The Villainous Me Turned the Losers into Blackened Bosses-Chapter 266 - Demon Castle Zero

—

The sudden weightlessness, followed by the sharp thud of his back hitting the ground, jolted Will out of Treya’s fourth attempt at control—

“Ow...” he groaned, the pain snapping him back to reality.

He hadn’t expected that simply “falling” would be enough to break free from Treya’s grip. Leave it to Shuna to think of using the sensation of weightlessness to shock someone out of a “dream.”

“Hah... Hah...” He gasped, scrambling to his feet. A glance down revealed a gash on his calf from a sharp stone shard, blood blossoming crimson on his torn pant leg. It wasn’t serious; he was intimately familiar with the sensation of being injured.

“Hooo...” He exhaled sharply.

Run.

That single word echoed in his mind as he looked up.

His feet were already moving, pounding down the long staircase towards the enticingly open door beckoning him to the outside.

He knew escaping the palace grounds was just the beginning. He’d likely have a long, grueling run down the mountain ahead of him, but...

After losing so decisively to Treya...

After waking from such prolonged memory tampering and dream manipulation...

After finally glimpsing the faint dawn of hope, the chance to escape her control...

Especially after failing the first two escape attempts—

Getting through that door had become a symbol, a desperate ‘anchor’ for his hope.

I shouldn’t be content sleeping in a beautiful dream.

As the one who arguably triggered Treya’s descent into darkness, I must still have a chance to defeat her.

If I can just escape through that door, facing this ‘fate’ that now shows signs of breaking, there has to be hope.

Besides, this chance was bought for him by Shuna—the “protagonist” he trusted—using her flashy protagonist skills and considerable physical prowess—

“I’ll stop you from advancing until Will gets away,” Shuna declared, her voice grim.

As Shuna spoke, Treya executed sword forms that seemed impossibly fluid, almost spectral, even to Shuna’s enhanced vision.

The black Shadow Wraith Sword seemed to hang suspended in the air for a fraction of a second as Treya shifted from a frontal stance to a side face...

Simultaneously, her grip flipped from reverse to standard, thrusting the sword’s point directly at Shuna’s forehead.

Ting—!

Shuna deflected the thrust with her dagger, then arched backward, dodging the follow-through while hopping down two steps.

“You... Your swordsmanship is seriously good, just... doesn’t feel human,” Shuna commented breathlessly between parries.

“Likewise, madam interloper. Your dagger work doesn’t exactly scream ‘mortal’,” Treya retorted coolly.

“Whoa, calling me an interloper? Kinda rude! He’s got so many women around, but I’m his only truly close guy friend. Don’t lump me in with the rest of you,” Shuna shot back, standing defiantly at the edge of the long staircase. Facing Treya’s ghost-like sword shadows, her own dagger blurred into a dizzying afterimage.

I only planned on contacting Will, never thought I’d end up dueling the sole—and strongest—inheritor of the Entark sword style. Definitely should have brought a longer weapon...

But still...

Something felt off to Shuna.

Treya’s eyes remained fixed on Will’s retreating figure—even during their rapid exchange over the past ten seconds, her gaze hadn’t wavered.

She wasn’t rushing to chase Will, nor was she focused on actually killing Shuna.

What is she thinking?

Considering her actions outside of combat made things even weirder.

Luring them to the main gate...

Lying in wait herself...

Yet leaving the gate seemingly open for Will to escape towards...

Claiming she came for Shuna, yet insisting on bringing Will along...

“Is that so? But I don’t think he needs such a ‘good friend’ at all,” Treya stated icily. Her sword spun in several tight circles, the black blade tracing arcs of shadow that mirrored the moonlight behind her.

“The ‘Will’ I desire, needs neither your memories nor your presence in his life.”

She took a step down the stairs, her black boots clicking.

“—This is exactly what Will taught me. I’ve come this far precisely so that I become the only splash of color remaining in his life.”

Her black high heels seemed to stain the silvery stone steps with darkness.

“Since I see him as my only color, he should see me the same way.”

The light, gauzy dress she wore began to transform, its hem darkening upwards, shifting into an unsettling, deep black. The moonlight suddenly seemed brighter, harsher against the encroaching darkness.

“If dreams aren’t enough... perhaps I just need to use methods that leave him no choice but to accept?”

Treya’s purple eye and her other pale blue eye reflected Shuna’s tense form.

“For instance, making him understand that escape is futile.”

—And Will’s fleeing back.

“Or perhaps, filling his waking moments with such ‘despair’ that he can only turn back and bow his head to the dream.”

“!?”

After parrying another flurry of blows, Shuna blinked rapidly.

—Wait a minute, could it be...

Shuna focused on her gut feeling.

Facing opponents who use mental manipulation, sometimes you have to trust your instincts.

Like...

That strange feeling she’d had since entering the palace, like being deep “inside a dungeon”...

In that instant, a possibility she hadn’t dared to truly consider flashed through her mind.

“CRAP! WILL—FIRST—!!”

As Shuna yelled, the latter half of her warning caught in her throat, strangled before it could fully form. No matter how hard she tried, the words wouldn’t come out.

In her vision, Will’s retreating figure plunged abruptly into “darkness.”

His world went black. His outstretched foot met empty air. A profound sense of powerlessness washed over his body.

Is this... the power of a true ‘demon’? No, the power of the Demon Empress herself.

He landed hard at the bottom of the long staircase.

At that moment, Will dimly heard Shuna’s choked cry from behind him.

“Huh?”

He stopped.

Not intentionally, but because his leading foot seemed to sink into the ground as if stepping on cotton, despite the solid stone beneath him.

But...

He stared intently ahead...

He could see it...

The unguarded, gloriously shining gate was right there...

Yet, no matter how desperately he strained forward, he couldn’t seem to reach it.

Shrink—

A bizarre distortion warped his vision. The gate seemed to recede, shrinking rapidly into a tiny, unreachable pinpoint of light in the distance.

He didn’t want to look back while running, but now he had no choice.

“Now... you should understand, shouldn’t you?”

Treya’s voice echoed as if filtered through some strange effect, sounding both distant and ethereally close, each word chillingly clear.

His eyes widened as he watched Treya advance, flickering like a shadow—disappearing and reappearing closer with each step.

Like she was teleporting.

She was no longer wearing the white gossamer dress. Instead, she was clad in black armor.

The very armor Will had always pictured Treya wearing in his mind when imagining her eventual descent into darkness.

“Shuna—!”

Before his horrified eyes, Shuna crumpled to her knees, clutching her throat as if unable to speak, then slowly began sinking into black sludge that oozed up from the ground, swallowing her whole.

She lost? How could even she...?

“It’s rather unfortunate, but this method doesn’t work when you’re inside the dream. You only discover it when you’re awake,” Treya explained calmly. Her black sword scraped across the ground, leaving a deep, dark scar like a black crayon mark.

Will began noticing the bizarre “reality” surrounding him—a reality he perceived while fully awake.

Dawn should be breaking soon, yet why did the moon above her seem brighter than ever?

Why did every spot she stepped on leave a black mark?

And...

And why did the entire palace environment feel so fundamentally wrong...?

He turned again, forcing himself to run towards the “gate” ahead.

But the royal gate remained eternally distant, forever just out of reach.

“Could it... could it be...?”

In that moment, Will’s mind frantically connected the dots, linking “secrets of the Entark royal family never mentioned in the original story”—

The Entark royals deliberately hiding information about the Entark sword style and the dungeon they supposedly conquered centuries ago in various libraries.

Their reverence for the “Demon Pot,” claiming it came from a dungeon but never explaining its purpose.

Dungeon “monsters” never appearing far from their respective dungeons, having no need to, yet the Entark royals constantly boasting of their “demonic power.”

Shuna mentioning she could feel a dungeon’s atmosphere here.

Lucifa telling him she sensed the power of “Demon Castle Zero” on him.

Where is Demon Castle Zero? No one ever said a dungeon entrance had to be an obvious ‘gate’ somewhere outside. There are no records of any adventuring party ever conquering ‘Demon Castle Zero’. Could it be... Demon Castle Zero is actually...

“From the very beginning... from the very beginning, I underestimated the Entark royals, and I underestimated you, Treya...” Will whispered, his voice hoarse.

He reached out a trembling hand, but couldn’t touch the illusory gate.

Finally, he let his arm fall.

A self-deprecating smile twisted his lips.

He felt a cold tendril of “despair” rise from his core. Before him, the distant light represented a place he could never reach.

“The power you possess... it has always been the primordial power originating from the dungeon...”

—Why didn’t I see it? —The truth... the truth was right here all along. —The world of the original story I thought I knew... starting from the moment Treya used this power in front of me... —It began spiraling out of control. —Perhaps... I truly never had ‘control over the yanderes’ at all.

“Yes,” Treya breathed, her sword flicking out, grazing his cheek.

Leaving a shallow, stinging cut.

“From the start, altering your memories, making you live as if in a dream... that was never a gift bestowed upon Entark by demons.”

Will stopped moving entirely.

“The greatest secret of the Entark royal family... is that they share a symbiotic existence with the Empress of Demon Castle Zero, sharing life, blood, and spirit.”

She leaned in close, gently reaching up to touch his cheek, wiping away the drop of blood.

“Therefore, they can bring anything from Demon Castle Zero into reality. Whether it’s the sword dance from the Coronation Festival, every instance of royal infighting, even every war... they were all just dungeon runs, with the Entark royals acting as ‘adventurers’ delving deeper to excavate the power residing within Demon Castle Zero.”

“Humanity and the Dungeon side... began ‘cooperating’ two hundred years ago. This is the royal family’s darkest secret, and the very foundation upon which the Entark Empire has always stood.”

“So—”

Before Will’s eyes, the light of the distant gate vanished completely, swallowed by the encroaching darkness.

“Welcome... to Demon Castle Zero.”

“Teacher Will,” Treya murmured, tilting his face towards hers. “As an adventurer... don’t you feel... utterly hopeless?”

“Then... just give up everything.”

“Isn’t it better to just enjoy the pleasures of the dream?”

...

....

.....

“Damn it!”

“If you say this is a dungeon, then don’t blame me for using dungeon rules—!” a voice suddenly roared from the sludge.

“TREYAAAA—!!”