Reborn As The Minor Villain In A Romance Fantasy Novel

The body of the Plaguemother landed on the ground with the heavy wet thud of a mountain collapsing.

It sent out strong shockwaves that rippled through the asphalt, sending the bodies of both Awakened and monsters flying like ragdolls caught in a gale.

The initial crash acted like a biological bomb, instantly crushing most of the surrounding monster horde under its sheer mass.

The remaining Awakened, however, were wrapped in Lucius's invisible space barriers; they tumbled through the air but didn't incur any damage, landing with confused grunts rather than broken bones.

Even the buildings nearby, which should have been leveled by the impact, weren't harmed in any way.

They stood as pristine islands in a sea of rubble… The same couldn't be said for the roads, though, the ground beneath the Plaguemother's weight had shattered completely, spiderwebbing out into deep craters that made the street look like a jigsaw puzzle.

With their queen dead, the monsters were losing heart, and the Awakened had begun overwhelming them instead.

Lucius floated down with effortless grace and let Trisha off his shoulder.

He made sure the brown-haired sniper woman landed on her feet safely with her boots clicking against a rare patch of solid concrete and Vanessa flew over immediately, her crimson wings kicking up a swirl of dust.

"Very good work, Trisha. Taking down a Plaguemother with one strike is something that even I haven't done in my lifetime," Vanessa said, her voice showing that she was genuinely impressed while her blood wings flapped lazily behind her back. "You did very well. I'll reward you when this raid is done… now as for you…"

She turned over to Lucius and, without a hint of hesitation, reached out and pulled hard on his ear.

"Ow ow ow! Hey! Are you trying to tear off my ear?" He complained, though he didn't actually pull away.

Trisha chuckled into her hand, but they quickly directed his attention to Selene, who was currently staggering around with the help of her Guild members like a drunk who had found the world's strongest wine.

"Oh, what happened to her?" Lucius asked, blinking.

"You gave her too much power… She's been moving like a drunk for the last five minutes," Vanessa said with a weary sigh. Just then, the silver-haired woman let out a small dainty sneeze.

A-choo!

The sheer atmospheric pressure behind that sneeze acted like a localized hurricane, blowing her Guild members backward and sending Selene herself soaring into the air. She moved like a literal rocket until she landed right into Lucius's waiting hands.

"Hic… Oh Hubby, you're here," Selene said, her eyes unfocused and a goofy, wide smile on her face. "Did we win… Hic… my head feels so dizzy~"

"We haven't won yet, but we did win against the Plaguemother because of you," he said, letting out a soft laugh.

He patted her head as the S-rank Awakened wrapped her hands around his neck, pressing her flushed face into the crook of his shoulder and nuzzling his skin.

"I… I wanna sleep on you… Hic…"

"You're free to. I'll take you home after this." He placed his hands protectively around her waist, holding her close as she began to drift off right there in the middle of a war zone.

[@SimpLord_99: LOOK AT THEM 😭]

[@GoddessFan: selene is literally a kitten right now i can't]

[@HuntRex: imagine being so strong you sneeze yourself into your husband's arms]

[@ViewerKat09: pure goals… they are the perfect couple honestly]

[@Guildatch: the way he holds her... okay i'm crying]

Vanessa fumed, her foot tapping against the air.

She wanted to be the one he was holding like that, feeling his heartbeat against her chest, but she exhaled slowly, forcing the jealousy down.

'I have to be the mature one,' Vanessa thought, taking a deep breath that made her chest heave.

She couldn't just cling to him everywhere, especially not with the cameras watching every move. She was old enough to know boundaries, though she was fairly certain Selene was actually older than her… which only made the silver-haired woman's behavior more annoying. 'I guess I should go prepare for the final wave.'

As the blood wings behind her back began to tuck in, Lucius turned to face her, his gaze sharp despite the sleeping beauty in his arms.

"Where do you think you're going?" He asked.

Before she could answer, he leaned in and kissed her firmly on her cheek.

The sudden contact made Vanessa's brain short-circuit, her face turning a shade of red that matched her blood magic.

Before she could even say a word, he had already floated upward to survey the damage with Selene still drooling contentedly on his neck.

'H-he teased me…' Vanessa thought, her heart hammering against her ribs. He was shameless enough to kiss Selene on the lips while live in front of millions of viewers, but for her, it was a cheeky peck on the cheek?

He was definitely pulling her leg, trying to see how far he could push her. Still, Vanessa kept her head down, refusing to look at the ground as the stream captured the previously rude and terrifying Guild Leader of Grimmaw blushing up a storm.

'I… I need to prepare for the third wave!' she screamed internally. With a powerful beat of her wings, she shot up into the air, taking out her frustration by assisting in the systematic eradication of the remaining monsters.

…

"Master…" Raven said.

His crimson hair blew back in the hot wind of the battlefield as he and the rest of the team approached Lucius.

Lucius was currently sitting on the ledge of a skyscraper, looking like a king on a throne, waiting for the last wave of monsters to be released.

When A-rank dungeons collapsed into a break, the monsters were let loose in three distinct waves. It sounded simple on paper, but that was only because he had been using Space to shield this point in the city.

From what Lucius remembered of the novel, a single escaped Plaguemother could turn an entire city population into a hive within hours.

'If all these people die, then who will watch my streams? My sub count would tank,' he thought pragmatically.

He patted Selene's back, feeling the steady rise and fall of her breathing. Soon this would be over, and he'd be able to get home to see Freya.

The girl needed more than just basic self-defense; she needed to master that ghost affinity of hers just to be safe.

'Haah~ So many things to do…' Lucius thought, finally turning back to his original squad. "Been a while, guys."

"Ah, Boss…" Erika stepped forward, stamping her foot on the roof. "You just left us alone and moved on with a group of new women. How cruel can you get? We were your first, you know!"

Lucius chuckled at her dramatic flair.

"That's what comes with being a new Guild Leader, Erika. You have to expand your horizons. Wait… Grimm, you're looking very similar to me."

Lucius's eyebrow twitched as he looked at the young spear user.

Grimm had gone all out, he had tailored his Grimmaw uniform to be a near-exact replica of Lucius's Supreme Guild Leader outfit, complete with a flowing cape though Grimm's was a bit shorter to avoid tripping.

He had even managed to get his hair into dreadlocks that mirrored Lucius's style, though they were significantly shorter and stood up at odd angles.

'Is he trying to copy my literal DNA now?' Lucius wondered. It didn't really matter; the kid could try, but he'd never be as handsome as the original.

"Hah, Boss, like it?" Grimm turned around in a slow circle, showing off the full fit with a grin. "I even put a cape so that it could blow in the wind just like you. And the hair! I spent three hours on the locks, even if they aren't as long as yours yet."

"Is he actually allowed to wear that?" Lucius turned over to Felix. The glass-wearing mage flinched under the gaze before nodding his head solemnly.

"Well, the Guild Leader is charging him half his monthly salary as a 'licensing fee' to wear that, but Grimm doesn't seem to mind," Felix said, rolling his eyes.

He began grumbling under his breath, "He'll just bully me for my own salary later to pay for the dry cleaning."

"Hey, I heard that, you four-eyed bookworm!" Grimm barked.

Cyrus, the oldest and most stoic of the three, let out a heavy sigh before snapping a crisp salute to Lucius.

Matthias, on the other hand, remained a silent shadow. He had donned a dark, ink-black cloak that seemed to swallow the light around it which was perfect since he had a shadow affinity though he was uncharacteristically silent.

"The whole gang's back, baby!" Grimm pumped his fist into the air, only for Cyrus to deliver a sharp chop to the top of his head.

Grimm let out a yelp of pain, clutching his skull.

"Well, Grimm's not wrong. The whole gang is back," Lucius said, a smirk appearing on his lips.

He pointed toward the rift where Trisha was still standing with her face still slightly pink. "Trisha was able to beat a Plaguemother all on her own, She's setting a high bar for the rest of you."

Trisha raised her hands frantically, shaking her head. "N-no… it was only because Boss helped me! I couldn't have even gotten to a good place to shoot without him!"

Lucius nodded.

She certainly knew how to butter him up. "Regardless, Trisha outshadowed all of you today. She'll probably get a massive promotion when this is over. Maybe an Admin position or something equally high-ranking. Don't all of you want that kind of glory?"

They all nodded in unison, their eyes shining with newfound competitive fire. Trisha, meanwhile, just looked overwhelmed. A promotion?

"Good. In a few minutes, that thing will break open and release whatever nightmare is left inside," Lucius said, pointing at the pulsing rift. "I want all of you to work together. Clear the field, protect the others, and kill anything that breathes alongside the other Awakened."

"What about you, Boss? What will you do?" Erika asked, leaning on her staff.

"Well, I am technically on babysitting duty," he said, patting Selene's back as she groaned softly against his neck, clearly deep in her mana-drunk slumber. "I don't want to steal all your thunder. I'll be the insurance policy."

In reality, Lucius knew he could end this in seconds. A single point of compressed Space or a well-placed Spatial Distortion could wipe the map but where was the fun in that?

Where was the revenue? An equal opponent was for losers; he'd much rather be an invincible god watching his subordinates grow.

"Now… are you ready? If you are, open your mouths and trust in your Boss."

The squad hesitated for a split second before complying. Seeing them all stand there with their mouths open made a strange warmth bloom in his chest, they really did trust him with their lives.

"Good kids."

With a flick of his wrist, Lucius manipulated the space around him.

Five tiny, glowing particles of Dimensium shot forward.

Before they could even blink, the particles were down their throats. According to his System, these tiny amounts wouldn't cause them to implode; instead, they would act as a super-catalyst for their mana circuits.

Their eyes snapped wide.

'What… what is this?' Trisha thought as her heart raced.

It felt like the bullet she had fired earlier, but it was inside her now. Her mana pool, which should have been depleted, was suddenly overflowing. It felt like her veins were filled with liquid lightning.

The others felt the same as their auras began to flare and crackle with raw power but before they could ask what he'd done, a violent crack split the air. The rift groaned, spewing forth a thick, oily dark mana that began to drown out the sunlight.

"Everybody, be prepared! The final beast is coming out!" Vanessa's voice boomed across the battlefield.

The squad didn't wait for another word; they leapt off the building, falling like shooting stars toward their positions.

"Guild Leader, the rift is about to open… Should we pull back to join you for a final stand?" Ayela's voice crackled through the comms in his uniform since apparently it had comms.

"Affirmative. Pull back first. Let's see what kind of ugly we're dealing with today," Lucius replied.

With a burst of Ayela's wind magic, the girls on the front lines were swept back, landing on the rooftops near Lucius just as another massive crack formed on the rift.

Vanessa was already there with her jaw set tight.

'We've prepared as much as possible,' she thought, her hands trembling slightly… not from fear, but from the sheer amount of mana she was funneling into her blood reserves.

They had saved their best ammunition for this. 'We have to win this… For the Guild… For the people.'

The final crack tore across the rift like a lightning bolt.

Darkness began to pour out spreading across the ground. It looked like ink spilling into water, suffocating and cold. It didn't touch the buildings thanks to Lucius's barriers, but the streets were quickly becoming a void.

Then, the first limb appeared.

A giant, slick tentacle, blacker than the night and covered in pulsating, serrated suction pods, slammed onto the pavement.

The impact triggered a miniature earthquake that nearly shook the Awakened off their feet then another tentacle came and another.

The rift was huge, but the monster seemed even bigger, struggling to squeeze its massive bulk into reality.

"Fall back! Further back!" Vanessa yelled, waving her hand as the limbs began to lash out, crushing cars and whipping through the air.

She pressed her hand to her ear. "Ava, light them up!"

"Thought you'd never ask, Boss!" Ava's voice rang out through her comms.

Suddenly, the sky seemed to ripple. The cloaking field on the GRIMMAW jet deactivated, revealing the sleek lethal aircraft hovering directly above the rift. Compartments slid open along its belly, revealing rows of glowing turrets.

"There are weapons on the jet too?!" Lucius nearly stood up with a genuinely surprised look on his face. "How is that fair? I definitely need to get me one of those."

"Hic…" Selene stirred, her hands reaching up to cup Lucius's face. "Hubby… if you want a jet… I can buy… hic… ten for you. Eleven even, just say the word~"

"Is that so?" Lucius asked, smiling down at her. She just blushed and buried her face back into his neck. She was cute when she was drunk… he'd definitely have to tease her about this later.

"Aw, now I want Boss to hold me like that too~" Iris pouted, her eyes green with envy. The other girls shot her a look that could kill, did she really think she was on the wives' level yet?

"Oh, I can hold you like this too," Lucius said, his eyes glinting with mischief. "You just have to become my chair like Nadia first. Speaking of which, Nadia, I haven't forgotten our deal."

The purple-haired woman flinched violently, dropping to her knees on the cold concrete. "Guild Leader, I beg for mercy! Please, anything but the chair!"

Down below, the monster's head finally poked through the gate.

It was a nightmare of evolution with a massive, bulbous squid-like head, but instead of two eyes, it had five huge, lidless crimson orbs that moved independently, tracking everything at once.

Vanessa pointed her hand toward the sky. "FIRE!"

The jet unleashed hell.

Missiles streaked through the air, followed by high-output mana lasers that stitched across the monster's flesh.

The head burst open in a fountain of violet ichor, spraying blood across the entire district. The purple sludge splashed against Vanessa's barrier, obscuring her vision for a second.

She wiped it away, her heart sinking as she saw the wound closing instantly.

"There's no core in the head! Pull back!" she ordered. She began gathering blood from the fallen monsters below, gathering it into her tattoo.

She had fought tentacled beasts before, but they always had a weak point. If it wasn't the head, she had to find it before they were all crushed.

The jet tried to bank away, but a massive tentacle shot upward like a whip, aiming to swat the aircraft out of the sky. Vanessa prepared to intercept, but a blur of blue light beat her to it.

Grimm shot into the air, his spear glowing with a fierce intensity.

With a roar, he sliced through the limb, his blade carving through the thick hide like it was paper. A rain of violet blood soaked him instantly, staining his new locks and his cape as he landed hard on the severed stump of the tentacle.

[@GrimmGOAT: FINALLY! MY BOY IS BACK!]

[@Rurur1111: look at that aura... he's definitely not washed!]

[@Keirrrg: the cape actually looks cool now that it's covered in blood lol]

"I…" Grimm shouted, pointing his spear directly at the monster's central eye while his body was covered in a bright blue aura of pure mana. "... Am Grimm! A member of the best Guild in the world and my Boss's spearman! You… will die today!"

Vanessa chuckled, feeling the morale of the troops surge.

"Don't let the kid show you up! CHARGE!"

With that, every awakened on the field charged at the final thing standing between them and victory.