How to Redeem a Trashy Side Villain

Chapter 134: Beef Pushed Aside

[Diana]

"BELL!!!" I screamed. My voice was so loud that it might as well have been the sound of a thousand voices coming out of one throat.

I moved before I could even finish my word.

The ground cracked beneath my feet as my knees bent. Then I launched myself forward and without thinking, instinct took over me.

I was in the air and began to fly. I didn't transform into a bat like before. I just flew as myself.

Wind roared loudly in my eyes as the distance between the two of us vanished far too slowly despite me moving at the fastest speed I've ever moved before.

Bell was suspended in the air with his wrists bound behind his back. A chain was dragging him upward toward a portal in the sky.

His eyes were wide, not with fear, but with surprise.

I didn't know what was going on through his mind at the moment because he was blank, like he usually was.

Why aren't you scared? Why aren't you freaking out?

Reaching out, my fingers stretched forward. "Hold on," I gasped. "I'm here—!"

My middle finger trembled, just an inch away from his face.

I could see every detail of him. The faint marks on his clothes were scorched from the lightning. His sword and spear had been caught between his legs as he had somehow managed to keep them on his body despite how fast everything happened. The way his eyes stared into mine. The slightest upward motion of his lips.

Just as I was about to reach him—

Booooom!

An invisible force slammed into me, hurling me backward like a doll discarded by the little girl who was playing with it. All the air in my lungs was knocked out as I spiralled uncontrollably.

The sky became my floor. The ground became my ceiling. My left became my right.

I tried to control myself and take flight again but was unable to do so in time as I crashed.

The impact shattered the pavement beneath me and a wave of pain shot up through my back and shoulder as I slid across the ground, shooting fragments of the ground into the air.

For a fraction of a second, everything went silent around me.

I could've lain there. I could've chosen to faint from the impact.

But the look on his face as I was being propelled away made me suck in a sharp breath as I forced myself upright. Even though my vision was blurry, my other senses still worked fine.

Everything after that happened too fast for most of the people in the area to follow.

But thankfully, the boost that my vampire blood gave me allowed me to catch everything.

A distortion in the air, some distance away from where everyone was.

"Bell!" a voice screamed and it sounded like thunder.

I recognised the face when I looked up. It was Cyro, Bell's older brother. He was travelling across the sky like a comet and the mana exuding from his body made my skin crawl.

He was travelling at an impossible speed, moving faster than anything I'd ever seen before.

He was even faster than my own thought and still, he wasn't fast enough as Bell was already partially in the portal.

"Open your mouth!" he roared as his arm snapped forward.

Something purple flashed through the air, moving faster than Cyro himself. It was small and travelled in a straight line like a bullet as it went straight toward Bell.

Bell's eyes locked onto it instantly.

Trusting his older brother, he caught the purple thing between his teeth just as the portal swallowed him whole.

The portal immediately closed once the last part of his shoe went through to the other side.

And then, he was gone.

Just like that.

The other portal also closed and although the battle continued, everything was silent for me. I stood there, frozen in the spot. I might as well have been one of the ice statues that Ms. Morgan has been making me make during training.

My hands were shaking.

"No," I uttered. "No no no no no—"

Cyro landed in the middle of the battlefield and he began wiping out the monsters at a rapid speed. It was so fast that by the time I looked up, they were all dead.

I grabbed my chest, feeling like I had lost something.

The connection that told me where he was, it was now gone. Or more accurately, paused. The distance between us must have been too vast for the connection to work properly, like a phone with a poor signal.

"...Bell."

.

.

.

A lesson I had learned a while ago, when the incident had happened to me, was that the world doesn't stop just because yours does.

Funny enough, I was being reminded of that lesson by the same person responsible for it the first time it happened.

Isn't it strange that he's in both instances but on opposite ends of the spectrum?

Whether or not I was ready for it to come, the next day had arrived.

The moment the sun rose, I checked my phone and Bell's name was everywhere.

He was on every TV channel, every MeTube news channel, was on the newspaper that arrived at the front door, and was the one name coming out of everyone's mouth in the city.

[Young hero disappears into a portal after saving dozens of lives! Will he make it back?!?!?!]

[Authorities are working overtime to retrieve the second son of House Agnus. Click to read more.]

[Vigilante gone! Has karma come for him?]

["He saved my life", says a little boy…]

[Bell pepper and Bell Agnus. What do they have in common?]

Footage from numerous people who were there at the scene would replay again and again on people's phones.

They praised him. Those who witnessed him for themself and those who hadn't.

They mourned him. Although they tried to be optimistic, the consensus was that he was dead.

Although there weren't any positives to come from this, one thing that did change was that Ichiko and I stopped fighting. That alone felt wrong.

Normally, just being near each other would have us circling around the other person with daggers in our eyes, and we would trade sharp words with smiles that didn't reach our eyes.

But after he was gone, the air between us was awkward and more restrained.

I could see when my eyes met her gaze that there was no fire in them. There was no desire to prove to me that she was better than me. It was just the same fear that I had in mine. Looking into her eyes was like staring at my own reflection.

We were meeting up today in order to work together.

The meeting spot the two of us agreed on was a large private library in the city, accessible only to nobles and the rich.

I don't fit either category, but I was able to get inside because of Ichiko.

When she greeted me at the entrance, she had her sleeves rolled up and her red hair was tied back in a way so that not a single strand of hair would get in her face.

She guided me over to a table and I could see papers spread out on the surface.

I picked up one and it was full of handwritten notes. Then I picked up a stack of paper and it was a printed report from half a century ago.

"When did you get here?" I asked as I took a seat.

Glancing up at the clock, she said, "Eight hours ago."

"..."

It was early in the morning, so that meant she likely hadn't slept yet.

I looked up at the second floor and could see her people also going through books and digging through cabinets.

"Take a seat," she said as she picked up the book that she had been reading.

I did and for a few seconds, neither of us spoke. Just yesterday, we were jealous and wanted to be the only person out on a date with Bell.

Now, we were working together.

Ichiko spoke first as she said, "The barrier that trapped him… I've been unable to figure out what it is. Nobody I contacted has a clue and I even read some of the things people were saying online. Seems like they don't have an idea either."

After a brief conversation, the two of us began poring over reports.

We went through recorded historical documents. Even theoretical papers that had been published.

Records of previous demon sightings.

The wars before our generation.

Anything that might even have a single connection to what we were trying to solve which was how to retrieve Bell, who was likely now in the demon realm, the underworld — Hell.

Disagreements still happened as we shut down the other person's theory but it never escalated into any argument.

All of our hostility could be put on hold until Bell returned.

When night fell and I was forced to return home by my parents, alone in the bathroom as I showered, that was when it got hard for me.

My throat burned as my desire for blood began to rise.

Bell had told me to go to Peneri if he was ever unavailable to quench my thirst.

But I laughed softly at the thought of doing so.

Whispering to myself as water ran over my body, "He'll be back soon," I had said it out loud because I was trying to not only convince myself but to manifest it. "There's no need to seek the blood of another person. He'll be back. He'll… be back…"

Once I got out of the shower and dried up, I took out one of the pills I had remaining.

Rolling it between my fingers, I lifted it to my lips. I didn't toss the entire thing into my mouth and swallow it. I just bit down just enough for a small piece of it to split apart from the rest.

That small part was what I swallowed.

The taste of him bloomed in my mouth instantly.

It was warm and familiar. It was delicious. It was — him.

Savouring the lingering taste that was in my mouth for one more minute, I told myself, "That's enough."

Although the desire didn't completely go away, it was a little quieter than before.

After playing wth my siblings who were clearly trying to cheer me up, I made them all head to sleep as they had school tomorrow.

Lying on my bed, staring up at the ceiling, I extended my hand forward and closed my eyes.

"...I was so close."

My finger was right there. A mere inch away.

Opening my eyes, I lowered my hand and rested it over my chest. That was where the connection between us used to be.

It was still there… I think.

But now, it was very faint and felt like it was paused.

I couldn't sense his location. I couldn't feel his presence or understand his emotions.

"Come back," I murmured. "Or else I might do something I regret."