Supervillain Idol System: My Sidekick Is A Yandere-Chapter 493: Be Afraid Of The Dark I (Part 3)

Chapter 493: Chapter 493: Be Afraid Of The Dark I (Part 3)

A few minutes in, the captain and Edmond were deep inside the mansion’s lower hall.

Their boots pressed into a floor coated with soot and fragments of broken stone, the faint crackle of burning timber echoing from somewhere behind them.

The air was heavy enough to taste—smoke, old copper, and something faintly sweet rotting underneath.

They moved quickly but not carelessly, rifles up, beams cutting thin white lines across the wreckage. Bodies lay everywhere—guards, staff, droids—folded into each other like they’d been dropped from a height.

The captain didn’t linger on any of them. Those clearly not Richmond were stepped over. The rest, he flipped with his rifle, checked the face, then moved on.

Edmond lagged half a stride behind, scanning the ground. He knelt beside a body that had been thrown against the wall so hard its spine looked bent the wrong way. The light from his weapon trembled faintly across it.

At first glance, the man looked burned, but when Edmond’s beam steadied, he realized it wasn’t fire.

The skin had gone dry and ashy—paper-thin, stretched tight across bones that almost showed through. Every vein had collapsed. The eyes were sunken, the lips cracked open around teeth that looked too large for the skull.

Not a wound. A draining.

He swallowed. The smell wasn’t blood—it was dust and charred fabric.

"Sir..." he called, voice low. "There’s something off about some of these bodies."

The captain was a few meters ahead, prodding another corpse over with the rifle stock. He barely glanced up.

"Focus, Edmond. We’re not superhuman forensics." His tone was flat, but his steps slowed.

Edmond stood, the beam from his rifle wavering across another body, the same ashen look mirrored there.

He moved closer. "I’m serious. It’s like—like something sucked them dry. Look at this."

The captain finally paused, eyes tracking the light Edmond cast over the corpse. He said nothing for a long moment. Then, quietly.

"Even if we were qualified to figure it out, it wouldn’t matter. Knowing what killed them doesn’t make it easier to survive it."

He turned back toward the wide staircase ahead, the handguard of his rifle brushing against a cracked bannister as he climbed the first step.

"Let’s head up. We’re running out of time."

Edmond tore his eyes from the corpse and followed, quickening his pace. His boots thudded softly on the warped wood as he reached the bottom step—

Something brushed his leg.

Light. Smooth. Cold.

He froze. Then his body reacted before his mind did, the rifle jerking downward—

"Cap—!"

He didn’t finish.

The captain had already stopped moving, head snapping slightly to the side. Something in the air had changed—a faint drag against the floorboards, a sound too soft to belong to movement yet too real to ignore.

Before either could react, the floor under Edmond seemed to come alive.

Something unseen coiled around his ankle and yanked.

THMP~

Edmond’s body slammed down hard, rifle clattering across the floor as he was pulled backward, boots scraping, kicking.

"Cap!" he shouted again, voice breaking into panic as debris scraped across his armor.

The captain’s eyes widened. He lunged forward instinctively, one hand outstretched, the other tightening on his rifle.

"Hold on!"

But the dark ahead swallowed Edmond too fast. He slid over bodies, furniture, shattered glass, dragged by something that made no sound but moved with brutal strength.

Edmond clawed at the ground, nails scraping uselessly against wet stone. The light from his rifle spun wildly across the ceiling before snapping out.

"Edmond!"

The captain hit the floor where the younger man had been seconds ago, catching nothing but air. His pulse hammered against his throat as his eyes searched the black ahead.

’What the hell was that?’

He pushed forward, scanning every shadow his beam reached. Nothing. Only drifting dust and the faint hum of heat from somewhere deep in the structure.

He could still hear movement though—dragging, distant now. He started running, heart rate spiking, muscles coiled.

’Don’t lose him. Don’t—’

Then, mid-stride, his instincts screamed.

The captain’s body locked, every nerve snapping into alert as something cold brushed the edge of his perception. He turned—not with thought, but with pure reflex—rifle swinging right.

And froze.

There, half-emerged from the darkness, stood a shape.

It walked out of the shadow as if the wall itself had opened a door for it. The light from the captain’s rifle caught nothing but a gleam of movement—black and gold threaded into the contours of a humanoid form.

A skull-like mask caught the beam for half a second before the figure moved again, stepping fully into view.

Predator.

The captain’s breath caught. His pupils trembled; a flicker of disbelief, then raw comprehension. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

The world seemed to contract around that mask, the faint gold veins along its surface pulsing like veins under skin.

’What the—’

The thought didn’t finish. His throat had gone dry. His body wanted to move, but the message didn’t reach his limbs.

Predator’s gaze fixed on him—white light behind the sockets of that mask, motionless, heavy.

The captain’s finger twitched against the trigger, but no sound came out.

Predator tilted his head slightly. Slow.

Then he took one step forward.

The floor groaned underfoot.

shffft~

The captain’s breath left him in a rough exhale he hadn’t meant to make. His chest tightened, his heart thrumming against armor. The air between them thinned, weighed down by something unseen but unmistakable—intent.

Behind him, somewhere deeper in the mansion, a distant scream cut short.

The captain didn’t turn. He couldn’t.

His mind went quiet, except for one thought looping under the noise.

’Whatever killed Rager... it’s right in front of me—.’

The captain didn’t even finish the thought.

Something hit him—hard.

He didn’t see what. Just a blur of pressure in his chest, a violent shock that made his ribs shudder before his mind caught up. The impact tore the air from his lungs and folded his body backward like a snapped branch.

THWAMM~

He felt himself lift off the floor. The beam from his rifle jerked wildly across the ceiling, scattering light across broken chandeliers and cracked plaster before everything turned sideways.

Then—

CRASHH~

The wall behind him gave out, the masonry collapsing in a cough of dust and stone. He slammed through it shoulder-first, fragments embedding into his armor, a raw groan forcing itself past his teeth.

His vision blurred with the sudden weight of the hit, a dark ring forming around the edges.

He struck the ground several meters away, rolled once, then hit something solid—a broken column, maybe—and stopped with a jolt that rattled through his spine.

"Gh—kff...!"

Blood burst past his lips, dark against the pale ash coating his face. He coughed again, the sound wet, and pushed himself up on one knee.

Every muscle in his torso screamed; his armor had cracked along one side, edges splitting just enough to grind when he moved. His bones groaned like old wood under strain.

He didn’t stay down. He couldn’t.

He forced himself upright, rifle dangling uselessly from its sling as he straightened, eyes sweeping the wreckage around him. Nothing. Just broken walls, drifting dust, and the echo of his ragged breath.

"Edmond!" he called out, his voice rough and strained. "Where are you!?"

No answer. Not even static.

He turned, scanning left—then right. His jaw set tighter. ’He has to be alive. He has to be.’

And then a voice.

Low. Cold.

"You’re stronger than the others."

The captain spun instantly.

He didn’t think—didn’t plan. His fist shot forward in a full-body swing, an instinctive strike meant to hit something.

THUDD~

The blow landed against the wall, cracking the plaster and sending a shudder through his arm. Pain flared through his knuckles, but he ignored it.

’Where—?’

His head jerked from side to side, pulse hammering loud enough to drown out the creak of the ruined structure. He didn’t breathe for a second, waiting for another sound—any sound. His whole body coiled in anticipation.

He wasn’t panicking, but the precision was gone. Every motion was defensive, reactionary, too fast for strategy. And beneath that, realization was starting to bloom.

He couldn’t read this enemy. Couldn’t time him. Couldn’t even see him.

And the thought hit just as the shadow ahead rippled.

Predator stepped out of it.

The form took shape like liquid metal re-solidifying—black and gold armor pulsing once as it came into full view. For the briefest instant, the captain saw his own reflection in the mask’s hollow eyes.

He moved to swing again—

Too late.

Predator’s arm snapped forward in a blur.

THWACK—CRACK~

The hit landed clean across the captain’s face. The world snapped sideways again.

He felt his jaw shift, teeth clack together, his body spinning from the force. He crashed across the marble, rolling and dragging through shards of broken flooring and shattered décor. Every slide left a streak of blood across the dust-coated ground.

He came to rest against a fallen statue base, one arm twisted under him. His breath came ragged, metallic.

’Fast... too fast—’

He forced himself to move, pushing up on one hand, blood running down his chin inside the cracked visor. The HUD flickered, dead pixels bleeding across his view.

And then, from the shadow near his feet—

A figure emerged again, walking forward like nothing had happened.

Predator.

The same voice followed, steady, low enough to rumble in the captain’s bones.

"You can’t win."

The captain’s fingers clenched around the rifle grip again. He raised his head, glare cutting through the dust.

He knew it was true. But he wasn’t built to run.