Life Of A Nobody - as a Villain

278 Mansion of Madness - Eclipse

After dealing with everything in Angel, Rio sent Esme away and moved on the highest floor of the building, which was his own private floor. Where no one but him was allowed entry.

As he stepped out of the lift, the doors and security measures locked the entire floor. His appearance started changing into that of Shiva and once done his figure disappeared into a spatial portal.

Appearing in his next office of Eclipse.

Eclipse didn't have a fixed headquarters, nor a fixed location from which they operated. The base Rio had gotten for Eclipse was actually a tower artifact, called 'Mahal of Madness'. (Mansion of Madness)

A residential artifact which was similar to a moving mansion, something that would always rotate around the center of the tower it was founded inside. It could change its size, shape, space and color according to the owner's wishes. It had its own offense and defense systems. Even the speed it rotated around the tower could be controlled by its master.

And once this artifact recognized its owner, it would be bound to that person, just like other soul bound artifacts.

In the novel, this artifact appeared after phase 2 of Emergence started and was the base of another villain group. And the ruler of this base was a villainess called Cersei Macbeth.

But in reality this base artifact was bound to the soul of her stepdaughter, who was too afraid to go against her mommy's wishes.

But as anyone who ever read some cliched novel can guess, that girl is a pitiful vase heroine, who's just waiting to be saved by the hero. A hero, who decides to help her get freedom. Later this pitiful girl gets courage to stand against her evil stepmother listening to hero's heroic speech and together they kill the villainess.

The heroine feeling gratitude wants to give this treasure to hero, but the righteous hero refuses and says he didn't do it for the treasure, but for her

Then heroine falls head over heels, a hug and a kiss, then bed that led to sex.

Happy ending.

(Ohh forgot to mention, later on hero gets both the pussy and the palace.)

Rio had no interest in this type of vase heroine with no useful quality. The villainess stepmother on the other hand, now she was something interesting.

"You're back." Cersei said as she felt the familiar breath of magic appearing in the mansion and directly appeared in front of him.

Shiva nodded his head as he turned to look at the mature women dressed in a red chongsan with a cigar in her mouth and a sword on her waist.

The smell of peony flowers filled the room as she started walking like an enchantress. Her each move was filled with seductive charm, as her tight dress highlighted her proud curves and hot figure.

Yet instead of being charmed or staring at her body like a hungry beast, Shiva just shook his head seeing her usual tricks, which was also the reason he kept her around and alive.

"Gather everyone." He said and started walking, as the floor and walls around him gave way to him and he appeared inside a large hall, which was originally quite a distance away from his office.

Ignoring the supernatural phenomenon, Shiva just walked on the steps as he reached his throne and sat upon it.

(It wasn't his doing, this damn artifact intended on giving this treatment for its new master.)

Looking at the gloomy environment of this large hall, with floor filled with cold smoke and walls painted in black and blood. Shiva shook his head.

'How long till it's completely refined?' Rio asked hearing the ghostly whispers sounding through the empty walls.

[Another 3 months.]

"Just fucking great." Shiva said and waved his hands to disperse everything and clearing up all the gloominess and haunting scenery.

Just this one thing dropped his mana by nearly 80%.

'System' Rio said and next moment felt pure mana flowing his veins and gathering in his body.

[Happy to help.] System said as it deducted his point in return for mana.

Endless supply of mana was just at his fingertipsall with the number of points he had, after all.

As the hall cleared, sounds of footsteps started appearing from all sides and soon in front of him stood 7 people. 5 male and 2 females.

Core members of his Eclipse.

Riley and Ryan - his shadows.

Cersei, Nirdayi, Jellal, Killian, and Desoltor - his minions.

Aside from Riley and Ryan who were team protagonist in the novel, all the other 5 members were villains - some minor, some average.

"Welcome back, master." ×7

Everyone said as they bowed their heads and stayed like this until he didn't signal them otherwise.

"A bunch of trash." Shiva said as he looked at all of them and cursed them after seeing their progress in his disappearance. The pressure of a mountain weighed on their heads, as the gravity where they were standing suddenly increased many times, depending on their strength and endurance.

Formations and runes appeared all around them, sealing their mana and restraining their aura.

Their backs lumped and knees touched the floor with a bang, as the pressure on them kept increasing. Yet there was no sound of any damage to the floor below their feet.

"2 years." Shiva shouted as he crossed his legs "2 years of time and this is all you managed to do. Forget the outside world, half the floating islands doesn't recognize your name."

"Master, that_ we _."

"We avoided the officials, other guilds and the families to maintain cover." Cersei said with gritted teeth.

"Yes master, we've already controlled more than a dozen of businesses. " Killian said as he clenched the paint brush in his hands, to stop the feeling of it breaking out of his control and attacking Shiva in self defense. "Everything is going perfect."

"Perfect" Rio sneered and waved his hand, as the floor space between Killian and the pillar behind him disappearedand in his horrified eyes. The wooden pillar made an extra long spear forming out if itself which stabbed him in the stomach and nailed him to the air.

Urgh- Killian spurted a mouthful of blood and grunted in pain. When the next moment everything returned to normal, and the pillar disappeared and he fell down to the floor with a loud thud. Returning back to his original place nearby other members.

"A shitty club owner dares to refuse our payment and tries to fights back - is that what you call perfect." Shiva coldly spat at them and Killian trembled in fear and stayed silent with his head down.

"That fault lies with me, master. I should've handled it myself." Ryan crawled forward and said to him.

"The fault is all of yours, you all had some skills and that's why I gathered you and spared your lives. But what did you do, 2 years time, and you lot just wasted it sitting around, playing house."

"No more mercy." Shiva said as the pressure on everyone got cancelled and everything turned to normal.

"Riley will issue a couple of tasks to all of you soon, and within 3 months time I need all of them finished. If any of you failed, he'll be joining the ghosts trapped in the walls of this mansion."

Shiva's words had just finished as the black fog covered the floor again, as strange faces formed on the bloodied walls and wailing sounds filled with horror and pain echoed in the chamber.

Sweat formed over Killian's forehead as he seemed to see his own face in one such corner. And a voice calling out to him.

"Get out." Shiva said and all of them disappeared from the hall and appeared in their own rooms.

[Don't take out your anger on these guys, host.] System spoke once Shiva was alone and started smoking. [They're still useful, after all.]

'You aren't here or you'll be joining them too.' Shiva said as he puffed out the smoke and stood up from his throne.

[...] (Silence)

##

Author note - You guys already know the backstory about how Shiva got Riley and Ryan on his side. As for other members of Eclipse, you'll get to know their stories, methods and motivations with more time and appearance they get on screen.

By the way, just a question - How do u think Rio managed to get this artifact from that vase heroine's hands. Is she alive or dead?