Villain Ch 1948. The Banquet of The Damned [Part 2]

A slow, humming tune spilled from nowhere and everywhere, wrapping around the hall like silk soaked in blood.

It wasn't instrumental.

The guests were singing.

Their mouths moved in perfect harmony. Smiling. Hollow-eyed. Their voices layered, rich and eerie—low and sweet like lullabies sung in a crypt.

It started soft. Almost pretty.

"The meat walks in, the flesh is red…"

"Let's sing a song for the living and dead…"

"Carve the skin and boil the soul…"

"One for the mouth and one for the bowl…"

Alex took a single step back, his voice cracked. "Why does this place give me Devil Emperor vibes?"

Red kept his sword lowered but tense, breathing shallow. "I agree. This gives me ghostbumps."

Allen said nothing. He glanced at them, deadpan.

He did not comment on the fact that, yes, the Devil Emperor was standing right next to them. Holding a butter knife.

Then the quest window appeared. Not a beep. Not a chime. A harsh static noise that rang inside their heads.

[QUEST UPDATED: SURVIVE THE BANQUET]

[OBJECTIVE: ELIMINATE ALL GUESTS AND MURDERESS MARIELLA BEFORE THE FINAL BELL]

[TIME LIMIT: 12 MINUTES]

No one spoke for a full second.

Then Red whispered, "Oh shit."

The singing stopped.

Every single guest turned toward them at once.

The music box playing in the corner cracked.

Mariella stood, her gown shifting like liquid shadow. Her hands lifted, graceful and eerie.

She smiled. "The main food… is here."

Then she whispered, "Go get them."

The guests erupted.

Their elegant forms melted like candlewax in a furnace. Their suits and gowns twisted into rotting cloth, eyes hollowing into gaping black pits. Hair fell like smoke.

They floated above their chairs, screeching.

The children giggled. Still seated. Not moving.

"I want the head!" the boy cheered. "Let me play with the head afterwards!"

"I need some nails for my dolls," the girl sang, clapping politely.

Then all hell broke loose.

Red was the first to move. He leapt forward, sword glowing crimson.

"FORM UP! DEFENSIVE SPREAD!" he barked.

Mastercraft slammed his hammer against the marble tile, summoning a burst of protective flame around them.

Alex's hands were already shaking. "Holy Blessing! Barrier! Mana Ward! Just—just don't die!"

[Father^Alex Cast Holy Blessing]

[Barrier Applied]

Allen flicked a knife from his sleeve and vanished in a blink-step.

The ghosts came in waves.

One shrieked overhead and dove like a falcon. Red spun, catching it midair, slashing upward—ripping it in half. Black mist sprayed from the wound like blood.

"FIRST DOWN!" Red shouted.

"Ten more incoming!" Mastercraft warned.

He swung wide, his hammer cracking a ghost in the jaw and sending its upper half flying.

"Did that one have teeth for eyes?" Red shouted.

"Don't ask questions!" Alex wailed.

Allen reappeared behind a floating woman in a blood-slick dress, stabbing her through the base of the skull. She hissed, flailed, dissolved into glass shards.

Three guests turned toward him. They swarmed.

Allen didn't flinch.

He weaved.

The first ghost slashed with elongated fingers. Allen ducked, spun, sliced the arm off.

The second howled and tried to grab him.

He kicked off a chair, flipped over her, and sliced her spine mid-air. She burst into ribbons.

The third reached out—but Allen was already gone.

"Are you even human?!" Mastercraft shouted as he deflected another wraith with a table.

Allen didn't answer. He was already moving again.

One guest had split open like a flower, its ribcage extended like wings. It screeched.

Red launched a firebomb under it. It exploded mid-screech, raining bits of bone and what looked like silk.

Another ghost grabbed Alex.

"GET IT OFF!" Alex screamed.

Red swung fast, cleaving through the spirit's chest.

"Stick with us, Priest!"

"I am sticking—AAAHH!" Alex yelped as another ghost phased through the table and reached for his face.

Barrier flared. Held.

"Okay! Okay! This is fine! I hate this!"

Mastercraft was a wall of fire and steel, smashing spirits into chandeliers and furniture.

"I swear, if we survive this, I'm making a cooking sim next!"

"Less talking, more killing!" Red yelled, hurling his sword through a translucent wraith and spinning to catch it mid-air.

But then… they saw him.

Allen.

In the middle of the chaos.

His back to the golden light of Alex's spell, one foot perched on the edge of an overturned table. His blades glinted like polished bone, dripping with ghost smoke. His coat flared with every shift of his movement, too perfect, too precise. His movements weren't just fast—they were surgical.

And his face…

That smirk.

That evil, quiet, barely-there smirk that crept up the edge of his mouth like he was genuinely enjoying this.

A glint of madness behind his half-lidded eyes. That kind of smile you see just before someone flips the switch on a guillotine.

Red saw it first. Froze for just a split second.

"What the hell…" he whispered.

Mastercraft looked too, mid-swing.

Alex had just cast another barrier, but even he paused as Allen carved through two ghosts with a twirl, daggers dancing like devils in his grip.

No fear. No hesitation. No wasted movement.

He slid under a ghost's claw, flipped his dagger in a reverse grip, and stabbed upward through its mouth. The spirit choked on smoke and burst into shards.

Then he stepped through the debris and stabbed another ghost in the eye without even looking.

It was like he wasn't surviving this battle.

He was feasting on it.

Allen exhaled, watching a spirit dissolve, and licked a speck of glowing ichor off his knuckle.

And for the first time in a while… none of them said anything.

Not Red.

Not Mastercraft.

Not even Alex.

But in that silence, all three of them understood.

Why Elio was obsessed with Allen.

Why he needed to defeat him.

Because Allen didn't just win.

And that smile?

That psycho little smirk?

It said… Thank you for letting me off the leash.

Mariella finally stepped forward. Her smile remained, but her tone turned cold and low, soft and deadly.

"Children…" she said, lifting her chin. "Bring me their eyes."

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