[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-villain-s-pov":3,"chapter-the-villain-s-pov-the-villain-s-pov-chapter-442":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},336729,598,"Chapter 442: Turning Point (2)","the-villain-s-pov-chapter-442",442,"\u003Cp>And here I thought I had learned to control my expressions perfectly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I was completely wrong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I was still the same person, after all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No matter how much I suffered, no matter how much stronger I became, no matter how much more I understood of the world around me...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nothing had changed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If anything...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It had only gotten harder.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Face-to-face with Ghost, I opened my mouth and spoke a few words.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And in that moment, Ghost’s eyes widened in shock.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His expression twisted in disbelief.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For the first time ever, I saw Ghost’s face break into such raw emotion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unable to accept what he had just heard from me, he asked again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Are you serious right now?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In response, I nodded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"...Yes.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lowering my head, I continued.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"There’s no other way. This is the only thing we can do.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I spoke in a calm, quiet voice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And that seemed to infuriate Ghost even more.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He lunged forward and punched me hard across the face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The blow sent me stumbling backward, crashing into the cold wall behind me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But he wasn’t done.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ghost tackled me to the ground, grabbing my collar as we rolled across the snow, soaking my clothes completely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was truly angry.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"...I don’t understand you, Frey. I thought I did once. But now I realize just how wrong I was.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Slowly, a thin line of blood slipped from the corner of my mouth, the aftermath of Ghost’s punch.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tasting the bitter iron of blood, feeling his grip on my collar tighten, I met his gaze in silence ..unable to answer him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His reaction was a result of what I had told him earlier.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I had asked for his help.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Silver Dragon Guild was guarding Danzo, so if I wanted to get him out without anyone noticing, I needed Ghost’s skills as an assassin .. and the influence of the Shadow Court.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With his help, we could extract Danzo without raising any alarms.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And once we were far enough away...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I would finish it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I would end it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I would kill him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Truthfully...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I could have simply teleported directly to Danzo’s room. But doing so would have risked triggering the demonic power sleeping within him, unleashing a catastrophe.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That’s why I needed to take him somewhere remote and isolated, where no one would be caught in the aftermath.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And that...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was what Ghost couldn’t accept.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Didn’t you say you’d save him no matter what it took? That you’d do whatever it required? That’s your specialty, isn’t it? Turning the impossible into reality...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Surviving the Moonlight family, winning the Victoriad, journeying to Londor, staying alive alone in the Ultras continent when everyone thought you were dead... defeating a thousand men single-handedly... You’ve always found a way to win, no matter what.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So what’s different now?!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ghost shouted, his voice raw and breaking .. something I had rarely, if ever, heard from him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His relationship with Danzo had been rocky at first. They bickered endlessly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But over time, Ghost came to respect Danzo. To see him as a friend.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And that was why he couldn’t accept what I was saying now.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He’d watched countless people die in front of him before. But this time... it was different.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I tried...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I spoke quietly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I tried with everything I had.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I did everything I could...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But in the end, I failed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I underestimated the Devil’s Seed—treating it like any ordinary curse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But there was a reason why surviving it was impossible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The one who created the Seed had already transcended the Law of Life and Death.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He made the Seed a living creature in its own right.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Separating it from Danzo was impossible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They had become one.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To save him, I needed a power that could also surpass the Law of Life and Death—something that existed within Nameless’s memories.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But acquiring that power was utterly impossible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because I was human.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To obtain that power, I would’ve had to do what Nameless did ... spending countless lifetimes studying every species and creature, slaughtering an uncountable number of beings just to complete his mad research.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And even if I had an immortal body and infinite time like him... I doubted I could’ve achieved what he did.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I was not Nameless. I didn’t have his wisdom, nor a fraction of his power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So how could I ever hope to acquire such a power, when I only had a few hours left until the Final Quest ended?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>You cannot defeat a world-breaking ability unless you have another world-breaking ability of equal or greater magnitude.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That’s what the Engineer told me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was impossible from the start. My failure was inevitable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Maybe there was another way—something I could’ve found if I still had a question left for the System.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But I used that long ago.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was why the Engineer said I would regret it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That’s what he meant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"...Whatever happens to Danzo now, it’s my fault. No one else’s.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing that, Ghost fell silent for a while before speaking again, his voice filled with bitterness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"...Why Danzo, of all people?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even if the Devil’s Seed was real...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He couldn’t understand why it ended up in the hands of the Ultras.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A complete Devil’s Seed was rare. Immensely powerful.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Its presence here on Earth made no sense.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And of all the people in the world... it ended up inside Danzo.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Why?!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He wasn’t special.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was just an ordinary human.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nothing more, nothing less.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"...Most likely, I’m the reason for that too.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I once thought it was just bad luck.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But I was wrong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Something like this doesn’t happen by chance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whether it was the Engineer, the Demon King...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Or someone else pulling the strings behind the scenes...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was planned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the reason Danzo became the target was because... he was close to me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That’s all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a carefully crafted conspiracy, one designed to tighten this noose around my neck. And they succeeded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We’d reached the point of no return.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ghost stared at me for a long time, a storm of mixed emotions in his eyes. He was furious.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He wanted to call me a liar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To claim that everything I said was nonsense—that there was no proof the Seed even existed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But then...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He remembered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All the bizarre phenomena he had witnessed while staying by my side.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And he knew.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I wouldn’t say something like this without reason .\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I saw a trace of contempt in his eyes .. fleeting, born of the heat of the moment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There, in those desolate alleys, on ground blanketed by cold snow, we stood in silence for a long while, swallowed by a void neither of us could escape.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, after a few moments, Ghost stood up and turned his back to me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I’ll help you.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His words caught me off guard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I hadn’t expected him to agree so easily.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Ghost...\" I called, unable to stop myself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But he continued, his voice calm once more.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I chose to be your shadow a long time ago.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That’s why I’ll share this burden with you. I’ll carry this sin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But, Frey...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Turning to face me, his usual quiet resolve returned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You know what happens next, don’t you?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once we cross this line, there’s no going back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We’ll carry the consequences, face the punishment when the time comes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Are you ready for that?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In response, I nodded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I am.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>...But would I truly be able to live with myself afterward?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After killing Danzo with my own hands?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I stared down at them .. imagining his blood staining them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And every time I did, the image shattered me. I couldn’t bear to face it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I didn’t know what would become of me once I did it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But I was certain of one thing ..\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I wouldn’t be the same person anymore.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I tried not to dwell on it. But the end was near.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was only a matter of time now.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ghost saw right through my turmoil, but he didn’t say anything.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He simply turned and began walking away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I’ll submit your request to the Shadow Court. I’ll lead the operation myself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Stay where you are until I contact you.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When the time comes... prepare to stain your hands with blood.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I said nothing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ghost vanished, as if he had never been there in the first place.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And I was left alone, lying on the cold snow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I wanted to leave. But my body wouldn’t move.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All I could do was stay there quietly, waiting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The weak have no right to decide anything in this world.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only the strong get to shape their lives the way they want.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only they have the power to dictate the fate of others.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I was weak.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pathetically weak.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And that weakness...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That’s why the powerful swarmed around me, steering my life as they pleased.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It’s why my father died protecting me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why so many others perished.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And now, why I was about to kill Danzo.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All of this... because I was too weak.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"What kind of strength would it take to break free from this cage?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Would I have to become a heartless monster like Nameless?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Or a tyrant like Agaroth, wielding overwhelming power?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If that was the answer...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What price would I have to pay to reach it?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And could I even bear it?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I don’t know...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I didn’t know anything.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I had always been this way.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And in the end, nothing had changed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Perseverance doesn’t guarantee success.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No matter how hard you struggle, no matter how much you try,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>success is never promised.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This is life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It throws you wherever it wants, never where you choose.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"What a cruel world...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leaning against the wall, I sat there quietly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Waiting for the moment of truth.\u003C\u002Fp>",1625,"2026-05-30T03:41:22.346Z","2026-06-01T04:30:12.387Z",1,"novelbin.me","807149daee21e47a7778cb85e999da1844d62a756cfdac87b0132cd4090aa53f","the-villain-s-pov-chapter-443","the-villain-s-pov-chapter-441",866,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-villain-s-pov-cover.jpg"]