Ch.151151. Invasion (2)

A dimensional gate corrupted by the influence of ‘something.’ From that place, connected not to another dimensional gate within the Elven Kingdom but to somewhere else, ‘red things’ pour forth.

Emitting the acrid smell of sulfur and embers from their entire bodies, their flesh—dyed in a red color like raw meat when skin is peeled off—evokes horror in intelligent beings.

From bodies that appear like grotesquely distorted human forms sprout horns, wings, and tails.

Their twisted faces, seeming both enraged and sorrowful, contain the essence of beings who hate all mortals.

Unlike the countless mortals of this world, they are no-born entities.

Slaves who can never escape from necessity and fate, and furthermore, from the emotions that form their foundation.

There are countless names and titles for these beings in this world, but if someone were to ask me to simply explain their identity, I would answer like this:

Demons, or Devils. Self-contradictory spiritual life forms born from the dregs of mortal emotions coalescing in the spiritual realm, whose only goal is to bring about destruction.

Among the devils that make up the Legion of unborn things, the most numerous are Imps.

Standing no taller than 50cm at most, they are the basic units that form the foundation of all demons as minor devils.

Wings flutter on their backs, supporting their scrawny bodies with magical power. The claws attached to the ends of their hunched bodies are sufficiently threatening weapons.

The stinger at the end of their tail contains enough deadly poison to kill anyone, and from their fingertips, they launch baseball-sized fireballs made of hellish sulfur fire.

Though they may be the weakest low-level demons, they are still demons capable of easily killing one or two humans.

While these creatures endlessly poured from the corrupted dimensional gate, they were certainly not the only demons appearing from it.

Arc Imps, textbook lower demons about the size of humans, wielding obsidian weapons engulfed in flames.

Demonic demon-beasts with hellish sulfur fire burning somewhere on their bodies.

And beyond these, from bizarre-shaped demons like ‘bile devils’ or ‘screaming brains,’ to unnamed mid-level demons cracking whips throughout the demonic legion as if leading them.

Countless demons with appearances that seemed like the end of the world began pouring out and unilaterally slaughtering the defenseless elves.

They bite with teeth, slash with claws, stab with tails, or throw fireballs to burn faces.

The feast of slaughter that began before I could even react was proceeding with enough momentum to devour countless living beings if left unchecked.

Meanwhile, the crisis before me wasn’t just the demonic legion.

From within the bodies of beings directly exposed to the extraterrestrial magical power earlier, which had been bubbling and expanding like balloons…

-Crack!

Tearing through the skin that now serves as nothing more than a shell, the vanguards of another world reveal themselves.

[■■■■….]

Beings emitting indescribably blasphemous sounds from what might be mouths or holes. Though their basic four-limbed structure resembles humans because they were based on humanity, no one would consider these things human beyond that.

Cases where parts of their limbs are made of tentacles are too common to even be worth mentioning.

Some have grown horns like ribs or ivory from their bodies, and all over their flesh are grotesquely grown “holes” that serve as both sensory and feeding organs for these vanguards, enough to trigger trypophobia.

Far from abominations terribly mutated by the influence of outer gods, these were purely extraterrestrial life forms that had descended using humans as vessels to exist in this world without interference.

‘…Dangerous.’

Of course, the demonic legion and the extraterrestrial vanguards were attacking each other on sight since they weren’t allies, but that didn’t mean I could just stand by and watch the current situation.

No matter how poor my image of the Elven Kingdom might be, that’s no reason to just stand by and watch the slaughter of innocents…

-…Woong.

With the familiar sound of magical power activation, the wave of magical power extending from me engulfed and isolated this entire vicinity.

※ ※ ※

The scene before my eyes was the landscape of my otherworld, which I was experiencing for the first time since the last incident.

A barren landscape with slightly reddish soil spread out, seemingly devoid of any moisture.

Placed in the center of my world, this otherworld that had even swallowed the dimensional gate, I immediately pulled one of the chains.

-Kuguuuguuguung!!!

After a sound like something massive and heavy moving reverberated.

When the flash that momentarily blinded everyone faded, what spread before their eyes was an ordinary forest of the Western Continent.

A landscape formed based on Astra’s mysteries, its appearance was inevitably familiar to me in its configuration.

Namely, the Aleinos Forest.

The otherworld formed with Astra at its center has the power to assist the user’s magic to its limits.

To describe it in game-like text, it would be something like “making ‘Druid Magic Aptitude’ equal to the highest aptitude.”

It means that Nature and Celestial magic aptitude temporarily rises to the level of Wild Magic aptitude, which appears perhaps once in an era.

‘….Phew.’

Even as I felt some power rising to its limit as if invading the capacity of my soul, I couldn’t hide my exhilaration at this sensation.

With the confidence that I could move the natural environment here at will right now, another ‘me’ appeared in my mind and handed over countless threads of future and fate.

However, I wouldn’t need to use this power against demons.

Demons are magical and mental beings without material existence.

Therefore, to move in this material world without a ‘wedge,’ they must continuously consume vast amounts of magical power.

If they were summoned by someone, they could make do with a small supply of magical power using the summoner as a wedge, and if they possessed someone, they could move with a material form despite being somewhat influenced by the possessed body’s power.

But this demonic legion had taken over the otherworld formed for this amusement park’s operation, transformed it to resemble the demon realm, and then directly invaded this world with their main bodies.

They could operate without problems within the otherworld that had become similar to the demon realm, but things changed after I completely overhauled the environment.

-Kwaaaang!!!

[[[Aaaaaaaa─a─a─a──]]]

After I cast the ‘Celestial Meteor’ spell I improvised on the spot to destroy the dimensional gate corrupted by demons, the screams of demons without material bodies echoed from all directions.

Normally, they would have scraped together surrounding magical power to somehow survive even if their existence became somewhat blurred, but this otherworld was now entirely composed of my magical power.

Thanks to this, I could control all the magical power forming the otherworld if needed, and I didn’t provide even a tiny bit of magical power to them, so the demons began to vanish one by one, like being dropped naked into the middle of space.

And the fate awaiting the extraterrestrial vanguards would likely not be much different.

These beings could move like normal living creatures because they used human bodies as vessels to appear in the world, but due to the limitations of those vessels, they could never surpass the lower ranks.

[Cut them down!]

Therefore, my targeted attacks cleanly dismembered the extraterrestrial vanguards, and Sophia’s following magic caused their remains, which were still wriggling even after being dismembered, to disperse and collapse.

Thus, as the cultist abominations drawn into the otherworld were eliminated in one fell swoop.

I drew up all the remaining magical power in the gradually collapsing otherworld due to time expiration, and cast healing magic toward the dying beings lying on the ground.

Although the demonic legion and extraterrestrial vanguards had carried out a merciless massacre, not many had actually lost their lives in that short time.

The time from the demons’ appearance to the deployment of the otherworld was less than a minute, and ironically, the demons’ approach of inflicting injuries to let mortals die slowly in order to cause suffering had actually helped.

The healing magic cast by breaking down every bit of magical power forming the forest took the form of dandelion seeds in my mind’s image and was delivered to the bodies of the dying.

-Flash…!

With the burst of warm light like sunshine, a ‘miracle’ occurs.

Missing body parts regrow as if time is rewinding, depleted blood is replenished, and life returns to those who would have otherwise ended their lives in death.

Thus, only after more than hundreds of elves and humans were able to celebrate life again did the otherworld completely collapse…

‘…As I expected.’

As I had anticipated, the interior of the amusement park, which should have been filled with dreams and hope, had long since been stained with madness.