I Awakened My Game System! Now Three Great Houses Want Me Dead!-Chapter 98: XEEEEEEEEEENNOOOOSSSSSSSS

Xenos’s best bet was to act as if they weren’t there, hoping they’d simply pass by, ignoring him for prettier and juicier prey, or to face the Daemon in an attempt to kill it, and do it quickly before the others could gang up on him, because the moment they did, he’d be sure to die.

"My dear Goddess~..."

He sighed.

"You really have it out for me, huh?"

Or perhaps not.

Because the moment Eris was about to reply...

"Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me."

Something very odd caught his and Her eyes.

Among the horde was a much smaller, more upright figure.

Though dressed in black from head to toe, he seemed very much alive.

Indeed, Xenos had seen an actual person among them.

And that very ’person’ pointed straight at Xenos.

"Here he is!"

It was the same assassin he had let go of before.

"I told you he’d come here—"

Before he could finish that sentence, his head rolled off his neck.

The body fell a second later.

Immediately, Xenos took a stance, equipping his sword and gloves.

His eyes glanced around everywhere, waiting for someone to come out, but...

’Hm.’

No one came.

Only the undead continued to step forward, stopping in ranks before him.

He was about to move, perhaps escape, when suddenly—

Thud!

Something rolled to his feet.

Another severed head.

Not the assassin’s, no.

This one was... different.

The skin was stretched too tightly.

Its eyes were open, and its mouth was smiling.

Xenos stared down at it.

"...I don’t like that.’ 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

He wasn’t worried it’d explode or anything like that; he felt nothing from it.

The head was dead.

The head... was... ’dead.’

"BREAK."

Gripping his sword tightly, he immediately stabbed at its forehead.

Yet just as the blade touched it, suddenly its forehead split open, forming a mouth that clamped down on the sword.

It tried to bite and break it, but Xenos’s [Wise Fool] had triggered, critting it.

"Aughuhuguggaaahhhh."

The head let out a horrible wet shriek as it was blasted backwards, bouncing across the dirt.

Every Vrykolakas stopped, and then, in perfect unison, every single one turned towards him.

Indeed, hundreds of dead eyes locked on one fool.

They didn’t move yet, but they seemed to be on the cusp of doing so.

’...maybe I overplayed my hand.’

Xenos had let that assassin go to bait one of the other two villains to attack him.

Well, whichever of those two villains it was that the assassin ran to, they had led a natural disaster to him.

’Ah, well. It’s too late to run...’

He adjusted his grip, smirking despite himself.

’Smart play though, I commend it—’

’I’m sorry.’

Eris cut off his thoughts.

’Sorry? Sorry about what?’

’I’m sure you’ve figured out much, but you should know...’

She sighed, sounding obviously disappointed with Herself.

’This Daemon is one of my followers.’

And THAT snapped Xenos’s head up.

’What? This... this wasn’t in the ga—’

Joining in the trend and cutting himself off, he quickly shook his head.

The game was later in the timeline; it was only of course that there were differences in Her Followers, the so-called Four Villains; he should’ve expected that. Perhaps the fourth villain had the third replaced later on; he was the smart one after all, but no matter, Xenos had something else he wanted to focus on right now.

’So you even accepted a Daemon as a Follower?’

Eris looked away, ashamed.

’I was desperate... and it didn’t have much of a mind, so I thought I could control it. The first two were failures, as you saw, so I thought that perhaps it’d be better than a human.’

’And how’d that go for you?’

’...not well.’

’Clearly.’

Xenos would’ve laughed if he wasn’t, plainly put, absolutely FUCKED here.

’You really shouldn’t have let that assassin go.’

’Yeah, thanks for the hindsight.’

’No, I mean it. I think we’re about to meet someone worse.’

’Oh, great... Who?’

’At—’

"Isn’t it ’great?’"

Interrupting Eris, a real voice resounded before him.

The owner stepped out from behind the Daemon’s horde.

No doubt he was the one who threw the head.

A massive and towering bald, red-eyed man in a black cloak.

The cloak, though covering him entirely, wasn’t able to hide his muscles.

His presence alone made the air vibrate with Strength.

He revealed a hateful smile.

"I’m—"

"Tantalus."

Xenos interrupted with a grin.

"Or so you hate to be called. You prefer Atys now, don’t you?"

The man stopped mid-step, and even Eris froze up.

"How..."

Atys’s voice rumbled.

"How do you know that name?"

"Oh, come on."

Xenos waved him off.

"You’re Eris’s fourth Follower. You probably dragged the third one here to impress Her, didn’t you? Are you still begging Her to take you back? Even after you betrayed Her?"

He took a step forward.

"I don’t think so, though. I believe you’ve moved on to brighter pastures. So why? What’s the reason you brought it along? Too weak to handle your own fight? Do you need its help to beat me? Did you lose all your strength when they had you shave your head?"

A muscle twitched in the man’s jaw, yet Xenos continued:

"Didn’t you learn after stealing Hieron’s secrets? Or was that before or after you stole a Divine Relic from them too? I don’t usually remember much lore, but yours was so ridiculous I laughed at it for days."

’Xenos, stop—’

But he didn’t.

"Oh, man! The before and after was hilarious! Seriously, if your daddy didn’t save you that day, you’d have way more than a shaved head~. You’d die, of course, but you could’ve been made a eunuch—be castrated, or maybe you already are—"

That did it.

"XEEEEEEEEEENNOOOOSSSSSSSS!"

Atys was enraged beyond belief.

The forest around them bent under his roar, trees twisting backwards.

Mere moments after, the Vrykolakas began to move.

Xenos grinned, raising his sword.

"Ah, there it is~."

His mission was successful.

He had angered Atys for good reason.

It wasn’t only for the love of the game.

Atys was insane, yes, even by Xenos’s standards of crazy.

But worse than that? He was smart. And smart Atys was a nightmare.

Xenos preferred the deranged version; that one at least could be tricked, led, and pushed around a little.

Besides, he wanted both villains to remain here.

So, Xenos did what he did best, and...

"Come at me!"

Jumped right into the fray with a grin.