Lancet’s plans started right after the first day of training.

He faced a cold, hard truth after that training. No matter how much he pushed himself right now, he was fundamentally a Summoner. With his restricted physical strength, he could never defeat a Demon Head.

But that didn’t mean he was giving if.

If Lancet couldn’t force himself to reach the monster’s level, he was going to bring the Demon Head down to his.

Lying in his bed, his muscles screaming from the simulations and his head echoing with Professor Wolfgar’s orders, Lancet began his plans for his new character.

Since this was going to be his first character that wasn’t pre-planned from his life in his former world, Lancet was starting entirely from scratch.

But that empty canvas made him think even harder.

’What kind of character would help me kill a Demon Head?’

’Why would they help me?’

’What kind of power should they have?’

’How can that power be extremely overpowered, but have enough narrative depth to cut the CP price?’

After a long night of brainstorming, Lancet came up with an idea. A highly controversial idea.

He was going to create his first Villainess.

He didn’t have a free Summon Slot and without one, the system wouldn’t even allow him to draft. So, Lancet went old school. He pulled out a piece of notebook paper and a pen, writing using his memory of the Character Creation menu.

’Name: Spectra Hexarra’

’Appearance: ...’

Since she was a villainess, he needed her appearance to show that. But he also wanted her to carry an alluring look about her; a perfect blend of a femme fatale and gothic horror.

Lancet scribbled down the details like he would in the system.

’Appearance: Height: 178cm. Physique: Statuesque and extremely voluptuous with a pronounced hourglass figure. Hair: Very long and pure white. Eyes: Crimson-pink irises with dark eye-shadows. Attire: A tight black leather corset, sleeveless, and skin-tight high-cut leather pants with golden and red inscriptions. Headwear: A gothic headpiece featuring a deeply blooming crimson rose and golden spikes. ⸥

He read it over. Good. Now, the personality.

Lancet could imagine what he wanted her Personality to be, but her Personality also had to be molded by her Event and Motives. So he has to be careful here.

If he was making her a Villainess, her personality had to justify her actions without making her completely uncooperative. He wanted her driven by something deeper than mindless destruction.

’Personality: Seductively tyrannical and fiercely maternal towards Demons, viewing them as her misunderstood "children." She is pragmatic and calculating, she also resents humanity’s narrow-mindedness and fear of the unconventional. She is fiercely overprotective, entirely accepting of her delusional motherly identity, and ruthless.’

Lancet thought that was pretty good. Next was her origin.

’Family/Birthplace: Born in the Era of Rebirth, the period following the Era of Ash. In the city of Ashenrise.’

Ashenrise was well known to be a dark, scary city with a haunted past. It simply fit her character and was why he chose it.

Next, he chose her powers. This was the first thing he had come up with.

’Class: Demon Binder.’

’Advanced Class: Mother of Demons.’

’Description: Spectra evolved from the limits of her Class to use Grace to manipulate Gloom directly. This grants her the Demon Necromancy Skill and also allows her to actively morph her own physical body into horrifying demonic states and safely return to normal without being corrupted into a mindless beast.’

Lancet stopped writing. He stared at the paper. Her powers were undeniably broken and he knew the system was going to go crazy once he inputted that.

To justify power like that, he needed a very impressive Event and Motive that the Narrative Coupon would have no choice but to subsidize the cost.

He couldn’t think of anything good enough yet so he folded the paper and went to sleep.

On the second night, after even more exhausting physical training, Lancet finally came up with the rest of Spectra’s story. And he was going big. Bigger than anything he had attempted so far.

Lancet’s decision to make her a Villainess wasn’t the controversial part of his plan. The controversy was him making Baphomet her summon.

In the light novel, one of the Demon Lords, Baphomet, was stated to be "missing" sometime between the Era of Ash and the Era of Education. It was a massive lore mystery.

The author had teased on the forums that he had grand plans for a future arc revealing exactly how and why the Demon Lord vanished.

So by doing this, Lancet was basically ruining that entire arc for the author. He was stealing the author’s plot twist.

Was it against the rules? Nope!

The Lore Attunement rules did say that he was not allowed to contradict canon. But canon has to be established, doesn’t it?

The author hadn’t actually written that arc into the story yet. So technically, it wasn’t established lore! It was free real estate.

"Hehe," Lancet chuckled to himself in the quiet of his dorm. "If it truly was the author that sent me here, he’d be real pissed right about now."

Grinning like a madman, Lancet wrote down the Events that occurred in Ashenrise and Dakatharit, and then, her Motives.

’Motive: To kill the remaining Demon Lords, free her "children" from their control, and rule over Hellfyre in peace. She wishes to be left entirely alone by humanity. However, she is pragmatic and willing to form temporary alliances with humans to slaughter Demon Lords, provided the humans do not hunt her out of fear afterward.’

He finished it off with her minor details.

’Spectra has a weakness for dark chocolate and sweet wine. She is a massive neat freak who absolutely despises getting her leather or white hair dirty during a slaughter. She likes animals, but not pets.’

Then he folded the paper, and tucked it safely into his belt pocket as they traveled to Hebthej.

Lancet had hoped that Astensia or Thor would gather enough EXP from the simulation training to level up so he could get a new Summon Slot. But the simulations simply didn’t yield enough.

He had to wait for the battle in Hebthej.

That was why Astensia had received her level-up just before Lancet disappeared.

After slaughtering the Demons at the back gate, Lancet summoned his interface, pulled the crumpled paper from his pocket and rapidly inputted everything he had written.

As expected, the moment he typed in her Class details, the system interface flashed red.

⸢ System Warning: ’Mother of Demons’ is a Mythic-Tier Advancement. Your Villainess possesses potential world-threatening powers and houses a Demon Lord. CP Cost is extremely critical. ⸥

Lancet bit his lip. ’Hopefully the Narrative Coupon helps me out a little bit.’

⸢ Calculating CP Cost... ⸥

⸢ ... ⸥

⸢ Villainess, Spectra Hexarra, costs 5,400 CP ⸥

Lancet’s jaw dropped. ’5400?! That’s way higher than Astensia or Thor!’ He gripped the hilt of his sword. "Come on, Coupie," he whispered to the glowing screen. "I really think I cooked here. Come on."

⸢ Analyzing Narrative Depth... ⸥ 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

⸢ Complexity: S-Tier. ⸥

⸢ Character Backstory: SS-Tier. ⸥

⸢ Personality: A-Tier. ⸥

⸢ Motive: SS-Tier. ⸥

⸢ Lore Attunement: SSS-Tier (World-Altering Exploit Detected). ⸥

Lancet pumped his fist. "Yes!"

⸢ ... Applying Maximum Narrative Discount. ⸥

The terrifying number of 5,400 CP rapidly began to spin backward, dropping through the thousands until it finally locked into place.

⸢ Total Cost: 1200 CP ⸥

Lancet’s eyes widened. ’What the... I almost feel like a thief.’

⸢ VILLAINESS SHEET FINALIZATION ⸥

⸢ Name: Spectra Hexarra ⸥

⸢ Rank: Platinum ⸥

⸢ Class: Mother of Gehenna (Demon Binder) ⸥

⸢ Weapon: The Hellstaff ⸥

⸢ Motive: To slaughter the Demon Lords, free her children, and rule Hellfyre in peace. ⸥

⸢ Personality: Seductively tyrannical, calculating, and fiercely overprotective. ⸥

⸢ Event: The first Demon Binder who defied humanity and built a horde of Demons she called her children. Branded a Villainess, she bound Baphomet at her peak, but Baal later stripped her power. Weakened, she was executed by humans who feared her Gloom. ⸥

⸢ Create? [YES] / [NO] / [LATER] ⸥

Lancet confidently selected [YES].

⸢ Villainess is being created. Please wait. ⸥

⸢ ... ⸥

⸢ ... ⸥

Ding!

⸢ Villainess created successfully. Spectra Hexarra is now waiting in the Summon Space ⸥

Lancet summoned her immediately.

When Spectra materialized, she was completely distraught, panting uncontrollably, disoriented, and emotionally shattered by the loss of her children.

Lancet quickly explained her new reality, his ’ladder summoning’ powers, and exactly why she was here.

Spectra’s panic slowly faded and she had this glint in her crimson-pink eyes as Lancet spoke. She was clearly formulating a grand plan in the back of her mind.

However, Lancet had also planned for her deceptiveness. He intentionally made Demon Lord Baal to untether her from her horde before she died.

That meant that Spectra was powerless at that moment. She had no Demon Souls to draw strength from.

So, he got her to make a deal with him.

He promised to feed her the trapped Demon Souls he had just harvested to help her regain her dormant power. And if she helped him take down the Demon Head in the cemetery, he would help her find her catalyst. Her legendary necklace. The one with Baphomet locked inside for ages.

Spectra, deeply amused and intrigued by the audacity of this human summoner, agreed.

Lancet unsummoned her right after the pact was struck. He then leveled up Thor, suspecting she might need it for her own battle.

Now, Lancet had two more Summon Slots. It was more than he currently needed, but more was always better.

Besides, he had several more Heroines planned. And maybe even another Villainess.

But that was for the future.

Now, back in the present reality of the Hebthej cemetery, Spectra was still floating gracefully above the earth.

Ethereal, red and black wisps of energy poured out from her extended hands, sinking directly into the chest of the Demon Head.

Bulkrat wailed, his dozen floating eyes squinting in pain as the Mother of Gehenna mercilessly siphoned the Gloom and lifeforce directly from his core.

Spectra looked down at the Demon, a patronizing smile on her blood-red lips.

"Don’t cry, my child," Spectra whispered, her voice dripping with cruel affection. "A mother always has to make sacrifices for the betterment of her other children. You’ve been a naughty, naughty boy. So this... is your punishment."