Rise Of The Villain : In a World Ruled By Anomalies

Chapter 138 - 137 : Should I strip you down myself

Diana, Arina, Jasmine, Liana, and the other students stood frozen in front of the holographic rankings, their stunned faces washed in the pale light of the screen. No one spoke. All eyes were locked on the name at the very top.

Before anyone could break the silence, a calm, nonchalant voice echoed from the back of the crowd.

"There you are. I was looking everywhere for you."

Suddenly, Jasmine, Arina, and Liana snapped their heads toward the source of the voice. Walking casually through the parting crowd was a boy with pitch-black hair and striking crimson eyes. The trio recognized him instantly.

Arina gritted her teeth, a vein throbbing on her forehead as she hissed his name.

"Arthur..."

Anger flashed visibly in her eyes as she began marching directly toward him, her footsteps heavy with indignation. She reached him within seconds and opened her mouth to berate him.

"You chea—"

Before she could even finish her sentence, Arthur walked right past her, his gaze fixed straight ahead. He did not blink. He did not slow down. It was as if she did not even exist in his vision.

Every student in the vicinity gasped, their mouths hanging open in utter shock. He had just completely ignored Arina Evan Imperius—a direct descendant of one of the most powerful lineages in the empire.

Arina froze in place, her face turning crimson with humiliation.

’Did he just ignore me? The same simp of a brother? That weakling who couldn’t even hold a sword properly... he ignored me, of all people, like I was just garbage at the side of the road?’

Trembling with rage, she spun around to confront him, but her path was instantly blocked.

A sharp metallic ring echoed through the hall as Isabella drew her sword halfway out of its sheath, a cold smirk playing on her lips.

"Now, now, Ms. Arina. Don’t think we aren’t here."

Arina’s voice dropped to a dangerously cold whisper.

"Move."

Isabella narrowed her eyes, completely unfazed by the threat.

"I have never fought an Imperius, but I have heard their strength is on another level. Why don’t we test it right here?"

Arina’s gaze turned even colder, her mana beginning to fluctuate violently.

Meanwhile, Arthur continued walking until he finally reached Diana. As he approached, an oppressive, menacing presence began to radiate from his body, weighing heavily on the air around them. Diana’s heart hammered against her ribs. Overwhelmed by the sudden pressure, she instinctively took a step back. Then another. And another.

Seeing Diana cornered, Jasmine stepped forward to intervene and stop Arthur.

"Stop right there—"

"Now, now, sister," a voice interrupted.

Evangeline stepped directly into Jasmine’s path, her arms crossed and a serene yet mocking smile on her face.

"She is from the prestigious Stormborn family, and she will have to keep her word. You will not interfere."

Jasmine’s eyes began to glow with a dangerous, unstable light as she glared at her sister.

"And who is going to stop me?"

A thick, suffocating purple aura suddenly erupted from Evangeline’s body, her eyes flashing with absolute authority.

"Your future queen, of course."

Liana, seeing both of her friends cornered, moved her hand toward her weapon, intending to back Jasmine up. But before she could take a single step, a firm hand clamped down on her shoulder from behind. Liana gasped, her eyes widening in shock. She hadn’t sensed anyone approaching her at all.

A dark, amused smirk formed on Julia’s face as she leaned in close to Liana’s ear.

"You and I have some unfinished business from our previous encounter, isn’t that right?"

Liana’s eyes widened even further as recognition clicked in her mind.

"You... you’re that bitch from the auction, aren’t you? I knew I had seen you somewhere!"

Without another word, both of their powerful auras erupted and clashed violently, sending a shockwave through the immediate area. The tension in the Grand Hall reached a boiling point. The air was thick with killing intent, and a full-scale battle threatened to break out at any second.

On the other side of the room, oblivious to the chaos around them, Diana backed up until her shoulder blades hit the cold stone wall. She was completely trapped.

Before she could slip away, Arthur stepped in close and slammed his hand against the wall right next to her head, effectively blocking her only escape route.

Diana took a huge, trembling gulp of air, trying desperately to maintain her aristocratic composure despite her racing heart.

"You brute... remove your hand and give me room right this instant!"

Arthur leaned in slightly, his crimson eyes locking onto hers with terrifying stillness.

"I’ll let you go, but you will have to fulfill your end of the promise."

Diana swallowed hard, her voice faltering slightly.

"Our promise? I will... what do you want?"

Before she could even finish her question, Arthur’s voice dropped to a dark, commanding whisper that sent chills running down her spine.

"Strip."

Diana’s eyes widened in sheer horror. She stared at him, completely frozen, genuinely doubting whether she had heard the words correctly.

Arthur’s expression remained entirely emotionless as he leaned closer, ensuring every single person around them could hear his next words clearly.

"I’ll repeat myself. Strip every single thread of clothing off your body and start dancing for me. Isn’t that exactly what you were going to make me do?"

The heavy silence in the hall suffocated Diana. All her life, she had lived as the untouchable prodigy of the Duke’s house, a true princess raised on a throne of endless praise and adoration. Her intellect was sharp, a weapon she had used to crush every challenge she had ever faced. She had never lost. Not once.

And whenever she emerged victorious, her boundless arrogance demanded absolute humiliation from her losers. She had forced rivals to dance naked in public, and she had made grown men lick the dirt off her feet. Nobody had ever stopped her. Nobody had dared.

Except for her brother, Damian. His stern warnings echoed in her mind like a distant ghost.

’It will backfire on you someday, Diana. Arrogance always devours itself.’

She had never taken his words seriously. She had laughed them off. But as the cold stone wall bit into her back and Arthur’s crimson eyes pinned her in place, the terrifying reality finally set in. The day Damian had warned her about had arrived.

’Brother was right...’ she thought, her heart freezing in her chest.

Arthur stared down at her, his expression unreadable yet utterly unyielding. He knew exactly who Diana Stormborn was. In the game, that very same unbridled arrogance had played right into the enemy’s hands, costing the lives of thousands of soldiers on the battlefield.

She was a liability born of privilege. To change the future, he had to break her here. He had to shatter her pride completely, for her own good.

"Will you do it yourself," Arthur said, his voice dropping into a chilling, emotionless register, "or should I do it for you?"

Before she could even process the words, Arthur’s hand moved with agonizing slowness, his fingers gripping the hem of her dress.

"What the hell is all this shit?"

A loud, booming voice cut through the tension in the hall. The crowd parted instantly to reveal Victor Blackthorn. His cold, calculating eyes swept over the chaotic scene before landing squarely on Arthur. A look of profound disgust washed over his face.

"I knew it the first time I saw you," Victor sneered, stepping forward. "A coward who raises his hand against a woman is no man at all."

Instead of flinching or showing shame, Arthur’s lips curved into a dark, amused smile. He met Victor’s judgmental gaze without an ounce of hesitation.

"So what? In the true name of gender equality, I’ll dropkick any rotten woman who deserves it."

Victor paused for a fraction of a second, then began to clap his hands slowly, the sound echoing hollowly against the high ceilings.

"Wow. Those are some real philosophical values you live by."

"Now get lost," Arthur countered smoothly, his smile fading into a look of sheer boredom, "before I break that ugly mug of yours too."

Victor’s mouth twitched with sudden rage. In the next instant, his figure completely blurred. He vanished from sight, moving at a speed that left the average students dizzy.

A split second later, Victor reappeared directly beside Arthur, his leg whipping out in a brutal, heavy kick aimed straight at Arthur’s head. The sheer raw power behind the strike sent a violent shockwave through the air, kicking up a massive cloud of dust that obscured them both.

BOOM!

As the wind blew the debris outward, Victor expected to feel the satisfying crush of impact. Instead, his eyes widened in sheer shock.

Standing right in front of him wasn’t Arthur. It was a white-haired boy.

Aiden stood perfectly still, casually blocking Victor’s full-power kick with nothing but the open palm of his hand. The ground beneath Aiden’s boots cracked slightly, but his arm didn’t even tremble.

"Wow, man," Aiden said, a grin spreading across his face as he looked up at Victor. "You sure have some serious power. I almost broke my hand there."

Arthur didn’t even look back at the clash. His focus remained entirely on the trembling girl pinned against the wall. He smiled again, a terrifying sight that promised no mercy.

"So, where were we, Diana? Oh, right. We were discussing stripping you naked."

His hand reached out again, his fingers aggressively locking onto the fabric of her shirt.

Pure, unadulterated terror finally breached Diana’s aristocratic facade. The cold reality of her helplessness shattered her pride, and hot tears spilled from her eyes, trailing down her pale cheeks. Stripped of her intellect and titles, she screamed out the only name that could save her.

"BROTHER, HELP ME!"

’Here he comes,’ Arthur thought, his eyes narrowing as he sensed a monstrous spike in mana an instant before it arrived.

BOOM!

An explosion of pure force detonated exactly where Arthur had been standing. The concrete floor shattered into thousands of flying shards, and a dense, blinding cloud of dust rushed outward, swallowing the entire section of the hall.

The surrounding students watched with bated breath, their hearts pounding in their chests. The escalating sequence of events felt less like an academy dispute and more like a high-stakes action movie where a single breath could dictate life or death.

As the heavy dust slowly began to settle, two figures emerged from the haze.

Damian stood at the center, a towering wall of absolute fury. His bright red hair seemed to burn beneath the hall lights, and a catastrophic wave of killing intent rolled off his body like a tidal wave, crushing the breath out of nearby spectators. Clinging to his side and hugging him with a desperate, trembling grip was Diana.

The hero had arrived just in time to save the damsel.

On the other side of the newly formed crater, the villain of the hour stood calmly.

Arthur stepped backward out of the worst of the debris, completely unbothered by the suffocating killing intent radiating from Damian. He raised a hand and casually dusted off the front of his uniform with a look of genuine annoyance. He looked down at the shattered floor, then around at the thick clouds of smoke still hanging in the hall.

"Oh, come on, man. It’s literally a concrete floor inside a building," Arthur muttered to himself, shaking his head in disbelief. "How the hell does a massive cloud of dust appear every single time someone takes a step or throws a punch?"

He sighed, brushing a stray speck of debris off his shoulder.

"If this whole situation were a novel, the author would be retarded as fuck."

Far away, in a realm beyond the multiverse, the Author’s eye twitched violently. 🤨