Reincarnated in a novel: I am the villain!-Chapter 279: Race against time

"Who are you?" Emperor Thraka growled, the heat from his steel skin distorting the air.

"And how do you know that name?"

The axe blade hovered inches from Damien’s neck. The pressure of an 8th-Order entity was a physical weight, heavier than the ocean floor of Layer 3.

It stayed there as a constant reminder to let him know that he could kill him at any moment, to let him understand the gap that existed between both of them.

However, even at that, Damien didn’t flinch. He didn’t even blink.

He looked up at the towering Emperor, his porcelain mask reflecting the burning red eyes of the Emperor.

"Curious, aren’t you?" Damien said, his voice calm, cutting through the roaring wind. He tilted his head slightly.

"I can tell you. I can tell you everything about the Void, about Azazel, and about the leash he has around your neck."

Damien smiled behind the mask.

"But tuition isn’t free, Thraka. If you want the answer... surrender your life."

For a heartbeat, there was silence. The audacity hung in the air like a guillotine blade.

Then, the Emperor laughed.

It wasn’t a sound of amusement. It was the sound of a volcano erupting.

"YOU DARE?!"

Thraka roared. He didn’t swing his axe. He simply stomped his foot.

BOOM.

The world broke.

And no this wasn’t a metaphor. The ground beneath them didn’t just crack; rather under the sheer might it disintegrated.

A shockwave of pure kinetic force exploded outward, tearing a fissure through the industrial maze that stretched for kilometers.

Towers of scrap metal collapsed. The earth groaned as if in pain.

Damien was blasted back, his [King’s Mantle] barely holding against the shockwave. He dug his boots into the shifting debris, sliding ten meters before stopping.

"You are dead!" Thraka screamed, his red aura flaring into a pillar of light that pierced the purple sky.

"I will peel the skin from your bones and read your secrets in your blood!"

He raised his axe. The air screamed as the weapon gathered enough energy to split the canyon in half.

"Baron!"

A bloody hand grabbed Damien’s shoulder.

It was Captain Vesper. The Vane Knight was missing an ear, his armor was shredded, and he was bleeding from a dozen wounds.

But his eyes... his eyes were burning with a manic, suicidal resolve.

"We can’t win," Vesper rasped, shoving a crumpled, blood-stained map into Damien’s hand.

"Not here. Not against him."

"I know," Damien said grimly.

"The Altar," Vesper pointed to a red circle on the map, deep within the enemy lines.

"Find it. Activate the Beacon. Summon the Duke. It is our only chance."

"And you?" Damien asked, looking at the trembling knights behind Vesper.

"We will buy you time."

Vesper reached into a pouch at his belt. He pulled out a small glass vial. Inside, a single drop of liquid glowed with a blinding, neon-crimson light.

It wasn’t normal blood. It was Ancestral Essence. The forbidden steroid of House Vane.

"Captain," Damien warned. "If you drink that, you won’t come back."

"I know," Vesper smiled. It was a terrifying sight, his teeth stained red.

He turned to his surviving men.

"For the House! For the Duke!"

"FOR BLOOD!" the soldiers roared.

They all produced similar vials and smashed them into their mouths.

CRACK. SPLAT.

The transformation was instant and horrific.

Vesper screamed as his body convulsed. His silver armor burst apart. His skin tore open, revealing wet, red muscle that expanded rapidly.

Bone spurs erupted from his shoulders and elbows. His jaw unhinged, filling with rows of razor-sharp fangs.

In seconds, the elegant vampire knights were gone.

In their place stood five hulking, mindless Blood-Beasts. They were massive, their veins pumping with volatile mana, their sanity completely erased in exchange for raw, 7th-Order physical strength.

"ROAAAAR!"

The mutated Vesper turned his head. His eyes were white orbs of pure rage. He looked at Damien, a flicker of his last order struggling through the madness.

Run.

Vesper grabbed Damien and Isabelle with massive, clawed hands.

"Hey—!" Damien started.

WHOOSH.

Vesper threw them.

He launched them with the force of a siege catapult.

Damien and Isabelle flew through the air, soaring over the heads of the Orc army, over the scrap piles, away from the Emperor.

Thraka watched them fly. His eyes narrowed.

"Rats," the Emperor spat. "Scattering in the dark."

He prepared to leap after them, to hunt them down.

THUD.

Something heavy slammed into his leg.

Thraka looked down.

The mutated Vesper had latched onto his ankle. The Blood-Beast dug its claws into the Abyss Steel skin, roaring mindlessly, trying to drag the Emperor down.

Behind him, the other four mutations charged, throwing themselves at the Orc army with reckless abandon, tearing through the 6th-Order soldiers like wet paper.

Thraka’s lip curled in disgust.

"You think this trash can hold me?"

Thraka raised his axe, the red aura turning the blade into a sun.

"die."

He swung.

........

[Distance: 1 Kilometer Away]

Damien and Isabelle crashed into a mound of soft, toxic ash.

They rolled, skidding to a halt behind a rusted ventilating fan.

BOOM.

A massive explosion rocked the canyon behind them. A mushroom cloud of red dust rose into the air where they had just been standing.

The screams of the Vane soldiers were cut short instantly.

Isabelle scrambled up, coughing. "They... they’re gone. Aren’t they?."

Damien stood up, dusting off his coat. He didn’t look back at the explosion, his eyes instead where currently locked on the map Vesper had given him.

"They bought us five minutes," Damien said, his voice cold. "Maybe less."

He pointed to a tunnel entrance marked on the map, hidden beneath a pile of industrial waste.

"The Altar is probably down there. We have to move now."

"But Master," Isabelle hesitated, looking at the dust cloud. "The Emperor... he’s coming."

"I know," Damien said. He started running toward the tunnel.

"That’s why we aren’t going to fight him."

Damien’s eyes flashed behind the mask.

"The Duke is"