A dark and dreary cave, devoid of any signs of life. This place is the source of all demons?
“Otherside?!”
Upon hearing Fatima’s words, however, someone else raised their voice. I turned to the source and was a little surprised.
“Threya? What are you doing here?”
I’m positive it was Noir’s voice that we heard laughing before teleporting away. So it wasn’t something targeting only me and the girls?
“You grabbed me without warning, so we were sent here together! Don’t you remember?”
“…. Ah.” ．
Just before the teleportation was activated, I grabbed everyone nearby in fear that we’d get teleported separately. After all, it was a common scheme to divide a group before hunting them down one at a time. Did I drag Threya in without noticing?
“Rather than that, is this place really the Otherside?! I thought that was just a legend!”
I was curious about that too, so I quickly turned to Fatima and waited for her reply. However, she was still busy looking at the walls and analyzing all the information she could gather.
After a few moments, she finally walked away from the head-shaped markings on the wall and sighed.
“I’m almost a hundred percent certain this is the Otherside, unfortunately.”
“No way…”
Threya shivered, looking down in despair. Unfortunately, I had no idea about this [Otherside] that they were talking about. I turned to the other girls, and they were similarly having question marks over their heads, clueless about the topic.
The only thing that we know is that this place is dangerous. Enough that Fatima, A previous God-tamer, and Threya, a suspected 9th-stage tamer, were both shaking in fear.
Just as I was about to call them and ask what got them so scared, I suddenly saw energy signatures approaching. By the way the energy looked, it was definitely a group of demons. They were pretty weak, around the 3rd stage only, but their numbers were pretty intimidating.
“Swarms of demons are approaching! Everyone, be careful!”
I quickly warned them before taking out a sword from my [Spatial Storage]. Just as the critters appeared before us, filling the passage, the girls groaned in slight disgust. The figures were like ants, black ants with red eyes the size of a toddler, swarming like a moving black mass.
“I’ll handle this!”
Igni took a step forward and waved her hand. With just that, a powerful blast of flame surged, creating a sweeping wave that burned every single one of the approaching demons into ashes. However, I became worried after her sudden action.
“Igni! No flames!”
Our location was technically a cave, after all. I don’t know how deep we are, but the air around us was stale, meaning there was not much airflow around. Using flames would eat up the oxygen, potentially killing us all from suffocation.
“S-Sorry, My Lord! B-But those things…!”
“Enough, it’s fine. What’s done is done.”
I sighed before calling her back. Igni was pouting cutely as she walked to the rear of the group, her eyes a little teary. The other girls were comforting her, thanking her for clearing up the disgusting things quickly and letting her slightly recover a short while later.
“So, Threya, sorry, but the same goes for your pug. No flames until we reach an open space.”
I tried talking to her, but she was still a little distracted and just nodded her head without saying a word. Is this Otherside really that scary?
“Anyway, we should head out of this cave. Everything else comes after that.”
For now, we should aim to escape. I turned to Ember, and before I could even talk, she had already started working on it. She took out a small briefcase from her own [Spatial Storage] and opened it. From inside, small, round “things”, the size of a fly started rolling on the ground, following the passage. Hundreds to thousands of them clustered as they literally scoured every corner of the place.
“Wait a second, Master. I’ll check out the state of the passages first while creating a map.”
Ember announced this as she opened the upper part of the briefcase. Hidden there was a black screen with a green dot in the middle. Straight ahead of it, a white silhouette was drawn as the uncountable blue dots raced forward, splitting into subgroups at every turn.
In just a minute, Ember had already created a map that was too complex to even call a simple cave. It was more like an anthill inside this place! The caves branched so many times that the swarm of little balls was now only able to take the right-hand rule and explore further along, slowly.
Along the way, there were even red dots that appeared, with a little number written in the middle indicating their power level. Further in, a gray dot appeared with the number 8, surrounded by red dots with the number 9 as labels.
“What’s that gray one?”
I asked Ember, but when she noticed where I was pointing, she frowned. As if hesitant to say it, she furrowed her brows. After much deliberation, she went and said what the dot represented, shocking everyone around her.
“Gray means… a dead tamer.”
“…!”
An 8th-stage tamer, dead?! I turned to look at the screen once more and found that there were five 9th-stage red dots, probably demons, surrounding it. A little distance away, a blue dot appeared with the number 8 written in the middle. By my guess, that must be the dead tamer’s tamed beast!
Unfortunately, we can’t risk our lives to save it. The enemy had five 9th stages, so even if we had the element of surprise, I guess it’d be an uphill battle. It was a little disheartening to see the blue dot get ganged up on by the five red dots before turning black.
“…”
Everyone turned silent, just looking at the display of Ember’s map without saying a word. Right now, I am somewhat aware of just how dangerous this place is. An 8th stage tamer just fell helplessly, after all. In a place this dangerous, we can’t bother with other people’s lives and just prioritize surviving by ourselves.
“… All paths on the right branch lead to a dead end. We should go left.”
Ember finally said so after a few more minutes of waiting. During that time, several batches of weak demons came, but Fina and the others made quick work of them without wasting their skills.
“The left, huh…?”
I felt a little conflicted. After all, that was the area where the dead tamer was. I wasn’t worried about the dead, but more about what killed them.
“Five 9th-stage Demons.”
It was a little intimidating to think that such powerful enemies were roaming around the path we were going down. However, we can’t stay in this spot forever, or else something much worse could happen.
“Let’s go!”
With my command, we immediately followed Ember’s map and carefully traversed it. Since she left some of the small detectors to watch over the roaming demons, we managed to limit the fighting we needed to do.
All was going well until we finally reached the passage where the dead tamer was. From afar, the scent of blood was already thick, making everyone frown deeply. As we slowly walked ahead, the figure of the “former” tamer was sprawled on the ground… In pieces.
“Ugh…!”
I gritted my teeth, holding in the disgust I felt for this upsetting scene. Ember and the others were the same, with worry and anger swirling in their eyes. Only Fatima and Threya were staring at the corpse without much change in their expressions.
“…! Master!”
Suddenly, Ember raised her voice, prompting us to turn to her simultaneously.
“I’m sorry, I missed them! We’re surrounded!”
*SCREEEEEEECH!*
Just as we were wondering about the meaning of her words, an earsplitting sound echoed loudly, even making the entire passage vibrate due to its intensity. As if rehearsed, all the girls quickly took formation, with Fang and Igni facing the front, Threya and Ember facing the back, and the rest in the middle, watching both sides.
From the corners of the straight passage, five figures appeared, with three from up front and two behind us. They were the five 9th-stage demons from before!
“Everyone, prepare to fight!”
I shouted as I drew my sword once more.
Although we have hunted several 9th-stages before, those were weakened by the barriers surrounding the cities. They weren’t really at their full strength, making it a “fake” hunting of 9th-stage demons.
However, this time, the enemies before us weren’t weakened in any way. They were true and powerful 9th-stage demons in the shape of gigantic ants. Their red eyes gazed at us with bloodlust as another shriek came out of their mouths.
“They’re coming!”
Ember shouted as she took out shields and covered both sides simultaneously. As soon as she did, a blast of something flew from the five ant-demons and hit them. A sizzling sound echoed while white smoke rose as Ember’s shields melted down rapidly.
“Don’t let them attack again!”
I shouted as I prepared to move, activating Lifeblood at maximum output without any hesitation. As soon as the red fog started rising from my skin and the black marks covered my entire body, I lowered my stance and sheathed the sword.
Energy condensed, gradually spreading out and reaching the five demons. As soon as it did, I took a step forward and vanished from everyone’s sight. In the almost-still world, the enemies were still able to move, albeit slowly. [Echoing Thunderclap], at my current stage, should be even more powerful, but these demons were still able to follow my movements with their eyes!