A Villain's Survival Guide

Leomaris and the fallen beast danced across the terrain, their battle intense enough to turn the ceremonial arena to ruins. Most of the gigantic statues had lost a limb or two. Some had collapsed. The stands were a wreck. Even his allies had scarpered, all but Raine, still fighting the living statue.

Instructor Moon and his fallen beast fought like one, Moon never fighting himself, his gestures directing the creature’s every move. It felt like the mind synchronisation only Philosophers possessed. Which led him to believe that was the Philosopher’s doing as well. However, it shouldn’t have been possible.

But it didn’t matter. He survived the gravitational and earth attacks with most of his attention on something else entirely, rifling through forbidden knowledge, trying to end this before it ended him.

He had to create a scene, a believable one, through hymns, with each false entity playing a role. If he didn’t, he was going to die.

’With a true Philosopher involved, I can’t summon just one false entity. What if they have something far more powerful?’

The words surfaced the moment he survived a boulder crushing him flat.

He had no room to breathe before the fallen beast charged. Leomaris dodged, a gravitational shock tearing past him, strong enough to collapse a thirty-foot statue.

Leomaris countered at once, pulling the trigger with cunning precision. The bullet struck the fallen beast’s armour, and he didn’t stop there. Three more shots, each striking the last, and only then did the bullet tear through the heavy metal and strike the creature in the chest.

When the fallen beast flinched from the pain, Instructor Moon flinched with it.

By rights, he should have been out of bullets, but the conspiracies surrounding the Jester of the End said he had endless ones. As luck would have it, his ability adapted that too.

It was the only reason he stood a chance. He didn’t know what Instructor Moon had done, but his life was now intertwined with his fallen beast’s. Like someone Leomaris knew. Every injury the fallen beast received was shared with Instructor Moon.

He seized the advantage. Both Moon and the fallen beast were in agony; he pulled the trigger again, this time for the neck. It tore through all the same.

The creature acted on impulse, sending a compressed ball of gravity straight for Leomaris’s head. He moved to dodge, not fast enough.

It tore through his head, but the Tree of Life was already healing him before he hit the ground.

But as though the attack had knocked loose the right part of his brain, something clicked almost immediately. His golden eyes sparkled behind his mask.

Three leaps and he was at the top of the only standing statue, a nearly twenty-foot figure, robed, and frozen in a praying stance.

He had found the hymns, a perfect one from each false entity’s myth, and he was going to count on Moon’s undying devotion to the Firstlight Goddess.

"You must leave now, Raine."

Raine’s attention shifted to Leomaris. Her crown floated inches above her head, and the look in her eyes made it plain she wasn’t done fighting, but she listened all the same, joining the others.

The fallen beast attempted to reach Leomaris atop the statue — a few bullets sent it plummeting back.

It turned toward the statue itself, but before it could act, Myrasol’s presence had it frozen. The living statue and Instructor Moon were no different.

Four circles of flame began forming above Leomaris’s head like halos, slowly growing in size. Within each of them, something different emerged.

Moments later, Heliara, the Watching Flame, born from the myth of the Burning Eye, stood atop the first halo.

She was wrought entirely from fire, her form that of a woman, with long cascading hair of living flame flowing down her back. A blindfold veiled her eyes, while in her hands rested the Scale of Judgement, also forged from flame.

As she appeared, fire spilled into the distant heavens, spreading across the sky until it formed a vast, blazing eye that burned with relentless intensity.

Beside her stood Solenne, the Eternal Bride, born from the myth of the Golden Bride. Her flames shimmered in radiant gold, distinct from the others. Though her body was made entirely of fire, the shape of her bridal gown was unmistakable, and even from afar, the gentle smile beneath her veil could be seen.

Next came Cindrath, the Fallen Ember Queen, born from the myth of the Ashen Fall. A shattered crown rested upon her head, and regal robes of flame draped her figure.

Her face bore the sorrowful frown of the goddess who, legend claimed, had accidentally reduced her own creation and divinity to ash. Of all the four, her flames burned the hottest.

Last was the one whose very presence left all who beheld her frozen in place, even the nonhuman creatures lurking beyond. She was Myrasol, the Many-Faced Radiance, born from the myth of the Thousand Masks.

Unlike the others, she did not float above the halo. Her form seemed unable to decide what it was or even which side it belonged to.

Though tied to the Firstlight Goddess, neither her gender nor her true appearance could be discerned. With every step towards the fallen beast, her features shifted endlessly, cycling through countless faces and forms.

Instructor Moon stood there with eyes wide, teetering between confusion and despair. What he was seeing couldn’t be real. Each of these false entities belonged to the Firstlight Goddess. Why would she allow someone she’d cursed to possess them?

He was already enduring the worst of Cindrath’s intense glare, which made him feel as though he were the abomination, not Leomaris. That alone was enough, but Leomaris’s final words shattered him completely.

"Your Goddess is waiting. Don’t keep her waiting. Burn. Burn, darling... until there’s nothing left to pray with. The funny thing about endings? They all sound so important... right until the Jester of the End starts laughing, and suddenly it’s a joke."

Moon’s eyes tore through the blazing halos, and there, atop the praying statue, stood the Jester of the End. Arms outstretched, as if basking in the glow of his own words.

Barely a second later, he bowed like a gentleman, and with it came the intensity of it all.

Forcefully, Moon’s eyes were dragged to meet Cindrath’s, and the dark emotions within him deepened to the point where he couldn’t hold it anymore.

Uncontrollable laughter tore from him, and he dashed forward, tears streaming as he opened his arms for the embrace of the Goddess, just as Leomaris had asked of him.

From the comfort of her halo, Solenne, the Eternal Bride, fell and began descending freely, with the grace of a bride dropping from an insane height to meet the groom she trusted wholeheartedly. Her arms outstretched, her smile growing warmer as she came to meet Moon for the embrace.

They embraced, and the moment they did, her flames began scorching Moon, and yet couldn’t stop laughing. Solenne’s flames burned at a slower pace, making his suffering all the more agonising to witness.

Myrasol, meanwhile, had set both the living statue and the fallen beast ablaze, and turning, made her way toward Solenne and Moon to join in on their warm embrace.

Soon enough, a dark flame and a red flame appeared on the Scale of Judgement in Heliara’s hand, the Watching Flame. The scale tilted in favour of the red flame. The enormous eye hovering above them all blinked. And with it, everything below was set ablaze as the flames slowly consumed everything.

The false entities vanished. A soft smile tugged at Leomaris’s lips, and with the relief that coursed through him came his pent-up physical and mental fatigue.

He collapsed immediately, dropping off the statue and threatening to plummet into the burning flames.