Chapter 44: Chapter 44: The Showdown and The Execution

Chapter 44: The Showdown and The Execution

Neville stared up at the pitch-black eyes of the Extra. The kinetic arrow pinned his right shoulder to the mattress.

Draven’s invisible vectors crushed the air around his mouth, turning his screams into pathetic and muffled gasps.

Draven leaned in closer. The dull sodium kunai rested casually in his left hand.

"I am a regressor," Draven lied smoothly. His voice carried the heavy and exhausted weight of a veteran who had seen hell.

Neville’s eyes widened in sheer confusion.

"I have lived this life before," Draven continued coldly.

"I have seen the end of this world. I watched the Bastions fall. I watched millions of people burn to ash. And do you know who caused it all? You."

Neville thrashed his legs against the bed. He shook his head aggressively in pure denial.

"Your stupidity and your unchecked arrogance caused the destruction of humanity," Draven stated as he looked down at the fallen hero.

"You thought you were invincible. But at the end of the days, you were not even the Hero everyone thought you were. When the real monsters came, you broke. The Holy God you pray to realized how pathetic you were and completely abandoned you. Nothing was left of you but a rotten corpse."

Draven released the telekinetic pressure around Neville’s jaw just enough to let him speak.

Neville gasped for air. He spat a mouthful of blood onto the white bedsheets.

"You are insane!" Neville screamed. His voice was cracked and frantic.

"A regressor?! You are just a lunatic! You are just some cheap assassin hired by the shadow guilds to eliminate me! I am the chosen Hero! I am destined for greatness!"

Draven let out a heavy sigh. Neville was exactly the same as his character profile in the book. Delusional until the bitter end.

"You really do not get it," Draven muttered. "This World will soon be..."

Draven paused.

He stopped himself mid-sentence. The words died on his tongue. He looked at the bleeding, pathetic boy pinned to the bed.

’What the hell am I doing?’ Draven thought, deeply annoyed with himself.

’Why am I even telling this to a dying man? Monologuing is how villains get themselves killed. I am acting like an idiot.’

"Never mind," Draven said flatly.

"You are not worth the explanation."

Neville gritted his teeth. His wounded pride flared into pure rage.

"I will kill you!" Neville roared.

He closed his eyes and tried to force his mana core to detonate. He tried to summon his explosive golden aura to blast Draven through the hospital walls.

A tiny spark of golden light flickered on his chest.

FZT.

The light died instantly.

Neville froze. He tried again. He pushed every ounce of his remaining willpower into his core. Absolutely nothing happened.

The holy mana refused to leave his body. It felt like a heavy iron blanket had been thrown over his soul. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

"Where is my magic?!" Neville panicked. He looked around the room in absolute horror.

"What did you do?!"

"Did you honestly think I would walk into your room without disabling your only weapon?" Draven mocked him.

"Sirius Statanham sends his regards. His men installed a Holy Power suppression array beneath the floorboards of this VIP ward hours ago. You are completely locked out, buddy."

Neville’s heart plummeted. The Underworld Don had helped Draven? The entire security force was compromised?

For the first time in his entire life, the Golden Boy realized he was entirely helpless. There was no plot armor.

There was no sudden rescue. He was just a piece of meat on a chopping block.

"Wait," Neville begged. The arrogance finally vanished, replaced by raw and weeping terror.

"Please! I have money! My father can give you anything!"

"I already have everything I need," Draven said.

Draven raised his left hand. He plunged the dull kunai directly into the center of Neville’s chest.

STAB!

The blade sank deep into his heart. Neville’s eyes bulged out of his skull.

Draven did not hesitate. He sent a sharp pulse of mana directly into the hilt of the weapon. The internal pressure rune activated.

CRACK.

The hidden glass vial inside the blade shattered. Pure, unadulterated sodium flooded directly into Neville’s bloodstream.

The chemical reaction was instantaneous and violently catastrophic. The sodium reacted with the heavy water content of the human blood.

Neville’s veins glowed a sickly and burning orange beneath his skin. His back arched off the bed in an unnatural and terrifying angle.

BOOM!

A wet and muffled explosion rocked the hospital bed. Neville’s torso violently ruptured from the inside out.

His heart and lungs were instantly vaporized by the chemical blast. Blood, bone shards, and shredded organs splattered aggressively across the sterile walls and the ceiling.

The Hero was dead.

Draven stood perfectly still in the center of the carnage. His black jacket was coated in blood.

He looked at the ruined remains of Neville Hennesy. There was no pity in his dark eyes. It was just another target crossed off the elimination list.

Draven raised his hand.

[Skill Activated: Janitor]

FWOOSH!

A wave of clear kinetic energy swept through the entire hospital room. The blood vanished from the walls.

The gore disappeared from the ceiling. Draven’s clothes were instantly cleaned. The room smelled like fresh medical bleach again.

Draven stepped forward. He pulled a sharp combat knife from his inventory. He grabbed Neville’s lifeless right hand and quickly severed the index finger.

He placed the bloody finger neatly on the center of the pristine mattress.

Next to the severed digit, Draven placed a piece of black parchment. He had drawn the dark and jagged symbol of the Eternal Eclipse on it.

We have the Golden Boy. We demand fifty million credits from Patriarch Hennessey. Await our instructions. Praise the Eclipse.

It was the perfect frame job.

Draven grabbed the rest of Neville’s ruined corpse. He tapped his spatial storage ring.

The body instantly vanished into his inventory, leaving no other trace of the murder behind.

"Rest in peace, Hero," Draven muttered sarcastically.

He turned around and walked out of the open door. The hospital was completely silent.

He activated his Blank Canvas skill again and faded into the shadows.

The World had lost it’s Hero and now the burden was on the shoulders of an Extra.