The Hero Must Die

Chapter 1 – The Hero Must Die

The sound of my teeth ground bitterly, resonating with a clattering sound of rage.

A bastard!

That's what he is.

That's what he will remain to me.

The Hero they adored.

This fucking Hero that everyone worshipped.

To me, that son of a devil… that son of a bitch was just a bloody bastard!

Tch! Despicable!

A power-crazed asshole, whose life I shall snuff out with my own hands, no matter how many lifetimes it will take.

The Hero must die by my hands!

—––

Tch, how could I have forgotten how much I loathed humans?

Hehe, you brought this one upon yourself, Luke.

I laughed not because anything was funny to me.

I laughed because I was grossly disappointed in myself.

Fuck! You really messed up, Luke. You've really messed up.

As I lay on the grassy floor of the forest, looking up and having nothing but the night's moon and the chirping of unseen insects as the only seeming allies, blood started to trickle down from the sides of my mouth.

Thump~ Thump~!!

My heart raced.

Thump~ Thump~!!

It raced and I felt the pressure.

My heart pounded boisterously inside my chest, enough to vibrate my entire rib cage.

Every beat ushered a pang of pain like a hammer to my bones and as much as I sought a form of relief, I couldn't find any.

Even I feared that my chest would burst open anytime from now.

Ding~!

A row of texts flashed before my eyes, shamelessly notifying me of my imminent doom.

[The Venom of the Crimson Viper has spread throughout your body.]

I sluggishly, thanks to the excruciating spasms of pain that coursed through my body, smacked my forehead.

In that instant, the memories of my life played like a slideshow inside my head.

The faces and the names of those persons whom I had become accustomed to their company came to mind.

The ones that had been the closest things I had to 'friends'.

Emelda.

Jerry.

Casandra.

…

…

Everyone was already dead.

Dead and gone!

Everyone was dead, thanks to the bastard standing in front of me!

There was no way I was going to let the bastard get away with what he had done.

No fucking way in Nine Heavens and Hell would I let him!

The Venom of the Crimson Viper, huh?

Stupid me!

I chuckled at my own folly as a memory came to mind at that moment.

To think that I was the one who slew the Crimson Viper and gifted it to this bastard.

Now, I'm going to die from the venom of the same beast?

I managed to drag myself up to my feet.

One look at my legs and I saw how terribly they were shaking, barely able to hold my weight as I staggered in unbearably painful, slow steps.

Nothing was holding me up other than the sheer will to strangle the blond-haired bastard who was standing in front of me right now.

"Terence, you bastard!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, nearly killing myself as my chest burned and twisted inside the moment I shouted.

Cough~ Cough~!!

Eek!

My inside felt like a burning furnace. It scorched terribly.

Immediately, a copious amount of my blood flew out of my mouth, splattering on the ground and turning the grasses it touched to ash in an instant.

Fizzzz~

The blood that I had vomited which was red with a tinge of purple soon turned black in a matter of seconds before evaporating into the air.

Black blood.

The manifestation of black blood was a terrible sign.

I was closer to my end than I thought.

Seeing this, I could only imagine how badly my internal organs had been damaged, thanks to the Venom of the Crimson Viper.

I already knew that there was no way I was getting out of here alive. Not as I was very weak and outnumbered.

I knew that but I still wanted to take Terence along with me to the Afterworld somehow.

Tch!

I gritted my teeth and held my heart to give myself some fruitless comfort.

Step~

"Why…"

Step~

"Why?"

Step~

"Why did you do it, Terence!"

The blond-haired bastard couldn't even look me in the eyes.

He could not talk to me face-to-face.

No. He didn't even talk to me at all.

He remained in the same pose for minutes long, silent like a stone sculpture.

The only voice that breezed into my ears throughout this time was that of the annoying red-haired slut.

The redhead bitch who was head over heels for Terence.

Claudia the Red Witch.

Fucking whore!

If I had the opportunity to live, I would strip her skin from her body while she still breathes.

Bang~!!

Fuck!

I felt a massive impact on my solar plexus that caused me to fall to my knees and screech on the floor from the gut-wrenching pain that this bitch's kick had triggered.

"I'm surprised you are still alive, Luke," the redhead bitch's voice permeated my eardrums.

'Of course, I'm taking you with me after Terence,' I swore to myself.

I could hear her footsteps approaching toward me, unhurried and purposeful.

"Usually, the venom should have killed you but for some reason, it didn't do anything. Safe to assume that you've acquired some level of Poison Resistance. Am I right?"

Claudia crouched in front of me and stroked my hair gently yet all I could feel was her malicious intent travelling through every strand of hair on my head as she touched them.

'Stupid bitch.'

I managed to raise my eyes and get a good look at Claudia, something I would come to wish that I didn't.

Argh!

The heels of her boot pressed down strongly on the head, smearing my face on the grasses of the forest as she cast a luscious gaze on Terence, hoping to impress the blond brat.

"My handsome Hero, it seems your fight with the brat weakened him. Surely that was the trigger for the venom to work."

Terence said nothing.

That bastard neither moved nor opened his mouth to speak.

Through all this time, he just turned his back to us, not even willing to defend himself and give me a reason why he did what he did.

I struggled to break free of Claudia's stomp but I couldn't.

I was just too weak; too weary to do anything that would be impactful to my freedom.

Life was hazy before my eyes and the entire forest was starting to spin and double.

As Claudia tortured me, then did I hear a laugh, a raucous laughter coming from Terence.

"Finally!" he shouted excitedly.

That bastard was not one bit remorseful.

If anything, I could feel the tinge of pleasure, greed, and satisfaction that came from his voice.

"Raise him up, Claudia," he commanded.

Claudia, together with a few of their lackeys, pulled me up to my feet. Even as I struggled, they still overpowered me.

Gasping and clinging to life, I cast my eyes on the one man I wanted to kill more than anything or anyone—the Hero, Terence Kenton.

He was the bastard responsible for all that had happened.

The man who had betrayed our entire guild for his own selfish reasons.

The man who sold us out for nothing.

For the first time, Terence turned and met my gaze.

I could see the sheer malice and lust that shone from his eyes.

That man was dead. Dead inside, I tell you.

He was no longer the Terence I was familiar with.

Definitely, that was not a man who told me that he wanted to save the world and end the era of Dungeons and Monsters.

That Terence was surely gone for good.

The person who stood before me was the epitome of evil and everything vile.

He started to approach me in slow steps and with his hand slightly abducted, he conjured one of his weapons with a single command.

[Crimson Viper Fang]

A fine, divinely crafted dagger of red and black colour appeared within his grasp in an instant.

"Why, you ask?" Terence began to speak, not stopping his match toward me.

"You really want to know why I did it, Luke. The reason for everything?"

A smug beamed from his face as he started to babble. "What good would it do me if I ended it all?"

"You are the fucking… *cough*... you're supposed to be the fucking Hero, Terence! We all believed in you! We all believed in the peace that you would bring!"

Tears generously poured from my eyes as I spoke.

It was unbearable for me. Unbearable that the one who made me let my guard down… the man whom I once called 'friend', was the devil himself.

Terence cupped my chin in his hand and smirked.

"But I didn't ask you to do all that, Luke. Everything you did, you did freely and that made things easier for us… no, for me. Otherwise, I would have killed you a long time ago.

"I must say that your [Strength] is remarkable, considering how long you have that venom coursing through you. But it's over for you, Luke…"

Stab~

A second later, the red and black blade of the Crimson Viper Fang was laced with my blood and a deep wound was carved on my belly, spurting blood everywhere.

'Fuck! This is how it ends?'

My eyes rolled up and more blood poured from my mouth and from my belly where Terence had stabbed me with the Crimson Viper Fang.

[All stats have been reduced by 99%.]

Fuck!

Fuck!

FUCCCKKKK!

As life slowly left me, I grabbed hold of Terence's armour as I dropped to my knees, my head pressed against his body.

For some reason, even amid the intense pain that ravaged my body, I began to laugh.

I wasn't going to give this bastard the satisfaction of seeing me die a painful death.

Never!

I was going to keep laughing until I couldn't anymore… until I drew my last breath.

That's what Casandra would have wanted.

I grasped his cloth with my last strength, something that wasn't even worthy of being called a grip.

Terence flicked my hand off him, causing me to fall to the ground.

Casting a final glare at Terence, who looked down at me with a disgusted face.

"You best make sure that I'm dead, Terence," I threatened. "You best make sure because if I am not… you, the Hero, must die by my hands."

At the end of my sentence, I felt another gash across my chest and everything became an absolute blur and eventually all I could see was darkness.

Deep, empty darkness.

So this is what death feels like.

—––

Author's Note:

Thank you for reading the first chapter.

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