The Protagonist Already Knows

Chapter 60: Gate Crash [5]

Ah...

As I looked at the picture of Carissa’s brother, starved and beaten to the point where multiple long scars ran across his chest, a mix of sorrow and...joy surged throughout my body.

I was scared...scared for a moment that Carissa wouldn’t leave me. Scared that she wouldn’t swap places with the arrow and escape.

But...now she had to survive, grow stronger, and save her brother.

So, she was going to leave.

I looked at her.

Her mouth was wide open with horror, her previously motionless amber-brown pupils trembling with an intensity that should have been impossible considering her condition.

"..."

It was for the best.

Time seemed to slow as I turned around and watched the tip of Carissa’s arrow enter the portal, which was now half the height of a door.

However...at that moment, through the crack in the mana sphere, a purple glint graced the crimson-red sky, clusters of violet-purple particles gathering together to form a small cloud.

*BANG*

In the next second, faster than my eyes could follow, a violet-purple lightning bolt surged straight downward from the purple cloud in the sky, striking Carissa’s head straight on.

However...the lightning didn’t vanish.

A straight line of sparkling purple particles, from the purple cloud all the way down to Carissa’s head, remained.

Looking down, I found Carissa’s entire body was enveloped in a purple hue, so dark that I couldn’t even see her physical body through the color.

Only the faint figure of her kneeling on the dirt ground, outlined by purple sparkles of electricity, appeared.

In front of Carissa, the Dreg Demon’s mouth opened wide, his eyelids curving up with a mixture of excitement and joy.

I...just stood there, watching.

Six months.

She was supposed to unlock the ability to create actual lightning bolts made of mana six months from now.

"..."

But why? Why was I not scared?

Why was I not scared of this deviation from the plotline...the potential consequences that could occur as a result of Carissa unlocking this ability way too soon?

Not only that...but Carissa’s brother had turned out to be alive. Although the novel hadn’t explicitly mentioned his death, he wasn’t mentioned anywhere besides in Carissa’s backstory.

Then, why? Why was I...excited?

Ah...perhaps, in this timeline, Carissa and others could become even more powerful. They could save more people, maybe even kill the Dreg God earlier, and perhaps lead more fulfilling lives themselves.

In this world...Carissa could live and save her brother, Ren would be able to face the Dreg God with his friends and not alone, Lily could finally make up with her father, and...I could find my place.

Wasn’t this...what I wanted from the start?

At that moment, snapping me back to reality, a faint whisper sounded from Carissa’s mouth, lightning sparks flying out of her mouth like soundwaves.

"Let’s go..."

Hundreds...no, thousands of beautiful butterflies, made of the purple sparkling electricity surrounding Carissa’s body, formed in an instant and flew upward into the air.

Then, without any hesitation, they gracefully glided toward me, phasing through my stomach and vanishing from sight.

However...with each lightning butterfly that entered my body, I felt my mana veins expand and surge with energy.

I blinked for a moment with shock, but there was no darkness.

Instead, I found myself in a meadow, full of blooming purple lavender flowers all around me, as far as the eye could see.

I lay down on the lavender flowers, looking up as countless violet-purple butterflies swarmed around my body...it was so warm.

But...there was one more thing.

A girl with long matching amethyst-purple hair stood above me, her head blocking the moon as she gazed down at me.

I wondered for a moment...was she just an illusion my mind had conjured up as a result of the trauma from the Gate Crash?

Who was she?

She waved her hands at me with a smile, and in the next moment, my vision turned pitch-black.

When I reopened my eyes, Carissa and the lightning were gone, leaving me and the shocked Dreg Demon, who still wore a creepy smile.

However, something else was also gone.

The five-minute cooldown of Anubis’s Ferry...had vanished.

I activated Anubis’s Ferry and immediately sprinted toward the portal, which had stopped shrinking in size but was now sucking in the chaotic mana particles around it and shaking rapidly.

This time, I didn’t return to my original spot.

Re-materializing mid-air, I let momentum carry me through the air and straight through the portal.

Perhaps...hope wasn’t such a bad thing, after all.

...

...

...

"..."

Watching as the boy vanished through the portal, which vanished not even a second later, the Dreg Demon with green horns simply tilted its head.

"Good...she’ll come back for him later."

However, clicking his tongue in annoyance, the Dreg Demon muttered just a moment later.

"But... what’s the point of having such a rare ability if everyone can just ignore it!"

Turning his back and flying back up into the air, the Dreg Demon simply muttered before disappearing into the crimson-red sky.

"Though, lightning and Death...really, is it them?"

...

...

...

It had been 2 days.

Gazing down at the report on her desk, Professor Sooyung couldn’t help but spit out a flurry of curses.

"A portal...right above our fucking testing room!?"

Two students had gone missing right after the exam, sending Professor Sooyung and the Sunken Pearl staff into disarray.

They searched everywhere...the academy’s entire campus, the capital...everywhere.

But...they couldn’t find any trace of them.

Their mana signature trails had never even left the exam room!

Professor Sooyung herself had searched the entire academy grounds and capital over the past 2 days without a break.

She had even sacrificed her dignity and reached out to Ash’s family...but they confidently declared themselves rid of him.

However... according to the report, it was all for naught.

The Grove had sent their own heroes and found traces of a portal leading to the Dreg Realm...right above their room’s ceiling.