The Villain's Sister - Chapter 64

The lights in the theater dimmed and the production logo appeared.

Giselle quietly slipped out and headed to the actors’ waiting room.

Sitting down to ease her tension and closing her eyes, her consciousness quickly drifted below the surface of sleep.

Then, a memory she didn’t want to recall replayed.

The worst day of a life riddled with misfortune.

‘I don’t want to see this dream anymore.’

Even so, that day repeated within her, and on the screen that had just begun the screening.

***

She sometimes wished that all of it were just a dream.

This world was like hell.

There were countless villains committing gas attacks and hostage robberies, and heroes obsessed with catching them.

And villain hunters who occasionally killed members of underground organizations.

Would a peaceful world with no villains, no heroes, and no villain hunters even exist?

If she could experience such a world, she’d gladly be trapped in the dream forever.

Because reality was hell.

“Don’t come! Deva, stay there!”

Back to back with Oscar, Raphael fired his gun mercilessly.

It was an anti-magic firearm made specifically to counter Red Shadow, a wizard.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Each deafening gunshot made her ears ring and her heart drop.

Because anti-magic bullets were hard to deflect with magic, Red Shadow also pulled out a gun to snipe at Raphael.

Teleporting once in front of Raphael, and again in front of Oscar, Red Shadow kept firing without mercy.

In the distance, Black Pistols could be seen gripping his gun with both hands.

He pulled out the mana gun Raphael had given him at some point and held it tight.

Then he fired toward Black Pistols.

Bang!

“Ugh!”

The recoil made it feel like her arm might fall off.

The bullet missed Black Pistols and hit the nearby wall.

Our righteous hero, Black Pistols, turned his head toward us.

Terrified and trembling, she clenched her teeth. “Who… who are you trying to kill?”

If you’re a hero, you’re supposed to save people. Why are you teaming up with a villain hunter to kill Raphael?

How dare you… Who do you think you are?

Bang! Bang! Bang!

She kept pulling the trigger in succession.

Unable to withstand the recoil, her arm bent slightly and the magazine dropped onto her face.

Black Pistols ducked low and charged toward her.

She didn’t back down and kept pulling the trigger.

While she was distracted reloading, Black Pistols appeared right in front of her.

“You’re Raphael’s sister.”

He grabbed her wrist.

His grip was so strong that no amount of struggling could break free.

“If you’re a hero, act like one. Can’t you see Red Shadow is trying to kill Raphael?”

“Your brother is the biggest villain in this city. Don’t pretend you don’t know.”

“It’s this goddamn world that made Raphael a villain! Let me go!”

Before they knew it, Red Shadow had approached and stabbed a knife into Raphael’s side.

“Raphael—! No! Raphael! Raphaaeeel!”

She screamed until her throat tore.

No. Not Raphael. Kill me instead.

Red Shadow twisted the knife embedded in his side and yanked it out.

Then raised it high, aiming for his heart.

At that moment, Oscar turned and shot, hitting Red Shadow in the shoulder.

As Red Shadow staggered, Oscar fired again.

But Black Pistols was faster. His bullet hit Oscar’s leg.

“Aagh!”

Oscar collapsed to the ground, and his bullet missed.

As Black Pistols’s hand released her, she ran to Raphael. “Raphael, Raphael. It’s okay. I’m here. Everything’s okay.”

Could someone really bleed this much?

Could anyone survive after losing so much blood?

She concentrated her energy into her fingertips and poured it into Raphael.

Gasping for breath, Raphael pleaded, “Run away, now.”

“Shut up. I’m not going anywhere without you.”

“Deva… you have to run. While there’s still time—”

“If you die, I’ll die too! If you want me to live, then protect me!”

Tears streamed down her face.

No matter how much they called him the world’s worst villain, he was her brother.

The brother who gave everything for her.

She could never hand him over to heroes or villain hunters.

Oscar, still lying on the ground, firing at Red Shadow, shouted, “Deva! Listen to Raphael!”

“With you all here, where the hell do you expect me to run…”

Oscar wasn’t related by blood, but he was still my brother.

He had been Raphael’s friend since before I could remember, and while Raphael was in the military, he acted as an older brother in his place.

Raphael… Oscar.

And me.

The three of us were a family. That was an undeniable fact.

Red Shadow saw me drawing out my power.

The shocked eyes beneath his blood-splattered mask looked familiar somehow.

While he hesitated to shoot, a man in a black cloak tore through space in midair and appeared.

Slashing magic was Black Cloak’s specialty.

Then Red Shadow summoned explosion magic.

As the air grew hot, crack! crack! dazzling flames rose.

When their magic began to collide, the world started to distort.

“No. Run! Run, Deva!”

I ignored Raphael’s words.

Cough!

Raphael coughed up blood.

Crack-crack-crackle! Snap!

The world was being torn apart by Black Cloak’s slashing magic.

Red Shadow, a powerful wizard, surrounded himself with magical energy for protection, but it couldn’t shield the world.

From the torn space caused by the clash of magic, a universe unfolded.

Then, with compressed explosion magic, Red Shadow clumped the torn space together and reattached it.

Where their magic had collided, only a strangely twisted space remained.

The universe tangled, the world mixed, life and death, reality and unreality intersected.

Terrified, Oscar clenched his teeth and dragged himself toward me. “We have to run. Deva, at least you have to escape! Go quickly, I’m begging you!”

At Oscar’s words, Raphael, his face now pale like ash, shouted, “Black Pistols! Take my sister!”

Black Pistols, who had been running to stop Red Shadow and the black cape, turned this way at Raphael’s words.

“Damn it.”

Understanding the situation, Black Pistols ran toward me.

I forced more power out.

White light healed Raphael’s body, but I had no energy left, and the speed was far slower than usual.

Black Pistols grabbed me by the back of the neck.

“No! Let go of me!”

Raphael grabbed the hand I had pressed against his side. I struggled, but it was no use.

“Deva. I was always sorry.”

“Sorry for what. Why are you sorry?”

Don’t say that like it’s the end.

Rrrrummble. Krrrra-boom!

As the wizards’ power collided, the universe shook, and a roar erupted.

From the twisted, torn, crushed gaps poured dark, blue, sparkling, dazzling, strange, and mysterious light.

Black Pistols hoisted me over his shoulder.

“No! Let me go! Raphael! Oscar!”

“Black Pistols. I know it’s shameless… but please take care of Deva.”

Raphael grew distant.

Light engulfed the world.

The air trembled, and life pulsed.

Raphael, Raphael!

Oscar!

Raphael―!

My voice was swallowed. The blinding light nearly blinded me.

KRA-KOOM! BAM!

The world disassembled and reassembled.

As the universe collapsed, a primordial cosmos was born, and a new space-time overlaid it.

The light, a new world, life and death, good and evil, fate and providence, soul trembled.

The storm that shook everything passed.

The two unparalleled wizards exhaled with exhaustion, and Oscar vanished, caught in the magic.

And then…

“…Raphael…”

I burst into tears.

Please, let this be a dream.

I wouldn’t mind going back to living in hell if only I could wake up from this nightmare where Raphael is dead.

And Giselle woke from the nightmare.