Villain Hiring: Help! Author Wants Me Dead

A pale blue liquid oozed from my fingertips.

It spread up my arms, twisting and shifting, wrapping over my knuckles like living veins.

The air grew cold and the warrior in front of me had no choice but to stop again, afraid of being killed by being hasty.

Something wrong pulsed in the room.

The assassins backed up.

The warriors hesitated.

The masked leader? He tensed.

"You see," I started, rolling my shoulders, "the other me? He's… different. He thinks too much. He trains. He refines his skills. He wants to improve his physique, his technique, his control."

I flexed my fingers.

The ooze rippled over my hands, like it was alive.

"But me?" I whispered.

I smiled.

"I let it go crazy."

My eyes rolled to the back of my head as I let Gluttony consume me.

Letting out a pained cry, I felt something trying to push itself out of my skin.

And there it was, pale blue liquid started flowing out of my 7 orifices and skin, shooting itself across the floor as it spread towards the nearest warrior.

The bulky man's eyes widened.

Then—

He screamed.

The liquid clung to his legs.

His skin sizzled if something was trying to physically bite into his skin.

It wasn't instant death.

Oh, no.

It burned.

Like acid.

Like it was eating him, inch by inch.

His legs melted, the skin peeling away in sickening, bubbling layers, leaving behind clean, untouched bones inside his armor.

His screams grew louder and louder until he could scream no more.

Every single person, including Damien, were shell shocked.

His body collapsed.

Nothing but bones and metal remained.

Heh-

This was going to be fun.

***

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I've seen some shit.

I've seen people lose their minds. I've seen massacres, I've seen villains rise and fall, I've seen empires crumble because some idiot thought they were unstoppable.

But this?

This was beyond anything I had ever witnessed.

Noah… no, the thing wearing Noah's skin…

It wasn't human anymore.

I could feel it. That wrongness.

That thing spreading across the floor like a sentient, hunting beast.

A pale blue horror, oozing from his mouth, his ears, his nose, his damn eyes—like his soul itself was bleeding out.

I wanted to scream.

I wanted to pull the emergency eject button on this entire existence.

I didn't even have a body, but if I did, I'd be shaking.

The first man—the warrior—screamed.

Loud.

Painfully loud.

The liquid wrapped around his legs, and at first, it looked like it was just gripping him.

Then it started eating.

The sound—oh, the sound—of flesh being peeled away, layer by layer, his muscles liquefying as his bones were left perfectly intact…

That wasn't normal.

That wasn't even remotely normal.

I was a system, a divine fragment of knowledge meant to turn Noah into a villain, but—

What the actual fuck was I watching?!

"NOAH!" I screamed inside his head. "OII, STOP! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?! DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT THIS IS?!"

No response.

The alter ego did not even flinch.

The warrior's screams cut off with a strange gurgle, his upper body collapsing onto the ground as his liquefied legs disintegrated.

Nothing but armor and bones left.

Every assassin in the room?

Frozen.

The warriors?

Some were backing away, their eyes filled with horror while the mages practically huddled into a corner.

The circle surrounding us had practically disintegrated as everyone tried to run away from us.

Even the masked leader, the one who had been so damn calm before, was tense.

Noah tilted his head, his glazed-over eyes twitching as the blue liquid gurgled and moved around him, like it was alive, like it was hungry.

Then he smiled.

That was not a human smile.

That was the kind of smile a monsters wore.

[WARNING: HOST IS UNDERGOING FORCED MUTATION]

[WARNING: HOST'S MENTAL STABILITY IS COMPROMISED]

Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit.

"You bitch, listen to me!" I shouted again. "You're going to lose yourself! That thing—you're not just using it anymore, it's using you!"

This fucking split personality of Noah let out a breathless laugh, his fingers twitching, the ooze stretching and expanding, reaching towards the next victim.

It seemed that he was confident that he could control this.

Too confident—

Another assassin tried to run.

But the waves of Gluttony were faster

It lashed out, too fast to dodge.

It coiled around his arm, and this time, I saw what happened up close.

The liquid moved.

It squirmed, like thousands of invisible teeth were chewing their way through his flesh.

If I wasn't sure before, what I was witnessing right now made me confident.

Noah did not just have any physique or even a rare heavenly physique.

He had the physique of a god.

A limitless physique.

One that could not be bound by the shackles of this world.

Oh fuck—

I couldn't stop the smile that was eating at my non existent face.

Hehehe

This was good.

If things went right, I really could achieve my goal~

But before that, I had to somwhow calm this little bitch in heat.

Ughhh

The assassin's face twisted in agony, his body convulsing as he clawed at his melting limb, his eyes rolling back as blood spilled from his mouth.

Then—nothing.

His bones dropped to the ground, his armor clattering against the stone floor.

I felt like vomiting.

If I had a stomach, I would've thrown up everything I have ever eaten in my life.

[ERROR: GLUTTONY IS ATTEMPTING TO DEVOUR HOST]

[WARNING: HOST'S SOUL INTEGRITY IS AT RISK]

"NOAH!" I screamed, desperation creeping into my voice.

No.

I could not lose him.

"Snap out of it!!" I yelled, trying to pull the cords of his soul.

His fingertips twitched.

For a split second, I saw something flicker in his dead, glazed-over eyes.

A hesitation.

A pause.

His face twitched.

And I realized something.

He wasn't completely gone.

There was still something—someone—inside, fighting back.

The other Noah.

The one I had mocked.

The pathetic, cautious, overthinking Noah.

He was still in there.

He must be subconsciously trying to take back control.

I latched onto that hope like a drowning man grasping a lifeline.

"You can still fight this!" I yelled. "You think this is strength?! THIS ISN'T STRENGTH!

You're stronger than this, Noah!"

Another flicker.

Another hesitation.

The ooze that had been spreading non stop froze for a fraction of a second.

And a fraction of a second was all I needed.

[FORCING SYSTEM INTERVENTION…]

A sharp shockwave pulsed through Noah's entire body.

The boy's form twitched violently, his breath unstable.

Noah's eyes snapped wide open as if someone had yanked him out of a nightmare.

The wicked smile on his face faltered.

His fingers trembled as the boy stated puking all around his figure.

The pale blue liquid that had been out of control all this time started to recede slowly.

Noah's breathing hitched.

And then, finally, he spoke.

"...What the fuck?"

I almost collapsed in relief.

If I had a body, I would have punched him in the face for scaring me this badly.

Instead, I exhaled, questioning the boy.

"Oi brat... It's you, right?"

***