The Villain Reborn as Game's Final Boss

"I never said I was trying to poach you."

Thinking of all the words I could have uttered at the moment, I went with a more creative approach.

Feeling Diana’s gaze on me, I could tell that she was a bit... amused by my answer.

"I am just giving you a choice, if I may say so. It’s for you to decide how you are willing to fight your battles going forward."

I felt like some instructor trying to teach his students about how to differentiate between good and evil.

The feeling was quite the unique one for me.

"You could fight them with the allies that you may have across the world or... simply look for new ones."

Now, one would call my words a sort of recruitment offer for Diana, but it wasn’t.

I really was giving her a choice to decide how she wanted to enact her plans in the future.

With everything that had happened so far, Diana should already know that I now had a fair understanding of her circumstances.

If she wanted to keep her identity secret, then she would either have to kill Arthur and take the risk of manipulating my memories, as she had said earlier.

But that wasn’t going to be as easy as the parasite was trying to portray it as.

Fighting to keep Arthur engaged and fighting to kill him were two entirely different things.

The former was easily achievable without Diana having to reveal her existence before the world, but... to kill Arthur she would have to go all out—not caring for the consequences of her actions that would inevitably follow her after the fight would end.

And that was on the basis that she could indeed defeat Arthur Dimitri.

If she couldn’t, then... her grave would be established in the very territory of her domain.

The second choice that Diana had was to cooperate with me, and work together to mutually benefit each other.

I would end up gaining a new... pawn, and she would enjoy the support of an entire organization to help speed up whatever her plans were.

After all, no matter how strong she was as an individual... there was a unique strength in numbers that could never be substituted with anything else.

"So, let me know... what path you are willing to take. And trust me... my life had always been a game of death, so if you think you could possibly scare me with the threat of death, then... you are sorely mistaken."

That was the end of the pitch.

The ball was now in Diana’s court, as I waited in silence for her to decide.

The parasite continued to observe me without uttering another word, before once again shifting its focus to the distant expanse, making me curious about what was really happening out there.

"May I see the battle?"

The question left my mouth in a natural flow, making me realize just how curious I was in regards to witnessing the battle between two cultivators who had transcended the limits of the mortal world.

Diana didn’t look back nor did she formulate any reply for my... request.

Sigh.

Well, it wasn’t like I was expecting her to listen—

Hm?

I suddenly felt the purple mana around me gathering at a certain point before my eyes... and soon a mana screen of sorts was formed right in front of me.

Arthur... I could clearly see him holding Garthel in his right hand, as he stood in a tense combat stance, but—

There wasn’t really anyone standing before him.

And looking closely, the world around Arthur was filled with numerous cracks, making it feel like Diana’s mighty domain was barely able to maintain its operation and hold everything together.

Still, it hadn’t collapsed, and that was proof enough of the parasite’s strength.

I didn’t know why... but I felt like even in his motionless state, Arthur was still fighting the battle, just on a plane that I couldn’t see or maybe... he was fighting multiple battles at the same time.

This... it was interesting yet boring at the same time.

I really wished to witness some grand fight, not a game of chess with invisible pieces spread across the board.

***

Each of his clones was currently engaged in a deadly battle with Diana’s domain, and it was only after being able to resist her domain with immense brutality that Diana had ceased her attacks on this particular clone of his for the time being.

Arthur didn’t know what the reason for that was, but he wasn’t about to let his guard down only because the enemy had shown some sort of unknown mercy on him.

As for Diana’s body... there were no traces of it fighting any of his clones.

A possibility had taken root in his mind, something that felt like a reasonable application of one’s domain.

Maybe... Diana had completely fused with the domain, making it her vessel as well as her only form of attack.

After all, fighting multiple clones with a single body would have been a foolish thing to do.

In their fight so far, Arthur had managed to damage Diana’s domain to an extent that repairing it within seconds should have become difficult for her to achieve.

Yet, he wasn’t able to solve the core problem, which was being the only reason holding him back from turning the tables in his favour.

He hadn’t been able to connect to the world outside without exiting from the domain itself.

He could have easily escaped from the domain, but that would risk putting Kael in danger as the kid would be left alone to fend for himself.

And not even for a second did Arthur think that Kael would be able to survive against Diana... if only for a moment.

There was simply no way for the mortals to fight against beings who had elevated their very form of existence to become Gods in the literal sense.

The second option available at Arthur’s disposal was to cut off Diana’s connection to the outside world, and eliminate her source of inexhaustible mana.

But that was easier said than done.