The Villain Wants to Quit

A journey (4)

Theo was running blindly into the Sanain royal treasury.

He was literally running blindly. As in his eyes were closed. Because a basilisk was chasing him.

Theo wasn't sure if it was because he had actually made it to the main treasury and the thieves who came before him hadn't, or if they had purposefully mislead him because misery loves company.

Regardless, Theo was blindly tossing barely shaped shadows and a number of expletives behind him as he ran.

He should have brought mana bombs with him.

Of course, using a bomb in these tunnels could lead to him being buried in the rubble.

The sound of slithering was getting louder. How could something that was basically a snake be so fast?

"Mortal Theo, the basilisk is quickly approaching. You should move faster."

"If I could move faster, I would." Theo half-screeched at the little dragon that was clinging to his shoulder.

Why had he agreed to bring the kid with him?

It was because he was a pushover, and Scourge was quickly perfecting his kicked-puppy face.

"Forget this; we're breaking the walls." Theo gathered a massive lump of mana as he ran and fused it with a mass of shadows. He rammed the bludgeon into the wall and came face-to-face with a cluster of knights on the other side.

Unfortunately for the knights, they also came face-to-face with the basilisk.

Ha. Whoever planned their treasury maze should have thought that out better. Theo felt a smidge of pity for the knights just trying to do their job, but there should be someone in the Sanain royal family who could undo the curse.

One of the stone knights toppled over as Theo scrambled through their cluster. It fell over, taking three more stone knights with it.

Their limbs cracked.

One's arm fell off.

"...maybe someone can fix that..."

That someone was not Theo. He was still trying to escape the very angry basilisk that was right behind him.

Theo started knocking down more walls. He was sure that this was a terribly inefficient way to use magic.

Thankfully he had enormous mana reserves, even for an innate magic user.

"...cough...cough...Dust is obscuring my vision!" Scourge squeaked in Theo's ear.

Theo roughly shoved the tiny dragon into one of his pockets. Theo would probably hear no end of whining for the rough treatment later.

Only after Theo lost track of how many walls he broke through did they emerge outside the palace.

He ran as fast as possible, but Sanain royal knights quickly caught up.

Some of them were magic users. Some of them were not.

Thankfully, many of them were frozen by the basilisk, but plenty of unfrozen knights were left to bombard Theo with a troublesome mix of magical and non-magical attacks.

"Mortal Theo make the buildings go POW!" A somewhat muffled and very vicious Scourge yelled from Theo's pocket.

The dragon was right. It was time for some explosions.

When Theo was planting the bombs, he learned that two of the five buildings he had planned on exploding were co-occupied by civilians. Three of the buildings were only used by criminals.

The remaining buildings were primarily used for storage and meetings. So it wasn't like he would be totally wiping out the criminals, but they would be significantly inconvenienced.

Theo pulled a string of three beads that were keyed to the bombs in each building.

The top bead would trigger an explosion in a building used by human traffickers. There was an annex with some victims, but Theo had left the mana bombs out of that section.

Theo pushed some mana into the top bead, and an explosion echoed throughout the city.

Screams followed.

Theo was feeling proud of how well his carefully planned terrorism was going when he realized that civilians watching him and the knights were getting frozen by the basilisk.

He really hoped the royal family had a cure for that. And that the people running away from the basilisk would stop knocking over their frozen townsfolk.

On the bright side, the knights also noticed the civilians getting frozen, and most of them turned to fight the basilisk.

This time the knights seemed to do better at avoiding the basilisk's gaze and avoided getting turned to stone. Mostly.

Theo was proud that the Sanain knights prioritized the civilians' lives instead of retrieving the stolen treasures from him. It was heartwarming.

Not that the knights would appreciate that he, of all people, was proud of them.

Oh well.

Time for another explosion!

The next building was less exciting than the first one. It was just a building where some terrible loan sharks kept their records. It was a horrible group that purposefully preyed on people already suffering through terrible times.

They reminded Theo of Dullahan. Theo set off the explosion. It was satisfying.

"How does this keep getting worse?" Theo heard the knights shouting behind him.

"We need more backup."

"We are the backup!"

Theo pumped his arms and legs faster. He needed to get as close to the portal he had used to arrive in Sanain as possible before the knights managed to defeat the basilisk.

Carrot was supposed to meet Theo and Scourge at the portal. The first building Theo exploded was the signal to start running for the portal. And Carrot did his job.

He met Theo just as he was running up to the portal building.

Carrot barely slowed down as Theo got on his back. Theo knocked down the doors of the building, much like he knocked down the palace walls.

Carrot nearly trampled over a terrified portal manager.

It was a tough day at work for the poor worker. And it was about to get tougher.

"Activate the portal for Lyresis, or another building will explode."

The staff blinked at Theo. Ah. They were in shock.

"I'm giving you five seconds." Theo started counting down as he moved to the middle of the portal's magic circle.

Nobody moved before the countdown ended.

Time to explode the poachers' warehouse. Theo had found a warehouse full of parts from illegally hunted magical creatures. Theo rubbed his inner elbow. Now nobody would be profiting off of them.

The explosion shook the building.

"Does another building need to go?" Theo asked.

One of the managers shook their head. "I can transport you." The woman said. She took a deep breath. "Please-"

A knight crashed into the room and shot a spell at Theo.

Carrot barely had time to move them out of the way.

While the attack didn't hit them, the spell marred the magic circle. So much for that plan.

"Get us out of here!" Theo formed a dagger with the shadows in his sleeve and threw it at the knight as Carrot galloped out of the building.

"Where am I going?" Carrot asked.

"Out of the city. I don't care where. We just need to go."