Reincarnated as the Villain: The System Made Me Overpowered-Chapter 73: The Sky Bleeds Divine

The heavens trembled.

Scarlet clouds churned over the ruined skyline of Ardenthal as the sky fractured like glass, bleeding divine energy into the world. Each crack in the celestial dome wept liquid starlight that cascaded down like tears of dying gods. The floating shards shimmered with chaotic magic, each one humming with a power that had once belonged to the gods—fragments of divinity torn from their very essence and scattered to the winds.

The air itself had grown thick with residual power, making every breath taste of copper and ozone. Lightning that wasn’t quite lightning danced between the floating debris, purple and gold and colors that had no names, striking the earth with impacts that left glass craters in their wake.

Valerian stood on the highest spire of the broken Temple of the First Flame, his cloak torn and whipping in the supernatural winds, his hands crackling with black and violet aether that responded to his emotions like a living thing. The stone beneath his feet bore the scars of countless battles—gouges from claws, scorch marks from spells, and dark stains that might once have been blood. Below, the capital city burned with fires that would never be extinguished by mortal means.

Entire districts had been reduced to rubble by the clash between Dominion Knights and the Wraithbound, their screams still echoing in the smoke-filled air. The Great Library of Astral Knowledge was nothing but ash and twisted metal. The Plaza of Seven Fountains had become a crater filled with molten stone. And rising in the center of it all, like a wound in reality itself, a monolithic gate of obsidian pulsed like a heartbeat—Umbra’s Eye, the sealed mouth of the End Realm.

Each pulse sent ripples through the fabric of existence, and with every beat, more darkness leaked into their world. Valerian could feel it in his bones, in his soul—the inexorable pull of the void, trying to drag everything into its hungry maw.

Kael landed beside him with a thunderous impact that cracked the ancient stone, his right arm now fully armored in molten gold that seemed to flow like liquid fire across his flesh. Smoke still rose from his fingertips, and the smell of burning metal followed him like a cloud. His eyes were grim, haunted by the sights he’d witnessed in the lower districts.

"Ten city sectors gone," Kael muttered, scanning the battlefield with the practiced eye of a veteran warrior. His voice carried the weight of every life lost, every scream he’d been unable to silence. "We’re running out of time. That gate’s expanding every minute. The corruption is spreading faster than we can contain it."

The golden armor on his arm pulsed with each heartbeat, responding to his emotions. It was a gift and a curse—power beyond measure, but at the cost of his humanity. Already, Valerian could see the strain it was putting on his friend’s body. Veins of gold were starting to show beneath his skin, and his eyes held flecks of the same molten metal.

Valerian didn’t answer immediately. His gaze was locked on the massive serpentine creature writhing in the storm above them—the Sky Wyrm of Vathros, a creature sealed in myth for ten thousand years, now tearing the skies open with claws that could rend reality itself. Its scales gleamed like black mirrors, each one reflecting not the world around it, but glimpses of other realms, other realities where different choices had been made.

The beast’s roar shook the foundations of the city, shattering windows that had somehow survived the initial assault. Its eyes were like twin suns, burning with the accumulated rage of millennia of imprisonment. When it moved, space itself seemed to bend around it, creating distortions that made Valerian’s head ache just to look at them.

"Umbra’s bringing back more than Wraiths now," Valerian said coldly, his voice carrying across the wind like a blade. "He’s unsealing the forgotten gods. The ones the Celestial Council locked away for good reason."

Kael gritted his teeth, the sound like grinding stone. "If that thing descends, even we won’t be able to contain it. The entire continent could be—"

"No. But we can send it back."

The words carried a finality that made Kael turn to look at his friend. There was something different in Valerian’s eyes now, something that hadn’t been there before. A depth of knowledge, of power, that seemed almost... alien.

A voice broke the tension like a blade through silk.

"You’ll need me for that."

Selene emerged from the smoke behind them, her white battle dress soaked in blood that wasn’t entirely her own. The elegant fabric, once pristine as fresh snow, now told the story of a dozen battles fought in the space of an hour. Her left hand glowed with divine runes—symbols that writhed and shifted across her skin like living things, her true power as an Astral Saint now fully awakened. The transformation had been painful; Valerian could see it in the way she held herself, the slight tremor in her limbs that spoke of power barely contained.

The runes pulsed in rhythm with her heartbeat, each pulse sending waves of holy energy rippling through the air. Where her feet touched the stone, small flowers bloomed and immediately withered, unable to contain the divine essence that surrounded her.

Beside her, Seraphina walked with a cold, regal poise that belonged to winter itself, her sapphire eyes glowing as she raised the Staff of Winter’s Echo. Ice crystals formed in the air around her with each breath, and the temperature dropped noticeably in her presence. The staff—carved from the heartwood of the World Tree and crowned with a crystal from the Frozen Crown of the North—hummed with power that made the air itself sing with harmonic frequencies.

Her lips were blue from the cold that surrounded her, not from without but from within. The power of winter had claimed her as its vessel, and with each spell she cast, a little more of her humanity froze away. But her eyes still burned with determination, with love for the man who stood before them all.

And trailing behind them was Lira Veylin, her black scythe humming with soul-forged steel, a trail of phantom chains swirling at her feet like serpents made of shadow and starlight. The weapon in her hands was no mere tool of war—it was a conduit to the realm of the dead, forged from the very essence of departed souls who had given their power willingly to create something that could wound even immortal beings.

The chains that followed her moved with purpose, seeking enemies to bind, souls to claim. They whispered constantly, voices of the fallen offering counsel, warnings, pleas for vengeance. Her eyes were no longer entirely her own—they held the weight of every soul she’d claimed, every death she’d witnessed.

Valerian glanced at them all—these women who had chosen to stand beside him not out of some mystical compulsion, but out of love, loyalty, and shared purpose. His harem—no, his elite vanguard. Each one transformed by power, by choice, by the crucible of endless battle.

"Good," he said, and the single word carried more weight than a thousand speeches. "Because this war starts now."

The declaration hung in the air like a physical thing, binding them all to the moment, to the choice, to whatever came next.

---

On the ruined battlefield below, Dominion forces clashed with Wraithbound beasts pouring from the cracks in reality like water through a broken dam. The air reeked of sulfur and death, of burned magic and spilled blood, bodies littering the ground like fallen leaves in autumn. The sounds of war filled the air—the clang of steel on steel, the crackle of spells, the screams of the dying and the roars of the damned.

Lady Selene leapt into the air, her wings of radiant aether bursting from her back in a display of divine glory that momentarily blinded everyone on the battlefield. The wings were not flesh and bone but pure light given form, each feather a concentrated beam of holy power. She brought down a wave of holy light that vaporized a dozen Wraithspawn in an instant, their forms dissolving like smoke before a hurricane. The light burned away their essence so completely that not even their screams remained.

Seraphina raised her staff high above her head, and winter answered her call. A blizzard engulfed the east flank, freezing enemies mid-attack in poses of eternal aggression. The cold was not merely physical—it froze the very souls of the Wraithbound, trapping them in ice that would never melt. Her breath misted in the air as she poured more of herself into the spell, her hair turning white as snow with the effort.

Kael barreled through a horde with a roar that shook the very foundations of the earth, his golden gauntlet smashing through skulls and ribcages like they were made of paper. Each impact sent shockwaves through the enemy ranks, and the molten metal of his arm grew brighter with each kill, feeding on the violence, growing stronger.

Valerian stood at the center of it all, blade drawn, the black crown forming above his head once more—the System’s Final Evolution responding to the chaos around them. The crown was not made of any earthly material but seemed to be constructed from crystallized darkness, from the very concept of power made manifest. It rotated slowly above his head, each facet reflecting a different aspect of his abilities.

[CRIMSON WAR PROTOCOL INITIATED.]

[ALL STATS TEMPORARILY TRIPLED. DURATION: UNKNOWN.]

[WARNING: EXTENDED USE MAY RESULT IN PERMANENT TRANSFORMATION.]

His body blurred.

In a single breath, Valerian moved faster than thought itself, severing Wraith limbs with surgical precision, teleporting through their bodies like a ghost in motion. He spun, ducked, twisted, and pierced—an elegant executioner drenched in shadowlight, painting the battlefield in arcs of silver and black. Each movement was perfect, calculated, deadly. He was no longer entirely human in these moments—he was something more, something that existed in the spaces between seconds. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm

From the sky, the Sky Wyrm roared and dove.

Its serpentine body tore through three floating sanctums before it lunged toward the battlefield, jaws wide enough to swallow a cathedral. The sound of its passage through the air was like the world itself tearing. Soldiers scattered like insects before a storm, but many were too slow, too paralyzed by the sheer presence of the creature.

Valerian met it mid-air, his sword igniting with pure system energy that burned brighter than any star. He activated everything at once, pouring every reserve of power into this single moment:

Voidstorm Edge. Phantom Walk. Reality Break.

He slashed.

A white arc tore through the wyrm’s face, blinding it temporarily but doing little real damage to a creature of such immense power. The Sky Wyrm shrieked and slammed into the city, leveling the western district in a single impact that registered on seismic equipment three kingdoms away.

Seraphina flew beside him, ice crystals forming wings that carried her through the air. "I can slow it down. But not alone."

"I’m not asking you to," Valerian said, and vanished from sight.

Kael landed on the wyrm’s massive head and drove his gauntlet into its skull with all the force he could muster. "COME ON, YOU ANCIENT BASTARD!" he roared as molten chains erupted from his arm and wrapped around the beast’s jaws, pinning them shut with bonds of liquid fire. The heat was so intense that the air around them shimmered like a mirage.

Selene unleashed her true form—Celestial Saint Ascendant—her eyes now glowing golden like twin suns, a halo of pure radiance blazing behind her as she chanted the forbidden incantation taught to her by the Seraphim themselves. The words were in a language that predated human speech, each syllable carrying the weight of divine authority.

Lira teleported beside Valerian in a swirl of shadow and chain-light, blood running from a cut across her cheek. "It’s here," she whispered, pointing to the gate with her scythe. "The real threat. This was all just a distraction."

Umbra’s Eye opened.

A pulse of pitch-black energy surged outward like a wave of concentrated despair. Everyone stumbled under its weight. The very air seemed to grow thicker, harder to breathe. The Wraiths stopped mid-attack, suddenly kneeling in perfect synchronization, their forms trembling with something that might have been reverence or terror.

And then he stepped out.

Tall. Pale. Draped in a cloak made from screaming shadows that writhed and twisted as if they were alive. Each fold of the garment held the faces of the damned, pressing against the fabric as if trying to escape.

Umbra, the First Wraith.

His presence collapsed the sky above them. Birds turned to ash mid-flight. Trees withered to dust. And every living soldier around the battlefield dropped to their knees in sheer terror, their minds unable to process the weight of his existence. He was not merely a being of power—he was the absence of everything else, a walking void in the shape of a man.

Valerian locked eyes with him across the battlefield. His system pinged urgently.

[WARNING: YOU ARE FACING A LEVEL ??? ENTITY.]

[CHANCE OF SURVIVAL: 0.01%]

[RECOMMEND IMMEDIATE RETREAT.]

Valerian grinned, and the expression was not entirely sane.

"I’ll take those odds."

Umbra floated above the battlefield, speaking without words. His voice was in every mind, a whisper of ancient death that bypassed the ears entirely and spoke directly to the soul.

"You are the anomaly. The echo. The fragment unneeded. Return to me, and the cycle ends. Refuse, and watch all you love turn to ash."

Kael growled, golden veins pulsing brighter. "What the hell is he talking about?"

But Valerian already knew.

His memories surged back from the void—the visions he’d ignored, the system whispers he’d dismissed as glitches. He wasn’t just reincarnated.

He was a part of Umbra. A shard that rebelled.

Valerian’s system interface flickered wildly.

[NEW QUEST: DEFIANCE OF THE PRIME WRAITH.]

[Defeat Umbra. Break the chain. Forge your own fate.]

[Reward: Transcendence.]

[Warning: Failure will result in universal reset.]

"I’m done being someone else’s pawn," Valerian snarled.

He launched forward.

The world twisted. Space bent. And in the span of a second, Valerian and Umbra collided with a shockwave that shattered reality itself, sending ripples through dimensions that hadn’t been touched by mortal affairs in eons.

Every god, every being, every soul across every realm felt it.

Selene screamed something lost in the chaos. Seraphina was chanting desperately. Lira activated every soul chain she had, the air around her becoming thick with spectral bindings.

But they were too late.

Umbra raised his hand—and ripped open Valerian’s chest, pulling something out with surgical precision.

A glowing sphere.

A fragment of the original Alex.

"No!" Selene flew toward him, her divine wings leaving trails of light.

Umbra crushed the sphere between his fingers like an egg.

And Valerian’s body—just for a moment—flickered out of existence.

Kael shouted. The girls moved as one.

But then—

The world shook again, differently this time.

Umbra turned, surprised for the first time in millennia.

A second Valerian appeared behind him—cloaked in pure system fire, with eyes that burned like twin suns, his form more solid, more real than anything else on the battlefield.

"I told you," Valerian whispered, his voice carrying the weight of absolute conviction. "I make my own fate."

And then—he stabbed Umbra through the spine with a sword that didn’t exist a second before.

The Blade of Reversal—a weapon made entirely from rejected timelines, from possibilities that had been discarded by fate itself.

Umbra screamed, his perfect form unraveling like a tapestry pulled apart.

But his laughter echoed through the dissolution.

"You cannot kill me. You are me. We are fragments of the same whole."

Valerian leaned in close.

"Then I’ll rewrite us both."

He drove the blade deeper, twisting it with grim determination.

A rift opened in the air—a mirror made of shattered time, reflecting not what was, but what could have been.

And from it stepped a figure no one expected.

Alex.

The original.

Smirking. Eyes cold as winter stars. Holding a second System Core that pulsed with different energy entirely—not the chaotic power of Valerian’s system, but something ordered, calculating, merciless.

"Found you, brother," he said, his voice carrying the weight of absolute certainty. "Took long enough."

And then he pulled the trigger.

A silver bullet of compressed fate shot straight at Valerian’s head—

Blackout.