Chapter 112: The Angel Goes to Sea (11)

Episode 112: The Angel Goes to Sea (11)

“But…”

Soya paused, then looked at the other two girls next to Leffrey with a somewhat reluctant expression.

“There’s no helping it. I have to admit. What was it again? The demon king’s avatar? It’s difficult for me to track him with my power alone.”

“Then you’re saying it’s possible if you’re not alone?”

Soya nodded.

“That’s right, you know that sixth sense thing? A dragon’s intuition to see the future through its horns, and a Mooncat’s sixth sense that senses the past through smell and touch, those combined…”

Yumari readily agreed with Soya’s words, and so did Hongwol.

“I’m raising a dog named Tantalus in my shadow, and that dog devoured a really smelly Demon King’s Four Heavenly Kings…”

Soya said,

“You know too, right? A Demon King’s Four Heavenly Kings are the closest to the demon king. So, naturally, they’re heavily infused with his scent.”

“So what you’re saying, Soya…”

“You want us to track him using that scent?”

The three girls looked at each other awkwardly. Only they knew what each of them was thinking.

“Hey, we worked together during the club fair. And this is a much more important moment.”

“That’s right. It’s not something we can compare to a mere children’s club fair…”

Soya spoke up again,

“We can’t catch the demon king’s avatar, unless we work together.”

“That’s true.”

“…Then it can’t be helped.”

The three girls hesitantly reached out.

Hongwol’s ears twitched, then she said, a little shyly,

“I heard this in a cartoon I watched…”

“Heard what?”

“From now on, we’re… Temporary Allies?”

The girl’s cheeks were slightly flushed.

The other girls were the same.

Hongwol, her tail wriggling, raised her voice.

“Wh-What? At times like this, you should play along!”

“It’s such a cliché line.”

“Yeah. But… Wait, you watched cartoons too? You’re pretty cultured! I thought Hongwol was just a thug, but you have a cute side too.”

“That… I’m not on the same level as you.”

And so, Leffrey witnessed a beautiful scene. Three girls holding hands, wearing smiles befitting their age.

“What kind of cartoon were you talking about? Recommend it to me later.”

“Ugh, are you being sarcastic?”

“I’m not.”

[It’s an angelic act to make heroes work together!]

[You have gained a large amount of Angelic Power.]

.

.

[A Hero’s Party has been formed.]

[The direction of the world has begun to shift.]

Leffrey would never forget this moment.

* * *

It danced in the darkness.

It danced in the darkness, singing a song that would never end.

It didn’t hide its laughter as it sang.

It was enjoying itself.

“A demon king resides in every human heart.”

It was a beautiful boy with shiny, black hair and eyes that shined like blood rubies.

“An evil demon king who can never be subdued.”

That being was called an archangel to some, Luciel to others, and the demon king to others.

“But once this week passes…”

The Demon King’s avatar, dancing in the darkness, rejoiced at the thought of what would happen next.

“Why would that demonic race avoid the opportunity to wage war so excitedly? Why would they resist dancing to the tune of this trumpet?”

He could hear the sound of the Seven Trumpets, powerfully blown by his true self. He could sense hatred and rage sprouting within the hearts of the people, in time with the trumpets.

“Kill each other, until this world is clean.”

The demon king’s avatar imagined happily. Soon, a petty quarrel would escalate into bloodshed, a full-blown conflict.

But Jeb Arcada, and the professors, their goal was to teach the children about war. They wouldn’t stop the fights, no matter how big it escalated.

To allow children to be hurt to survive… no, to even encourage it.

“Humans are no different from demon kings.”

The demon king scoffed at their foolishness.

And eventually, that hatred and rage would cross the line and only then will they finally realize that this madness doesn’t just come from a mere competition.

They would never doubt themselves.

Because they are the demon kings.

Jeb Arcada of Mariana Camp and the professors would fight each other, and the Monster Festival would end in a tragedy.

“And then, Mariana Camp, having lost the support of the Central Academy…”

…would be crushed in an instant.

And humanity would be destroyed.

That is how this world would be saved.

“I am the hero.”

It danced in the darkness, saying those words.

“I am the hero who will save the last remaining angel…!”

And that was when the demon king’s avatar, happily caught up in his thoughts… was suddenly yanked into the air, snatched by a black dog.

* * *

On the second morning of the Monster Festival,

As Jeb and Leffrey were making that absurd wager with their ‘mana oath’… The three girls, seeing the leaping Tantalus, said a word each.

“A temporary alliance.”

Soya was the first to speak.

“Are we going to keep using that phrase?”

Yumari looked at Soya and Hongwol with a strange expression. Soya and Hongwol, their faces slightly flushed, retorted,

“We’re not embarrassed at all!”

“…That’s right!”

Yumari shook her head.

Meanwhile, the demon king’s avatar, dragged from his hiding spot in the darkness by Tantalus… For the first time in what must have been thousands of years… was panicking.

‘Light? Why am I sensing light?’

The demon king’s avatar, yanked into the air by Tantalus’ surprise attack. He couldn’t understand how they managed to see through his ‘Steps of the Fallen Angel Walking Through the Night’.

The avatar casually tore Tantalus in half with a knife-hand strike, then watched as the black dog reassembled itself from a girl’s shadow.

That girl, Han Soya. The last hero chosen by Leffrey, the last remaining angel.

‘Could it be… the work of these young heroes?’

He looked at the other two girls standing beside Soya. Yumari, daughter of the Sky Dragon, and Hongwol, the next chieftain of the Mooncat Tribe.

They both possessed a different type of ‘sixth sense.’ If they awakened as heroes and could handle karma, they might even be able to perceive the angelic ability…

‘I was careless.’

But the demon king was still the demon king.

He wasn’t an opponent that could be defeated with a single lucky moment.

The demon king, spreading his dark wings, looked down at the humans gathered below with contempt.

“What is that?”

“Is that a human? It doesn’t look like a monster.”

“An angel…?”

While the other students hesitated, only Jeb and the professors tensed up, readying their weapons.

A powerful aura enveloped the platform.

The ground trembled, the sky cracked.

It meant that a battle between transcendent beings, beings feared by both Heaven and Earth, was about to begin.

“Yes, perhaps this way is better. There’s already enough hatred here…”

The demon king, even seeing them taking their stances, didn’t react. He just smiled and watched.

“It’s time for the beasts within you… to be unleashed.”

At that moment, Leffrey felt a powerful tremor.

[The Silver Shoes have detected a massive wave of karma.]

[The Silver Shoes have detected a massive wave of karma.]

[The Silver Shoes have detected a massive wave of karma.]

An overwhelming amount of karma, impossible to believe it was emanating from a mere avatar. A powerful and dark karma, incomparable to the young angel Leffrey, began to gather around the demon king’s mouth.

“The Breath of the Angel Blowing Seven Trumpets.”

.

.

What is sound?

They call the vibrations that fall within the human audible range ‘sound’.

Then what is a song?

A collection of sounds with rhythm. But having rhythm alone isn’t enough. There has to be emotion, something that stirs your feelings.

Let’s use an example.

Look at that south sea.

The sound made by the crashing waves is rhythmic and monotonous, lacking a certain something to be called a song.

Aaaa—Aaaa—

Then what is *this* song?

It wasn’t monotonous. It was passionate, sorrowful, painful, and lingering. But was it cacophony? No, there was rhythm. A deep-rooted rhythm, one that had existed for a long time.

“Song…?”

A song was being played.

A song humanity has sung for thousands of years. A song made of the cries of abandoned children, the wails from plundered villages, the screams of women dragged away by rough hands…

All merging into a single harmony.

It was the song of humanity, a song they have sung for millennia.

A song that might even be sung for another hundred years, or even a thousand more.

The name of that song is Ruin.

A song we’ve been hearing since we were young, a song we might even have to keep hearing after we die.

This was a wave of karma.

Vibrations perceptible to humans, so it was sound.

And it was also music, a song, because it had rhythm and stirred emotions.

Therefore, this was a song.

Now, sing your rage. Children of men.

“I’m not lying. I’m just showing you the truth.”

The demon king’s avatar laughed cruelly. But no one paid him any attention. Because they were all facing an unavoidable truth.

“…Dad, why is your face like that?”

A girl stumbled, as if she were seeing something…

“Please! Please don’t take my brother! You damned Superhuman Management Bureau bastards!”

A boy wailed.

“Mental contamination?”

“It’s not just simple mental contamination. Look at the professors and Captain Jeb trembling…”

The only ones not affected by the song were the three heroes who could handle karma, and their guardian angel.

“It’s not like I wanted to do it. Dad, I didn’t want to be conscripted to Mariana Camp either. It’s not my fault Mom died in the raid…”

“You’re saying it’s because I’m weak? No, you’re the ones who took my little brother!”

The students’ voices began to rise.

“It’s all their fault! It’s because they conscripted me…”

“Those bastards took my little sister away…”

“If only those Central Academy people had protected our village…”

“I was dragged to Mariana because I’m poor, because I have no backing… This damned world…”

“Why are our academy exams so unfair?! There’s nothing we can do to change it, even with hard work. It’s all because of those damned professors…”

“I don’t want to be hurt anymore. You’re always bullying me. I hate you all…”

“I hate you, it’s all your fault. Die.”

Sing your rage,

Children of men.

Just sing your rage.

“Haha, what do they call this in human language? Spitting facts?” (TL Note: Hehe funne.)

The demon king, hovering in the air with an angelic appearance, sang the coming destruction. Listening to their cries, the avatar, sang loudly as if he was truly joyed.

And so, ruin began.

The three girls tried their best to stop this rampage, but all they could do was protect Leffrey.

Leffrey muttered,

“Everyone, please stop…”

They were using their weapons on each other, drawing each other’s blood, acting out of a hatred that disregarded even their own survival. Even if it meant their own death, even if it meant losing everything…

Because humans are not animals, they don’t stop for such reasons.

“Leffrey, my little angel. See? This is the ugly nature of humanity, the ones you’re trying to protect.”

“….”

“This is the truth, my precious angel.”

The demon king whispered through telepathy.

A whisper that he couldn’t deny, no matter how dark it was.

“Yes. Maybe you’re right, Demon King.”

But Leffrey, last night, and again sometime during the day, had… witnessed the direction of the world change.

“But I…”

Now Leffrey had precious friends, and beautiful memories that he never wanted to forget.

So, Leffrey had decided to fight, as he had long ago.

“I’ll fight facts with disinformation to win!”