Chapter 56: I Don’t Want Such Epithets!
Charlotte pulled Azrael out from the pile of rubble.
He was only unconscious; his life wasn’t in danger.
This was because Charlotte had healed him with Cure and Regeneration when she landed the previous blow.
However, since she had healed him completely, Charlotte, filled with her previous resentment, slapped his face, causing it to swell up beyond recognition.
“Alright!”
What exactly was “alright” was entirely unclear, but there was no doubt her resentment had been dispelled.
Afterwards, Charlotte restrained Azrael using the capture function equipped on her Powered Suit.
“This should be right, shouldn’t it?”
She had been briefed on the Powered Suit’s functions beforehand, but there were so many that she hadn’t grasped them all, so Charlotte read the built-in instructions.
“Let’s see… What’s this? The capture function reads the target’s brainwaves and sends an electric current through their body the moment they try to activate their Gift, thereby stopping them. Never use it on an ally, huh?”
Incidentally, Kazuma had once been captured by Momoko using the capture function.
Of course, Kazuma had used magic to break free, so it wasn’t a problem, but an ordinary Gifted wouldn’t be able to escape.
“Well, we can’t just leave him here, so shall we take him along?”
Charlotte used the bits equipped on her Powered Suit to carry the restrained Azrael.
This way, she didn’t have to worry about her hands being tied and could deal with any surprise attacks.
That said, aside from the exception of Kazuma, only the Sun King could launch a surprise attack on the current Charlotte and kill her.
The Sun King, with his overwhelming firepower, could surpass Charlotte’s regeneration speed and burn her to ashes.
However, thanks to Kazuma’s deeds, she could even withstand the fires of hell, so killing her would require incinerating her instantly from an unrecognized location, making it extremely difficult to kill Charlotte.
“Come to think of it, it seems Kazuma-san is fighting over at the venue… but he doesn’t seem to need any backup. So, I guess I’ll go rescue civilians and annihilate the enemy.”
As if going for a stroll, Charlotte took off towards the battlefield, dragging the restrained Azrael along.
In a later account, Charlotte would be bestowed with many epithets due to her spectacular achievements on the battlefield.
She would be granted epithets that made it easy to imagine what kind of battle results she had achieved, such as Crimson Goddess, Blood-Soaked Holy Maiden, Angel of Annihilation, and Maiden of Massacre.
◇◇◇◇
In America, thanks to the efforts of King and Alicia, many Ibinom and criminals were subjugated.
Alicia, who had been caught off guard last time, easily subjugated even the enhanced criminals this time, thanks to the Powered Suit she received from Kazuma and her training.
King, on the other hand, was having a bit of trouble.
“Hmm…”
Before him was an army of Ibinom and criminals.
King tilted his head at the strange sight of them forming a faction.
But he stopped thinking about it.
“Oh well. This kind of thing isn’t my specialty anyway.”
Taking to the skies with high-speed flight, he wiped them out from above with a Lightning Strike.
His routine was to directly punch and eliminate any remaining Ibinom and criminals.
It was basically the same scene as always, but this time, one thing was different.
“Wow~… King really is strong~.”
The one who appeared before King, after he had taken down the horde of Ibinom and the army of criminals, was Asmodeus the Slothful.
Applauding King’s brilliant display, Asmodeus emerged from the shadows.
“Hm? Oh, are you a fan of mine? If so, this is bad. It’s really dangerous here right now. I’ll take you somewhere safe.”
“Ahahaha~. Just as expected from a bundle of approval-seeking~. You’re so hero-like~.”
“Not ‘like,’ I am a hero! More importantly, quickly… no, wait. Why is a kid like you alone in such a dangerous zone? And your clothes aren’t even dirty. Could it be… you’re an enemy?”
“Ufufu~. Now, I wonder about that.”
“I don’t want to judge based on speculation, but…”
King also knew that the previous incident was a terrorist act by the Ivera Church.
And since he had heard about this current attack from the cult leader, Mahito, he was aware that the Ivera Church was involved.
“That said, this time the Ivera Church’s cult leader-sama himself declared war~. You’re with the Ivera Church, right?”
“What if I said I’m no~t?”
“Sorry, but this is an emergency. Even if I have to get a little rough, I’ll take you to a safe place!”
King attacked, regardless of whether Asmodeus was truly with the Ivera Church or just a civilian.
Naturally, a civilian wouldn’t have escaped unharmed, but Asmodeus, for all his faults, was an executive of the Ivera Church.
“Whoa there~. Dangerous, dangerous.”
“You dodged it…? So, you’re an enemy after all!”
“No, no, anyone would normally dodge that~.”
“Normally, they can’t dodge it.”
“Oh dear, did I fall for a trick?”
“So, are you prepared, villain?”
“No wa~y!”
King tried to attack Asmodeus again, but Asmodeus was faster, thrusting a hand into his pocket and throwing a smoke bomb at the ground.
Poof! Smoke instantly filled King’s vision, enveloping him, and he lost sight of Asmodeus.
“Damn it! He had a smoke bomb?!”
“Well then, I’ll just make a quiet retreat from here~.”
“Wait!”
When he cleared the smoke, there was no one there.
King flew around, searching for Asmodeus, but couldn’t find him.
King cursed at his blunder of losing the enemy.
“Shit! That guy just now, he’s no ordinary person. If I don’t find him soon, things could get troublesome.”
Although he had lost Asmodeus, King judged that he couldn’t have gone far and decided to search nearby.
Ironically, thanks to the Ivera Church, it was now easy to search for criminals like Asmodeus.
After all, there were plenty of criminals and Ibinom rampaging through the city.
“Finding villains isn’t hard, but picking out a specific person from among them is a pain… Oh well! I’ll just do what I always do!”
King moved through the sky, wiping out enemies on the ground with Lightning Strikes.
Then, he descended to the ground and pulverized the remaining enemies with his Matchless Strength.
King’s body, which couldn’t be harmed by bullets, let alone missiles, was truly invincible.
King, who could demolish a building with a single punch, was indeed without equal.
“Oh my… As expected, these small fry around here can’t win even if they team up.”
“Oh, found you. I won’t let you get away this time~.”
Asmodeus had been observing King’s fight from atop a building, but he was found all too easily.
Though, since he wasn’t exactly hiding, it was only natural.
“Well, preparations are complete. I’m gonna get serious too~.”
“Heh~. I’m looking forward to that!”
“Alright then, everyone, get ’em!”
When Asmodeus clapped his hands, grotesque creatures leaped out.
They had human-like forms, but that was only their shape; their appearance was like that of Ibinom.
“Humanoid Ibinom? No, that’s not it…! Are they failures?”
“Half correct~. Those are human Ibinom that I created~.”
“…The Ivera Church possessed that level of scientific power?”
“My Gift is Analysis, you see~. Decomposing, analyzing, and reproducing the constituent materials and cellular tissues of Ibinom is a piece of cake!”
“That’s good. We’ll capture you and have you be useful to America.”
“Eh~. Isn’t this the part where you’re supposed to get angry and shout, ‘You fiend!’ or something?”
“What, I know it’s questionable for a hero to say this, but America has also done its fair share of inhumane things.”
“I see~. King is quite tolerant, isn’t he~.”
“That’s right!”
King punched away the attacking Ibinom failures and flew towards Asmodeus.
Naturally, Asmodeus had calculated King’s actions and had prepared enhanced criminals as his own guards.
“Gehyahyahya~~~!”
“I might have given them a bit too much of the drug, so they’ve gone mad, but I guarantee their strength~.”
“Much obliged for that!”
Abnormally swollen muscles, unfocused bloodshot eyes, and drool endlessly flowing from the corners of their mouths.
Just as Asmodeus said, a completely crazed criminal lunged at King.
Judging that he couldn’t avoid it, King thrust his fist towards the criminal.
The criminal likewise thrust his fist towards King, and their fists collided, creating a large shockwave.
As a result, both were blown backwards, and King’s eyes widened in surprise that they were evenly matched.
“Hey, hey, seriously…?”
“There’s no time to be surprised~.”
“Ngh?!”
Just as Asmodeus said, while King was surprised, the criminal had recovered and attacked him again.
Not only its attack power but also its mobility was considerable, as it instantly closed the distance of several tens of meters.
Caught off guard, King couldn’t dodge in time and crossed his arms to block the criminal’s fist.
“Uoooooooh!?”
“Ahahahaha~! Go~! Get him~!”
Sent flying by a punch even through his guard, King crashed into a building.
The criminal leaped in as if to follow up, unleashing a breathtaking, astonishing barrage of blows upon King, who had crashed into the wall.
Sounds like a hammer striking concrete, thud! thud!, echoed repeatedly through the residential area.
“I wonder if he’s dead now~?”
Along with those words, the roaring sound ceased.
It seemed the fight was decided.
Just as Asmodeus was about to go check on King’s corpse, something came flying from the direction where the sounds had been.
Upon closer inspection, it was the upper body of the criminal Asmodeus had turned into a Modified Fiend.
“Oh dear… This isn’t good.”
Precisely because he’d had some confidence in him, Asmodeus broke out in a cold sweat upon realizing the criminal had lost to King.