“H-Hey! W-Wait a second! What the hell is that?! That’s just impossible!”
Unable to hide her growing anxiety as Jikaku-san’s magical power continued to surge, the “useless goddess” instinctively moved to take control of the situation.
“Haaaaaah!! Take this, take this, TAKE THIIIS!!”
The Goddess unleashed a relentless barrage of white energy blasts at Jikaku-san, firing them off wildly in a frantic attempt to suppress his ever-intensifying aura. The scene was eerily reminiscent of that one familiar trope: a prideful Saiyan prince desperately unleashing a pointless flurry of attacks against a powerful enemy moments before getting his ass handed to him.
The impacts kicked up enormous clouds of dust, rapidly obscuring their surroundings. The air grew hazy, and visibility continued to deteriorate. Yet, strangely enough, the smoke and dust never managed to fill the entire space.
Why?
Because the situation was forcibly brought under control by the sudden appearance of an embodiment of pure evil at the very spot where the energy blasts had struck.
Fwoooooooooosh…
“W-what?! What on earth is THAT…?”
The Dungeon Master stared in utter shock at the manifestation of evil before her eyes.
With a sound reminiscent of a thousand Dyson vacuum cleaners operating at full power, the dust and debris were being sucked up without exception by that sinister presence.
“Just as I thought…”
The embodiment of evil had materialized directly behind Jikaku and me. I turned around to get a good look at the real thing. It had appeared right between us and the women. Since the loli goddess was standing in front of us, the women had, in a sense, ended up being protected by the thing. In that respect, things had worked out rather nicely.
Come to think of it, though, this was actually my first time seeing the thing in person, face-to-face. I’d watched a few archived dungeon-streaming videos, so I immediately recognized that this was that thing.
If I remembered correctly, the viewers back then had described its appearance in the comment section something like this:
| > It’s reddish-black and disgusting. > The edges are covered in sculptures that look like an old man’s ass. > Is it just me, or does it sound like it’s going “Oooon, oooon”? > There’s no door, so how the hell are you supposed to open it? > Hm? It’s not a door, but there’s a huge ＊ symbol right in the middle. > Ah, yeah, the center really does look like an asterisk. > That asterisk kinda reminds me of that thing, lmao. > W-Wait a minute… Don’t tell me that shape means… |
That’s right.
The true identity of this embodiment of evil was… the【Hell Gate 】.
“So you could use the Gate of Hell even back when you were human…”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but… there’s no time! I’m activating this skill by sacrificing my own life! Before my life runs out, I want you to take the women behind me and jump through the center of the gate together. Escape to the surface!”
“Y-Yes…”
Look, I was genuinely grateful that Jikaku-san was willing to sacrifice himself to secure an escape route for his companions. It was also nice to discover this unexpectedly kind side of the Nether King. Even if the circumstances were far from ideal, perhaps simply learning that much had made coming here worthwhile.
However, hold on just a minute. The unconscious women were one thing. They wouldn’t have to remember the harrowing ordeal of passing through that route. At least they wouldn’t have to worry about being traumatized by the experience.
But I am different. To escape this desperate situation, I would have to summon the willpower and resolve to plunge into that twitching, chrysanthemum-shaped gate of my own free will.
In other words, it was like undergoing surgery without anesthesia. No, wait. Wouldn’t it be more accurate to call it torture? With my consciousness perfectly clear, I would have to throw myself into that ass-shaped gate. And doing so would require far more than an ordinary amount of courage and determination…
“What are you mumbling about over there?! Are you chanting some kind of prayer?! Hurry the hell up!!”
“Y-YES, SIR!!”
“Whoa! No, no, no! I can’t let myself get distracted!”
Get it together, Daishi Ajiri!
“This is no time to be thinking about unnecessary things!”
If I didn’t pull this off, everyone might die!
Even the loli goddess, who had been overwhelmed by the sight of the gate just moments ago, had already recovered. In fact, she is beginning to radiate an aura of a completely different caliber from anything she had displayed before. Bathed in a dazzling, almost divine golden light, she is clearly preparing to erase the Gate of Hell from existence!
“B-But even if they’re women, there’s no way I can carry all three of them at once…”
“Don’t worry! I’ve already secretly lifted part of that bizarre curse that was eating away at you! You should have regained enough strength and agility to carry them and jump through that escape —!”
You could’ve told me that sooner!
When the hell did you do that to me? I didn’t notice a thing!
Well, whatever! If that’s how things stand…
“Hup!”
I braced my legs and shot toward the back of the Hell Gate at full speed.
Whoa! Holy crap! My agility really has returned quite a bit!
All right! This should work!
“Here we go!”
I hoisted one of the three women, who had been lying side by side on the ground, onto my back and tucked the other two under my arms, one on each side.
With that, my escape preparations were complete.
I could barely feel their weight at all. It seemed my physical strength had also recovered to a considerable extent.
“Now, all that’s left is…”
I circled back around to the front of the gate. All I had to do was jump. The Hell Gate was enormous. The asterisk-shaped opening exerting that ridiculous suction force was positioned quite high up. However, with my physical abilities restored to their current level, I should be able to leap close enough to that Dyson-branded hellish back door.
After that, the opening would suck us all in, and the mission would be complete. Or at least, that was the plan!
“UOOOOOOOH!”
“A filthy gate that defies the very laws of causality has no right to exist! I refuse to allow something like that to remain in this world!”
Oh, crap!
Jikaku-san, the one maintaining the spell, was already being swallowed up by loli’s golden aura!
There was no time left. I had to make my move!
“Thank you, Jikaku-san! You probably won’t remember anything that happened here, but… let’s meet again in the future!”
With a tremendous burst of speed, I dashed around to the front of the gate, carrying all three women. Without losing a single second, I poured even more strength into my legs and launched myself straight toward the opening.
A gigantic asterisk loomed right before my eyes.
Up close, the sheer scale of it was something else!
FWOOOOOOOSH… SCHLUP!
“Gah!”
Before I could even process what was happening, the opening sucked me in!
Face-first!
Squelch, squelch… POP!
The agony and the stench lasted only an instant. My consciousness faded almost immediately afterward. All three of us were sucked into the center of the Hell Gate with a soft squelch-pop, as though we were nothing more than warm suppositories that had begun to melt, being gently twisted into place.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeneijiworks.com
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