Investing in the Three Villainesses Gives Me Infinite Returns

Sometime later, Elias sat on the smaller bed in his room while Natasha slept beside Stella, having exhausted herself during their time in the bath.

The two women lay peacefully beneath the blanket, and the quiet rise and fall of their breathing provided a strange contrast to the turmoil brewing inside his mind.

Clutching the hem of his tunic, Elias fixed his black eyes on the orange screen floating before him.

[The host can now inspect Natasha Sephila’s destiny.]

The previously locked section labeled Unknown had disappointed him because he had hoped it might contain answers to his wives’ conditions, particularly information that could help him cure or heal them.

Now that the section had finally unlocked, however, he knew that it didn’t. Still, he was curious, especially since learning about their destinies might allow him to understand what awaited them in the future.

’Let’s check it out,’ he mumbled inwardly before taking a deep breath and quietly uttering, ”Status.”

[Status]

[Name: Natasha Sephila]

[Rank: Warrior]

[Affection Rate: 46]

[Talent: Child of Divine (SS)] ℴ

[Physical Constitution: Heavenly Demon Physique (Dormant – Stage: II)]

[Stage II Progression: 25%]

[Weapon: None]

[Weapon Mastery: None]

[Weapon Aura: None]

[Mana Aptitude: S]

[Mana Affinity: Light (S), Darkness (S), Holy (S), Unholy (S)]

[Mana Circle: None]

[Spiritual Aptitude: SS (None)]

[Spiritual Affinity: Divine (SS), Demonic (SS), Ghost (S), Elemental (S)]

[Spiritual Stars: None]

[Stats]

[Strength/Constitution: 31]

[Speed/Agility: 24]

[Stamina/Endurance: 29]

[Perception/Comprehension: 18]

[Mana/Spirit: 137 (0)]

[Skills]

[Spiritual Sense (C)]

[Spiritual Ritual (A)]

[Demonic Sovereignty (SSS)]

[Destiny]

[–Breaker of Divine–]

[–Master of All Demons–]

[–Seeker of a Forlorn Dream–]

[Shares a connection beyond time-space with Elias Crimson.]

Elias’s pupils trembled as he read the three entries under Destiny, and his fingers tightened around his tunic until the fabric creased between them.

”Is... is this a coincidence?” he mumbled, unable to take his eyes off the first entry.

[–Breaker of Divine–]

The name struck far too close to home, and he couldn’t help connecting it to the titles Natasha had carried throughout her life.

Five years ago, before the failed saintess ritual had robbed her of her hearing and speech and left her with terrible scars, people had called her the Divine Flower.

Afterward, when her life had fallen apart and she had become a woman the world preferred to avoid, she had been given the cursed name of the Broken Flower.

Now, the System had revealed a destiny that seemed to connect both titles, combining the divine identity she had once possessed with the broken person she had become.

The past and present had come together to form what the System called her destiny, something that appeared to point toward her future.

A sudden thought came to his mind, and he mumbled, ”The future is a reflection of a person’s past and present.”

His gaze shifted toward the second entry, and the brief hope that had appeared in his eyes faded.

[–Master of All Demons–]

The implication seemed clear enough.

At some point, Natasha would encounter demons and perhaps rule over them, although the thought of his wife becoming involved with such dangerous beings did little to reassure him.

He exhaled slowly, forcing himself to consider the possibility without immediately assuming the worst, but his expression remained dark as he moved to the final entry.

[–Seeker of a Forlorn Dream–]

Unlike the previous two, this title offered him no obvious clue about Natasha’s future. He stared at it for several seconds, searching for some connection to her past or present, but nothing came to mind.

After a few moments, Elias returned his attention to the first destiny and wondered whether the System would provide an explanation, just as it did with everything else.

He focused on the words, and another orange screen appeared.

[Simulate: –Breaker of Divine–?]

[Yes] [No]

”Simulate?” he mumbled, narrowing his eyes at the unfamiliar option.

He had no idea what the System meant by simulation, but the chance to learn more about Natasha’s destiny was too valuable to ignore.

After a moment’s hesitation, he selected [Yes], deciding that whatever awaited him would at least provide more information than he currently possessed.

’Of course, I have to check it out.’

[Simulating –Breaker of Divine–...]

[Time-space twists around you.]

”Wha—”

Before Elias could finish speaking, the room disappeared beneath a wave of darkness, swallowing the bed and the walls.

Shock struck him so suddenly that his body stiffened, and a cold sensation crawled down his spine.

For an instant, he couldn’t see anything at all. Then the darkness vanished.

However, Elias didn’t find himself back in his room. Instead, he stood in the middle of a ruined city, surrounded by the charred remains of buildings.

The streets had cracked apart, leaving deep, blackened furrows in the earth, while the stone houses on either side had collapsed into heaps of scorched rubble.

Even the stone paving beneath his feet had melted in places, forming dark, glassy patches that reflected no light.

”Where am I?” he asked, looking around with wide eyes.

Only moments ago, he had been sitting on his bed, examining his wife’s status, and now he stood in a place that looked as though a catastrophe had erased an entire city from existence.

Suddenly, an unfamiliar yet strangely nostalgic voice resounded inside his head.

[In a forgotten time-space, the Child of Divine learned to hold the hellfire, and the world burned.]

Elias froze, and his eyes widened as he slowly turned toward the endless stretch of scorched buildings.

”Natasha did this...?” he mumbled, struggling to reconcile the woman he knew with the devastation surrounding him.

A strange urge to walk forward seized him, and although he couldn’t understand why, he found himself obeying it.

He passed the remains of houses, stepped over blackened bones scattered across the streets, and walked beneath the skeletal branches of trees that had been reduced to charcoal.

With every step, the destruction became more overwhelming, and the voice continued its narration.

[Burned by her own power and scorned by the people, the Child of Divine learned fury, and fury befell upon the world.]

The city dissolved around him.

In its place stretched a desert of ash, an endless wasteland beneath a lifeless sky.

The ground rolled in low, uneven dunes of fine gray ash mixed with the remains of buildings, shattered weapons, and countless fragments of bone.

Elias continued walking, his boots sinking slightly into the soft ground.

[The Child of Divine, who had learned to fear the powerful, destroyed what She deemed weak.]

The desert vanished, and a battlefield appeared around him.

The change was so abrupt that Elias instinctively stopped, his eyes widening as the sounds of war crashed into his ears.

Thousands upon thousands of swordsmen and mages filled the field, their ranks stretching toward the distant horizon beneath a sky choked with smoke.

Swords flashed as warriors charged forward with Aura coating their weapons, while mages stood behind them, releasing torrents of spells.

Yet their enemies continued advancing.

The creatures were covered in green hellfire that clung to their bodies without consuming them, leaving burning trails wherever they stepped.

Some resembled twisted humanoids, while others were bestial, their silhouettes shifting behind curtains of flame.

Whenever a spell struck them, the hellfire swallowed its force, and whenever a sword cut through their bodies, the wounds closed the next instant.

The defenders fought desperately, but one by one, swordsmen collapsed as hellfire engulfed their armor, and mages were reduced to screaming silhouettes when the flames reached them.

Soon, the ground was littered with broken swords, shattered staffs, and the ash of those who had fought to protect it.

Elias stared at the scene in stunned silence.

[Abandoned by the great Path of Spirit, the Child of Divine learned to hate, and hate stretched beyond everything.]

The battlefield disappeared, leaving him standing before the ruins of a gigantic tower that might once have touched the sky.

Its upper floors had collapsed, and enormous stone sections lay scattered across the surrounding ground, their surfaces split by deep fractures.

At the center of the ruins stood a shattered foundation, surrounded by countless crystal fragments.

”This...” he mumbled, and suddenly, the Third Sage’s Amulet appeared around his neck.

Elias channeled his mana into the silver amulet, causing the greenish-purple gem within its nine-pointed star to glimmer.

A similar glint appeared in his eyes, allowing him to perceive what ordinary senses couldn’t.

His face paled.

The colorless threads he had seen before were nowhere to be found.

He looked around, but not a single thread appeared in his vision.

It was as though the entire world had been drained of Spiritual Energy, leaving behind a hollow land.

[Broken by the world, the Child of Divine learned to break.]

Elias lifted his gaze, and his eyes widened until they seemed ready to burst from their sockets.

The sky above him was riddled with enormous fractures, stretching from one horizon to the other like cracks in a shattered mirror.

Beyond those openings lay a strange, colorful night sky filled with distant lights, and from that impossible expanse descended countless silver threads that should have connected spiritualists to their spirit beings.

But every single thread was broken.

Some ended abruptly in midair, while others hung in frayed strands that dissolved into nothing before reaching the ground.

Elias felt the blood drain from his face as he realized the extent of the devastation.

Whatever had happened had not merely destroyed a city or slaughtered an army. It had shattered the connections between the mortal world and the Spirit Realm.

[The Divine’s wrath befell upon it, and It learned wrath.]

A wave of goosebumps swept across Elias’s body, and his trembling eyes landed on a figure standing in the distance.

The person possessed a face similar to Natasha’s but more mature, and the resemblance ended there.

Its skin was completely pale, almost corpse-like, while its eyes were pitch-black, with green, flame-shaped pupils burning deep within them.

Long, dark robes drifted around its body despite the absence of wind, and two twisted horns made of pure green hellfire protruded from its forehead, their flames flickering without producing smoke.

[Image]

”Natasha?” he called out.

The Breaker of Divine didn’t react.

Elias immediately activated Storyteller’s Captivating Tongue, hoping the skill might draw its attention.

He took a step forward and called out again, this time with desperation.

”Natasha!”

Yet the figure continued staring ahead as though he didn’t exist.

Slowly, the Breaker of Divine raised one hand and extended it forward.

Elias followed the direction of its gesture, and his eyes widened.

”Ducal Estate?”

Before Elias could understand why she had appeared here, the Breaker of Divine clenched its raised hand.

Green hellfire descended from the sky.

It struck the estate like a falling ocean, swallowing the outer walls before pouring across the courtyards and climbing the towers.

The flames swept through the buildings with merciless speed, turning windows into glowing holes and reducing the familiar architecture to blackened skeletons.

Then came the screams.

They rose from within the estate and overlapped into a horrifying chorus as servants, guards, and clansmen desperately searched for escape.

Cries for help echoed between the walls, growing weaker as the green hellfire spread farther.

Elias stood frozen, his entire body turning cold.

His mind struggled to process the scene, unable to comprehend why Natasha had done something like this.

The Breaker of Divine slowly turned its head and stared directly at him.

”Elias Crimson,” it called out.

Anger surged through him, overwhelming his initial shock.

”Why did—”

”Now that I have fulfilled my side of the deal, it is time for you to do the same,” the Breaker of Divine interrupted, its voice cold and unwavering.

Elias’s lips stopped moving, and the words died in his throat.

A deal?

He stared at it in disbelief before slowly turning his head to look behind him, where another familiar figure stood.

”What?” he mumbled.

Standing there was Elias Crimson, though the man looked to be in his thirties, with a mature face and a posture that carried confidence.

His hands were folded behind his back, and his eyes remained fixed on the burning estate.

Then the older Elias smiled.

A wide, demonic grin spread across his face, transforming his familiar features into something deeply unsettling.

The Breaker of Divine’s voice drifted into the younger Elias’s ears once more, and the words that followed made his blood run cold.

”It is time for you to give me your body.”