A Villain's Survival Guide

[ Consume them... all of them. ]

"Huh? Who was that?"

Leomaris’s gaze drifted across the room, settling on the hymn book and the golden apple in turns. His mind wouldn’t keep still, jumping between thoughts as he waited for the voice again, but it never came.

It sounded familiar, almost like his entity, Mystery. But that couldn’t be possible. He’d not summoned the creature, after all.

"Could it be... the hymn book’s doing?"

He got to his feet and crossed to the hymn book and the golden apple. He flipped through the pages whilst turning the golden apple over in his hands, but nothing happened.

"Hey... can you hear me?"

A few minutes passed, and he started to feel properly mental. He rubbed his temples, chalking it all up to an overworked brain playing tricks on him.

Reluctantly, he sank back onto the bed, stretching his arms and legs out, desperate for every muscle in his body to unknot itself.

Then, without warning, the voice echoed again.

[ You are most amusing, my beloved vessel. ]

Leomaris’s body went taut. His golden eyes combed the room once more, his heart hammering with something between confusion and disbelief. There was no mistaking it. This was Mystery.

He frowned, summoning his grimoire in the process.

"How did you get out of the grimoire?"

Mystery giggled.

[ I never left your side, silly. ]

Leomaris glanced at the grimoire, then at the empty space before him. It was possible Mystery had never truly left, and given that they were near enough invisible to him, he wouldn’t have had a clue.

But that wasn’t possible either. He cast a glance at the new skills he’d mastered using his ability, Solve, all of them recorded within the grimoire.

If Mystery had been outside the grimoire this whole time, then who had written the skills? No one but the creature bound within could write inside it. It made no sense.

[ I told you... I wouldn’t be Mystery if I could be solved so easily. ]

When she spoke, something stirred within Leomaris. Something closer to anger. He couldn’t explain it, but suddenly Mystery felt like the right target for all of it.

"Why didn’t you do anything to save me if you were by my side all this time? I nearly died, you know."

As if his words were something to be laughed at, Mystery giggled.

[ You survived, didn’t you? ]

"What the hell? Why give me your power just to stand there and watch me die? I’m the only person you’re compatible with, remember?"

He sneered.

"Did you enjoy it? What’s wrong with you... are you sick or something?"

Mystery went quiet for a moment before speaking again, their voice no longer as cheerful as before.

[ You cannot wield my power if you are unable to survive death. ]

Leomaris exhaled and massaged his brow, trying to settle himself down. Staring blankly into the distance, no idea what the one he spoke to even looked like, it only made things worse.

If he was being honest with himself, had Mystery offered a helping hand, he would have turned it down all the same. That would have shadowed his growth.

But it was the first time since he’d come to that any emotion regarding his attempted murder had surfaced, and that was despite knowing the person who stabbed him was still out there.

Perhaps this was what he needed. Someone to speak to freely, someone it felt safe to yell his heart out to, even if that someone was little more than a wall.

After a few breathing exercises, he turned his attention to the matter at hand. His eyes settled on the hymn book and the golden apple once more.

"What did you mean? Consume them?"

Mystery chuckled.

[ I love it when you are being rational. ]

A gentle wind stirred, catching the heavy cover and soft pages of the hymn book and turning them in its wake.

[ You mustn’t let these things go. You are to consume them. ]

Leomaris frowned. "Why?"

[ You just must. ]

Leomaris sighed. He’d expected as much. Mystery had been just like this during the contract process. True to their name, through and through.

But this time, he wasn’t simply going to let it go. He couldn’t consume items he had no knowledge of.

"You should know by now I’m not someone who charges in blindly. I’m not going to consume these just on your say-so."

His eyes narrowed, lending his expression a gravity it hadn’t held before.

"Now... tell me what these things are for?"

Mystery let his words hang in the air a good while. Long enough for Leomaris to wonder if they’d scarpered.

[ The book contains forbidden knowledge and authority... accessible only to Philosophers or those above their rank. ]

Leomaris blinked.

That much was true. Once someone became a Philosopher, they were granted knowledge of the world in depth and the ability to learn further without consequence. It lets them see things differently and use their abilities in the most effective ways possible.

Not bad at all, having knowledge exclusive to Philosophers despite being a mere Magician. But he hadn’t gone through brain synchronisation yet, and learning this could kill him within days.

"I hope you have a plan... because I have no intention of dying again."

[ Are you worried about how you can consume this? Don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten the skills I gave you. ]

Leomaris’s expression darkened. "Skills?"

[ Of course, you silly. Learn, Solve, and Null. What do you think those are? ]

Leomaris’s mouth parted. For a moment, he’d thought he’d been handed hidden abilities he knew nothing about. Magician’s abilities were mostly treated as skills, given that they depended on the Magician’s own capabilities to activate.

He exhaled.

"You know those require my personal skills to activate, right? My brain would explode."

As though trying to persuade his own entity, he gave a small shrug and a smile.

"Unless you go and get the ingredients for my solution to the next rank. What were they again? Dove fluid, Blessing of Carlos, and Welcoming Tears, yeah?"

Mystery sighed.

[ I would do no such thing. With sufficient money, these would not be difficult to acquire. ]

Saying these words to someone every bit as skint as himself, he couldn’t help feeling a little sheepish.

[ But you wouldn’t need to become a Sorcerer to consume these. ]

Leomaris furrowed his brow.

[ Break the artificial golden apple. ]

Leomaris’s skin crawled. Break them? These were things nobles and underground organisations were after. Wouldn’t breaking them land him in serious bother?

After mulling it over, he decided to take the risk. He grabbed it and slammed it into the ground, and when the last piece of broken plastic fell away, Leomaris’s eyes widened in shock.

A dark cube emerged and floated there, slow and steady. Bile rose in his throat as he gulped, sweat forming on his brow. His eyes fixed on the white cracks running through it, the purplish glow bleeding from their edges as though two opposing forces were held within.

He recognised it now. What stood before him was something even Archmages would go to war over.

"The Abyssal Cube?"