I Am The Game's Villain

Chapter 401  Confronting Nihil [2]

"Samael, also known as Samael Eveningstar, is one of the three sons of the Mother of All, Ymir," he began.

"He is also the younger brother of Eden Silverstar and Lucifer Morningstar."

I fell silent, struggling to process Nihil's words.

Eden's younger brother?

The god worshiped in this world. After a moment's hesitation, I forced myself to ask the next question, the one that had been gnawing at me since this conversation began.

"What do I have to do with Samael?"

Nihil simply clasped his hands behind his back and gave me a pointed look. "What do you think?"

A cold realization crept over me, one I desperately didn't want to acknowledge. "His reincarnation?" I asked.

Nihil chuckled softly, shaking his head. "Not quite exactly."

"Then what?" I demanded.

"You are his Vessel," Nihil said.

"Vessel?" I repeated, stunned.

The concept was almost too familiar...

"Yes. Edward Falkrona, you are the Vessel meant to hold Samael when he awakens," Nihil explained.

"W—What does that mean? Am I going to disappear? Is that guy, Samael, going to take over my life?" The memory of last week flashed in my mind—when I had lost control, when something dark and terrifying had taken over me. Was that Samael?

"You won't disappear," Nihil assured me, though his words offered little comfort. "The current you won't."

"The current me?" I frowned in confusion.

Nihil nodded and waved his hand, altering the white space around us. Darkness enveloped the void, and seven lights appeared, glowing like distant stars. "Ten thousand years ago, Samael died. But he wasn't someone who could be easily killed. Anticipating his fate, despite his arrogance, he separated his soul into eight parts. The first and most crucial part, the Vessel, was endowed with the power to survive, no matter how long it took. The Vessel needed to endure, but it was given nothing else."

I watched, entranced, as the light representing the Vessel pulsed faintly—my light.

"As for the other seven parts, Samael imbued each with one of his strengths and emotions, binding them together like magnets. These parts, his Avatars, were designed to find and attach themselves to those worthy of bearing them."

The seven lights flared brighter in the darkness, each one a distinct color that seemed to pulse with a life of its own.

Nihil gestured toward the first light, black as the abyss. "The Avatar of Pride."

Next, a dark blue light. "The Avatar of Envy."

Then gold. "The Avatar of Greed."

A deep, menacing red. "The Avatar of Gluttony."

Pink, almost deceptively soft. "The Avatar of Lust."

Silver, gleaming like the moon. "The Avatar of Sloth."

Finally, Nihil looked directly at me as the last light, a dark, ominous purple, shone brightly. "The Avatar of Wrath."

"I thought I was just the Vessel…" I muttered, trying to make sense of it all.

"Indeed," Nihil confirmed with a faint smile. "Edward Falkrona is the Vessel. But…" His eyes narrowed, gleaming with something unreadable. "Nyrel Loyster is the Avatar of Samael's Wrath."

"W—Wait, I'm from Earth, you know?" I blurted out.

Nihil's expression didn't change as he continued. "Placing all his Avatars in the same world would have been too dangerous, so Samael scattered some across different worlds. Three of them ended up on Earth."

As Nihil spoke, he shifted the dark purple sphere—the one representing Wrath—aside, along with the black one and dark blue one.

"...Who are they?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. There were two other guy like me on Earth?

"You know one of them very well," Nihil replied with a stare.

A name flashed in my mind, and with it, a surge of anger I couldn't contain. "Leon Grimlock."

Nihil nodded, a sigh escaping his lips. "He's the Avatar of Pride. The perfect candidate to inherit Lucifer's legacy. As for the second one, the Avatar of Samael's Envy, I looked for him for years on Earth but didn't find him but there is a high chance you met that person."

As I struggled to process the flood of information, Nihil spoke up in an attempt to reassure me.

"You won't disappear as long as you avoid 'assimilating' the Avatars to sustain your body. But unfortunately, that process has already begun since you inadvertently assimilated Wrath."

"Inadvertently?" I shot him a piercing glare.

This was all because of him—the forced fusion between Edward Falkrona and Nyrel Loyster.

"Yes, I admit it was my doing, but I had my reasons. Believe me when I say that I am the last one who wants to see Samael return. Take my advice and keep your distance from the other Avatars."

I scoffed. "I will take care of Leon Grimlock, and I don't care about the other Avatars. Hell, I don't even know who they are."

"Even if you don't care, there's an unknown force drawing the Avatars closer to their Vessel. You've already encountered one of them in Celesta."

"What?" I was dumbfounded.

I wanted to demand who it was, but before I could, Nihil interrupted.

"Don't you think it's better if you don't know their identity?" He offered me a wry smile.

"Right…"

He was correct, of course.

He really didn't want me to become Samael, did he? Yet, he still forced an Avatar to merge with the Vessel.

The contradiction made me curious about his true motivations.

"So, what happened yesterday—was that 'Wrath' taking control of me?" I asked, more to confirm my suspicions than anything. But Nihil shook his head.

"It wasn't your Wrath. You weren't consumed by Samael's Wrath, but rather by 'her' wrath…" His voice trailed off ominously.

A shiver ran down my spine as I realized exactly who he was referring to.

"Edward, you must understand—the reason she became your Legacy is that, as the Avatar of the Wrath, you are the closest to the original Samael—"

-CRACK!

"...!"

I flinched, startled by the sudden noise, and instinctively turned to my right.

Nihil did the same.

In this pristine, white void, a crack had formed.

A jagged, black fissure, from which dark smoke began to seep out, thick and menacing.

The sensation was too familiar, too reminiscent of last week's terror, and I found myself instinctively stepping back.

Without warning, a pale hand thrust itself through the crack.

The hand opened, revealing a bluish-dark eye embedded in the palm, the eye darting around before finally locking onto me.

I nearly froze in place, paralyzed by the sight.

"It seems the time has come," Nihil murmured, closing his eyes as if resigned to an inevitable fate.

"W–What are you talking about?! Get us out of here!" I shouted.

"Ah~Samael~"

The crack widened, then suddenly exploded as a figure tumbled to the ground on her knees.

Her long, pitch-black hair spilled out across the white floor like ink, painting darkly the purity of the space around her.

Meanwhile, the black smoke began to coil around us, thickening the air with an ominous presence.

As she lifted her gaze, I recognized the same haunting face—the black blindfold obscuring her eyes, yet doing nothing to hide the malevolence behind them. When her eyes found me, her lips stretched into a twisted smile that nearly split her face in two.

"Samael~"

Panic surged through me, and I hurried toward Nihil, who stood silently, observing the sinister figure before us. "Nihil! Get me the fuck out of here!" My voice trembled with the fear of losing control again, a fear that gnawed at my sanity.

But as I moved, my steps faltered and froze in place.

"Don't…do not…" She was suddenly standing before Nihil, her head tilted at a disturbing angle as she regarded him.

"Do not touch my Samael."

With a slow motion, she reached out and wrapped her pale fingers around Nihil's neck.

He didn't resist. He couldn't. It was as if he had become a statue, utterly powerless under her grip.

"N–Nemesys…" Nihil's voice wavered, stammering out her name.

I stood there, paralyzed, unable to intervene. Nihil's eyes flicked to me for the briefest of moments before returning to Nemesys.

He whispered something to her, his voice barely audible.

"E…...ra."

"Sshh…" Nemes silenced him, pressing her index finger to his lips as her twisted smile grew even more grotesque. Her touch darkening his lips as his face began to crumble into black dust.

Nihil's entire body started to disintegrate, breaking down into fine, dark sand that scattered into the air. In mere moments, he was gone. Not just dead—I felt in the core of my being that the Nihil who had been with me since the beginning had truly vanished.

Nemes slowly turned her head toward me eyes blazing with a frightening black light that pierced through the darkness of her blindfold.

"Samael."

"S-Stop that," I stammered, clenching my fists as I instinctively took a step back.

But the instant I moved, she was already in front of me.

Caught off guard, I stumbled and fell to the ground, landing hard on my back. Nemes knelt down, straddling me as her cold, pale hands slid along my thighs before coming to rest on either side of my body. Her face loomed just inches above mine, her breath chilling as death but I felt a strong attraction despite myself.

She was as divinely beautiful as Cleenah, but her beauty was tainted with something far darker—an aura of twisted love that felt like the very essence of death was staring back at me.

"You are mine, Samael," she whispered, her black nails grazing my cheeks with a featherlight touch that left a burning trail.

"I—I am not Samael…"

-Spurt!

A sharp pain exploded in my cheeks as her nails suddenly dug into my flesh, the sensation impossibly real and excruciating.

How could this be happening?!

Lowering her head, she leaned in close, her voice a mere breath in my ear.

"Edward is mine."

"..."

An involuntary shudder ran through my body.

"Nyrel is mine too." I felt her tongue trace a line along my cheek, a cold, wet sensation that sent a surge through me. My arms threatening to wrap around her waist.

W-What's happening...

"Ahhh~" Nemes sighed in exhilaration, raising her head to look down at me, her body firmly mounted on my waist.

Her twisted smile widened further as the eerie blue light behind her blindfold flared, devoid of any warmth, drawing me into their abyssal depths.

I could feel myself being pulled into her darkness, as if death itself were reaching out to claim me.

Her smile only grew more warped.

"My...Evening Star~"