I Reject the villain’s ending.

Chapter 25

Diane asked in a low voice, and Eldrakis and I nodded nervously.

Richie. An undead mage who dabbled in the forbidden arts and made himself immortal.

I’d expected him to be a regular skeleton in a fantasy novel, but seeing him in such perfect human form, I can’t imagine how many centuries he’s lived.

‘Richie is like a legend, something you only read about in really old texts, and then you get to see it.’

‘Bad luck, us.’

I say with a hint of annoyance, and Eldrakis grunts in protest.

‘Yeah, well, this is all because the Saint dragged us here.’

‘You think I expected Richie to be here, or I wouldn’t have come.’

I mean, who would come to a place where Richie is unless their hobby is suicide?

A Richie can live an infinite number of lives, and even if you study magic slowly over that time, the mana and skill you accumulate will be beyond the scope of an archmage.

In short, he was the worst kind of enemy, a damned ogre that couldn’t be killed and didn’t lose health.

‘Haha, it’s a good thing we can use Holy Power. Richie’s no match for holy power.’

‘You’re right, you’re the saint of this generation after all. However, as long as she doesn’t break the Life Orb, she can survive being hit by Holy Power.’

‘Holy crap.’

I’ve never read about that in a book! Oh, no. Maybe I’ve read about it in a fantasy novel.

Either way, it’s not a good situation for me, that’s for sure. Richie smiled dubiously.

‘Then you can watch from a safe distance, my doomsday.’

‘What? The end? What end? Your end?’

I blinked, panicking at the unexpected announcement of suicide.

Could Richie die? Didn’t he become Richie in the first place because he wanted to live forever?

As I stared at him with these questions, he spoke.

‘Yes. I’ve lived so long that I have no time to waste, and I’m embarrassed that so many people will see the end of me.’

I stood back, not quite sure what to make of this, as Richie shyly scratched the back of his head as if he were genuinely embarrassed.

So now he’s trying to kill me because I’ve lived so long, huh?

I mumbled, losing my will like a blown doll.

‘You’re going to blow your nose without touching me……?’

‘Oh, yeah?’

But why was I so nervous, I felt like I was missing something.

I looked over at Richie, who had climbed up to the altar with an uneasy feeling.

I watched him closely, tensing up as he made his way to the altar.

And when he placed her hand on the huge red circle of magic that floated in the air from the altar, I realized something was wrong.

‘Wait!’

Richie grinned with glee as he imbued the circle with mana and endless life force.

The magic circle that filled the wall hummed in response, slowly activating.

‘My brain, an avid reader of Crazy Saint, spun rapidly.

‘She shouldn’t have sacrificed the children’s lives to trigger the circle in the first place! She should have triggered it with her own life, and the children were…….’

It was a sacrifice. A sacrifice to the demon that would be summoned here after the circle was triggered.

And it looks like we’re going to be included in that sacrifice.

Eldrakis, who had thought the same thing as me, spat out a nutmeg with a white face.

‘You crazy bastard!’

‘Ahahahaha!’

‘Stop it now!’

Like a madman, he hastily formed an arrow and fired it at Lich, who was laughing hysterically despite being drained of life by the magic circle.

The arrow hit Lich, who staggered back and laughed again.

‘Hahaha! This is the end of this damned cadet and the end of this damned world! Come, great one! Our…….’

King.

As he spoke, Richie shriveled into a dry mummy, his whole body crumbling to dust.

In his place stood a man dressed in colorful clothes, with wavy orange hair and catlike orange eyes.

My heart sank at the sight of him.

‘Nivas, the Clown of Hell…….’

‘There is a human in this generation who knows me?’

Nivas lifted his head and smiled broadly at me. I instinctively backed away, averting my eyes.

My heart was pounding, building a stifling anxiety.

‘Everyone, don’t make eye contact with him. The demon of hallucinations and dreams.’

‘How is that……? I’ll explain later. Everyone, close your eyes!’

Diane looked at me with suspicion, shook her head, and hurriedly called out to the children.

But they were already looking at Nivas as if mesmerized.

From the moment Nivas appeared, they had already been looking into his eyes.

As if in a trance, the children ran as fast as they could, slamming themselves into the shield.

Like the villagers drawn to the Pied Piper, they tried to get to Nivas.

‘Children!’

Diane panicked as she looked at the children, whose shoulders had begun to dislocate from the impact of the shield.

I said in a low voice, grabbing Diane’s arm as she tried to unlock the shield.

‘If you let go of the shield, the children will run straight to Nivas, and then they’ll be sacrificed and killed, so it’s better to keep them in the shield even if they’re hurt.’

‘Kwak. I see.’

Diane shook her fist in frustration and turned away from the children who ran like moths to the shield.

But she couldn’t let this go on forever.

‘Eldrakis, do you have any ideas?’

‘I wish I had, but there’s not much we can do when we’re so far out of the way.’

‘True enough.’

I couldn’t think of a way out of this, either, no matter how hard I tried.

I’d come here to change my reputation at the bottom of hell and ended up in the real thing.

Since time immemorial, every human who’s ever been associated with Nivas has ended badly. Driven mad by hallucinations or trapped in an eternal dream.

Or worse, they’ve taken their own lives, driven to insanity by the curse-like prophecies of Nivas.

‘That shield, it’s a nuisance. Is it the power of the gods?’

‘……!’

Nivas, now within inches of the shield, touched it and shook his head as his hand crackled and burned.

‘Oh no. This is an incomplete summoning, I’ll have to eat a sacrifice to stay in Middle-earth, and this is just a little play date.’

Nivas chuckled at his fading form. It’s been a long time since he’s had any fun, so even this is fun.

‘It’s a shame we can’t just leave.’

Just go, please. We won’t miss you at all!

But against our wishes, Nivas hummed a tune and opened his mouth.

‘Shall I give you a prophecy? Who do you want me to give it to? Okay, I’m good. I’ll give it to all of you.’

Nivas laughed merrily, drumming to himself, then raised a finger and pointed at Diane.

‘You will kill your flesh and blood.’

‘…….’

Diane remained stoically silent, and Nivas, bored with the response, quickly lost interest and moved on to another target.

Then he glared at Eldrakis and clicked his tongue.

‘You will die the quickest and live the longest here.’

‘What kind of riddle is that? I think you’ll be the first to go.’

Eldrakis grumbled as he watched Nivas’s body turn transparent, then pointed to Iros, who was the next to fall to the floor.

‘What’s that?’

‘……?’

‘Well, leave her alone. Saint.’

I flinched instinctively, against my will, at Nivas’s invocation.

His prophecies tend to be one-sided and tell only part of the story, so there’s no telling what the outcome will be.

Only that it will end in ruin is certain.

‘You will die, you will be killed by someone close to you, you will lose those close to you. Fate is twisted, but tightly twisted, who told you that?’

Nivas mumbled something incomprehensible, then cast me a pitying glance.

‘Perhaps it would be better for you to just go down to the countryside and live where no one knows you. You’re doomed to be hunted for the rest of your life until you die.’

I almost nodded in response to Nivas’s heartfelt advice.

Knowing that I’m going to be decapitated, I think it’s not a bad idea to take Nivas’ advice and move to the countryside and stay there for the rest of my life.

Nivas looked down at his body, which was becoming completely transparent, and smiled.

‘I’ll see you next time. We’ll probably see each other often, Saint of the Lord.’

‘That doesn’t sound like good news. Is it a prophecy?’

‘Not a prophecy, but my intuition. You get better at intuition when you live long enough. And don’t be so wary. I’m a human-loving demon myself.’

A man-loving demon would kill so many people in the future.

I bit my lip hard and watched as Nivas disappeared completely and the magic circle lost its glow.

A moment later, it was all over and there was silence. Eldrakis glanced around and said.

‘Is it all over now?’

‘I suppose?’

‘Phew. Warlock, I didn’t realize these lunatics could summon a real high-ranking demon and a Richie, that’s a decade of waiting.’

‘I’m glad Nivas was more submissive than I thought he would be, though he did leave that nasty, nasty prophecy, let’s just say I didn’t listen.’

Nivas would have cried foul if he knew, but he knew of several instances of people hanging on to his prophecies to disastrous effect.

When Diane was satisfied that the area was safe, she released her shield, and Eldrakis, curious, approached the unlit circle of magic.

‘You know, if we can analyze this magic circle that can summon demons, I wonder if we can also create a magic circle to keep demons out of Middle Earth?’

‘Ella, it’s dangerous, get down from there.’

‘Why, it’s all over anyway. Diane, do you have any paper or charcoal? I could analyze this.’

Eldrakis scanned the magic circle, burning with the heat of his studies as if he were a wizard.

I relaxed a little as I watched Eldrakis’ enthusiasm for creating a spell circle that could bounce demons back, and heal the injured children.

When he was finished, he waved the circle against his white robes and showed it to us, triumphantly.

At the end of the treatment, Eldrakis drew the magic circle on the white robe she was wearing and waved the robe at us triumphantly.

‘Look at this, Saint,’ she said, ‘this is enough to shred a wizard and keep demons out of Middle-earth!’

I smirked at the excited Eldrakis.

‘Okay, come on down now. Let’s go back to the castle.’

‘Okay, okay-’

Then. Something red, yes. Something red, yes, like a human hand, pierced Eldrakis’s chest.

It made a full- sound.

‘…What?’

‘Eldrakis?’

I felt a sense of dizziness as I looked at Eldrakis, who stopped in his tracks.

The same scene as when I went down behind Iros earlier. And the sound of flesh being pierced.

Only this time, it wasn’t his abdomen that was pierced, but his heart