I Enrolled as the Villain
Chapter 40: Before The Flames Begin

Chapter 40: Before The Flames Begin

The entire stronghold was drenched in crimson walls, banners, even the stone seemed stained. Firelight from braziers and torches cast a hellish glow across the structure.

Turrets lined the walls not sleek, mana-driven cannons like Valery’s, but brutal mechanical engines shaped like jaws. Their slow, deliberate rotation was meant to terrorize as much as kill.

Rows of soldiers marched below not in standard armor.

Silas leaned forward, narrowing his eyes. "Are those... knight suits?"

He tapped something on his wrist, snapping rapid images through his watch. His screen lit up as notes and logs auto-transcribed beside the pictures.

"What the hell..." he muttered. "That’s not even a uniform. That’s ceremonial-grade plate. Who the hell marches in that?"

As they watched the stronghold, something changed in the air.

Footsteps. Close.

Red Line patrol.

Without a word, Silas and Cendric dropped into the underbrush. They held their breath, eyes alert, letting the shadows hide them.

A group of Red Line soldiers stepped through the trees — five of them, armored in red. One stood out: taller, heavier armor, a long spear dragging behind him.

He stopped.

And turned.

"There’s someone here."

The spear snapped forward like a whip piercing through the brush with unnatural speed.

"Gah—!"

Cendric hit the ground hard as the spear’s tip slammed into his shoulder. He groaned, winded, pain flashing across his face then he threw both of his hands up.

"I surrender!" he yelled.

The Red Line leader raised a hand. "Capture him!"

Soldiers surged toward him.

But Cendric wasn’t done.

He glanced sideways toward the bushes where Silas was still hiding.

"Hey! They got you too, man!"

Silas’s eyes widened. He didn’t move, didn’t blink. Just raised both hands in a frantic shut up gesture.

Cendric ignored it.

"What the hell, dude? You’re the one who got caught and now you’re snitching on me?"

One of the soldiers paused. "Wait... there is someone else?"

Silas, completely still: Nope.

Cendric, louder now: "Don’t play dumb! He’s right over—"

A beat.

Silas stepped out from the brush slowly, face blank, jaw tight.

Then, voice low: "You snitching bastard."

Cendric winced. "Technically, they already saw you."

"They didn’t."

"Well... now they did. So. Great. Teamwork."

Silas didn’t respond. Just stared.

Moments later, both of them were on the ground red mana rods binding their arms and legs, glowing hot and tight.

Cendric sighed. "We are so screwed."

————

A notification blinked on my watch a video file marked with the Red Line seal. The feed was public. Broadcasted.

I opened it.

Cendric and Silas appeared on-screen, tied to metal chairs. Mana restraints locked their arms and legs in place. Behind them stood a man in full red armor, tall and broad. His hair, dyed an unnatural red, clashed with the gleam of his armor. He looked straight into the camera, unmoving.

Marlen approached fast. Her breathing was uneven.

"They really got them... How the hell did Red Line pull that off?"

The video glitched briefly, but the voice that followed came through:

"Two of the Eye’s blood. Secured. If you want them returned... come to us. Alone. No weapons."

Their leader stepped forward, red hair bleached to the root, armor gleaming like it had been bathed in fire.

The feed ended, but the silence it left behind didn’t.

Somewhere, water dripped. The sound of static faded into it, like the stronghold itself was holding its breath.

Then came a footstep

A group of Valery students approached, their boots scraping across the wet floor.

"What should we do, Leader?"

Their faces were tired, their uniforms wet, but their eyes were steady waiting for an answer.

I paused. My thoughts turned inward, scanning everything I knew. Then I remembered something from the novel hidden deep in the forest, one of the relics planted by the academy. A space-type, capable of short-range teleportation.

If it was still there.

If I was right.

Please let me be right.

If I could get to it, I could pull Silas and Cendric out.

And with the Mythrigan, locating it was possible.

"My Eye saw something," I said. "A relic hidden in the forest. I’m going after it."

The words left my mouth too easily — like I wasn’t gambling everything on a half-remembered line from a novel.

Of course this was happening.

Of course I’d be the idiot to walk away when everything depended on staying.

Marlen stepped in. "You’re going to leave?"

Her voice was sharp, focused.

"You’re the one holding this place together. Cendric and Silas are already gone. If you vanish too—"

She didn’t finish.

I looked at her, then the others.

"If I stay, we risk losing them. If I move now, we have a chance to bring them back."

She didn’t argue again.

My left eye lit up. Ice formed instantly along the Stronghold’s walls, shaping a defensive barrier.

"This will hold for a while."

I looked at them again with steady hand

"Marlen you are now in command temporarily. Keep the gates secure. Watch the perimeter. I’ll return with the relic."

Then I stepped toward the forest, the Mythrigan humming faintly in my vision.

Each step forward, I felt the weight of the base behind me.

But I didn’t stop.

As I pushed deeper into the forest, I opened the Mythrigan fully lens rotating, scanning, searching.

I couldn’t take too long. The Stronghold was barely holding. Their morale... it wouldn’t survive another blow.

I moved west, where the novel briefly mentioned something hidden among the trees. Just a line, almost forgettable.

The forest thickened as I pushed forward. Branches hung low and scraped my shoulders. Leaves stuck to my sleeves. The ground dipped beneath my steps, wet and uneven.

The deeper I went, the quieter it became. No birds. No wind. Just the sound of my boots pressing into soaked soil.

I kept moving, faster now.

Then—

"Gah—!"

Pain cut through my shoulder.

A red spear. Pierced clean through. Blood ran warm down my side. The impact had weight behind it, like something aimed with more than just force — with intention.

I staggered back. Breath caught. The Mythrigan shifted, too late to catch the strike.

Footsteps approached me steadily.

A figure moved through the mist. Red armor. Twin spears. He didn’t scan the trees or look around. He already knew.

"It was meant for your Eye," the man said, voice level, almost casual.

"But the Eye of God... still bends fate, it seems but can you survive the fire cycle."

He stopped a few meters ahead. His breathing didn’t change.

"I always had this need," he said, turning one of the spears in his grip.

"To be more than what I was. More than human."

There was no sneer. No threat. Just something calm, unshakable.

"Kael Valery Kaezel. You were born with the Eye. I built myself until it bled."

He tilted his head.

"What does it mean to be a god?"

No answers. Just the sound of water dripping from the trees.

And the way he didn’t raise his weapon.

He didn’t need to.

He was already here.

———

As Kael disappeared into the forest, Marlen turned to the remaining Valery students.

Some glanced his way, worry etched across their faces. Others said nothing they simply kept working, silent in their belief that their leader would return.

She raised her voice just enough.

"Alright. Back to your posts. You know your tasks. Follow Kael’s last orders."

The group slowly moved

One set up rusted turret mounts. Another rewired part of the comms array. Someone dragged out busted metal sheets to reinforce the gate.

All moving like gears in a machine barely holding together.

Marlen made her way back to the infirmary.

As she neared the entrance, something caught her eye.

A doll. Hanging upside down from the doorframe by a red string.

It swung slightly in the air.

She stopped.

The doll’s head was cracked, its glass eye missing. The stitching had been torn along the side, stuffing leaking out.

She looked around. Nothing. No sound. No presence.

She opened the door.

Inside, Jessa lay still, half-awake, eyes barely open, a fragment of a white doll clutched against her chest.

Marlen sat beside her without a word.

Then—

Zzzzzhhhhhhh.

The sound of static. Sudden. Violent. Red light flooded the infirmary.

Marlen jerked up. "Ngh—!"

Marlen turned her head and looked toward the window—

—and all she saw was red.

A student sprinted toward her, face pale, breath ragged.

"Marlen!" he gasped. "It’s the Red Line—!"

Then the Stronghold shook.

A dull roar rolled through the metal foundation like a living growl.

Marlen’s eyes snapped toward the gates.

"—They’ve attacked."

———-

Deep within the Red Line stronghold,

a woman sat unmoving in armor so vividly red it seemed to bleed light, painful to look at for too long. It wasn’t just color. It was command.

Before her, the holographic map flickered. The Eye’s trace pulsed weakly at its edge.

"The Eye of God..." she murmured. "Weaker than the myths promised."

Her fingers tapped once against the armrest. Deliberate. Calm.

She leaned back, lips curling into something unreadable.

"Even divinity burns red... before it dies"