Chapter 17: Villainess, for a reason (1)

A few hours earlier, Celestia is walking up front, with the knights trailing behind her. Leon follows her around, like a duckling. Leon tries to speak but can't do anything but stutter, leaving the hallway silent again.

Celestia steps into the grand mansion, Leon follows closely behind, his eyes briefly scanning the opulent surroundings before settling back on her figure.

"What's this?"

Leon watches as the distance of the hallway seems to stretch a bit. He rubs his both eyes off a little before someone starts whispering into his ears. Leon looks around hastily but no one is there, not even Celestia.

[Warning!]

[You have entered "???" Domain.]

[Butler's Composer (LvL 2) has failed!]

"Wait! Fuck!"

Suddenly, the room erupted into chaos. It started as a faint buzzing, barely perceptible at first. But then it crescendoed into a deafening cacophony that reverberated through Leon's skull like a thunderous storm.

The walls seemed to pulse and undulate, their surfaces alive with writhing patterns that seared themselves into his consciousness. Colors bled and swirled, blending into a kaleidoscope of madness that assaulted his senses.

And then came the voices. They weren't mere whispers but primal screams that tore through the fabric of reality, shredding it to pieces. Each word was a dagger plunged deep into Leon's mind, twisting and turning him insane.

[Your madness status has reached over 20!]

[ Warning! Escape the room immediately!]

[Your senses have been dulled!]

[Anomaly's debuff has been applied!]

[The hallucinations will last up to the domain owner's authority!]

Leon looks at his hands, slowly disintegrating into sand.

"I'm super fucked." Leon whispers as the voices come in one by one.

"Chaos consuming, consuming, consuming," one voice roared, its words echoing in the caverns of Leon's fractured psyche.

He clutched his head in agony, unable to escape the relentless onslaught of sound and sensation. It was as if his mind had become a battleground, torn apart by something otherworldly.

"NO!"

"This is crazierrr than that skill's cooldown."

"Madness mounting, mounting, mounting," another voice shrieked, its words clawing at the fragile threads of Leon's sanity.

Leon attempts to call out Celestia's name but the pain in his head and back makes it seem like they are far away, as lonely as mountains. He walks slowly, leaning against the wall and rubbing his head with his other hand.

"W-what is it?" Leon asks himself.

The whole surrounding seems to be running around, laughing at him, colorful while gloomy, with joy while screaming sounds from hell itself but it stops.

CLAP!

Celestia looks back at Leon with an icy demeanor, almost as if she doesn't care for him. Leon blacks out.

Leon suddenly wakes up bowing before her, his forehead grazed the ground, his mouth completely shivering.

Suddenly, a searing pain shot through his skull, and warm blood trickled down his face. The third eye on Celestia's forehead had opened, marking him with a crimson scar.

"Why is he fucking here?"

Leon's breathing becomes unstable.

'I'm sure that's him.' Leon thinks. 

Leon gulps before looking ahead. Celestia stood tall and commanding, her piercing gaze fixed on the breathtaking view outside the grand window. Her long white hair glowed like a halo in the soft pinkish light of the moon, casting an ethereal aura around her.

There was something both mysterious and alluring about her presence as if she held the secrets of the universe within her.

Celestia reaches out and delicately lifts Leon's chin with her fingers, tilting his head up slightly. The gesture creates an enchanting movie-like scene between the two who are the only people in the room. But it was far from being romantic, Celestia's eyes are closed while she looks down at Leon with her upside-down third eye on her forehead.

"You." She speaks in a rather non-feminine nor masculine voice, scaring Leon a bit.

Leon gulps as he tries to close his eyes too.

"Boy with an empty core, how did you get past the domain for so many minutes and still stay alive?" She asks with a smirk on her face, the smirk stretching back from ear to ear.

"I-I don't know," Leon replies while his face has gone red by being too near Celestia's face. Leon smugs a bit before wiping it out of his face and thinks, 'I've prepared enough for you, dumbass god, go on with your question.'

"Now."

Celestia gracefully lowers herself onto a plush red chair adorned with intricate golden patterns. She then scoots back slightly, positioning her feet right in front of Leon's face, while maintaining an air of poise and elegance.

"Now, why should I keep you alive when you deliberately choose Celestia, even though I want through the trouble of keeping people away from her?" Celestia tilts her head slightly, keeping her poker face intact.

...

"Because I am the one destined to serve Lady Celestia." Leon stands up and looks over to Celestia and continues speaking, "Zarathoth, The whisperer of the void."

Leon's heartbeat is going crazy. He raises his eyebrows a bit, sweats and blood drips on the floor and his shirt. Celestia's smirk slowly disintegrates as the whole room turns full of devilish eyeballs, looking down on Leon from every nook and creek of the place.

Leon covers his mouth for a second and thinks while smirking, 'Now, Let's gamble on this shit!' Leon can feel the gazes piercing.

Zarathoth speaks, "Are you a follower of that insolent alien god?"

...

"You're an alien god too, residing like a parasite in my master's body," Leon speaks.

In the blink of an eye, Celestia appeared right in front of him, with a suddenness that caught him completely off guard. He was taken aback and stood there frozen, unable to react as she materialized before him in a flash of light.

The sheer force of her teleportation was so intense that it caused his nose to bleed and he stumbled, falling to the ground on his knees. The shock of the sudden appearance and the physical impact of the teleportation left him dazed and confused, struggling to regain his composure.

"I kept you alive for such insolence?" Celestia whips out a sword, almost slashing his neck by a hair's length.

But before the fatal blow could land, Leon acted swiftly and dodged the attack.

Celestia's third eye starts tearing up blood and speaks with an aggressive tone, "You mortals should've worshipped me like in the past."

Leon's gaze didn't waver despite the threat, "I don't care, you fucker. I serve Celestia, not you." He wakes up rubbing off his nosebleed, smirking even though he's sweating and extremely nervous.

[Baseless Regeneration has activated!]

...

[Madness status has reached its peak!]

[Mental Resistance has increased significantly.] 

[Butler's Composer has evolved to E-rank!]

Celestia's third eye, fueled by fury, stepped forward, weapon raised. "Enough of this!" she roared, ready to strike.

But before the blade could meet its mark, Leon pulled out the item Tears of Zarathoth, waving it by the top of the bottle, toying around as if it would drop. Celestia froze, her eyes widening in disbelief as the shimmering tears enveloped her.

"W-Where did you get that?" The third eye's voice shook with anger as he attempted to resist the tears' effects.

Leon's voice was calm, but firm. "You must want your tears back right?"

...

Leon smirks and speaks, "Don't you want to avenge for what has happened to you, whisperer of the void?"

The room fell silent, tension thick in the air. Celestia's resolve wavered as she struggled against the overwhelming emotions.

Outside, the eyeballs scattered around the house began to twitch and dart, sensing the disruption within.

"I... I..." Celestia's voice faltered, her sword slipping from her grasp.

[Elegance has increased your persuasive stat!] 

Leon stepped closer, his expression becoming more erratic. He nears the face of Celestia, eyeing him down "I will give you this tear but promise me two things."

As Celestia grappled with her inner turmoil, Leon extended his hand, placing it on Celestia's shoulder he spoke, "I want you to help me kill N'ghalathoth, the Unsanctified Devourer, and her discipline 'Sophia Kaiser.' 

The third eye dances around before it stuns into one place.

"What do I get from it?" Zarathoth speaks through the eye this time.

"I'll collect every tear for you, Let's tear everyone apart."

Celestia's mouth chuckles and speaks again while maintaining eye contact, "The other one?"

...

Zarathoth accepts this offer of redemption and plunges deeper into the abyss. Celestia picks up the bottle before splashing it into her third eye.