A Villain's Survival Guide

It was highly unusual for ruined corpses to be found within Rune Realms, especially outside the domains of the Endbringers, Terror, and Malice.

The body beside Leomaris wasn’t rotten. It was dry and unnaturally pale, little more than skin stretched tightly over bone. Stranger still, the clothing didn’t belong to this era. At first glance, it looked as though it had come from the Novel Ages.

He had never heard of such a thing before, nor had he encountered anything like it in the novel.

"Dr. Zenith’s first successful ritual birthed the Five Wonders of the World fifteen hundred years ago, with Rune Realms among them. If these realms are truly portals through time, then I suppose such a thing could occur."

He was doing his best to remain optimistic. His paranoia had contributed very little to the mission so far, and dwelling on every possibility wasn’t helping. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

For now, he chose to believe this realm simply reached far enough into the past for corpses like this to exist. It was a flimsy explanation, but it was enough to stop his thoughts from spiralling.

"Where are you, Lucius?"

His gaze drifted towards the distance, searching for anything that might distract him. He had never ventured this far into the city before. He wondered whether some unseen barrier would eventually prevent him from going any further. He also had no idea why Lucius would be here in the first place.

Unfortunately, there was only one way to find out.

With a casual kick, he sent the corpse skidding away, unwilling to let it drag him back into another cycle of overthinking.

Before long, he arrived at a place that made him feel impossibly small.

To his right stood a row of colossal hooded figures carved from pale stone. Their towering forms loomed over the landscape, gaunt and solemn.

They evoked thoughts of death, judgment, asceticism, perhaps even divine guardianship. Some carried staff, and others swords.

One figure, crowned with jagged horns and posed in a stance that almost resembled a dance, held an unfamiliar weapon that Leomaris couldn’t identify.

At the centre of it all rose a gigantic white sword, thrust skyward like a monument. It dominated the entire scene, drawing the eye instinctively and lending the place an air of unquestionable authority.

Circular emblems resembling crosses appeared throughout the structure, reinforcing the impression of a sacred order.

The religious imagery stirred old demons within him.

Without meaning to, his thoughts drifted towards Instructor Moon. Given his close ties to the Firstlight Goddess, if he had somehow taken Lucius, this was exactly the sort of place Leomaris imagined he would bring him.

Oddly enough, despite his efforts to stop viewing Instructor Moon as a threat, a part of him still believed that if the man truly intended to kill him, it would be better to settle things now rather than leave them unresolved.

He had spent far too long trying to survive by keeping his head down and avoiding confrontation. More than once, it had nearly cost him his life.

He was tired of merely enduring.

If he wanted the life he had never managed to have before, then he needed to face his enemies when they stood before him and remove them from his path.

Ahead lay a broad staircase descending into the structure below. Judging from the circular arrangement of statues, the surrounding walls, raised platforms, and grand columns, the place had almost certainly served a ceremonial purpose during the Novel Ages.

Just as he was about to take a step forward, a voice echoed from somewhere beneath.

Leomaris froze.

The sound reverberated through the stone halls below, and for a moment, he stood perfectly still, trying to make sense of what he had heard.

"That’s... a man’s voice."

A moment’s hesitation, then he went down. To his left, something took shape as he drew closer. The staircase had him feeling small from the first step, and no matter how he pushed, the bottom never seemed to come any faster.

All manner of assumptions. A mercenary, most likely, someone who’d been at it for ages, chipping away at the Endbringer with nothing to show for it. Not once did his mind land on Instructor Moon.

The stairs ended at last. The figure came into full view, and Leomaris exhaled, the tension bleeding out of him all at once.

There was Lucius, standing a reasonable distance off, using the shadow cast by the statue’s sword to shield himself from the light.

He was shirtless, and drenched in sweat. He was mid-routine when he spotted Leomaris and stopped dead.

"You are up early today, Leomaris."

Lucius said. He turned, snatched up his uniform, and threw it over his shoulder, already moving towards Leomaris before Leomaris had the chance to close in.

It struck Leomaris as odd that Lucius closed the gap before he could. But he didn’t dwell on it. He simply stopped and waited for him to draw closer.

"I want us to face the Endbringer tomorrow, so I wanted to do a few workouts before sunrise... but I guess I lost track of time."

Leomaris watched him approach, his face flat. Lucius wore an awkward smile. His skin was pale, the smell of sweat and hard work coming off him in waves.

There was no reason to doubt him. So Leomaris didn’t. He didn’t think much of anything at all.

"Isn’t tomorrow too early? I’m not as prepared as you are..."

Lucius took point, making his way over the staircase already.

"I just realized something. The Endbringer doesn’t leave the throne room. If you pay attention to its mannerisms, if there are any, it never makes a move... despite us snooping around every day."

Leomaris fell into step behind him, already chewing on Lucius’s words. Hard to argue with, really. The Endbringer sat on its throne all day and did nothing else. Whether it was even alive was anybody’s guess.

"Are you saying that as long as we’re outside the throne room... we won’t be attacked?"

"Exactly. We just have to make sure we don’t die. We fight it, gauge its strength, and use that to our advantage the next day until we finally defeat it."

"That makes sense."

Leomaris had stepped into the Malice Rune Realm full of assumptions. That felt like a long time ago now.

Moments ago, he’d been convinced Instructor Moon was close. Lucius had sorted that just by being there. Nothing to fret over.

He’d give it his all from here. The Malice Endbringer wasn’t going to last much longer.