Chapter 246: Jealousy (17)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 246: Jealousy (17)
Cathy was in the middle of crushing a demon’s head in her hand when she felt a strange chill and turned her gaze.
How should she describe it?
Perhaps a precarious sensation, like filth about to be smeared on a precious, cherished possession?
Her intuition as a seasoned superhuman warned her to leave this place immediately and go save him, but unfortunately, the situation around her changed faster than Cathy could surrender to her instincts.
The magic circle, which had almost gone dormant, began to spew light once again.
“Oh? I’m feeling a decent aura now. Honestly, even those so-called Named demons were just idiots crawling out of there.”
“Indeed. This is incomparable to the small fry we’ve seen so far.”
Park A-ram, who could directly sense demonic energy, was the first to react, followed by Leilan.
Including this incident, this was the fifth time Leilan had encountered demons in her life. To be honest, the ones they had dealt with today were mere grunts, hardly worthy of being called demons compared to those she had met before.
Of course, they might have been weakened by crossing into the human realm, but even considering that, they were simply too weak.
However, the vibe given off by the demon felt beyond that magic circle now was different.
She couldn’t sense the demonic energy directly, but judging by the strange tingling in her ears…
It was clearly stronger than the demon from the previous drug incident. It didn’t make her tremble as much as when she faced that monster she never felt she could beat—the ‘Demon King’—but it was formidable nonetheless.
“Hmm, quite demon-like, I suppose. A classic tactic. Using weak demons as cannon fodder—or rather, a trap disposal squad—and then bringing in the main force later.”
As they maintained their guard and watched to see what kind of demon would emerge, the figures that appeared atop the magic circle were…
“Ah, I thought we might suddenly fall from the sky, but thankfully we’re on the ground.”
“I know. When we were suddenly teleported, I thought we were in real trouble.”
It was Baek Seol and Kang Ha-ni.
No, the magic circle hadn’t spat them out; they had appeared atop it as if they had been suddenly teleported there. Recognizing this, the Chairperson could easily envision the impending disaster.
“Get away…!”
As if refusing to wait, a massive maw tore open from the magic circle. The demon, looking like a giant shark, wore a fishy smirk at the thought of swallowing the attractive prey that had suddenly appeared. It snapped its jaws shut without hesitation.
Or rather, it tried to snap them shut.
If not for an arrow of compressed storms, a torrent of golden mana, and a powerful punch striking the demon simultaneously, the two cadets would not have escaped unscathed.
“Whoa, that was a surprise.”
“Yeah. If the professors hadn’t helped, it might have been dangerous.”
Of course, seeing Baek Seol immediately toss a holy relic into the shark’s mouth and Kang Ha-ni slash the roof of its maw with her sword, they likely would have escaped one way or another.
With split-second judgment, they had dealt significant damage to the demon and rescued the cadets.
It would have been nice if the story ended there, but unfortunately, things weren’t that simple.
The massive shark demon, resembling a Megalodon, swam through the air as if it were in the ocean and opened its giant mouth.
The demon sneered, flaunting its countless teeth that resembled a whirlpool; not a single wound remained on its body.
The faculty had attacked to save the students, and the students had attacked to escape, but the fact that the demon had taken those high-level attacks head-on and endured proved its defensive power was absolute.
* * *
[If you beg for forgiveness now, I’ll just cut off your legs so you can’t run away and forgive you.]
High-speed rotating streams of water lashed out like whips, destroying everything in their path.
For now, I could dodge them with my bare body without using Reinforcement, but that was less about my skill and more because Leviathan was still intent on playing with me.
This was troublesome.
Honestly, I thought she’d charge blindly if I provoked her this much, but it seemed she liked me more than I expected. I could feel her trying hard not to break me.
“Is cutting off my legs your idea of forgiveness?”
[Of course~ Very few who have offended me have kept their lives. A sentence of just losing your legs is truly a merciful judgment!]
I dodged a sudden whirlpool whip, but it abruptly changed direction in mid-air and lunged for my back.
Reinforcement.
Using a momentary burst of Reinforcement to accelerate, I evaded the whip. Leviathan licked her lips in disappointment.
[What a shame. I wanted to see what your blood tasted like.]
Vicious. I knew it, but she really was vicious.
In the original work, most demons were restricted in power the moment they crossed into the human realm, often treated as lesser than S-rank.
But a Demon King was a different kind of monster entirely—even with her power restricted and without being serious, she could easily toy with most S-rank villains or heroes.
I had to admit it. I wanted to save my strength until she completely lost her mind if possible, but that was an arrogant thought.
[Oh my, does fixing your expression change anything?]
Well then, while she’s still underestimating me, shall I start by landing a light blow?
* * *
To Leviathan, Kang So-hyun was nothing more than a toy she could bring to his knees at any moment.
To be more precise, he was like a limited-edition toy with a massive premium, one that might never be released again.
Think about it from a collector’s perspective. You could play with such a toy whenever you wanted, but you wouldn’t actually do it for fear of scratching it.
Because she wanted to possess him in pristine condition, she was merely scaring him, holding back from taking the arms and legs she could have blown off instantly.
She was starting to think she needed to give him a taste of pain before he got too rebellious, but regardless, she hadn’t intended to hurt him seriously.
Amusingly, the toy still didn’t seem to recognize the power gap; he raised his weapon and set his expression.
It was a serious, cold expression, but so what?
Does an ant beat an elephant just because it’s serious? No matter how hard a bug tries, it’s still a bug.
In the first place, humans rarely cry because they were beaten by a toy. She couldn’t understand why he still didn’t realize that he was just a pretty plaything to her.
The moment she increased the number of whirlpool whips to put him in his place…
His presence, which had been like an ant, swelled to the size of a puppy in an instant.
[Ho, quite…]
And the boy, who had shown the presence of a puppy, transformed again in a heartbeat into a sharply whetted wolf.
Leviathan was momentarily flustered.
She had seen humans who exuded the aura of a tiger from the start, but she had never seen a human cross the threshold three times in a single moment. It was a natural reaction, but that brief fluster became a small opening.
The boy she was facing was not one to miss such a gap.
Dagger in hand, he lunged.
At the tip of his swinging blade, ink-black flowers bloomed for the first time. These flowers seemed to devour the surrounding demonic energy as if they were starving, emitting an even deeper scent.
The moment all her whips were severed, Leviathan finally recognized the current situation and chose to retreat, but…
[Uh…?]
She was caught in the shadow trap he used as his main tactic and couldn’t fully execute her evasive maneuver.
Seeing this, Leviathan revised her evaluation of the boy once again.
From a top-tier toy with a heavy premium to perhaps the one and only toy in the world that could never be replaced.
The smiling Demon King released another level of her power.
Just to enjoy his despairing face while telling him that this was his limit.
She could have exerted even more power, but she restrained herself, intending to block him with just one level higher.
Since she had increased the density of her demonic energy, the sword he thrust would be stopped by the thick wall of energy, and the newly formed whips would tear him apart.
Ah, she shouldn’t tear him, he was too precious.
His legs were precious too, so she wouldn’t cut them off completely—she’d just break them so they could be healed.
She wondered if she could control her strength well enough.
The thought of his despairing face made her unable to stop smiling.
However.
The Demon King should not have done that.
In truth, it was a mistake anyone could have made.
If you saw something become powerful by crossing the wall of limits three times, you would think it was a product of a miracle.
It was only normal not to expect them to go even further.
Leviathan made a wild assumption. She thought the boy had surpassed his limits for the sake of the girl suffering in the hospital room, and that this was his final destination, the maximum point he could reach.
But that wasn’t the case at all.
This was a trap set by a hunter who had grasped her personality, a flaw created under thorough calculation.
The light of Reinforcement bathed the boy’s body once more. His presence, which had been charging fiercely like a wolf, swelled again just before the dagger was thrust home.
A Dragon.
He, who grew exponentially stronger with each stack of Reinforcement, was no longer a harmless toy.
He was clearly an enemy who could harm her, an obstacle.
But by the time she realized this, it was too late. The dagger he thrust pierced through the wall of water made of demonic energy and grazed her cheek.
[Ha?]
And this was a major event, more than enough to scratch the Demon King’s pride.
How dare a human.
She had tried to play with him a little, even if he was just a toy, and he had actually crawled up and left a wound on her.
No matter how much she had let her guard down, no matter how much she hadn’t been serious, this was an absolute insult and humiliation by her standards.
Only then did the Demon King release all her demonic energy without restraint.
The boy who had thrust the dagger was blown back violently, but she didn’t care. She didn’t give the slightest consideration to the impact her rage would have on the surroundings.
[Do not overstep your bounds, human…!]
To personally teach the bug before her what a Demon King truly was.
To show him what happens when a Demon King is truly serious, to make the human who dared bring about this calamity despair and be stained with regret.
Vast demonic energy blanketed the human realm, and a massive flood of water made of demonic energy overflowed into the wasteland.
He appeared to try and use holy water to resist, but the high-grade holy water he had prepared as a backup had long since been devoured and annihilated by the demonic energy.
The Demon King, having covered the area in water, was not satisfied. She created more and more water until the wasteland finally resembled a sea, and only then did she calm down slightly.
If there had been a city inhabited by people nearby, it would have met its end in this single moment simply because it couldn’t withstand the Demon King’s wrath.
She expected him to be floundering in the sea of demonic energy, but the boy was skillfully standing atop the water using mana once again.
Seeing as he wasn’t doing anything, he probably assumed the disaster was over.
Don’t make me laugh.
Honestly, it was a bit taxing.
If she were in the Demon Realm, creating a bit of a sea wouldn’t have tired her, but this was the human realm.
To be honest, if it weren’t for the Authority her helper had lent her, she would have had to pay a significant price, so she wouldn’t have lashed out like this just because she was angry.
But thanks to the Authority taking the place of the cost, she still had plenty of demonic energy left—enough to give that arrogant human an even greater despair.
Watch closely what the price of angering a Demon King is.
The moment she submerged herself into the sea she had created, the waters of demonic energy began to throb.
This transformation of the surrounding terrain was neither an attack nor anything else to her; it was merely the preparation and staging to reveal her true form.
The Demon King, having revealed her true self, smiled as she imagined the boy trembling in terror.
However, contrary to her expectations, the boy she looked up at from beneath the water wasn’t trembling with fear, nor did he look panicked.
He simply smiled, calmly and very slowly, as if he had been waiting for this exact situation.
It was enough to make her skin crawl.
* * *
It goes without saying, but I had already experienced all of this before.
Back then, she was cornered and did it as a desperate struggle to overturn the situation because she couldn’t stomach the humiliation, so the power was a bit weaker than it was now.
Perhaps because she paid the price with an Authority this time, the power was a bit stronger than I expected.
If there had been a city nearby, the damage would have been insane.
To think this water is just a preparation for her to move freely—to reveal her true form—it’s honestly ridiculous.
Looking down at the sea, something so massive that its exact shape couldn’t be grasped was staring up at me from beneath the surface, its eyes glowing.
That was Leviathan’s true form, her shape as a Demon King.
The Sea Dragon, Leviathan.
Even now, I couldn’t fathom how huge she was. Thinking about how she’d be even larger in the Demon Realm honestly gave me the creeps.
Really.
I’m just glad I can take care of her now.