Reincarnated as the Villainess's Unlucky Bodyguard-Chapter 170: Into the Abyss

The words settled in the air like a seal upon reality.

"Welcome home."

Liria felt the weight of them press against her skin, sinking deeper, threading into her bones like ink into parchment. The last tether to her former world unraveled, slipping from her grasp without resistance.

There was no mourning. No hesitation.

She let it go.

A pulse of energy radiated from where her fingers met the Dark Sovereign’s hand. It wasn’t just warmth it was a force, coiling around her, sinking into the spaces between thought and instinct. The sensation should have been overwhelming. It wasn’t.

It was familiar.

The throne room faded. Not as if it had been erased, but as though it had never truly existed, dissolving into a canvas of shifting darkness. The vast emptiness did not feel hollow. It breathed, alive with unseen currents, pressing in from all directions.

The Dark Sovereign remained the only constant, her presence steady, unwavering. Her golden eyes held no malice, no expectation only certainty, as if she had known this moment would come from the very beginning.

Liria took a breath, and the air if it could be called that filled her lungs like silk spun from shadows.

"What happens now?" Her voice was steady, stripped of uncertainty.

The Dark Sovereign’s lips curved slightly.

"Now, you awaken."

The space around them shifted.

A slow unraveling, not of movement, but of perception. It was as though the very fabric of existence was being peeled away, revealing something beneath, something vast and incomprehensible.

Liria’s vision blurred for a moment, shapes twisting at the edges, colors bleeding into nothing. The sensation wasn’t disorienting it was freeing.

She was unraveling.

Not breaking. Not dissolving.

Becoming.

The Dark Sovereign lifted her other hand, and the space between them rippled. A jagged tear formed in the fabric of reality, opening into something deeper than shadow, darker than void. It wasn’t an abyss. It was something beyond it.

"You’ve felt it already," the Dark Sovereign murmured, her voice both distant and near, brushing against the edges of Liria’s mind. "The power stirring beneath your skin. The truth buried in your bones."

Liria stared into the rift.

It called to her.

Not with words, not with hunger, but with the undeniable pull of something long forgotten.

She didn’t speak.

The Dark Sovereign watched her carefully. "You are not stepping into something new, Liria. You are returning to what was always yours."

The words settled deep, pressing against the whisper that had followed her for weeks.

She had tried to explain it as something foreign, something pressing in from the outside.

But she had known the truth all along.

This wasn’t an invasion.

It was remembrance.

Liria exhaled softly. "Then show me."

The Dark Sovereign’s golden eyes gleamed.

Without another word, she stepped into the rift.

Liria followed.

The moment her foot crossed the threshold, everything fractured.

Sound vanished.

Light ceased.

There was no falling, no floating just absence.

Yet Liria remained whole.

Her senses stretched, adjusting to something beyond mortal understanding. It was not the cold emptiness of the void. It was something deeper. A realm unbound by time, untouched by the logic of the world she had known.

Shapes flickered at the edges of perception. Not physical. Not shadows. Echoes.

They whispered, not with words, but with meaning, each presence shifting like a memory barely out of reach. Some familiar. Some nameless. All waiting.

A heartbeat pulsed through the space.

Not hers.

Something older.

Something endless.

She knew this place. Not from experience, but from recognition that lived in her marrow.

Liria moved or perhaps she simply willed herself forward. There was no ground, no sky, only the weight of presence. The further she stepped, the clearer the whispers became, weaving into something more tangible.

She wasn’t alone.

Figures emerged from the void not quite solid, not entirely incorporeal. Their forms were indistinct, shifting between states of existence, each carrying an aura that pressed against reality.

They were not spirits.

They were remnants.

Fragments of something that had once been whole, lingering in the space between existence and memory.

They watched her.

Not with judgment. Not with expectation.

With recognition.

One of them stepped closer. Its form was dark, threaded with veins of molten red, its presence radiating raw, unshaped power. Its voice did not break the silence, but it filled the space between her thoughts.

"You return."

Liria inhaled sharply.

This wasn’t a conversation. It wasn’t a test.

It was an acknowledgment.

The Dark Sovereign’s presence flared behind her, steady, patient. She was not guiding Liria. She was witnessing.

Liria’s pulse quickened as the remnants circled her. Each presence brushed against the edge of her awareness, pressing deeper, waiting for her to see.

A memory not her own flashed through her mind.

A battlefield wreathed in shadow, fire licking at the edges of a shattered sky. A throne carved from something far older than stone, its surface etched with symbols she could not yet understand. A figure, standing where she stood now, watching as the world bent to their will.

Not just any figure.

Herself.

But not as she was.

As she had been.

The weight of the revelation crashed over her, shattering the last remnants of denial.

This was not a gift.

This was not something being offered.

It had always been hers.

Buried. Forgotten. Erased.

And now it was waking.

The remnants pressed closer, their forms shifting, the echoes of power bleeding into the space between them. The Dark Sovereign stepped forward, her golden eyes locked onto Liria’s.

"You understand now."

Liria’s breath came slow, steady. Her hands clenched, not in fear, but in acceptance.

She did understand.

This was not corruption.

It was not a descent.

It was returning.

The Dark Sovereign lifted her hand once more, not as a command, but as an offering.

"You are ready."

Liria met her gaze.

For the first time in weeks, the whisper inside her didn’t urge, didn’t coax.

It simply waited.

She didn’t hesitate.

Her fingers closed around the Dark Sovereign’s hand.

A final pulse of energy rippled through the space, and the remnants bowed.

The last piece of the past slipped into place.

Liria was home.

And the world would soon remember what it had tried to forget.

Warmth wrapped around Liria like silk.

She had expected darkness cold, suffocating, the weight of power pressing against her like chains. But there was none of that.

The Dark Sovereign’s presence was steady, commanding but not oppressive. The way she held Liria’s hand was not forceful, not a demand for obedience, but something gentler. A mother guiding her child home.

Liria didn’t resist as she was led through the shifting void. The remnants watched, silent witnesses to her choice. The space around them bent, and without a sound, the formless abyss shifted into something real. Explore new worlds at novelbuddy

A chamber unfolded before her, carved from obsidian, its walls lined with flickering violet torches. The air carried a faint warmth, different from the cold magic of the academy, richer, deeper. The room itself was grand yet strangely intimate, a place of quiet power rather than ostentatious rule.

A bed of dark silken sheets rested against the far wall. Liria barely realized how exhausted she was until she saw it.

The Dark Sovereign released her hand, the motion smooth, deliberate. "Rest," she murmured. "You have come far."

Liria hesitated. "I’m fine."

The golden eyes softened, something fond flickering beneath their intensity. "You are not."

A hand lifted, fingertips brushing lightly against Liria’s temple.

The warmth deepened. Not magic, not force. Just comfort. A quiet, unshakable presence.

Liria’s body betrayed her, sinking into that touch, her muscles easing despite her mind’s resistance.

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[This is a trap.]

The system’s voice sliced through the moment, sharp with urgency.

[She’s trying to lull you into a sense of safety. Make you trust her. This is how it starts.]

Liria inhaled slowly, not answering.

The Dark Sovereign’s fingers traced down to her jaw before pulling away, her gaze unreadable.

"Do you think I mean you harm?" she asked, voice like velvet over steel.

Liria blinked. The question shouldn’t have been difficult to answer.

The system filled the silence.

[Of course she does! She’s the Dark Sovereign. This isn’t kindness, it’s strategy.]

Liria’s mouth remained shut.

Because it didn’t feel like a lie.

It didn’t feel like deception.

The Dark Sovereign stepped back, giving her space. "You are free to leave," she said simply. "If that is what you desire."

Liria’s breath caught.

The system faltered.

[That’s—]

"She’s not lying," Liria whispered.

The words slipped out before she could stop them.

The Dark Sovereign watched her carefully.

"Rest," she repeated, and this time, Liria obeyed.

She settled onto the bed, its silken warmth wrapping around her like shadow.

The Dark Sovereign remained by her side, silent, steady. A guardian rather than a captor.

Liria’s eyelids grew heavy, exhaustion sinking deeper.

The system’s voice was distant now, pleading rather than demanding.

[Please. Don’t trust her.]

Liria exhaled, her last thought before sleep claiming her.

Maybe I already do.