Jax looked at the crowd. Fear was already setting in. Time to push harder.

"What do you all think? Where is this immense power coming from? These foreign magic that no one in this world have the knowledge of?"

He gestured at the battlefield.

"And how do you explain their unusual deaths? Their disappearance into blue particles? Does that make any sense to you?"

His voice grew sharper.

"Do you think the gods. The almighty beings you worship. Would want this chaos? This destruction?"

He paused.

"And if they truly wanted your ruin, don't you think they would do it themselves? It would take them seconds. Not armies. Not champions. Seconds."

His eyes swept across everyone.

"So tell me. Anyone. Who has an answer for my questions?"

Dead silence.

Even the champions were confused. Thalia. Azara. Zinnia. Kiera. All of them questioning themselves. Their own knowledge. Everything they thought they knew.

'What the hell is happening?'

Sylvie smiled slightly as he was finally opening up. But beneath that smile was a seed of horror. The name he had spoken. The nightmare.

"Jax." Her voice was steady. "Tell us what you know. Everything. And how you know it."

Jax nodded.

"Each of these so-called champions were brought here from different worlds. Yes. But that's only what they know. What they've been told."

He looked at Maya briefly.

"They've been fed lies."

He turned back to the crowd.

"I've learned things. Secrets. Threats that none of you are aware of. I'll tell you how. And I suppose many of you already know some god bullshit. Or you will, after more interrogation of the captives."

His voice dropped.

"But yes. These people from other worlds. These gods. These absurd skills. These mysterious deaths. This hunger to kill. To win."

He let the words hang.

"It all points to one being. The Dark Lord."

Lysandra spoke. Her voice was shaky. Cracked.

"How?"

This was the second time people saw her break from her composed character. First from Jax's insults. Now from fear.

Jax smiled.

"What if I tell you he's still alive?"

Gasps rippled through the crowd.

"Still plotting. Still planning his revenge on this world. On every person who celebrated his fall."

He began pacing slowly.

"All this time, he was alive. Weak. But still evil. He couldn't interfere with this world directly. Cannot touch a single soul of this world due to The seal that woman placed on him. You all say she killed him. But he wasn't some killable being."

His voice took on a storyteller's cadence.

"He roamed this world as a spirit. Unable to touch anything. Unable to speak to anyone. Only able to watch. To listen."

Jax's expression darkened.

"He watched people talk about him. Mock him. Curse his name. He saw himself painted as a monster in every story. Every painting. Every lesson taught to children."

He paused.

"But in his mind? He was never evil. He considered himself a monarch. Chosen by the gods themselves. Sent to cure this world of its corruption. To cleanse it of the weak and unworthy."

His lips curled.

"But centuries of watching. Of being powerless. Of seeing himself portrayed as the ultimate villain while he believed himself a savior."

He shook his head slowly.

"That broke him. Twisted him. Turned him into something far worse than he ever was before."

The crowd was hanging on every word.

"And now he's found a way. If he can't interfere with the souls of this world, why not use souls from other worlds? Bring chaos through people who don't belong here."

Jax spread his arms.

"He tricked his way into other dimensions. Manipulated innocent people. Made them believe he was a god. Offered them any wish they desired if they created enough destruction."

His voice hardened.

"But that evil will never grant those wishes. It's all lies. And for those who fail? He threatened them with penalties worse than death."

He pointed at the bodies scattered across the battlefield.

"These people we fought today? They were victims of his manipulation. Pawns in his game."

The effect was immediate.

Some had sweat dripping down their faces. Others were worried about their families. Most were cursing under their breath.

They had bought his lie. Hook, line, and sinker.

But then Lysandra spoke.

Her voice had steadied. Cold logic replacing fear.

"Keeping all that aside." She stepped forward. "It doesn't change the facts. These people killed countless citizens. Families have been destroyed. Mothers lost sons. Children lost fathers."

Her eyes bore into Jax.

"And for what? Some wish for these invaders?"

She pointed at Maya.

"Tell me, Jax. If you had lost someone close to you in this attack. Would you have done the same thing? Would you have protected her? The one behind this monstrosity?"

Jax went silent.

All his plotting. All his careful word choices. All his restrictions to keep them from seeing through his lies.

Gone.

He looked down at the ground.

"The scene you just described." His voice was quiet. "I've already gone through it."

He pictured her. Adelina. Her face when she was dying.

"I know what it feels like. To nearly lose someone."

His hands started trembling.

"It was the worst feeling I've ever experienced. It was..."

He couldn't finish.

Silence.

Everyone was confused. This emotional display. This vulnerability. It didn't match the arrogant bastard they knew.

Everyone except Maya.

She was watching him with her jaw dropped. She knew this was supposed to be an act. A performance to sell the lie.

But the emotions in every word. The trembling. The pain.

'When did he start acting like this… was he always this good?'

Then Jax spoke again.

"I wanted revenge. For everything they did to that person."

His voice grew stronger.

"What more proof do you need? I went after them alone. Slaughtered every single one I could find. I cleared Veldora first. Then moved to Meridax."

He looked up.

"The truth is, I didn't care about saving Queen Sylvie or this kingdom. All I wanted was for them to know. To understand. To feel the fear of realizing who they had touched."

His eyes were cold.

"I marched through them. One by one. Whoever lead person was behind this chaos, I carved fear into their very souls."

He pointed at Maya.

"Which left their leader. Her. I went to give her a torture she would remember for the rest of her miserable life."

Maya flinched at his words. Playing her part.

"She didn't even beg for mercy. Instead, she smiled."

Jax's voice shifted. Mimicking something inhuman.

"'How many of my pawns will you stop?' she said. 'These were just minions. I will keep sending them until this world is doomed.'"

He paused.

"Then she laughed. Not a human laugh. Something possessed. Something wrong."

His expression shifted.

"And then, in the next moment, that smile vanished. Replaced by pure terror. She started begging. Crying. Telling nonsense stories about gods. About being players in some divine game."

He shook his head.

"It didn't make sense. Until I had a vision."

Everyone leaned in.

"An unknown entity appeared to me. A woman made of pure light. She didn't speak. She just showed me."

His voice dropped to almost a whisper.

"She showed me the Dark Lord's life after his supposed death. His centuries of suffering. The path that led to everything we're facing now. Everything I told before"

He straightened up.

"When I returned to reality, the begging was still going on. But now I understood. She told me she wasn't in control of her own body. Something else was controlling her every action. She could only watch."

He gestured at Maya.

"She told me how the being inside her pushed this group to such monstrosity. I thought it was an act at first. But her personality before and after was completely different. Just as she said."

He lowered his hand.

"And when she was about to face her doom, he abandoned her. Left her body completely. Like a coward."

The fear and terror in the crowd had faded. Replaced by confusion. Suspicion.

Most of his story was convincing. The Dark Lord. The manipulation. The otherworldly champions.

But the possession part? The girl losing control? It all felt too convenient. Too perfectly crafted to protect her.

His story his lie was now caught or either was too suspicious.

Lysandra just smiled, she knew now that it was all orchestrated by him and was ready for her next action.

Even Sylvie sighed.

'He tried his best. But this last part...'

Maya looked at Jax. Made a face that clearly said 'I told you it wouldn't work.'

But Jax just gave her a reassuring smile.

Then he coughed. Once. Twice. His body swayed but all this was just a act.

"I... all those fights... the exhaustion..."

He collapsed to the ground.

But in that split second before falling or acting, his eyes had locked onto a target. A professor standing right behind Lysandra. Close enough.

Bitch now lets see how do you not buy my lie.

Soul Thief activated.

The next moment, Jax opened his eyes.

He was standing. In a different body. Right behind Lysandra.

She hadn't noticed. No one had. They were all focused on his collapsed original body.

'Now then.'

His hands moved on instinct.

One hand shot forward. Grabbed Lysandra's breasts from behind. Squeezed.

His hips pressed forward. His crotch grinding against her ass.

Hard.

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