Lord of Despair and Hatred (8)

Lord of Despair and Hatred (8)

In the middle of the bustling downtown where people were hurrying about.

The late afternoon sunlight is bright, and the wind blowing from the unusually clear sky suppresses the exhaust fumes from cars and purifies the lungs.

Despite recent incidents, society’s vitality hasn’t died. Rather, it was bright and healthy, befitting the weather. It was natural.

Because even with talks of monsters and whatnot, order, common sense, and trust still existed in this society.

‘Trash! Hypocrites!’

He didn’t like those appearances.

Disgusting hypocrisy and blatant double standards.

Oppressive order and destroyed common sense, even two-faced trust.

He thought to himself that the harm inflicted on him recently by this society and its members wasn’t enough even if they were torn apart and killed a thousand or ten thousand times.

“Found, you.”

Walking down the street while looking at his phone with hollow eyes, he soon spotted someone across the street and widened his eyes.

A group of college students waiting for the signal, laughing and chatting happily with their friends. One of them was his target.

‘Thank you, leader. Thank you, Sun.’

He inwardly offered a prayer of thanks to those who had revealed the enemy’s location and given him the opportunity for revenge, and began to approach them directly.

There was no reason to hesitate.

This was something he desperately wanted, an honorable martyrdom for a true cause, and judgment and revenge against an evil that no one else had recognized.

“Huh?”

As he advanced without hesitation, one of the female students in the group noticed him and flinched in surprise. Then she tapped the shoulder of the man who was his target.

“What? Kang Jun-seok?!”

The man, who was his classmate from the same year, recognized him and widened his eyes.

“What? I thought you ended up taking a leave of absence, what are you doing here?”

“I can’t… take a leave of absence. Hah, I can’t take a leave of absence like this. Not when you’re attending school so normally.”

“Ha.”

He glared at the other person who reacted as if they hadn’t expected it, and smirked. The other person, Ahn Chul-ho, rather mocked his appearance.

The group with Ahn Chul-ho did the same.

Before, no matter how righteous he felt, he would have run away unable to bear such gazes and mockery.

But not anymore.

“I should hear an apology.”

“Apology? What apology? Wow, you’re really shameless. What makes you so great, being the brother of a murderer?”

Ahn Chul-ho raised his voice as if he was confident.

In fact, Ahn Chul-ho was certain that he was right at this moment.

It was he who had deliberately spread the personal information of Kang Jun-seok’s brother to his surroundings and on the internet after learning that he had raped and murdered an innocent woman.

“Don’t spout nonsense! Justice?! You just did it for fun and interest. Just because some stupid pigs took your side, do you think you’re some kind of judge or prosecutor!”

“Y-you bastard…”

The suppressed anger burst out, mixed with madness.

Due to the commotion that broke out in the middle of the street in broad daylight, the attention of the surroundings was greatly focused, and thanks to this, Ahn Chul-ho’s acquaintances were extremely embarrassed.

“Thanks to this, I learned something well. That you, and all the other bastards breathing in this society, are just trash. The murderer who should be killed is my brother, not me, not my mother, not my sister.”

Kang Jun-seok, who started laughing, put his hand in his pocket. The special dagger he had been given took root and dug into his hand.

“Because of your petty sense of justice, trivial interest, and the attention-seeking of miscellaneous beings, one innocent person committed suicide, and another developed autistic symptoms. No one helped. In this situation, why should I hold back?”

“Hey, is that…”

“Run… Run away!!”

Black veins spread from the hand holding the dagger, covering Kang Jun-seok’s entire body.

Only then did people, including Ahn Cheol-ho, realize the gravity of the situation and began to scream and run away.

“Kuhek!”

However, it was impossible to outrun the superhuman agility of someone who had already transformed into a monster.

Ahn Cheol-ho was caught by the nape of his neck before he could take more than a few steps, and was slammed into the ground.

“Ah, aaaaargh! Fuck, my leg!”

He then stepped on Ahn Cheol-ho’s leg, crushing it. The shin bone shattered into pieces, flesh burst out, spraying blood everywhere.

“Kill, kill!!”

“Wait… please spare me. I’m sorry, Jun-seok, wai…”

The black mucus oozing from Kang Jun-seok’s body, now completely covered in black veins, had turned him into a crazed, muscular monster.

Ahn Cheol-ho’s face, which had barely opened his mouth to speak, was instantly crushed by his fist, bursting like a watermelon.

“Kyaaaargh!”

His rampage didn’t end with killing just one person.

He slashed, stabbed, burst, and threw, brutally killing one by one those who were fleeing after hanging around with Ahn Cheol-ho.

“Uh, uuh… stop!”

A middle-aged policeman who happened to be nearby pointed his gun at him as he was catching a female student who had leaked his family’s personal information online and was scraping her face alive on the asphalt.

The policeman’s hands were shaking. He had rushed over reflexively, but the aura emanating from this monster clad in despair and hatred was not something an ordinary mind could withstand.

“Tra, sh!!”

“Hiiiek!!”

As the monster with randomly protruding teeth roared, splitting its face, the policeman dropped his gun and turned to run.

A female student’s corpse, with half her face torn off while still alive, was ripped in half by him as he chased after the police officer.

“W-Why me?!”

The police officer ran while crying. To Kang Jun-seok, who had become a monster of despair on a rampage, all living humans in this society were targets of revenge to be torn apart and killed, so this too was part of that revenge.

“Aagh!”

The police officer was hit by his arm and flew through the air, denting a nearby car door before rolling on the ground.

Before he could even feel the pain, his eyes widened. The beast’s hand with sharp claws was already coming down.

“Stop it!”

And that’s when a shining arrow flew in and pierced that hand.

“A Magical Girl!”

The police officer, who had narrowly escaped death, exclaimed with relief upon seeing the figure of a girl descending from the sky.

A monster that ordinary humans couldn’t handle. Those girls were the ones who specialized in dealing with such beings.

“That’s far enough. Magical Girl, we’ll take it from here.”

“Oh! Even the Special Forces!”

Simultaneously, a group of people arrived quickly in vehicles.

The Awakened Special Forces, recently trained and deployed for actual combat, wearing suits and protective gear. The police officer sighed in relief at their reassuring presence.

“Don’t be ridiculous. I got here first, you know?”

“With the Special Awakened Forces Act that just passed in the National Assembly, the Awakened Special Forces have priority in all incidents occurring in Korea. This is obstruction of official duties!”

“Wow, so what are you going to do? Arrest me?”

Of course, the Special Forces and the Magical Girl started growling and arguing as soon as they saw each other.

This was a common sight these days. Magical Girls belonging to Frontier or Casilena tried to avoid conflicts as much as possible, but there were still more unaffiliated Magical Girls in this country.

“Huh, huhuhah…!”

In that moment, Kang Jun-seok, who had become a monster, fueled his hatred even more.

His contempt for those who rushed to help now, when there was no assistance when he was suffering, and his desire for revenge.

And the pathetic behavior and level they showed.

“Die!”

As his hatred burned, Kang Jun-seok’s magical power increased rapidly, and he roared, attempting to attack both the magical girls and the special forces.

“Wh-what’s so strong?!”

“Let’s retreat, Clea. It’s at least B-rank or higher!”

The magical girl barely regained her posture after avoiding the shockwave, performing an aerial somersault. Meanwhile, the mascot whined and tugged at her clothes, urging retreat.

“A-attack!”

The Awakened Special Forces attempted to attack on the order of their team leader, who had somewhat regained his senses.

“Aagh!”

“It’s too fast!”

The problem was that unlike the team leader dispatched from The One Road, the team members, who were essentially new recruits composed of recruited individuals, were still awkward in combat.

“Ugh, uwaah…”

‘What on earth is that energy!’

The biggest problem wasn’t the lack of practical experience or firepower. The team leader’s eyes widened, and his body began to tremble.

To withstand the thick, negative energy emitted by the monster of despair and hatred, one needs to have a mental strength that matches it.

However, everyone at the scene lacked the mental fortitude to endure the hatred that this person had created by grinding away his life, body, soul, and everything else.

Only a few members who were holding on with a sense of duty were all that remained, and those without even that were unable to even face the monster.

‘If such monsters keep appearing.’

The team leader forcibly moved his body and drew a large sword as big as himself. He couldn’t guarantee victory.

“Over there… Pama technique… What was Pacheon again?!”

At that critical moment, a blue lightning-like flash that could turn the tide of battle erupted.

The team leader’s eyes widened as he saw a female student spinning in the air after jumping from the rooftop of a nearby three-story building.

It wasn’t the Special Forces, of course. Nor was it a Magical Girl.

Without a coat and wearing only a shirt, her face was covered with a mask, but it was clear that the clothes she was wearing were a school uniform, not a Magical Girl’s outfit.