A World Where You All Are The Villains - Chapter 170

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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170.

A primal scream tore from my throat—!
A violent gust of wind erupted from my entire body as formless energy detonated outward.
The darkened chamber was instantly flooded with emerald light.
Crash!
The table toppled under the force, and everything in the room went flying in chaotic disarray.
“Huh….”
Sephiroth, staggering from the blast, fixed his eyes wide upon me.
Only then did I notice the transformation that had occurred within my body.
Whenever I purified, light would always burst forth from my hands, but this time was entirely different.
Uuuuuuuung….
Multiple thick strands of luminous energy, like serpents, coiled around me and undulated with a mesmerizing dance.
As though awaiting only my command to dart forth and tear into my enemies.
‘Oh. I can do this too?’
Though unintended, the purifying light seemed to protect me—not an unwelcome development.
Moreover, whenever I’d overextended my abilities before, scorching heat and vertigo would accompany it, yet remarkably, I felt neither.
Instead, I experienced an inexplicable vitality, exhilaration, and a profound sense of liberation.
I’d felt this once before.
When I first summoned rain on Equinox Island and purified the vast grounds.
‘…A level up, then.’
The unexpected realization left me with peculiar emotions.
‘…If this is my strength now, could I purify even 999%?’
I was contemplating whether to command the shimmering green serpent writhing before me—as though currying favor—to “bite,” when—
“What are you doing?”
Sephiroth’s calm voice cut through my thoughts.
“Even if you try to purify me, it won’t work.”
“I’m not trying to purify you.”
I feigned innocence, as though my deliberation over “bite” had never occurred.
At that, a frown etched itself sharply across his brow.
The question was evident: if I wasn’t trying to purify him, then what was I doing?
‘What was I trying to do?’
Right.
His pathetic threat had ignited my fury.
The audacity of invoking one of the few things I could rely upon in this place infuriated me beyond measure.
So I wanted to demonstrate it: that threats were not his monopoly alone.
‘How?’
There was no need to deliberate what he would lose and regret—the answer was already clear.
The experimental subjects of that creature inside this building.
‘Half-successes, weren’t they called?’
The moment that thought crossed my mind, an impulse surged to eliminate them all and reduce everything to nothingness.
I wouldn’t allow even an attempt to show me another Dylan-like spectacle ever again.
One or two Erosion Infected wouldn’t be enough.
‘If only I could set this entire building ablaze….’
The moment that thought took shape, the emerald serpents coiling around me plunged into the floor.
Spreading wide and shallow like flowing water, they soon—
Whoosh—!
Ignited into roaring flames.
The verdant inferno spreading from beneath my feet rapidly consumed the building.
The floor, walls, furniture, fixtures, the bed and Dylan upon it.
The flames that swallowed Room 410 in the blink of an eye hungrily spread beyond the corridor.
Devouring the Magic Barriers lurking throughout.
“Screeeeeech…!”
“Kyieeeek!”
It didn’t take long before the building echoed with the Erosion Infected’s agonized shrieks.
“What, what is this…!”
Sephiroth flinched violently, his body convulsing.
He seemed desperate to stop me, yet he couldn’t bring himself to leap into the flames that swelled terrifyingly up to his shins.
‘Useless, you said?’
It was merely fire born of purifying light, yet his hesitation was almost amusing.
His eyes swirled with panic and shock in chaotic mixture.
That pallid face, drained of all color like blank paper, was so satisfying that I smiled coldly.
“So why do you keep provoking someone who’s minding their own business?”
I said I wouldn’t interfere. Do whatever you want—destroy the world or unify it.
Is this instruction too difficult to understand?
“Try bringing them all before me. You’ll watch them suffer the same fate every single time.”
“….”
“Or should I mobilize the Security Bureau itself and chase down every cult gathering you open? If I dry up the Erosion Infected seed, you won’t be able to act recklessly either. Even after merging that damned dimension, I’ll keep doing it. Keep doing it.”
“….”
“Why? Do you think I can’t?”
As I glared threateningly, Sephiroth’s lips trembled violently.
“…Stop this instant.”
She shrieked like a bird’s piercing cry.
“These children have somehow survived without dying until now—what are you doing?”
“Who said anything about killing? I’m purifying them so they can live as they should.”
Suddenly, I found it absurd.
Watching this conversation unfold, I couldn’t even tell who the villain was supposed to be.
Speaking rapidly with a face gone pale as if genuinely threatened, Sephiroth spilled out words in haste.
“They’re among the rare few children capable of manifesting as Awakeners. Like Dylan, they might be resurrected with high-tier abilities.”
“They wanted that?”
“….”
“You didn’t force this through on your own, did you? Any procedure without consent while someone’s incapacitated is illegal, you know.”
“What does that matter? Where in this world would you find a human who doesn’t want to become an Awakener?”
That was true enough.
Everyone yearned to become stronger, more magnificent Awakeners.
Perhaps even the Erosion Infected here felt the same. I certainly had once.
But that didn’t mean everyone would steal from others just to become an Awakener.
I certainly wouldn’t.
I’d grown up discriminated against as a non-Awakener, but rather than resent the world and endlessly covet what I couldn’t have, I lived by doing what I could in the moment.
I’d wager most people were like me.
But I didn’t bother spelling all this out to Sephiroth.
Both Ruellin and he seemed convinced they were exceptional, chosen beings superior to everyone else.
A severe case of protagonist syndrome.
I scoffed and gestured toward Dylan, engulfed in emerald flames.
“That’s not exactly pleasant to hear if you’re the one losing your abilities.”
“….”
“So what now? I’m not particularly interested in an equal society like you are. Persuasion failed.”
All that remained was paying the price for recklessly running my mouth.
I poured every ounce of remaining power into incinerating the building.
More. Faster.
Until the filthy, corrupted Magi pooling here were completely consumed.
Whoooosh!
The purifying light, obedient to my will, blazed even more ferociously.
“Kyaaaagh!”
“Grraaah!”
The Erosion Infected’s screams grew more violent in turn.
The flames had already swelled to my waist, rippling upward.
That’s when it happened.
“…!”
Sephiroth moved with sudden speed.
Unable to pierce through the flames, his target wasn’t me—it was the bed.
Fingers honed to razor sharpness cut through the embers covering Dylan’s body, driving straight for the neck.
Startled, I shouted without thinking.
“Bite!”
Whoosh—!
In that instant, light shot up through the rippling flames on the ground, striking Sephiroth with tremendous force.
“Aaaagh—!”
He screamed in agony, his extended hand toward Dylan hastily clutching his left face as he recoiled.
My eyes flew wide open.
For a moment, I thought I glimpsed one of those serpentine wisps of light that had been dancing around me earlier, now draped across his left face and shoulder….
Then I blinked, and it transformed as if by magic into blazing green flames.
“Agh, ugh!”
Sephiroth writhed in agony as though real fire had consumed him.
I could only watch, scarcely daring to breathe.

998%

The number above his head had changed.
That 999% Magi barrier reading I hadn’t dared to even touch had shifted.

997%
996%
995%

Watching the numbers fall steadily, if slowly, I found myself muttering in a daze.
“…This actually works.”
I’d thought about trying it once, but I never expected it would actually succeed.

991%

I persistently examined the space above his head, trying to gauge how much further it would drop.
Unfortunately, the number stopped decreasing at some point.
“Hah, huh… you.”
“…”
“You’ll regret this.”
Only after Sephiroth pulled his trembling body upright, gasping heavily, did I lower my gaze from the empty air.
The emerald flames that had clung to one side of his face and his hands had already extinguished.
Judging by how the fire spreading through Room 410 and the corridor remained unchanged, he must have applied some measure to his body alone.
Though not actual fire, Sephiroth’s appearance after being swept by the green inferno was utterly ghastly.
One side of his face, the hand covering it, and his nape were charred pitch-black as if genuinely burned by flames.
There were no actual burn wounds or melted skin scars.
It was merely smudged like charcoal rubbed on, yet for a mere 9% drop, it was quite grotesque and extensive in coverage.
‘Purification does that? Is he not an Awakener?’
As I regarded him with a puzzled expression, Sephiroth fixed me with a glare from his unscathed eye that could kill.
“I was clearly trying to help you.”
“Perhaps the intimidation isn’t sufficient yet?”
My mind was still sharp and my body felt light.
If he tried any more nonsense, I was prepared to test whether I could make his Magi barrier drop even faster this time.
Perhaps sensing my intentions.
“…”
Sephiroth exhaled a deep sigh, then—flash!
Suddenly, a brilliant light erupted from her body, and my vision flickered.
I reflexively closed my eyes, and when I opened them again, the space where he had stood was empty.
It was a fairly obedient departure, yet I couldn’t shake off an unsettling feeling.
“…Can use teleportation too,”
What on earth is his true identity?

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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