[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-villain-s-pov":3,"chapter-the-villain-s-pov-the-villain-s-pov-chapter-217":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","THE VILLAIN'S POV",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":20,"prevChapterSlug":21,"totalChapters":22,"novelImage":23},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":16,"volume":17,"translator":18,"content_hash":19},336654,598,"Chapter 217: Ashes of Hope","the-villain-s-pov-chapter-217",217,"\u003Cp>-Frey starlight POV-\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I clicked the question button without hesitation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At that moment ..\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I felt my very soul shudder, not just my body.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Anticipation, longing, fear...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All surging toward that unknown future.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment I clicked on the question option,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>unexpected words appeared before me—stopping me in my tracks.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Free Advice:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>-Think carefully before using your System Question. Who knows what the future holds? Regret may come too late.-\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>An overwhelming emptiness swallowed me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A new tip appeared, alongside the usual Direct and Random advice ..\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>something I had never seen before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The system was literally telling me not to use my System Question right now.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Regret? Future?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I clenched my fists tightly, struggling to contain the flood of emotions surging within me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Are you kidding me right now?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>You want me to hesitate?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, after everything?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all the suffering?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without thinking, I completely ignored the warning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"To hell with you and your stupid advice.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I didn't want your bullshit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I wanted an answer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The path back to them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Word for word, I typed the question that had haunted my mind for thousands ...no, millions ..of times.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"How can I return to my world?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To my family.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To my life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At that moment, it felt as if everything around me froze.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>My entire world...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>stopped.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even time itself seemed to halt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The screen went black ..everything vanished.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And from deep within the laptop, I could feel a presence awaken.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At that moment, I heard a voice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His voice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"So, you've used it in the end... the System Question... even though I warned you ... you would regret it.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His voice sounded mechanical ...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>inhuman.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A voice I had never heard before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And yet, for some reason,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>every word he spoke stirred something deep within my being.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was the one behind everything that had happened to me until now.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I felt my head burning with rage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I screamed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You bastard!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I pressed my forehead against the screen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Fuck you! Burn in hell along with your damn advice!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I screamed until my throat burned, cursing the entity on the other side of the screen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I cursed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And cursed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And cursed again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For a long, long time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All while he simply listened in silence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Damn you... Just tell me...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tell me ..\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"How do I go back to my world?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I couldn't endure this anymore.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I couldn't fight anymore.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That thin thread of hope I clung to was no longer enough.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I had reached my limit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I collapsed before the laptop, my body trembling.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Please...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I'm begging you...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With a trembling voice, I pleaded for an answer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Please... Tell me... How can I return to them?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"To my world.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I choked out those words, swallowed by silence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The silence stretched on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A minute.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A minute that felt like it lasted an eternity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Until, finally, the answer came.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You can't.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just those simple words.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And my mind went completely blank.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Wh...at...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I couldn't even form a proper word as he continued speaking ..\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You cannot return to a world you never left in the first place.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"What...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Writer. Author. Son. Riding in a car with his family that day, heading to work.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His words kept pouring out like a relentless machine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"In the year 2026, on that night, humanity witnessed an unprecedented disaster ..\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>when gates appeared out of nowhere, unleashing hell and its horrors upon their world.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those words hit me like a violent storm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"That blinding light... was the light of the gate that opened before them, causing their car to crash and killing them all.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They died.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Your family died.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That's what he was saying...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"And now, more than 300 years later, here you are, reincarnated ..not as that 'writer' ..but as your true self, Frey Starlight.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The voice fell silent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And with it, everything turned dark.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Every fiber of my being trembled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I could barely mutter the words.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I had never left my world to begin with.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I had been there all along... just in the future.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was the truth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tears fell from my eyes as I slumped to the ground, my face shadowed in despair.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I didn't even know what expression I was making at that moment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Was I screaming?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Was I crying?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I didn't know.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There had been so many hints all along.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So many signs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I punched the ground violently.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The floor shattered under my fists again and again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If I had thought about it properly,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>maybe I could have realized everything from the beginning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But I didn't.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I chose to ignore it ...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>to cling stubbornly to hope until the very end.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Two years...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Two years of suffering no normal human could have endured.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the worst pain...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>worse than all of it combined...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>were those words.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They died.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They were dead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All of them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I heard a chilling scream.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A cry of deep anguish.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Like the roar of an ancient, enraged beast.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And eventually... I realized it was my own voice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those were my own tears.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The darkness thickened around me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They died because of me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Father...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The darkness grew even deeper.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mother...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If I hadn't written that damn novel ..\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>My siblings...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If I hadn't created this cursed nightmare ..\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All of them...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But no...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the end...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You're the one responsible!!!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I screamed, lunging at the laptop with unbridled rage, hurling it through the wall.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That thing...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That engineer...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You're the one responsible!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I felt like I was about to explode.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I walked, shrouded in a storm of darkness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>My vision returned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But I no longer cared about anything.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Everything was over now.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I found myself inside a hospital.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Inside the room I had just destroyed with my own hands.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As my consciousness slowly returned,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I saw the corpses of all the nurses and doctors sprawled around me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I had killed them all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But I didn't care.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nothing mattered anymore.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With a dark, hollow face, I continued walking, smashing everything in my path.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At some point, guards began to swarm around me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But I kept moving.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After unlocking the first phase of Shadow Adaptation ..\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and with that strange aura enveloping me...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I was stronger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Far stronger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I shattered everything around me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I cried tears of blood, mourning my miserable state.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They were dead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why had I fought all this time?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why had I endured all that agony?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I didn't even know when it happened, but S-class guards had surrounded me tightly now, restraining my body with all their might ... yet I didn't even see them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All I could see...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>were their corpses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The corpses of my family.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Ah... it's pointless...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yes, it was pointless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"There's no point in living anymore.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Everyone around me shuddered in fear as my body began to crack, purple lines spreading across it like dreadful scars.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Let's end this pathetic suffering.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The violent surge of aura intensified, and everyone nearby felt an overwhelming terror.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I saw Ada, Carmen...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>and many others.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Many eyes were watching me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But I no longer cared.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I closed my eyes, ready to detonate my body and put an end to everything.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I screamed:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Ignition!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As Frey Starlight's body cracked apart, unleashing a horrifying wave of aura, everyone around him was gripped by terror.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The fear of that young man.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Normally, Frey would unleash Ignition through detonating a weapon — not his own body.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His body was supposed to be merely a medium.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But now... that young man was about to explode himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This act unleashed the full force of an SSS-ranked aura domain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Frey Starlight intended to blow himself up, ending his life ... and to drag this wretched world down with him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The entire world trembled at that moment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>An explosion of that scale wouldn't just wipe out the Temple.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It would erase the entire capital, Belgrad, from the map.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ada Starlight watched helplessly as her brother, swallowed by darkness, headed toward his own destruction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And then, as if by some miracle, before the young man could explode ...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The serpent tattoo on Frey's left arm blazed with a brilliant blue light.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The serpent coiled tightly around his body, and from that hand emerged a cursed, pitch-black sword.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The sword moved as if it had a will of its own, rising upward and forcefully absorbing all the explosive aura.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Balerion had devoured it all, pulling the death-bound aura high into the sky.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A towering column of ominous black aura shot into the heavens, piercing through the S ranked dome protecting the Temple .. shattering it like fragile glass .. and continued on, carving a massive hole through the clouds above.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The entire world witnessed that pillar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Everyone in the Temple.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The citizens of Belgrad.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All stared in horror at that dreadful sight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those who had been at the Island Trial had seen it before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Among them...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Phoenix Sunlight stared at the young man, rushing toward him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Toward Frey Starlight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The sword on his left hand had saved them, forcibly casting that black death away into the sky.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Slowly, the darkness dissipated.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And there he was ..\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Frey, his body cracked and broken, his eyes lifeless... like an ancient, withered corpse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ada Starlight watched in silence... as her brother collapsed slowly to the ground.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That final expression he wore was forever burned into her memory.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The expression...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>of someone who had lost everything.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The face...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>of someone who had chosen death.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>was Frey Starlight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>....\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>....\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A.N:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>3 more chapters as a thanks for the unexpected gift! Thank you all!!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The current volume and arc will feature even stronger and more intense events ... look forward to it!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thank you for your continued support!\u003C\u002Fp>",1616,"2026-05-30T03:41:22.346Z","2026-06-01T04:30:12.387Z",1,"novelbin.me","ab3992e1ebbfe57a2964a141569870c7633f13bac3578e0c945a450ab046dffa","the-villain-s-pov-chapter-218","the-villain-s-pov-chapter-216",866,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-villain-s-pov-cover.jpg"]