I Am a Villain, So What?

Chapter 210: Guardian

The moment the words left my mouth, Elias’s kind facade completely vanished.

[May the earth reclaim your arrogance,] the old spirit echoed.

He simply raised his weathered hand.

The ground beneath my feet exploded. Dozens of thick, barbed roots shot out of the soil like spears, aiming directly to impale me.

My [Sixth Sense] flared. I instantly triggered Flash, teleporting ten feet to the right just as the roots shredded the space where I had been standing.

Without missing a beat, I drew my heavy combat knife. Against a spirit of the Holy Empire, normal aura would be useless. Instead, I channeled a concentrated burst of my own raw, natural Divine Force directly into the steel blade, making it glow with a fierce, blinding white light.

I swung the blade in a wide arc.

Clang!

The screech of steel hitting hardened, ancient wood echoed through the forest. A shower of amber sparks erupted as my glowing knife cleaved through the massive root. The severed wood hit the ground and instantly turned to ash.

Elias staggered back half a step, his single eye widening.

[Divine energy?] the old knight gasped, his spectral form flickering. [You wield the power of the holy light?]

I smirked, twirling the glowing knife. "Surprised? I told you I didn’t come here just to sightsee."

But the shock on Elias’s face quickly hardened back into grim resolve. He slammed his wooden staff into the dirt, summoning an even larger wave of animated trees and twisting vines.

[A parlor trick!] Elias shouted, his voice booming. [Or perhaps you are a filthy thief who stole a fragment of a saint’s power! It matters not. That treasure is not for you to take! It waits only for the Chosen One!]

"And how exactly do you know I’m not the chosen one?" I yelled back, sidestepping a crushing blow from a massive tree trunk.

Elias scoffed, a sound of absolute, righteous disdain. [Preposterous! I have guarded this sanctuary for centuries! Do you truly think my eyes are so blind that I would fail to recognize the God’s true chosen when he arrives? You carry the stench of blood and deceit, boy!]

Is he talking about the protagonist? I wondered internally, parrying a flurry of razor-sharp leaves that sparked against my blade like shrapnel.

"Sorry, man," I said, breathing heavily as I sliced through another wave of roots. "I don’t know who exactly you’re talking about, but I really need to retrieve that treasure today."

[Insolent brat!]

The entire forest seemed to turn against me. The sheer volume of the attacks was overwhelming. Relying on knife combat wasn’t going to cut it against an opponent who controlled the very environment.

I didn’t want to do this so soon after recovering, I thought, grinding my teeth. But I have no choice.

I tapped into the Primordial Earth Crown still resting on my head.

"Arise."

Rumble—!

The earth violently shook. I pushed my natural mana into the crown, and the toll was instantaneous. A blinding spike of pain shot through my skull, and the metallic taste of blood flooded my mouth. My mana circuits, barely healed from the 50% debuff, screamed in agony.

But it worked.

The mossy ground tore open. Four massive, hulking Golems forged of dense, dark bedrock pulled themselves out of the dirt. They radiated a heavy, crushing gravitational pressure.

I coughed a splatter of blood onto the grass, pointing my knife at Elias. "Smash him."

The Golems charged.

CRASH!

It was a clash of titans. The bedrock Golems slammed into the animated, twisting trees. Stone fists shattered ancient bark, sending shockwaves through the clearing. Elias directed his roots to wrap around the Golems, trying to crush them into gravel, but the sheer density of the primordial stone held firm.

Boom! Smash!

Sparks flew wildly as hardened wood ground against enchanted stone. A Golem ripped a massive oak tree clean out of the dirt and hurled it like a javelin directly at Elias.

Elias raised his staff, a barrier of green holy light blooming to deflect the trunk, shattering it into splinters.

[You wield the earth itself?!] Elias roared over the deafening noise of the clash. [Who are you?!]

"Just a guy trying to survive!" I yelled, wiping blood from my nose.

My vision was blurring. Controlling four Primordial Golems without the unlimited mana supply of the Rosary was draining my natural reserves at a terrifying rate. Every time a Golem took a hit, a phantom pain lashed across my ribs.

Crack!

Elias finally found an opening. A massive, glowing root bypassed the Golems and whipped across my chest.

"Urgh!"

I was launched backward, crashing hard against a boulder. My breath left my lungs in a violent rush. The Golems, losing my focused mana supply, instantly crumbled into piles of lifeless gravel.

I fell to my knees, gasping for air, my vision swimming with black spots. My glowing knife flickered and died. I was completely out of natural mana.

Elias slowly floated forward, his wooden staff glowing with lethal intent. The animated roots slithered around him like a nest of vipers, ready to tear me apart.

[Your power is unnatural, and your vessel is weak,] Elias condemned coldly, raising his staff. [Return to the earth, thief.]

Damn it, I cursed, my fingers digging into the dirt. If I run out of mana here, this old ghost is actually going to turn me into fertilizer.

I had no choice. I needed a refill, even if it risked tearing my mana circuits apart all over again.

"Let’s level the playing field," I spat, blood dripping from my chin.

I reached out with my trembling left hand, directly accessing my spatial inventory. With a faint ripple in the air, I pulled out a heavy silver chain. Dangling from the end of it was a teardrop crystal radiating a liquid-gold, overwhelmingly pure luminescence.

The Rosary of the Weeping Saintess.

The moment the supreme holy artifact materialized in my hand, the ambient atmosphere of the forest violently and instantly changed.

The suffocating, hostile pressure of Elias’s magic evaporated like mist under a blazing sun. The aggressive, twisting roots suddenly went limp, dropping harmlessly to the forest floor. The razor-sharp leaves fluttered to the ground like ordinary autumn foliage.

The golden light of the Rosary bathed the clearing in absolute, undeniable, supreme divinity. The warm energy rushed up my arm, instantly refilling my depleted core, though it burned like hellfire.

I braced myself for another attack, tightly wrapping the chain around my bleeding knuckles, ready to summon the Golems again.

But the attack never came.

I looked up, panting. Elias was standing completely frozen. His staff slipped from his trembling grip, clattering against the mossy earth. His lone eye was fixed entirely on the silver chain in my hand, his spectral face pale with a mixture of absolute terror and profound reverence.

[That...] Elias whispered, his polite, commanding voice suddenly cracking like a fragile piece of glass. [That is...]

He slowly looked up from the Rosary, meeting my eyes with a completely shattered expression. His knees buckled, and the ancient Holy Knight fell to the ground.

[How... how in the Gods’ names do you have that?!]