Chapter 204: The Angel Who Dreams (9)

Episode 204: The Angel Who Dreams (9)

“How pathetic. I told you not to contact me for such a stupid reason, didn’t I.”

Behold the deepest darkness.

“What’s so special about that bastard’s birthday? Shit… Do you know what kind of crap I had to hear at home because of you? They’re all living their dirty lives, but they only blame me!”

A place where nothing is illuminated, where nothing can reach.

“”I-I’m sorry. So please, stop…!”

“Stop? As if I’d stop. Huh? You think you can raise your hand against me? Fine, let’s take this to the end today.”

Little one, if you see this place, you’ll learn more about this world than anyone your age, twice as much. No, to an extent that you can’t even express it with numbers. So this is no different from a lesson. Isn’t it?

As you look at your collapsed mother, feel the suffocating fear, and hear unbelievable words being muttered, you will come to understand.

“Why should I take responsibility for these brats just because they’re blood. Once that old bastard kicks the bucket, I’ll immediately get rid of all these troublesome things.”

So, let’s watch it together.

Child, look into the darkness.

The boy knew more than his peers. That their survival depended on a grandfather they had never met, and that this grandfather was now ill.

Look at this profound darkness.

It’s scary, sad, and you won’t know what to do.

Today was the boy’s birthday.

* * *

A sense of not understanding. A sense of not comprehending. The demon king felt displeased that he was feeling such things.

Why? For what reason? Why was Yumari, who had become a fallen hero and a fallen dragon, attacking him. Yumari should have no lingering attachments to this world.

Did she not wish for revenge? Well, perhaps Yumari had grown weak and lost her vengeful spirit. But then, why…

The demon king and Mari exchanged four blows in the span of what could physically be called an instant. Although she blocked them all perfectly, the disparity in their strength caused Mari to sustain heavy damage.

The demon king couldn’t understand her actions. Why would she damage her own body to fight for this world, the very world that had hurt her?

Was it because she wanted to destroy this world herself? No, that couldn’t be it. If that were the case, she could just go and destroy the parts of the world that he hadn’t reached yet.

Could it be that she had somehow dispelled the dark karma? No, earlier, her soul was so saturated with darkness that she could even absorb his karma.

The Demon King, who had grasped the truth, could not help but be astonished as he watched Mari act in defiance of that truth. Mari did not fail to notice his bewilderment.

The confusion caused a distortion in his karma. Of course, the Demon King managed to cover even that distortion with the ‘nothingness’ he had perfected over tens of thousands of years, but there were limits to what he could do.

Against Mari, whose combat sense surpassed his own, he could not conceal these distortions.

With one strike, the Demon King, having read the path of Mari’s punch through the flow of karma, planned to deflect it with his shoulder and then counter by slashing at her neck with his hand.

The actual strike, the punch rushed along the path the Demon King had anticipated. Now, it was time to deflect it with his shoulder. By deflecting the punch, he would create an inevitable opening and drive his hand into it.

Good. Deflec, Grab- Grab?

However, what the Demon King saw was his shoulder caught in Mari’s strong grip.

With his shoulder seized, he was dragged forward, and Mari’s knee landed a direct hit on his solar plexus.

He couldn’t help but cough up blood. Her combat sense was clearly superior to his.

After this, the Demon King shook off her grip by dispersing karma and intended to create distance to engage in long-range combat and intercept Mari.

Long-range combat, where future prediction plays a greater role than combat sense. In such a scenario, he would have a clear upper hand over Mari, who lacked the ability to foresee the future.

…Or so the demon king thought.

But the moment the demon king created distance, Mari also distanced herself. And the moment the demon king unconsciously tilted his head, a bolt of lightning shot towards him.

The subtle tremors of the body that inevitably occur when moving quickly. The Demon King knew that Mari, trained as a hero, would be able to read even those tremors.

That’s why the Demon King feigned those tremors and moved in the opposite direction. But Mari read even *that* movement.

As the black lightning struck his eyes, the Demon King attempted to collect his thoughts amidst the chaos.

He couldn’t fathom why Yumari was standing against him, but that wasn’t the crucial issue. What was truly unacceptable was not understanding *how* she was capable of doing so.

However, if he didn’t understand both,

He had to first understand what he *could*.

As he neutralized the lightning, the Demon King began to formulate hypotheses.

First hypothesis, Yumari is after the Demon King’s throne. As a fellow user of dark karma, she seeks to eliminate him, whose sword, shield, and magic are sealed, to claim the pinnacle of karma for herself.

But for that to hold true, Yumari’s karma would need to rival his own. Yet, no matter how he sensed it, her karma was nothing more than a frail accumulation of just over a decade.

It couldn’t even compare to his.

If she had reached the stage where she could read karma.

If that girl truly understood the dark karma, the truth, then she would be the first to realize she had no chance of winning. If she really wanted to claim the Demon King’s throne, the rational course of action would be to accumulate more power and wait for a better opportunity.

Therefore, the first hypothesis was rejected.

Then the second hypothesis. The second hypothesis was that Yumari still had something she wanted to do in this world. Yes.

At least this hypothesis made some sense.

“Mari.”

“….”

With a gentle voice, the Demon King spoke, his face adorned with the warm smile he reserved only for Leffrey. He murmured cautiously.

“Is there something you still haven’t accomplished in this world? Revenge against the Seocheon Yu family, perhaps? Or is there something you desired but couldn’t obtain? Speak up. I will fulfill your wish.”

He didn’t believe he could persuade her. He merely hoped to unsettle her mentally, considering that a victory. However.

“Hah.”

Yumari’s scornful laughter. That laughter that seemed to mock him, asking if that was all he could think of, enraged the Demon King.

Thus, the Demon King was thrown off balance once again and found himself struck by yet another bolt of lightning.

How could this be.

How could something he couldn’t understand happen like this.

He had clearly realized the dark truth, he could read all the karma in this world. So how could this be.

That girl who had been born in hell, who had despaired even before she knew the meaning of despair, who had fallen because of that. So why was this girl now pretending to be a hero for the people.

“Don’t you hate them?”

It was a sentence without a subject.

But Mari understood who “them” referred to.

“I do hate them.”

“Then why are you fighting?”

“You don’t know that?”

Indeed, the Demon King did not know.

Realizing that the Demon King was ignorant of even this basic truth, Mari couldn’t help but smile.

“Then it seems I have no choice but to fight until you understand.”

Thus, the Demon King and Mari clashed once again.

Black lightning and the black king created light amidst the black sky

And people saw that light.

* * *

“A black sky. I can feel it. This is the Demon King’s power.”

Beneath the blackened sky, a girl was murmuring.

“Wow, there are really a lot of crazy bastards. You people over there! Hurry up and run!”

*Thwack*—*Thwack*—

A pink-haired girl knocking down grown men with just a wave of her hand.

“Hey, aren’t you going to get out of here? Want to get hit and then leave?”

The girl scared the hesitant, frightened people into fleeing, then turned to look at a girl wearing a witch’s hat.

“What are you looking at?”

“Ugh, you’re so ignorant.”

“What’s so nice about a sky like that. You’re not seriously happy because the sky turned black, thinking ‘Oh, it’s a black magic-friendly sky~,’ are you?”

“No, I’m not!”

The enraged girl started saying things like, ‘Black magic-friendly isn’t just about the color black. It’s closer to black flames, noble, solitary, untainted by others…’ but then she stopped.

“This isn’t what’s important right now. We need to find Leffrey quickly.”

“So, can you sense Leffrey’s presence?”

“Of course.”

After Leffrey ran away last time, Soya, without consulting with him, had cast a certain spell on his school uniform.

The effect of that spell was simple.

It was a tracking spell.

“Leffrey is at New Seoul Plaza right now.”

“New Seoul Plaza. The place where that event bragging about Yumari becoming a hero is happening, right.”

“That’s right.”

Suddenly, Hongwol lowered her body, stretching her waist flexibly, and muttered in a voice brimming with confidence.

“There’ll definitely be a lot of enemies, won’t there?”

“Probably?”

“Heh, good timing then.”

There were plenty of people she wanted to beat up, she thought but didn’t say, as Wol naturally hoisted Soya onto her back. Seeing how Soya let herself be carried without a word, it didn’t seem like this was their first or second time doing this.

And then they charged. Breaking through while leaving sound behind was a realm they had long surpassed. Now, their speed was so fast it pierced through sound itself.

But even while moving so fast, Soya and Hongwol could see something.

“Over here, escape this way!”

“Damn it, are these so-called superhumans so pathetic that they’re enchanted by a sky like that. Hey! First-years! Get your heads on straight!”

“Carrying the name of the student council, we can’t possibly perform worse than the other clubs, Right?”

The sight of Central Academy students saving people, that is.

These were kids who, until now, had only cared about grades, pursued strength, and often acted like villains.

Of course, there were also plenty of kids wandering around, not saving anyone.

But those who had met Leffrey, those who were close to Leffrey, were saving people.

Soya understood what that meant. Because now, even if clumsily, Soya could sense karma too.

“This was a future that couldn’t exist.”

“Yeah.”

The two girls spoke.

“Something is changing.”

And so, the two girls were able to step into the plaza where a new hero was about to be introduced. Into that place dominated by a chilling darkness.

The outlines of chairs, a platform, and a tent were clearly visible, yet they couldn’t be felt. This kind of darkness was something the girls had never experienced in their lives before.

“Umm, this is.”

It was like a fragment of a nightmare.

A piece of an inescapable dream.

“I have this kind of dream every day.”

But the girls didn’t hesitate.

* * *

The seventh attack. The Demon King, who had been losing in long-range combat, quickly shifted his stance to land a single blow but failed once again.

Struck by a counter to his elbow, the Demon King couldn’t help but bleed messily from his nose. Though, of course, he could heal it immediately.

Feeling the faint pains accumulating in his body, the Demon King chewed over his anxiety. He could withstand thousands, tens of thousands of attacks going forward, while that dragon could collapse with just one blow. So there was no reason to feel anxious.

And then the Demon King realized.

That it wasn’t for such a reason that he was feeling anxious.

He was feeling anxious about the very fact that he couldn’t understand that girl right now.

So he decided.

The eighth attack. To summon the True Demon Sword and cut off Mari’s left arm as she prepared a flurry of strikes.

Red blood spread out into the world. And so, Mari lost her left arm.