Reincarnated as the Villainess’s Unlucky Bodyguard

Enara did not have the time or the patience to process the absolute absurdity of Ananara standing there, now a towering menace of thorned vines and an exasperating sense of superiority. She was still trying to come to terms with the fact that her life had, at some point, become a never-ending spiral of increasingly ridiculous events, and this? This was just the latest in a long list of things she was not emotionally prepared for.

"Fine," she muttered, rolling her shoulders as she prepared to lunge back into the fight. "But if he starts making dramatic speeches, I'm leaving."

Ananara grinned. The vines around his body shifted, tightening like armor. "Oh, princess, I was born for dramatic speeches."

Daena groaned. "Just kill the damn things already."

And with that, chaos resumed.

The smoke-like figures more solid now, shifting in and out of tangibility darted forward, flickering like broken candlelight, their shapes twisting unpredictably. Enara dodged one that came too close, feeling the unnatural chill scrape against her skin like an unholy wind.

She slashed with her dagger, her darkfire trailing along the blade, and this time, when the weapon met resistance, the creature let out a sharp, otherworldly shriek before bursting into wisps of nothing.

Good. That worked.

She turned, saw Daena tearing through them with brutal efficiency, her magic swirling around her like a violent storm. She didn't bother holding back not that Daena ever did and every swing of her blade sent shadows scattering into the night.

Ananara? He was laughing.

"Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic," he declared, smacking one of the creatures aside with a vine-covered limb, sending it crashing against a rock before it disintegrated. "Is this all the abyss has to offer these days? Embarrassing."

Enara scowled. "Can you stop taunting the monsters and actually fight?"

"I am fighting," he said, tossing another creature aside like it weighed nothing. "I'm just better at it than you."

She gritted her teeth, deciding to ignore that before she lost brain cells.

The battle didn't last long. Whatever these creatures were, they were weakened here perhaps only fragments of something more dangerous lurking deeper in this land.

Soon, the last of them vanished, their dying screams fading into the wind, leaving only the eerie silence in their wake.

Enara lowered her dagger, breath heavy, magic humming beneath her skin.

Daena stepped forward, surveying the area, her expression unreadable. "That wasn't a natural attack."

"No kidding," Enara muttered.

"Someone sent them."

That made her stomach twist.

Because if someone had sent them, that meant someone knew exactly where they were.

And worse? Why they were here.

She exhaled slowly, forcing herself to focus. "We need to keep moving."

Daena nodded, but her gaze was still locked on the horizon, as if expecting something worse to come.

And something worse did come.

It wasn't another attack.

It wasn't another group of creatures.

It wasn't even something she could put into words.

But she felt it.

The moment they crossed the next ridge, the moment the air shifted into something thick, unfamiliar, suffocating.

The moment her eyes landed on the figure standing in the distance.

Black hair.

Unmistakable.

Longer now, cascading like midnight silk, not a single trace of silver left.

She turned, and even from this distance, Enara felt it.

The weight of that gaze.

The emptiness in it.

The cold, unwavering, terrifying certainty.

Liria.

For a moment, no one moved.

The world seemed to hang in suspension, the air between them thick with something more than just magic an unspoken weight, a hollow distance that time had not erased but deepened.

Enara felt it in her bones, in the marrow of her magic, in the space where something that had once been familiar now felt like a threat wrapped in a person's shape.

Liria stood before them, and she was not the girl they had lost.

She was something else.

Her mismatched eyes glowed faintly in the abyssal dusk, a cruel trick of light making them seem more inhuman than Enara remembered. The black flames at her fingertips flickered lazily, as if they were an afterthought, as if she didn't even need them to burn everything to ash.

Her posture was perfectly still, unnatural in its precision.

No tension. No hesitation. No sign that she recognized them.

Or worse that she did, and it didn't matter.

Daena's voice was the first to break the silence, low and measured.

"Liria."

No response.

The darkfire curled idly around Liria's hands, but she did not move.

A test. A calculation. A moment stretched too thin.

Enara swallowed. "Liria, it's us."

Her own voice sounded wrong too uncertain, too fragile, too much like something that would shatter if pressed too hard.

Liria tilted her head, and the expression on her face was void of recognition, like she was examining a problem, not people.

Something clenched tight in Enara's chest.

Daena shifted, stepping forward cautiously, wings half-unfurled, prepared for anything. Enjoy new stories from My Virtual Library Empire

"This isn't funny," Daena said.

Still, Liria did not speak.

And then, with a movement so effortless it was almost an afterthought, she attacked.

Fast.

A black arc of flame ripped through the air, cutting through the ground between them like molten glass.

Daena barely had time to react before she was forced to deflect the heat with a pulse of her own magic, the force of it sending shockwaves through the earth.

Enara moved on instinct, twisting away as another wave of destruction followed faster than thought, faster than breath, faster than anything human should be.

This was not hesitation.

This was not uncertainty.

This was Liria looking at them and deciding they were enemies.

"Liria!" Enara shouted, rage and something else burning in her throat. "What the hell are you doing?!"

No response.

Just another strike.

Too strong. Too clean. Too purposeful.

Liria wasn't lashing out blindly. She wasn't reckless.

She was fighting with intent.

And she was winning.

Enara barely had time to register the next attack before she was forced to counter it, her own darkfire clashing against Liria's in a violent burst of energy.

The impact sent her skidding backward, boots digging into the scorched ground.

Daena wasn't faring much better. She was fast, powerful, and experienced but Liria was something else entirely.

Her movements had a precision that was beyond instinct, beyond training.

It was something deeper. Something woven into her very being.

A predator's grace. A sovereign's strength.

Something impossible to stop.

Another strike faster than before.

Enara deflected it, her breath coming in ragged gasps, her fingers trembling around the hilt of her blade.

She had never struggled like this before.

Not against anyone.

Not even against her parents.@@novelbin@@

Because Liria wasn't just strong.

She was unstoppable.

And she wasn't holding back.

The realization sent something sharp and horrible through Enara's chest.

"Liria," she tried again, desperation creeping into her voice. "You know who we are."

Liria blinked slowly, tilting her head just slightly, as if considering the words.

And then she smiled.

Not a soft smile.

Not an old, familiar smirk.

A cold one.

A hollow curve of the lips that was not Liria's smile at all.

"No," Liria said, her voice calm.

Enara's stomach dropped.

"You're mistaken," Liria continued, black fire curling idly around her fingertips. "I don't know you."

Lie.

It had to be a lie.

But the worst part?

She sounded like she believed it.

Daena moved first, wings flaring wide as she launched forward, attempting to disarm her.

Liria met her in an instant.

Their swords clashed with an impact so brutal the ground beneath them cracked.

Blow for blow. Strike for strike.

And yet, Daena was still being pushed back.

This wasn't just some power surge. This wasn't just strength.

This was Liria overpowering Daena like it was nothing.

Enara clenched her teeth, refusing to just watch.

With a burst of darkfire, she surged forward, blade raised, aiming to disarm, to stun, to do anything but Liria turned, her sword meeting Enara's with such ferocity the impact sent pain shooting up her arm.

She staggered back, breathless.

Liria's golden-green gaze bore into her, something foreign lurking behind it.

Then she moved.

Faster than before.

Too fast.

And in the split second before she struck, Enara realized something horrifying.

She wasn't going to win this fight.

Not against her.

Enara barely had time to register the next movement before Liria was already upon her.

A blur of black fire and steel, too fast, too precise, too ruthless.

Their swords clashed again, but this time, Enara wasn't the one pushing forward she was barely holding on.

Liria's strength was overwhelming, the force behind her attacks like a tidal wave threatening to break everything in its path.

And for the first time in her life, Enara felt it fear.

Not fear of pain. Not fear of losing.

Fear that this wasn't a battle she was meant to win.

Liria's blade carved through the air, aimed straight for her throat.

Enara barely managed to twist away in time, feeling the heat of black flames searing the air beside her face.

She gritted her teeth, her pulse thundering in her ears.

"Liria, stop this!" she snarled, trying to reach her through the haze of whatever had changed her.

But Liria's expression didn't shift.

She only smiled that same cold, unfamiliar smile.

And then she struck again.

Harder. Faster.

This time, Enara wasn't sure she could keep up.