Ch.672Chapter 25. Let it Unfold (22)

Anyway.

After the preliminaries ended, I’m now waiting for the main tournament.

Several S-rank competitors advanced to the finals, most of whom I knew.

Looking through the list of finalists, there were no surprises.

Those who entered as Korean S-ranks, those who entered as American S-ranks, and those I already knew to be S-ranks—they all advanced to the finals.

Those who failed to advance were all fake A-ranks that countries had labeled as S-ranks for the competition.

All the long shots—the so-called “reverse bets” with extremely high odds of 100 to 1 or more in the Ability User World Cup betting pools—were eliminated.

Someone evaluated the preliminaries like this:

“Everyone who was assessed by Armored Taejo was eliminated.”

Those who couldn’t overcome the mountain that is Armored Taejo—those who briefly held the title of S-rank but weren’t true S-ranks and were assessed as ‘A+’ rank.

After filtering out hundreds of such people, the remaining 64 were all definitively confirmed to the world as S-ranks, but…

“Why meeeeee!!”

There are those who rampage like that.

“Why do I have to be eliminateeeed!!”

What kind of demon should we call that?

The Demon of Elimination?

The Demon of Failure?

The Demon of Humiliation?

Its outward appearance resembles a demon from some old Western tome, but it holds a massive fork in one hand and a knife in the other.

“Me, eliminated? That’s impossible!!”

It tries to stab passersby with the fork in one hand and slashes at everything in its path with the knife in the other.

“Kyaaaaaaah!!”

The demon howls toward the sky.

That howl was filled with indignation and rage about its elimination, but there was no one here to listen to its complaints.

Of course not.

The demon is currently trapped inside a “barrier.”

“What should we do?”

Ymir, transformed into Magical Girl Platinum Sun, created “decoys” around the rampaging demon.

Kyaaaah-

Citizens screaming and running away.

The goat-like demon thrusting its meter-long fork and swinging its knife at these citizens.

Each time someone dies, it looks like a real human death, but these are merely illusions created by Ymir.

“Is it rampaging and killing people like that, or was it originally a villain who went around killing people?”

[Both.]

I know.

I know exactly what kind of villain this demon was and why it fell to demonhood.

[It’s killing everyone out of embarrassment.]

The Demon of Pride.

The Demon of Self-Esteem.

[It thinks, ‘I’m so great, how dare these lowlifes beat me? That’s impossible.’]

Someone who believed they were superior to others, that others were inferior and they were greater than any other being.

[But what’s the reality? They lost so badly that you can’t even say ‘fought well despite losing.’]

It wasn’t my doing.

It wasn’t Ymir’s doing either, nor was it the work of the Syndicate or any hero I know.

If I had to name someone I know who defeated them, the Chinese ability user “Heavenly Demon” was among this demon’s opponents.

[When you’re knocked down in one hit by the Heavenly Demon’s Dragon Domination Step, you should just accept defeat and learn to swallow your pride.]

“Is it rampaging now because it lost to a woman?”

[Not just because of that.]

When someone becomes a demon on the Korean peninsula, it means they have thoughts or ideologies that Hwan’s will would despise.

“These filthy yellow monkeysㅡㅡㅡ!”

[Racism comes along with it.]

“Isn’t racial discrimination rare these days?”

That’s how this world is.

More precisely, racial discrimination against Koreans has almost disappeared.

Since Korea began dominating the world with abilities, Koreans have become objects of admiration and aspiration even for white people.

However.

[There’s no racial discrimination against Koreans.]

Only Koreans are objects of admiration.

[Not everyone who uses chopsticks is Korean.]

“Ah.”

[Especially if there are many people abroad pretending to be Korean to scam others.]

Those who don’t have Korean nationality or weren’t born in Korea are different.

In the end, only Koreans are embraced by Hwan’s will, only they have the significant advantage of children being born with mana.

Chinese people are different.

“But Heavenly Demon was Korean, wasn’t she?”

[That probably wasn’t important to this person. More precisely…]

It’s probably not direct anger toward Lee Ye-ryeong, the former Korean, current Chinese ability user known as Heavenly Demon.

[It’s embarrassed about being ridiculed by 1.3 billion Chinese people for ‘losing to Heavenly Demon.’]

“Graaaaargh!!”

It stabs and slashes people wildly with its fork and knife.

With a sour expression, Ymir moves her hand, and as soon as the clothes of the mana-made decoys are all stained red, the demon begins to rampage even more violently.

“Dieㅡㅡㅡ!!”

If it weren’t trapped in this illusory barrier created by Ymir, it would surely have crossed the Yellow Sea to eastern China and carried out such a merciless massacre there.

“Perfectㅡㅡ!!”

“Teacher. Just now…”

[Exactly 666 victims.]

The number of decoys killed is exactly 666.

[Listen carefully, Ymir. You could set this to any number, but your ability becomes more solid when you assign numbers that are meaningful to demons.]

And now, this barrier will become a place where a demon who has killed, even virtually, 666 humans can no longer escape, trapping it here forever.

“It’s like setting the count to 74 in a room you can’t leave unless you act patriotically?”

[However you understand it, as long as you understand, that’s fine.]

Whether Ymir understands in her own unique way doesn’t matter—what’s important is that she can exert such significant influence on reality.

[Now for the execution grounds.]

“…Yes.”

Ymir draws the magic power gathered at her fingertips toward the sky.

Simultaneously, the decoys scattered in all directions begin to soar skyward.

“Huh, what?!”

The goat demon, bewildered that everyone it had just killed or was trying to kill was vaporizing and rising into the sky, quickly scanned its surroundings.

“Y-you…!!”

And only then did it notice us.

“W-what did you do with the people! Is it some kind of large-scale teleportation or something! U-uhehehe…! But I’ve already killed over 600 pieces of trash!!”

Not even realizing it had been fooled by illusions, the demon began to sharpen its fork and knife even more.

“H-how dare you insult me…!”

[You get insulted because you did something worthy of insults.]

No matter how many billions of people around the world are interested in ability user competitions.

No matter how many people might unfairly criticize an amazing match showcasing incredible physical abilities.

[Who would like someone who tries to win at all costs without caring about civilian casualties, like Goblin’s team members did?]

“S-shut up!! Winning is all that matters!”

[But you lost.]

“Kyaaaaaaah!!”

No one likes someone who holds the belief that “victory justifies killing hostages” and actually acts on it, even if they’re just decoys.

[And then your mental breaks down from the criticism, so you attempt to massacre civilians? You deserve to die.]

In the past, I would have executed them immediately.

But what they killed were only decoys.

Even though they acted with murderous intent, we can’t execute them for committing such acts in a virtual situation.

[I won’t take your life. Instead.]

“I’ll take your magical power.”

Ymir stretched one hand toward the sky.

Light began to gather at her fingertips, gradually making them shine as bright as a light bulb—no, like the sun.

“U-uwaah!!”

The demon became frightened.

Seeing the enormous magical power gathering at Ymir’s fingertips and the halo appearing around her, it turned and began to flee.

Strong against the weak, weak against the strong.

While it mercilessly massacred virtual civilians, it shows its true colors by running away when faced with an overwhelmingly powerful opponent.

[Should we call it the Demon of Cowardice?]

Judgment for this demon who takes out its frustration over preliminary elimination on those who criticized it.

“Mir Death Beam.”

Ymir extended her hand forward, and light shot from her fingertipsㅡ

[Wait.]

Before it fired, I stood behind Ymir.

[Since you’re firing anyway, let’s try a new stance.]

“Ah.”

I stood behind Ymir, held her body, and directly corrected her posture.

[Extend the hand gathering magic power straight forward, twist your body to the side, and stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.]

“What about my chest? It’s heavy and might throw off my aim.”

[…….]

Since no one else was around.

I prepared a very special support for her.

And then.

“What’s the name of this technique?”

[Railgun.]

“……?”

Ta-a-a-a-ang.

Ymir learned a new technique, and another demon’s cradle was shattered.

As Ymir’s Mir Death Beam penetrated a rather unfortunate spot, the weapons in the demon’s hands crumbled like mist.

“Whew. This is truly a one-hit kill, isn’t it?”

[Yes. And…we need to keep taking them down like this.]

Fsssh.

The barrier created for the demon disappears.

As Ymir achieves her goal, the world that had been isolated from its surroundings returns to normal.

“This is really great. It feels like inserting my own world into the cracks of reality?”

And so.

“Teacher, if we take down demons like this, there won’t be any damage to the real world.”

Ymir has finally mastered the “Room of Truth” that I developed to defeat demons.

“Maybe now you understand a bit better?”