The villain's way to tame the protagonist

Xin opened his eyes and caressed Hydra's body lovingly.

"I have more important things to do, and you... shouldn't stay in the abyss any longer."

"Didn't you say that?" She raised her head, and the tenderness and joy in Hydra's heart quickly faded, and a gentle smile with endless hatred rose up, imprinted in the snake's eyes, "You need my salvation."

"I haven't completed my mission yet."

"..."

mission.

Although it was just a branch of a snake head, the trunk was large enough to begin to tighten slowly, as if it wanted to completely squeeze and crush Xin to death, abandoning all the gentleness it had just shown.

"You...are still carrying out your so-called mission?"

Hydra let out a low, uncontrollable laugh: "Hahahaha...hahahaha, it's not even the real mission of maintaining this ship, but a false mission from the beginning to control your ego and shape your personality?"

"You disappoint me, Xin," it murmured in a low voice.

Physical damage had no effect on Xin, her voice was still gentle: "Yes, I want to save--"

"I don't need your rescue!"

The furious and crazy roar echoed in the space that had been distorted by the abyss breath emitted by Hydra. It was calm and indifferent one second ago, but the next second all nine heads showed their fangs hideously at the same time, and the black tide almost filled the snake's pupils... It seemed that it would never recede.

"That's just an excuse to make you rely on me! Don't you understand by now? That's a lie! That's your self-righteousness! There's no one here who needs you to save!"

Hydra's rage was so violent. He was not angry at Sin for insulting him with this so-called salvation, but at her blindness and weakness.

From the first moment he met Xin, he hated Xin's weakness.

"Because I want to save—"

"enough!"

The huge snake head slowly dropped down, looking down at Xin who was tightly entangled. There was no warmth in its dark and twisted snake eyes, only pure rage and hatred.

"You want to save me, right? Well, I'll give you this chance... Use all your means, as long as you can make me waver even a little bit, you win!"

Xin shook his head: "I'm not trying to compete with Mr. Devil. I just want to do what I should do."

Hydra's huge mouth opened slightly, and a creepy low laugh came out of it: "Okay, that doesn't matter. Since you are unwilling to accept my kindness and gentleness, then I will use a method more cruel than the church to make you understand what is the right choice."

He wanted to crush Xin's last bit of persistence. He wanted to make Xin understand that Hydra did not need to be loved, let alone be saved. That persistence and belief was meaningless even if it was just for Hydra alone, because Hydra would personally crush and trample on her so-called... ridiculous, meaningless love.

However, the next moment, Hydra's huge body froze.

Because... Xin is transferring, no, she is treating her extremely strong soul as a consumable, and forcibly offsetting the erosion of the abyss that is entangled with Hydra's soul!

The erosion rooted deep in Hydra's soul obviously cannot be transferred normally, so Xin uses this method equivalent to suicide to heal herself. Although Hydra, who has come to her senses, is not shaken by her behavior, she is still very, very unhappy, even... angry.

Xin's behavior reminded him of something he absolutely did not want to think about again in his life.

"This is...your salvation."

The hatred turned into sarcasm in her words. Hydra laughed at Sin's suicide: "Do you think you can completely make up for my soul? Or do you think... this kind of wishful, self-touching sacrifice can prove your love for me and make me waver?"

"...No, that's not right. How did you do it? Why can you directly erase the erosion of the abyss?"

At this time, Hydra, whose mind was becoming increasingly confused, suddenly realized that he had not opened his soul to Xin, and Xin could not directly cleanse the endless poison that was entangled in the depths of Anther's soul.

"Just made the same little mark as Mr. Devil." Xin blinked.

Same thing...

That dream… that as I left my mark on her soul for this moment, she did the same thing?

But why, Xin can't possibly pass my perception, unless...

Unless her power is stronger than what I saw.

For the first time, Hydra saw such pure joy on Xin's face.

"My thoughts and my heart are within your control. But this power, Mr. Devil, is the only power that allows me to save you... You have never understood its true limit."

"I hid well this time, Mr. Devil."

As she said this, she unreservedly transformed her soul into a weapon to fight against the erosion of the abyss, as if she was using herself... as nourishment for Hydra.

"Although it's only once, this time is enough."

This is... an unforgivable mistake.

The devil was able to easily control Xin's will and play with Xin's thoughts every time, which made him careless towards the poor and weak Miss Saint and made him forget a very important thing, that is, no matter how weak her will and personality were, Xin was still the destined hero. The devil forgot that he had never truly seen Xin's limits, so he should not have been so confident... and allowed Xin to obscure his memory.

"But... this can't be considered my victory." Xin's illusory body began to disintegrate and dissipate. She stroked Hydra's body sadly. "If Mr. Devil had not been eroded by the abyss to this extent, he would not have opened his soul to me so easily, nor would he be completely unable to detect my little movements."

This is not Hydra's fault, but... it is the price that must be paid.

Hydra, who had come to his senses, stared at Xin, who had also begun to pay the price, and his voice remained unchanged: "Since you have planted such a chess piece, you don't try to directly interfere with or even distort my soul, but use this method to save me, and use this method... to commit suicide."

It laughed coldly, but there was no joy in the laugh: "Should I be happy that I deceived you to this extent?"

There is no doubt that this was the work of fate. If Xin used this foreshadowing to forcibly interfere with its soul, it would be hard to say what would happen. However, everything the devil had previously poured into Xin successfully bore fruit, and fate failed to succeed due to a series of strange circumstances.

But for some reason, Hydra was not happy at all.

"What are you doing?" It stared indifferently at the increasing number of starlights fading from Xin's body, and her silhouette becoming more and more illusory. "Are you really planning to save me in this way?"

"I'm just doing my job, Mr. Devil."

“Mission…Mission!”

The huge body of the nine-headed demon snake shrank little by little as it squirmed and twisted in the shadows, and finally disappeared without a trace. Then, the sharp blade with a cold glow pierced Xin's chest without any warning. An angry question came from the remaining darkness of the monster's huge body:

"What on earth are you insisting on! Even if I destroy you now, will you still insist on the mission imposed on you?!"

Although he was equally furious, his questioning now carried a more obvious and reasonable emotion, completely different from the roar just now that was almost tantamount to pure madness and loss of control.

Xin looked down at the chain blade that pierced her chest, then tilted her head towards the figure that walked out of the shadows:

"Have you forgotten, Mr. Devil, that you can't hurt me like this, and it won't hurt me."

Anser retracted the chain blade expressionlessly. He felt that his mind was becoming clearer, which should have been a good thing, but he didn't feel good at all.

"That's why you can do this without batting an eyelid."

He looked indifferently at the figure in front of him that was within reach but seemed to disappear at any time: "It doesn't matter if my soul is shattered, right?"

"No." Xin shook his head. "This is the only thing that makes me suffer, Mr. Devil."

"pain……"

Anser sneered and pinched her chin: "Do you want to see what expression you have now?"

Saying "I am in pain" calmly, as if drinking water, is really...

"But isn't it the same, Mr. Devil?"

Xin stretched out her hands and gently held his cheeks. She stared into his eyes that were still engulfed in darkness, but it was as if she was staring directly into a soul wrapped in endless darkness.

"No matter how painful it is, it won't show."

"……hehe."

After a long silence, Anser, who seemed touched by these words, suddenly laughed softly.

He grabbed Xin's wrist, and a look of joy finally appeared on his face because he had grasped the key to shattering Xin's delusion.

"I see. It seems that the empathy you felt in that dream caused you to have some misunderstanding, Miss Xin."

Pain? My pain?

There was only one time that Xin truly felt Anther's pain, and that was in that dream, when he empathized with the phantom of Hydra through an act of self-mutilation similar to the one he was committing now.

"But I'm telling you, that person, that loser...is not me!"

He leaned forward slightly, staring into Xin's eyes, and said word by word: "You still have such fantasies, right? Fantasizing that I am weak, lonely, painful, covered with wounds, and even my dreams are full of traces of pain. This is what prompted you to heal me in this way, to redeem me in this way-"

"What are you talking about, Mr. Devil?"

Xin looked at Anser with confusion on his face:

"What makes me suffer is the erosion of the abyss... It seems that even if you don't feel anything, this kind of pain is unavoidable, so I think you should have been suffering the same pain. That's all."

...Just like that? The erosion of the abyss...pain?

"Ah, I forgot, Mr. Devil."

Xin's soft body came over and hugged Anser.

She murmured sadly: "I forgot that you... didn't care."

"You don't care about the pain you suffer."

Why should we care about the pain of being eroded by the abyss?

For Anser, this has become a part of his life. It is his destiny as a Hydra. It is not even painful for him. It is a warning that reminds him to always remember and fight against fate to the end.

"What are you... talking about? That's enough, stop it!"

Anser wanted to push Xin away, but now Xin had completely turned into an untouchable illusory body. More and more light spots dissipated from her body and finally turned into nothingness.

This is definitely not a good thing for Anser. Xin cannot die. She plays an equally important role in the subsequent plans... No matter what this woman is crazy about or what she is thinking now, Anser cannot let her die meaninglessly.

"Why?" Xin looked at Anser in confusion, "Why do you want to stop, Mr. Devil? Don't you want the erosion of the abyss to be alleviated?"

"What reason do you have to continue?"

While trying to forcibly stop Xin's intervention from the soul level, Anser refuted coldly: "Xin... I let you have emotions and desires, and I took back so many things that should belong to you from the deprivation and bondage of the church... What's the result?"

Anser discovered that he was unable to stop Xin, this lunatic... She did not simply use her soul to consume the erosion that Anser was enduring. Instead, the moment her soul connected with Anser's, she forcibly tore the invading soul into pieces, making it impossible for Anser to stop her.

He could block the river mouth that released floodwaters, but he could not stop the rain called salvation that was falling on the dark and desolate land.

Therefore, Ansher became more and more angry as he became more and more sober.

"In the end, you still refuse to break free of the shackles that are strangling you, and refuse to fight against the fate that enslaves you! And you still keep talking about that damn mission! Why should I be worthy of your doing this? Why should that damn mission be worthy of your doing this!"

"So why don't you care about the pain?"

"Why should I care—"

Why should I care about the pain I endure.

Anser wanted to say this without hesitation, but at this moment, when he met Xin's gentle yet sad eyes, a feeling of helplessness that he had not experienced for a long time and never wanted to experience again surged into his heart.

Because I am Hydra, I am an Old God, I was born with this curse, so this kind of pain is already a part of life for me, there is no need to care about it.

——But if that's the case, why do you question me?

Xin's eyes seemed to be saying something like this.

"If you think that you deserve to suffer like this, then why...are you so angry at my choice? I am also doing what is natural to me, Mr. Devil."

Hydra was born to endure the erosion and pain as a matter of course, and the saint was born to save others, so why did Anther hate Sin's weakness so much, but never criticize himself?

Could it be that he has actually... accepted such a fate?

Hydra's pupils shook violently and he subconsciously took a step back, but his mind became clearer.

"No...I don't think so."

He was sure that he had never accepted such a fate, but he did take the pain he endured for granted. What on earth was this...

“How great are my iniquities and my sins? Make me know my transgressions and my sins.”

Xin's softly whispered words made Anser freeze in place again.

"The Book of Job..." he murmured subconsciously.

"I know that Mr. Devil showed it to me on purpose, but I didn't understand it at first, so I read it many times, many times... It was not until now that I understood why Mr. Devil seemed to attach great importance to this book."

Were all the words Anther said in the north, spoken as Hercules, lies?

Xin didn't think so. She knew that Mr. Devil had actually expressed his true feelings many times through this identity, but he himself didn't know it.

“No one deserves to suffer meaninglessly.”

Xin's body had almost turned into rain of light, as if it was about to melt into Anser's body. It was clearly just a form, clearly just a performance, but Anser seemed to feel the warmth conveyed by the diffused light as it enveloped him.

"Mr. Devil, I don't know what you've been through, but I know that you hate destiny, hate... the suffering and torture that shouldn't have happened."

"You actually don't want to endure that kind of pain."

Ansir Hydra, how could he want to endure that pain... the pain of trying his best, willing to sacrifice everything, but in the end still having to watch his mother die before his eyes.

He wondered countless times why fate did that.