Chapter 141: Strip this bastard down.

“I hope you nice people won’t mind what happens next.”

I spoke, resting the rusty pole artifact, the one my oh-so-dear sister had gifted me with such overflowing love, across my shoulder.

The six idiots who had just shown up stared at me in shock.

Normally, I’m not exactly a violent person, but…

I needed something from these bastards.

The mana bracelet.

I mean, sure, I had mentally prepared myself to spend the night out here but seeing those fools lounging around with the bracelet in their hands just irritated me.

While I was wandering this damned maze, they were out here playing “find the item” with a naked guy.

And their naked guy had tried messing with me… which was not only unforgivable, but possibly even blasphemy if you considered my inevitable rise to godhood.

So the least they could do was offer everything they had as a donation.

More importantly, I was almost certain that damn Bearlo was still sitting outside the dorm like an oversized crimson housecat.

Knowing him, he would probably have been there the entire time, parked on the street, loyal to a fault.

And with the academy’s mana locks only responding to a student’s own signature, there was no way he could have gotten inside.

Poor bastard.

Still… kind of funny when you think about it.

I hadn’t bothered worrying about him earlier since I had no way back to the dorms anyway, but now that a path had presented itself… there was no way I was ignoring it.

“Who are you?” the boy leading the group asked, his voice cautious, probably sensing I was around his rank.

“I am vengeance,” I said, trying to be cool, but naturally these idiots had zero sense of humor.

Their expressions twisted like I had personally insulted their ancestors. Still, something about the way they reacted set off alarms in my head.

Didn’t the Demon King literally announce me as his successor on a live stream to the entire Demon Realm?

Then why the hell couldn’t these dimwits recognize me?

Either they are too braindead or is there something else?

I knew I was being a little paranoid, but after everything that had happened in the past few minutes… paranoia felt like basic survival.

Then the reason finally clicked.

Ah. It was probably the toad saliva.

Getting swallowed by that damn toad had wrecked my appearance. My hair was soaked and plastered to my forehead and my clothes made me look more like a beggar than the Demon King’s successor.

So, in that sense, it tracked.

Of course they couldn’t recognize me.

But how the hell did that bastard, Arckon recognised me?

Well, I could figure that out later. First, I needed to deal with the bastards right in front of me.

“You ugly bastard,” the leader spat, lunging forward, mana bursting around him.

Now that actually made me angry.

How dare this idiot call me ugly?

“Motherfucker, even in this state I am more handsome than your most handsome ancestor could ever dream of being.”

I snapped back, ducking under the punch aimed straight at my face.

By now, I was convinced this bastard was just jealous.

His fist sliced through empty air and before he could even process the miss, I swung my trusty rusty pole from my crouched position, thinking about how proud my dear sister Lyra would be, knowing I was putting her gift to such blessed use.

But the trusted thing, the pole I had so dramatically entrusted my vengeance to, betrayed me at the perfect moment.

It didn’t move. Not even an inch.

I was certain I had swung it. I felt the motion, the intent, everything… yet the damn thing refused to budge.

I stared at the pole, glaring at the traitor that had stabbed me in the back at such a crucial time. It didn’t offer any explanation for its betrayal, naturally, since it was a pole but still… It hurts.

Just then, my instincts screamed and I leaped backward, barely avoiding the sword that carved through the air where my body had been a heartbeat earlier.

The bastard leader, Eric, had drawn his blade and taken a swing at me while I was still busy cursing out my pole.

Still even as I landed a few steps back, I didn’t bother looking at that bastard.

I kept staring at the pole.

Tsk. Traitor.

I kept blaming the pole, but I was genuinely trying to understand what had just happened.

It wasn’t like the thing had sentience. It couldn’t decide not to move on its own… So why hadn’t it budged?

Had it somehow gained sentience just by being with me?

No. That sounded far-fetched even for my life.

Just then, something clicked.

A side effect I’d completely forgotten about.

The Card of Arcana might’ve granted me all sorts of ridiculous abilities but it came with one infuriating condition:

I couldn’t use weapons.

Which meant that was probably why the pole hadn’t moved at all.

Seriously? The Card of Arcana chose now to get jealous?

Unbelievable.

Still, it was what it was.

I set the pole back where it belonged and glared at the boy lunging at me with his sword.

Honestly, I didn’t feel like playing anymore.

I had been in the mood earlier but the pole’s betrayal and the Card of Arcana’s tsundere nonsense had killed that entirely.

So I did what I should’ve done from the start.

I took the easy way out.

I tapped the pole lightly, willing the aura storage effect to trigger and released a small portion of Morvana’s stored aura.

My target, the boy whose sword was now only a few inches from my neck.

And a moment later, a burst of aura erupted from me, a deep violet shockwave that rippled through the air.

The boy, being closest, froze instantly.

—

Eric stared at the boy before him, his body trembling beyond his control, heart pounding like it was trying to escape his chest.

At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to kneel.

All his life, Eric had been treated as someone special.

A little violence was usually enough and kids his age, especially the vulnerable ones, would fear instantly.

He loved that.

The fear in their eyes, the way they shrank back… it became an addiction he kept chasing.

And today, he thought he had found his next prey.

The moment he had left the Forest of Unmasked, he’d spotted the boy—Arckon

.

Just the aura around him had been enough to scream weakness.

So, after gathering a few new friends, he cornered Arckon and decided to play a little game… because toying with frightened prey was far more exhilarating to him than simply beating them.

He had handed Arckon an impossible task and stripped him of everything he had.

But when the prey didn’t return for a while, Eric grew irritated and decided to go after him himself.

And that’s when he found his prey, kneeling before some beggar-looking kid, as if he were terrified of that boy.

That only irritated Eric more.

He wanted to smash the boy for daring to steal his prey on the spot… but their strengths felt too close for him to risk it outright.

So he swallowed the impulse and tried being polite only to be made a joke of.

And that was the last string and he attacked.

He knew the boy would be a difficult opponent, yes but still someone defeatable.

So… why?

Why did he possess an aura like that?

Eric’s mind screamed at him to run—run now, run anywhere—but his body refused to obey.

The boy’s deep eyes locked onto him, swallowing the rest of the world, devouring something far deeper than flesh.

“M-monster…”

Only now did Eric understand.

This wasn’t a human.

This wasn’t a demon.

He was a devil.

A monster.

And someone he should never have crossed.

Darkness crept in at the edges of his vision, swallowing the world in slow, smothering waves.

The last thing he saw was the boy’s calm and gentle smile.

Then everything went black.

—

[Rael’s POV]

I looked down at the so-called leader of this pathetic little bully group as he collapsed like a broken doll.

“Tsk. So weak.”

I didn’t feel even an ounce of sympathy in me as I took in his trembling body and the piss-soaked pants he had earned all on his own.

My eyes shifted to Arckon, standing a short distance away.

“Strip this bastard.”

I didn’t bother looking at him again as I had already lost all interest.

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