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Serial Killer In 'The Eminence in the Shadows'

I've always admired villains. They are the driving force of every story. Heroes won't exist without villains and villains won't shine without heroes opposing them. I've always wanted to be a villain… or at least play the role of a villain in my head. I understand as much that I'm too weak to be a true villainous figure in real life. That's why… I need more POWER!

Zephyrrrrr · Anime & Comics
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10 Chs

Chapter 2: Experiment No. 001

I stood in front of a mirror and beheld my new visage. What greeted me was the sight of a 7-year-old boy with short blond hair and blue eyes.

Blond hair and blue eyes seem to be my family's traits, except for my mother whose eyes are green.

Using magic, I've grown taller than other children and I look 10 years old already. That's good.

A tall villain is more intimidating than a short one… although there are instances where a short villain can be intimidating, like a certain galactic emperor with a cold-themed name from a certain famous manga.

Knock knock knock

A knock on the door. The maid I summoned has come.

"Enter."

The door opened, revealing a maid with red hair tied in a bun at the back. Her name is Mini On. Weird name. But probably normal in this world so I won't judge. She is the maid responsible for taking care of my little sister, Charlotte.

I called upon her to discipline her about the weird things she taught my sister. Naturally, I don't really care what sort of things she learned. I'm just using this excuse to practice threatening my subordinates' acts.

"Lord Claude. You've summoned me. Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Yes. I want to know if you've whispered weird things to my little sister." I answered while still stylishly standing straight in front of the mirror without turning to face her, observing her reaction by looking at her reactions in the mirror.

"!"

Oh? Her calm demeanour instantly failed her and she became nervous as I said that. Good reaction.

"I-I'm not sure what you're talking about, Lord."

"You see. My sister is an innocent soul and she would share many things with me."

"M-My lord! I-I assure you that I didn't-"

"Finish that sentence and I'll interpret it as you accusing my sister as a liar."

"I-I'm sorry, my lord! That's not what I meant! I-I was just-"

"I don't want to hear it. You and whoever you're working for should stay out of my way. If you don't…"

I turned to face her slowly for dramatic effect, stared coldly at her panicked eyes and said, "I'll destroy you all."

"Hiiyyy!"

"Now get out."

"Y-Yes! Excuse me!"

Hmmm…. There she goes. My threats are more effective even though I baselessly accused her of conspiring with someone to corrupt my sister with weird knowledge.

Heh heh heh. This is fun.

...

I messed up.

Lord Claude knows. He clearly knows that I'm working with the Cult to monitor his sister and report to the Cult when she starts showing signs of Demonic Possession.

But how did he find out!? I never mentioned the Cult or anything related to it to his sister! Is it that time I constantly asked her whether she had the symptoms of the Demonic Possession when she was sick?

But he said I whispered weird things to her. Is it that time I told her that her life could come to an end anytime so she should cherish it because I pitied her?

But even so, how could a child make that connection!?

Either way, I'm in trouble and my superiors might replace me. I'll be disposed of! What should I do!?

Perhaps I should report to my superiors regarding his intelligence. They'll decide what to do. I don't think they can blame me for this.

...

5 years have passed since that incident and the maid I threatened was replaced before I knew it. I wonder where she is now. Her name was funny.

I spent these 5 years increasing my skills in swordsmanship and advanced my magical studies.

I also returned to being a serial killer, randomly invading random people's homes, murdering entire families and drawing my signature runes, circles and pentagrams with blood. Before long people started calling me the Occult Serial Killer again.

Of course, I didn't limit myself to killing people in my father's territory alone. With the flight magic I invented, I was able to commit murders on other territories as well and thus I was never caught.

In my studies of this world's magic, several things stood out to me besides this world's trend of Spellswording, namely Artifacts and Demonic Possession.

Artefacts are old magical items of great power. They used to be more common but lately, they are rare and expensive.

As a Ducal family, however, we have access to an Artifact… namely the lightning sword Durandal, my family's heirloom.

Weird that it uses the name of a famous sword from Earth but has no relation to Earth, like this kingdom's name which is taken from one of the nine worlds of Norse mythology.

What a funny coincidence, as if I'm in a story and the author either lacks originality or thought using such names is cool.

I've analyzed the enchantment on the sword and am in the process of creating my own Magic Ite- Oh sorry, Artifacts.

The peculiar runes on the sword led me to study the old runes of this world, which looked totally different from the runes of my world. So far my experiments to enchant weapons have been unsuccessful.

Perhaps I need better materials? Like Mythril? Perhaps. Mythril has better magic conductivity than steel after all. I'll have to secretly obtain some Mythril.

As for the Demonic Possession, they are either a curse or disease that causes the body to rot and mutate uncontrollably.

The mutated parts would regenerate even after you mutilate them, which means getting Demonic Possession is a death sentence.

The Church of this world is the one who called them Demonic Possession and they would exterminate the victims wherever they found them.

But I know that they are simply a case of magical energy going out of control which destroys the body.

How do I know?

Well, it's because I have a Demonic Possession victim here in my secret basement that even my family knows nothing about due to me purchasing the secret place. It is located underneath a house in Everick, a city within my father's Domain. It is here that I conduct my magical experiments away from prying eyes.

The Demonic Possession victim I captured is a beautiful blonde elf girl whose body is almost entirely affected by the Possession.

I named her Experiment No. 001. I found her by accident when I raided a bunch of bandits during my nightly training/hunting session, not caring who I killed as long as I could kill someone, preferably someone who could fight back.

Seeing that this is a golden opportunity to study the Demonic Possession, I took her with me.

She is an extremely beautiful girl even at her age, which I assume to be 10 years old.

Such a pretty little thing.

She would've grown into a bewitching beauty if not for this Demonic Possession. Such a poor little thing.

But alas, I have no intention of saving her.

The girl, despite the pain and despair she felt due to her condition, still glared at me defiantly even though she suffered greatly from my experiments where I partially cured her Possession and reinfected her with it.

I wore a black hooded robe, and a skull mask and changed my hair white temporarily with magic to avoid being recognized as Claude Normann, the good son of Duke Normann.

I even learned to mask my magic signature to avoid being detected. The girl only knows me by the name I introduced myself as, The Necromancer.

Yes, I intend to recreate the magic of necromancy in this world, which is why my basement is filled with many fresh corpses of victims I killed.

Why do I want to create magic to control the dead? Because it's cool. So far not much success with people, though.

Only with animals.

Today I brought a little surprise for her. I'm so excited.

"Wakey wakey, No. 001! I brought you a friend! Say hello to No. 002!"

"You… You bastard!"

I kidnapped a perfectly healthy elf girl and brought her to my basement. Why a healthy one and not a Possessed one you ask? You will see.

"Wh-What's going on!? Who are you!?"

"I am the Necromancer, the Ruler of Death and the Master of your fates. You are here to be my experimental subjects."

"Curse you, Necromancer! Let her go!"

"As you can see, No. 001, she is perfectly healthy. I don't want you to be lonely so I brought you a friend who will share your fate."

"No… You don't mean…!"

"Let's see if I can recreate your condition on her."

"You sadistic bastard!"

I began injecting No. 002 with my magic, invading her circuits and trying to induce the Magic Overload that would result in her having Possession-like symptoms. I succeeded… to a limited degree.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH! IT HURTS! PLEASE STOOP! AAAHHH!"

Only signs of rotting, no mutation. Perhaps not enough energy? What if I inject more?

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

I've only succeeded in injuring her, not causing the magnificent Possession. What is missing? Perhaps the subject's own lack of magic power? Or…

I took out a syringe, took samples of No. 001's blood and injected it to No. 002. The mutation immediately grew on various body parts after the injection, faster than I expected.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH! IT HUUUURTS!"

"Ha ha ha ha ha! Magnificent! So the Possession is a product of genetics after all!"

I injected more of my magic to encourage more mutation in her body and it caused her to turn into a huge hulking monstrosity who immediately escaped her bonds and broke out of the basement, rampaging outside.

Using flight magic I created, I flew up in the air and grinned as I watched as the monster went on a rampage in the town, massacring civilians and guards alike before the Knight Order came and slain the monster after taking some casualties themselves.

The Demonic Possession holds so much potential. If I could control them, I'd have many monstrous minions under my command. Heh heh heh.

Now I need to abandon my current hideout and erase evidence that I was ever here before the Knight Order started their investigation.

As I came back to my basement to move my stuff to another hideout, I noticed No.001's cage had been opened.

She has escaped.

I was confident she couldn't escape due to her condition and thus I didn't bother locking her cage but it seems like I've underestimated her.

No matter.

I feel like we will meet again in the future.

And when we do, I'll have some villainous monologue prepared just for her.

If she survives her condition that is.

_________________

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Note-

1. If we reach Top 3 in the rankings I will upload 3 extra chapters a week including the orginal 7 chapters a week, making it 10 chapters a week.

2. If we reach Top 1 in the rankings I will upload 2 chapters a day which would mean 14 chapters a week.

3. Even if we can't reach Top 1 If we reach 10 paid members on Patreon I will upload twice a day.

Since I'm a college student I really lack time to fully invest in writing despite it being my favourite hobby. Depending on the love you guys show me I can decide how much I need to dedicate myself to this story.

Regardless thanks for giving this story a chance!

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