The Line to Protect (7)

The Line to Protect (7)

When I became a strange tentacle monster and fell into the Demon Realm. And when I finally became the apex of that world of survival of the fittest.

The most important thing I learned was to discard my former self. To become a demon, not a human, to become the Demon King and rule over the Demon Realm.

It made my homesickness even stronger, but I don’t regret it since it was a great help to my survival anyway.

“What, what have you done!”

“Is this your first time seeing a magical girl at work? I just killed an evil person to rack up some achievements.”

Of the two, the magical girl with purple hair screamed in shock, but I nonchalantly kicked the rolling head on the floor, dropping it off the apartment below.

“Don’t say such nonsense.”

“If that’s not the case, how could I have laid hands on this guy’s body? Didn’t my performance actually improve?”

“That’s completely disrupting the order! Most magical girls comply with each country’s social order and laws and act accordingly!”

When I even snickered, she, with a pale face, shouted loudly with an expression that seemed to say I was crazy.

“If what you say is true, there are many people who would be caught in this apartment right now. The company’s definition of good and evil often differs from that of modern Earth people! Let’s say famous people defamed and falsely accused a specific person through the media, framing them as the perpetrator. There are hundreds of thousands or millions of people who go along with it without knowing anything. Are you… going to treat them all as evil and kill them?”

“If there are too many, it’s troublesome. But it’s not impossible.”

Her face grew even paler. But I was serious.

“Good, evil? Such things are actually useless illusions and mere fiction. There’s only one truth. One’s own power. The strong are good, order, and justice. Do you think it’s strange? Do you think I’m crazy? It’s been set up like this from the beginning, so what’s strange about it?”

I sneered at that stupid face. To others, I might look like an irregular, but I’m just riding along with the existing order.

I’m simply taking the place of the magical girl companies that have been leading the order and in the position of strength, and acting as they did.

“I’ve been moving according to the order you’ve created so far. I haven’t broken a single rule. If you have any complaints, challenge me anytime.”

“…You’re still young, so you don’t know. The world isn’t lived alone.”

“Right. That might be true. So challenge me. Challenge me, defeat me, and trample me. Then you’ll be able to realize your justice on me.”

I laughed at the words calling me young. If she’s older than me, does that make her a grandmother in her 100s?

Needless to say, they couldn’t attack me.

“If you can’t attack, step aside. I still have work to do.”

As the police broke down the door and entered the house, I floated towards the empty space where people were gathered below.

The police officer who opened the door and came in was a rookie, vomiting at the sight of the corpse lying with its neck gone.

“You, someday, will be harshly judged.”

“Judgment. That sounds exciting.”

Her words weren’t threatening at all. It was truly exciting. Who could possibly be the one to judge the Demon King, whom even the great archangels of Heaven dare not confront carelessly.

“…Those kids are still chasing us.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

I quickly crossed the sky. The magical girls were still on my tail, but they were nothing more than flies. I planned to leave them be until I returned.

“How on earth are you going to find Mamut?!”

“That’s what I’m worried about too.”

At Ren’s words, who was sitting on my cap, I straightened up in mid-air.

How can we find that Mamut who is clearly moving with some purpose? Ironically, the only clue was the underground organization that I had advised Aria to look into.

“…I can’t move except at night.”

I had a narrower range of activities compared to Aria, who was both a collaborator with the Management Bureau and a high school student, as I had to maintain a normal daily life to keep my identity.

I was getting anxious that I might lose the bet with Aria. More irritating than being told to stop killing was the very fact that I could lose the bet.

“What about Aria? I heard she made some progress?”

“I absolutely won’t tell you.”

“…Even if I tear off the limbs of your seniors one by one right here?”

I tried threatening with a hint of seriousness, but this purple-haired one, who seemed a bit older, shook her head firmly.

I didn’t really intend to harm them, so I let out a sigh.

“Are you giving up?”

“Are you crazy? I’m someone who can never lose to anyone.”

Shaking my head firmly at Ren’s words, I moved my shadow, which was full of my power. Although I was purely a physical fighter and didn’t often use magic, I could use it when necessary.

“Ugh, uwaah…”

“What on earth is this…”

The magical girls stepped back in shock. Unfazed, I used the shadows enveloping my body to levitate a tree in this empty space above the city center.

At the ends of numerous branches and on the trunk, there were many large and small blinking eyes. This was magic that could summon these eyes to see anywhere.

“S-So! Can you see Mammoth!?”

Ren, clinging to my skirt, shouted. I can see, but it wasn’t the information I wanted.

Mammoth was nowhere to be seen, but instead, I could see Aria and the magical girls engaged in a fierce battle with someone.

*

“Ah, no… We can’t touch her!”

“Henna!”

In the dim night, the formation of magical girls attacking a dock completely collapsed.

The one who broke through the front line of magical girls wielding swords, spears, and shields was an ordinary-looking girl who appeared to be about their age.

However, this girl with a doll-like frozen expression wasn’t wearing magical girl attire. Yet she was fighting on par with the magical girls in that state.

“Aagh!”

One of the magical girls was struck in the abdomen by the girl’s attack with her black burning hand and rolled on the ground. There was not a shred of mercy in that strike.

The girl was truly wielding her power with the intent to kill the magical girls.

“We need to retreat. We can’t respond… Kyaaah!”

Moreover, it wasn’t just this girl. Organization members who had somehow arrived fully armed were attacking them with anti-magical girl bullets and net guns.

‘We were too complacent.’

Aria gritted her teeth so hard she could taste blood.

They had focused solely on uncovering information about the organization and hadn’t prepared sufficiently for a direct confrontation.

Always moving without the police or Management Bureau that usually accompanied her, it’s true that she moved quickly, but as a result, everyone had no choice but to struggle against a single experimental girl that the magical girl couldn’t touch.

They thought they could easily subdue one, but the organization wasn’t so easy to deal with.

“Cough!”

“It’s Aria! Ugh…”

So she first launched herself at the organization members.

Those who were hit in vital points by her punches and kicks fell to the ground with thuds.

“…”

She grabbed the net gun flying towards her and tore it apart. Her power was already enough to sweep away the entire organization by herself, if only it weren’t for the experimental girl.

‘No rebar… or anything like that.’

Aria tried to restrain the experimental girl urgently like Takillas had done, but unfortunately, there was nothing useful in sight.

“Ah, Aria!”

“I have no choice but to catch the leader of those controlling that child!”

Ignoring the cry of the mascot Lulu, she ran alone into the abandoned factory next to the dock where organization members were pouring out.

In this country with gun regulations, even automatic rifles appeared to try to stop her, but the S-class magical girl broke through all those defense lines and knocked down the organization members.

‘As quickly as possible.’

She had to deal with it while her colleagues bought time against the experimental girl.

Aria, who grabbed the collar of a fainted organization member and threw him away, stood in front of the passage leading underground, panting.

“Nobody move!”

Aria, who shattered the thick iron door locked in double and triple layers with a single punch of her flaming fist, entered the organization’s secret underground laboratory.

In the largest central hall there, Director Andrei, who had fled here, along with the organization’s senior members were waiting.

“The youngster is acting up without knowing any better. Catch her.”

“Th-These bastards…”

At Andrei’s command, three men dressed in black uniforms and wearing masks quickly rushed in.

Caught off guard by their superhuman movements, Aria raised her guard, but their fists mercilessly struck her exposed stomach and sides.

“The super soldier project may be outdated now, but this is certainly still a valuable experiment.”

“Ugh… Another horrific experiment.”

Aria gritted her teeth as she grabbed their fists and sent them flying in an instant.

The last remaining one aimed a kick at her neck, but she deflected it with her elbow and delivered a straight punch to the solar plexus of the opponent whose leg was broken.

“…”

Andrei’s face hardened as he saw the man flying to Aria’s feet, spitting out bloody foam.

“So this is the difference of a famous S-class?”

“N-No…”

However, Aria also faltered in despair soon after.

As the researchers who had been deliberately blocking her view with their bodies stepped aside, three girls with clear surgical scars on their heads simultaneously ignited black flames and rushed towards her.