Vol. 3 - Chapter 55 - Villain's dignity
Finally, I arrived at a vast site with several private houses in it.
Located on the outskirts of the entertainment district, the area was extremely unsafe, but not too densely populated. This would minimize the damage.
As I was carefully looking at the site with only a mirror out of the blind spot of the building, I felt a presence behind me and turned around.
"Grey-sama."
Hatch was kneeling beside me. Seems like just as I had instructed, Akuido had successfully relocated the personnels. Somehow, Hatch and the others had some sort of ability to locate me. So I expected them to be here.
"I will start the search in this place now. I am leaving you to cooperate with the guild and lead the evacuation of the surrounding residents."
"Understood." Hatch bowed, and her figure disappeared.
My heart would have liked to take action after the evacuation time, but Munch had mentioned that the children were trapped. It would be wise to assume they existed.
Then, I should get started with it. After checking the surroundings, I jumped on the fence, entered the site, and began my search.
I opened the ring domain, but it only opened the map. In other words, this place had turned into a demon-infested land, similar to a dungeon. I guessed that was probably the case.
I climbed up to the roof of the largest mansion in the center and entered the building from the top fourth floor. Then, I carefully searched around the dimly lit room.
As I entered the corner room on the third floor, I heard a small scream. There were several children huddled together in the corner.
"Don\'t worry. I\'m here to rescue you. You aren\'t injured, right?"
Everyone was wearing restraints on their arms and legs, which at first glance made them look like they had been sold as slaves rather than hostages.
"........."
A white-haired young boy in the centre nodded hesitantly as a representative.
"Then, we are going to the company. Make sure the kids follow you."
"Okay."
As the young boy nodded, I turned my back on them and started walking.
I let out a big sigh at the sudden wind pressure and presence coming from behind me and slowly turned around.
"It\'s like that, after all."
I didn\'t want to think about it, but my premonition was correct.
In front of me, the boys were being held together by a transparent thread.
"How did you notice!?" the white-haired young boy asked hatefully.
"It\'s because it was too easy."
There was nothing unnatural about the boys. They were captives with no smell, no aura, no power. However, prisoners like them came with booby traps attached to them as extra measures without exception.
So, just in case, I merely spread the thread around when I had entered the room. Slowly, I began to strangle the threads restraining them.
"Guh!!"
The white-haired boy\'s cheeks twitched, and his body transformed. Pure white hair began to grow all over his body, the muscles all over his body rose, and his physique swelled several times.
It seems like this person was undoubtedly Poisonous Liquor himself. Well, unsurprisingly, he had stopped being human.
"It\'s decided," I slammed the threads of the [Explosive Thread] on the floor quite seriously.
Boom!!
Poisonous Liquor and the others pierced the floor and fell down.
I also jumped down from a hole on the floor. The hole went all the way through to the first floor for exactly the number of people.
Then, several giant monkeys fell on the floor. The only one standing still and glaring at me, the white-haired giant monkey, was probably Poisonous Liquor.
"It looks much better than you, doesn\'t it? It\'s an adequate outfit for a scumbag like you" (T/N : I think there\'s probably one more "flowery word" here, but I\'m not much familiar with these words so will update this when I find it.)
"Shut up, you monster! I don\'t want to hear this only from you!!" Poisonous Liquor shouted words, nothing sort of denying my existence.
[I understand, I understand. I guess so. There\'s nothing more humiliating than being treated like a monster by a real monster.]
I poked Mura\'s handle with his right fist as he repeatedly mocked me.
"What happened to the children that became hostages?" I asked the question I was most worried about.
"Kids?"
"That\'s right. Didn\'t Munch say there were children hostages?"
"I\'m sure he\'s referring to the brats fed to Munch," Poisonous Liquor replied while spitting on the floor.
"Fed to Munch?"
"It\'s because feelings as humans were getting in the way, so they were fed to him."
Those rotten demons. I finally understood why Munch had prepared the hostages at that moment.
Those kids didn\'t have the same intense discomfort and disgust that Munch and the others had, and more importantly, they weren\'t enhanced.
At first, I thought he was trying to deceive me, but Munch, who had once had a run-in with me, should have understood that I could not be harmed.
Besides, Munch had only smiled and watched from the sidelines while I was saving the kids. So, I guessed that charade was Munch\'s best effort to resist.
Of course, it was nothing more than my own self-centered conjecture.
But what if his comment about the hostage wasn\'t just an act of anguish, but an unconscious attempt to compel me to make final distinction?
"Where are these children?"
"In the basement. Do you want to know what\'s going on?"
"No, I know it even if you don\'t tell me."
What Munch had wanted wasn\'t for me to release those hostage children. But their burial.
"I guess so."
"You would have gotten a little advantage by not telling the truth, so why did you tell me the truth?"
"Hmph. I can see it clearly now. Your malice has surpassed my imagination. You will not even agitate in the battle with only this degree. Rather it would be much more dangerous to hold a psychological advantage over you."
Interesting. So you can see it calmly. It was just as he said. I wasn\'t the kind of person to get upset over the death of a single person in the middle of a deadly battle.
"So? What are you going to do?"
They had killed Gill. Whatever the answer was, their final destination was already set to hell.
"It is outrageous that I have to contend with such a monster as you, but unfortunately I am ordered by that man to kill you, and I cannot resist. Fight me."
As Poisonous Liquor raised his hand, countless giant monkeys surrounded me.
"It looks like you\'re prepared. At best, curse the sins you\'ve committed, regret and die."
"I will not just die in vain!!"
When he roared towards the ceiling, the giant monkeys surrounding me attacked me all at once.
◇◆◇◆◇◆
I activated the [Fortress of the Water City] and the giant monkeys attacking me with their sharp claws swinging down were easily annihilated by the water stacks, becoming like hedgehogs.
In addition, hundreds of iced dragon from invoking [Cetus] froze their bodies and the red threads of the [Exploding Threads] released after a breath of time collided with them. It was as if a glass had been broken, breaking down the bodies of the great apes into shards.
"After all, they are useless....." Poisonous Liquor squeezed out curses from his mouth annoyingly.
The only thing that escaped Poisonous Liquor was the right shoulder, beyond which was iced over and shattered at the base.
"That\'s right."
I stamped on the ground, grasping his neck and lifting him up.
"Gugugugu!"
My eyebrows knitted hearing Poisonous Liquor muffled laughter.
"What\'s so funny?" I asked.
"Well, that\'s precisely what I did to your subordinate. I was thinking if that guy was having same feeling as I have now."
"Lumping Gill the same as you? I don\'t have interest in these kinds of jokes."
I tightened my grasp on his neck. For lack of a better word, this demon felt the same way as Gill?
"A transcendent like you will not understand our feelings absolutely. At most, you will die in solitude, with no one able to understand you."
"Really?"
I put more strength into my right hand clutching his neck.
"Certainly, I\'m a villain. However, a villain has his villain dignity. He will not be affected just by becoming that lunatic toy. That\'s why—"
Poisonous Liquor\'s eyes turned bright red and a magic circle appeared.
As a chill ran through my spine, I clicked my tongue and was about to throw him in the air, but—
"You\'re so cold. Let\'s go to the underworld together!" he clutched my right arm.
"I\'m sorry, I don\'t have spare time. You can go alone!"
I raised him to the sky and unleashed [Seven Black Lightning Pillars] with all my might.
The black lightning instantly burned and vaporized my upper right arm as well as the monkey body of Poisonous Liquor.
I didn\'t hear that woman\'s voice. It seemed that it wasn\'t because of the demon king this time.
"Oh my, I\'m beat."
I chased the intense pain out of my mind and cast [High Heal]. Soon, my right arm healed in no time at all.
"Gill, I\'m done for now. Now all that\'s left is that rotten demon who wrote this scummy script."
Just as I took a step forward to search the basement, a woman\'s voice echoed inside my head.
"Confirmed the germination of demon king seed in the possession of Goku. Goku has evolved from a [Baboon King] to a [Demon King Goku]."
"So, it has eventually come out to this."