Villain's Path System

As if he was genuinely trying to figure out whether the intruder standing in front of him was an actual, serious threat, or just incredibly stupid.

Slowly clenching his hands into fists, Liebe let them fall open loosely at his sides, a subtle green aura of mana beginning to pulse around his fingertips.

Every single random vine and hanging plant across the room just started moving at the exact same time while a weird, quiet shiver went right through the leaves, almost like the whole bunch of them was wired up together and had just suddenly decided to wake up.

Right behind Lucian, those heavy vines pulled straight off the wall and just launched at him all at once.

Dropping down fast, he ducked right under the first two branches that swung his way and jumped sideways off a big heavy ceramic pot, barely missing getting his head taken off when another thick, spiky branch swung hard right through the exact spot where his neck was a split second ago.

"System, scan him. Now," Lucian commanded right then, breathing really hard while landing on his feet.

As the glowing blue holographic text materialized in front of his vision, Lucian’s eyes almost bulged straight out of their sockets.

[ Target Scanned: Liebe Noctis ]

Race: Dryad-Human HybridMana Stage: True [Peak]Combat Power: 98,000Physical Strength: SMagical Aptitude: SSpecial Attribute: Soul Bloom — Controls the life force of all plants within range. Higher mana exponentially increases control. At the Peak True Stage, even microscopic plant cells can be manipulated to act with immediate, lethal intent.

"Fuck..." he thought to himself, feeling a bit of sweat on his face as squeezed the buzzing handle of his electric bat tighter.

So Zenith really wasn’t bluffing when she talked about his monstrous reputation...

Across the dark, messy room full of plants, Liebe hadn’t even taken one step away from where he started out. His hands just hung down, and he only watched Lucian fight those crazy plants with a totally blank, bored look.

"You came here to kill me. In my own room. In the middle of the night," Liebe said, sounding super flat and not even caring about the bat in Lucian’s hands at the same time he tilted his head a little, the dim green plant glow showing his totally blank eyes.

"Hey...

Do you even realize what you just walked into?"

"Huh... I know exactly what I walked into," Lucian said, a mean smile forming right on his face.

"Now just die peacefully." Without waiting another extra second, Lucian went for his best option.

Zero Domain.

[Time Freeze Activated: 10 Seconds]

Right away, the colors drained out of the room, turning into a flat, boring gray and those wild swinging of the vines, weird shaking in the plants, that low blinking of the shiny leaves — everything just stopped at a complete, total standstill.

The place got super quiet. Liebe just stayed frozen mid-breath, his totally blank stare really glued in place, completely clueless about the crazy power that had just taken over the room.

Dropping his buzzing bat a bit, Lucian just walked up, stepping right past the stuck vines. His shoes were the only thing making noise in the frozen space. He stopped directly facing the frozen kid.

"You know what..." while muttering he stared directly into Liebe’s unmoving eyes. "I don’t even need to know your grand motive. I don’t care why you cursed Aria, or what you were trying to achieve."

Lifting the bat over his head with one hand, he gripped it harder as the blue electricity buzzed around the thick metal.

"You hurt one of my girls. And that is more than enough reason to end your miserable life."

Pulling the bat really back, Lucian pushed every single drop of his own regular strength down into his arms. With a hard, rough twist of his waist, he swung the thick metal stick right at Liebe’s head incredibly fast.

CRUNCH—SQUELCH!

The hit was so loud and heavy that it just busted open his head. Blood, bone chunks, and head stuff literally splashed all over the paused room. With a gross wet thud, Liebe’s head was completely wrecked, mashed into a really gross wet pile before he could even think once.

Just meaning that the guy with 98,000 Combat Power didn’t even get the chance to fight back.

Looking straight down at the nasty, red puddle splashed across the floor, not caring about the mess.

"Huh... now look at you," he muttered as his gaze shifted to the headless body still frozen. "Just a regular mess of red stuff. I actually thought there’d be some wood or bark in there considering you’re half-dryad... but I guess you were never really that much trouble for me here anyway."

Dismissing his electric bat, which instantly dissolved into thin air, Lucian raised his hand and opened the portal right behind him.

Right when he turned back around, the system beeped at him.

[Zero Domain Ended: 10 Seconds Elapsed]

Instantly, the monochrome gray shattered, and the world quickly snapped back into motion. though this time, there was no attack.

With Liebe’s brain completely obliterated, his ’Soul Bloom’ attribute instantly shut down. While leaving those massive, menacing vines that were frozen mid-lunge completely lost their life force.

Thud... Crash... Bang!

One by one, the thick, thorny branches slammed onto the floor as the entire room’s vegetation withered in seconds, crashing against the broken ceramic pots and hanging limply from the walls like dead, heavy ropes. The indoor jungle had died the exact second its master did.

Without sparing a single backward glance at the headless prodigy or the ruined room, Lucian stepped into the spatial rift.

The portal snapped shut behind him, leaving no trace of his existence. The very next second, he emerged right back into the quiet, peaceful dorm room.

That same flat, uncaring look was still completely stuck on his face while he stood around in the quiet room. Breathing out a slow, heavy breath, he glanced right over at the bed. Leon was still sleeping soundly, completely unaware that his father had just casually assassinated one of the empire’s greatest prodigies in less than ten seconds.