I, The Villainess, Will Seduce All The Heroines Instead
Chapter 144: The Trial (3)

Chapter 144: The Trial (3)

Verena’s cheeks burned with an intense shame as she realized she had accidentally dozed off, resting her head against the girl’s shoulder.

Her pride was shattered to the point that she couldn’t even meet the gaze of the girl, who had been softly whining throughout their walk.

"Did my shoulder feel that good? You were out cold!" Vivienne’s smile stretched far too wide, her innocent eyes gleaming with pure, unguarded delight.

There was no hidden agenda in her expression, just genuine, guileless curiosity.

Yet, that very innocence only fueled Verena’s frustration, though the girl remained blissfully unaware of the irritation she was sowing.

A low groan escaped Verena’s lips.

After this, at least, the entirety of volume one would finally come to a close.

It was this small consolation that had kept her going, pushing relentlessly forward, overcoming every obstacle in their path with Saphira’s unwavering aid.

This time, Verena was certain: by the second trial, she would finally encounter an ally.

"Hey! Hey! Why aren’t you talking to me?" Vivienne chirped, attempting to circle around her, but Verena remained silent, her attention fixed elsewhere.

Abruptly, Verena halted. "Look... boundaries, alright? I’m not in the mood."

"Oh..." The girl’s smile faltered, replaced by a sudden pensive stillness. "Okay..."

Before them stood a gate, a portal suspended in midair, radiating a blinding azure light that obscured whatever lay beyond.

Verena had honestly forgotten the layout of the trials, but without hesitation, she stepped through alongside Vivienne.

The instant they crossed the threshold, the portal’s luminous greeting faded.

They found themselves in an infinite expanse of sky, stretching endlessly above and beneath, yet they remained firmly grounded as if standing on solid earth.

The scene was surreal, so tranquil, it felt as though heaven itself had opened its arms to receive them.

"Wow! We’re on top of the sky!" Vivienne’s laughter tinkled through the vastness as she spun around, eyes wide with wonder.

But there was nothing else. No door. No path. Just an endless sea of cerulean.

She turned back toward Verena. "Verena, look! Look!"

But when she glanced back, Verena had vanished.

***

There was something dissonant about the space, something that prickled just beneath the skin.

It felt wrong to be here. And yet, their body... craved it.

As if every sinew ached to remain in this stillness, eyes shut in quiet rapture, lulled by a serenity that whispered lies in soft velvet.

"VIVIENNE!"

Verena’s voice ripped through the silence, a sudden gasp clawing out of her throat, only to be answered by nothing. No echo, no return.

Just white.

A boundless, formless white that stretched in every direction. Not the emptiness of the void, but a blankness that mocked existence itself.

She blinked once. Twice. Her pulse climbed.

What was this?

Did she fail?

She couldn’t tell anymore.

The oppressive brightness offered no landmarks, no sense of depth.

And in that moment, she couldn’t decide which was worse: the black abyss, or this infinite, unyielding nothing.

One moment, she had been walking beside the girl.

The next, she had collapsed inward, dragged into something that felt like an eternal sleep with no waking.

Then came the sound. A low chime that cracked the silence.

[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]

[You have been devoured by Somnioris, the Star-Eater of Pisces.]

[A cosmic entity of unfathomable scale, Somnioris is a colossal, serpentine beast, woven from stardust and liquid shadow. Its translucent fins ripple like dreams drifting through water.]

[It does not feast upon flesh.]

[It consumes drive: ambition, energy, momentum.]

[Those swallowed fall into a dreamlike limbo where time flows, yet nothing advances.]

[The longer you remain, the more your memories forget to fade.]

[It cannot be killed. It must be outwilled.\

[Escape lies not in strength, but in remembering motion, a tether to the self: A vow, a dream, a person, even a pain too sharp to be forgotten.]

[Find it. Or be lost.]

"What do you mean I got swallowed?! That was way too fast!"

The memory was fragmented at best, she had only been following behind Vivienne, her steps steady, her mind alert.

This wasn’t the kind of sleep she longed for. No warmth, no peace. Just a suffocating fog, where even purpose slipped through the cracks of her mind.

"HELLO?!" she shouted, her voice raw with frustration. But no echo came. Not even silence returned her cry.

This Zodiac beast wasn’t just a predator, it was a mockery made manifest. There was nothing here to hold onto. Worse, she could already feel it. The erosion. The subtle bleeding of thought, the slackening of her will.

"Goddamn it... what about Vivienne? That silly girl—"

She gritted her teeth. All she had wanted was to finish this: move forward, succeed, survive. Another trial. Another win.

Was that too much to ask?

She took a step forward, but felt herself diminishing, as if each movement drained something from her.

In this infinite expanse, her footsteps were the only markers of existence. Yet every step landed in the same pale nowhere.

The same blinding white. There were no signs. No changes. No proof she had moved at all.

[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]

[Fusion complete. Your link with Saphira has ended.]

[Returning to standard state.]

And with that, she felt the weight of her borrowed power unspool, slipping away like breath in winter.

A small shape shimmered into view, curled along her forearm was the snake, now separate once more.

Its body was slender, laced with glimmering emerald scales, the only fragment of color in this monochrome realm.

"Bitch, what did you get us into?!" Saphira snapped, its tiny eyes glinting with panic.

"You think I dragged us here?!"

"Hell yes I do!"

No sympathy. Not even a flicker of it. Just sass and accusation in a single, hissing breath.

Then the snake froze.

Its voice dropped. "Hold on..." It looked like its tiny soul had just been wrung dry. "No way. Are we inside Somnioris?"

"You can tell?"

"Of course I can tell! I’m a Zodiac beast. I can sense the others like heartbeats in the dark."

"Then tell me what the hell I’m supposed to do!"

Saphira’s slit pupils constricted, sharp as a blade drawn in warning.

"Don’t lose yourself!"

A useless directive.

"That’s what the system said, you miserable snake!" Verena snapped, her voice hoarse with strain.

"I don’t know, okay?! I don’t know!"

And truly, she didn’t either.

All she had done since the moment she woke in this cursed world was push forward.

Again and again, through blood, through fire, through the crushing weight of responsibility not her own.

She pushed forward because no one else would. Because if she didn’t, who would?

But now... now she couldn’t even find the ground beneath her resolve.

"I just—" Her voice caught in her throat. Her knees buckled as if her spine forgot how to hold her, and she lowered herself to the ground in slow surrender. "I just... don’t know anymore."

"No! What are you doing?!" Saphira hissed, coiled in alarm. "Use your fate manipulation! Twist the thread! Pull something, anything!"

"How...?" Her whisper came like a sigh lost to the void.

The serpent’s jaw slackened in disbelief.

Verena had forgotten. The toll was already steep. Somnioris was unraveling her from the inside.

And Saphira knew, in her ancient, serpentine bones, that there was nothing she could do except speak. To be a voice in the dying fog of sanity.

No, she thought, coil trembling. This isn’t how it ends.

"I want to stand up," Verena whispered into the white. Her voice trembled like a child’s in a thunderstorm. "I really do. I want to move. I want to do something..."

Hours passed.

She repeated the same words. Again. And again. A mantra etched in exhaustion.

She wanted to rise. But she couldn’t.

She wanted change. But it would not come.

She wanted peace. Just once, something constant. Something stable.

But even that, even comfort, was denied her.

Ever since she had been dragged into this narrative, this twisted parody of a fantasy she once believed in, the truth had become undeniable:

This world wasn’t a dream. It was a cage.

The end felt impossibly, cruelly distant.

"Verena! Don’t do this to yourself!" Saphira’s voice cracked, panic seeping through her usual bravado. "You’ve come so far—you have the power to break free! And you’re just... letting it rot!"

"I know. I know."

"That’s all you ever say!"

"I know."

The words were mechanical, drained of meaning. Her mind screamed for action, some impulse to move, to fight, but her body refused. The stillness was too seductive, a quiet warmth that dulled the edges of urgency.

Behind the comfort, frustration simmered. Why couldn’t she do anything?

She used to burn like wildfire. So where did the flame go?

How do you reignite something that’s forgotten how to burn?

"Petra... it’s me," The name slipped from her lips like a prayer half-remembered.

When Verena blinked, there was a woman above her.

Familiar. Too familiar.

It was her.

No... she as now her.

She was standing. Upright. Awake. But the transition was jarring like surfacing too quickly from deep water.

The ambient noise was not foreign. Soft chatter. Pens gliding across paper. The hum of electricity. Office chairs creaking.

She was indoors. But not in a dungeon. Not in a trial.

She was back.

Inside a room, modern, clean, fluorescent-lit.

The world she thought she’d left behind.

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