Rebirth of the Villain
Chapter 39: The Circle of Seven

Chapter 39: The Circle of Seven

Arthur walked behind Gareth through fancy hallways that got more impressive with each turn.

His sharp senses picked up every detail while he pretended to just be curious.

"The others can’t wait to meet you," Gareth said with that creepy smile that never left his face. "Word about you has gotten around, brother."

Others. Arthur’s mind immediately started working through the possibilities. How many enhanced people were they dealing with? Who was really in charge? More importantly—were these guys the real bosses, or just another layer of this whole organization?

"Others?" Arthur asked, sounding just interested enough.

"The Circle of Seven. Well, six now, since you killed Vex." Gareth said. "They’re really curious about your... special abilities."

Arthur’s enhanced senses picked up multiple powerful energy signatures ahead—not just the corrupted dragon magic he’d sensed in Gareth, but something way more strange. These weren’t just enhanced humans anymore.

"I killed one of their people," Arthur said, watching Gareth’s reaction. "That doesn’t usually make groups want to recruit you."

Gareth laughed. "They were impressed, Arthur. Vex had been enhanced for two years—dragon essence, ritual upgrades, reality manipulation training. You took him down in a straight fight while he had every advantage." His voice got almost admiring. "They want to know how you pulled that off."

Because I had my bonds, Now, cut off from that support network, he felt exposed in ways that went way beyond just tactical disadvantages.

They came to a set of double doors that made no architectural sense—too tall for the hallway they were in, made from what looked like crystallized shadow. The magical energy coming from beyond them was overwhelming.

"Before we go in," Gareth said, putting a hand on Arthur’s shoulder with fake brotherly affection, "I need you to understand something. These people have power beyond anything the old kingdoms ever imagined. They’ve gone beyond normal human limits. But more importantly—they’re offering us the same transformation."

Arthur looked into his brother’s eyes, seeing none of the familiar warmth from their childhood. Whatever corruption had taken hold of Gareth went deeper than stolen magical essence. This thing pretending to be his brother had been planning, manipulating, and betraying for years.

"Transformation," Arthur said carefully. "And all it costs is everything I am."

"Everything you were," Gareth corrected. "What you could become is so much more."

The room beyond messed with Arthur’s understanding of space and reality. It was huge and intimate at the same time, with shadows that moved on their own and architecture that folded in on itself.

Six figures sat around a crescent-shaped table carved from what looked like crystallized dragon bone, each radiating the same corrupted power that had changed his brother.

"Prince Arthur Lionheart," the center figure spoke without looking up from ancient books spread in front of them. Their voice had weird harmonics that Arthur could feel in his bones. "Or should we say—the anomaly from beyond our realm?"

Arthur’s blood turned to ice. They knew about his transmigration.

[THREAT ASSESSMENT: CRITICAL]

[MULTIPLE ENHANCED TARGETS DETECTED]

[MAGICAL INTERFERENCE: MAXIMUM]

[BOND SYNCHRONIZATION: SEVERED]

[WARNING: SYSTEM FUNCTIONALITY COMPROMISED]

"Anomaly?" Arthur replied, keeping his voice steady despite the revelation. "That’s one way to put it, I guess."

The figure finally looked up, showing features that had once been human but were now something else entirely. Their eyes had the same silver-tinted crimson as Gareth’s, but older, deeper, with an intelligence that felt ancient and completely alien.

"We know what you are, Arthur Lionheart. A soul displaced from another realm, living in a body that was never meant for you, using power that shouldn’t exist in this reality." The figure’s smile was pure predator. "The question is—do you know what you truly are?"

Arthur felt the familiar rage building—the same fury that had driven him to kill Vex, to activate the Heart of Lyranth, to risk everything for the people he’d sworn to protect. But underneath the anger was something colder: the realization that he was playing a game where his opponents knew all his cards.

"I’m a prince of Lyranth," Arthur said with quiet conviction. "Everything else is just details."

Another figure laughed. "Such loyalty to a realm that isn’t even your own. Tell me, Prince—when you dream, do you still see that other world? The one with metal beasts that move without magic, with light that burns without flame?"

Cars. Electric lights. A software engineer’s apartment and a life that ended in twisted metal and blood.

Arthur kept his face neutral, but inside, his mind was racing. They knew too much. Either the Syndicate had ways of reading souls that went beyond normal magic, or someone had been feeding them information about his true nature.

"Dreams are just dreams," Arthur replied. "I’m more interested in the real world."

"Spoken like someone who’s never truly awakened," the center figure said with amusement. "Gareth, you were right about him. He has potential, but he’s still clinging to illusions of heroism and honor."

Gareth stepped forward, his corrupted presence radiating satisfaction. "Arthur, meet the Circle of Six. They’ve been studying power dynamics across multiple realms longer than our kingdom has existed."

Arthur let his gaze move across each figure, memorizing faces and magical signatures while calculating impossible odds.

Six enhanced humans, each with years of dragon essence upgrades.

Gareth as a seventh.

Unknown defenses and backup systems. Sylrathi’s status completely uncertain.

But he’d fought impossible odds before.

"Impressive," Arthur said. "And you’re offering to share this power?"

"We’re offering partnership," the center figure corrected. "Your unique nature makes you valuable, Arthur. The combination of transmigrated soul, royal bloodline, and Incubus system creates possibilities we’ve never encountered."

There it is. They didn’t just want to recruit him—they wanted to study him, to somehow steal or corrupt the system that made him who he was.

"Partnership implies equality," Arthur observed. "What exactly are you bringing to this deal?"

The figure gestured, and the air above the table shimmered with images—the dragon Sera suspended in chains, Sylrathi in what looked like a containment cell, and twelve other figures Arthur didn’t recognize but guessed were the prisoners from the lower level.

"Leverage," the figure said simply. "Your dragon calls to you, doesn’t she? And your elven companion has been... less than cooperative since we captured her an hour ago."

Arthur’s heart clenched, but he kept his expression merely interested. Sylrathi was alive, which was more than he’d dared hope. But she was also captured, which meant his backup plan just got a lot more complicated.

"And the others?" Arthur asked, nodding toward the unknown prisoners.

"Batteries," another figure said with casual cruelty. "Twelve souls we’ve been draining to power our ritual circles. They’ve served their purpose admirably for the past six months."

Six months. Not the three years Sera had endured, but still an eternity of torture. Arthur filed the information away while maintaining his facade of clinical interest.

"So here’s our offer," the center figure continued. "We give you the dragon. Her essence will complement your Incubus nature perfectly—imagine the power you could wield with a bonded ancient dragon. In exchange, you join our circle permanently. Your unique capabilities help us complete our grand design."

"And the elf?" Arthur asked.

The figure’s smile turned cruel. "She stays. Her ancient knowledge and magical reserves make her too valuable to release. But don’t worry—we’ll take excellent care of her."

Arthur nodded slowly, as if considering the proposal, while his mind raced through possibilities. They were offering Sera but keeping Sylrathi as leverage. Classic negotiation tactics, but with a trap built in—accepting would mean abandoning one partner to save another, which would corrupt his bond system and possibly let them manipulate his powers.

"That’s... generous," Arthur said carefully. "But I’m curious about something. Gareth mentioned transformation, power beyond normal human limits. What exactly does that look like?"

The figures exchanged glances that spoke of shared consciousness—these weren’t just enhanced individuals, they were becoming something like a collective entity.

"Show him," the center figure said to Gareth.

Arthur’s brother stepped forward, and suddenly the air around him began to shimmer with possibility. The walls of the chamber seemed to bend inward, reality itself warping around Gareth’s enhanced form.

"Local reality manipulation," Gareth said with pride that felt completely alien coming from his mouth. "Dragon essence doesn’t just enhance magical pathways—it lets us rewrite the fundamental laws of existence within our area of influence."

Arthur watched his brother casually alter gravity in a small area, making drops of water from the chamber’s moisture fall upward. It was impressive, terrifying, and completely wrong.

"Fascinating," Arthur said, meaning it. "And this is just the beginning?"

"Just the beginning," the center figure confirmed. "With your unique soul structure and our collective knowledge, we could transcend physical reality entirely. Imagine power that spans dimensions, Arthur. Imagine never being limited by death, by time, by the petty restrictions of mortal existence."

And all it costs is everything that makes me human.

Arthur felt something stirring in the back of his consciousness—not his system, which was still being jammed by their dragon essence interference, but something older and more primal. The isolation from his harem bonds had created a void, and something ancient was rushing to fill it.

Finally, a voice whispered directly into his mind, bypassing all external interference. The bonds that restrain your true nature are severed. Shall we discuss what you’re truly capable of?

The Primordial. The entity that had enhanced his system, that had given him power beyond normal Incubus limitations. It had been waiting for a moment when his moral restraints—embodied in his bonds with his partners—were weakened enough for direct contact.

Arthur’s lips curved in the first genuine smile he’d worn since entering this place.

"It’s about time," he said quietly.

The figures around the table stirred, sensing the shift in Arthur’s energy signature but not understanding its source.

"You’ve made your decision?" the center figure asked.

Arthur looked around the chamber—at the six corrupted beings who had once been human, at his brother who was no longer entirely his brother, at the images of Sera and Sylrathi held as bargaining chips in a game that had been rigged from the beginning.

What are you willing to sacrifice? the Primordial whispered. Your restraints? Your conscience? Your precious moral boundaries?

Arthur thought of Valentina’s strategic brilliance, of Lily, Lysandra, Beatrice, Isode, Sylrathi.

All of them believing in him. All of them trusting him to find a way.

"I have one question before I decide," Arthur said. "You mentioned my unique soul structure, the intersection of transmigrated consciousness and Incubus system. Have you considered what happens when those restraints you’re so eager to remove are the only things keeping something much worse contained?"

The center figure’s expression shifted from confident to wary. "What do you mean?"

Arthur felt the Primordial’s presence growing stronger, feeding on his isolation from his bonds, his rage at seeing his loved ones threatened, his willingness to sacrifice anything to protect them.

"I mean," Arthur said, power beginning to leak around the edges of his voice, "you’ve been so busy studying what I am that you never asked what I could become."

The chamber’s impossible structure began to resonate.

Arthur’s smile widened, and for the first time since entering the Syndicate stronghold, he felt like he held the advantage.

"Let’s renegotiate."