Astin Buer

The dark, blood-red moon of the demon realm shone through the windows of a tremendous, gigantic hall in the demon king's castle.

A humanoid figure sat on a throne with huge horns adorning his head, watching the scene with boredom.

Thunderstruck, illuminating the dark throne room, the floor was littered with corpses of demons and humans alike. Yet, the king's face remained obscured by darkness.

And as if to honor the phrase "heroes always come late," a man stepped forward with white armor, strikingly blond hair, and sea blue eyes - who was unbelievably handsome.

Yet, no one was there to appreciate his handsomeness.

The knight advanced and said, "I will make you pay for the lives you have taken and the sins you have committed."

The demon king responded uninterestedly, "You came quite late."

The knight retorted, "With the grief I have. I will make sure my comrades' sacrifices weren't in vain."

"Ah, honorable hero." Upon hearing that voice, the knight dashed towards the army commander, taking his hand.

"Please don't speak, General."

"I don't think I will survive. Please save humanity from this disaster, please take revenge for my fallen soldiers." The commander of the human army gasped, hanging on his last breath, he spoke.

"I... have failed everyone... I have failed you." The knight said in a self-deprecating manner as he watched his commander breathe in his last.

"Cough, please tell my wife that I loved her." The commander's eyes lost their light, his soul leaving his body.

"I will." The knight said with resolution, wiping away tears.

The king watched the scene with interest; humans never failed to entertain him. "And how are you going to do that?"

The knight infused his aura into the sword and slew the remaining demon generals that his comrades couldn't kill.

"Astin Buer." The knight pointed his sword at the demon and roared, "I will kill you."

The two powerful auras clashed in the air, and the two powerhouses disappeared and reappeared, tearing through walls and corpses with every step and every exchange of blows.

"What a shame. You defeated my generals, so I expected more from you." The knight's sword was sent flying by a flick of the king's finger.

"Even if I die here..."

"Shut up. You are nothing but an artifact. The Sword of the Holy Emperor isn't something a nobody like you should possess," the demon king spoke with a displeased tone.

"..."

"For a long time, I have been in this world. Many people like you came here trying to kill me. What made you think you're going to be different?"

The disdain gradually vanished as a look of doubt appeared in his obsidian eyes.

"..." The knight stared back at Astin, holding the Sword of the Holy Emperor covered in black substance-like mana.

"..." There was a long moment of silence as Astin looked at his body, black mana leaking from the large hole in his stomach.

'I, the Great Demon King, is dying? What the hell just happened?' Astin was still in doubt.

"..." Another long moment of silence followed, yet Astin still failed to process what had happened.

'I reincarnated, but how? Why? Where? When? Wasn't I winning the fight?' Astin pondered while sucking on his powdered milk bottle.

'I became a human, how humiliating, and these humans call me an orphan,' he thought, his head fully grasping the fact that he had died.

'Hmmm? So? There are no demons in this world, not even in the past.'

'I killed my first human in this world at the age of two, but I only got a portion of my mana back.'

"My name is Astin Buer." already able to walk and speak human words, Astin declared.

"If Astin wants to be named Astin, then your name shall be Astin Buer," the caregiver said dotingly, rubbing his cheeks.

'I finally know how I died.'

'The teacher told us a fairy tale.'

"I shouldn't have talked so much. I should have killed that knight earlier." Astin concluded.

'Do I regret it? Yeah, he wasn't that strong, to begin with. Next time, I'll kill the moment my opponent falls.'

'Time flies fast.'

"I'm going to attend Erou Academy," Lisa, the girl who had been dragging him everywhere, said, her face beaming. "What about you, Astin? Let's go together; it would be fun."

"Hmm, okay." Astin simply agreed.

Humans in this world, despite being weaker than those of his past life, are indeed more fun.

Back to the present,

Astin looked at Damion in front of him and then down at his clothes; he was wearing his supervillain suit.

It had been three days since his roommate got injured and was stuck in a hospital bed. It seemed like he had gotten too comfortable coming and going to exercise his hobby of playing with superheroes.

"Not quite the same. Could it just be a coincidence?" Astin looked up at the face that always evoked memories – the same face but not the same demeanor.

Damion was retreating silently, his trembling steps giving away his anxiety. If it weren't for his pride, he would have been begging for his life by now.

He murmured, "Hero... Killer."

"I prefer being called by my other name."

"Ast... Astin." Damion complied, calling him by his real name without noticing the terror in that single word he uttered. He regretted it; he wouldn't have followed him if he had known.

He just felt humiliated because of his defeat, his standing in the academy plummeted, especially after Ryan's fight.

The distance between them disappeared in an instant, and Damion's pupils shrank.

"To be honest, I wanted to kill you the moment I saw that face," Astin said, holding Damion by the neck.

"Ack... if you kill me, my family will never let you go." Damion struggled to breathe.

Astin threw him away, smashing him into a tree. He stepped on Damion's leg.

Crack.

Damion threw a fireball in Astin's direction, which he easily brushed off like smoke.

"Ability Replication, the power to imitate other people's powers. You can't use them permanently, but there is no time limit unless you replace one of those powers. In that case, you'll lose the first one you added. It's such an interesting ability in a world where one can only possess one ability," Astin commented with slight interest. "But It's funny, how you look down on someone so much, yet you used his power."

"It felt good to beat down people with their power," Damion growled, tears and saliva dripping down as he suppressed his cries of pain.

"Levitation." Astin lifted Damion's limp body in the air.

"That's unfortunate for you because no matter how hard you try, you'll never defeat the genuine thing," Astin said, cracking Damion's neck, rendering him unconscious.

"Your power is imperfect." He was disappointed; Damion was much weaker than he thought. He still had the potential to grow and become much stronger, however, he was more interested in his roommate's potential.

"Hmmm... should I kill him then?" Astin thought out loud, shaking his head.

"I already promised that at least I won't kill anyone here. He'll make a more fun toy to play with in the future."

He brushed off the flying tree from coming toward him, throwing Damion's body to the ground with a thud.

"Hero Killer." Mia's voice resounded beside him in a strangely excited tone.

"Professor Mia." Astin sighed.

"To think you infiltrated the academy as a student..." she licked her lips.

"I promised I wouldn't kill anyone in the academy. This will be troublesome," said Astin with a shake of his head, a smile of mild amusement creeping onto his face.

The ground around Astin crashed down as gravity increased tenfold.

Rocks turned to powder, and Damion's body was flattened. Stone, metal, and dirt flowed toward Astin.

He waved his hand, and all the stones fell. Relying on his body strength alone, he kicked the ground slightly and appeared in front of Mia at supersonic speed, punching a hole in her stomach.

"..."

"I only wanted to knock her down... I'm not done playing with her yet. An A+ class shouldn't be this fragile."

Astin looked down at the once professor of this academy and a superhero and then at his classmate. 'Should I kill him too?'

"No," Astin shook his head.

If he killed him, the already declining number of future superheroes in this country would decrease further.

Let's just stop for the time being and hunt down villains instead.

"Surely her death was so anti-climatic and boring," He picked up Damion's body from the ground and left.

Jacob gasped.

He had been here, watching the whole time. Curiosity got the best of him once again, so he came to watch one of the novel's turning points.

Although it was just an accidental glance, Astin's gaze in his direction sent goosebumps all over him; his hair stood on end.

The death of an A+ class hero in a single strike is a sight that sends chills down anyone's spine.

He knows it.

He knows that Astin is an overpowered character already at his peak power as an Archimage.

But he was still shocked for an entirely different reason.

Jacob held his breath and activated a teleportation spell back inside the bathroom of his dorm room.

Spilling his guts out, he went blank from the shock. 'That wasn't supposed to happen. Mia is one of the protagonist's harem members.'

In a remote space, back in the hidden garden in the academy where the event transpired.

Noah, who was hiding in a classroom of the academy's old building, looked down at the confrontation with dull eyes until it ended.

He reappeared after everyone left and looked down at the corpses. In a dull, stiff voice, he ordered, "Get up."

Mia's mangled body with a gaping hole twisted its limbs to stand up.

'I need you to do something for me. Kill Professor Mia and use her corpse to make Astin Buer believe he killed her instead. I need you to get rid of the corpse afterward.'

'If you do. I will give you the antidote, Noah.'

"Come." Noah, recalling what Ryan told him yesterday, said.

And like that, Mia's body vanished like smoke.