from a spirit built to obey. I ignored him. The blade of Silver Steel glowed white-hot, humming like it wanted vengeance more than I did.

Then the ground beneath me cracked.

Tian En waved her fan, just once. The weight of the world collapsed on my shoulders. My body buckled as gravity multiplied in an instant, tenfold, maybe twenty. The marble floor splintered under me, forming concentric fractures like a divine hammer had just landed atop my head. She thought it would slow me down.

I rolled my neck once. Bones popped. Muscles tightened.

“Divine Flesh.”

TriDivine shifted to its other aspect. Tian En’s gravity spell consumed a chunk of my stamina, but the pressure eventually vanished like smoke. My body adapted, reinforcing itself with a thrum of sacred resonance. My feet dug into the cracking stone, and I stood as if her gravity spell were little more than an awkward breeze.

Tian En stumbled. Her eyes went wide. “How…?”

A cough wracked her body. She spewed blood into her palm, then again onto the floor. The feedback from her own technique had turned against her. I have reflected a portion of all the power that tried to crush me.

“Fragile for a Tenth Realm,” I said. “I expected better.”

Yi Qiu came next… straight fists, fast and furious. I dodged. Simple as that. The first blow whistled past my cheek. The second cracked the air by my ear. Every strike could’ve killed a hundred mortals. The shockwaves alone caved in the nearby stone benches, shattered the pillars.

But not me.

“Left. Left. Right. Up. Left,” I muttered, bobbing around his strikes. “Really just everywhere.”

He looked stunned. He was the one with perfect muscle memory, the one hailed for his supreme martial instincts. But I knew him. Not metaphorically… I had lived his life. When I said I knew his next move, it wasn’t a prediction. It was perfect recall, allowing me to dodge his attacks with ease.

I let Silver Steel rest lazily on my shoulder, just to make a point. Then I tapped him on the shoulder with the flat of the blade, forcing him to stop.

“Man,” I said with a sigh, “I know your moves.”

I dismissed the sword into my Item Box. I didn’t need it. I mimicked his form, his stance, even the little breathing trick he did between punches. Then I struck. Left hook. A feint. He fell for it. My right smashed into his throat. He reeled, trying to recover, but my left followed immediately... a real one this time, knuckles lined with divine force.

A spark burst from his cheek as he flew across the room and was embedded into the far wall like a doll kicked into wet plaster.

I took a breath.

Above me, the cultivators were regrouping. Two formations… one martial, one magical. The Martial Alliance had taken flight, forming a sword array that mirrored a phoenix’s wingspan. Synchronized sword strikes began to descend in overlapping arcs. Behind them, the spellcasters… Yi Qiu’s, Tian En’s, and even Shan Dian’s attendants… had begun weaving a lattice of light and runes that fed into a glowing spell core.

A double-layered formation. Impressive. Really looking fucking cool too…

I reached for Silver Steel again. It reappeared in my hand, still humming with power

“Huh. Still has Heavenly Punishment imbued. Nice to know.”

I blinked.

"Now, to finish this..."

With a thought, I dismissed the Cosmetic Item I’d been wearing. What remained beneath shimmered into view: a suit of battle-forged gold and sapphire plate, the emerald cape trailing behind me flowed as if underwater, woven from condensed winds and pure mana.

“Thunderous Smite,” I announced. "Fall to my blade."

The divine power surged through me, not just power drawn from my Paladin Legacy. From the insights I’d stolen, inherited, and relived. Every life I had touched, every death I had felt, had added to me. I had lived as an emperor, king, queen, beggar, sage, and murderer in many memories. I had died screaming, whispering, laughing. And with each one, I had grown.

The thunder inside me roared to be freed.

I swung.

The ceiling screamed as my blade carved a diagonal line upward through centuries-old stone, through hidden warding lines and formations. A fissure exploded outward, not from the steel, but from the force behind it.

Lightning followed like a loyal beast.

The cultivator beasts tried to surround me, but they merely exploded into gore.

A dozen sword cultivators in flight were reduced to ash before their bodies hit the ground. Their swords clattered afterward, still humming with their masters’ will. The martial formation cracked. Their movements grew uneven. Some tried to adjust positions, while others fled backward, breaking the symmetry of the array.

The spellcasters screamed as their diagram destabilized. The luminous lines bent, snapped, then imploded with a gust of power backlash. A few of them crumpled, eyes burned out. Another clutched his head as smoke poured from his mouth.

“He no longer has his shield spell!” came a voice. "Suppress him!"

I turned. It was the gate guard. His face was drawn and desperate, but not broken yet. He swung down his sword, aiming for the open section of my torso.

It hit me.

His sword rang with a sharp clang. There was a spark of victory in his eyes for a moment, until his entire arm exploded.

I don’t mean figuratively. His arm detonated at the shoulder, sending blood and bone in a spray over the floor. The force of the reflected damage had turned his own attack against him with the same intent he had swung. My armor didn’t even dent, just a faint scorch mark that healed with a quiet hum a moment later.

He stumbled back, clutching the stump, mouth open in horror, but too shocked to scream.

I stared at him, and thought how hurt he must be feeling.

“Divine Word: Life.”

It wasn’t for him.

“Don't let him cast any more spells!”

More spells from just about everywhere launched at me with merciless precision.

“Blessed Regeneration.”

The divine energy flowed into me from within. Healing warmth traced through the damage I had taken… a cracked rib, a laceration on my thigh, a dozen bruises beneath the plate. All from spells launched from every corner of the chamber. Fire, ice, blood needles, holy chants… I felt every one of them land. I let them land.

Because without the Shield of Faith, my armor and Reflect Skill reflected the pain back.

And I had more health than any of them combined.

A low moan filled the Summit Hall. One by one, the screams followed. Cultivators collapsed mid-chant as their organs burst. Others clutched their heads, trying to stay conscious, only for their legs to give out. I saw someone’s tongue rupture and hang from their mouth. One poor bastard simply vanished from the waist up in a pop of divine feedback.

Pain and terror became the new air in the room.

I raised Silver Steel again. Its edge hummed like it wanted to be swung. It didn’t glow with divine light… it glowed with my will. And my will said this needed to stop.

I took a step forward.

“Flee,” I said softly. “Please.”

At first, it was just a trickle.

A few glanced around, a little too long. A few shifted back, hesitant. One sword cultivator hesitated when our eyes met, and I didn’t even move. He just turned pale and flew the other way. Another shouted, “Retreat! Spread the word… he’s a monster!” It was like watching dry leaves catch fire. Fear, like wind, spread the flames of panic.

I didn’t stop them.

Instead, I casually slit the throat of a spearman whose name I didn’t bother to remember. He’d been casting a curse just a moment ago, something about unmaking bones.

“Monster!” someone yelled from the far end. “He’s not human!”

I didn’t argue.

Then came the roar… loud, manic, ragged at the edges like a broken bell. Yi Qiu.

The wall that had swallowed him shuddered, and his body tore itself free with a thunderclap. His upper robes had turned to cinders. His skin glowed like molten rock, and his eyes were blazing red and rimmed with madness. He looked straight at me. His meridians flared like rivers of magma, qi boiling so hot I felt it from where I stood. Blood and fire stung my nose.

He laughed like a lunatic. “Hahahaha! I thought I was dreaming!” His voice echoed through the Summit Hall. “But it was real! It was real all along! Who are you!?” He pointed his scorched hand at me. “Give me your name, formidable warrior!”

I tilted my head slightly. “Oh, please,” I said. “Just die.”

He vanished. No preamble, no build-up. One moment, he was shouting. The next, he was right in front of me, his fist already mid-swing, red aura dense enough that it cracked the floor beneath him. I could smell the intent behind it… rage, desperation, and devotion to strength.

I parried with the flat of Silver Steel, aiming to deflect, but… damn. The impact rattled through my arms. He wasn’t bluffing. That punch had real weight behind it. I changed my TriDivine alignment to Divine Might, felt my body harden, then dismissed Silver Steel back to my Item Box.

My empty hand shot out. I caught his fist in one palm. My other hand clamped down on his forearm. I turned my hips, pivoted, and slammed him into the ground like a sack of meat. The floor cracked beneath him.

No pause.

I swapped to Divine Speed, summoned Silver Steel back from the Item Box mid-movement, and slashed down… fast enough to catch thunder mid-breath.

But Yi Qiu wasn’t just a dumb brute. His elbow slammed into my foot, and his palm crashed into my sword. The angle was perfect. He grabbed the guard and yanked Silver Steel from my hands. It spun once, embedded into his palm.

I felt Blessed Regeneration knitting my foot back together as the pain spiked.

Yi Qiu’s elbow, meanwhile, twisted at a grotesque angle. It was reflected damage from hitting me. His pain tolerance had to be monstrous because he didn’t even scream. He was lying on his back now, sword in hand, and he threw a punch, aimed for my crotch.

It was a… feint… A really painful feint. I let it land as I gritted my teeth.

Pain exploded across my nerves as I changed TriDivine to Divine Flesh. My armor shimmered. My balls, however, could go fuck themselves. I brought my knee down directly on the flat of Silver Steel, pinning the blade even as Yi Qiu tried to angle it toward my thigh.

“Not today,” I growled through clenched teeth.

I reached out, just a fingertip touch to the blade. “Item Box.” Silver Steel vanished in an instant.

Yi Qiu’s eyes widened, but only for a moment.

His massive hand grabbed my right leg, and with a grunt, he slammed his palm on the floor beside him to catapult us both upward. He launched into a spin and hurled me down once and then twice, like a divine hammer forging steel. By the third slam, I’d had enough.

I caught the cracked floor with both hands, slowed the impact, and planted my foot firmly on his face and snapped them up, the leg lashing at his face like a hammer..

“War Smite,” I whispered.

My heel struck his chin with a golden flash.

He flew.

Not rag-dolling like before, but flung like a meteor, spiraling backward. His burly form tumbled through the air before he twisted, landed on one knee, then one foot. Blood poured from his mouth.

But he was still laughing.

Yi Qiu looked like hell.

His face was a canvas of split skin, raw bone, and exposed veins. One eye had swollen shut, the other glared at me with undiluted fury. Blood soaked through his beard and clung to his chest like smeared paint, steam still rising from his body where Divine Flesh and War Smite had burned through skin. Whatever healing technique he had, he wasn’t using it. Either he couldn’t… or he wouldn’t.

The rest of the battlefield had thinned.

The weak had fled.

Or died screaming.

The storm of footsteps, orders, and clashing spells had grown quieter, more distant. The ones who remained had made their choice.

I rotated my shoulder, feeling the bones click into place. Something was off. Too easy. Too quiet. A loop-breaking punch like mine should have set something right. I had killed someone I believed to be the ‘core’ of the time loop.

But I wasn’t certain he was indeed the core. It could have been all just another trick, and that meant something was still bound to go wrong.

I slowly turned, surveying what remained of the Summit Hall. The shattered roof let in streaks of blinding daylight, casting long shadows through the smoke. Chunks of the upper level continued to fall like rain. The scent of burned wood and blood clogged the air.

Each of the great powers had sent its champions.

The Heavenly Temple sent two: Tian En and that old man Jia Sen. Tian En had already recovered as her fingers danced as she carved complex formation lines into the crumbling floor. With each gesture, talismans floated up around her like petals caught in a silent storm.

Jia Sen kept his distance. He hadn’t moved from the corner of the ruined hall, and for good reason. His technique was cowardice cloaked in wisdom. A support role. He had just finished healing Zai Ai and was now working on Tian En, feeding her steady waves of spiritual energy while whispering incantations under his breath.

The Union’s Tenth Realm, Shan Dian, was dead. So that was a plus.

The Martial Alliance had Yi Qiu. Barely breathing. Still standing.

And then there was Zai Ai. She was the only unaffiliated Tenth Realm cultivator here. Zai Ai had recovered from the wound I gave her earlier. Her eyes were sharp again, and her aura was calm and centered like an unsheathed blade, no longer raging.

Four versus one.

I checked myself. My armor was holding. Two spell slots left. One from the armor’s sanctified binding, one from my own Legacy. That meant two proper Ultimate Skills, or as denizens in LLO call it, Divine Castings. And if I called Dave… my Holy Spirit… that would bump the number to four. Of course, I had no plan of doing just that.

“I’ve had lots of practice,” I said aloud, not to them, but to myself. “From countless iterations.”

I stepped forward. When I said practice, I meant fighting just about everyone in this room...

"From the memories of cultivators whose lives I’ve lived.”

The wind caught my cape as I brandished Silver Steel once again.

“Let’s finish this.”

I’d been my own hero in lives long forgotten. A villain in stories that never were. I raised my sword.

Then I cast my spell.

“Final Adjudication.”

Light split the sky.

And then the rest would be history.