The Criminal's Cheerful Rebellion (4)

I'm so exhausted I could die.

Whether it was from burning through most of my mana or from overworking my brain casting the spell, I didn't even want to move anymore.

I'd needed so much mana that I kept shrinking the range, and even that wasn't enough, so I ended up drawing on Miho's and Moon Seyeon's mana as well.

And the magic circle—how ridiculously complex and difficult was that thing? Just drawing one of them took forever.

I hadn't wanted to draw any magic circle at all, but the difference in mana consumption between casting with a circle and casting without one was so extreme that I had no choice but to grit my teeth and complete the whole convoluted design.

Because of that, even though I arrived right as the fight between the Police Team, Hwang Ju-hyeon, and Lee Ye-rin was starting, I ended up dragging things out until every last one of them was retired.

"Chuckie, keep standing there holding the phone like that."

The orange-haired doll was holding my phone, continuously filming the scene.

Hwang Ju-hyeon had asked me to record the moment they got wrecked, after all.

Still, since it was the only one I'd made using an evil spirit and the strongest of the dolls, I'd specially named it Chuckie.

While I left the filming to Chuckie and lay there looking half-dead, Miho climbed up onto my stomach.

"Kang."

Miho nuzzled her cheek against my belly and whimpered.

A moment later I felt her mana flowing into me.

She was transferring what little mana she had left.

I'd raised one hell of a good summon, I really had.

She was so precious I almost teared up.

As thanks, I stroked Miho for a good long while.

After lying there for a bit longer, I finally pushed myself up into a sitting position.

Anyway… this actually worked.

Having poured most of my mana into the spell from the rooftop of the building, I couldn't hide my astonishment.

Originally this magic was supposed to cover the entire area with a massive range, but my lack of proficiency made the mana cost enormous, so I couldn't blanket the whole district. As a stopgap I'd massively enlarged the cube and turned it into something like a barrier.

Even realized only in that localized form, the magic displayed tremendous power.

Inside the barrier everything was completely black, as if an oil tanker had spilled its entire cargo.

But the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠true power of this magic lay elsewhere.

The ground sucked them in like a swamp, and shadow monsters rose up everywhere.

The once-pure-white clouds turned black, moving with a will of their own, while the roadside trees grew arms and legs, yanked their own roots free from the earth, and charged.

The victims now had to face nature itself turned hostile against them.

They ought to be grateful they could still breathe—that the air, at least, had not yet turned against them.

"Kang."

"…Isn't helping your contractor the natural thing to do?"

Lately Marbas seemed to have gotten a bit shameless.

There was a time when it taught black magic with the enthusiasm of an online lecturer, and now it had turned into the kind of stepmother who only ever scolded.

Sensing something ominous from my lukewarm reaction, Marbas pressed.

"Haha, nothing at all."

I glanced sideways at Moon Seyeon beside me.

Moon Seyeon had her mouth wide open, eyes sparkling as she stared at the magic I had cast.

"How is it?"

"…It's so beautiful. So magnificent. I've never even imagined black magic like this."

"…Is that so?"

This magic was beautiful?

Moon Seyeon's aesthetic sense had clearly reached a realm I could no longer comprehend.

I focused my mind back on the scene.

I'd adjusted the power of the magic, but I still had to be careful in case of any unforeseen accidents.

Inside the massive prison of cubes, a vision of hell was already unfolding.

Trees and clouds charging without end.

Shadow monsters spawning infinitely, and the ground constantly trying to drag them under.

The Police Team trapped inside were thrown into complete disarray the moment the ground beneath their feet turned into a swamp, unable to mount any proper response.

All they could do was endure their bodies sinking into the earth while fighting off the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠enemies that kept rushing them as best they could.

Kim Gabyul was still squeezing out what little mana she had left and putting up a desperate fight in the middle of it all, but it wasn't enough.

Still, watching someone else suffer like this made all my own hardships feel rewarded.

"I've never seen or even heard of magic like this in my life. How did you create it?"

"Haha, I didn't create this magic. I simply learned it from the demon I contracted with."

Moon Seyeon whipped her head around to stare at me.

"Can I ask who the demon you contracted with is?"

"Uh… Marbas."

"…Marbas, you said?"

I heard her murmur the name under her breath.

She leaned her face so close it was almost uncomfortable.

"Is that true? The Marbas who's one of Solomon's Seventy-Two Demons, the Great President of Hell, known to command roughly thirty-six legions?"

Her purple eyes sparkled.

I thought the same.

"Yes, well… for now, that's correct."

"Ooooh!"

Moon Seyeon's expression had now become that of a fan who had just met her favorite idol.

"Can I ask how you made the contract?"

"I can tell you, but…"

Uh… first I went into a black mage's dungeon.

But that black mage had actually been parasitized by some demon.

Was that right? Probably.

And then… that demon tried to summon its true body, only for Marbas to get summoned instead, like a broadcast station whose signal had been hijacked,

and so I ended up forming a contract with Marbas half by force.

Thinking about it again, it was absurd.

I couldn't deny that Marbas's help had been huge in helping me adapt to this world,

but at the time I'd felt exactly like a victim of insurance fraud.

When I finished explaining how I'd contracted with Marbas, Moon Seyeon's expression rapidly turned hollow.

"You contracted like that…? You're lying, right?"

"It's the truth."

"I still haven't even made a contract yet…"

Moon Seyeon muttered quietly.

Ah, right—Moon Seyeon still hadn't contracted with a demon yet.

As one of the original heroines, the demon she would contract with was also quite high-ranking.

"Haha, Miss Seyeon, with your outstanding talent you'll be able ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to contract with a demon soon enough."

In truth, contracting with a demon wasn't all advantages.

But in most cases, a contract with a Transcendent Being worked out positively for humans.

Demons could sometimes work against a human, of course.

That usually happened when someone contracted with a low-rank demon by mistake, or when the human themselves had an evil nature.

In the original story, the demon that contracted with Moon Seyeon only ever helped her and never exerted any negative influence…

Tomorrow would probably be the turning point of Moon Seyeon's life.

My eyes slowly opened.

The blurry vision gradually sharpened.

What came into focus was an unfamiliar ceiling.

"Am I… still alive?"

"Kh-hup…"

I thought I heard some kind of sound,

but my mind was still too foggy to care much.

What had happened again?

Right—I'd clearly been hit by Baek Sejin's magic…

The ground that had turned pitch black sucked me in like a swamp,

and those weird shadow-like monsters kept coming no matter how many times I killed them.

Then black clouds filled the entire cube,

and at some point I'd lost consciousness.

"I got completely wrecked…"

"Kh-heh-hup, you really did."

At the sound of Baek Sejin's voice coming from beside me, I froze in shock for a moment.

Slowly turning my head, I found Baek Sejin looking at me with that sly smile of his.

"…Why are you here?"

"What do you mean, why? Isn't that a bit harsh to a friend who came to visit you ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in the hospital?"

I was at a loss for words.

Well… he was a friend, technically.

But this felt like… yeah. Like the winning team coming over to mock the losers.

I pushed myself up into a sitting position and looked around.

The place I was lying in looked like an ordinary hospital ward.

There were four beds in the room, and our entire team was lying in them.

Lee Jiwoo and Go Sang-hyuk were still asleep,

while Kim Gabyul, who had somehow already woken up, was glaring at Baek Sejin from her bed.

It seemed only Kim Gabyul and I were awake.

"You were the first one to wake up."

But Baek Sejin, apparently not having noticed Kim Gabyul, was focusing all his attention on me.

When I jerked my chin toward her, Baek Sejin turned his gaze that way with a puzzled look,

and the moment his eyes met the reclining Kim Gabyul's, his whole body flinched.

"Oh my, you're awake? I saw your performance quite well—ack!"

Baek Sejin, who had bustled over to Kim Gabyul with exaggerated fuss, got kicked by her.

Kicked by Kim Gabyul, Baek Sejin toppled to the floor.

A deep sense of satisfaction rose from the bottom of my chest, and I found myself nodding.

"Doing real villain stuff like this…? You're hopeless. Time for some rehabilitation!"

"Aaagh! It wasn't just me! Miss Seyeon did it too! I'm being framed!"

Listening to the sound of Baek Sejin getting beaten up by Kim Gabyul, I closed my eyes again.