chapter_0202

He gritted his teeth and forced himself to move forward, using Eternity to support his body as if he were nailing it to the ground. It was insanely difficult to take even a single step. It felt like crossing a valley where the water was overflowing due to a downpour.

If he slipped just a little, he would be swept away by the flow and never surface again, or he would crash into something and die.

“Mira! Mira! Over here! Hurry up!”

Rosalia, who had been anxiously waiting in the distance, jumped up and down as soon as she saw him. The fragments of time that had been clinging to the barrier until they headed for the medium were no longer visible.

It wasn’t that it was over, but that they couldn’t even get close to this side. The cracks were still spewing out the creatures, but before they could even reach halfway, they were torn to shreds by the flow of time.

It wasn’t just the creatures. The dimensional door and the barrier surrounding the seven people near it were also flickering dangerously. With his enhanced vision, he scanned the dimensional door, which was at its limit.

‘This doesn’t look good.’

Every time the barrier flickered, the dimensional door shook with it. If it broke, it would all be over. Without the gods to hold the coordinates, they would all be trapped inside.

It would be fortunate if they were just trapped. They would most likely be buried in time and die. Even he was having a hard time enduring the flow, so what about the others?

“Mira! We’re almost there! Hurry up!”

Encouraged, he clenched his teeth and forced himself forward. Even with his physical enhancement at maximum output, he felt like he would be blown away at any moment.

“Crackle……”

“……Huh?”

Suddenly, an ominous sound rang out.

He looked at the dimensional door and saw that it was being pushed to the side, little by little. And it was getting faster.

His judgment was quick. Without hesitation, he created a holy spear with his right hand and threw it at the dimensional door. It was an instinctive action, not a conscious decision.

If he had hesitated even a little, he would have been too late. As soon as the holy spear wrapped around the dimensional door and held it in place, the lower part shattered and floated into the air.

Threads of light shot out from the holy spear, wrapping around the dimensional door like a spider web and spreading like roots to support the barrier. It was a very close call, but he had no time to admire his handiwork.

“Just you guys go in for now! Hurry!”

“Are you telling me to leave you behind? Are you crazy?! Instead of wasting time with that nonsense, just come here!”

Of course, there was a lot of backlash. But he had his reasons.

“We’re running out of time! This won’t last long! If you don’t go in and keep stalling, I’ll have less time to get in!”

Everyone thought that waiting for him and not going in was abandoning him, so they were protesting. But that wasn’t the case.

It was actually much more dangerous to stall and wait for him. If even one person was left outside, he would have to go in last, so it was better for them to go in first. They were just wasting time.

“Ugh, ugh, ugh……! If you don’t come, I swear I won’t let you get away with it! I’ll never forgive you!”

Latina, who had been pacing anxiously, closed her eyes and threw herself into the dimensional door. Seeing this, he urged the others to follow.

One by one, they gritted their teeth and jumped into the dimensional door, some with anxious eyes and some with vengeful eyes. Priscilla was the last one. She looked at him with tears streaming down her face, then jumped into the dimensional door.

Now he was the only one left. He barely managed to crawl to the barrier, supporting himself with Eternity. It was hard enough to even keep his eyes open. The sound of the storm raged in his ears.

But since he was almost there, it should be fine. He opened the barrier with great difficulty and stepped inside. Finally, he pulled Eternity out and reached for the dimensional door.

“Crackle……”

As soon as his right hand disappeared into the dimensional door, an ominous vibration could be felt. Even though the holy spear was holding the dimensional door in place, the rest of it was starting to tear apart.

There really was no time left. He pulled Eternity out and threw himself into the dimensional door.

“Crackle, crackle, crackle!”

Just as his right elbow disappeared into the dimensional door, the blue mana shattered completely. Naturally, the time coordinates became mixed up, and the dimensional door disappeared without a trace.

His body, floating in the air, was swept away by time.

.

.

.

“Did you sense something here? Something in this useless, dead gate that’s just taking up space?”

“Yes, it’s unmistakable.”

“Good, very good.”

Cha Do-han grinned at his secretary’s words. If his father had seen him, he would have scolded him for not maintaining his dignity, but since there was no one else around except his secretary, it didn’t matter.

“I don’t know what wind blew in your direction, but……”

It was a dead gate that had been discovered three years ago but left untouched because there were no monsters, cores, or dungeon bosses.

Without a core or a boss, it was impossible to destroy it, so they had decided to just monitor it nominally and forget about it. But a few hours ago, a sudden surge in mana was detected. And it was a massive amount of mana, far surpassing the bosses that appeared in S-rank gates.

If he defeated such a creature alone, his promotion to S-rank would be a sure thing. Currently, he was stuck at A-rank due to those damn women’s control, but if he defeated the creature that came out of this gate, they would have no reason to refuse his promotion.

‘Just wait and see. As soon as I get promoted, I’ll……’

Cha Do-han continued to make his way into the gate, his mind racing with thoughts.

To enter the gate alone, he had to threaten the first discoverer and pay off the guild that was monitoring the gate to hide the information. But if the information was true, it was well worth the effort.

“That’s the one.”

“It seems so.”

As soon as he entered the deepest part of the gate, an enormous mana reaction was detected. Even a non-hunter would have been able to sense the sheer magnitude of the mana.

The source of this immense mana was something that looked human. It sat motionless, not even twitching.

“……He seems pretty strong, doesn’t he?”

Cha Do-han remained silent, but he agreed with his secretary’s assessment. He had heard about the sudden mana reaction, but seeing it in person was far more terrifying than he had imagined.

“Should we really fight? We should retreat and call for backup first– Never mind. Yes, sir.”

The secretary, overwhelmed by the sheer amount of mana, suggested a tactical retreat, but quickly backed down under Cha Do-han’s fierce gaze. There was no turning back now that they had come this far.

Flames erupted from Cha Do-han’s body. They were not the mediocre flames of ordinary flame-wielding hunters, but the flames of the legendary phoenix, a mythical beast.

This was a power that had made Cha Do-han one of the top-ranked A-class hunters and had greatly enhanced the reputation of his company.

“Die!”

A phoenix-infused flame exploded from his outstretched hands and engulfed the human-like figure in the distance.

“Screaaam!”

However, the human-like figure remained unharmed. It showed no signs of pain or even a hint of burning. Instead, it slowly stood up and turned towards him. Cha Do-han’s mind raced with various possibilities.

‘Is it a flame-immune boss? Or does it have super-regeneration? Or is it a tanker-type?’

There were only three possibilities for something to be unaffected by the phoenix’s flames: it had flame-based abilities like him, it had tanker-type abilities with absurdly high defense, or it had super-regeneration.

“Phoenix! Burn everything!”

Realizing that ordinary flames wouldn’t work, Cha Do-han unleashed his full power. A phoenix made of flames appeared behind him and spread its wings. The entire boss room melted and burned as if it were being devoured by the flames. The intense heat forced even the secretary, who had flame resistance, to back away.

The phoenix, made of pure flames, dove towards the human-like figure. Cha Do-han was confident of victory.

“Crack!”

Before he could process what had just happened, his head was rolling on the floor.

Cha Do-han couldn’t understand what had just transpired. The human-like boss had drawn a sword from his waist, sidestepped his attack, and brought the sword down vertically. And then?

“……”

The flames that had been flickering on his body went out. It was dead. The legendary phoenix, a mythical beast that was said to be able to burn anything and everything, and even if it died, it would infinitely resurrect.

Yet it had been beheaded by a single sword strike and couldn’t even resurrect. Cha Do-han could now see the boss’ face clearly. It was a male human-like figure, but its entire body was enveloped in mana, making it difficult to make out its features. Oddly, the lower part of its right elbow was completely missing.

“Ugh…… Ah……”

Cha Do-han felt something was wrong and collapsed to the floor. His legs had given out. The boss, who had beheaded the phoenix with a single strike, slowly walked towards him. The secretary had already fainted.

“Who are you? And where is this?”

‘……Human speech?’

It wasn’t just the appearance. The boss even sounded human and shockingly spoke in the human language. It was impossible for a gate monster to speak the human language, a conclusion that had been reached long ago.

“Who, who are you– Aaaack! Aaaack!”

Cha Do-han foolishly asked a question, and in an instant, both his legs were cut off. He fell forward and screamed in agony as blood gushed from the severed limbs.

“I asked the question. And you will answer it.”

“I, I am Cha Do-han, an A-class hunter from the Cha Mountain Group! This is inside an S-class gate in Seoul……!”

“……S-class gate? Hunter?”

The human-like boss muttered as if something was strange.

“I’ll ask again. Is this Earth?”

“Yes, yes! Yes, it is! Where else could it be but Earth?”

“……”

The sword tip lowered slightly. A voice filled with despair came from the boss.

“What the hell is this……?”

P.S. Hello Everyone! I’m VarieTL. I hope you are all enjoying my work! I only wanted to announce that I have posted a new Novel on the site 🙂 The novel is called:Avoid the Yandere Goddess Summery: I possessed a third-grade extra villain. I barely avoided the fate of dying from the hands of the protagonist. However, that’s why the Yandere Goddess’s interest turned from the protagonist towards me. [The Goddess of Fate shows interest in you with a sly expression.]