Well.
Fortunately, there was no immediate attack coming at me.
A sigh of relief naturally escaped my lips, but this wasn’t the time to let my guard down.
I gripped the thread of tension I had nearly lost even tighter and opened my mouth.
“If I cut off the Aether supply, the entrance will disappear immediately. So if your decision hasn’t changed…”
“I’ll enter first.”
Before I could even finish my words, Valtraus stepped into the Demonic Realm, leading his Familiar ahead.
Rascatl, taking point, bristled its fur and looked around, but it didn’t hiss at any specific location or assume a combat stance.
No enemies rushed toward Valtraus and Rascatl either.
It seemed there were no monsters around here. Lucky.
Grateful for that, I lowered the hand I had been holding out and took three steps forward.
Turning around, I could see that the entrance had already vanished in that brief moment.
And I could also see what was beyond it.
When viewed from outside the Demonic Realm’s barrier, it absorbed all light and appeared pitch black.
But from inside, it was so transparent it was like glass, only tinged with such a light gray that you could recognize something was there.
This is exactly why you could be attacked by monsters the moment you create an entrance.
‘First, let’s check if the Inventory is open.’
If it wasn’t, I planned to go back out, re-prepare, and then come back in.
Having just one whip wasn’t a big problem, but since daggers were also used for throwing, one was far from sufficient.
To quickly cut to the conclusion, there was no need to go out and come back.
I put the dagger and whip I was holding into the translucent window that appeared before my eyes.
I couldn’t climb onto Rascatl’s back with weapons in both hands, and if the Inventory was working properly, drawing weapons from it would be instantaneous.
“Where do you intend to go now?”
“Wait a moment.”
I answered Valtraus’s question and then looked up.
Because the light was filtered once by the transparent gray dome enveloping the Demonic Realm, the sky looked a bit murkier than it did outside.
“What’s up there?”
Ignoring Valtraus’s voice, I waited silently for about a minute.
Just as impatience began to creep in and I thought, ‘Maybe it’d be better to just move somewhere for now?’
– Kwa-gwang–!!
I saw a golden bolt of lightning pass through the transparent membrane and strike the ground. There was no doubt that was Reysir’s Ether Characteristic Skill.
By the way, the reason Reysir’s lightning can pass through the Demonic Realm’s barrier is, naturally, because the Original Author set it that way.
Apparently, natural phenomena aren’t blocked by the barrier, and because Reysir, the master of the lightning, is an Awakened. Or something like that.
“Just head to where the lightning struck.”
“Understood.”
Valtraus mounted his Familiar first. Just as I was about to board behind him—
“Nyang, kyaong!”
Yor suddenly cried out like that and thrust Yeouiju toward me.
Thinking he wanted me to take it, I reached out my hand. The Yeouiju transformed into a halo of light, wrapped around my wrist, and settled into the form of a bracelet.
Why would the Baby Dragon hand over Yeouiju to me at this timing?
Was he worried about accidentally dropping it while being jostled around by Rascatl’s speed?
I felt puzzled by Yor’s action and tried to ask, but I couldn’t.
Because before I could even open my mouth, something truly astonishing happened.
“Wh-what just happened?!”
“Well, it seems Yor went inside the Yeou… no, inside the orb…?”
“Was that even possible?!”
“Well… since it happened, I guess it is…?”
This was no ordinary level of bewilderment. I’d seen Yor put various things into Yeouiju, but this was the first time he went inside himself.
“You didn’t know either, I see.”
“Yes, Yor never told me…”
“Your Familiar is quite peculiar in many ways.”
“It’s not peculiar; it’s mystical and versatile.”
“……Just hurry up and get on.”
Since Yor was inside Yeouiju anyway, I couldn’t get an answer even if I asked.
Besides, this wasn’t the time for questions and answers.
– Kw-reureung–!
Lightning struck again, and its position was a bit farther than before.
That meant the main supporting cast of the Original Work wasn’t staying in one place but was moving and fighting. They probably hadn’t encountered the Boss Monster yet.
‘And yet Reysir can’t conserve Ether and has to launch attacks of that level…!’
It seemed the monsters in this Demonic Realm were on the strong side, even the regular ones.
Or perhaps their defenses were extremely high.
Either way, if I had come in alone, it would have been dangerous.
‘Thinking about it, I’m a little… no, actually very grateful to Valtraus!’
Using the excuse of not having time, instead of voicing the thought that had just occurred to me,
I silently took a seat behind Valtraus and wrapped my arms around his waist like before.
Sensing this, Valtraus said, “Then let’s depart.”
The Academy grounds were quite large, but not so much that walking around was impossible.
Valtraus was also a graduate of this Academy and hadn’t graduated that many years ago, so he’d know the way well.
Moreover, we were riding a giant cheetah-type Familiar.
By shaking off monsters and moving quickly, I expected we would soon join up with the Special Class students.
But just reading this description, you’d know we ran into an unexpected difficulty.
That difficulty was the massive rocks and stone pillars.
Obstacles that had appeared in random places blocked major thoroughfares, forcing us to backtrack and take longer routes.
Sometimes we even had to go all the way around an entire building.
‘And quite frequently at that!’
It was because in this Demonic Realm, instead of plants growing, boulders were rising up.
We also encountered monsters a few times, and they turned out to be Golems.
They were scattered on the ground like ordinary piles of rocks, but when we approached, they suddenly clumped together and took on the form of a Golem.
The surprise attack that followed immediately was quite threatening, but there was no real danger.
Rascatl nimbly dodged the Golem’s fist and quickly escaped.
The heavy rock mass couldn’t keep up with the agile cheetah’s speed, and once we gained distance, it scattered back into a pile of rocks.
“Wait, I think we need to rest a bit.”
Valtraus said this and dismounted from his Familiar.
In the end, before we could join up with the main supporting cast of the Original Work, Rascatl got tired first.
‘Well, a cheetah can only run at top speed for about a minute or two anyway.’
Rascatl wasn’t a real cheetah; it was a Familiar.
And thanks to the Buff, its defense increased significantly, improving its body’s endurance, which was probably why it could run for this long.
It had even deactivated the [Giantification] Skill and returned to its original size.
Seeing it gasping for breath in its master’s arms was truly pitiful.
‘Come to think of it, when a cheetah runs, its blood pressure and body temperature spike rapidly, which can damage blood vessels and mucous membranes…!’
Fortunately, it had stopped before reaching that point, so there seemed to be no bleeding.
But it had definitely overdone it.
“Have this.”
I took out a Potion from the Inventory and handed it to Valtraus.
Potions heal injuries but don’t restore stamina.
So Rascatl would still need some rest time to run again.
It was a huge relief that, as long as we didn’t approach too closely, the Golems remained scattered as piles of rocks and stayed still.
If they roamed around like other monsters, we wouldn’t be able to rest so peacefully.
– Kureureung…!
Once again, Reysir’s lightning fell with a loud noise.
Its position had changed, meaning they had moved again.
‘Will we be able to join them…? No, putting that aside, is Reysir currently breaking rocks with lightning and taking down Golems?’
Of course, he wasn’t just haphazardly striking lightning.
Svein would first use his Ether Characteristic Ability to let water seep between the rocks of the Golem, and only then would Reysir attack.
Even if the problem was that Reysir, the core fighting strength, consumed a lot of Ether, it was a pretty efficient method when you thought about it.
Golems only stop moving when their Power Engine is destroyed.
According to the settings of Nas-e, the size of this engine is only as big as a child’s fist, and its location varies by individual.
And the fact that I know this means Golem-type monsters appeared in the original work before the remake.
Even though the location and timing were all different, Author Senna probably wouldn’t bother to change the monster’s settings.
‘Would the Boss Golem also be the same—able to shift the location of its Magic Core, which doubles as its Power Engine, at will?’
If I had to guess, the Original Author probably didn’t want Reysir to one-shot the Boss Monster as well.
She had already sufficiently proven that her protagonist was strong by showing him taking down ordinary Golems in one hit.
She would likely use the opportunity to inform readers about the tricky gimmick of the Boss Monster she had set while adjusting the situation so her protagonist wouldn’t get stuck struggling.
‘And the fact that she created a Demonic Realm at this exact timing, and of all the monsters, she chose to bring in Golems, is also troubling.’
Maybe Author Senna, with a very light heart, thought, ‘The development seems a bit dull, so let’s add a spoonful of crisis by creating a Demonic Realm,’ and caused this incident.
But…
‘What if the Original Author wants everyone to get exhausted?’
Suddenly, this thought crossed my mind.
If that were truly the case, after the Boss Monster is defeated, the Confession Villain might appear and attack someone.
‘And that someone would, with very high probability, be Hailga or me!’
I doubted the Villain bastard would do something so crazy in front of his own brother, let alone with Valtraus and Fjodra present.
But since it might not be the Confession Villain’s own will but rather because the Original Author is manipulating him, it could happen against his own volition.
I decided not to rule out the possibility.
‘To be blunt, if we talk about plausibility, doesn’t it make no sense from the start for students to be wandering around looking for a Boss Monster? It’s not like there are no Awakened professors on campus!’
For readers curious about what the Awakened professors are doing at this moment, let me briefly describe it.
They are currently protecting non-Awakened students and staff while evacuating them outside the Demonic Realm.
I caught a glimpse of that while moving earlier.
Considering the danger of the Boss Monster, you’d think this role should be entrusted to the Special Class students.
But it seems the Original Author can’t be satisfied unless she gives the Boss Monster raid event to her protagonist.