Extra's POV: My Obsessive Villainous Fiancee Is The Game's Final Boss-Chapter 18: Unfettered

There was a literal crack in the air and Lilith just held onto him as if nothing was happening.

He was about to begin panicking as the crack spread until a blood red mist began swirling in the air.

The mist covered everything like smoke before it began dissipating, as if caught in the wind, and the world of his trial faded.

Ren felt a pull on his whole body. It was the jarring sensation of being wrenched back into reality.

He came to a sudden stop and when the mist finally cleared, he was no longer in his room and Lilith was no longer with him.

Instead, he stood before the altar in front of the Blood Tree, breathing heavily like he just ran a marathon.

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His hands trembled and as he lifted them, he felt something different. Something new.

There was a shimmer of light and his eyes shifted to his wrist.

As if being drawn by an invincible angel, a red tattoo of a chain slowly inked itself to life around his wrists. The tattoo shimmered with power before sinking into his skin and out of view.

That was the mark of his success. The proof that he had passed the trial and made the Bloodbound Pact.

He felt as energy thrummed through his veins, like a quiet buzz vibrating in his blood. The power of Bloodbinding was now his.

He flexed his fingers, feeling the subtle energy within him like a sleeping beast that had finally been awakened.

"You did it."

The voice snapped Ren from his daze. Darius stood nearby, watching him with his large arms crossed, his usual smirk softened into something close to pride.

"Welcome back, Rank 1 Knight of the Ross family."

Ren blinked, still processing the words.

Darius stepped forward, gripping Ren's shoulder firmly.

"You survived." Darius said, giving him a nod. "Not everyone does. Our father will be proud."

Ren looked at him, searching for any hint of mockery, but there was none. Darius meant it.

He swallowed hard, then exhaled, trying to shake off the emotions he'd been feeling just moments before.

"It felt... real." He said. "The trial. The world." The last word, he whispered to himself. "Lilith."

Darius tilted his head. "That's how it works, Ren. The trial won't be a trial if it wasn't real, would it?"

He sighed. "I didn't want to tell you so as not to overwhelm you with fear but since you already passed, I'll tell you."

Ren turned to stare at his older brother.

"The trial isn't a vision, Ren. What you saw was as real as the life we live in. Do you know what this means? It means that whatever injury you take in the trial would follow you out. And if you die in there, you die out here."

Ren's heart skipped a beat.

"Fortunately, the trial is tailored to each person and takes into account their age and knowledge. Since you're ten, you shouldn't have encountered anything too bad."

Ren looked away, his mind going back to his trial. While his body was ten, his soul wasn't. That had to be why the trial had given him this particular scenario.

Sixteen years old. An age between childhood and adulthood.

Ren's thoughts moved to Lilith. The way she had looked at him. The pain in her eyes. The anger. But also, the vulnerability.

She had been so young, so lost. It wasn't that she had been born a monster. The world had made her into one.

Darius stepped forward, grabbing his brother's shoulder. "I can see that your trial wasn't as easy as I'd thought it'll be. This is my fault."

He sighed, letting go of Ren's shoulder. "Don't worry, brother. The trial is gone. Right now, you need rest. Your body might not feel the toll yet, but Bloodbinding will eat away at you if you don't recover properly."

Ren nodded absently, looking up. He finally noticed that the sun had actually risen, painting the sky with gold and soft blues.

Despite everything that had happened in the trial that had taken place in the span of a day, only a few hours had passed in the real world.

Ren exhaled before turning to his brother. Lilith had spent just a few hours in his presence and had noticed that he was different. How had they not noticed?

He turned away. "So... I can use Bloodbinding now?"

"Yes." Darius nodded. "But just because you've unlocked it doesn't mean you can master it overnight. You'll need training. Proper guidance. Sir Robert and I will help you with that."

"But that can wait." Darius nudged him toward the castle. "Right now, you need to sleep."

Ren didn't argue. The trial might not have drained him physically, but mentally, he felt stretched thin.

The moment his body hit the mattress, exhaustion wrapped around him like a heavy blanket.

As he lay there, staring at the wooden beams above, his thoughts drifted back to Lilith. The girl he had met in the trial. The one who would become the Third Great Calamity. The one everyone feared.

He had never truly considered what she had been before the world had twisted her into a nightmare.

She wasn't just a walking disaster waiting to happen. She was a person. A person who had been abandoned, shunned, and ultimately broken.

Somehow, he hadn't considered that the same villains that he fought against in the game were evil.

It meant that they were capable of much greater evil than the characters constrained by their code could. But it also meant that they were capable of good.

And Lilith was not gone. She was not yet the third Great Calamity.

He clenched his fists under his covers, feeling the new power at his fingertips.

I won't let that happen again. I won't let the world create the third Great Calamity.

He felt like a weight had been lifted off his chest.

He had power now. Bloodbinding coursed through his veins, giving him a chance to change things. To forge a different future, one where Lilith didn't become the monster she had been destined to be.

Tomorrow, his training would begin. And tomorrow, he would take his first steps to changing the world.

Nothing could stop him now. Not fate, not destiny, and definitely not his fears.

He was now, truly, unfettered.