How to Survive Against Villains Chapter 218

Chapter 218 – Secret

“...Huff!”

As I opened my eyes, a familiar scene unfolded before . Karl staggered toward like a zombie, and I struck his jaw just as before.

I had already experienced this event once in the past.

What the hell? Did I just see the future for a mont?

Or did I return to the past?

While I was looking down at the unconscious Karl with a dazed expression, Natasha approached .

She stared at intently before casually throwing out a remark.

“Aren’t you hungry? You haven’t eaten in three days.”

“Three days?”

After exchanging a few words with her, I realized it wasn’t that I had seen the future or returned to the past. It seed that I had lost consciousness in Reto’s world, and three days had passed in the anti.

“How did this happen?”

“You don’t rember anything?”

“I only rember making contact with Reto.”

“And yet you managed to sleep through all that chaos.”

“I fainted.”

Natasha scoffed before briefly summarizing what had happened three days ago.

It seed that after making contact with Reto, I had even succeeded in materializing him.

“Check your body. You should feel sothing.”

As she said, I could sense an unfamiliar energy flowing around .

Even before she explained, I could already feel Reto’s presence within this energy.

Since I had perfectly morized the theories of Spirit Arts through Natasha, I heightened my senses and willed the energy to respond.

A mont later—

Ssssss—

With the sound of wind, a translucent golden energy began to gently wrap around both of my fists.

A pair of semi-transparent gloves made of energy.

It was Reto’s materialized form, shaped according to the image I had envisioned.

“...It actually works.”

“Spirit Arts are 90% talent. If you have the talent, you can learn and manifest it in no ti.”

“I didn’t know I had such talent.”

“Talent? Don’t make laugh.”

“What do you an?”

“In your case, it’s not talent—you were just born lucky.”

“Lucky?”

“You t Reto, an utterly broken spirit. You’re maintaining his materialization with nothing but your will. Even I consu a great amount of spiritual power when I materialize Gereflam. You probably have no idea how absurdly overpowered your ability is.”

“Ah…?”

Now that I thought about it, I wasn’t losing any energy while using Spirit Arts.

That ant I could channel my Aura into other areas, and I already had a specific purpose in mind for it.

‘I just hope the enchantnt takes well.’

I was planning to layer additional buffs on top of Reto’s materialization. If successful, I would be able to wield even stronger and more diverse Spirit Arts.

Of course, if the enchantnt failed, Reto would have to bear the consequences.

“Reto?”

[I'm perfectly fine. Truly an unfortunate turn of events.]

“I haven’t even asked a question yet.”

[I don’t need to hear it. I can understand it through your will.]

As my bond with Reto deepened through Spirit Arts, we could now communicate purely through willpower.

There was no longer any need to speak out loud, and this ability to exchange thoughts directly would prove invaluable during battles or when facing enemies.

‘What happened to Reto’s house?’

The answer ca to imdiately.

[The house has been absorbed into your vessel. Because of that, your vessel has grown larger than before.]

A larger vessel ant that I could now use Burst Strike more frequently, and there were likely new additions to my divine na list.

As I experinted with various Spirit Arts movents, Natasha, who had been silently observing , nodded and finally spoke up.

“Now that you’ve learned Spirit Arts, it’s ti for you to fulfill your promise.”

“Promise? Ah, you an investigating the secret of the Millennium Tree.”

“The Elder ca by again today. Judging by how insistent he was about delivering the ssage as soon as you woke up, he must be very curious about the divine tree’s secret.”

“I understand. But first…”

I turned my gaze toward the unconscious Karl.

He had gone from looking like a defeated soldier to an even more haggard state in just a few days. His face was gaunt, and his bald head stood out even more. If soone placed an empty tin can in front of him, he would look no different from a beggar.

“Did he faint?”

“Yeah. And playing dead doesn’t work on anymore.”

“When will Karl’s training be finished?”

“There was nothing to teach him from the start.”

“...Nothing?”

“All I could do was help him develop a practical sense for his new abilities. That ant beating him up. Over and over again.”

Natasha lifted her robe, revealing nurous tears and cuts.

“At this point, I have to mix in curses to suppress him properly.”

“He’s grown that much?”

“Each day, he’s getting better at fighting dirty and underhanded. On top of that, if he really decides to run away, it’s getting harder to catch him. I was thinking of letting him go soon.”

Hearing her say that while looking at made feel like I was her next target.

She had probably never fought against another Spirit Arts user before, which ant I must have seed like an incredibly interesting toy to her.

Had she been eagerly waiting for this day?

“Master, I’ll go eat first.”

“Master, my ass. I already contacted the witches. They’re bringing an entire feast over.”

“Let’s have a proper match.”

Of course, my prediction was spot on.

***

Sweat-drenched black hair clung to her face. The flickering candlelight illuminated the woman’s features, giving her an alluring yet delicate look.

She furrowed her smooth forehead, and as she let out a sharp, “Yap!” through her soft lips—

Whoosh—

Four out of the five candles around her were instantly extinguished.

Seeing the result, the woman grabbed her head and shook it in frustration.

“No! No way!”

“Lily, if you put in enough effort with persistence, you’ll be able to do it.”

“But even Grandma can’t do it! Idiot!”

deia, who had been sitting on a chair watching Lily, let out a deep sigh and put on a stern expression.

“You made a promise with . If you can’t extinguish all five candles at once, you’ll have to stay in the village.”

“Huee…”

At deia’s scolding, Lily pouted and plopped onto the floor.

The spot where she sat was covered in densely drawn ritualistic symbols. The floor, the walls—every surface was filled with them.

Around Lily, there were only five large candles surrounding her—there wasn’t a single piece of furniture in sight.

deia clicked her tongue briefly as she gazed at the single flickering fla.

"Is five too much of a stretch?"

For over a month, Lily had been dedicated to this training, which was directly related to Magic Nullification.

‘Still, she can now extinguish four flas without much difficulty.’

When she first entered this room, her limit had been three.

Now, after a month of practice, she could extinguish four out of five candles nine tis out of ten. She had completely reached that level.

Extinguishing four candles corresponded to the level of a Fourth-Circle spell. That ant any magic infused with Fourth-Circle mana would be rendered useless in her presence.

If she managed to extinguish all five at once, she would be able to nullify the special magic used by the Stars of Demtor. However, even for her, reaching that level in such a short period seed nearly impossible.

"No, I shouldn't even entertain the thought of impossibility."

deia imdiately corrected her thinking.

The Talent of the Full Moon.

Placing limits on Lily, who could read and perceive the world's energy, was foolish.

Even for the Ortain Elders, including herself, extinguishing all five candles was an impossible feat.

Only Lily, who possessed the Talent of the Full Moon, could achieve it.

Her current progress was already astonishing, but satisfaction was not an option.

As Lily flopped onto the floor, looking as if she was about to give up, deia threw out another lure—

A thod she called Overcoming Laziness.

“Arthur has mastered Spirit Arts.”

Lily’s ears perked up instantly.

Using Arthur as motivation had worked wonders in breaking through her laziness. It had been such an effective incentive that even the other Ortain Elders were amazed.

“He’ll probably be leaving the village soon. What will you do?”

“Ah, no way!”

“If you want to travel with him, you’ll need to extinguish all five candles at once.”

“C-Cordy! Call Cordy!”

Lily was desperate to hear news from the outside.

Whenever Cordy was watching over her, she would share information about the forest, making the long days less boring.

Most importantly, whenever Lily heard news about Arthur, she would be filled with energy and devote herself entirely to her candle-extinguishing training.

“I need to eat my lunchbox!”

Lily checked the tally marks on the floor.

At first, she had counted using her fingers and toes, but after twenty days, she had started etching the number of lunchboxes onto the ground.

45 marks.

“Hehehe…”

Lying on her back, she gazed at the ceiling, imagining a towering stack of lunchboxes. The re thought of it made her smile.

She had endured all this ti by counting the accumulated als—but if Arthur suddenly left, it would be a disaster.

She had to make him keep his promise.

Or, at the very least, she had to go with him and eat every single one of those als!

“Done! I did it!”

“I saw you blowing on them.”

“Grandma, you’re so an!”

deia’s motivation strategy had worked once again. Lily pouted but returned to her training.

Watching her, deia smiled in satisfaction before turning to the pile of letters stacked on the table.

Ever since Arthur had started sending people out of the forest one by one, information from the outside world had begun trickling in.

Cordy had been responsible for collecting these letters when they arrived in the forest.

Most of them were addressed to Arthur. deia had been holding onto them, planning to hand them over once he regained consciousness.

“For Cordy to take on such a tedious task… And Lily too… That Arthur kid really is sothing else.”

Cordy was the most logical and sharp-minded among the witches. She always had a reason for her actions.

Yet now, she was actively assisting Arthur in his affairs.

“She said if there was one human worth betting fate on, it would be him.”

Cordy had been personally overseeing Lily’s training.

Spending so much ti discussing Arthur with Lily had seemingly changed her perspective on him.

But since Lily was still mad at Cordy, deia couldn’t ask what exactly had changed her mind.

‘What did Cordy see in Arthur?’

deia had also seen sothing—

She recalled the events of three days ago in the cave.

During their first eting, she had gained Arthur’s permission to glimpse into his divine na.

Inside that cave, she had witnessed the change in his divine essence.

[Heart of the Immortal—Retonicalus (Assimilation Rate 40%)]

His assimilation rate had increased.

What did that signify?

And more importantly—

“What kind of existence is Retonicalus?”

Even she, one of the oldest witches alive, had never heard of it.

She had scoured the witches’ archives out of curiosity, but there was barely any ntion of Retonicalus.

As if it had been erased from existence.

Her thoughts were interrupted as her hand froze mid-motion while flipping through a docunt.

[All Stars of Demtor assembled at the top of the Ivory Tower.]

“All of them…?”

It was extrely rare for the Stars to gather in one place. A sense of unease crept into her chest.

The intuition of a witch was rarely wrong.

She could only hope this gathering had nothing to do with Ordor Forest.

“Tch, when will we finally uncover the secret of the Millennium Tree?”

For now, they still needed more ti.

Looking outside, night had already fallen.

“Lily…”

She had fallen asleep.

***

Two more days passed.

Lily’s training sessions lasted only about an hour each day.

A short duration, but considering the curse of laziness she carried, it was already a miraculous achievent.

On the third day, deia allowed Lily to rest late into the night.

She wanted to align her training with the coming full moon.

Raising her gaze to the sky, she saw it—

A brilliant full moon rising above the hazy clouds.

For Lily, the Witch of the Moonlight, this was the night when her lunar energy would be at its peak.

This was the night with the highest chance of extinguishing all five candles.

That sa evening, Natasha arrived at deia’s dwelling.

“What brings you here?”

“Tonight is the night.”

“The night? …Wait, did Arthur make his move?”

“Yes. He’s heading toward the Millennium Tree. However…”

Natasha’s gaze drifted toward Lily.

The girl was in the midst of another attempt, drawing upon the power of moonlight to extinguish the candles.

“Arthur said we would need Lily’s ability for this mission.”

“Her ability?”

“Yes.”

Natasha pointed outside.

“It’s a full moon.”

At that mont—

Whoosh!

The room was swallowed in darkness.

All five candles had been extinguished.