Fated to Be Loved by Villains

Slash Attack; an attack performed by slashing your opponent with your sword.

This attack had probably been around ever since weapons were first created by humans. Throughout the ages, there were countless people that were recorded doing similar attacks to it.

And even among them…

There were only a few, or perhaps none who could perform something similar to this particular Slash Attack.

Such a sight just made you wonder with marvel over the fact that such a simple action of cutting your opponent with a sword could reach such an extreme level.

-!!

-!!!!

The moment I watched the Predator’s body divided into two by the sword attack that came down as if it would cut through the atmosphere, I couldn’t help but click my tongue

…What the fuck…

Thank God I wasn’t the target of that attack… Seriously…

“No matter how powerful that attack is, such an attack will—!”

Seras said those words, clearly freaking out.

But, before she could even finish her sentence, ‘sparks’ soared up from the cross section of the attack. Just how did he do that…?

“It won’t split if I do this.”

“…”

Seriously though, how?

The sparks soared after a time gap, it wasn’t immediate…

Also, that monster really didn’t split up again after receiving that attack.

The Sword Saint just shrugged his shoulders at Seras—who fell silent after seeing that—and walked towards me with clear footsteps.

Then again…

He did come here after cutting the other half of the Predator—which had the same size as the one we have here, or maybe even larger—all by himself…

“…Your timing couldn’t be more perfect.”

I told him while adjusting my watch.

While yes, I expected that he’d arrive in a few minutes when I started this boss battle, it was still crazy that he was only a few seconds late compared to my prediction.

“Are you okay? You weren’t swept by the attack just now, were you? I tried to hold back my power, but…”

“…You held back your power?”

For real? Crazy….

After hearing my reaction, the Sword Saint just replied to me with a bewildered voice.

“Of course I did. Do you want me to kill everyone here?”

“…”

He wasn’t even bragging, he was just telling the truth calmly.

As I let out a sigh at that fact, Victoria called out from the side with an urgent voice.

“And thanks to you doing that, that punk didn’t die! Are you stupid?!”

“…”

Woman, language…

Well, I got what she was trying to say. The Predator—which had received an attack from the Sword Saint—started to wriggle around again.

“…He’s still alive even after that?”

The Sword Saint muttered as such with a dumbfounded voice. He was about to prepare for another attack, but I raised my hand to stop him.

“What are you…?”

“Can you leave the final blow to us?”

“…No, if he survived that attack, then he’d be too powerful for you guys to handle. I’m the only one who could—”

“Nah.”

He tried to stop me, but I shook my head firmly.

After all, I had promised these punks…

That I’d let them kill their mortal enemy with their own hands.

“But—”

“Just now, you’ve shown us…”

The Sword Saint was about to dissuade me again, but I cut his words with a sigh.

“An attack that could work on that punk.”

Well, you see…

When I said that I needed a ‘powerful and heavy blow’, I meant that I needed to see such a thing directly with my own eyes.

I gathered the Purple Demonic Aura that came out of Victoria and Seras into my seal.

Setting its effect to ‘intensify’, I…

Mixed it with the ‘Black Demonic Aura’ that came out of the Seal.

“…!”

“…!”

Victoria and Seras turned to look at me at the same time with shocked gazes.

They could probably tell by instinct what this particular Demonic Aura was doing to them.

What I did back at the School Festival or the battlefield was probably so impactful that it might give them the wrong idea.

You see, ‘Overpowering’ wasn’t the ‘Authority’ that I possessed.

Actually, back then, I still hadn’t possessed the unique ability that a Devil would have.

And as you could probably tell by my usage of the words ‘back then’…

As the Seal further evolved, I became able to roughly imitate ‘portions’ of such a thing…

Yes, it was one of those things.

I took a deep breath while ruminating on the scene I had just seen.

What I was trying to do was…

‘Copying’ the sword routine that the Sword Saint had shown us earlier.

Then, ‘hammering’ it into Seras and Victoria.

Both of them were assassins who had reached the pinnacle. Although it wouldn’t be perfect, they would be able to imitate the power of the strike to a certain extent.

Then I activated Scan.

And searched the opponent’s current weakest spot.

“There’s its vital point.”

Then, I led the sisters in that direction.

“Hit it.”

After I said that, at the next moment…

“What—”

The Sword Saint’s jaw dropped, and…

Victoria’s and Seras’ bodies ricocheted forward like an arrow.

●

Dust scattered in all directions.

Although the blow wasn’t as powerful as the Sword’s Saint’s Slash Attack that would make you feel like the world was ripping apart by it, we unleashed two blows at once, so it was definitely an explosive attack.

At the very least, it was clear that the Predator was considerably damaged by the attack.

“…Did we do it?”

Victoria muttered as such, and I immediately hit the back of her head as hard as I could.

“…”

“…”

“…”

At that moment, not only Victoria—who was hit by me—even Seras and the Sword Saint stared at me silently.

While rubbing the back of her head that I had hit, I could see Victoria’s body started to tremble.

Tears slowly welled up in her eyes.

“…W-Why—?”

She was probably asking why did I hit her so suddenly like that, but before she could finish her words, I already cut her off with a cold voice.

“You literally were about to jinx us, you punk. You deserved to be hit.”

“…”

Instead of responding to her confused gaze, I examined the body of the Predator urgently.

I don’t think it could survive that previous attack, but just in case—!

“…Alright, we got him good.”

Only after confirming that the Predator wouldn’t move anymore did I let out a sigh of relief.

I mean, they casted a bunch of magic to bring this dead fucker back to life. Who knows if one of them was something that would be triggered upon its death.

“…Dowd Campbell.”

While I was thinking as such, the Sword Saint approached me and held my shoulders tightly.

“You… That thing just now, it was the attack that I unleashed earlier, right?”

“…”

“…How did you do that?”

Uh, that…

If I wanted to explain everything properly, then I’d have to tell him that I had deviated from being a normal human and had entered the Devil’s scope…

“…Well, apparently I can do more things than I expected…”

Since I couldn’t just give him an honest explanation, I just dodged his question vaguely instead.

“Like, apparently, I’m able to copy a technique after seeing it once. Well, that’s probably because I’m just talented in martial—”

“No matter how talented you are, it’s impossible to ‘copy’ such a thing and ‘hammer’ it onto someone else.”

“…”

“…What kind of ability do you even have?”

The Sword Saint asked with a frown on his face.

“Copying a technique that you saw once and hammering onto the people around you…”

He paused for a moment before continuing. The expression on his face suggested that even he himself thought that the conjecture he arrived at was simply ridiculous.

“…To me, it feels like you’re able to strengthen yourself and your ‘allies’ almost infinitely.”

“…”

He actually nailed it.

The nature of the ‘Authority’ I received was actually so absurd to the point that I believed that it was supposed to be used that way.

However, instead of talking about that, there was something more urgent that we had to handle quickly.

“…Anyway, I don’t think we have the time to chat leisurely like this.”

I said as such with a sigh.

“Because there’s still an ‘enemy’ left.”

At that moment…

The Sword Saint’s body flinched as he immediately pulled out his sword. He felt the presence of a powerful being behind his back.

“…!”

Although, his body immediately stiffened upon realizing the identity of such a being.

“Your Imperial Majesty…?!”

The Sword Saint called out towards the person who was walking towards us with slow steps, clearly taken aback.

Just like his call, the person was Her Imperial Majesty the Empress. However, anyone could tell that she wasn’t in a normal state.

Like a poorly made marionette controlled by a puppet master, she was walking towards us in an awkward way, as if her whole body was creaking. There was no light in her eyes, as if she really had turned into an emotionless puppet.

It was clear that she was indeed being controlled by ‘something else’.

Not only that…

Everything that touched the Aura that came out of her body began to rot and wither.

This was the Brown Devil’s Authority, ‘Decomposition’.

“…”

I let out a deep sigh inwardly.

Here we go…

It’s nice to see you, Chapter Boss.

“What’s that—?!”

“Mr. Dowd, what the heck is that?!”

Seras and Victoria asked in turn, taken aback by the brown aura that had spread out to the surroundings.

Instead of answering them though, I just silently stared at my watch.

Let’s see…

It’s about time for ‘the other punks’ to come out too…

“We have the Sword Saint here, what else are you waiting for?!”

Victoria urged me in a fit of rage, but…

I was actually waiting for a certain someone.

The one punk who’d definitely come here.

As I thought so while staring at my watch…

I could hear the voice of the person that I had been waiting for.

[ Therefore, I implore. ]

[ Therefore, I implore. ]

【Maintain thee’s purity】

As I watched the brown aura spread while such words were being spoken, I let out a smirk.

What did I say?

She really did come.

“Yooo.” 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

I turned my gaze at the bum, who called out to me leisurely while sliding down from above with a smile.

Talker, the Cursed Speech User. The Spinning Fire Wheel.

“Looking great there, Black Devil.”

“…Please cut the useless crap, Talker.”

He was the close associate of the ‘Prophet’, the woman who came down together beside him.

●

The Prophet just looked at me silently after approaching me.

“…What?”

“…What?”

As she started the conversation in such a weird way, I replied with a frown on my face.

Then, she tilted her head before continuing…

“It’s been a while since we saw each other and that’s the only reaction you gave me?”

“…I mean, it isn’t like we’re in the kind of relationship where we’d greet each other happily…”

“You should at least look surprised by my presence here, no?”

“…”

Well…

I could already tell that this punk would appear at around this time, so I wasn’t surprised at all.

She always appeared every time something big like this happened, after all. Although, I had no evidence or anything like that…

“Hey, can I clear up something with you?”

“…What?”

“I need to ask you this before I start fighting for my life again.”

Actually, all this time, I had always followed my hunches. There was nothing that I knew for sure so far.

But, after seeing the punk who had always stayed silent appear here… Yeah, that just proved it.

Well, I had to go through a lot of hoops to reach this conclusion, but let’s not go there. Let’s just cut to the chase instead.

“You like me, don’t you?”

“…”

Since her face was hidden under her mask, I didn’t know what kind of expression she was making.

But what I knew was that she was staring at me with wide eyes under that mask.

“If so, then help me.”

“…”

“I promise I’ll repay you.”

“…”

Seeing the Prophet couldn’t keep up with the conversation, I tilted my head, wondering maybe I didn’t explain enough.

“I’ll do something lewd with you.”

“…”

“So help—”

“…Shut the fuck up, you crazy motherfucker.”

“…”

What? Why are you cursing at me…?