Fated to Be Loved by Villains

And, after going through all that, now...

——!!

“...”

I let out a sigh as I watched the giant monster spewing lasers in front of me.

Honestly, it does look cool, but...

“...It doesn’t seem to have that killer instinct, does it?”

[Tell me about it.]

Taking this thing down wouldn’t be particularly difficult.

If she was seriously trying to kill me, I’d imagine that she could come up with something a hell lot more creative.

“...Ten minutes max to finish this?”

[That’s rather generous.]

Even Caliban, who usually enjoyed criticizing me, agreed.

The laser it spewed from its mouth was powerful, but honestly, considering what I’ve faced so far, I had a better chance dying from biting my tongue than getting hit by something like that.

“...”

...Which meant...

...Borris Laitman deliberately held back when making this.

No professor at the Magic Tower, no matter how incompetent, would design something this impractical for actual combat.

I glanced at the control room located in the upper part of this dome.

Since the Demonic Aura collection thing wasn’t just Professor Mobius’ pet project, the other professors had all flocked together for this first demonstration.

“...”

My brows furrowed slightly at the situation I could vaguely see inside the control room.

I hadn’t gained perfect vision to clearly observe the scene inside. But even without ‘Desperation’ active, I could sense the tension radiating from the observation deck. You’d just need a degree of social awareness to read the atmosphere, no need to use any special abilities or whatever.

“Seems like she’s getting chewed out, no?

[...It seems so.]

Caliban let out a sigh, agreeing with me.

In that deck, there were Astrid, in her usual robotic form, and Borris, who was looking around nervously with an anxious expression.

Next to them, Professor Mobius was standing there imposingly. I could see him occasionally barking something at Borris.

I didn’t know what he was saying, but given how Borris’ face grew paler every time that happened, it was obvious to tell what was going on.

“...”

Hmmm...

This Borris fellow...

She didn’t seem like a bad person when I talked to her, so watching Professor Mobius—who was irritating just to look at—berating her made me twice as annoyed than I should.

-W-We’ll begin the experiment now... P-Please move to the designated position.

A timid voice announced over the intercom. Her voice that was lacking in confidence to begin with, was even more subdued than usual.

Following those instructions, I slowly walked towards the laser-spewing robot dinosaur.

“...Alright, time to blow up some steam.”

As I muttered so, a question came from inside the Soul Linker.

[What are you planning?]

“They said they wanted to see some Demonic Aura, so I’ll just show them that.”

[....That’s it?]

“What else should I do?”

[I thought you’re going to do something batshit insane again. Like when you said you’d take that guy’s head in five days or whatever.]

“If I were to do that, my so-called mother’s life would be gone in a flash.”

I mustn’t forget the original purpose of why I was doing all this.

The ultimate goal was to destroy Mobius’ ‘authority’ that held Astrid’s lifeline. After that, I’d drag that motherfucker down to hell and save who needed to be saved.

With that in mind I couldn’t just utilize an overly extreme method at once.

To summarize, there were two main approaches to destroy that guy’s authority.

First, give those people something Professor Mobius couldn’t.

Second, show them that Professor Mobius wasn’t as impressive as they thought.

And I planned to do both.

Conveniently, all the other professors were here to act as the audience.

Thinking that, I rubbed my lips with my fingers.

“Caliban.”

[Yeah?]

“You’ve heard about the Magic Tower’s structure, haven’t you?”

This was the thing they briefed me on before the experiment started.

What located where, who invented what—those trivial little details.

Out of all that, I memorize just one thing.

The parts that motherfucker Mobius was involved in.

[...]

While I was thinking that, I heard Caliban started to chuckle.

“Why are you laughing?”

[Nothing. I just realized that I had been unnecessarily worrying about you.]

“...Huh?”

[This time there are various constraints that’s preventing you from going all out, so I thought that you had been frustrated at how slowly things were moving.]

He then continued, his voice was still tinged in laughter.

[But, looking at your current expression, you’re definitely going to pull out some shit again. Am I right?]

Likewise, I let out a chuckle.

“And? Any problem with that?”

[Well, since the target is an inhuman bastard. I’m all for it.]

That’s what I want to hear.

This is why you’re my soulmate.

●

“...It seems like he’s gonna breeze through this, like usual.”

“...Indeed.”

Alpha and Astrid simultaneously sighed as they watched Dowd Campbell effortlessly toyed with the giant robot dinosaur with flashy movements.

Honestly, it was obvious that a mere giant dinosaur wouldn’t be able to make him struggle.

Especially considering the things that he had overcome so far.

Astrid, who had been observing the scene, spoke in a gloomy voice.

“Alpha.”

“Yes.”

“...Do you think Borris is going to be alright?.”

But, if this was the result of the experiment, it was obvious what Mobius would do next.

To that question, Alpha let out a chuckle.

“Why the sudden concern, Doctor? You knew this would happen.”

“I did. Borris was never the type to create something truly capable of killing someone anyway.”

This was precisely why they designated her as the first priority professor to ‘contact’ from the beginning.

But, as expected...

The situation was unfolding in the exact direction Astrid was worried about.

“Are you fucking with me, Professor Borris?”

A voice as sharp as a blade came from Professor Mobius, who was sitting a little distance away from Astrid.

“I clearly stated that this is your last chance to prove your worth, and THIS is the best you can do?”

“...”

Astrid could see Borris’ lips trembling.

“I’ve told you many times before. Your research, even at its best, doesn’t rise above the level of a goddamn toy.”

“...T-That’s...”

“I gave you the benefit of the doubt until the very end, but the result is as miserable as you can see. Do you have any excuses?”

“...”

After trembling silently for a while, Borris finally managed to speak up.

“B-But... even if you say that, if I were to equip it with weapons that could actually kill a living person, h-he might actually die-”

Her argument was perfectly reasonable.

Though this experiment itself was crazy to begin with, she raised a valid argument. It was so valid that it would be strange if Mobius were to ask her to explain herself even further.

But...

This was the Magic Tower.

“I had personally designed this dome—where the experiment is taking place. I’ve equipped it with every safety measure imaginable. Even if Dowd Campbell were to face a life-threatening situation, he will not die no matter what. At best, he might seems to be dying, but he WILL NOT actually die.”

“...B-But, how can you do such a thing in front of his mother—”

“It was Professor Astrid herself who said that the more extreme his struggle is, the better sample of Demonic Aura that we can measure.”

“...”

That didn’t mean showing a child dying in front of their mother is okay.

As Astrid was grinding her teeth, Professor Mobius suddenly stopped speaking and lowered his voice.

“Or are you saying...”

But, he wasn’t just lowering his voice.

He was also raising his presence, to the point it almost felt like he was exuding killing intent.

“That you can’t trust the results I’ve personally created?”

Borris’ face went deathly pale.

Touching an inventor’s invention was like touching a dragon’s reverse scale, but this fact held especially true for Professor Mobius.

It was clear from the atmosphere he emanated without even saying anything.

“No, th-that’s not what I mean-!”

“Then what did you mean, Professor Borris?”

Even though Borris was clearly terrified, this level of harassment was bordering psychotic.

At this point, it was almost as if he was enjoying it.

...This motherfucker has no fucking shame.

If Dowd won, he could create an excuse to harm Borris, but if Dowd lost, he’d just make Dowd suffer directly. For Mobius, it was a win-win situation.

The way he cunningly set up a no-lose situation from the start was disgusting to say the least.

Astrid glanced at the other professors ‘observing’ this experiment with her.

The reason Borris had always been a loner in the Magic Tower was partly due to her somewhat bizarre attitude, but more than that, it was because the remaining people were quite...formidable.

Mostly in a bad way.

...Among these motherfuckers, Borris is the only one here who didn’t regularly receive human subjects for experiments.

One could say that she was the last professor who was maintaining some semblance of humanity.

And it wasn’t hard to tell how that kind of person was treated in the Magic Tower.

As Professor Mobius continued his verbal assaults, everyone around was just looking around in boredom, not a single one of them tried to intervene or mediate.

In this insane situation where human morality seemed to have been thrown into the gutter, Borris was the only one who sensed something off with this place and attempted a timid rebellion.

...Alpha.

Astrid clenched her fists while looking at the cyborg standing impassively beside her.

While yes, she had expected things to unfold this way.

It was this cyborg here who strongly insisted that everything would be fine regardless.

He said that, if they were to leave everything to that man, everything would be fine, showing confidence that even she, his mother, couldn’t muster.

“You don’t need to worry much, Doctor.”

And as if he had read her mind, Alpha, who’d been silent until now, suddenly spoke.

“...What?”

“There is one thing I’m absolutely certain of after observing him for so long.”

“Certain?”

“Yes.”

While this conversation was taking place.

Inside the dome, a strange phenomenon was occuring.

“...Wait, is that Demonic Aura?”

“Yeah. Is he finally bringing it out? The color is Purple. ”

The professors exchange such whispers.

Indeed, a Purple Aura was emanating from Dowd’s body, even though he wasn’t having much trouble fighting the dinosaur.

But, of all colors, why Purple ?

As far as Astrid knew, the Demonic Aura’s ability was to dramatically amplify the energy of whatever it was that it contacted.

There was absolutely no reason to pull out something that would essentially supercharge your opponent’s power. After all, you wouldn’t want to make your enemy stronger.

Seeing this, something like a smile flashed across Alpha’s face.

“That man... While he’s called trash in various ways, there’s one particular area where he excels at.”

“...?”

“When it comes to enacting revenge against those who pissed him off, he’s absolutely merciless.”

Before she could ask what he meant...

At that moment...

Dowd’s Demonic Aura made contact with the robot dinosaur’s laser beam.

And then...

-!!!

-!!!!!!!!!!!!

-!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“UWWAAAAAAAGH-!”

“W-What the FUCK-!”

Screams erupted from the surroundings.

The dinosaur’s laser bombardment, ‘amplified’ by Dowd, was spreading like crazy, almost ‘splitting’ the magically reinforced dome in two.

Naturally, the control room above was also affected. Explosion and vibration soon followed one after another.

“...What...!”

“H-How can such power come from that piece of junk...!”

No one expected such a result would come out as soon as the thing came into contact with Demonic Aura. Hence why they reacted that way.

But then, the professors who had uttered those words realized something and their expression instantly hardened.

“...”

“...Um, Professor Mobius...?”

Until just a moment ago, he had been dismissing Professor Borris’ creation as nothing more than a toy.

It mattered not if it was touched by the Demonic Aura. This kind of result would definitely deal a significant blow to his—Professor Mobius’ massive ego.

But, before anyone could voice their concern...

“Ah.”

At that moment...

The source of all the chaos, Dowd, slowly spoke up.

“Not sure who built this dome, but they sure did a reaaally fucking terrible job.”

“...”

“They said that it was safe, so I trusted them, but dude, it got wrecked in one hit? Seriously?”

“...”

As a vein rose on Professor Mobius’s face...

“Honestly...”

Dowd’s lips curled into a smirk as he casually tossed out another line.

“The person who made this dinosaur seems like a much better scientist, don’t you think?”

“...”

“This thing is way harder to deal with, you know?”

Everyone could hear the sound of Professor Mobius grinding his teeth.