Fated to Be Loved by Villains

The Purple Devil’s Authority, ‘Diffusion’, allowed its user to grant a massive buff towards an ability that they have.

Coming up with ways to use such an ability was like guessing what kind of liquor to add to your straight gin to make a cocktail—the pattern and progress of the battle was bound to vary depending on the ability that served as the base.

That was why I’d need to rack my brain a little.

So, how am I supposed to deal with a fucker who wouldn’t die no matter how many times you attack it? It’d split itself the moment it got the chance to, and would only get stronger the more it does it?

The answer to that question was simple.

I just needed to not attack it.

Or rather, to stop unleashing ‘useless’ attacks on it.

To do that, all of us would need to create a situation where we could assign the right person to attack it in the right spot.

“Hu—”

Breath control. The most basic act in controlling movement.

The Fighting Arts I learned from the Fist Saint was a whole Martial Knowledge in itself. Martial Knowledge wasn’t simply about hitting and beating something; it was a collection of routines that were combined with efficient fighting movements.

Which meant, it would be very helpful in creating the most appropriate movement for me to use in this situation.

“—!!”

Once again, a strange cry came out of the Predator’s mouth. Pieces of flesh immediately soared in all directions. Those were attacks at the speed where even the strongest Sword Saint could only react to, and we had to deal with it coming towards us from all directions.

I instantly analyzed the route of the attacks, following my opponent’s movements.

Drawing lines through the dots, creating a surface that connected the lines… And lastly, I placed my body between the paths of the attacks that came through the surface.

Well, actually, I wasn’t the one who did the last part.

“—Keuk!”

“—Whoaaa!”

Instead of me, Seras and Victoria were the ones who did. I ‘transmitted my consciousness’ to them, making us share the same ‘thoughts’.

Since it would be inefficient to give out instructions in such a fast-paced battle where a lot of things could happen in a single second, I figured that I’d do this instead by mashing different kinds of abilities at once.

Using the Soul Linker, I shared multiple buffs to those two.

Desperation’s stat boost, Swordsman’s Focus boosts to their reflexes, and so on. With these buffs, I ‘controlled’ their movements.

We only needed to avoid the barrage of attacks that were scattered across the place. After that, we could finally attack—

[I thought you aren’t going to make useless attacks anymore.]

…Yes, I won’t… You know what? Just watch.

Hearing Caliban, who was nitpicking my words, I let out a sigh. After that, I gave out the next instruction to the two sisters.

If everything went as usual, that thing would just split up, but…

“—!”

The daggers that Seras and Victoria were holding in reverse grip emitted eerie lights.

But, they wouldn’t be using those daggers to cause damage to the opponent directly.

Both of them were assassins that had reached the pinnacle. They were able to skillfully utilize the bladed weapon to cause ‘damage’ to the opponent while not ‘cutting’ them.

That was what happened this time. Rather than cutting their opponent, they just ‘hit’ it to gather its pieces in one place.

And that was what they did.

—!!

Now, if I were to add the Blue Demonic Aura from the Seal to the equation…

The Aura that contained the Authority ‘Pulverization’; the ability that allowed its user to grind everything without leaving even a single ‘cell’…

Even this splitting fucker couldn’t do anything about it. The pieces that were hit by the Authority didn’t split.

…Don’t you think this is a little bit too powerful?

This fucker could still split itself even after receiving the Sword Saint’s strike that was said to be able to cut down anything in its path. But, when facing a Devil’s Authority, there was simply nothing it could do. This should be a testament to prove the status of the Devils.

[…When the hell did you charge that one?]

Caliban, you wanna know something?

[What?]

Physical affection works on Riru more than expected.

[…]

I literally just needed to ‘accidentally’ touch her whenever I got the chance and she’d scatter Demonic Aura around like crazy.

Honestly, it felt a little bit much.

I thought Yuria would be the easiest one for me in regard to charging the Demonic Aura, but that punk would only release it if I did something that would make other people freak out when they saw it.

Meanwhile, Riru would blush like crazy and scatter Demonic Aura all over the place the moment our hands touched.

There was a time when I hugged her from behind out of curiosity and she immediately dropped a backdrop suplex on me.

The sight of her screaming with a completely flushed face, telling me, whose whole head was stuck into the ground, to fight fair and squarely instead of doing this, was still fresh in my mind.

…Well, I still didn’t understand what she meant by fighting fair and squarely but whatever.

…Anyway, how could her tolerance be so low…?

Though she seemed to be the most violent one among the Vessels, she was actually the girliest one out of them all.

Wait, I got sidetracked. We had a situation at hand.

It’s still not enough!

Seeing the Predator inflating its body size even more, I gritted my teeth.

It seemed like he was trying to ‘eat up’ the whole Imperial Palace as quickly as it could.

While getting Seras and Victoria to cause significant damage to this fucker was a good plan, if this were to keep up, said significant damage would only end up as scratches to him.

We needed one heavy and powerful blow.

And that blow would be…

“…”

I glanced at my watch.

If my guess was right…

It shouldn’t be long before such a heavy and powerful blow came.

My goal here wasn’t to kill this fucker, but to buy time until that happened.

Since I managed to control the situation to this extent, all I needed to do was to keep this up.

“Alright, from now on, we’re going to keep on doing this.”

“…”

“…”

Hearing my words, Seras and Victoria turned to look at me at the same time. Their gazes filled with killing intent.

However, I just continued without blinking.

“I get it, we might die if we make a single mistake, but we just need to not make any. It shouldn’t be that hard, right?”

Besides, I wouldn’t have been able to make it this far if I was intent on making a mistake.

“…”

“…”

Victoria narrowed her eyes before muttering.

“…You’re so annoying.”

[Agree.]

“…”

Oh, c’mon! Let me have my moments, y’all!

●

Being the empress, one was bound to see all kinds of interesting and fascinating spectacles.

It was pretty much a given, since as the ruler of the empire, every kind of entertainment was accessible to her.

Even so…

There were always people who were so talented that it’d blow her mind in unexpected ways.

“What even…”

Cecilia the 11th was struck speechless as she watched the unfolding scene before her eyes.

She had just experienced firsthand how strong Count Nicholas—no, the monster who used to be that person, was.

Even the Dragonkin’s Magic Power wasn’t enough to put it down, and it even managed to turn the whole situation around against her.

And yet…

—!!

—!!!

Sparks flew in all directions.

The cause of that was the two Beastkins who were standing tall, parrying all the attacks that were coming in from all directions.

Utilizing similar skills, the assassin sisters showcased their dazzling performance. Considering that their skills weren’t something to be used in a direct fight like this, their display was already something else in itself.

And then there was a certain someone back there; the person who orchestrated such a scene all on his own.

Just what…?

The empress looked at Dowd with a face that looked as if her soul was leaving her body.

Since she wasn’t participating in the battle anymore, she could observe the situation more clearly than before.

And she concluded that the man was doing some ridiculous feat.

…He’s controlling the flow of a battle of this level by himself?

Her position as the empress allowed her to examine all kinds of talented people. Considering that, she had a clear standard for what she considered as ‘excellent’.

In her eyes, an excellent on-scene commander was someone who could give direct instructions for the troops’ overall formation, arrangement, and crucial actions. That was it.

A human’s vision range was limited. It was physically impossible for a human to read the entire flow of information in large-scale battles.

But this man… What the heck is he even…?

The man seemed to have a firm grasp of the whole flow of the battle by himself. It was clear by the instructions he was giving to each of the sisters every time he analyzed the ever-changing battlefield.

…I mean, I know that he’s able to do this much, but still…

In fact, she already knew that he was someone who could perform this kind of stunt.

She knew from his immaculate records; from the Purifier, the Boy King, the Reversed Sea, the Red Devil—all of them were foes that would never be beaten unless he couldn’t do at least this much.

However, that wasn’t what she was surprised about. It was…

…He still isn’t going all out…

She had been around him for quite a while now. That was why she knew.

He…

Hadn’t used all his cards yet.

Even as he was pulling this crazy stunt, he was thinking about something else.

As if there was something way more important than this battle.

…

Does this even make any sense?!

He could already do things beyond what a normal human could do before!

Are you telling me that he got even stronger?!

Has he already stopped being a human or what?!

“…Huh? Wait…”

At that moment…

She realized something.

While yes, the fact that he could be so carefree in this kind of situation was surprising, especially considering the danger level of the opponent…

What kind of monstrous enemy was he thinking about that he even went out of his way to divert his attention while facing such a powerful enemy already?

Before she realized it, the empress had already grasped the area near her heart tightly with both hands.

…What is it that you are on guard for…?

She did not realize until the end,

That something ‘Brown’ was coming out through the hands that were grasping her chest.

●

To those who didn’t know…

It probably seemed like we were doing better than they expected.

“Heek… Heeek…”

“Why…the fuck…! Are you…! Telling…assassins! To fight directly like this—?!”

“…”

But, seeing how the Evatrice sisters were clearly out of breath, I couldn’t agree with that assessment at all.

In the first place, they were trained to leave the scene of their ‘battles’ after dishing out a fatal blow on their opponent. They weren’t trained for this kind of battle.

Although, they had fought quite well so far considering that they were doing what they weren’t used to. Because we managed to get rid of half of the pieces of the Predator that were scattered around.

“At this rate, I’m going to collapse from exhaustion! No matter how amazing Senior’s direction is—!”

“Ah, you don’t need to worry about that.”

I’ve already said this since the very beginning.

Our goal in this battle wasn’t to kill the fucker.

“You’re finally here…”

But to ‘endure’.

I smirked at the ceiling.

“Our powerful and heavy blow.”

At that moment…

The ‘world’ began to break in half from up there.