The Return Of The Exiled Villain

Clack!

Clack!!

Clack!!!

Each step echoed like a hammer blow down the spiral staircase.

The air grew heavier the further Gray descended, turning thicker, warmer, laced with something sweet, like perfume.

His blood-soaked coat dragged behind him. His hand still trembled from the last trial, crusted red. His chest ached, and his side still hadn't stopped bleeding.

But he kept going.

"Trial three... what's next? Acid pit? Poison room? Spinning blades up my ass?"

He muttered to himself, his voice hoarse, trying to focus, trying not to think about how close he'd come to dying up there.

And eventually, the stairs ended.

"Ah...?"

He stepped forward, and then...

FWOOOP!

The world changed.

Gone were the black stones, the cold dungeon walls.

Now…

He stood in an endless field, golden grass swaying beneath a warm twilight sky. The wind was soft, and the air no longer smelled of blood, but of flowers.

And in the distance, he could see a small cottage.

Smoke curling from its chimney.

Gray blinked.

"What…?"

A breeze blew past him, and suddenly...

"Heheheh~"

A child's laugh echoed.

He quickly spun, but strangely, no one was there.

"What the hell is this…?"

Then, a familiar voice drifted through the wind.

"Gray~ Dinner's ready! Come inside, before it gets cold."

He froze slighly, as his brain suddenly ached.

That voice... that same voice... that exact voice...

"No, no, no...! That's...!"

His boots began to move forward before his brain even caught up. The closer he got to the house, the clearer the smells became.

The faint aroma of bread, stew, and the honey tea he loved.

Things he hadn't smelled since... before she died.

His mother.

That was her voice... that was her laugh.

That was the scent of her cooking.

Plop!

Gray stopped at the door, his fingers shook as he reached for the wooden handle.

But then...

He paused slighly, his eyebrows furrowing.

"...No. No, this is wrong." His eyes darkened.

"She's dead. They buried her when I was six. I watched the worms crawl on her coffin."

He looked around.

At the endless golden field, the beautiful blue sky.

"This… isn't real at all..."

And just as he said those words, the door creaked open on its own.

And standing there... was her... exactly as he remembered.

Her figure was slight, but steady. Worn hands, calloused from tending herbs, folded gently before her. Her apron was faded blue, patched at the hem, stained from a hundred meals she had made with love.

Her silver hair, long and soft, was tied loosely behind her head, strands curling free and falling across her face in a way that made her seem both older and younger than she really was.

And her familiar eyes... they were a pale shade of gray, not cold, but soft like overcast skies before the rain.

They always held warmth, that same quiet, aching kind of love that had made Gray's chest hurt when he was little and didn't know why.

Her lips curled into a familiar smile.

"Gray, honey," she said gently.

"Why are you crying?"

His throat clenched at her familiar voice and tone.

He hadn't realized he was crying.

He wiped his eyes, almost growling. He knew that this wasn't his own body, but somehow, the memories he received... made it so... he experienced everything 'Gray' had.

"You're not real."

She tilted her head, her lips curling up slightly.

"Is that so?"

"I'm in a fucking trial," he snapped. "The gods are fucking testing me. This is another trap created by them, another FUCKING GAME!!!"

Her face didn't change at his words; instead, she stepped forward and hugged him.

And for a second…

It felt so real.

Her warmth, her scent... even her heartbeat.

He wanted to sink into it... just for a small moment.

"No one hugged me since you died…" he whispered.

He didn't even want to talk, but the words simply came out of his mouth, as if it were the old 'Gray' talking, and not him.

"I just… I just wanted to protect them like you told me."

Her arms tightened.

"You can... you still can. Just stay here, baby. You don't have to fight anymore. You don't have to bleed anymore... just relax, and stay with Mom."

It sounded so tempting.

So peaceful.

But then...

He remembered the blood on his hands, the way his own family laughed after throwing him away... and finally... the huge thirst of revenge.

His vision sharpened.

"...This isn't fucking real."

He shoved her back.

She stumbled, but didn't fall; instead, her face twisted. Her eyes turned completely black, her skin started peeling off like old paper, and...

And the sweet voice dropped into a voice deeper than the grave.

"You would reject your greatest desire?"

CRACK!

The whole world started disappearing.

The cottage cracked behind her, the sky shattering like glass, and the beautiful golden fields twisted into black roots.

The world burned away, leaving him alone again.

Back in the dungeon, where blood was still leaking from his ribs. However, the trial was finally complete, and with that, another tablet rose from the floor.

"Ugh...!"

Gray sank to one knee, holding his mouth. It wasn't from pain or the urge to vomit, but from how badly it had almost worked.

"Fuck you," he whispered.

"She would've told me to fucking kill the all."

He slowly rose, his eyes narrowing.

And before him, at last, another stairway unfurled downward. And strangely, it was giving him the feeling that it was the last one.

An inscription hovered above it:

[Only those with nothing to lose… may inherit everything.]

Gray chuckled dryly at those words.

"Then I'm your perfect candidate."

He started limping forward, descending the nauseous stairway once again.

"Gosh... can't they simply teleport me to the next trial directly?" Gray muttered, biting his lower lip, as he held his wound.

"Ah... I could have done this sooner..."

Rip!

He cut a little part of his shirt before inserting it into his wound.

"It won't get better that easily... but it's better than nothing."

He continued descending until he finally arrived at two simple doors. Without wasting any time, Gray simply pushed them open.

And beyond it, Gray stepped into a void.

"The fuck is this place..."

There were no walls or ceiling, just an endless abyss beneath cracked stone platforms that hovered over a bottomless chasm.

The only light came from the weird violet torches floating in the air.

But then, something caught Gray's attention.

"Mhm?"

Above him, floating in the dark sky, a single line of glowing script hovered.

[Prove yourself worthy of power. Or fall as ash.]

Seeing those words, Gray closed his eyes before exhaling.

"Let's do this..."

He glanced around.

There were ten platforms ahead, each one of them were separated by jagged chasms.

There were no handrails or patterns; some of them had spikes, while others moved. Finally, there were a few who cracked under pressure.

Gray stepped onto the first one.

CRUNCH!

A spike shot up.

He rolled instinctively, the blade grazing his thigh and tearing through muscle.

"AGHH!!! FUCK!"

Blood spilled fast, but he didn't stop.

"Fuck! They really don't want anyone to pass this shit, huh?"

He tied a quick strip of cloth around his leg and jumped to the second platform.

WOOOOOSH!!

Flames instantly erupted from the sides.

"Damn it!"

He instantly dove forward.

BOOM!!!

The explosion flung him forward violently, straight into the edge of the next platform.

POP!

"GGRRRAAGHH!!!" His shoulder dislocated from the impact, causing him to let a pitch-high scream, as he slowly dragged himself up.

"F-fuck... ahh... huff... fuck these gods..."

His breaths came out sharp and shallow. He felt as if his ribs were on fire, his eyes could barely see straight, and now, his shoulder had even dislocated.

But even with all of those injuries, he laughed.

"Haha… the fuck am I doing…? This is complete suicide…"

The fourth platform rotated in midair, like a floating wheel.

And on its surface, there were rotating, grinding, shifting blades.

"Fuck..." Gray cursed once again.

His body was completely tired, but just as he thought of the two bitches who were waiting for him in the academy...

"I'll kill them... I'll kill them... I'll fucking kill them..."

His body was instantly energized.

He took a single step back and ran.

Fwoop!

He jumped, just as the platform aligned with a flat surface.

CLANG!!

His foot barely landed before the rotation began again, and just as he landed, he quickly ducked, the blades sweeping by inches from his head.

"Think, Gray… THINK—!!"

He slowly started moving with the rotation, timing his movements with every twitch of the metal.

One slip, and he'd be mulch, but step by step, he adapted.

But unfortunately, there was one misstep...

SLICE!

A blade grazed across his forearm, opening a deep gash.

Blood sprayed, his vision tilted.

"Shit… not good… not… good…"

But he pushed on and leapt to the next platform.

Then the next.

And the next.

Each trial was worse than the last one.

Gravity reversed, and he was flung upside-down onto glass.

Illusions tricked his balance.

One platform disappeared entirely when he stepped on it; he had to grab a floating torch and swing to the next.

And through all of it... he continued bleeding, feeling like he was about to pass out.

More and more, he could feel the life draining from his body.

But his mind never dulled... if anything, it seemed to have sharpened even more than before, making him even more prepared for the next platforms.

At platform nine, he reached a checkpoint. A slab of obsidian hovered, glowing faintly with divine energy, and on it was a single vial.

He instantly grabbed it, uncorked it, and sniffed it lightly.

"...Hmph. Minor healing. Not enough."

He drank it anyway.

His wounds closed slightly, and his vision steadied.

"Huff... only one more."

In front of him, only one platform remained, the tenth one.

There were no gimmicks at clear sight, just a massive sword, floating upright, stabbed into the center of the platform.

But strangely, a crimson light pulsed from it, making Gray cautious of it.

And at the moment Gray stepped onto the platform...

BOOOOOM!!!

A shockwave erupted, and something materialized from thin air.

It wasn't a monster or an illusion, but a man.

He was dressed in half-black armor with chains covering his entire body, but strangely, his eyes were a frightening, glowing red.

And on his face…

Was Gray's face.

"Another copy? No…"

This one strangely spoke... with the same voice as him.

"You're not meant to pass this trial. You're meant to feed it."

SHING!

The red-eyed Gray raised his massive sword with one hand, resting it on his shoulder.

"You don't belong here. You never did."

He instantly shot towards Gray.

CLANG!

The first clash nearly shattered his arm.

Gray was flung across the platform like a ragdoll, crashing shoulder-first against the obsidian wall.

"AGHH—!! F-fuck me!!"

His bones screamed, his arm dangled limp from the socket. His body felt like it had been slammed by a mountain.

Across from him, the reflection, his doppelgänger, stood tall, red eyes glowing, that massive black sword humming with a strange energy.

"Why do you struggle?" the reflection asked coldly.

"You've always known the truth."

It dashed forward again.

WHOOSH—!!

Gray barely ducked the downward swing, the blade cleaving through the obsidian floor with a sound like splitting stone.

BOOM!

The shockwave knocked him off his feet again.

"Shit! Shit, shit, shit!"

He rolled, blood smearing across the cracked surface, then sprang up unsteadily, his shoulder grinding back into place with a bone-crunching pop.

"AAAGHH!!... hahhh... ngh…! That's... that's one way to reset it…"

The reflection came again.

Gray blocked with his rapier, but the sheer force of the black blade snapped the outer edge of his weapon in half.

CLANG!

TCHING!!

Steel shrieked, and sparks flew.

He jumped back, panting hard.

"I can't block it. I can't outpower him. And he's not falling for basic feints anymore…"

His eyes flicked toward the divine sword stuck in the center of the platform.

Chains connected it to the ceiling, thick ones, pulsing with the same crimson light. They were funneling energy into the blade.

And that blade was feeding the doppelgänger.

"That sword… It's powering him. I need to cut him off."

But he couldn't get close without dying.

Then he noticed something...

Every time the reflection attacked, it instinctively protected the divine sword. It was tethered to it, not just by magic, but by instinct.

"He guards the power source… which means…"

Gray's eyes darted upward to the chains.

"If I make it look like I'm running, he'll chase. If I can draw him far enough from the sword…"

He spat blood onto the stone.

"Alright, asshole... Let's dance."

Gray started running.

He bolted across the far side of the platform, making sure his footsteps were intentionally loud and obvious.

"Cowardice won't save you," the reflection muttered.

And just as Gray hoped, he followed.

The moment the doppelgänger left the sword's range...

CRACK!

Gray twisted, threw a shard of broken obsidian upward, one he'd pocketed from the last platform without a second thought.

The glass shard snapped one of the chains.

SNAP!

A pulse of unstable energy rippled from the divine sword.

The doppelgänger paused slightly.

Taking the opportunity, Gray charged, feigning another frontal strike.

CLANG!

The reflection blocked with ease, but... Gray wasn't aiming for him.

He spun with the momentum, sliding on his knees, and tossed a second glass shard upward, targeting another chain.

PING...

SNAP!!

Two chains down.

The power surging through the reflection fluctuated, just for a second.

"NOW!"

Gray twisted his broken rapier in his grip, aiming for the doppelgänger's knee.

SCHLICK!!

The blade dug in shallow, not deep enough to cripple, but it staggered him.

The reflection roared.

"ENOUGH!"

Gray dashed toward the sword again, grabbed one of the remaining chains, twisted it around his forearm, bracing with everything he had left.

The reflection lunged at him.

"DIE!!!"

"Nah... Die first, you motherfucker."

Gray jumped with a small grin and let himself fall... dragging the last chain downward with his entire weight.

CRRRK!

CHINK...

SNAP!!

The final connection broke, and instantly, the sword in the center surged.

FLASH!!

An explosion of energy ruptured the air.

The red-eyed Gray was standing right in the blast radius.

His mouth opened, but no sound came out.

He disintegrated.

BOOOOOOOMMMM!!!

The whole platform shattered.

Stone flung in every direction.

Gray's body fell, surrounded by chunks of obsidian and firelight, eyes wide, vision swimming.

Blood poured from his mouth, and his body was in an even worse condition. His limbs were completely useless, his bones had been cracked, and his skin was pretty much torn apart.

Fwoooooooo~

He was falling.

But on his face, there was the grin from before.

"I told you…"

"I don't need to be strong…"

"I just need to be smarter than you."

His eyelids felt extremely heavy.

"...I hope... this was fucking enough..."

He closed his eyes, and everything went black.