The Devil's Revenge
As my vision fully cleared, the first things to meet my eyes were the villagers' faces, their gazes laced with a toxic brew of disbelief and terror directed straight at me.
"Monster bastard... What the hell is that thing?"
"How dare he commune with a demon! Kill him right now!"
From the midst of the crowd, the village chief—the real power holder and entrenched elite—shouted in desperation. At his cue, everyone in the village with even a scrap of mana control began chanting spells in unison.
Whoosh!Boom!!
Sharp pillars of fire and slashing blades of wind hammered my body. My demon-infused flesh didn't shatter under such attacks, but since my defenses weren't fully solidified, dark crimson blood oozed from the gashes torn across my skin.
"Ngh..."
I stroked the deep gash in my shoulder and let out a hollow chuckle.
"Even borrowing the demon's power, this mana-less body of mine can only manage this much, huh."
But it wasn't despair—it was closer to a venomous sneer. The fact that their mana barriers had pierced through meant, paradoxically, it was time to discard the illusion I'd clung to so desperately: mana.
'Meaningless effort.'
I recalled the tens of thousands of punches I'd thrown into empty air in the Training Forest, grinding my knuckles raw and shattering my bones—just to survive, to avoid being trampled by mana wielders like Izakar and Kyle. That raw physical force was fusing now with the demon's primal power.
Tat!
I kicked off the ground and launched forward. My speed was beyond what their eyes could track.
The first in my sights was the middling mage who'd kicked me in the gut and spat on me earlier in the square.
"Wh-what?! When did that bastard get here...!"
As he panicked and tried to raise a barrier, my fist plunged through his solar plexus.
Splat!
"Guhk...!"
His magical barrier crumpled like paper. My fist pulverized his spine and burst out his back. He flipped his eyes back without even a death rattle and dropped dead.
"Who's next?"
I yanked my blood-slick fist free and grinned with savage glee. The primal sensation of bone and flesh crumbling. The dizzying thrill of shattering their fragile true selves with one punch, stripped of mana's lofty packaging!
"Yeah... This is how I wanted to smash Kyle and Izakar."
I kicked the corpse at my feet aside and slowly turned toward the villagers retreating in horror.
"You said you wanted to propose to Cecilia with your heads held high! You filthy vermin!"
I roared like a beast and plunged into the crowd. The straight punches, roundhouse kicks, and knee strikes I'd drilled to death in the Training Forest exploded with demonic strength. Arms raising barriers were ripped clean off; jaws chanting spells were smashed to pulp. Those who'd mocked and tormented me in the past, those who'd sneered at my efforts—they fell like autumn leaves, screaming.
The square, thick with the metallic tang of blood, transformed in an instant into a slaughterhouse drenched in the ecstasy of my pure violence.
"Hiiik...! Spare me! Please, spare me!"
The young village thugs who'd been the first to beat on me pissed themselves and crawled desperately away. They were the trash who'd spied on me in the Training Forest, then mocked Cecilia behind my back with their leering laughs.
I closed in and stomped one bastard's nape flat.
"Spare you? You never listened when I begged for mercy."
I gazed down at the trembling scum under my boot and sneered.
"You imagined it with Cecilia, didn't you? Jerking off night after night to her naked body while trash-talking me with those filthy mouths... Right?"
"N-no! Never... Aaaargh!!"
Before he could finish, I crushed his groin with my boot heel. The sound of bone and flesh pulverizing echoed across the square. He foamed at the mouth, eyes rolled back, and passed out.
"Why should that jealousy turn on me? You're the ones harboring the real filthy desires."
I booted the unconscious prick aside and reached for the frozen others. My demon-empowered grip seized their pant legs, mercilessly bursting their balls and shredding their cocks.
"Gaaaaah!!"
Blood and chunks of flesh sprayed everywhere. Their ugly lusts were punished in the most agonizing, horrific way possible. Their screams rang in my ears like a sweet symphony.
"Demon scum! Monster! Die!"
Then a sharp stone pelted the back of my head. I turned to see village kids, not even ten years old, hurling rocks at me in terror. Their innocent eyes brimmed with the hatred and prejudice adults had drilled into them.
"Demon trash..."
That word tripped my fuse. I picked up one of their stones.
"Kid... Want this demon to teach you how to throw rocks?"
I muttered to myself, my red eyes flashing. This rotten village had already planted hypocrisy's seeds even in its children. I hurled the stones at them without mercy. Infused with demonic force, they flew like cannonballs, piercing heads and chests.
"Kyaaah!"
"Mooom!!"
Even the kids' screams were just cowardly excuses from hypocrites in my ears. Everyone in this village that had treated me like a bug was nothing but vermin to be crushed underfoot.
"Y-you bastard...! How dare you go after children...!"
As the kids vomited blood and collapsed gruesomely, the cowering adults finally charged with weapons: hoes, sickles, rusty blades. Pathetic wretches who couldn't even handle magic properly came at me in rage, veins bulging.
"Kill him! Kill that monster!"
"Our children... You son of a bitch!"
I scoffed at the foolish mob surging toward me.
"Only now your eyes flip when your kids die?"
Pathetic. When Izakar and the mages trampled me, when I spat blood, these same people had watched indifferently or laughed. Insensitive to my pain, hypersensitive to their own bloodlines—their hypocritical, repulsive faces swarming me ignited a black ecstasy from the depths of my soul.
I snatched the arm of a man swinging a sickle and snapped it off like dry kindling.
"Gaaaaah!"
Using the geysering meat shield, I threw myself into the crowd, laughing maniacally.
"Die. Trash like you doesn't deserve to breathe."
Fists pulped faces; kicks caved in ribcages. Everything my demon-mana touch met shattered and tore. In the square's center, amid flesh and blood raining like red storm, I danced as a blood-soaked demon.
In the end, only I stood in the square. No— one other. The chief, slumped in a puddle of blood and his own piss, shivering.
"S-spare... mercy..."
He crawled, clutching at my boot. The abject whine from the mouth that always postured nobility made me snort.
I seized his collar and hoisted him like a ragdoll.
"Hey, chief. That Izakar you sold Cecilia to."
His eyes jittered at the name.
"You know what he did to your precious daughter? He raped her, toyed with this whole village, treated you like a bug. And what did you do?"
I shoved my bloodied fist in his face and whispered coldly.
"Blinded by his mana and status—even suspecting your daughter was being crushed, you kept your eyes shut. That nauseating double standard... It makes me want to puke."
"N-no...! I didn't know... Please...!"
"Save your excuses for Izakar in hell. For being Cecilia's father and taking me in, I'll send you off painlessly."
I channeled demonic power into my right fist. As it arced to decapitate him in one blow—
"No...!"
Someone blocked my path. My fist halted inches from his nose. The gale-force wind ripped his hair out; he rolled his eyes back and fainted.
My gaze lingered not on him, but on the small, frail back before me. Trembling shoulders, clenched fists. She turned slowly—her face a mess of tears and snot.
It was Rina.
"K-Kain... oppa... right...?"
Her voice quivered pitifully. Legs buckling before this hellscape was natural, yet she didn't flee. She stared straight at me.
"Th-this... isn't right... I can't fully understand your pain, your rage... hic... but this isn't right..."
Rina gripped my bloodied hand in both of hers. Ice-cold, yet at her touch, the boiling demonic power inside me stirred faintly.
"Don't... become a demon anymore... Please..."
The only one weeping for me, even in fear. I looked into her tear-filled eyes and let out a hollow laugh.
"Step aside, Rina. That trash cared more about others' stares than his own daughter. This village never once tried to understand the pain Kyle and I endured!"
My voice boomed across the square. But Rina didn't budge an inch. Instead, she met my eyes squarely.
"Then kill me first."
My demonic heart sank.
"I... couldn't help you or Kyle either. I just watched. So kill me before him."
Her gaze held no tremor. A reckless, pure resolve transcending death's terror. Before that absolute goodness, my blood-drenched rampage faltered—my fingertips quivered.
Beyond her clear eyes, Cecilia's radiant smile from the past overlapped.
"...Ha."
I burst into empty laughter. Hot tears welled in my eyes.
A blood-soaked demon's tears. What a joke.
I shoved Rina aside roughly and spat on the fainted chief's face.
"If that fake mask shows up in my sight again... I'll burn you alive for real."
I left the square without looking back. Raindrops washed the blood and tears from my cheek.
Behind me, only Rina's sobs echoed lonely through the empty square.