No More Pain For This Villain.

Silence, pure silence... Why can\'t I just lay like this and not care about whatever\'s been happening around me?

It was nice being here...

"Hey!!" I felt someone call me—

And before I could comprehend anything, I saw light, and then, as if the vacuum sucked me in, I was wide awake.

"Haaa!!" I struggled to breathe.

"Rise and shine, princess!" Blaze jumped down on the floor where I was lying. It was cold.

"How long?" I asked.

"Three hours. Once in a while, you wriggled around in pain... well, that\'s evident, looking at you now," he added.

Looking at me? I rubbed my eyes and then down—it\'s the same, wait...

"Whoa." I stared at my hand as I brought it closer to my face. They had turned into claws.

"Increased mana pool, stronger physique—" Blaze circled around me, "Since you\'re now a Pyroclasm Elder, I can teach you three to four new moves... Oh yeah, you can now smell things really intensely." He added.

I sighed and looked in the mirror, focusing around my eyes. The retinas dilated, giving them the look of a bird\'s eyes, and the golden hue of my irises seemed even brighter.

It was fine until I noticed something—my hair. It was pure dark... What happened to the red ends?

"Use mana," Blaze instructed.

I used magic again, and it became clear. Slowly, as if chipping away at the darkness, from the ends to the scalp, the hair changed... burning away the dark color, revealing Auburn. It was the same shade we saw in Ignisara\'s hair.

I parted my lips, noticing my canines had elongated, looking more beastly. Scales formed around my neck, and my eyes had four white rings.

"Now stop focusing and try to return to your normal face," Blaze\'s voice was calm as he directed me.

I did so, and I saw the hair turn back to dark, the scales disappeared, and my canines returned to normal.

"You could easily win a fancy dress competition with that," Blaze said.

I tried it a few more times, and it was weird... Like my face was the same, but this transformation made me look menacing. I kind of liked it.

"You\'re thinking about doing something weird," Blaze sensed as I smiled.

Anyway, is this all the level-up gives me?

I accessed the system panel, and what popped up was:

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CONGRATULATIONS!

New store added!

Can now regenerate whole limbs!

---

And that was it. Nothing more. I waved off the panel and looked at my status window, which seemed... deserted. Like, it looked empty.

---

[SYSTEM WINDOW]

[Player: Ren Chris Hilton]

Age: 17

[Level 4: Pyroclasm Elder]

[8-Star Mage In Human Terms]

Current Progress:

Intelligence: 8/10

Strength: 0/100

Mana: 0/100

[Next Level: Phoenix Ascendant]

[Total Experience Points: 0/100000]

(Level up unavailable!)

Elemental Attributes: Fire

Advancements of Elements: Lightning

Unlock New Advancement: (Open)

Contracted Beast: One

Spirits: None(!)

Skills: [71 skills.]

Learn New Skills: [Open]

Store: [Open]

---

"Am I that close to becoming a 16-star?" I asked.

"You\'re very far... like, very far. See how much experience you need to level up, and first, you\'ll need to master your new abilities and skills. There are some good ones with small drawbacks," he explained.

Yeah, the 100k experience cap for the next level was daunting, but I did feel powerful now.

"That\'s because you are powerful," Blaze said.

"Yeah," I focused on another question that had been bothering me. "Why is there so much ash on the floor, and why are my clothes gone?"

"You burned them, and the ashes are from the clothes," he added. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"So, I burned them?"

"More like you set yourself on fire while you were unconscious," he explained.

I don\'t know what kind of things happen around me when I level up, but I\'m always faced with weird situations. Like now—

"I saw you, Klashier," I turned to Blaze.

"Using my real name, huh? Must be serious. So, what did you see—a chat with Ignisara or a vision?" He wasn\'t fazed, nor was I. If there\'s one person I can trust with everything, it\'s Blaze, without a doubt.

"I\'m honored, but don\'t think so highly of me. It\'s not like you... creepy." He read my thoughts. Why do I even bother?

"Anyway, I remember you mentioning a great war between dragons and phoenixes. It was a vision of that war, and I was a phoenix... Ignisara, to be exact. I saw you fight." I explained everything I saw in the vision to him.

Blaze listened intently, not interrupting, his gaze fixed on me as I described the vision. The war, the immense battle between dragons and phoenixes, and the monstrous figure of Klashier—his true form—ripping through the battlefield with terrifying force.

"That was no ordinary vision," Blaze finally spoke, his voice more serious than usual. "What you saw was one of the defining moments in the ancient war between dragons and phoenixes—when Ignisara faced me on the battlefield."

"You were friends, right?" I asked.

"Yeah, but we weren\'t at the time I was created. I became friends with her after the war ended with a peace treaty that the gods interfered with," he added.

"So what was the reason for the war?" I asked, realizing I hadn\'t ever inquired about it before.

"It was to end the race that had the chance of producing the next God for the beasts," Blaze explained. "At that time, it seemed like the clans of both dragons and phoenixes were on the verge of giving birth to a new God who would rule the realm, but neither side wanted the other to be that one. So, war broke out, and we began killing each other."

"And then the dragons created you to win the war," I added, thinking it made sense based on how he\'d handled things. He was probably the only one capable of turning the tide.

"Yeah," he replied, his voice soft, almost a whisper.

I still didn\'t understand why I had been shown that vision, of all things. As I mulled over it, I pulled a pair of pants from my cupboard and slipped them on.

Swish!

"Ren Hilton—oh, I\'m sorry for the intrusion!" came a voice from my right.

"...wha-!" I turned to see Isolde squealing as she covered her eyes, while Elsa stood next to her, her face red as a beet. They stood behind Falco, who had opened a portal directly into my room without warning.

The room they were in was bustling with people, but my attention quickly shifted to someone unexpected.

"Devon?" I muttered in disbelief.

"Oye, kiddo! You here!!!" Devon grinned, just as surprised as I was.

\'You should be more surprised by the person standing next to Adam Stales,\' Blaze pointed out. I looked at Adam, who was with Mary... and she looked like she\'d just seen a ghost.