Villains Aren't Stepping Stones!

This is a Ballad.

A dragon, fallen into despair, stripped of her power and identity.

A song carved into the weeping marrow of an ancient star, written not in ink or golden scripture, but in the dark, pooling crimson of a pride that had been dismantled piece by agonizing piece.

Once bold, outgoing, and fearless, now was fragile, emotional, timid, and meek.

Where had it gone?

Where had that untamed wildfire vanished—the ferocious girl who once laughed into the teeth of howling astral tempests, who ripped through enemies with bare, bloodied claws, and whose purple eyes blazed like twin suns of defiance across the battlefields of the upper realm?

It had been smothered beneath the cold ashes of self-doubt.

It had been crushed under the suffocating terror of a master’s furrowed brow, beaten into the mud by the paralyzing fear of failure, until the majestic drake of the Shen Clan had reduced herself to a trembling, broken insect that measured every breath out of dread that her next step might disappoint the heavens.

Trapped within the freezing, pitch-black abyss of her own fractured mind, suspended in the horrifying silence where her own stolen face stood by his side—smiling, triumphant, revered, and beloved while she was left to rot as a forgotten ghost—the agony went beyond mere physical or spiritual wound.

It was the complete annihilation of her very reason to exist.

She was drowning in the cold, bottomless ocean of her own inadequacy, her soul curling into nothingness, ready to surrender to the sweet, painless release of absolute erasure.

And as she watched the future that could’ve been hers, a familiar voice seem to echo into her soul.

It did not descend from the vaulted heavens of the arena, nor did it carry the detached resonance of an ancient deity.

It blossomed directly from the deepest, most sacred sanctuary of her sea of consciousness—smooth, deep, magnetic, and dripping with an untouchable sovereignty that she had spent her entire life chasing.

”Heed my words, my little dragon.”

The voice reverberated through her frozen blood, carrying the ancient, primordial heat of a million colliding suns.

The cold of the void cracked, splintering like fragile glass beneath the sudden, overwhelming pressure of a golden sovereign will that refused to let her die in the dark.

”If you so desire to rise, then you will need more greed.”

The words fell like titanic hammer blows upon the anvil of her shattered soul, sending blinding sparks of golden dragon fire tearing through her frozen meridians.

’Greed?’

”I will teach you the way, of supremacy.”

’This voice... It sounds like...’

”Let go of modesty.”

The voice commanded, stripping away the fragile, weeping mortal shell she had wrapped around her pride.

”Cast aside the pathetic chains of caution! Burn away the neurosis that tells you to shrink, to calculate, to apologize for the space you occupy beneath the sky!”

”A predator does not ask permission from the sheep to bare its fangs, nor does a dragon apologize to the heavens for the breadth of its wings!”

”Be greedy for power, be greedy for knowledge, and bare your fangs, to those who dare look down on you.”

”You are strong.”

”You are noble.”

Every syllable resonated with terrifying truth, igniting the dormant, primordial draconic spirit that had slept within her bones since the dawn of her birth.

The illusory future of the smiling imposter began to warp, shudder, and burn beneath a rising ocean of pure, unbridled fury.

”Be greedy, girl.”

”Do not settle for scraps of validation!”

”Do not beg for a place in my shadow!”

”Demand the sky!”

”Devour the stars!”

”Take what is rightfully yours by divine right of fang and claw!”

”Come on, scream!”

The command shattered the final shackle holding her spirit hostage.

From the deepest, most primal depths of her resurrected will, an ancient, apocalyptic hunger erupted—a monstrous, ravenous greed that swallowed her despair, incinerated her fear, and burned away every lingering trace of hesitation until only raw, sovereign savagery remained.

The future where she can stand by his side? She wants it!

The power to make him acknowledge her? She wants it!

The knowledge to make him rely on her? She wants it!

She wants it all!

”GIVE...ME... EVERYTHING!” Shen Xun’er shouted.

Her roar tore through the fabric of the mental illusion like a cosmic supernova.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM—!!!!!

At that, everything returned back to normal.

The sunlit balcony of the Imperial Academy shattered into non-existence.

The phantom visions dissolved into burning ash.

Reality snapped back with violent, visceral immediacy.

And as she blinked her eyes, she was back.

She was still pinned down upon the cold, fractured obsidian basalt of the second trial’s training ground.

The five jagged shadow swords were still impaled through her right palm, her broken left forearm, her thighs, and her bleeding stomach, holding her mangled body flat against the dark stone.

The dark, twisted reflection was still leaning over her battered frame, her clawed fingers a mere millimeter away from piercing Shen Xun’er’s forehead, her cruel, mocking smirk frozen in the split second before total soul theft.

BZZT—!

The spatial freeze enforced by Haoran’s hidden interference collapsed, and the dark reflection’s fingers lunged downward to finish the execution—

SNAP-CHOMP!

Shen Xun’er did not try to pull her impaled limbs free, nor did she attempt to channel her qi to attack or summon a defensive barrier.

With her purple eyes blazing with an unhinged, feral, and utterly terrifying hunger, Shen Xun’er snapped her neck forward like a striking serpent, opened her blood-soaked jaws, and sank her teeth with bone-crushing, animalistic savagery straight into the descending wrist and palm of the dark reflection.

CRUNCH-SQUELCH!

Her teeth, reinforced by the instantaneous ignition of her will, punched cleanly through the reflection’s pale skin, and dense wrist bones.

”WHAT—?!”

The dark reflection shrieked in sudden, petrified shock as the cruel, mocking smile vanished instantly from the copy’s face, replaced by a look of uncomprehending horror as she felt the savage, biological grip locking around her flesh.

Shen Xun’er didn’t let go, she didn’t even flinch.

Tasting the dark, corrosive blood gushing into her mouth, a wild, guttural scream of pure, ravenous hunger vibrated through her clenched jaw.

”RRRRGGHHHH—!!!”

With a ferocious, violent twist of her neck, channeling the entirety of her primal fury into a single, brutal, and merciless tearing motion—

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP-CRACK-SPLAT!

Shen Xun’er tore her head backward with titanic, savage momentum!

The flesh, tendons, and shoulder socket of the dark reflection violently ruptured, and a fountain of thick, boiling black and crimson void gore geysered into the air as Shen Xun’er immediately ripped the reflection’s entire left arm completely off her body.

SPLAT!

The severed, twitching limb remained clamped firmly between Shen Xun’er’s blood-stained teeth.

”AAAAAAAGH! MY ARM!”

The dark reflection stumbled backward across the basalt, clutching the ragged, spurting stump of her shoulder in dizzying agony and pure, hysterical disbelief.

The arrogant imposter who had claimed superiority was now screaming, her glowing red eyes wide with the sudden, primal realization that the prey pinned beneath her boots had just transformed into an apex monster far more terrifying than the void itself.

Still pinned to the floor by four remaining swords, her chest and stomach painted in a mixture of her own blood and the dark copy’s gore, Shen Xun’er spat the severed arm onto the stone beside her cheek.

Her hair whipped wildly against the cracked floor, as her qi slowly transformed into a golden-crimson dragon flames that began to slowly incinerate the shadow blades impaling her limbs.

She looked up at the screaming reflection, her face soaked in blood, her lips pulled back into a wide, terrifying, and ravenous grin of absolute, unhinged ferocity.

The fragile, timid girl was dead.

...and the dragon had awakened.

”Damn it!” The reflection gritted her teeth.

Her severed, twitching arm still lay smoking upon the fractured obsidian floor, dissolving slowly into pungent puddles of boiling tar.

The dark reflection stumbled backward across the arena, clutching the ragged, spurting stump of her left shoulder where dark blood geysered uncontrollably into the air.

Her face was twisted into an uncomprehending mask of pure, hysterical disbelief.

”You... you crazy, feral bitch!” the reflection shrieked, her voice cracking as she staggered against the foot of a towering obsidian pillar. ”You’re pinned and impaled! You’re supposed to die!”

Shen Xun’er did not answer with words, but answered with the deafening, primordial roar of a beast whose chains had been shattered by sheer, unadulterated malice.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR—!!!!!

The four remaining shadow blades impaled through her right palm, her broken left forearm, her thighs, and her stomach began to screech as her internal dantians detonated.

She did not bother using any techniques, nor did she wait for her dragon fire to slowly burn the constructs away.

So with a feral, bone-splintering heave, Shen Xun’er tore her own pinned flesh straight through the jagged blades!

RIIIIIIIP-CRACK!

Her palms ripped open, the flesh of her thighs tore into ragged crimson ribbons, and her stomach gushed fresh blood as she forcefully wrenched her body free from the stone floor, ignoring the horrific tearing of her own muscle and skin.

The instant her boots touched the ground, her fractured bones snapped back into alignment with a violent, sickening series of internal crunches, driven by the natural hyper-accelerated regeneration of her body.

Then, crimson-gold scales, thick and jagged like diamond-hard armor plates, erupted across her neck, her forearms, her spine, and her legs.

Her fingernails extended into four inch long, razor-sharp obsidian talons dripping with incandescent dragon flames, and her eyes turned into twin suns of blinding, predatory amber.

This was the side effects of overusing all her draconic techniques, where she would slowly lose her reason and become a mindless dragon.

Right now, she was no longer a martial artist practicing refined clan techniques, but was a rabid, berserker dragon whose mind had surrendered entirely to the raw, unbridled hunger of slaughter and greed!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM—!!!!!

The basalt floor beneath her exploded into a crater of pulverized gravel as Shen Xun’er vanished from physical perception.

”SHIT!”

The dark reflection’s red eyes bulged in panic, but relying on sheer survival instinct, she swung her remaining arm, condensing a massive, three-layered shield of solid qi to protect her front.

CRASH-SHATTER!

The three foot thick barrier of qi did not even slow Shen Xun’er down.

She tore straight through the center of the defensive qi with her bare chest and shoulders, shattering the shield into millions of glittering shards before slamming directly into the dark reflection like a falling meteor.

BANG!

The colossal impact caved in the dark reflection’s ribs, hurling both of them across hundreds of paces until they smashed violently into a pillar, cracking the ancient stone to its core.

Before the reflection could even bounce off the stone, Shen Xun’er was already upon her.

SLASH! TEAR! SQUELCH!

She fought with pure, unhinged savagery.

Her right hand became a blur of lethal, tearing motion, her razor-sharp dragon talons plunging deep into the reflection’s right shoulder, wrenching, pulling, and shredding through muscle and bone like wet parchment.

”GAAAH! GET OFF ME!” the reflection screamed, her remaining hand firing a barrage of corrosive needles directly into Xun’er’s face and chest.

THWIP-THWIP-THWIP!

The black needles pierced into Xun’er’s cheeks, her neck, and her collarbones, hissing as they corroded her flesh, but Shen Xun’er did not even flinch.

Instead, she completely welcomed the pain, using the sensation of her burning flesh to fuel the raging inferno in her soul.

Opening her blood-stained jaws, Shen Xun’er snapped forward, burying her sharp dragon fangs straight into the reflection’s collarbone, tearing out a massive chunk of black flesh with a wet, sickening rip.

CHOMP-TEAR!

”AAAAAAGH!”

The dark reflection, who had once stood so tall, so arrogant, and so completely in control, was now reduced to a frantic, terrified animal scrambling for its life.

The cold superiority in her crimson eyes had completely vanished, replaced by the sheer, paralyzing horror of a creature realizing that the monster before her had completely transcended the concept of self-preservation.

The reflection desperately summoned every defensive art she possessed.

Shadow barriers, void vortexes, gravitational shields, and space-bending repulsions erupted around her body in rapid, desperate succession.

Yet, against the relentless, frenzied onslaught of the berserker dragon, every single defense was torn to shreds in seconds.

Shen Xun’er smashed through the gravitational fields with brute-force headbutts that cracked her own skull.

She shattered the space-bending barriers by driving her clawed fists repeatedly into the exact same spatial coordinates, delivering dozens of strikes per second until the fabric of the array tore open.

PUNCH! CLAW! GOUGE! CRUSH!

The sound of shattering bones and tearing flesh reverberated endlessly throughout the vast training ground.

The dark reflection could only defend for her life, holding up her lone, mangled arm in a desperate, pathetic attempt to shield her vitals as Shen Xun’er battered her across the arena like a bloody ragdoll.

Every time the copy tried to establish distance, Xun’er’s flaming tail whipped through the air, wrapping around the copy’s ankle and violently dragging her back into the meat-grinder.

”Stop! Please—!” the dark reflection choked out, spitting black blood as she was pinned against the floor once more.

”GIVE ME EVERYTHING!” Shen Xun’er’s voice was a guttural, demonic roar that shook the very foundations of the temple.

CRUNCH!

With a final, devastating stomp of her clawed boot, Shen Xun’er shattered both of the reflection’s kneecaps into powder, permanently anchoring the copy to the floor.

Shen Xun’er straddled the struggling, broken body of her dark twin, her hair flared with apocalyptic dragon fire, illuminating her blood-soaked, feral face in brilliant shades of gold and vermilion.

Her purple eyes locked onto the pulsating, black and violet light glowing deep within the center of the reflection’s chest—the core of the dark psyche, the origin of her fear, and the phantom heart of the void.

Shen Xun’er raised her right hand high into the air, her five dragon talons igniting with concentrated qi.

SWISH—!

Without a single fraction of a millisecond, Shen Xun’er drove her clawed hand straight down like a falling spear, plunging through the reflection’s breastplate, crushing through the sternum, and sinking all the way to her wrist into the dark copy’s chest cavity.

SQUELCH-CRACK!

Her fingers wrapped tightly around the squirming, black heart pulsing with runes.

With a terrifying, unyielding roar that tore her vocal cords, Shen Xun’er violently ripped her arm backward.

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!

A torrential geyser of black and crimson blood erupted into the air, showering Shen Xun’er from head to toe as she tore out the dark reflection’s heart.

The severed, black heart beat weakly three times within Xun’er’s blood drenched fist before violently disintegrating into pure, incandescent purple starlight, which was instantly absorbed through the scales of her palm and dragged into her dantian.

The battered, broken body of the dark reflection slumped heavily against the shattered floor, her dark robes crumbling into gray ash as the lethal wound in her chest began to dissolve her physical form back into the ambient spatial energy of the arena.

Yet, as the reflection was about to die... as the final sparks of her existence were flickering away into the cold cosmos...

The horrific, twisted grimace on her face slowly softened.

The bloodshot madness in her red eyes dissipated, returning to a clear, calm, and serene purple that matched Shen Xun’er’s own.

Looking up at the fierce, untamed dragon standing over her—covered in blood, breathing heavily, baring her fangs, and radiating an aura that bowed to no one beneath the heavens—the reflection smiled.

It was not the mocking, cruel grin from before.

It was a soft, genuine, and deeply proud smile—the smile of a warrior who had tested the blade to its limit and found the steel unbroken.

With her final, fading breath, the reflection looked into Xun’er’s burning purple eyes and whispered her parting words, her voice echoing softly across the silent arena.

”Stand proud, She Xun’er... for you are truly worthy to be by his side.”

SHUUUUUU—

With those final words, the dark reflection dissolved entirely into a warm, radiant wave of golden-violet light, sweeping over Shen Xun’er’s battered body and washing away the lingering impurities within her soul forever.