14 Desire for Power

Valdis sent a signal to the others to gather on the predesignated spot before going there himself. When he got there, everyone else was already there.

"Why the hell did you send a signal now and where did you two idiots run off to before? Unless you have a good re-?!" Mine instantly started complaining when she heard the footsteps approaching, however, she and everyone else were surprised when Valdis walked out of the darkness.

His body was covered in small cuts and Tatsumi was unmovingly lying over his shoulders with very similar if not even deeper wounds.

"Are you two alright?!" Bulat covered in armor rushed to their side, closely followed by Akame and others.

"..." Valdis glanced at Akame's face without saying anything who in return tilted her head to the side in confusion before her face was painted with worry.

"I am fine but this idiot got somehow baited by Zank and run off without me. When I finally found him, he was already on the verge of collapsing. I think it would be better to wait for Tatsumi to wake up and explain since even I don't know what exactly happened before finding him and Zank fighting." Valdis explained and released a relieved sigh when Bulat took Tatsumi in his arms.

"...Then what about Zank?" Mine sensed that this wasn't the time to fool around so even she turned serious as she asked this question.

"He came along with us as a witness or maybe I should say "piece" of evidence" " Valdis replied in a half-joking tone to ease off the atmosphere and raised the bag everyone else was ignoring till now.

"...No way" Mine shook her head with a disbelieving face after seeing the bottom of the bag soaked in some red liquid. Even the others became alarmed when they heard Valdis's words.

"You are free to say hi, if you won't believe me, you might believe him." Valdis threw the bag on the ground and Zank's head rolled out in open, his face covered in disbelief before he died. The Spectator was still attached to his forehead.

"Let's go back first, we need to treat their injuries fast" Bulat suggested after taking the Spectator off Zank's forehead.

"Ugh..." Mine obviously had some questions as to why somebody without a Teigu could kill a Teigu user.

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A few days later, both Tatsumi and Valdis recovered from their injuries and after Najenda heard the group's report, Valdis gained a few more points.

'Currently, I possess 700 Villain Points which is enough to strengthen my body by quite a lot, however, if I want to stand a chance against numerous strong enemies, I will need to evolve my Sharingan...' Valdis thought as the group gathered in the meeting room where Tatsumi was trying out the Spectator since Valdis refused to even try it by saying he doesn't feel like he would be compatible with it.

"Are you alright?" It was actually Sheele who noticed Valdis being too absorbed in his thoughts.

"...Yeah, I am just thinking about my fight with Zank and moments where I could have done better." Valdis came up with an excuse very quickly.

"I see...I think you shouldn't be so hard on yourself. You are doing great, it is even more unbelievable that you were capable of taking down a Teigu user even if he was exhausted" Sheele's comforting words fell on deaf ears since Valdis was thinking about a new option in the system he noticed after killing Zank.

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[Evolution of Sharingan + (3000 Villain Points, Conditions fulfilled 0/1)

[??? - Conditions 1/2]

[Itachi's path - Conditions 0/1]

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He was finally able to extend the option for the evolution of his Sharingan and look at the path's names, however, what caught his attention was the question-marked path with 2 conditions. Every other path he noticed had only 1 condition so he had guessed that it is his own path, therefore harder to reach. The reason why he fulfilled one of two conditions must have been due to killing Zank one of the first bigger villains and he had a gut feeling about what the second condition is.

"...Thank you, Sheele" Valdis turned at her and thanked her with a friendly smile and closed eyes, however his aura didn't match his kind expression at all which gave her an indescribable feeling of discomfort.

'In the end, will you still have to die at the same place and time, Sheele?' Valdis didn't even consider killing anyone else for several reasons.

First, he still wanted to keep the plot as close to the original as possible.

Second, he felt she was the easiest target of all, knowing her future confrontation with Seryu. As for why not Mine considering he found her most annoying of all people...he still had grander plans prepared for Mine.

Valdis thought of all these reasons, yet, somehow he felt uneasy. He felt an aching feeling coming from his heart when he looked at the girls' ignorant reaction when Tatsumi started blushing with the activated Spectator. This was actually Valdis's first time being part of any group that somehow accepted him and treated him nicely. He was aware of his true nature, however, he had a gut feeling that the group wouldn't instantly throw him away but tried to help him with his lack of empathy instead. He couldn't deny that he had some fun being around this group.

Valdis had some second thoughts while looking down at the ground while no one was paying attention to him.

'NO!' Valdis shouted in his mind to shake off those thoughts and even his widened eyes subconsciously turned to Sharingan as visible veins appeared all around it as if he was overusing it. His current Sharingan looked quite different from its usual calmness. It was strongly glowing in the color of blood and radiated hatred mixed with determination alongside the immense desire for power.

'I don't need anyone's acknowledgment...just power!'

At that time, Valdis still hadn't realized that his current thoughts had just locked him out of several paths which were still available till now, though it's not like he would care at all. With the growing power, Valdis became more prideful and even if he were to discover his Mangekyo Sharingan would be inferior to one for example from Sasuke's path, he would still choose it, despite being a power-hungry freak.

The Villainous System wouldn't have chosen just anybody as its candidate. Its chosen one most definitely had to be someone with one or more mental disorders, otherwise, the candidate could just "misuse" it which wouldn't be fun.