The Protagonist Already Knows

Chapter 59: Gate Crash [4]

In my intangible form, I could phase through it easily...but now, unless I possessed the crimson-red Dreg Mana that created the sphere, it was impossible.

Thus, I thrust my right arm, which was surrounded by a deathly-black hue, forward at the barrier.

In the next moment, a small pitch-black dot appeared on the barrier of the crimson-red mana sphere...then another and another.

The pitch-black mana, amplified by the dozens of chaotic mana particles swarming around the gate, spread rapidly over the crimson-red sphere like a virus.

Before the Dreg Demon could even notice, I leaped inside the now mostly pitch-black mana sphere and continued sprinting.

I felt... a smile spread across my face as my breathing relaxed and a warm flush of energy radiated from my chest.

Was it my hope...or Carissa’s?

Whatever...It didn’t matter.

The suction force of the gate threw us both into the air as we now flew toward the gate, which was on the brink of closing.

However...at that moment.

*BANG*

A massive crack appeared in the now pitch-black mana sphere.

In the next second, the gate’s suction force vanished, as Carissa and I dropped to the floor, my stomach bursting with pain as I landed on it.

We were just...a few meters from the gate, which was now the height of a small tree.

But before I could get up...I saw it.

A figure descending from the crimson-red sky, entering through the massive crack in the mana sphere.

With jade-green horns, the Dreg Demon, wearing a formal suit with a black blazer, levitated in the air, gazing at Carissa and me.

I tried to stand up...I commanded my body to move, do anything...but nothing listened.

It was as if a metal anvil had been placed atop me, holding me glued to the ground.

As I burst out coughing, my lungs feeling as if they were about to collapse, a voice suddenly echoed from above us.

"Ah...that’s where I recognize that mana signature from."

In the next instant, as the pressure vanished, I didn’t hesitate to stand back up, feeling Carissa’s nails embedding themselves in my skin as she desperately clung to my back.

"Oh? Are you two trying to leave?"

As the gate, now barely tall enough to even fit Carissa and me, began to disappear bit by bit, the Dreg Demon suddenly free-fell to the ground, landing right behind us.

Not even looking back, I sprinted forward at the closing Gate; however...it was useless.

No matter how far I ran forward...I always ended back in the same spot as where I started, like a never-ending cruel loop.

It was torture...having hope just given to me and constantly snatched away so often.

Spatial Distortion...no wonder the Dreg Demon was just letting us be.

Resting his hand on his chin and pretending to think, the A-rank Dreg Demon said after a couple of moments of silence

"I can’t let you do that, can I?"

The gate...it was right there...vanishing right in front of me.

Racking my head as the Dreg Demon...stood there, perhaps enjoying the suffering of an ant, I sighed and reached backward, grabbing an arrow from Carissa’s quiver.

This Dreg Demon didn’t seem to be involved in the operation, just a person interested in the scene we had caused.

So he wouldn’t know Carissa’s abilities.

Stuffing the arrow into her limp hands, I gripped her wrist and forced her hand holding the arrow backward, as a mutter sounded from above me.

"W-what a-ar-"

Before she could finish her sentence, I forced her arm forward, the arrow flying out of her hands.

The arrow was slow and weak as it flew out of Carissa’s hands and toward the portal, seeming as though it’d never make it...but I knew.

Because I saw it...for the first time: a complete and full red line.

It stretched from the tip of Carissa’s arrow all the way through the closing portal.

Raising my head, I met her eyes as she looked down at me from atop my back.

The purple veins had spread all the way through her face, even visible in her eyelids and trembling amber-brown pupils.

It was disgusting...seeing something usually so beautiful degraded and destroyed to this point, like seeing a famous art piece destroyed.

I smiled, considering what to say for a moment.

Making her hate me through lies and harsh words hadn’t worked through...she had followed me into the Dreg Dimension regardless.

Thus, for the first time, I just voiced my true feelings.

"It’s all good. Please...just don’t feel guilty for me, alright?"

I had done it...I had finally spoken freely and truly to her.

I unsheathed my Dao and slowly let her down from my back.

Glancing back at her, now sitting lifelessly on the ground behind me, all I could say was.

"Go, Carissa...please just go. Don’t make my life worthless."

Avoiding her gaze as she opened her mouth wide, purple veins running through trembling eyelids, I slashed my blunt Dao at the space before me, trying to cut through whatever spell the Dreg Demon.

But...it was useless.

The Dreg Demon’s voice sounded from us, as he thankfully ignored the arrow.

"That won’t work, will it? A F-rank trying to cut through an A-rank spell? What are they teaching you, humans, nowadays?"

As Carissa’s arrow neared the portal, which was now half my height, the Dreg Demon suddenly looked at her and added.

"Anyway, you’re the reason why I’m here! I believe I know a relative of yours...at least that’s what your mana is telling me!"

As the Dreg Demon raised his hand, a familiar image appeared in his palm.

A boy with short brown hair lying in a hard, stone bed with no blanket, shackles attached to his hands and legs that forced him still.

Carissa’s mouth instantly opened wide, as a surge of anger, shock, and sorrow simultaneously flooded through my body as well, even confusing me.