The Villain's Story

With Samantha's help, who had apparently gotten very used to the 'entire' city that was beyond the castle, Sabrina was able to explore quite a bit and gather a vast amount of information. She shivered at the thought of the fighting power present here. The other monsters she had found here, resembled humans more than snakes, but they were strong.

The fighting power was akin to the entirety of one of the lower ranking top 10 guilds.

'Forget top 10...even top 5'

But that was just a conclusion she had made from her experience, there was no way to determine whether the forces of this place could actually topple a guild that had resources and S-rank leaders far beyond comprehension.

Little did she know, had she seen the beasts residing in the throne room, she would be certain that the top 3 guilds or the World Government would be the only ones that could stop this army, and even then they would risk half or more of their forces.

It was truly an absurd force. And if she knew how 'easily' Alan could grow it, she would be shocked to the point her body would be turned to stone, like the men who gazed into the eyes of Medusa.

The exploration, however, was abruptly stopped. Sabrina was at the edge of the city, on top of the castle walls, as she felt a tremor.

The soldiers with her, looked towards the castle and bared their fangs, seemingly distraught. The entire city looked towards the castle. And Sabrina caught a hint of worry on their faces.

"Worry...? For who?"

She asked herself, and she saw a massive snake in the distance seemingly pop out from the roof of the castle. She didn't know the castle had changed its shape to allow it to do so, The snake roared in the sky and another one crept up on it, and then they went towards the garden.

The knights and the beasts, rushed towards the castle, she struggled to hold on and Samantha was trying her best not to fall off. Using her mana, she conjured two straps to help keep both of them on the snake beast.

The speed at which these monsters travelled was astonishing, Sabrina had a hard time keeping her eyes open, the 'wind' in this place striking her face.

She finally had a moment of relief when they stopped, they approached the garden, and she saw the two large snakes, there seemed to be a person on one of the snake's head. However, that person was not riding the snake, yet seemed to be carried by it. Injured.

The snakes hurried over to the room where she was in, the room that had the healing water. Their menacing figures in the sky painted a dreary sight. Sabrina gulped and focused mana on her eyes to identify the person they carried.

"... Alan?"

She saw him, the owner of this place. She had already guessed that, and her guess was confirmed to be true by Samantha during their trip, but this wasn't what she was expecting.

His face was pale, and his chest seemed to have caved in, blood escaped his mouth as well. She got off the snake she was riding and ran towards the room he was being carried towards. A bad premonition surfacing in her mind.

She got there late, and was panting heavily, there, she saw his body being submerged in the water, some of his blood having seeped into the pond.

"..."

Walking towards him, she examined his injuries.

********

The extent of his injuries was not as bad as she had anticipated, she had seen him survive much, much worse.

She could see that he was hit by an attack possessing great mana, one with such force that upon collision it had crushed his strong chest and put him unconscious. Thankfully for Alan's quick thinking, he had transported himself here before whatever attacked him finished him off.

He was healing, by the effects of the water and also the bloodline he had. But, Sabrina found the process to be quite slow. The bloodline was working wonders, and so was the water, but they were lacking when it came to dispersing the foreign mana plaguing his body.

Sighing to herself, she weaved her mana out of her body and guided it towards Alan, using his skin as an entrance. Then, she had a shocked look on her face as she was able to identify the rank of the foreign mana.

"S-rank...this idiot was fighting an S-rank beast..."

Sighing to herself once more, she treated him by taking the mana out and dispersing it into the atmosphere, that action of hers led to his wounds healing faster.

"Thankfully, it was an Ice-element beast, otherwise this buffoon would be dead already." She scowled, wanting to punch the bastard but restrained herself from attacking a patient.

His affinity to ice had saved him.

Soon enough, Alan woke up. His eyes slowly opened and Sabrina said.

"Wake up."

"Huh?"

His bare upper body exited the pool, and he looked at her. Her clothes had dried now. So there wasn't much to see.

"Oh yeah...right."

Alan massaged his head as he remembered that he had sent her here prior to escaping the underground area.

He looked around the room, trying to find Samantha, but he couldn't. Thinking nothing of it, he turned to her.

"Are you alright?"

"Why are you asking me that, did you see the state you arrived in?"

"I didn't see it, but I did experience it. I did see your condition, though."

Sabrina sighed and said.

"I'm alright now, I would be better if someone hadn't used such strength to pull me."

Alan retorted, trying to defend himself from such an allegation. Which was right in some ways.

"Hey! It wasn't my fault some smart ass decided to wrap a whip around me!"

"Smart ass?! That was to help your idiotic self come back to safety?"

"Where is the idiocy in my actions? I was trying to buy time! And that whip was buried in flesh, so I am not to blame?"

"Not to blame? You caused my head to split apart! Why do you have such thick scales anyway?!"

They bickered like children almost the instant Alan woke up from his injuries, Alan stopped after he recognized something.

"The mammoth's mana..."

"Happy? I got rid of it, now treat me to something for it next time."

Sabrina answered with a pout, she stood up and walked towards the door and struggled to open it.

"..."

"Heh."

"If you were the architect of this accursed door, never even think of designing anything."

Alan was confused as to what she meant by her words. He simply thought the door was too heavy for her to open.

He had no idea who designed this place as well, and neither did he really care about it. Moving out of the pool with a haughty smile on his face, he opened the door quite easily.

"Please, Ladies first."

In a tone clearly meant to annoy the lady in question. She snickered.

"Please, wear something."

It was at that point he realized he was shirtless, his snakes had taken it off to make sure it didn't interfere with his healing. Sabrina didn't mind it, seeing the muscle and the tattoos was a sight, but to annoy him she clearly needed to say something about it.

The muscles with the tattoos were sexy, but annoying him was much more fun.

"Huh?"

She had a sudden thought about her kind of thoughts but excused herself by coughing. She got serious immediately afterward as Alan put on a spare shirt from his inventory.

"What happened outside?"

He had a grim look on his face as he answered, almost hesitating.

"It's bad, we are behind the mountains we saw on the north, The city we saw is right in front of us, and currently we are in an endless snow field...and..."

"And?"

She questioned, noticing his sudden pause. She had a bad feeling about this, but she still needed an answer.

"There may or may not be an S-rank beast camping us the moment we try to leave this place."

"..."

She had a grim look on her face, but suddenly a question appeared in her mind.

"Wait, did you not say your spatial magic was being interfered with? How were you able to transport us here if that was the case."

Alan, already having expected such a question, answered leisurely.

"That's because this place is separate. It's my domain, I don't need to expend spatial mana to come here, just normal mana or ice mana is enough."

"..."

Her hunch was right, although the domain was vastly different from the one she had read about, but considering it was Alan, she didn't think much of it.

He wasn't human, so perhaps that was the cause of his domain being so different, she sat down on a bench in the garden, and asked him.

"So, is there any good news?"

"..."

Alan struggled for a bit, and eventually couldn't find an answer except.

"We are alive?"