“You’re going personally, Benjamin?”

I asked, feeling dazed.

“I don’t see any reason not to.”

“Wh-What about the others?”

What about Baron or Lambert?

Benjamin answered promptly.

“If I’m going, they’re not necessary, are they?”

“……”

“It’d be good if they don’t get in the way.”

It was an excessively arrogant statement.

But it wasn’t baseless confidence.

I had seen Benjamin defeat a monster once before.

His figure, striking a fatal blow by piercing the opponent’s weakness, was both cruel and beautiful.

I thought these two distant words blended exquisitely.

“Let’s go.”

I wanted to shake my head.

“Do I have the right to refuse?”

Benjamin answered promptly again.

“It would be quite difficult if I become your disciplinary officer.”

“I-I’ll go! Let’s go!”

I didn’t want to be disciplined by Benjamin for not deploying either.

“In return, I’ll take you there this time.”

“Are you cra… Really?”

Huk, it was such an unexpected statement that I unconsciously blurted out a surprised curse.

“Crazy?”

“Cra… ‘Cra’zy handsome Benjamin is ‘kindly’ offering to take me there! This girl feels like bowing deeply in gratitude! …is what I meant to say. Haha.”

Damn. Do I have to live like this?

I couldn’t ignore the overwhelming sense of reality hitting me.

Benjamin snickered and picked me up.

“Soon enough, you’ll be calling me a crazy bastard.”

My flexible excuse didn’t work at all.

Sigh… I desperately wished I could go back to being a civil service exam student.

I think that would be easier on my mind.

***

It was clear we were heading to the afterlife, not the battlefield.

With the fierce wind brushing against my face, I could barely keep my eyes open.

The scenery below, which I glimpsed, was brutal.

Benjamin, carrying me, was flying at a terrifying speed, far from the ground.

If there was anything fortunate, it was that I had enjoyed riding roller coasters quite a bit in my previous life. I had some immunity to speed and thrills.

The problem was that this was ten times faster than those roller coasters…

I tightly gripped Benjamin’s collar.

Please, don’t let me fall and die here.

But Benjamin, as if completely ignoring my wish, accelerated even more.

I could see red flames flickering in the distance. It seemed our destination wasn’t far.

“Comfortable, right?”

Com-comfortable what?

Doesn’t Benjamin know even the first letter of comfort?

“We-we seem to be almost there, so could we go a little slower?”

“What? You want to go faster?”

“Ah, no… Aack!”

Before I could answer no, Benjamin increased his speed. Now I couldn’t even open my eyes.

“Just! If you put me down here, I can walk…”

“What? You want me to just drop you?”

“No, no! If you drop me, I’ll die!”

Keeping my mouth shut seemed to be the way to preserve my life.

I curled up, hoping this precarious flight would end soon.

How many minutes passed like that?

When I realized the flight had ended, my body was thrown onto the ground.

I opened my eyes that I had kept closed.

“Next time, I’ll walk… Ugh.”

That would be much better.

“Didn’t you once tell me not to leave you behind?”

Whether he left me behind or transported me dangerously, both were extremely cruel. The worst!

Benjamin turned around, letting out a laugh for reasons I couldn’t understand.

I belatedly looked around.

What I saw was the scenery of a forest dyed red, Espers sprawled on the ground, and the S-class monster responsible for the situation.

The monster’s identity was Apophis, a higher-level beast than the A-class Red Dragon Radon.

Like Radon, Apophis was of the dragon race, with the distinctive feature of having three heads.

Its main ability was ‘Toxicity’.

It was a monster that required a healer Esper or guide to defeat.

“Ugly doll. Hide here.”

Benjamin hid me behind a tree quite far from the monster. Then he jumped forward without waiting for my response.

I watched him while pressing my body tightly against the tree.

Benjamin floated in the air, looking down at Apophis, which had opened its mouths ferociously.

Purple smoke puffed out from Apophis’s long snouts. It was a toxic gas that could rupture internal organs if inhaled.

‘But it doesn’t work on Benjamin at all. Because Benjamin also has the ability to neutralize toxins.’

In other words, he had a body immune to all poisons.

Anyway, he’s got all the good stuff.

I covered my mouth and nose with my sleeve to avoid being poisoned.

Purple smoke rose from Benjamin’s body. It was a deeper color than Apophis’s poison.

A purple sphere began to form in his slightly raised hand.

It seemed he was about to use ‘Mass Murderer’, one of his hidden abilities.

Being an S-class monster, he must have thought it couldn’t be killed with ordinary attacks. I completely agree with his thinking.

Bang!

A loud noise rang out, enough to cause ringing in my ears.

It was the sound from the sphere shot towards Apophis’s head.

―Kuaaak!

Apophis let out a pain-filled scream, moving its two heads that weren’t hit.

Even as it opened its mouths wide and threatened, Benjamin dodged all its attacks leisurely.

He even managed to avoid having his clothes grazed by those mouths.

Two more spheres formed in Benjamin’s hands. He aimed and fired at the remaining heads without hesitation.

Bang! Bang!

The consecutive explosion sounds hit my eardrums hard.

As if setting off fireworks, sparks flew in the night sky.

Soon after, a strange silence fell.

Benjamin, who had been floating in the sky, came down to the ground and looked at me.

He gestured to me with his still expressionless face.

“Come here.”

Benjamin’s eyes that met mine were tinged with purple. This was a change that occurred every time he used ‘Mass Murderer’.

I hesitated to approach.

The coldly frozen purple eyes seemed scarier than Apophis.

“If you don’t come, I’ll go to you.”

Benjamin started walking directly towards me.

As he walked, he kicked away the fallen Espers that got in his way.

At that moment, I remembered a fact.

The prerequisite for using the ‘Mass Murderer’ ability…

[There must be others who have been massacred by the opponent.]

[The more people massacred, the more the Mass Murderer’s ability is amplified.]

It was an ability befitting the strongest, and damn cruel too.

Benjamin, who had approached me in one breath, picked me up.

“I’ll show you something interesting.”

He walked briskly while carrying me.

We passed by the blackened, burning Apophis. A terrible stench arose as we passed by it.

Finally, Benjamin stopped in front of the gate where Apophis had appeared.

The gate seen at night was like the crater of an active volcano.

Red flames were flickering inside.

From what I’d heard, it was supposed to be hot inside, but fortunately, I couldn’t feel any heat.

‘A never-extinguishing crater with heatless flames rising.’

People sometimes called the gate that.

Since becoming Yerena, I had rarely gone close to a gate.

The shock of falling into a manhole was so great that my stomach churned just at the sight of holes.

And it wasn’t just my stomach churning. My head was spinning too, and I felt like I might lose consciousness if I looked at the gate for too long.

It was the same now.

“Um… The situation seems to be over, so shall we go back?”

“……”

Benjamin didn’t pay any attention to my words.

“I, I have trypophobia.”
T/n: Trypophobia is a fear of holes, typically characterized by an aversion towards clusters of small holes. It is a specific phobia, a condition characterized by a persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation that poses no actual, or very little, danger.

“But I don’t want to look at it alone.”

Why on earth?

I tried to escape from Benjamin’s arms, but he wouldn’t let go of my tightly held body.

“Look. Can you see something rippling inside?”

Even without looking inside, everything in front of my eyes was rippling.

“Soon, countless strong monsters will appear.”

“I think I’m going to faint first… I really do have trypophobia, you know?”

My lower lip trembled as I said that.

“Ugly doll. You’re really weak. I want to throw you into the gate.”

“Be-Benjamin!”

“Shh. Don’t shout.”

I frowned. My vision blurred and sweat began to seep into my palms.

“…Please take me back to the Center…”

That was the last thing I said.

Fade out.

I lost consciousness right there. Just like when I fell into the manhole and dropped here.