The SSS Ranked Villain's Return

Neraxis soon left his house, slowly heading back to the academy.

He felt a bit silly for getting ready this fast—as, after all, he still had an hour remaining.

But during that time, he would do some research on his phone instead.

Typing in "Stradon Fortress," he was greeted by several articles detailing the place.

Just as its name suggested, it was a massive fortress surrounded by water on all sides, with thick stone walls covering the outside.

An interesting historical piece, but there was more.

Apparently, 100 years after the rifts first appeared, Stradon Fortress suffered a mass rift outbreak.

Yet as Neraxis scrolled down, he couldn't find a single article detailing the rift's clearing, which immediately made his eyes widen.@@novelbin@@

The monsters are perking up again after this many years since no one bothered to clear the rift? Are they stupid? No wonder I had a bad feeling about this. he thought and soon approached the mall, jumping up to the roof.

Ever since Celina had first shown him her spot, he visited it almost daily, and each time, he'd leave a small note for Celina to find the next time she came.

They were always some stupid scribbles, but nonetheless, she always sent a picture once she found them.

This time, he drew a cute dog and placed it inside the mattress layers, making it very hard to find.

Nonetheless, that's for Celina to figure out. In the meantime, he needed to cool off.

The choice Aella's mom had presented him was still actively lingering in his mind, and no matter how much he thought, only one overly optimistic and naive answer would leave him satisfied in the very end.

I simply need to get stronger—much stronger than I am now and than I ever was in the past.

A solid foundation was great, and he had more than a solid foundation to start with, given his experience. Therefore, he decided to pursue this choice, as naive as it was.

Neraxis set an alarm clock for exactly 40 minutes and began brainstorming possible outcomes for this excursion.

And after all those minutes were up and the alarm rang, he dashed straight toward the academy, arriving in less than a minute.

His travel clubmates were already grouped together, with Aurelia being the only one waiting for her partner.

He approached and stood beside her, earning a satisfied nod from Emily as she walked forward, giving instructions.

"We will be taking a warp gate over to the city next to Stradon Fortress, so those who have never been on a warp gate, please step forward."

A warp gate? he wondered and took a step forward.

[It's like a device connecting two places together. Basically teleportation, but just artificial,] Evangeline explained in a bored tone. [Can you give me some blood later? I'm running dry.]

Sure, he agreed, and Emily soon walked up to him, handing Neraxis a paper bag.

"In case you feel like you're about to throw up, use this," Emily stated, turning to the rest of the club members. "I know some of you also never went through this, so stop acting brave unless you want to clean your own vomit off the floor."

Hearing her words, exactly three more people stepped up, grumbling as they took hold of the paper bags and went back to their partners.

"Great, now that we've settled the obvious discomfort, I want all of you to have fun," Emily said with a soft smile.

Soon, a long limousine approached, stopping right before the academy's entrance. Discover exclusive tales on My Virtual Library Empire

"Here's our ride," Emily said and began walking toward it, with the club members trailing close behind.

They all got inside the limousine, seated right next to their partners, and soon, they began heading somewhere.

From what Neraxis could tell, they were heading toward the Dreamspire tower.

However, their paths diverged midway through, as they approached some kind of massive facility instead.

It was a simple skyscraper, but the entrance was anything but simple, as it was guarded by at least twenty guards.

Emily walked up to one of the guards and said, "Hi, we have an appointment here. Havenspire's travel club. My name's Emily Solis."

"We were informed of your arrival, yes. You may pass," the guard said, parting the way for them to walk through.

And that was exactly what they did—going inside the building and being led to an abnormally large elevator, which fit all of them perfectly.

After just a few minutes of going up, they finally stopped, leaving the elevator and approaching a set of metal doors.

Each door had the name of a region written on it, and soon, Emily led everyone toward the Bralkyr region's door.

One of the nearby guards scanned their ID cards one final time and soon let them through.

Immediately, the sight of several archways greeted his sight, each having a set color swirling inside them—similarly to how Seraphina created portals.

Just like the metal door, each archway had the names of several cities, some of which he could recognize.

However, Emily ignored most of them, approaching the pink warp gate with the name Astrad.

"Get your paper bags ready," she warned one final time and soon took a step through the archway, vanishing.

The others soon followed suit, and the last person was Neraxis, who carefully approached and went through.

At first, it felt fine, as his vision was merely blacked out for a moment, and he felt like he was swimming.

This comfortable sensation lasted all the way until it eventually stopped, and he found himself in a similar-looking room, covered in all sorts of archways.

Hm? It wasn't so ba—

Neraxis's thoughts were cut short when, all of a sudden, his guts felt like they were being rearranged.

That seemed to be the case for the others who took the paper bags, as soon, they all began vomiting in unison—Neraxis included.

And after just a few minutes of doing so, they finally stopped, plopping down to the ground, heaving heavy breaths.

"What the fuck? It felt fine, then suddenly..." Neraxis exclaimed but stopped himself as he felt his stomach acting up again.

"Just keep calm and lay down on the ground for a bit. It should go away in a couple of minutes," Emily said with a giggle, and he did just that.

[You sure looked stupid there, but hey, at least you are cute,] Evangeline remarked.

...Right. He nodded, closing his eyes for a few minutes until eventually, he felt the fatigue go away.

"Good, now that everyone's done with their vomiting break, throw the paper bags into the trash can. I'll give you a new pair once we head back," Emily instructed.

But that only sent shivers down his spine.

She means I'll have to experience the same thing again? How unpleasant...

Nonetheless, they headed outside now, roaming through an equally large building and heading down the elevator before being escorted outside.

Immediately, the fresh air hit their faces, and Neraxis couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.

These past couple of minutes felt like hell, and now, he could finally relax for at least the next couple of hours.

Emily took the liberty of getting them a car, which happened to be an equally fancy limousine that could fit each one of them inside.

Soon, they began making their way out of the city and off to the outskirts.

Out of the window, Neraxis could see the ocean in the distance and then an extremely large castle in the middle.

Is that the Stradon Fortress? It's a bit bigger than I saw in the pictures, he remarked inwardly as they finally approached closer, stopping just before the shoreline.

"We have to walk from here," Emily stated and got out, leading them toward the Stradon Fortress, which seemed to get bigger as they approached.

Finally, the massive castle gate appeared before his eyes, already open, with a single person waiting in the very middle.

It was a woman with fiery red hair and a swashbuckler strapped to her waist, flashing a wide smile as they approached her.

"Hello, Miss Harriet, we are—" Emily's words were interrupted as the woman turned to face the fortress.

"I know who you kids are. Just go inside already, this shit is already full to the brim."

"Uhh... Right." Emily nodded, and alongside the club members, followed Harriet inside the inner parts of the fortress.

As they did, several stalls could be seen scattered across the entire courtyard, with tens or even hundreds of people huddled around them.

However, one stall caught Neraxis's eye.

It was empty, with people merely passing by and ignoring it.

But that was not the case for him, since there was one item that had greatly caught his interest—even making him freeze in place.

[A dagger?] Evangeline asked. [Is it really so interesting?]

You see... Neraxis narrowed his eyes, a chuckle of disbelief leaving his mouth.

That's the same dagger Alice used to stab me through the heart.