I'm in Love with the Villainess!-Chapter 201: Horror...?
THUD!
I hit the bottom of the pit at last.
Or at least, what felt like the bottom. Instead of answers, though, I got even more questions. The platforms I’d been jumping down from had vanished ages ago. Down here, the rock was untouched—natural, not carved or reinforced.
No supports and machinery. Nothing that could’ve dug this deep.
Unless the mining company had used mages to drill further than where the platforms ended.
That should have been impossible.
For now, though, nothing seemed immediately wrong.
Nothing except the blaring system notification that wouldn’t leave my vision.
[Nyx’s Presence Warns You]
I forced myself to ignore it for a moment and studied the walls around me. The shaft was perfectly circular, the stone cut clean—too clean. If this really was a mage’s work, then their control over magic made mine look like a child’s scribble.
It was almost... atomically precise, if I had to put it into words.
The surface gleamed like polished marble.
That should not exist in an abandoned mine shaft.
[Warning!]
"What?"
BADUMP!
That feeling again.
I moved to the right without thinking, just in time to dodge something I couldn’t see. My eyes caught nothing, but every instinct I had screamed that I’d just avoided something lethal.
BADUMP!
Again. This time I stepped left, slipping past what felt like a ghost brushing by.
[Black Sun]
[Echo (On)]
If I couldn’t see it, I’d burn everything until I hit it.
Flames roared out of me, flooding the shaft from bottom to top. The platforms I’d passed on the way down melted and collapsed in the blast.
When the fire died...
My instincts shrieked again.
BADUMP!
"Shit...!"
I dropped, barely dodging another invisible strike. It felt like I was losing my mind. Was I actually fighting something, or were my nerves just misfiring, sending danger signals at random?
I didn’t want to find out the hard way.
I had to get out. Now—
Something brushed my hand.
It was as light as a feather. No—a blade? A tentacle? I couldn’t tell. The texture slipped away before I could make sense of it.
And then—
FWOOSH!
Black fire erupted from my hands the instant that touch registered.
[Black Flames Counteracting Unknown Presence]
[Advice: Leave]
FWOOSH!
This time my cheek ignited, a burst of black flame tearing across my face. It was getting faster—so fast my instincts couldn’t even keep up.
FWOOSH!
Then my legs.
"Shit!"
[Dark Step]
I teleported back to the point where I’d first jumped, dodging another unseen touch by a hair.
For a split second, the world snapped into pure black.
Cold. Suffocating. Like something vast and ancient had just turned its head toward me.
Then I slammed back into reality, stumbling onto the familiar ledge as I tripped on a stray rock, lungs burning as if I’d run a marathon.
THUD!
"Was it a ghost...?"
I still had no idea what I was dealing with. I didn’t even know if it could actually kill me. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖
I knew it was dangerous—but how? My body reacted with flames every time it touched me, yet I felt no real pain. No lasting wounds.
Part of me wanted to disable my spells, just to see what would happen.
But I liked being alive more.
"So, looks like I’ve got my answer to everything weird that’s going on in this town."
The question now was: what in the world was it, and what did it even do? I definitely didn’t want to turn myself into a test dummy.
Luckily, I had the perfect alternative. I should at least get one more answer before I return to Evelina.
[Dark Step]
I teleported outside and grabbed the closest living animal I could find.
A squirrel.
Should be good enough.
[Dark Step]
Then I returned to the ledge. My plan was simple: see if it attacked the squirrel, and find out what in the world it would do to something that didn’t have black flames like mine.
The thought of going back down there myself, though...
I really didn’t want that.
"I’ll play it safe."
[Holy Flame Manipulation]
I coated the squirrel in holy flames—just enough to protect it from the worst of the damage when it landed below.
"Nothing personal."
I hurled the squirrel over the edge and squatted down, waiting for the impact, enhancing my hearing with magic.
After a minute or so...
THUD!
It landed.
As for the next step...?
[The Serpent’s Amulet Resisted Memory Erasure]
"H-Huh...?"
For a second, I just blinked, crouched at the edge of the shaft, staring into the darkness and waiting for something to happen.
Waiting for... something.
"...What was I doing again?" I frowned.
That wasn’t right.
I knew I had just done something—something important, something that mattered enough to leave my nerves humming.
My hand tightened slightly.
There was a faint warmth lingering on my fingers, a thin residue of holy flame clinging to my skin like dust.
"...Did I drop something?"
No.
No, that wasn’t it.
[The Serpent’s Amulet Counteracted Memory Erasure]
The notification pulsed again, sharper this time, cutting through the fog in my head.
And then—
It hit me.
"Squirrel."
My head snapped up.
"I dropped a squirrel."
Why would I—?
Right.
A test. My test. The invisible thing waiting below.
My thoughts slammed back into place all at once, like puzzle pieces violently snapping together.
"...Right."
My breathing slowed.
"Something’s down there. Something that messes with memory."
I exhaled through my nose, forcing myself to stay calm.
"Great. Just great."
Of all the things it could’ve been...
A monster, a cursed artifact, or some underground faction just as big as the Shadow Society.
No, of course not.
Of course, it had to be something weird.
Something I couldn’t punch, touch, or even see—something I still didn’t know enough about.
Still, I probably had enough to form a hypothesis. Maybe... just one more squirrel would be enough for me to finally come up with a full answer before I report to Evelina about what’s going on.
