Chapter 18
“Gyaaaah-!”
It was a single clash.
A massive shadow blocked the exit portal.
A creature taller than an adult, with a head resembling a snake or lizard and four enormous arms.
Long ago, when I had made a name for myself as an adventurer and was making strides in magic, I encountered this monster in a battle against the Demon King's army.
No. A demon. A vanguard of the Demon King.
Hell Snake. A demon derisively called a snake that had crawled up from hell.
A demon with organs that spewed fire and poison from its mouth, and powerful muscles and hard scales that had claimed many victims… It blocked the exit portal. The escort Awakened, mistaking it for an unfamiliar monster, tried to deal with it quickly—but they were the ones who got dealt with.
The Hell Snake's four arms cut through the air, and the veteran tanks charging in with their shields were smashed and sent flying as if by some cruel joke.
“Gah…! Cough!”
“Captain!”
The tank they called their captain seemed to have barely survived, but as the captain lay sprawled on the ground, bleeding from all over, it was clear the captain was out of the fight.
The Hell Snake's attacks were so powerful that the armor of the Awakened it struck was torn to shreds in an instant.
Those armors… They were said to have built-in body cams and be durable enough to stop bullets without transferring much impact to the wearer, but to see them smashed like this…
What a waste of money. Tsk.
「Kuhahaha! You're nothing but vermin with slightly tough shells. You weaklings dare to challenge me?!」
The Hell Snake sneered, flicking its forked, lizard-like tongue.
“Y-you monster…!”
With most of the escort Awakened down, Doa, one of the few still able to fight, gritted her teeth, gathered her courage, and charged forward.
She strengthened her entire body. For a rookie Awakened with no combat experience, her power and speed were impressive, but she was up against the wrong opponent.
The Hell Snake, her opponent, was a vanguard species that had relished slaughter on the front lines of the Demon King's army. It was a demon instinctively made for battle, even without any training.
Before Doa's fist could reach the demon's stomach, the Hell Snake's two lower arms grabbed her arm and casually tossed her aside as if she were a nuisance.
“Aaaah!”
「A weak, noisy female. Your meat looks tough, so I'll roast you first.」
A sickening mixture of vivid red flames and deadly poison began bubbling up between the Hell Snake's grotesque jaws.
Doa groaned as she rolled across the dirt, unaware of what awaited her. The professor, assistants, and Jihoon were frozen with fear, unable even to scream.
The escort Awakened were wiped out. All that remained were helpless college students and professors.
Anyone could see it was the end.
Except me.
Ugh… This is such a pain. Seriously.
I let out a deep sigh inwardly, gathered a little of the mana concentrated around my heart at my fingertips, and cast a spell.
Fwaaaash-!
The mana shot from my fingertips transformed in midair into a ping-pong-ball-sized sphere of light, then unleashed a blinding flash as intense as hundreds of suns compressed together.
“Aaaah!”
“My eyes, my eyes…!”
Knockout Flash. A spell that knocks out living beings within its range with pure light, without inflicting the slightest physical harm.
In other words, it was a spell like a flashbang.
As soon as the flash erupted, Doa and Jihoon, the professor and assistants, and even the escort Awakened groaning on the ground all dropped unconscious like puppets with their strings cut.
「Grr…! W-what is this light?!」
The Hell Snake clutched its eyes and staggered at the sudden flash, but it was a demon—a living weapon made for slaughter.
Unlike most frail humans, it was born with a mana barrier that protected it. It suffered only temporary vision loss from the flash and managed to stay on its feet without passing out.
A moment later, the Hell Snake's vision returned, and it glared at me, the only one still standing, its eyes gleaming with menace.
「Was that magic just now… your doing?」
It growled at me, but instead of answering, I furrowed my brow.
Back when I roamed the continent to defeat the Demon King, that race, a cross between a snake and a lizard, had blocked my companions' and my path so many times that I was sick of them.
In terms of strength, it was only in the middle-to-lower ranks among demons, but its scales were tough and it spewed fire and poison, so everyone hated dealing with it.
You had to guard against fire and poison, have enough attack power to pierce its scales, and counter the unpredictable attacks of its four arms. It was such a pain to deal with.
Unfortunately, the firepower I could manage with my current third-circle magic wasn't enough to pierce its tough scales in one blow. I needed at least fourth-circle magic to get that kind of attack power.
In that case, I had to use a practical and efficient method instead of a direct approach.
I casually loosened up, then beckoned to it with a finger. First, I'd start by provoking it.
Maybe it thought I was looking down on it. The enraged Hell Snake charged at me, swinging all four arms in a grotesque frenzy.
「Insolent human! I'll tear you to pieces!」
Crash! Bang! Thud!
Its brutish punches tore through the air, hurtling toward me.
But unfortunately for it, I'd fought Hell Snakes so many times I was sick of them—and had even slaughtered them.
I deployed third-circle mana barriers exactly where they were needed, efficiently deflecting and turning aside its attacks. With a snake for a head, it only attacked in simple, beastlike ways.
When I blocked its attacks with minimal effort, it couldn't overpower me with brute strength. Frustrated to the point of fury, the Hell Snake stepped back and opened its enormous mouth wide like a snake.
From deep in its throat came the bubbling sound of something like phlegm, a sticky mixture of poison and fire.
「I'll turn you to ash!!」
Now.
I didn't miss the instant it took a deep breath to unleash its breath attack.
The circles around my heart spun rapidly, activating the telekinesis spell I'd been preparing.
Swoosh-!
Fist-sized chunks of volcanic rock and piles of pebbles rose into the air at my command, then shot forward like cannonballs and slammed straight into its gaping mouth.
「Ghk…?! Cough! Glargh…!」
The flames and poison it was about to spew were blocked by the pebbles and trapped inside its esophagus.
The Hell Snake swallowed its own breath attack along with the hot stones, then clutched its throat and writhed on the ground, letting out a bizarre scream.
Its mouth could withstand poison and flames, but all I had to do was block the opening like this.
When it breathed poison and flames, it had a flap-like organ protecting its esophagus and windpipe. But if I blocked it from exhaling…
「Cough! Grrrgh! Guhhh…!」
It was a living creature, so it had to breathe. The poison and flames trapped inside its mouth kept swirling around, while its lungs, unable to draw a proper breath, demanded air and forced open the flap that had been protecting them.
「Gyaaaaaah!」
Its own weapons, poison and flames, shredded its lungs in no time at all.
As it flailed about, choking with its eyes rolled back, I didn't let the opportunity slip by. I strode straight up to it.
Mana gathered over the edge of my right hand, condensing into the shape of a sharp sword. With a mana blade spell, I formed an edge that could slice through iron with ease.
“The moment your kind breathes fire is when you're most dangerous. That's common knowledge among adventurers who've fought demons.”
Along with my cool voice, I thrust the blade formed over my right hand into a small gap between the scales on its neck.
Shhk-!
The mana blade pushed between its scales and slipped precisely into the gap between the joints of its neck, its most vulnerable point. Then it cleanly separated the lizard's head from its body.
The now-ownerless head rolled across the ground to my feet. Its expression looked as if it had never imagined it would die such a painful death.
Wooooom-!
Once I'd cut off its last breath, the volcanic landscape boiling red began to ripple like a screen full of static, as if the Gate had registered the death of its boss. It was probably the process of the Gate disappearing.
Hmm. Then… everything left to do was going to be a pain. To keep things as simple as possible…
I picked up the mana stone from the Hell Snake's corpse, which had already turned to ash, then lay down on a convenient patch of ground.
Everyone else was unconscious, and any recording devices, like the body cams… were mostly broken or just filming empty space.
My appearance or voice hadn't been recorded… Hmm. Probably not, anyway.
I mean, I'd spoken in a quiet voice earlier. It wouldn't have been loud enough to get picked up by the body cams. Hmm. It should probably be fine.
Now, I just needed to prepare my story.
‘A blinding flash went off, and my eyes slowly closed. I faintly heard someone fighting a monster, then lost consciousness.’
Good. A perfect story. Now there was only one thing left for me to do.
I hurried back to where I'd been standing, dusted my clothes with some dirt, then lay down and closed my eyes.
I'd play the part of an ordinary female college student who'd passed out from whatever had happened, just like the others. If nothing unusual came up, they'd naturally accept it.
After a little while, the Gate disappeared without a trace, and we, who had been lying in a volcanic region just moments before, were now sprawled across a mountain trail on Earth.
The Gate's sudden disappearance, and the sight of everyone who'd entered it lying unconscious… It wouldn't have been surprising if it caused quite a commotion, for all sorts of reasons.
Unfortunately—or fortunately—this minor issue was quickly overshadowed.
Because it wasn't only this Gate where such changes had occurred.