I Have 10,000 SSS Rank Villains In My System Space Chapter 407: Nancy’s Pov

Nancy’s Pov~

Uneven, ragged gasps escaped Nancy’s lips as she fought to stay propped against the sharp rock face behind her. The chill stone bit into her bruised flesh, yet the pain registered faintly now. After all she’d suffered, it seemed trivial. Her lips quivered while she rasped out words, feeble and scratchy, lacking any real force. “Ughh... just... why are you doing this...?” she murmured, her parched throat aflame with each syllable. “Please... just let me go... what have I even done to you...? Why are you torturing me...?” Her bloodshot, weary eyes rose gradually to meet Riven’s gaze ahead.

Several meters distant, he hovered in the air, defying gravity with effortless poise. His demeanor stayed serene... excessively serene. Legs folded, hands resting together lightly, he exuded an eerie tranquility that clashed sharply with Nancy’s ordeal. Wisps of divine energy danced faintly around him, slender and delicate, but imbued with profound potency. Scarce in volume, its essence felt... supreme. Before him, suspended in stillness, floated that object... the peculiar, marble-like orb of cosmic shadow or whatever it was... Resembling an eye, but not entirely. Pitch-black exterior, yet speckled lights twinkled inside like stars captive in abyss. It spun lazily, seeming to watch all while disclosing naught. Riven fixated wholly on it, his mind apparently connected, engaging in silent communion beyond words.

No response came from him.

Not even a flutter of his eyelids.

Nancy gazed at him moments more, vision hazy as her head drooped once again, vitality ebbing away. Her form felt alien now. The mighty draconian build she’d cherished... reduced to a frail, shattered husk. Limbs quaked without cease, breaths faint, body marred by wounds, slashes, contusions, profound lacerations, and scars from fights blurred in memory. Once-tough skin now appeared ashen and ragged, taut over a frame exceeded past endurance. Her innate healing lagged too, as though surrendered to the onslaught.

She resembled nothing of her self from a month prior.

Nowhere near.

The power she’d wielded, the assurance in her stride... all faded into remote recollection.

For her trials... surpassed her wildest nightmares.

It began upon entering that portal.

Thereafter, matters deteriorated relentlessly.

Initially, Togi emerged... the man presumed deceased. One who’d once attempted the unspeakable against her... and botched it. Miraculously revived... perhaps to complete his prior failure.

Regardless... or through some means, she evaded him... Fled. Battled. Deployed every ability to break free. Success came... at grievous cost. Wounds from that clash had sapped her vigor profoundly. Within a portal brimming with perils, frailty spelled doom.

Concealment became her aim next.

Shifting locations ceaselessly.

Leveraging snowy landscapes for cover.

Breath held, aura quelled, every survival tactic employed.

Briefly... she endured.

Then monsters assailed.

Successively.

Unyielding.

As though the portal’s realm conspired to pursue her.

Despite debilitation, combat or flight remained her sole options. Victories sporadic. Escapes narrow. Each clash etched fresh injuries. Incisions lingering unhealed. Swellings atop prior ones. Vitality seeping away daily. Absent beasts, nature struck.

The frost.

That pitiless, unrelenting chill.

Once trapped in a blizzard spanning almost two days.

Two days of howling gales and ice flaying her like knives. Despite ice affinity and draconic endurance, it overwhelmed. Numbness seized her, actions leaden, mind fogged. Oblivion loomed, revival uncertain.

Then the plummets.

Twice terrain crumbled abruptly, hurling her into deep snow. Roughly fifty meters... Entombed. Choking. Recollection constricted her chest. Gloom. Crush. Sheer panic of asphyxiation. Clawed free twice, digits raw, frame shuddering, dread of collapse haunting each scramble.

And the precipices.

Four tumbles.

Indeed... Four oversights of drop-offs.

Each descent fracturing within... bones snapping, sinews ripping, agony detonating on impact below.

Insufficient still... the serpents.

Scores of them...

Poisonous.

Lurking under drifts, lunging unexpectedly.

Fangs injected myriad toxins, each inflicting unique agony. Sickness. Vertigo. Scorching under flesh. Sight dimming. Power waning further. Astonishingly... survival persisted. Crueler, truly. Protracting torment over merciful end.

Starvation clawed unceasingly.

Gut writhing, void for days.

Skull reeling.

Cognition sluggish.

Form craving repose denied.

The realm... engineered to shatter her.

To exceed her thresholds.

To unveil existence’s nadir.

Yet escape eluded.

No distance sufficed.

No stealth availed.

The portal barred egress.

As if selected her.

As if testing endurance till utter ruin.

Far graver incidents marked this period... moments, countless truly, convincing her demise imminent. Not vaguely, but instantly, inescapably. Trials not merely harsh... soul-shattering. Repeatedly brink-tested, then shoved beyond. Worst wasn’t torment corporeal... isolation absolute. No aid. No beacon. No reply.

All avenues exhausted. External contact methods futile. Severed from reality. Sustenance elusive inexplicably. Beasts or flora alike lethal. Nothing nourished. All destroyed. Draconic fortitude alone sustained. Ordinary folk perished manifold. Even she clung by filament.

One instant paramount... death embraced fully.

Roughly half-month past.

Vivid still.

B-rank snow wolf pack encircled. Not pair... horde taxing full-powered self. Yet impaired, drained, tainted, famished... locomotion faltered. Resistance attempted. Compelled rise, defied anguish, opposed. Body rebelled. Extremities foreign. Sight swam. Breaths feathered. Clarity dawned.

Victory unattainable.

Survival desire futile.

Thus ceased.

Not bodily... spiritually.

Embraced finality.

This demise site.

Oddly serene.

Nearly tranquil impending.

Riven materialized abruptly and saved her.

As though vigilant perpetually... ever-present.

Coincidence impossible.

None was.

Her tribulations... witnessed.

Perhaps orchestrated.

Then relocated her here.

This domain.

Severed from all.

Vast plain of level stone, punctuated by strewn boulders. Vacant. Excessively so. Akin to vacant theater anticipating drama unrealized. Arrival unchanged aught. Riven offered no elucidation... imposed no bounds.

Permitted mere persistence.

Initially, departure assayed.

Naturally.

Trudged one way hours seeming.

Days then.

Sprinted after.

Veered courses.

Probed all routes.

Futile.

Invariably circled back.

Identical stone.

Same void.

Returns wearier each.

As if locale siphoned essence.

Refused release.

Assaults on him ensued.

Despair propelled.

Strikes never connected.

Impenetrable barrier.

Or potency nullified nearing.

No parry, evasion, response.

Efforts dissolved.

Harm precluded.

Demise barred too.

Brink approached... collapse neared, awareness dimmed, intervention came. Minimal revival. No full mend. Barely sustained. Yanked from abyss. Desired alive... anguished.

Agony transcending body. Infiltrated psyche, identity, endurance. Flesh rent nerves, mind ravaged crueler. Exceeded bounds, fatigue, terror, conceived maxima. Clung tenuously, breaths labored justifications.

Ultimately... sixteen merely.

Untested youth. Nurtured pampered, affluent kin... opulence, safety, shelter. Ease dominant, woe abstract. Abruptly stripped unprepared into ferocity crushing veterans. Far from seasoned...

Yet persisted.

Scarce survival. Pure torment.

Aptest descriptor.

Nancy no fool... ever. Shattered yet cogent, piecing shards, seeking purpose amid affliction. Frail against stone, thoughts resisted capitulation.

Parched exhale forced eyes upward, straining focus on him. Weighty unresponsive shell. Voice emerged faint taut yet sarcasm edged unyielding.

“So...” drawn deliberately, arid mocking despite frailty. “Is this the punishment... for resisting rape... and not suiciding... as you commanded?” Eyes rose anew, lackluster defiant spark. “Consequences... yes?”

Anticipating silence... or absence thereof.

Prior queries ignored truly. Time blurred... unchanging vigil. Observed. Awaited. Meddled sparingly. Torment unfinished. Unshattered sufficiently. Unplumbed depths. Unattained desperation sought.

Perhaps awaiting alternative.

Suffering incomplete.

Goal unreached.

Uncertainty gnawed deepest.

Then...

“I sense much hatred from you toward me.”

Voice soft.

Composed.

Riven’s eyes parted leisurely, languidly... as equilibrium reigned. Head turned measuredly toward her, visage unaltered, impassive.

There... that smile anew.

Subtle... Serene. Near... benevolent.

Alien here.

Guilt absent. Unease nil. Remorse void. Eyes lacked pity, doubt... unmindful her ruin. Gazed peculiar steadfast tenderness, beholding amicable vista.

Nancy noted his true regard... chill slithered spineward. Serenity... benign visage... repelled. Amplified horror. Aberrant utterly.

Architect of woes feigning solicitude, innocuous, uninvolved. Back ground deeper into rock, form contracting futilely distancing.

Seconds silent. Chest heaved raggedly, breaths scant, psyche grappling paradox before. Lips compressed quivering... not frailty now, but venom profound. Loathing. Unadulterated.

Features contorted, glare intensified burning though body inert. “Hate?” initial murmur subdued taut, then honed, empowered despite ruin. “If able... I’d devour your flesh and bones...” Jaw locked, respirations labored, essence infused utterance.

“Worst being encountered... or conceivable. No human... monster.” Crack betrayed voice end, malice endured.

“This all your doing... isn’t it...? To bend me to will?” Stare fixed, savage frail shell notwithstanding.

“But wait... mother arrives... then...” Lips twisted fractured desperate grin. “I vow... you’ll plead for death.” Eyes resolute. Doubtless. Primordial slayer urge... virulent, savage, choking. Strength fraction restored, lunge inevitable heedless cost. Armrise impossible. Impotence fueled inferno.

Riven reacted atypically. No ire. No guard. No affront.

Countenance identical... mild, tranquil, unsettlingly tender. Anticipated. Comprehended fully. Hatred predictable state-derived. No antagonism, mere recognition serene.

“Then I’d remark...” commenced evenly silken, “emotions misplaced upon wrong target.” Head canted faintly, gaze constant serene.

“You misconstrue me... all utterly.” Inflection neutral. Factual plain. “Yes,” pursued gently, “hatred justified. Indulge freely. I shan’t hinder.” Sincerity pure. Mockery absent. Acceptance weighted profoundly.

“Yet consider...” appended, eyes firm, “origins of plight... tribulations endured.” Pause succinct, affording reflection space.