Chapter 305: Chapter 269: Skip (4)

In the original story of this world, Savior Rising, the Purple Devil actually held an awkward position.

The first and biggest reason why I felt so was the Authority that this punk handled.

You could just tell how powerful the other Devil’s authority was, even though their names didn’t scream ‘power’, like White Devil’s ‘Corrosion’ for example.

Meanwhile, this punk’s ability was ‘Diffusion’.

It was a power that allowed you to spread an already ‘established’ ability further and wider.

From that characteristic alone, you could already tell among the hierarchy of the Devils, the Purple Devil was one of the lowest ones.

Nevertheless…

That characteristic also meant that it wouldn’t be an exaggeration for me to say that there was no one among the Devils who could match her as a support. You could say that she was the best support in the world even.

In that sense, it wasn’t for nothing that I brought both Victoria and Seras—who had the punk inside their bodies—out together to the battlefield.

“Everybody, get ready for battle!”

As soon as they saw me and the two punks I was holding, someone said so in a dramatic tone. Well, that was a natural reaction, I guess.

“…Um, Mr. Dowd.”

“Hm?”

“I believe in you.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll believe what you said. There’s a way to overpower an army on that level in one go.”

“…Okay.”

I nodded to Seras’ words as she continued, sounding as if she felt very wronged by my actions.

Just as this punk said, I was planning to ‘overpower’ all those fuckers over there. I assumed this would be the biggest turning point to trigger the skip on Chapter 5. After all, wars were all about numbers, and the number of people here was definitely enough to be representative of said ‘numbers’.

“Still, don’t you think this is too much…?”

“…”

Victoria remarked from my side, her tone was filled with pain, grudge, and resentment.

“Whatever your intention is, why does it have to be something like this out of all things—!”

“…”

From my other side, Seras didn’t say anything, but I could tell that she shared the same opinion as hers.

Both of them kept their heads down and tried their best to avoid my gaze…

Well, um…

I kinda understood their reaction, since I had each my hands on their ‘chests’…

Actually, no…

I wasn’t simply putting my hands on their chests, I actually buried them ‘into their clothes’.

Since that was the case, um, you know…

My hands were pretty much in contact with their ‘skin’ and ‘layer of fat’ inside off their clothes because of—

[Just say that you’re fondling those sisters’ chests like rice cakes in front of all those people.]

“…”

[I can’t believe you’re publicly humiliating the best assassins on the continent like this… You really have guts, don’t you, you motherfucker…?]

“…”

W-Wait, hear me out…

“…This is the result of my research, okay…?”

I said that for the two sisters to hear as I rubbed their chests with my hands. Meanwhile, they were twisting their whole bodies with teary eyes.

Look, I did this after putting a lot of thoughts into it!

So, Devil’s Fragments were usually located inside the Vessel’s heart, right?

That was what I was trying to do, getting as close as I could to the Fragment so that my plan would be more effective!

“That evil motherfucker…!”

“Did he bring those kids here to humiliate them…?!”

“Commander! Give us the order to attack now!”

“…”

Of course, in others’ eyes, I just looked like a lunatic bastard who was sexually harassing the sisters.

…Honestly, I thought the same of myself too. If this method wasn’t effective, I would never have done it either.

That was I needed to do what I had to do quickly, before their perception of me grew even worse!

“Alright, could you two please focus on how it feels?”

“…”

“Just…try focusing on the sensation that your body feels…”

“…”

Both of them stared at me with a gaze that said, ‘What the fuck are you on about in this kind of situation?’, but before they could actually say those words, I already unleashed the Seal’s power on them. ṛ

The Seal interacted with the Devil’s power closely, this much was already known, but there was something else that I felt when I was combining several Demonic Auras to create a ‘self-made’ Aura of my own before.

Depending on how I used it, something like this was possible.

From inside Seras’ chest that I had my hand on, something popped up with a ‘Pong~!’ sound.

[Masteeer—!]

“…Uh,

Seeing the sight, Seras’ jaw dropped.

A natural response, since this was the first time she had ever seen the Devil’s Fragment while she was still fully conscious.

[What is it? What is it? What’s wrong? Why did you call me?]

“…I called you to play.”

Well, actually, I called her to use her ability, but if I were to stretch it far enough… I guess I could say that I called her to play.

Because there was a high chance that this punk perceived being with me as ‘playing’.

[Play? What are we going to play? Sure, I’ll play! As long as I’m doing it with Master, everything is going to be fun!]

“Seras.”

While the punk kept on yapping while pushing her face on me—as if she was going to lick my face—I threw my gaze at Seras.

Hearing my call, Seras—who was staring at the Fragment that came out of her body with a stunned expression—slowly shifted her gaze towards me.

“What do you think about your family?”

“…”

Her eyes widened in an instant.

“…What does that—”

“Literally.”

I replied calmly.

“What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of ‘family’? Think of the answer properly.”

Hearing that, I could see Victoria also slightly widened her eyes from my other side.

A natural reaction, since she was the only family left in the world that Seras had.

This punk’s trauma was the fact that Seras had ‘abandoned her and run away’ on the night when their family got slaughtered.

And so, this was my way of providing them with a motive for their reconciliation.

“Tell me.”

I’ve said this when I first brought these punks here; I wanted to make them reconcile.

In other words, I didn’t do this for no reason at all.

“What thoughts do you have about your family?”

“…”

“Try to think of it in detail. That’s all you have to do.”

I said those words calmly and slowly.

So she could understand the meaning of my words.

“…”

Seras then quietly closed her eyes.

At that moment, I turned my gaze to the Purple Devil’s Fragment beside me.

“You asked what we are going to play, right?”

[Yeah! Yeah!]

The purple aura emerging in the surroundings that came out alongside her was sucked in a whirling motion into the Seal. This was the basic process that would allow me to make use of her power.

You see, Devil’s Fragments were like ‘Mind Forms’ that were related to their Vessels. In other words, this punk could ‘copy’ the emotions that Seras was thinking of.

And if I were to connect that with this punk’s Authority, ‘Diffusion’…

It would allow me to do something quite fun.

“Do you like to sing?”

[…]

The Purple Devil stared at me quietly for a moment, and then…

She cracked a smile at me.

[I like it!]

“Alright, then…”

I replied with a grin.

At the same time, I prepared the Seal’s power.

After this, the punk would sing out the ‘emotion’ that Seras had just thought of. What I was going to do next was to use this punk’s Authority to basically put that singing on a ‘loudspeaker’.

And that should be enough to deal with everyone here.

“Please sing a good one.”

If what I showed at the School Festival before was the failed version…

What I was going to ‘play’ now was the successful one.

●

Hanson’s legs were shaking at the scene before his eyes.

Putting other things aside…

‘The thing’ that came out of one of the women whose chest was being fondled by that man was the cause of it.

T-That… W-What the heck is that—?!

Everyone who saw it must have also felt it in their bones…

Even though that ‘thing’ looked like a woman with a unique color on the outside…

The essence of that thing was…

“…Hmph, hhhmmph…”

He held his shaking legs, barely managed to hold back the urge to gouge his own eyes.

It was a natural reaction coming from his survival instinct. Like an animal facing a predator before its eyes, his instinct screamed to tell him to get away from ‘that thing’.

He was scared, afraid…

Even with this number of people… Even though this number of people made them confident that they could easily break through the empress’ army…

He did not think they could win against that thing at all.

That thing…no… That being who was sticking to the man, as if she was flattering him… It would definitely bring ruin upon them.

But…

The moment that being began to ‘sing’…

Such thoughts that he was having suddenly changed.

-♬

Without any prelude, ‘that being’ began its singing very softly…

It was so sudden.

He didn’t feel overwhelmed by it, nor did it exude a grand feeling as if it was an ethereal beauty.

The being’s voice only sounded like a girl’s voice. But that was probably why…

It was able to dig into the ‘memories’ of the majority of the people in this place. Something that everyone could relate to, something that brought back all of their nostalgia for the good old days…

Something like that…

“…”

As he was listening to the song, as if possessed, a certain thought popped up in Hanson’s mind.

The song…

Was clearly reminding them about the ‘memory’ they had forgotten.

Their first love, first success, first failure, painful memories, glory and fall.

All the ups-and-downs in their lives.

The memories that were usually extremely easy to be forgotten, buried under the hardships that they had to face in this world.

Those small, precious, and warm memories embraced their whole bodies.

Then everything was traced back to the root of those memories.

The first nest that made it possible for them to have those memories in the first place…

Their families, who always reserved a place for them to return.

“…Ah.”

Hanson remembered his mother.

He remembered his aging mother’s face, rough, filled with wrinkles, as she stroked his cheek with her rough hand in the waving golden wheat field in mid-autumn,

He remembered the warmth of his father’s embrace, whose voice he could not even remember anymore because he had passed away for a long time.

-I’ll be by your side until the end.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

-Don’t be lonely, Hanson.

-Even if you leave this room when you’re all grown up, I’ll stay here for you.

He remembered such words.

The words that came from his family, the ones that he had forgotten all this time.

Everything came out from the deepest part of his being.

“…”

Before he realized it, he was crying.

However, he did not think of wiping his tears.

The soldier around him was the same. Though they were in the middle of a battlefield, none of the soldiers showed their hostilities anymore, and instead, they held each other, indulging themselves in their feelings.

It didn’t take a lot of time…

For that feeling echoed like a sound through the entire plain.

Just like that.

●

It worked.

The quiet plain field without anyone exuding hostilities like before proved it.

Even though there were this many people here.

I didn’t know for sure, but there were definitely more than tens of thousands of these people.

And all of them seemed to be emotionally stirred by the Purple Devil’s ‘singing’ that was slightly influenced by her Authority.

Of course, it wasn’t really a strange feat considering that anyone could easily twist the whole world around their finger with the Devil’s Authority; a Vessel with proficient control over their Authority could do that much.

However, the important part here was those people’s expressions.

As far as I could tell, the ‘positive thoughts’ we sent them worked very well.

This was the characteristic unique to the Purple Devil that couldn’t be seen from the other Devil’s Authorities—which focused only on destruction.

The reaction to this phenomenon is going to be quite huge.

I predicted that this alone could create a big crack on the perception that the Devils equaled disasters.

The way they had just been influenced by the ‘Devil’s power’ would’ve been engraved deep into their souls.

Later, these people would become proof.

That such a power wouldn’t always be used in a ‘bad way’.

…And…

This was the first step.

The first step of my project of letting everyone in the world know exactly ‘what kind of being’ the Devils were.

As I thought so, I took my hands off Victoria’s and Seras’ chests—who were also standing in the daze when the song ended. There was no need to continue doing this embarrassing thing, after all.

However…

“…”

You know…

I kinda…found out about something…kinda important…?

“…Um, Victoria?”

“…”

“…At one point…um…it became hard…”

“…?”

When she heard what I said, Victoria’s dazed expression slowly loosened.

Uh, you know…

Just like there was a part of men that would harden when they got sexually excited… You know, the physiological phenomenon…

I heard that women experienced a similar thing, but…

The part that hardened instead would be…the area where I placed my hand…

“…By any chance, do you…um…in front of people…getting fondled…uh…”

I didn’t know how to say it, so I tried to phrase my words better, but then I realized that regardless of how I worded everything, the end result would still be the same, so…

“…Do you…like it…?”

“…”

Hearing what I said, Victoria clenched her mouth shut.

She turned her gaze at me.

Then shifted her gaze into my hand that was still sticking on to her chest.

After that, she turned to look at my face again.

Finally, a few seconds later…

“You—! Youuuu—!”

Her face blushed so hard as if it was burning, to the point where I believed that it couldn’t get any redder.

It seemed like the lingering feelings she felt from the song had disappeared completely, and instead were replaced by an unquellable rage.

“Just die, you piece of traaaash—!”

She immediately threw me over her shoulder and slammed my body down onto the ground.

“…”

When my whole body fell down, she hurled curses after curses on me without stopping, and well…

Let’s just say that there wouldn’t be enough space for a book to list down all those curses…