I Became the Master of the Villain

[A wizard who will destroy the empire will be born on March 1840 of the Imperial calendar.]

Twenty years ago, it was foretold by a prophet who visited the Emperor.

The Emperor killed all babies born with magical powers in March of that year to prevent the prophecy’s implementation.

To be exact, he believed he had killed them all. However, the child foreseen in the prophecy was still alive.

The moment he regained his sealed power, a giant pillar of light split the night sky in two, and a dazzling glow covered the whole area.

The atmosphere vibrated as if it couldn’t breathe amidst the vomiting of uncontrollable, overwhelming power.

Just now, the earth trembled once as if afraid of the existence of a man who awakened his strength.

All the trees planted neatly along the road in a row were uprooted, and stones were roughly dug up.

It was a devastating mana vortex, a magical storm—a natural disaster.

And in the middle, Kian was holding Olivia in his arms.

Magical power overflowed from his entire body like a huge bank had burst, and water that had been blocked poured out all at once.

Just as the heart circulates blood with full force, the magical power that had gathered near the chest spread to his nerves. It was a strange sense of being reconstructed from the cellular level.

Kian didn’t know why he suddenly had this power.

But for him now, it didn’t matter.

The fury that was interfering with his sanity was not resolved at all. All that exists is the burning flesh that does not go out.

Kian slowly lowered Olivia, her eyes closed with a pale face.

Then, he took a step toward the wizard in a black robe.

***

A devastating storm ripped through the whole area. Struggling to withstand it with every ounce of his strength, the wizard let out a groan of astonishment.

The mana storm, which was launched shortly after the emergence of a huge pillar of light that seemed to cut the world apart. There was ‘that man’ at the epicenter of the destruction.

He was a slave who had not had a handful of mana until just now. From him, horrifying amounts of magical power was being released.

Is that really the magic power that a human being can have?

‘How does this happen… … It’s ridiculous.’

The brain tried to reject the unrealistic catastrophe happening right in front of him.

However, he couldn’t be mesmerized forever. The raging storm had stopped, and the being who caused it appeared to have begun to move.

A silver-haired slave—rather, he should be called a sorcerer?— turned his eyes full of hostility directed towards him.

He was breathing life and magic out without regard. Mana so concentrated that it fluttered like flames from his whole body—even just looking at the power was oppressive and overwhelming.

The wizard’s instinctual alarms of peril shook him. A stream of cold sweat ran down his back, now confronted with a menace.

But mission failure was death. He had no option to retreat.

‘You have to end it here.’

He had no idea how this slave awakened his powers, but it was meaningless if he didn’t know how to handle it. In fact, isn’t he simply releasing the magic into the atmosphere without giving it any form?

‘I might have a chance.’

The wizard concentrated all of his magic, raising it to his limit in both hands. His magical power of the cold soon birthed a giant ice spear. As he reached out, the colossal javelin of ice readied itself and then shot towards Kian.

Due to its majestic speed, the spear of ice swirled and scratched the ground. Soil and stones soared and bounced, and the damaged earth screamed.

It was a massive spear of ice wrapped in frost that would even freeze his victim’s breath before hit the target. With a roar, the veil of frost rose white.

Reeling from exerting all of his mana the wizard breathed hard, now short of breath. He inhaled roughly.

But, strangely enough, he was choking. It was hot as if he was in the desert.

‘Something is wrong.’

The moment he realized that the situation was wrong, what had engraved itself on his retina was a whirlwind of swirling flames.

Clearly, the enemy that should have been pierced through by the spear of ice he created… was somehow alive…..?

The silver-haired man, Kian, was uninjured.

‘Are you saying you used defensive magic? Wasn’t he just a kid who didn’t know how to handle magic.—-But how did you learn to use magic in a short time?’

The thoughts stopped expanding because there was too little information. Instead, he urged himself to cope with the crisis that loomed.

The flames emanating from Kian’s hands burned down the whole area, and slowly walked towards him. The wizard deployed defensive magic to stop the rushing flames while gritting his teeth with effort.

However, his barrier was weakly made; it contained his last remaining shallow reserves of mana. His shield was torn like a sheet of paper, and the attack overtook him.

“Arghhhh!”

The hot heat swept over him and hit him with an overwhelming blow. The flames, burning like hellish fire, consumed his body with the momentum to melt the skin and lick his bones.

His last thought, while in raging flames without forgiveness or mercy— devouring his whole body, were:

I can’t understand. Why…… should it be me who dies?

It would be easy to take the slave’s life by trampling it like an insect. But how can the relationship be reversed so quickly?

With everything in doubt, the wizard took his last breath.

After the flames were gone, all that remained was the ashes that had been burnt black.

The wizard was an absolute unknown. The pages assigned to him are up to here.

***

I’ve killed a person.

Kian slowly looked at the wizard who had been burned and killed with his own hands.

I don’t feel guilty.

Rather, an emotion he had never felt in his life captured him.

The violent pleasure in being in control of other people’s lives.

It didn’t feel too bad.

After living as a slave for 20 years, Kian has always been on the receiving end of violence. It was common to be beaten just because the owner was in a bad mood.

He lived with a habit of saying that he was always okay. That’s how he lived as a slave.

-It’s alright. This is also a pain that will soon pass. It will be over soon. I can take it.

In retrospect, all those words were self-deception. Saying it’s okay was actually a lie to myself.

Actually, none of it was okay.

I want to erase the people who tormented and tortured me from the face of the earth.

All those dark feelings were buried deep in my heart and locked up.

But now, the door that was locked is wide open.

The trapped monster was released outside. The monster that had grown in size for 20 years, he thought, would make him run wild.

‘But before that…….’

Kian hugged Olivia who had fallen limp. Her body in his arms was cold. He bit his lower lip firmly. The first thing was to take her back to the mansion.

Like a fragile glass artifact, the sound of a horse hoof approached Kian’s ear, who carefully held Olivia.

In front of the gaze, a cloud of dust rose from the side of the road leading to the capital.

A group of knights was running straight this way. Kian recognized the embossed Imperial family’s coat of arms over their chests in silver armor.

They are the royal family guards and knights. What’s the reason they’ve come this far in the middle of the night?

Kian stared at them with cold, sunken eyes.

In an instant, the knights narrowed the distance and stopped a few steps away from Kian. They took note of the scarred earth that filled their vision and fearfully lamented with a groan.

“What the hell happened here… … .”

A 300-year-old tree that was plucked from its roots and thrown like a toy. The ground that was was dug up as if it had been bombed…. In the burnt and charred place, breathless flames were still burning.

It was as if some fearsome beast—like a dragon had ravaged the area.

The knights reached out to their swords, wary of Kian, who walked calmly at the scene of the disaster.

The head knight of the group interrogated him:

“Who are you? Your name and identity.”

“…….”

“Are you related to the appearance of the pillars of light?”

Kian only then knew what the knights were there for. Still, he didn’t want to bother with them. To him, they were nothing but harassing hindrances.

He said, staring straight at the knight.

“Please leave and get out of my way.”

For a millisecond, the knight stiffened; however, as a proud knight, he endeavored to ignore his instinct to give way and spoke steadfastly:

“I can’t. Until you reveal your identity, you can’t take a step forward.”

Neither side would retreat.

One warning was enough, and the cost of ignoring it was high.

Kian said in a flat voice,

“Then I have no choice but to clean it up and go.”

After his last word, an explosive magic power erupted from Kian’s body. At the same time, the ground shook as if it were an earthquake.

Around the place where Kian stood, the soil, piles of rocks and boulders began to soar into the sky against gravity. [omg Kian is legit a super saiyan]

“*Gasp*… … !”

Some of the knights unconsciously exclaimed and gasped. Only then did they only realize what man was in front of them.

The knight’s faces quickly turned ashen with terror.

An urgent cry from the leading knight echoed in the plains.

“Everyone, retreat!”

Huge chunks of rock covered the sky. Kian dropped them like meteorites to destroy the knights, ready to stain the plains with their blood.

But right at that moment–

“Kian…….”

There came a voice that he thought he would never hear again.