Young Master's PoV: Woke Up As A Villain In A Game One Day

Not much later, several more similar creatures rose from the ground in quick succession — smaller than the first, yes, but still colossal compared to us mere mortals.

They were Elder-ranked Solbraiths, one rank below Unholy.

Even from this distance, I could tell these ones had wings — massive leathery wings that they flapped once soared skyward, shrieking as they climbed higher.

And that's when the screams began.

"AAAAARGHHH!!

""MY EYES!

MY EYES!!

""I'M BURNING!

I'M BURGHH—!

"Panic gave way to agony.

I whipped my head around and saw people across the plaza suddenly… combust.

Their eyes were on fire.

Literally.

White-hot steam hissed from their mouths and ears.

Some screamed until their throats split open.

Others didn't even get the chance — they just collapsed, twitching, before their bodies erupted in flames.

"What the fuck!

What the fuck!

What the FUCK!!

""Eeeeeik!

Wha—What's happening?!

""Oh god…!

OH MY GOD!

"Cadets around them reeled back in horror.

Some tripped.

Some scrambled.

But it didn't matter.

Because it was spreading.

One by one, more Cadets dropped to their knees, clawing at their faces, their skin splitting like cracked porcelain.

Steam gushing from their mouths.

Some vomited boiling blood onto the broken tiles.

Their screams turned wet and gurgling.

Then came the fire.

They ignited, their whole bodies bursting into flame like paper soaked in oil.

A dozen.

Then two dozen.

Then more.

My eyes widened in horror.

I raised my voice and screamed as loudly as I could, "Don't look up!

Don't look at those creatures!

"But for many, it was already too late.

Looking at an Elder or Unholy Solbraith directly was enough to set the Essence inside your body ablaze.

And they weren't even attacking us.

They didn't need to.

Their mere presence was lethal to us lowly creatures.

That…That was the power of Elder Spirit Beasts.

Somewhere to my left, another wave of Cadets dropped like flies.

Their cries were drowned beneath the rising cacophony of terror.

'Of course,' I thought.

'Not everyone could've heard me through the madness!

'Not everyone even had time to process what was happening.

I gritted my teeth and scanned the plaza.

That's when I saw it — a small, crumbling spire nearby, still barely standing.

Without thinking, I rushed toward it and leapt to scale its half-broken side in a single bound.

I landed on a broad ledge.

Once there, I inhaled sharply and poured Essence into my throat.

When I yelled again, my voice was amplified to the extent that it thundered through the plaza like I was speaking through a megaphone:"DON'T LOOK AT THOSE CREATURES DIRECTLY!

KEEP YOUR EYES DOWN!

DO.

NOT.

PANIC!!

"This time, I saw some of them freeze.

Cadets who'd been caught mid-sprint, mid-sob, or mid-prayer snapped out of it.

Then they looked away or covered their faces.

Some turned and bolted for the exits.

Others rushed to find cover.

But many still didn't.

They screamed as their insides caught fire.

Some went limp without ever making a sound and collapsed like broken machines that had overheated and died.

My hands clenched into fists.

It was like watching a wildfire devour paper dolls.

Below me, a few team leaders finally snapped to attention.

They began shouting orders.

Organizing groups.

Dragging the stunned and the screaming to safety.

It was already a mess.

And it was about to get worse.

—BOOOM!!

As if on cue, flashes of light and fire exploded near the western border.

I didn't dare look directly.

But I already knew.

Selene was engaging the Solbraiths.

—BOOOM!

BOOOM!

—KWOOOM!

The sky trembled with each blast.

Then came a different sound — a sharp crack that split the air like a whip.

I finally looked.

Not directly — only from the edge of my vision.

Through the smoke and swirling heat, I saw the largest Solbraith — that Unholy titan — open its mouth (if it could even be called that) and unleash a torrent of fire.

Now I don't know how many fire-breathing, sky-dwarfing monstrosities you've run into, but for me, it was an apocalyptic sight.

Thankfully, before that swirling tide of fire could rain down and roast us alive, it slammed into an invisible barrier — the physical manifestation of Selene's Will that encompassed the entire Night Sanctuary.

But even that wasn't enough.

Not when the rest of the Elder Solbraiths rose higher into the sky… and joined in on the attack.

They opened their burning maws and rained streams of flame that could've even burned down the heavens.

Their combined assault didn't look like a battle.

It looked like a world-ending event.

A sky-shattering wave of golden-crimson fire came mercilessly crashing down.

Selene's Will held.

For a minute.

For a long, excruciating minute…Then it cracked.

Thin fissures spiderwebbed across the translucent dome — each one glowing white-hot.

Then, with a sound like a church bell shattering underwater, the barrier imploded.

The shockwave hit like a hammer.

Dust, ash, and debris exploded outward.

I shielded my eyes and clenched my jaw.

By the time the haze began to clear, Selene was already moving.

From where I was standing, she looked like a streak of argent light slashing across the smoke-blackened sky.

She darted between the Elder Solbraiths like a falling star trying to tear through a storm of fire.

But that was all I could see of that battle.

Because in the very next moment, the Unholy titan opened its crucible of a mouth… and screamed.

No.

Actually, screamed wasn't the right word here.

What it released wasn't sound.

It was horror.

A primal revelation.

An ancient wrongness made audible.

The dark clouds above us shuddered, recoiling like they too wished to flee.

Violet lightning flared through the sky in frantic arcs.

That screech didn't just fill the air.

It infected it.

It was a noise made to shatter the foundation of the world.

It was a guttural, blood-curdling, soul-wrapping screech that made the sky itself tremble.

Cadets who had managed to keep calm until now clutched their ears.

Their faces twisted in pain.

Some collapsed as their knees gave out and their bodies spasmed.

Others convulsed.

Their eyes rolled back as they choked on screams their throats couldn't form.

Even I…Even I felt a chill stab between my ribs, cold as frozen iron.

My heart faltered.

My hands trembled.

There have only been a handful of moments in my life when I genuinely felt terrified.

That was one of those moments.

One of those rare moments when I was so frightened that I couldn't even think clearly.

Wrong — That was the only word my mind could find.

Everything in that moment felt so very wrong.

The air, the world, the sky, the earth — everything was just wrong.

Something so wrong it gnawed at the edges of the soul.

But unlike the others, I had no time to fall to fear.

Because now, with Selene's barrier shattered…There was nothing left shielding the Sanctuary from what was to come.

—SKRREEEEHHH!

And just as I feared, in the very next moment, the earth heaved.

The ground bubbled in several spots, then ruptured.

Bulging fissures cracked open all across the field.

And then as if summoned by their lord's cry, from those fissures came the swarm of monsters.

Not dozens.

Not scores.

But hundreds.

Hundreds of twisted and abhorrent things crawled out of the ground like demons from the underworld.

Worms, longer than caravans, burst forth in coiling hunger — their onyx-scaled bodies gleamed like dark blades under moonlight.

Their vertical maws split open in unnatural halves, full of layers upon layers of sharp teeth.

Behind them came insects the size of horses — mantis-shaped creatures with scythe-like limbs and magma spewing out from their hollow eyes.

Lava pulsed through the cracks in their chitinous hides like blood flowing through veins.

Some were malformed arachnids — with too many legs and not enough faces.

Some slithered, others flew, a few simply crawled and screamed.

And all of them — every last one of them — was a Solbraith.

Way weaker than the Elder and Unholy titans above, yes.

But still the same species.

Because once a living creature was burned by a Solbraith's flame, it would rise again as one of them.

Stripped of name, stripped of all identity and memory — retaining only its Soul Rank and an endless hunger to burn everything.

"Damn it…" I muttered under my breath as my eyes swept the battlefield.

It had already descended into chaos.

Cadets were scattered, screaming, praying, running, bleeding.

Some tried to fight, but got butchered before they could even swing their weapons.

One Solbraith marched forward, melting the cobblestone beneath its steps.

Another snatched a Cadet in its jaws.

The poor boy barely had time to scream.

Then the creature vomited ashes.

Those smoldering ashes twitched.

Then rose.

The body of the Cadet who was eaten reformed — not as a boy, but as a creature of jagged onyx scale and blazing hunger-filled eyes.

He wasn't human anymore.

He had become one of them.

And he started attacking other Cadets.

A third Solbraith pounced and brought down an entire crumbling tower in a single lurch.

The whole scene was like a vision of hell.

Yes, that's what it looked like.

Hell made real.

Team leaders were doing what they could — dragging Cadets by their arms, shouldering the wounded, shouting desperate orders — but the monsters were faster.

Faster and smarter.

Too smart, even.

Some were coordinating, flanking, surrounding, and cutting off escape routes.

That shouldn't have been possible.

Spirit Beasts didn't coordinate.

Not the low-ranked ones, at least.

They were wild and primal and animalistically stupid.

But unfortunately for us, all Solbraiths were connected through a mental link.

They could think as one.

Act as one.

In many ways, they coordinated better than even humans could.

And just like that…The Massacre truly began.