Purification.
A dark, humid alley.
Beyond it stood one girl.
White hair. White dress.
White eyes. Skin so clean it was almost transparent.
She looked incredibly cute on the surface, but something about her felt utterly alien.
After all, this was an alley.
The "back room" where people were isolated.
A girl who had probably lived her entire life bathed in light had no business being here.
That disparity, that abnormality—none of the thugs in front of me bothered to notice it.
"What the hell do you think you're doing crawling into my territory?"
It was, honestly, meaningless.
Nothing I could do by thinking about it.
I reached for my phone to call the police...
'...No.'
If I called the police, sirens would blare, they’d scream "drug dealers!" and run. They wouldn’t even consider using the "suppression" line. What the hell was I supposed to get from a phone call?
"Hello? Harin, I just saw some drug dealers."
[...Yes?]
"Send you the coordinates. Can you clean up after me?"
[Wait, what, wait a second??]
Her voice was startled.
I hung up and dropped the location pin on the map app.
Around that time, Hecate.
Chi-iiii-ik!
"Kh... Aaaaaaaaaaaah!!!"
"Ugh... disgusting. Disgusting. Disgusting. Disgusting. Disgusting. Disgusting—"
She forced the thug down on his knees and raised her hand above his head.
White light exploded. Hot heat rolled off him like it was reaching his soul.
There was no real fire, just the feeling of one. Soul flames blooming as they burned away.
"...Revolting."
"Kuegh.....!"
Thud. The thug slumped to the ground.
Hecate stomped on his head with one small foot as if she’d touched something filthy and smashed it.
"Disgusting. Disgusting. I feel like throwing up every time I look at it."
"Hecate."
"Don't stop me."
"Even if pineapple pizza is the enemy, it’s not the only one here."
"...Are you saying this body is doing this because of pizza?"
Yeah.
I thought so.
"...Because I’m the contractor, it matters. Other humans can get dirty for all I care."
"That’s true."
But Sunwoo, you’re still mistaken about one thing.
"There’s a cockroach in front of me. Where’s the human who won’t kill it?"
"Call it a cockroach."
"My eyes see something worse than bugs."
Thwack.
I kicked the thug’s head off the path with my foot.
My steps grew steady as we moved forward.
Following me, we headed toward one building.
"Smell’s there. Disgusting smell."
I glanced at the opposite building.
Hesitated for a moment.
Then, eyes flicking sideways, she muttered, "Can we purify the whole thing at once?"
"Are you trying to kill me?"
"It’s filthy."
"I’m not dying."
How much mana were we squeezing out of this hole?
Hecate turned her head with a disgusted grunt and kept walking.
"One by one is fine. No problem."
"Why do I have to suffer because of Sunwoo’s uselessness? This is wrong."
"Usually even summoning is pushing it?"
Because it was me, I was the only one getting this far. Most spirit contractors couldn’t even form a contract.
I wanted her to know I was A-class—at best one in a hundred...
Clang.
"...Locked."
In front of the building.
The glass door was chained shut.
No big deal, though.
Chi-iiii-ik.
"Melted it."
"The door that blocked me made a mistake.
I gathered light and turned it into heat.
Naturally the glass melted and Hecate pushed forward.
She walked straight into the building without a hitch.
"Who the hell are you people?"
"What the fuck are you doing here?!"
Inside, a few people were scattered about.
Most felt nothing, but a handful gave off mana waves.
A violent aura.
Like it was about to explode.
The strange standoff turned violent in an instant, charging at us.
"Heh."
A cute voice.
A light hand gesture.
From the tips of her fingers rose a blinding white beam.
Sclack!
"Eh...?"
It stripped their legs without mercy.
"Eh... eh eh...?"
They collapsed.
"Kuegh... Aaaaaaaaaah!!!"
They reacted a beat late to the pain.
"My legs! My legs, aaaaah!!!"
No bleeding—just burned clean in an instant.
They crawled on the floor with nothing but two legs left.
"Cruel."
"I didn’t kill them."
I hadn’t.
The cut surfaces were neat.
Even if the burns made reattachment impossible, Awakener or not, they shouldn’t have been here.
"These... monsters!"
"Hm?"
One of the violent criminals raised his fingers toward me.
An Awakener. Mana pooled at his fingertips.
"Sorry. My mistake."
"Kyaaah?!?!"
Hecate was a light spirit.
She could appear anywhere light existed.
In a blink she stood before the criminal.
"Awakener, you should do it like this."
"......!!"
Heart.
Mana hole.
I stabbed a finger straight in.
"Ah... Aaaaaaaaah!"
A pained scream.
But it wasn’t just from hurting.
"The mana hole. I should have shattered the heart."
"Kuaaaaaaah!!!"
I forced light into his mana hole.
Something foreign—not his own—stirred the mana conduit.
Even if it was just a lie, I could say it.
But using it to deliberately destroy it?
"My mistake. I’ll admit it."
"Kueh... Aaaaaah...!"
He could never live as an Awakener again.
Unless an A-class healer like me put in everything and healed him.
But which kind-hearted healer would fix a criminal’s mana hole?
"I’ll handle it properly next time."
Hecate took another step.
"Disgusting."
"Kiiaaaaaaaaah!!!"
Anyone who blocked our path lost their legs.
"Revolting."
"Hiiiii...!!"
Anyone high on drugs was purified in light.
"Trash.
"No... no no no no no!!!"
For Awakener, I shattered the mana hole itself.
Cut.
Burn.
Destroy.
Pain and screams piled up with every step, yet not one person died.
It was almost cruel how thoroughly I allowed death—not quite as much as death itself.
'Hecate, all right.'
Humans could get dirty, but they could also be cleaned.
As long as they had the chance to be clean, we just didn’t kill them.
Of course, with monsters it didn’t matter. They were just filth lumped together.
Left alone, they spread filth like radioactive waste.
Taang!
"Oh?"
"Hands up, you bastards!"
We climbed higher and higher.
The quality of the people changed as we rose.
Earlier they’d only had baseball bats; now they were carrying guns?
'This isn’t some Demon King’s Palace.'
The higher we went, the worse it got.
And the more Awakener presence we felt, the more I sensed they were trying to trap and kill us.
"Filthy."
"Kueh...!!"
To an upper-rank spirit like Hecate, it was just trash.
She waved her hand lazily, same as on the first floor.
Sgu-gaga-gaga!
"""""""""Kuaaaaaaaaah!!!"""""""
Same result.
Legs gone. Mana holes collapsed.
No matter how strong, brave, or whatever they were—same outcome.
Ta-ta!
"...Who are you aiming at?"
"H, heeek?!"
A few tried to take me out in the middle, but it didn’t matter.
Guns, knives—didn’t matter. Hecate was right beside me.
She cleaned them all before any damage reached me.
'So shallow.'
The only issue was the mana holes screaming.
I rubbed my chest and slowly exhaled.
"...That hurt a lot?"
"Now you’re checking on me?"
I stroked Hecate’s head.
Since we’d come this far, there was no turning back.
It hurt, sure, but not like using Spirit Union. Manageable with grit and determination.
"There’s nothing big there."
"...I’ll finish it quickly."
"Thanks."
We climbed higher again.
The end was almost in sight.
When we reached the top floor...
"Dick...?!"
"...Huuu."
Why the hell was Nari’s boyfriend here?
I stared blankly as the man muttered, "That bitch must’ve ratted me out. Damn. No wonder my luck’s been good."
".........."
He drew a knife and pulled it out.
A vicious aura radiated from his body.
I didn’t know the details, but I was certain.
"You were with them."
Your precious boyfriend is an organized crime thug?
Nari’s condition had to be bad.
I wanted to scold him a little and send him back, but...
"You crossed the line with drugs."
"...You gonna die quietly?"
"I don’t know."
Sclack.
The sound of flesh and bone parting.
"What the...?"
"Sorry, Nari. I’ll apologize later."
Boyfriend of a friend or not—
I cut his legs and shattered his mana hole.
And as always, only bad criminals die.
By the way...
"Drugs... drugs..."
Deep night.
Shaky movements.
Fingers trembling as if hooked on something.
I forced one foot in front of the other and naturally entered the alley.
"...Eh...?"
Police officers stood in the alley.
Something felt off.
Still, I needed the drugs...
"Here, instant ramen...."
I turned and headed for the building.
If it was here, I could definitely get some...
".......Ah?"
Police were lying on the ground.
No drugs.
I couldn’t get them.