Dominion Bond System: The Only Man Left Has A Yandere Girlfriend

Chapter 83: The Night Empress In The Flesh

The entire cactus forest came alive.

The moment Reiji finished speaking, countless branches began twisting unnaturally as if awakening from a deep slumber. Hundreds of cactus trunks slowly rotated toward him, and the dense forest that had looked harmless only moments ago transformed into a field of monsters.

"...So there really are this many."

*SWOOSH!!*

Without warning, thousands of poisonous needles burst into the air.

The sky darkened. The barrage covered every possible escape route.

Reiji merely tightened his grip on the bone sword.

[Shadow Step.]

His body disappeared.

The poisonous needles struck nothing except the cracked earth, producing a series of sharp explosions as clouds of green poison spread through the air.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Before the monsters could launch another volley...

*SHING!*

A silver arc flashed through the forest.

One cactus split cleanly in half.

Dark green blood sprayed across the ground.

Ding!

[Host has killed a C-Rank Poisonous Cactus!]

[+41 EXP]

Another Shadow Step. Another slash. Another monster collapsed.

The system notifications immediately began ringing one after another.

Ding!

[Host has killed a C-Rank Poisonous Cactus!]

[+41 EXP]

Ding!

[Host has killed a C-Rank Poisonous Cactus!]

[+42 EXP]

...

Reiji continued moving.

To the monsters, he was nothing more than a blur weaving between the towering cacti.

Each time his figure appeared, another Poisonous Cactus was cut down before disappearing again.

The monsters attempted to surround him.

Their spikes filled the air from every direction.

Yet not a single one touched him.

Every attack either missed entirely or struck the afterimage left behind by Shadow Step.

Within minutes... the once silent cactus forest had become a battlefield.

Green blood soaked the cracked earth. Broken cactus trunks littered the ground.

The system refused to stop.

Ding!

[Host has killed a C-Rank Poisonous Cactus!]

[+42 EXP]

Ding!

[Host has killed a C-Rank Poisonous Cactus!]

[+42 EXP]

...

Reiji gradually slowed. His breathing remained steady.

These monsters simply weren’t strong enough to exhaust him.

He rested the bone sword over his shoulder and swept his gaze across the forest.

"...Done?"

Silence answered him.

The poisonous needles had stopped flying.

Every monster he had discovered now lay dead across the battlefield.

Just as Reiji prepared to leave...

Something blue flashed between the remaining cacti.

"...Hm?"

His eyes narrowed.

A cactus unlike the others quickly moved behind another trunk.

Unlike the green Poisonous Cacti...

This one possessed dark blue skin covered with black thorns.

More importantly...

It was running away.

A translucent screen floated above its head.

[Azure Poisonous Cactus (C+)]

"So you’re the leader."

The monster didn’t hesitate.

The moment it realized the disguise had failed, it immediately attempted to escape deeper into the forest.

Unfortunately...

Its opponent possessed Shadow Step.

Reiji vanished.

The Azure Poisonous Cactus suddenly froze.

It slowly turned around.

Reiji stood directly beside it.

"...Found you."

The monster instinctively fired every poisonous thorn it possessed.

*SWOOSH!!*

The air screamed.

Reiji calmly leaned to one side. The thorns missed by mere centimeters.

Before the monster could launch another attack...

SHING!!

The bone sword swept across its body.

For a split second...

Nothing happened.

Then a thin red line appeared across the cactus.

Its body slowly slid apart.

Dark green blood erupted onto the ground.

Ding!

[Host has killed a C+ Rank Azure Poisonous Cactus!]

[+52 EXP]

The corpse dissolved into countless blue particles.

Reiji quietly watched them disappear before lowering the sword.

"...That should be everything."

He looked around one final time.

The cactus forest had almost completely disappeared.

Only ordinary cacti remained standing among hundreds of severed trunks.

The poisonous monsters had successfully disguised themselves as part of the environment.

It was a clever strategy.

Against almost anyone else...

It probably would’ve worked.

Reiji flicked the remaining blood from the bone sword before storing it inside his Inventory.

There was no point carrying it while walking.

His gaze shifted toward the horizon.

The desert stretched endlessly ahead.

"...The Boss Monster still hasn’t shown itself."

Without another word...

He left the ruined cactus forest behind and continued deeper into the bizarre desert.

The further Reiji walked, the more the landscape changed.

The towering cacti gradually disappeared behind him, replaced by rocky hills that rose from the endless sea of sand. Huge boulders, weathered by countless years of scorching heat, littered the area. The ground became firmer beneath his feet, making walking much easier than before.

The air, however, remained unbearably hot.

Reiji wiped the sweat from his forehead and glanced toward the sky.

The blazing sun had finally begun descending.

"...I’ve been here longer than I thought."

Fortunately, time inside the Gate passed much faster than on Earth, so even if he spent a day inside, only an hour or two would have passed outside.

*Crunch.*

*Crunch.*

His footsteps echoed between the massive rocks.

Then...

Detect Presence activated on its own.

Reiji immediately stopped walking.

"...Something’s nearby."

A few weak auras appeared within his senses.

Not one. Several.

He frowned. "C-Rank..."

No...

The auras were weaker than that.

D-Rank.

Before he could investigate, movement suddenly caught his eye.

Several creatures crawled out from behind a nearby boulder.

They resembled giant salamanders nearly three meters long. Their scales glowed faintly crimson, and wisps of smoke escaped from their mouths every time they breathed.

A translucent screen appeared above the nearest one.

[Blazing Salamander (C)]

The monsters hissed simultaneously.

Then they attacked.

BOOM!

Fireballs erupted from their mouths, rapidly flying toward Reiji.

He calmly raised one hand.

[Water Jet.]

A compressed stream of water burst forward.

The fireballs evaporated almost instantly before the Water Jet continued forward, piercing straight through the lead salamander’s skull.

Ding!

[Host has killed a C-Rank Blazing Salamander!]

[+38 EXP]

The remaining monsters rushed him.

Reiji sighed. "...Too slow."

[Shadow Step.]

His body disappeared. The salamanders frantically searched for him.

*SHING!*

One head flew into the air.

[Shadow Step.]

Another slash. Another corpse.

Within less than twenty seconds, every Blazing Salamander lay motionless across the rocky ground.

Ding!

[Host has killed a C-Rank Blazing Salamander!]

[+39 EXP]

Ding!

[Host has killed a C-Rank Blazing Salamander!]

[+38 EXP]

...

Reiji didn’t even stop to examine the bodies.

Instead, he looked toward the horizon while mentally piecing together everything he had explored.

"The entrance..." He looked behind him. "The Serpent Worm territory..."

Then toward the side.

"The oasis... The cactus forest... And now this rocky area..."

His brows furrowed.

"I’ve almost crossed half this Gate... Right?"

Yet... he still hadn’t encountered anything resembling a Boss Monster.

That was strange.

Normally, unstable Gates weren’t this large.

Unless...

"This isn’t an ordinary C+ Gate."

The thought lingered inside his mind.

Perhaps the Gate had evolved further than anyone expected.

Or perhaps... something inside it had caused the mutation.

He couldn’t know for certain.

The only thing he did know was that the Boss had to be somewhere ahead.

Just as he prepared to continue... Detect Presence activated again.

This time... Much stronger. No not stronger more. A large number of lifeforms suddenly entered his perception.

His eyes narrowed. "D-Rank..."

Several dozen weak monster signatures.

Mixed together with... Human auras.

"...People?"

Reiji immediately climbed onto a nearby rock formation and looked into the distance.

Far away... Clouds of sand rose into the air.

Occasional flashes of mana exploded between the dunes.

A battle.

He quietly observed for several moments.

"...How did they get here?"

This should have been impossible. Then realization struck him.

"When the Gate evolved... The portal must have stayed open."

Anyone entering afterward would’ve simply been transported here without realizing the Gate had already become unstable.

"Bad timing for them."

Reiji had no intention of revealing himself.

Without hesitation, he opened his Inventory.

The oversized black hoodie appeared first.

He pulled it over his head.

Next came the baseball cap.

Then the gloves.

Finally, he adjusted the hood low enough to hide most of his face.

The desert heat immediately became far more unbearable.

"...Damn."

He already regretted putting them back on.

But it was still better than exposing his identity.

Satisfied with his disguise, Reiji rested one hand on the handle of the bone sword.

He looked once more toward the distant battle.

The human auras were fading rapidly.

"...They’re losing."

For a brief moment...

He considered simply walking away.

The Boss Monster remained his priority.

Yet...

The number of monster signatures continued increasing.

Even from this distance, he could sense more Serpent Worms approaching beneath the sand.

If this continued...

Those adventurers wouldn’t survive another few minutes.

Reiji let out a quiet sigh.

"...Just this once."

The moment those words left his mouth...

He disappeared.

[Shadow Step.]

His figure shot across the desert toward the battlefield.

Meanwhile...

"Captain!"

One of the women screamed as another Serpent Worm burst out of the sand.

The captain gritted her teeth and swung her spear, barely forcing the monster back before another erupted behind her.

"Damn it..."

Her breathing had become ragged.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

They had accepted a simple D-Rank Gate request. Normally, it would’ve taken less than an hour to clear.

Instead... every Serpent Worm inside the Gate had suddenly evolved into C-Rank monsters.

Their strength, their speed, even their numbers everything had exceeded the information provided by the Hunters Association.

"We have to retreat!"

"We can’t!" another adventurer shouted while helping support the wounded healer. "The portal disappeared the moment we entered!"

The captain clenched her fists. She already knew. Everyone inside this Gate knew.

The only way out now... was to kill the Boss.

Unfortunately, reaching the Boss had become impossible.

Nearly half their team was injured.

Their healer had exhausted almost all her mana keeping everyone alive.

The remaining members weren’t much better. Every one of them carried wounds. Blood stained the sand beneath their feet.

*RUMBLE!!*

The desert shook once again.

The captain’s face turned pale.

"No..." She hoped it was what she was thinking.

Unfortunately, it was more Serpent Worms. Another wave.

Dozens of them burst from beneath the sand, surrounding the group from every direction.

One of the younger adventurers began crying.

"We’re... we’re going to die..."

Nobody answered. Because everyone knew... she was right.

The captain tightened her grip around her spear.

Even if death was inevitable... she refused to stand still.

"Formation!"

The remaining adventurers instinctively gathered together, protecting the injured members in the center.

One worm lunged. Another immediately followed. The captain blocked the first attack.

CLANG!!

The impact sent her sliding backward through the sand.

Before she could recover...

A second Serpent Worm burst from beneath her feet.

Its horrifying mouth opened wide.

Rows of rotating teeth spun violently.

It was too close and she couldn’t dodge.

She closed her eyes accepting her fate. ’...So this is how it ends.’

SHING!!

Instead of pain... she heard the unmistakable sound of something being cut apart.

Warm liquid splashed across her face.

The expected agony never came.

Slowly...

She opened her eyes.

The Serpent Worm had been split cleanly in half.

Its two halves crashed onto the sand on either side of her.

Green blood soaked the desert.

Standing between her and the corpse... was a lone figure.

An oversized black hoodie. A baseball cap pulled low over their face. Black gloves.

And resting casually over one shoulder...

A long white bone sword.

The mysterious person didn’t even look back.

Instead... they quietly stared at the dozens of approaching Serpent Worms.

The captain’s pupils shrank.

’A adventurer...?’ She was surprised. They haven’t called for help and also they couldn’t.

So...

The younger adventurers stared in complete disbelief.

"No way... It this person... It could only be..."

Everyone knew immediately.

"...The Night Empress..."

Every rumor, every eyewitness account, every description matched perfectly.

The mysterious Awakened who had been clearing Gates alone for weeks.

The awakened individual no one had ever managed to identify.

The woman everyone believed existed only in rumors had appeared before them.

Then the mysterious figure finally spoke.

The voice was surprisingly soft and high-pitched.

"Stand back... and leave this to me."