[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-villain-s-pov":3,"chapter-the-villain-s-pov-the-villain-s-pov-chapter-474":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},336561,598,"Chapter 474: In the Face of War’s Cruelty","the-villain-s-pov-chapter-474",474,"\u003Cp>What is the horror of war?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What makes war so terrifying to so many?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They say death is never closer to a human being than the moment their feet step onto the battlefield.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At any given second, you wouldn’t even realize when your head had left your shoulders.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There are many perspectives one can take when trying to describe the horrors of war. But the truth lies within the reflections seen in the eyes of the soldiers themselves.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The ordinary soldiers .. those who lacked great power, who were not special in any significant way.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These unfortunate fighters become the perfect lens through which the true tragedies of war can be studied.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Among the soldiers of the Empire...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After their ship had been destroyed by the enemy, a girl crawled out from beneath the wreckage, trying to survive before the ruins of her doomed vessel swallowed her whole.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her sky-blue hair was disheveled, and her pale skin stained red with blood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She was in unbearable pain .. crushed by the debris that had fallen mercilessly upon her, threatening to bury her alive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She was a Wave Controller. That meant her body lacked any significant physical strength to survive such a collapse unscathed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As she pulled the upper half of her body free, the searing pain was unlike anything she had ever felt before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When she looked down to identify the source of the agony, she found her legs horrifyingly mangled under the rubble of the broken ship.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing the lower half of her body completely flattened .. accompanied by the steady pool of blood leaking from beneath her ..made her heart sink deeper into her chest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She was beginning to realize, with growing dread, that she might have become crippled for life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In that moment, she couldn’t stop the panic attack from overtaking her. She screamed at the top of her lungs ..\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>but her cries were drowned out by the deafening roar of war around her, making her suffering invisible to the world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She screamed for a long time, trying to shove the heavy wreckage off her legs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But as the panic and blood loss took over, her vision of the surrounding massacre became blurred. The world she knew seemed to collapse around her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not long ago, she had shined among the first-year ranks of the Temple.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But now, somehow, a girl barely sixteen had ended up in the middle of a battlefield.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fate had been cruel .. forcing her into a life-and-death situation like this.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Minutes passed .. each one feeling like an hour.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Eventually, she began to regain her composure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"...Pain...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She whispered softly .. her voice weightless in the burning hellscape around her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I can still feel the pain...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even after all that time, she could still feel her legs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The pain was excruciating .. unlike anything she had ever imagined. But it brought with it a faint sliver of hope.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"As long as I can still feel them... it means I haven’t lost them yet.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her ability to feel pain was proof enough that she wasn’t paralyzed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was the only good news she had.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But she had lost too much blood, and her condition was worsening by the second.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Taking a deep breath, she focused her remaining strength, conjuring celestial orbs that formed into violent spirals of wind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Channeling the last of her power as a Wave Controller, she hurled the storms at the debris crushing her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her winds succeeded .. blasting away the wreckage and finally revealing the lower half of her body.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But what she saw made her grit her teeth in agony.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The bones in her right leg had been completely shattered—bent at an unnatural angle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The left had been impaled clean through by a thick iron rod.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Blood gushed continuously, and she was on the brink of losing consciousness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Explosions shook the area around her. She knew she had to move somehow or she’d die here.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The ship she was on could sink at any moment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But her legs could no longer support her. She had no choice but to crawl.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Crawl across the blood-soaked deck, over the corpses of her fallen comrades...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dragging herself along the floor, she left behind two long crimson trails. The only thing keeping her conscious was her primal instinct to survive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Nightmare Sea monsters were true catastrophes .. colossal beasts that had already claimed countless lives and sunk many of the Empire’s ships.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After crawling a surprising distance without passing out, the girl clung to the edge of the ship, pulling herself up just enough to get a better view of the battlefield .. hoping to find a way to survive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the scene before her only deepened her despair.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ships were being dragged down into the depths by massive tentacled creatures ... abominations seemingly pulled straight from hell.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Flames raged atop others, the result of unrelenting bombardment from the Ultras.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The fires were so intense that soldiers hurled themselves into the cursed sea, desperate to extinguish the flames consuming their bodies.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But diving into the ocean now was suicide. The Nightmare creatures devoured anything that touched those waters.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those who escaped the flames weren’t much better off ..many died from fatal injuries, while others, like her, survived only with devastating wounds that left their faces twisted in pain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Severed limbs, spilled intestines, and scattered human organs covered the ground...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Endless screams and the terrifying roar of bombardment that refused to stop...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The girl who had lived a peaceful life until now couldn’t help but ask herself ..\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Is this... war?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Was this what they had come for? Was this truly the first round?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The first round of a war destined to last far too long?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If that was the answer... then what kind of hell had she thrown herself into?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For a moment... she completely lost hope.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, in the next breath, a third sound rose—one that wasn’t death or bombardment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A boy’s voice. Shouting a single name.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Selene!!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He looked to be around her age, with short black hair, a handsome face, and striking crimson eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The boy appeared genuinely frantic, gripping his sword as he leapt from ship to ship, clearly searching for someone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The sight of him reignited a faint spark of hope in the girl’s chest .. the one whose name he kept shouting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Max!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With all the strength she could muster, she called out his name.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At that moment, the boy became her last glimmer of hope in the abyss of this hell.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And it seemed her voice had reached him ... because his eyes widened the moment he saw her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When Max saw Selene alive, his expression finally broke, revealing immense relief... as if a crushing weight had just been lifted from his heart.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They had known each other for a long time. Max had always lingered near her, hopelessly in love.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even if she didn’t return his feelings, it didn’t change the fact that he had always been close enough to be her final beacon of light.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Hang in there! I’m coming!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Surrounded by a dazzling aura of radiant light, Max charged toward her at full speed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He too was a first-year student at the temple .. strong enough to have earned a spot in the elite class.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was undeniably a capable fighter, with a bright future ahead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Selene sighed in relief, thankful that it was Max who had come for her amidst this circle of hell...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But that relief .. and the soft smile that came with it .. turned into utter horror the moment a bolt fell from the sky.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No... it wasn’t a lightning bolt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a magical shell .. fired from one of the Ultras’ cannons.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A random blast. She didn’t even know who fired it. But that random shot came crashing down without mercy...right on Max, who didn’t even know what hit him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The impact obliterated him completely, hurling his once-radiant body deep into the ocean.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"MAX!!!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Selene screamed, trying to summon her winds to save him...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But it was too late. The moment his body touched the demonic waters, nightmare creatures swarmed him, tearing him apart.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The last expression on his face... was a smile.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A smile that showed how happy he had been to see her still alive.\u003C\u002Fp>",1382,"2026-05-30T03:41:22.347Z","2026-06-01T04:30:12.387Z",1,"novelbin.me","f6e378ed7042f1bd88718193cd63f1bc20fe5d5568670cbd13fe159fc45bff31","the-villain-s-pov-chapter-475","the-villain-s-pov-chapter-473",866,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-villain-s-pov-cover.jpg"]