The villainess shall be mine

Rudeus was thinking about various things while fighting against Adam because, for some reason, his mind was a bit clearer.

If he didn't absorb the corruption, what would have happened? In the end, weren't their world doomed to be annihilated? So why did that person decide to help him out of nowhere?

That being could be considered a God, and Rudeus knew that even with all of his power, he wouldn't be able to lay a finger on that being. So why?

Rudeus couldn't understand what the person meant when they said: "Find the other fragments and you will be able to make your wish come true."

At first, he thought that such a thing was easy with his newly found power, but a millennium had passed and he couldn't even get his hand on one of these tree fragments.

He thought that these fragments existed in his world, and so he decided to search for a tree that looked mystical around the planet, but he never found such a thing.

There was no hint, there was nothing, and he was alone again. Until the day someone appeared in front of him and tried to kill him, saying that he also needed the fragments of the tree of life to save their world.

These people were as determined as he was, to the point that he didn't have the choice but to kill them.

That was when Rudeus thought something was not right, because as time passed, more desperate people kept appearing, and all of them were broken and sought more power.

At first, he wondered how these people found him, and where they came from, but by meeting these people, he obtained some way to localize the tree fragments and even used the monsters to his advantage to find the fragments of the tree of life, after all, some high-level monsters were attracted to these fragments.

Then Rudeus realized that he had to kill many people to find the tree fragments, destroy cities, and spread corruption everywhere he went, after all, when people saw him and his subordinates, they would never believe that they came there to talk peacefully.

However, Rudeus wanted his daughter back, so he discarded all of his doubts and set his eyes solely on his goal.

But when he sat alone on his throne as if he was meditating, his mind became a little bit clearer and various thoughts appeared inside his mind. "What if I manage to bring everything back to the way it was?"

Because, even if he managed to bring things back to how they were, it didn't mean that monsters would disappear completely, or that he would become normal again, because the more powerful he had become, the more everything that made him human continued to disappear.

At that time Rudeus realized something: 'There will be no end to this cycle of suffering, and he was just a piece of chess in a huge plan on a universal scale.'

After all, if he obtained the Tree's fragments, how many other worlds would be destroyed?

Even if he tried to save them all, would he even be able to live a peaceful life again?

He didn't know what would happen if he managed to find two more fragments of the Tree of life, but he knew that things wouldn't end there.

He took notice of something greater, more complex than he could ever imagine in all of this.

He thought it might be just his imagination but Liu's and Verte's arrival confirmed his doubt, and thanks to the effect of Adam's power, he could collect his thoughts and analyze what was happening more rationally.

He had always wondered about the true nature of the Tree of life, but after seeing Verte, he became sure of it. These fragments could be the origin of all things and also the end.

Rudeus's guess wasn't completely off, but he didn't even touch the tip of the iceberg.

And it was not surprising, because even now, many people believe that they were in control and they understood everything about the universe, but little did they know that there was nothing but a speck of dust despite everything they had achieved and their overwhelming power.

They were all just playing their parts because The One Who Knows All made sure that they do.

*****

:::[Adam's POV]:::

'There must be a way to finish this in one attack.' I thought, because the more the fight continued, the more I was at a disadvantage.

This guy was just too powerful, and that was even if he didn't use his power.

"Tch! What are trying to achieve by telling me all of that?" I asked.

The guy had been spouting a lot of nonsense for a while now, and I didn't know what he was trying to do.

It was as if he was lost in his thoughts while fighting me, and didn't take the fight seriously at all.

"I realize now, so all this was not about what's right or what's wrong. I see so that's how it is." The guy said, and his words didn't make any sense to me at all.

However, I was not about to let my guard down just because my enemy seemed disoriented, and even if he was like this, I couldn't even land one punch on this guy.

The most probable way for me to win was to hit him with an attack that he couldn't defend against, and that he didn't expect. Also, the timing must be perfect so that he couldn't avoid it. 'But how can I do that?'

If I ran out of power, then the guy would be able to use that power that he used on Liu. Furthermore, I believed that it was not the full extent of his power, so I couldn't let him have an opportunity to use it.

"Did you finally realize that you are a psychopath?" I said, tempting him as I launched a series of attacks at him as fast as I could.

Shoosh!

I aimed for his blind spots, but he managed to block all of my punches and kicks and then retaliated.

Thud!

I managed to avoid one of his punches by docking, and I wanted to quickly switch my position and punch him on the side, but before I knew it, he had already kicked me in the chest.

"Kuh!"

Then, he grabbed my leg and slammed me to the ground.

Boom!

Then he lifted me in the air, and before I fell back down to the ground, he punched me in the stomach, with so much force that I could feel my interior being compressed.

"Gah!"

Boom!

I didn't know what happened after that, because before I knew it, I was already buried under a lot of debris.

"Cough! Cough!"

I coughed a mouthful of blood as I rose from the rubble, and honestly, I just wanted to get out of there.

'If only I could use that power into something similar to the plasma sword.' I thought.

I thought that I would be able to use another form of my power after Verte's sacrifice but things weren't always that easy.

"Have you also met that person? Did they also promise you that your wish will come true?" The guy asked, looking at me as if he didn't do anything wrong.

He was looking down on me, knowing that he had an advantage when it came to hand-on-hand fighting.

"Don't think that everyone is the same as you. Just because you were scammed by someone doesn't mean that everyone can relate with you!" I tried to continue talking to him, waiting for the perfect opportunity to materialize that power again.

I only had one chance, because I didn't want to absorb that unknown energy anymore, I felt like it was messing up with my body.

"Look at your woman! If it weren't for that thing that she carried with her, she wouldn't have to go through all of that, and you wouldn't be here." The guy said.

"Don't you dare talk about her! All of this is your fault!" I said as I leaped forward once again.

It seemed like the guy had let his guard down, so this was the perfect opportunity to finish this. I made sure that I attacked him with the same attack pattern, again and again, making him believe that I had no other trump cards, and I was desperate. Unfortunately, I was desperate, but I had another trump card.

"If it weren't for the fragments of the Tree of life, all of this wouldn't have happened. Is this a coincidence?"

I didn't hear what he was saying anymore, but I was sure that this guy must be very lonely, or extremely delusional.

His actions were inconsistent, and he kept saying things that were not related to our fight at all. 'What happened to him? What are his true goals by doing all of this?'

*****

Boom!

Zax regained consciousness during Adam and Rudeus's fight.

She was still in an extreme state of shock, and her mind was not still clear enough to process what was happening around her.

And when she looked around….

"No, no, no… This is a dream… This is a dream!"

… The cold reality hit her when it hurt, again. She hoped that Liu's situation was just a bad dream, and she strongly denied what she was seeing, to the point that she passed out.

But when she woke up again, the reality was still the same.

The shockwave created by the fight shook the whole place, and debris from the ceiling fell to the ground.

Zax dragged Liu with her little hand, as she avoided the falling debris, and she couldn't stop her tears.

"Adam…" She looked at Adam being beaten up by Rudeus, and the feeling of despair in her heart began to grow stronger.

Of all people there, it was Zax who was the most ignorant of the circumstances, and everything was too much for her heart to bear.

She was on the verge of breaking down…