Chapter 21: That kind of pain
"'Hero Killer' has killed thousands of people, tortured police officers in front of their families, scarring them for life, and killed defenseless children and elderly. Just… prior to his first appearance as 'Hero killer'."
However, the general public had not associated the ordinary serial killer with the Archimage that mainly targeted heroes.In fact, most of the ordinary people in his kill record were known to have died due to natural causes, such as heart attacks, strokes, cancer, infections, or any other illness.
Only later on, traces of a low amount of black mana were found by a wandering SS-ranked healer who was mostly sensitive to dark magic; otherwise, it would have been impossible to identify the two as the same.
It was speculated that he used those people to test his powers and increase his control over his magic. So, most of what the public knows about the 'Normies Killer' was that his kill count never exceeded a hundred. To them, the 'Normies Killer' was much more tamed in comparison to 'Hero Killer'.
The former had been rumored to have committed suicide after a period of inactivity.
Just yesterday, Hero Killer himself was standing right in front of her, and she was touching him without being crushed to death. She couldn't help but wonder if there was any other hero other than her who had touched him like that, without any hostility or fear. The thought that someone else was able to touch that man affectionately and was given permission to do so made her frown in displeasure.
That man was hers. All his sins meant nothing to her, and she would have cared less if he burned down the entire country, justified or not; she only liked the pleasure his power gave her.
She was always a masochist, but being trampled on by just about anyone was unacceptable.
The trembling of Mia's hand was making enough noise to whisper throughout her entire bedroom. If she wasn't making perhaps the most important breakthrough to an A+ rank right now, then she would have let herself faint.
"There weren't any, right?" She mumbled out a question, then let out a short breath as she slightly glanced at the mirror. It was this body that hugged him and thus felt reluctant to take a shower, but she also feared he would be disgusted by her smell, so she dragged her tired body, which had gone through an unexpected breakthrough.
Mia always thought A rank to be her limit, but the stimulation of the black mana running unrestrained in her body made it stronger in order for her to adjust to his pace without dying, and it raised her qualification as a consequence; it wasn't something that was theoretically proven possible. It may be possible to become an S ranker as well.
Her ears reddened slightly, her steps toward the bathroom halted. Someone was standing at her doorstep, his presence faint as though a corpse was standing there, not a living being.
'Is it him?' She panicked; her hair was in disarray, and her body was all sweaty, not to mention her dirty clothes.
-Knock -knock
Soon, a knock was heard. Mia didn't move.
'It wasn't like him to knock on the door.' It wasn't like he would suddenly care about manners overnight.
She looked at her limp arms and frowned fiercely. She could move it but couldn't put strength into it; she was in no condition to fight.
Going through a breakthrough ultimately meant subsequent radiation exhaustion for her, as she needed to expel all energy from her radiation vein, then forcefully inject more than her body could handle, then expel it again. Ordinarily, most people would avoid letting their bodies be in such a defenseless state, completely devoid of radiation, not only because they hated the feeling of being weak after years of tempering their bodies to get used to the power brought by radiation, but also because consecutive radiation exhaustion was deadly, so it was a common practice that in order to breakthrough, one must keep radiation at a level where the body was always filled to the brim, constantly being replenished to a point where the barrier between each rank would blur and then break.That's how most people advance in rank, tentatively filling their bodies with enough radiation that wouldn't be called deadly and advancing safely as their bodies grow stronger to adapt. That's why most radiation users are much stronger than mages, but Mia wasn't someone who cared; she liked her method much more and was willing to take the risk. It was similar to how some sick criminals would drain all the blood from their victims' bodies and fill it back up. It was painful, but she enjoyed that kind of pain.
She would do it every time she wanted to feel happy, as normal wounds would merely tickle. It was also the only reason she hadn't ripped her limbs off.
-Knock -knock
Another knock was heard again, but this time the person behind the door didn't give her any time to react, and the door was promptly opened.
Click-
The sound of a metal gear was heard, and a mangled corpse was standing in full view.
'What is that?' Mia frowned.
It was indeed a corpse. But how was it moving? Where was its necromancer?
She turned her head. With a swift movement, she moved to press the help button. Although embarrassing to beg for help, she couldn't fight in her current state, but the corpse, albeit only B rank in power, was much faster than her in her weakened state.
It lunged at her, encircling her in a hug. It splattered blood from its open wounds, melting the few layers of clothes on her body and causing her to be stripped of the final line of defense she had.
Slowly, the grip around her tightened, and the acidic blood was making her smooth skin reddish as though it were a rash.
Mia crinkled her face in disgust, the air around her pressing down slightly in an attempt to break free from the restraint. It caused the very air around her to tremble, but that was all; the radius was small enough not to alert anyone.
Not like she understood how someone could attempt to kill her right inside of Erou; the line of defense was impressive, and if it wasn't something she trusted, she wouldn't have made a breakthrough inside. She was now regretting her decision, feeling like she was about to be suffocated to death in a corpse's embrace.
To her horror, the corpse was starting to melt on top of her, her vision growing dim.
'N- no, I'm not going to die like this...'
***
Ryan closed his book. Standing at the edge of his hospital bed, he was being confronted by the nurse, who lowered her head to hide her disapproval.
She may have worded her sentence to not sound accusatory, but the implication was clear. She was against killing Mia, as it would bring much more trouble than benefit. She couldn't understand why, and Ryan wouldn't tell someone he needed to expel from his side his plans easily or at all.
Even though he gained control of the seer, his subordinates were not so easily fooled. He may tell his so-called grandpa to deal with the problematic ones, but due to the blood contracts they had signed, listening to their master wasn't a 100% certainty.
Anyhow, according to the maid, only a few were given the luxury of acting on the seer's behalf. It was reassuring.
"Killing a professor of this academy was in no way acceptable." She spoke in a soft voice; it felt unfitting in the serious atmosphere but was undeniably not easy to ignore.
The nurse, also the maid who had taken care of Ryan at the main mansion, had clearly remembered how the seer brought Mia, someone on the list of borderline villains, to make the young master's life a hell on earth. And since the seer merely laughed and didn't give her an answer to his shift in attitude toward the young master, she took the direct route herself and asked.
"Why kill her now, and why did the seer permit such an order?"
"To show to a child that the outside world is dangerous, playing the role of a villain is necessary, but I don't have the time or leisure, so it's better to make someone else do it for me, cleanly. It's better to play the role of the hero instead. It's more rewarding to have the child crawling back into my arms after being wounded severely."
Word by word. Those were the words the seer had told the maid, and now she was hearing them again from Ryan's mouth, who looked at her apathetically.
She had guessed it right: Ryan was a threat to the seer, and his knowledge about his plans made it certain that he would attempt revenge on the act of bringing him here just to make him suffer.
Ryan didn't feel the need to complicate stuff, tell excuses, or tell lies. Getting entangled wasn't necessary when he have the power to avoid unnecessary struggle. He pulled out a contract signed by Sophia. Just Sophia.
'Owning the seer meant owning everything he got, including his slaves.'
It was rather convenient.
Chapter 22: Astin Buer
The dark, blood-red moon of the demon realm shone through the windows of a tremendous, gigantic hall in the demon king's castle.
A humanoid figure sat on a throne with huge horns adorning his head, watching the scene with boredom.
Thunderstruck, illuminating the dark throne room, the floor was littered with corpses of demons and humans alike. Yet, the king's face remained obscured by darkness.
And as if to honor the phrase "heroes always come late," a man stepped forward with white armor, strikingly blond hair, and sea blue eyes - who was unbelievably handsome.
Yet, no one was there to appreciate his handsomeness.
The knight advanced and said, "I will make you pay for the lives you have taken and the sins you have committed."
The demon king responded disinterestedly, "You came quite late."
The knight retorted, "With the grief I have. I will make sure my comrades' sacrifices weren't in vain."
"Ah, honorable hero." Upon hearing that voice, the knight dashed towards the army commander, taking his hand.
"Please don't speak, General."
"I don't think I will survive. Please save humanity from this disaster, please take revenge for my fallen soldiers." The commander of the human army gasped, hanging on his last breath, he spoke.
"I... have failed everyone... I have failed you." The knight said in a self-deprecating manner as he watched his commander breathe in his last.
"Cough, please tell my wife that I loved her." The commander's eyes lost their light, his soul leaving his body.
"I will." The knight said with resolution, wiping away tears.
The king watched the scene with interest; humans never failed to entertain him. "And how are you going to do that?"
The knight infused his aura into the sword and slew the remaining demon generals that his comrades couldn't kill.
"Astin Buer." The knight pointed his sword at the demon and roared, "I will kill you."
The two powerful auras clashed in the air, and the two powerhouses disappeared and reappeared, tearing through walls and corpses with every step and every exchange of blows.
"What a shame. You defeated my generals, so I expected more from you." The knight's sword was sent flying by a flick of the king's finger.
"Even if I die here..."
"Shut up. You are nothing but an artifact. The Sword of the Holy Emperor isn't something a nobody like you should possess," the demon king spoke with a displeased tone.
"..."
"For a long time, I have been in this world. Many people like you came here trying to kill me. What made you think you're going to be different?"
The disdain gradually vanished as a look of doubt appeared in his obsidian eyes.
"..." The knight stared back at Astin, holding the Sword of the Holy Emperor covered in black substance-like mana.
"..." There was a long moment of silence as Astin looked at his body, black mana leaking from the large hole in his stomach.
'I, the Great Demon King, is dying? What the hell just happened?' Astin was still in doubt.
"..." Another long moment of silence followed, yet Astin still failed to process what had happened.
'I reincarnated, but how? Why? Where? When? Wasn't I winning the fight?' Astin pondered while sucking on his powdered milk bottle.
'I became a human, how humiliating, and these humans call me an orphan,' he thought, his head fully grasping the fact that he had died.
'Hmmm? So? There are no demons in this world, not even in the past.'
'I killed my first human in this world at the age of two, but I only got a portion of my mana back.'
"My name is Astin Buer." already able to walk and speak human words, Astin declared.
"If Astin wants to be named Astin, then your name shall be Astin Buer," the caregiver said dotingly, rubbing his cheeks.
'I finally know how I died.'
'The teacher told us a fairy tale.'
"I shouldn't have talked so much. I should have killed that knight earlier." Astin concluded.
'Do I regret it? Yeah, he wasn't that strong, to begin with. Next time, I'll kill the moment my opponent falls.'
'Time flies fast...'
"I'm going to attend Erou Academy," Lisa, the girl who had been dragging him everywhere, said, her face beaming. "What about you, Astin? Let's go together; it would be fun."
"Hmm, okay." Astin simply agreed.
Humans in this world, despite being weaker than those of his past life, are indeed more fun.
Back to the present,
Astin looked at Damion in front of him and then down at his clothes; he was wearing his supervillain suit.
It had been three days since his roommate got injured and was stuck in a hospital bed. It seemed like he had gotten too comfortable coming and going to exercise his hobby of playing with superheroes.
"Not quite the same. Could it just be a coincidence?" Astin looked up at the face that always evoked memories – the same face but not the same demeanor.
Damion was retreating silently, his trembling steps giving away his anxiety. If it weren't for his pride, he would have been begging for his life by now.
He murmured, "Hero... Killer."
"I prefer being called by my other name."
"Ast... Astin." Damion complied, calling him by his real name without noticing the terror in that single word he uttered. He regretted it; he wouldn't have followed him if he had known.
He just felt humiliated because of his defeat, his standing in the academy plummeted, especially after Ryan's fight.
The distance between them disappeared in an instant, and Damion's pupils shrank.
"To be honest, I wanted to kill you the moment I saw that face," Astin said, holding Damion by the neck.
"Ack... if you kill me, my family will never let you go." Damion struggled to breathe.
Astin threw him away, smashing him into a tree. He stepped on Damion's leg.
Crack.
Damion threw a fireball in Astin's direction, which he easily brushed off like smoke.
"Ability Replication, the power to imitate other people's powers. You can't use them permanently, but there is no time limit unless you replace one of those powers. In that case, you'll lose the first one you added. It's such an interesting ability in a world where one can only possess one ability," Astin commented with slight interest. "But It's funny, how you look down on someone so much, yet you used his power."
"It felt good to beat down people with their power," Damion growled, tears and saliva dripping down as he suppressed his cries of pain.
"Levitation." Astin lifted Damion's limp body in the air.
"That's unfortunate for you because no matter how hard you try, you'll never defeat the genuine thing," Astin said, cracking Damion's neck, rendering him unconscious.
"Your power is imperfect." He was disappointed; Damion was much weaker than he thought. He still had the potential to grow and become much stronger, however, he was more interested in his roommate's potential.
"Hmmm... should I kill him then?" Astin thought out loud, shaking his head.
"I already promised that at least I won't kill anyone here. He'll make a more fun toy to play with in the future."
He brushed off the flying tree from coming toward him, throwing Damion's body to the ground with a thud.
"Hero Killer." Mia's voice resounded beside him in a strangely excited tone.
"Professor Mia." Astin raised an eyebrow. The way she greeted him was unfamiliar.
'Could it be I erased her entire memory of me somehow?'
"To think you infiltrated the academy as a student..." She licked her lips.
"I promised I wouldn't kill anyone in the academy. This will be troublesome," said Astin with a shake of his head, a smile of mild amusement creeping onto his face. It wasn't all too bad to do it all over again.
The ground around Astin crashed down as gravity increased tenfold.
Rocks turned to powder, and Damion's body was flattened. Stone, metal, and dirt flowed toward Astin.
He waved his hand, and all the stones fell. Relying on his body strength alone, he kicked the ground slightly and appeared in front of Mia at incredible speed, punching a hole in her stomach.
"..."
"I only wanted to knock her down... I'm not done playing with her yet. An A+ class shouldn't be this fragile."
Astin looked down at the once professor of this academy and a superhero and then at his classmate. 'Should I kill him too?'
"No," Astin shook his head.
If he killed him, the already declining number of future superheroes in this country would decrease further.
Let's just stop for the time being and hunt down villains instead.
"Surely her death was anti-climatic and boring," He picked up Damion's body from the ground and left unperturbed by one of his dolls death.
Jacob gasped. He had been here, watching the whole time.
Curiosity got the best of him once again, so he came to watch one of the novel's turning points.
Although it was just an accidental glance, Astin's gaze in his direction sent goosebumps all over him; his hair stood on end.
The death of an A+ class hero in a single strike was a sight that sends chills down anyone's spine.
He knows it.
He knows that Astin is an overpowered character already at his peak power as an Archimage.
But he was still shocked for an entirely different reason.
Jacob held his breath and activated a teleportation spell back inside the bathroom of his dorm room.
Spilling his guts out, he went blank from the shock. 'That wasn't supposed to happen. Mia is one of the protagonist's harem members.'
In a remote space, back in the hidden garden in the academy where the event transpired.
Noah, who was hiding in a classroom of the academy's old building, looked down at the confrontation with dull eyes until it ended.
He reappeared after everyone left and looked down at the corpses. In a dull, stiff voice, he ordered, "Get up."
Mia's mangled body with a gaping hole twisted its limbs to stand up.
'I need you to do something for me. Kill Professor Mia and use her corpse to make Astin Buer believe he killed her instead. I need you to get rid of the corpse afterward.'
'If you do. I will give you the antidote, Noah.'
"Come." Noah, recalling what Ryan told him yesterday, called.
And like that, Mia's body vanished like smoke.