Chapter 37 – The Line We Must Protect (7)
When I fell into the Demon Realm as a strange tentacle monster. And when I ultimately reached the pinnacle of that brutal world.
The most important thing I learned was to shed my former self. Becoming a demon, a Demon King, ruling over the Demon Realm.
It did deepen the tint of my perfume, but regardless, it greatly aided my survival, so I have no regrets.
“What, what are you doing?!”
“Is it your first time seeing a Magical Girl at work? I just killed a villain and built my record.”
The purple-haired Magical Girl screamed in horror, but I casually kicked the head that was rolling on the ground down to the floor below the apartment.
“Don’t talk nonsense.”
“If not, how could I have touched this thing’s body? I actually gained results, you know?”
“That’s completely disrupting the order! Most Magical Girls abide by the social order and laws of their countries and act accordingly!”
When I even chuckled, her pale-faced expression turned into one of shock as she yelled, “Are you crazy?”
“If what you say is true, there are plenty of people getting caught even in this apartment right now. The good and evil regulations set by companies often differ from modern Earthlings! If celebrities through media frame specific individuals as perpetrators, there’s a clueless crowd of millions siding with them. Are you going to treat all of them as villains and kill them…?”
“If there are too many, it’s a hassle. But I could do it.”
Her face grew even paler, but I was serious.
“Good and evil? Those are just worthless illusions and fabrications. The truth is singular. Your own might. The strong are the good, the order, and the justice. Do you find that strange? Think I’m insane? It’s been structured like that from the beginning, so what’s the problem?”
I scoffed at her foolish face. While others might see me as an irregular, I was simply riding the existing order.
I just took the place of the Magical Girl companies that had been in power all along and did what they did.
“I’ve always acted according to the order you established. I’ve never broken a single rule. If you’re dissatisfied, feel free to challenge me anytime.”
“…You’re still too young to understand. The world is not something you can navigate alone.”
“True. That’s a possibility. So challenge me. Defeat me and trample me. Then you can realize your justice through me.”
Her calling me young made me laugh. Was she saying she was an old lady in her hundred-year-old phase?
Of course, they couldn’t dare to come at me.
“If you can’t dare, move aside. I still have work left to do.”
The moment the police broke down the door and entered the house, I soared into the air toward the crowd below.
The policeman who walked in through the door, probably a rookie, was gagging at the sight of a corpse lying without a head.
“You’re gonna be judged harshly someday.”
“Judgment. Now that’s something I look forward to.”
Her words weren’t threatening at all. I genuinely found it exciting. Who could possibly judge the king of the Demon Realm that even the great angels of the Celestial Realm dare not touch?
“…Those kids are still chasing us.”
“I don’t care.”
I quickly dashed across the sky. The Magical Girls were still tailing me, but they were nothing more than annoying gnats. I’d just leave them be until I returned.
“What the heck are you planning on doing to find Mamute?!”
“That’s also troubling me.”
At Ren’s remark perched on my hat, I straightened my body in the air.
How on earth was I going to find that Mamute guy who was clearly moving with a purpose? Ironically, the only clue was the underground organization I had advised Aria to contact.
“…I can’t move unless it’s night.”
As I had to maintain my identity in everyday life, my activities were limited compared to Aria, a high school student and collaborator of the Management Bureau.
I felt anxious, thinking I might lose the bet against Aria. More disturbing than being told to stop the killings was the fact that I could actually lose the bet.
“What about Aria? Did she achieve any results?”
“She won’t tell me at all.”
“…What if I were to chop off your limbs one by one here?”
I lightly threatened, though I had no intention of doing so, but the purple-haired girl shook her head firmly.
I sighed, realizing I wouldn’t actually touch her.
“Giving up, huh?”
“Are you crazy? I can never lose to anyone.”
I shook my head firmly at Ren’s declaration and moved the shadow filled with my strength. Although I was primarily a physical fighter and didn’t frequently use magic, I could use it when needed.
“Ugh, aaah…”
“What the heck is this…”
The Magical Girls recoiled in horror. Unfazed, I centered around the shadow entwined with my body and summoned a tree in the air above the urban ground.
Upon its many branches, large and small eyes blinked. This was a magic that allowed me to summon eyes to see anywhere.
“Th-then! Can you see Mamute!?”
Ren, hanging from my skirt, shouted. I could see, but it wasn’t the information I wanted.
Mamute was nowhere to be found, but instead, I saw Aria and the Magical Girls battling fiercely with someone.
*
“Oh no… I can’t touch you!”
“Hena!”
In the dark night, the formation of the Magical Girls ambushed at a dock fell apart completely.
Among them, a seemingly ordinary girl of similar age to the Magical Girls dove in.
However, this girl, with a doll-like expression, didn’t have the attire of a Magical Girl. She was fighting on equal footing with the Magical Girls under such conditions.
“Argh!”
With a flaming black hand swung, one of the Magical Girls was struck in the abdomen, rolling on the ground. There was not an ounce of mercy in that blow.
The girl was truly wielding her strength with the intent to kill the Magical Girls.
“We have to retreat. We can’t respond… Aaaah!”
Moreover, she wasn’t alone. Armed organization members had crowded in, attacking them with conventional weapons like anti-Magical Girl firearms and nets.
‘I was too complacent.’
Aria gritted her teeth as she felt the taste of blood.
In focusing solely on digging for the organization’s information, she hadn’t adequately prepared for face-to-face confrontations.
She had indeed moved quickly by separating from the police and Management Bureau, who had always been with her, but thanks to that, everyone was left struggling against a single untouchable Experiment Subject Girl.
She thought she could easily subdue at least one, but the organization wasn’t that easy to handle.
“Cough!”
“Aria, ugh…”
Thus she launched herself first against the organization members. With every punch and kick, those hit in their vital spots fell to the ground.
“…”
She caught a net gun aimed at her and tore it apart. Her strength was such that she could wipe out the entire organization by herself, as long as she wasn’t dealing with the Experiment Subject Girl.
‘No rebar… nothing to use.’
Aria, in a pinch, tried to restrain the Experiment Subject Girl as Takilas had done, but unfortunately, she could see nothing useful around her.
“Ah, Aria!”
“I have no choice but to catch the mastermind controlling that girl!”
Ignoring the cries of Mascot Lulu, she sprinted towards the abandoned factory beside the dock where the organization members were pouring out.
In this country, where firearms were strictly regulated, they tried to stop her with automatic rifles, but the S-class Magical Girl broke through all defenses and knocked out the organization members.
‘As quickly as possible.’
She had to deal with things while her colleagues bought time against the Experiment Subject Girl.
Grabbing the collar of a fainted organization member, Aria threw them aside and stood in front of a passage leading underground, panting.
“Nobody move!”
With a fiery punch, she smashed open the thick steel doors that were double and triple locked and entered the organization’s secret underground lab.
Inside, waiting in the broad central hall was the facility director Andrei and the organization’s senior members who had fled here.
“A kid is running around without knowing her place. Capture her.”
“I, these bastards…”
At Andrei’s command, three men in black military uniforms and masks rushed in rapidly.
Aria, stunned by their inhuman movements, raised her guard, but their punches indiscriminately landed on her exposed stomach, and sides.
“The super-soldier project is passé, but this is certainly a valuable experiment.”
“Cough… another horrifying experiment.”
Holding onto their punches, Aria gritted her teeth and sent them flying in one go.
The last remaining man kicked at her neck, but she deflected it with her elbow and delivered a strike to the solar plexus of the opponent whose leg was broken.
“…”
Andrei’s expression hardened at the sight of the man who was spewing blood bubbles as he crashed to the ground beneath him.
“So this is the famous S-class, is it?”
“Ah… no…”
However, Aria soon faltered in despair as well.
As the researchers she was intentionally hiding behind shifted aside, three girls with distinctive surgical scars on their heads charged at her, engulfing her in black flames.
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