A Villainess Should Be Strong

Chapter 169: Sacrifice

The villainess. It was supposed to be a rather easy term to decipher, that she was supposed to do bad stuff and terrorize others with her power. However, she wasn't even granted the chance to that. Rather, she was apparently destined to save the entire world by becoming the Goddess of Origin and wielding the power that is currently held by the Absolute.

Rather than a villainess, wasn't she just going to be the best person ever? Saving the world as a whole, what could beat that sort of feat? Who could do that?

"Why am I called a villainess?" Estelle questioned. Her eyes were unfocused as she slowly felt like her consciousness began to dissipate. She frowned at this reaction because she had thought that the Absolute would change up the time flow in this realm, which would give her more time to work with. Why did she suddenly feel unstable?

"I don't have much left that I can tell you, and I don't think that you will have any more benefits in staying there, so I will just tell you a couple things from here on," The Absolute spoke as he turned his back against Estelle and walked to the withered tree, squatting in front of it and beginning to caress the surface.

"Why are you categorized as a villainess, you say? The answer is quite simple, it is because you are destined to have more sins than you have your good deeds. You are destined to bring calamity as part of your world's fate, but at the same time, you will also gain the ability to save the world. However, those sins will tip you over the line of an evil being," The Absolute said.

"When that day comes, when it is time to save the world, all of the negativity will fall upon you. Essentially, you will become a sacrifice that is needed for the world to operate. If you don't do the sacrifice, then the world will truly perish,"

Estelle grew silent, unable to react at all at the being's words. A sacrifice? Her?

That was what she was going to end up doing? If so, what was she working so hard for? Why did she have to struggle if everything will be useless in the end? If the fate she was going to end up with was that disgusting?

Sensing Estelle's disagreement, the Absolute came to the rescue and continued his preaching.

"You know why I am telling this? Because I know you, and I know that you would deliberately sacrifice yourself to make the scenario we envisioned the truth. You will end up sacrificing yourself for the sake of others. You won't even know what you sacrificed, and what you will become when the time comes. That is, so to say, the fate you will have to bear," The Absolute looked on with a pained voice.

Estelle couldn't accept his words inside her heart, but at the same time, she didn't refute it either. "What else can you tell me?" She knew that the being was about to eject her after telling her a couple more things. There must've been something that she did that caused the original plan of staying longer to be disrupted. Perhaps it was because she caused to large of a change in the Surface.

"The only clue left I have for you is the answer.. No, I should say that it's the guide for your other question. You must also want to ask why you have the exact same ring as Goddess Estraea in the Surface and what it means for you. And.. What significance does it have? Essentially, it is something that is connected to your true purpose and works as a pair. You must have already became familiar with your earring. I won't tell you the details, but I will tell you that the other part of the jewelry set is somewhere inside Vaitral, and it is being housed by a strong slumbering ancient dragon. This dragon is called Ymir and is rather well known by Vaitral's dragons, so when you finally have the chance to look there, you will definitely find the dragon in no time considering your power and resources. He holds the Goddess' earring, the one you will have to link with your ring. As for whether or not you would obtain the jewelry from the dragon.. That's a completely different story," The Absolute said before waving his hand in the air and making strange gestures.

These gestures were what was required to open the gates to the other dimension, one that would send Estelle back to her real world. Upon passing through this spatial membrane, she would return to the Surface and resume her journey.

Estelle was strangely affected by the Absolute's words, which sounded terrible while spouting nonsensical things about her. If she had became strong enough to dominate the entire world, why would she sacrifice herself? Above all, she valued her life and purpose. She gained emotional capabilities, but that didn't mean that she would be that heavily influenced by her emotional stability that she would go as far as to deem everything she had worked hard for nullified.

She thought that it would certainly be a false prediction. As she believed that the things the Absolute said was impossible.

"As of now, the ring you're wearing in the Surface is incomplete. It can't hold any significant meaning without being beside its counterpart, the earring. I reckon that... once you've found the earring, or for other matters that you will manage to trigger during your journey, we will have the chance to meet again. Until then, it's time for you to return back,"

Estelle was apprehensive as she was reluctant to go out of this strange, yet accepting realm. However, knowing that there was no other way for her, she went inside the spatial membrane without sparing any more words to the Absolute.

From then, she was sent back to the Surface, and was

"Heine," Estelle woke up to seeing Heine's face. Behind him, there were several others. The rest of her colleagues. One of them being Aleksei Villarante himself, the man that is said to be the incarnation of the Aleksei in her past. And by that, it would also mean that the man was the current embodiment of Chaos.

However, she didn't feel any sort of adverse reaction towards him. How could it be that she couldn't sense any element of Chaos from inside Aleksei? Was there something wrong that blocked her reaction? Or was she not sensitive enough to the pure Chaos' soul?

Her eyes scrutinized Aleksei. Her passionate gaze must've been picked up by the older man, but she didn't care. She was way to affected by the new information she had learned and had trouble connecting it to her real life.

"Are you awake? How are you feeling?" Heine hurriedly nursed Estelle, supporting her as she got up from the ground and was given fresh water to drink. Estelle took the drink and gulped it all down before taking in a deep sigh and looking at Heine.

"Heine, I.." she spoke slowly as she began to clear up her mind.

"You suddenly fainted after.. I relayed the information to you. I don't know what happened, but I immediately brought you here and waited until you woke up. It took you approximately thirty minutes to wake up, but now you're awake.. How are you feeling?" Heine asked, stating all the things that he knew.

"I.. probably just had a tired body. Before running into you, I had been fighting some men with the people over there," Estelle got up with the help of Heine and walked towards her colleagues, who suddenly pulled her to the back and shielded her from Heine's presence.

Estelle raised an eyebrow at this movement. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"Stand back, Estelle. You don't know what this man is planning. You know, I don't trust him at all, especially being someone who hailed from Sylvania.. Who knows what his purposes are coming into our land and in this particular area. Going by the context, isn't it strange how he appeared here, where the disasters sprouted from?"

Estelle knew that there was hostility between the Elven race and practically every other race, but she didn't expect it to be this severe as she was welcomed rather well except for the likes of Neil.

"Moreover, I think it's terribly convenient that these men that captured us released their hold right after you came here, Spirit King.. or should I say, former Spirit King?" Frey pointed her staff at the green-haired fae, her suspicions rising through the roof as she drew her conclusion on this matter. She had waited until Estelle was awake before she took action because she placed higher importance on Estelle's condition and she didn't want to make wrong assumptions, but upon looking at Estelle's somewhat awkward reactions, she was led to believe that her assumption was correct.